Hasta La Gadget!

We joked about HP printers running webOS almost the second we learned about the Palm acquisition, but it turns out that’s actually part of the plan: HP CEO Mark Hurd told analysts that webOS would hit a “variety of form factors, including slates and web-connected printers” on the company’s Q2 financial results call today. webOS tablets were obviously a no-brainer, but printers are slightly more intriguing, in a way: while we’re not overly surprised HP wants to leverage webOS on its line of advanced touchscreen printers, we’re very curious to see what that actually looks like in practice — a printer with Synergy-level Facebook integration for easy photo printing? A printer that can play 3D games like Need for Speed? A printer that can… multitask? The possibilities are amusingly endless, if you think about it — and HP’s printing and imaging division is a $6.4 billion dollar business, so the money and motivation to push this idea into strange new places are certainly there. Speaking of money, HP’s doing just well on that front in general: profits were up 25 percent this quarter to $2.9 billion on total revenues of $30 billion, so yeah — Palm certainly has the money and resources it’s desperately needed. Now it just needs some new products and sharper execution.

HP says webOS coming to slates and web-connected printers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 May 2010 18:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s always been possible to run webOS on a PC using the emulator built into Palm’s SDK, but it turns out that the OS image used for the emulator can actually be installed on an IDE hard drive and booted from — which is exactly what one enterprising member of the PreCentral forums did with his Dell C600 laptop. It’s not too surprising webOS can do this, since it’s built on Linux, but don’t get too excited yet; the OS runs in a funky aspect ratio in a small portion of the screen and the lack of a touchscreen means you’re stuck using the keyboard to navigate. Still, it’s hard not to watch this without visions of webOS running on all manner of HP hardware in the very near future — a tablet, perhaps? Video after the break.

Continue reading webOS booted up on a PC, just for kicks (video)

webOS booted up on a PC, just for kicks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 May 2010 23:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm and HP seem like the happiest of corporate couples right now, but theirs was a heated courtship: according to Palm’s latest statement to shareholders, a total of 16 companies were contacted about a deal, and HP was the winner of a month-long bidding war that involved serious offers from five companies — a bidding war that involved Jon Rubinstein personally warning HP that it had to “significantly and immediately” increase its offer to remain in the game. What’s more, HP’s winning bid came in at just 20 cents a share more than its primary rival. Yeah, it’s juicy — read on for the full blow-by-blow.

Continue reading HP bought Palm after a five-company bidding war

HP bought Palm after a five-company bidding war originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 May 2010 16:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T has finally sent out the rundown on when (and for how much) its customers will be able to saddle themselves with a Pre Plus and matching two-year contract, and the wait isn’t a long one: it launches this coming Sunday, May 16, just as we’d expected. It’ll run $149.99 on contract after rebate — the same that Sprint is charging for the Pre, and $100 more than Verizon is charging for its own Pre Plus — but buyers will be getting a free Touchstone charging dock along with their purchase “for a limited time” when the phone is picked up in a corporate-owned store. There’s no word on the Pixi Plus yet, but hey, at least this gets Palm back on the network after an extended vacation. No word on a free mobile hotspot add-on, but hope springs eternal, we suppose.

Pre Plus comes to AT&T on May 16, $149.99 with free Touchstone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shortly after announcing a blockbuster deal to acquire Palm, HP confessed that it would be “doubling down on webOS,” with near-term plans to “scale it across multiple connected devices.” We took the liberty at that point to assume this meant that a larger webOS-based device was at least sitting around in the rear of someone’s mind, and now it sounds as if Palm loyalists may actually have something tangible to look forward to. According to an unsubstantiated report over at the Examiner, an “insider at HP” has informed the site that “a webOS tablet under the code name HP Hurricane could be released the third quarter of this year.” This all lines up well with what we’ve heard over the past few weeks: HP pledged to take webOS to places it has never been, strong whispers emerged that the HP Slate was being shelved, and now, people close to the HP camp have given a name to a purported webOS tablet slated for Q3. There’s obviously no telling if this is simply hot air being blown, but we wouldn’t be shocked to see HP nail down a webOS slate in time for the sure-to-be-rockin’ 2010 holiday buying season. Or maybe we’re just crossing our fingers, humming aloud and praying to our lucky stars that this all pans out.

[Thanks, Mike and Trever]

webOS-based HP Hurricane tablet rumored for Q3 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 May 2010 19:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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