Hasta La Gadget!

Well, we knew it was coming, and folks, it’s finally here — the promised update to Quickoffice HD that brings document editing to HP’s webOS slate. Available gratis for TouchPad owners, the overhaul enables text formatting in Word docs, in addition to enabling cell and function editing in Excel spreadsheets. Unfortunately, editing of Powerpoint presentations is sorely lacking, but that’s nothing another update can’t cure, right?

Quickoffice update brings document editing to the TouchPad originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In an extraordinarily convenient turn of events, one buyer of a firesale-priced HP TouchPad at Best Buy a couple of days ago claims his came out of the box with an extra special treat — it’s running Android, 2.2 to be exact. A possible explanation for the existence of this unicorn tablet can be seen in the two YouTube videos posted of the device so far, where it flashes a Qualcomm Innovation Center (Quic) logo which suggests it could be some kind of development project that slipped into retail. We queried Qualcomm about this TouchPad’s provenance ourselves and received only a “We have no comment on the video” in return, so the decision to believe that it’s real or a particularly well executed hoax is yours. Now, you can be the first to solve this riddle since the owner has put it up for sale on eBay. Need another potential perk? How about the ability to snag a TouchPad-running-Android bounty posted by HacknMod that’s up to $2,150 as of this posting. Relevant links are below, including the initial Reddit post, both videos and the auction, so while our credit cards will remain securely in our wallets those who are more trusting — or just can’t believe that anyone would would be dumb enough to try and sell a fake — can put a bid in if they so choose.

Update: Apparently one of our own commenters, Shahzeb Jiwani, has come into possession of a similar device. Luckily for us, he’s chosen to make a ROM dump available over on RootzWiki, so check out his video after the break or head over to the thread there as they try and find out how to make this work on everyone else’s $99 tablet.

[Thanks, David & Dennis]

Continue reading Alleged HP TouchPad running Android appears, can be yours on eBay (update: and another one!)

Alleged HP TouchPad running Android appears, can be yours on eBay (update: and another one!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WebOS developers may not have had much good news in the past few days (apart from a slew of new TouchPad owners looking for apps), but they are at least getting some attention. That includes a message from Microsoft’s Senior Director of Windows Phone 7 Development, Brandon Watson, who offered free phones to published webOS developers on Friday, plus all the necessary tools and training to get them started with Windows Phone. Judging from his tweets since, the response has been fairly overwhelming — Watson says he’s received close to 600 emails from webOS devs as of Sunday evening.

Microsoft woos webOS developers with free phones, training originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Aug 2011 08:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

HP’s decision to discontinue production of webOS devices has been widely seen as the final nail in the promising operating system’s coffin. Statements from HP on the future of webOS app development sound absurd in the current context. How can, for example, HP continue to promote the webOS app catalog as it has pledged to do when there are no ongoing devices on which those apps can run? How would developers even test apps?

The answer may lie in a complex ongoing reorientation of the webOS triangle consisting of the HP corporate entity, PSG (Personal Systems Group, HP’s PC business) and webOS. HP hasn’t said exactly what it is doing with webOS. However, the combination of publicly expressing commitment to the operating system while dismantling its own devices points strongly to licensing. In fact, it’s highly consistent with it; if HP simply wanted to wage war with (or sell) Palm’s patent pool, it wouldn’t need webOS developers any more. HP made no secret of its interest in licensing webOS while it was still producing devices based on that operating system. As Switched On discussed last month, though, there is a long, bleak history chronicling the difficulty in building devices based on an OS that a company is licensing. In other words, pursuing both of the contrasting business models of Apple and Microsoft results in inherent conflict.

Continue reading Switched On: The webOS triangle

Switched On: The webOS triangle originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you thought the saga surrounding HP’s decision to cease production of webOS devices was over, you may be mistaken. All Things D reported yesterday that key executives — specifically Todd Bradley of the currently-in-limbo Personal Systems Group and former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein — weren’t informed of the move until Sunday night. The blog’s inside sources say the two plan to remain at their posts for the time being, however, that could change dependent on what happens next with webOS. Those sources also noted that Rubinstein wasn’t exactly thrilled about the timing of the TouchPad’s release, saying CEO Leo Apotheker had failed to make good on a public promise to ship the tablet only when it was “perfect.” So will they stay or will they go? It’s anyone’s guess at this point, but you can bet we’ll keep you posted.

All Things D: HP kept executives in the dark about webOS decision originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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