Hasta La Gadget!

Uh, whoa. Bloomberg just reported that Palm is putting itself up for sale and that offers will potentially come in this week. That’s pretty wild news, considering CEO Jon Rubinstein was adamant just a few days ago that Palm had a plan to get profitable — even while his company’s stock price went on a buyout-rumor fueled rollercoaster. Bloomberg says that Palm’s already retained Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, with HTC (yes!) and Lenovo both expressing interest — and Dell’s apparently already taken a pass. Naturally none of these parties are saying anything on the record — we just pinged Palm and they declined comment — but if this is true, things are about to get wild, and fast. We’ll keep you updated, stay tuned.

[Thanks, Sean]

Bloomberg: Palm is up for sale originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a report from Advertising Age, Palm has mercifully, finally, really parted ways with its ad agency, Modernista — the house responsible for some of our least favorite ads ever. If you need a memory jog, here’s them telling the world that they loved creeping people out with Palm ads. The AdAge article says that the company is currently in talks with various other ad shops, though there’s no clear word on who that new team will be, or when we’ll see the fruits of their labor. We don’t have much to add to this in commentary except to say that this is probably the second smartest thing Palm has done in a span of seven days — the first was striking that amazing deal on Verizon for a super-cheap Palm Pre Plus along with free Mobile Hotspot service. Now, we can look forward to a future where our children won’t cower in fear when they see a Palm ad on television, and we can sleep at night without the image of that pale woman burned into our minds. Of course, now that we’ve seen it, we can never un-see it.

Palm splits with ad agency Modernista originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just had a feeling that HP wasn’t going to be able to keep quiet about the Slate while the iPad hogged the limelight this weekend, and like clockwork it’s released another rendered teaser video of its Windows 7-based tablet. Unfortunately, the clip reveals nothing about pricing or availability (though we have heard rumors of June), but there are some exciting quick demos of the Slate’s cam and video conferencing skills. Take that, iPad! We actually happen to be most interested in the brief glimpse you get at the touch UI — the icon-based interface looks similar to past TouchSmart software and seems to hide Windows 7 quite well, but it’s so obviously mocked up we can’t get a real sense of how it’ll work. It looks like you will be able to hook it up to a HDTV with some sort of dock and expand the storage space through an SD card slot, all of which makes sense given that it’s running Windows. Unfortunately, that’s really all you get, but see it all for yourself in the 30 second video after the break.

P.S.- Interestingly, the USB cable shown looks like it’s from Apple, and it’s being plugged into a Slate running iTunes, presumably to demonstrate that it can sync with iPod and iPhones. But now we’re obviously just wondering what would happen if you synced an iPad with the Slate — explosion? Confusion? Confusion explosion? We’ll find out soon enough.

Continue reading HP Slate reappears for 30 seconds, shows off camera, custom interface… and iTunes

HP Slate reappears for 30 seconds, shows off camera, custom interface… and iTunes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well… we don’t know what to make of this one. Microsoft just snail-mailed us a circular package with an invitation to an event on April 12th in San Francisco. They also tell us that it’s “time to share,” and apparently intend that sharing to go on between young, attractive Urban Outfitters models (according to the images on the notice). Okay. So what is this? Pink? Courier (gasp!)? Windows Phone 7 Series Phone Series 7? Only Microsoft knows for sure. We’re searching for more info, so stay tuned! One more pic after the break.

Update: Windows expert Paul Thurrott says definitively that this will not be a Courier event, rather it will be entirely focused on Pink phones, as does CNET‘s Ina Fried, who adds that they’ll be released on Verizon as rumored. We can’t say we’re surprised, but we’re seriously hoping Microsoft makes that tablet a reality.

[Thanks, Kevin]

Continue reading Microsoft invites us to mystery event, April 12th! (update: for Pink phones?)

Microsoft invites us to mystery event, April 12th! (update: for Pink phones?) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve crossed the finish line at last! How is it on the other side? You tell us! We just put down plastic for one and had it activated at the Apple Store, so stand by for pictures and videos from that unparalleled experience. The “activation” process is just plugging it into a computer with iTunes for the first time, so that you can walk out of the store with the device turned on. After the unit is up and running you can dive into the App Store, where you’re prompted for a free download of iBooks. It’s all smooth sailing from there.

Update: We added a gallery of shots entering The Cube, and after the break there’s a video of us unboxing and activating the iPad.

Continue reading Apple’s iPad: it’s here! (updated with unboxing video)

Apple’s iPad: it’s here! (updated with unboxing video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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