Hasta La Gadget!

We were quite surprised (to say the least!) to see the original Windows 7 HP Slate 500 appear yesterday on the company’s site, and HP officially confirmed this morning that the product is still very much in the works. The outfit’s not sharing much, but a spokesperson from its Personal Systems group did tell us that they’re “in customer evaluations now and will make a determination soon on the next steps.” It all seems very vague and mysterious at this point, but the evidence is surely mounting that we’ll be seeing HP join Microsoft’s “hardcore” tablet push.

HP confirms that Slate is still kicking, ‘next steps’ being determined originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP’s been extremely direct in saying that it plans to release webOS tablets and other devices in the future, and now that the Palm acquisition is complete, it looks like those plans are starting to move forward — the company just filed a trademark application for “PalmPad,” which certainly sounds like a webOS tablet to us. We don’t know much apart from that, but it’s certainly an encouraging sign — and we can’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia for a name that harkens back to the glory days of the PalmPilot. Now we’re just wondering when (this fall?), how much, and — as usual — what this means for the HP Slate. We’ll keep our eyes open.

HP files for ‘PalmPad’ trademark — a webOS tablet, perhaps? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who knew HP was such a big player in the display business? Just days after announcing that a flexible display from Mars may very well hit the market out of Hewlett-Packard’s own laboratories, a fresh report has surfaced over at Technology Review surrounding yet another display tech that the company is feverishly working on. It’s bruited that the outfit is “developing new materials for brighter low-power displays” — think E Ink, but with color… and a twist. Frustrated with what nature was offering (or not offering, as it were), scientists at HP decided to concoct new materials that “use ambient light to create a more vibrant color for video-capable, low-power screens.” It’s hard to say just yet whether or not this stuff will end up suitable for mass production; we’ve been hearing about color e-paper for years now, and even though Qualcomm’s Mirasol display showed great promise at CES, we’ve yet to hear of any progress towards a market-ready product. Hit the source if you’re thirsty for technobabble, but don’t go looking down on that Kindle just yet.

HP developing materials for reflective color e-paper displays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although nothing official has come from HP on this front, we got some pretty solid word back in April that the American giant was mulling an Android tablet. As it turns out, what with the WebOS acquisition that followed and HP’s dogged commitment to Windows 7, that Googly project has apparently slipped out of the limelight in HP HQ. Word from All Things Digital is that there’ll be nothing forthcoming this year (as was tentatively expected) and if an HP Android tablet is to materialize, it’ll have to come in 2011. The company seems to be in the midst of reallocating resources to its higher priority projects, and who knows, should that rumored Hurricane tablet blow us all away, Android might never gets its chance to shine at all.

HP Android tablet coming later than you think, or not at all originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that HP  has sealed its acquisition of Palm, the PC maker is working hard to get Palm’s webOS mobile operating system onto HP products.

Palm’s webOS will power HP upcoming tablet, says HP CTO Phil McKinney. The tablet known as HP Slate had earlier been designed using Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. HP also plans to put webOS on printers, says McKinney.

“There’s a gap for devices that are larger than a smartphone but smaller than a netbook,” he told attendees at the ongoing Mobile Beat conference in San Francisco. “Slates could fit in that category.”

Unlike rival Dell, which chose the Google-designed open source Android OS to create its cellphone and tablet, HP spent $1.2 billion to buy Palm. The transaction closed earlier this month.

HP wants to control all pieces of the mobile ecosystem, says McKinney.

“If you look at success in the market, they are those companies who can control the end user experience and the entire experience stack,” he says.

That sounds more like Apple and less like Google. But it is clearly the direction that HP wants to go. In March, HP seemed poised to launch its Slate tablet offering sneak peeks of the device through carefully edited videos. Leaks of the company’s plans for the Slate pegged the price of the device at $550.

But in a surprise move in April, HP announced its buying Palm and with that it sent the Slate back to the drawing board.  McKinney says HP is not yet ready to announce a launch date for the Slate.

“I am not going to pre-announce products but I will say that we are investing money into research & development and marketing at Palm.”

See Also:

• HP’s Windows 7 Slate Strikes at the iPad
• HP Slate Details Leaked: $550 Netbook, Minus Keyboard
• HP Slate Could Get a Makeover With Palm’s WebOS
• Hands On: Dell ‘Streak’ Tablet Feels Like Supersized Phone
• Gallery: 8 Tablets That Aren’t Made by Apple

Photo:HP