Hasta La Gadget!

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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Seriously, what the hell did HP acquire when it bought Palm? A bunch of pretty patents and a rapidly dwindling talent pool, it would seem. Mike Bell, a celebrated capture for Palm back in 2007 after 16 years at Apple, was most recently occupying the role of Senior VP for Product Development on Jon Rubinstein’s team, but he has now switched allegiances to the blue team. Interestingly, though his address might change, his job spec will not — Mike will act as Director of Smartphone Product Development in Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, where he’ll “help build and lead a team to build breakthrough smartphone reference designs to accelerate Intel Architecture into the market.” It’s hard to imagine how Intel could signal its intent to be a big player in the smartphone realm any more forcefully. Click past the break for the full text of the internal email announcing Mike’s arrival.

Continue reading Intel snaps up former Palm and Apple VP Mike Bell for its smartphone push

Intel snaps up former Palm and Apple VP Mike Bell for its smartphone push originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:31:00 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

Is this the answer to the question we posed back in mid-June? Maybe. While we’re still unsure if Hewlett-Packard has a webOS-based tablet in its pipeline, those on-again / off-again Windows 7 rumors may finally be nearing an end. On the homepage of this year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference — which kicks off in earnest today in Washington, D.C. — there’s a pane of Windows 7 slates that are on deck for this year. Er, a pane with vendors promising Win7 slates this year. Sure enough, HP’s logo is front and center, right alongside the likes of Sony, Dell, ASUS, Panasonic, Onkyo, Toshiba, MSI, Samsung, Lenovo and Fujitsu. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for more, but for now, feel free to let your imaginations run wild. It’s Monday, after all.

Update: During the event’s opening keynote, which was headed by none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the bigwig confirmed some of what’s pictured above: Windows 7 slates will be arriving this year. Interestingly, he never mentioned HP by name (despite teasing us gently at CES with an apparent mystery device), but he did note that devices would be available at various price points and in a variety of form factors — “with keyboards, touch only, dockable, able to handle digital ink, etc.” We already knew as much from being overwhelmed by prototypes at Computex, but it’s good to get the word straight from Ballmer himself. Now, to see if anyone’s actually interested in buying a desktop OS on a mobile form factor…

Update 2: Seems Ballmer’s drinking his own Kool-Aid in a serious way, and not just on the tablet front. He noted that Microsoft will be giving consumers “a set of Windows-based devices that people will be proud to carry at home and will fit the kinds of scenarios enterprise IT’s trying to make happen with the phone form factor,” and that Microsoft would be “working vigorously” to “drive enterprise IT and consumers.” Furthermore, Steve affirmed that the tablet sector is “terribly important” for his company, and that it’s “hardcore about this.” He didn’t shy away from calling the range of Windows 7-based tablets coming out “over the next several months” ones that would be “quite impressive,” but honestly — what else would you expect him to say?

Windows 7-based HP Slate referenced at WPC 2010, Ballmer says ‘hardcore’ tablet push coming originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not totally unexpected, but apparently HP is laying off some Palm staffers now that the buyout is official. We don’t know exactly how many people are being let go, or in what departments — it certainly makes sense for HP to trim away some administrative and support positions as it integrates Palm into its larger organization — but there’s no question that Palm’s lost some key people ever since this turmoil began, and we’re definitely curious to see who’s left standing after these cuts. For what it’s worth, Palm told All Things Digital that “part of the integration strategy is consolidation of functions and operations, as appropriate,” and that “Palm employees overall are enthusiastic about having the financial stability and global scale necessary to complete their vision,” so we’ve got hope — after all, HP needs Palm just as much as Palm needs HP.

HP laying off some Palm staff as integration begins originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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