Hasta La Gadget!

Well, this is certainly an interesting, if not bewildering rumor. Obviously, we’ve heard that HP is working on webOS tablets for 2011 — it’s planning to double down on Palm OS, remember? — but our friend Clayton Morris at Fox News has heard that some of these PalmPads could be coming as early as CES in just two weeks. So, what’s said to be coming? Apparently, HP will introduce three tablets based on webOS 2.5.1, but the very puzzling part is that they will be “spin-offs” of the HP Slate, and as you can see in the image above, are said to look almost identical to the current Slate. Yeah, it even seems like that Ctrl + Alt + Delete button and slide-out certification tab are still present, though we’re told there’s also a Pre-like “multi-switch.” We’re highly skeptical of that image being a true render of the hardware since it’s exactly the same as older HP Slate service manual line drawings (check one out below), but according to the report, the trio of PalmPads will be thinner than the iPad with rounded edges, pack Sprint 4G connectivity, weigh 1.25-pounds, have both mini-HDMI and USB 3.0 ports, and at least one will have a 9.7-inch display. Also, just like the HP Slate, there’ll be two cameras — a front-facing 1.3 megapixel lens and a 3 megapixel rear-facing unit. Lastly, there’s said to be a straggling fourth tablet aimed at university students, though it apparently won’t be on hand at CES.

We’re obviously very intrigued by the specs — USB 3.0, really?! — and the fact that HP may not change the look and feel of the Slate all that much, but we’d be very very surprised if this were all to happen at CES. Firstly, we’ve heard a number of times that HP wasn’t planning to release a tablet until later in 2011, and to wait this long to simply slap webOS into the HP Slate’s shell seems almost foolish. What’s more, repurposing the Slate means HP either ported webOS to Intel and threw battery life out the window, or completely swapped out the Slate’s Intel-based internals for an ARM chipset without changing the exterior design at all. Needless to say, both options seem like completely inefficient and muddled ways to get a tablet onto the market.

On top of all that we feel obligated to point out that we’ve yet to receive an invitation to any sort of HP / Palm event at CES — in past years, we’ve received invitations to both Palm and HP events long before the middle of December — and we’ve been reliably informed that HP’s floor presence at the show is smaller than in recent years. That just doesn’t seem like you’d blow out a huge four-device tablet launch, does it? Rest assured that we’ll clear our schedules for an HP / Palm event in a second, but something about an early January reveal just isn’t adding up right now.

Nilay Patel contributed to this post.

Continue reading Three HP Slate-like webOS tablets coming at CES? We’re not so sure.

Three HP Slate-like webOS tablets coming at CES? We’re not so sure. originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today’s bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the holiday season.

You didn’t think we’d let the holiday season go by without an official Engadget Tablet Gift Guide did you? Hey, give us more credit — we know it’s not 2009 anymore! The past year has seen an explosion in the tablet category, and while the iPad may still be the market leader, there’s no shortage of Android and Windows 7 alternatives out there that let you surf the web, read books, and watch videos with just a flick of a finger. Sure, more are on the way, and all signs point to Apple updating the iPad in early 2011, but if you’ve got to have a touchscreen slab before the end of the year, we’re here to lend a helping hand. Hit the break for a rundown of the best choices by price category.

Continue reading Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Tablets

Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm / HP’s Jon Rubinstein is just about to take the stage at the D: Dive Into Mobile event. Will there be talk of past failures? Future triumphs? Will he break out a rumored device? Will he breakdance? Only the liveblog knows for sure… so keep reading after the break!

Continue reading Jon Rubinstein live from D: Dive Into Mobile

Jon Rubinstein live from D: Dive Into Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Compared to last month’s report, it’s more or less business as usual in ComScore’s latest smartphone market share numbers for the three-month period ending in October, but there are a few interesting points worth calling out. Most notably, RIM’s decline seems to have accelerated — they’ve lost a claimed 3.5 percent of the US market in the latest period compared to 2.8 percent prior, which means they’re now down to 35.8 percent. Of course, that’s still more than enough to keep them comfortably in first place, but it’s a situation they’re going to want to reverse sooner or later — hopefully with TAT’s help. Meanwhile, Apple’s tacked on a slightly larger slice of the pie, but they’re still holding fairly steady; Google, meanwhile, continues its stratospheric rise, tacking on another 2.1 percent since last month’s numbers to hit 23.5 percent — nipping on Apple’s heels, we’d say. The most intriguing story, though, would have to be Microsoft: they’re lower than before at just 9.7 percent of the market, but these figures don’t include Windows Phone 7 yet — and clearly, no one’s buying WinMo 6.5 gear at this point. Should start to get interesting in the next month or two on that front.

ComScore: Android keeps chugging, BlackBerry falters, world awaits Windows Phone 7’s numbers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think touch screens are one of the biggest innovations of the past decade? As it turns out, that concept has been available to consumers longer than a lot of you reading this have been alive.

The MS DOS-powered HP-150 allowed users to maneuver around a very basic monotone interface. The screen was surrounded by a series of infrared emitters and detectors which would be able to roughly place any non-transparent object near the screen. The divots were often known to get clogged with dust, making the “touchscreen” unworkable. The touchscreen was later dropped as a standard feature in later incarnations before being dropped as a feature all together.

After the jump, check out some footage from the gripping television program: Computer Chronicles. The clip wasn’t of note just because of the forward-looking (if ultimately flopping) attempt on the part of HP, but check out how wound-up these guys are. They’re techies, but they’re all at least in their mid-30s and wearing suits. That sort of behavior just wouldn’t be acceptable in today’s tech world.