Hasta La Gadget!

Attention humans, the Engadget Show is back next Friday, March 25th at 7:00pm with Jon Rubinstein at The Times Center in New York City, and you can win a free trip for two to the taping! Josh will be sitting down the former Palm CEO (current HP Senior VP) to get the inside scoop on everything from the TouchPad, new Pre 3, Veer, the state of WebOS, and much more! Trust us when we say that you won’t want to miss it. What’s more, our very own Joanna Stern will be demoing the Samsung 9 Series laptop, we’ll have the Nintendo 3DS on stage for a live demo, and special guests Nilay Patel and Paul Miller will be joining the roundtable! We’ll also have the usual slew of insane giveaways and rocking chiptunes music, as well as some more surprises! Remember, giveaways happen at the live show only, so make the trek and join us at The Times Center in person. We have a new ticketing policy, so if you’re coming to the live show, be sure to read about it below. If you’re geographically incapable of joining us in New York City, just tune into the stream right here on Engadget and/or read below to find out how to win and free trip to NYC for the taping!

The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are — as always — free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served… so get there early! Here’s the updated info on our new ticketing policy that you need to know:

• There is no admission fee — tickets are completely free
• The event is all ages
• Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2:00PM on Friday, December 17th, doors will open for seating at 6:15PM, and the show begins at 7:00PM
• We now have assigned seating, so the first people to get their tickets — and the Sprint text-to-win winners (see below) — will get priority seating. This also means that once you get a ticket, your seat is guaranteed — you won’t have to get back in line to get a good seat.
• Ticketing will continue until all tickets are given away
• You cannot collect tickets for friends or family — anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket
• Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we’re full, we’re full
• The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break)
• The show length is around an hour

If you’re a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we’ll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.

Sprint is also offering 50 guaranteed tickets to The Engadget Show taping to the first 50 entrants who text “ENGADGET” to 467467 or enter online! Standard text messaging rates apply. Click for the Official Rules and see how to enter online.

If you live outside of the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT), you can enter online for a chance to win a trip for two to New York City to attend The Engadget Show. Standard text messaging rates apply. Click here to enter.

Subscribe to the Show:

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Continue reading The Engadget Show with Jon Rubinstein, next Friday March 25th!

The Engadget Show with Jon Rubinstein, next Friday March 25th! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The tweet above just about says it all for this one — well, in German, anyway. According to O2 Germany, the HP Veer will be launching on the carrier sometime in May, which presumably means it will also be available elsewhere in Europe around the same time, and likely in the US as well — we’ve previously only heard “this spring” for a launch date. Unfortunately, there’s still no word on any US carriers for the Pixi successor, though surely someone will be able to pick it up. It is rather light, after all.

[Thanks, Mario]

O2 Germany says HP Veer is coming in May originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Besides the fact that it isn’t shipping, HP’s TouchPad also can’t shoot video or take flash pictures out its backside. Fact is, the TouchPad announced back in February only has a single 1.3 megapixel camera up front. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop HP from presenting the fictitious device above at its HP Summit 2011 event yesterday to demonstrate a truly augmented reality. But hey, let’s not allow trivialities like facts get in the way of a story you’re trying to pitch to investors and analysts. See the video clip after the break.

Continue reading HP TouchPad with rear-facing camera truly augments reality (video)

HP TouchPad with rear-facing camera truly augments reality (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The HP TouchPad, one of this year's crop of new tablets. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

With the iPad 2 finally available, do other tablets stand a chance?

Last week, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps made the assertion that although this year’s non-Apple tablet offerings are “solid products,” they have “fatally flawed product strategies.”

The post called out iPad 2 contenders like the BlackBerry PlayBook and HP TouchPad, as well as Android Honeycomb tablets by manufacturers such as Toshiba and Motorola. Such tablets, Epps claims, won’t be able to compete with the low price point and in-store experience that Apple can provide, leading to Forrester’s prediction that Apple will score upwards of 80 percent of the U.S. tablet market in 2011.

Will that actually happen?

Motorola CFO Francis Shammo said that “the XOOM pad is selling extremely well” at the Deutsche Bank Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday. Samsung’s original 7-inch Galaxy Tab had good reception, selling over a million units. But the iPad reached three times that number in only 80 days, and early reports suggest the iPad 2 may have sold over 500,000 in its first weekend.

So if tech giants like Samsung and Motorola can’t compete with Apple’s tablet, is there anybody that can? Epps points to Amazon as a possible underdog.

According to Forrester’s data, consumers would rather purchase a tablet from a retailer like Amazon than a carrier like Motorola (24 percent versus 18 percent). Amazon has the incentive — and ability — to develop a product that would rival the iPad. Apple’s updated subscription policy has garnered the ire of publishers and app makers alike (Amazon and its Kindle app not excluded). And Amazon’s hardware chops have already been proven with the success of its Kindle e-reader.

Microsoft, Vizio and Sony also have the resources to become major players in the tablet arena.

In the meantime, tablets that target niche markets like business folks, gamers and kids could be manufacturers’ best way to slowly chip away at Apple’s dominance. Steve Jobs already branded the iPad 2 as a device for creation.

It’s up to the tablet makers and marketers to show that their solid products can shine. Their product strategies may be flawed, but they’re not fatal … yet.

– – –
Why iPad 2 Won’t Have Much Competition [Forrester via Forbes]

WebOS revolves around a user interface called "Cards." Hit the physical Home button, and each app currently running is displayed in a small Card window. Swipe left or right to switch between the Cards. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

HP claims all its PCs will ship with the WebOS mobile operating system in addition to Microsoft’s Windows sometime next year, according to a report.

That’s an ambitious plan, considering that HP hasn’t even announced a ship date for the WebOS-powered TouchPad tablet yet.

The purpose of the expansion to PCs would be to entice software developers to build apps for the WebOS ecosystem, according to Bloomberg, which originally reported the story. If WebOS is on HP PCs in addition to tablets and smartphones, third-party developers would have a bigger audience for selling apps.

“You create a massive platform,” Leo Apotheker, HP’s new CEO, said in an interview buried deep inside a wordy Bloomberg story.

In terms of apps, HP’s WebOS definitely has some catching up to do. Apple’s iOS is nearing 400,000 apps in the App Store, and Google’s Android has about 250,000. HP’s WebOS has 6,000 apps.

HP acquired Palm last year for the WebOS smartphone operating system. Last month the company introduced the first tablet running WebOS, dubbed the TouchPad. The 9.7-inch tablet is very similar to Apple’s iPad. HP has not announced a price tag or a ship date for the TouchPad.

It’s no surprise that HP has plans to roll WebOS into PCs as well. Research firm DisplaySearch found that in the fourth quarter of 2010, Apple surpassed HP for the No.1  spot in the “mobile PC market,” when you combine sales of Mac notebooks with the iPad. So with the iPad included, Apple sold 10.2 million, or 17.2 percent of, mobile computers during the fourth quarter of 2010. HP shipped 9.3 million notebooks.

Apple is taking a very similar approach with its PCs. Steve Jobs has said the next version of the Mac operating system, OS Lion, will blend traits of iOS into OS X. Ahead of OS Lion’s release,  Apple has launched an App Store for the Mac.

In other words, HP is basically mimicking Apple’s verticalized mobile strategy by cultivating and expanding on an in-house mobile ecosystem rather than solely relying on Microsoft, which has not yet announced a credible tablet strategy.

See Also:

• Why WebOS Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Potential — Yet
• Report: HP’s WebOS Tablet Specs Leaked
• HP Launches WebOS-Powered Tablet, Phones
• WebOS Apps Stand Out Because There’s Less Competition