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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Okay, it’s not exactly the new webOS hardware we’ve been waiting for, but we just got this shot of a Palm Bluetooth keyboard from a trusted source — we’re told it’s an accessory for Palm’s upcoming tablet, which is codenamed “Topaz.” Interestingly, we’re told the keyboard features a Windows key in addition to some webOS-specific keys — we’d guess that HP will sell it for general use as well. As for the Topaz tablet, it’s said to be extremely slick, with no hard buttons on the front and a design that echoes the design of the keyboard — we’re told it’s due out in the first half of 2011, which matches up with what we’ve heard from Palm.

We’re also told Palm’s planning a low-end teen phone that’s something like a Pre with no keyboard — it’s codenamed “Castle,” (just like the original Pre and Pixi) and due to hit Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T. That seems like a likely followup to the Pixi, but what we’re really anxious for is some news on a new high-end phone and the Topaz tablet — we’ll keep digging and let you know.

Palm’s tablet is codenamed ‘Topaz,’ keyboard accessory leaks out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm has never shied away from odd, short names for its devices — take the Zire, for instance — so when you hear that Palm’s new owner has filed for trademarks on “Gyst,” “Myte,” and “Veer” in the category that covers smartphones, it doesn’t take a very big leap of logic to believe that they’re intended for future Palm models. HP’s filings were all made on the 10th of this month, so they’re very fresh; of course, companies of all types regularly file trademarks that they don’t use either to throw off the Engadgets of the world or just in case they end up needing it down the road, so we wouldn’t take these to mean there’ll definitely be Veers on your carrier’s shelf in 2011. Our vote? We think Myte’s a great name for a tiny phone and we’ve heard rumors that they’ll be releasing a small model — possibly a Pixi successor — in the next few months, so that lines up rather nicely.

Hewlett Packard files trademarks for Gyst, Myte, and Veer: new Palm models? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A software keyboard may sound anathema to Palm, with its rich history of wonderful QWERTY keyboards, but you had to feel it was coming, what with the wild consumer adoption of slate devices and, you know, the economy these days. Well, after a short history of hints in webOS 2.0’s code and a longer history of hacks, a full-on Palm-developed software keyboard has been found in shipping webOS 2.0 devices. It takes a little bit of a hack and a restart, and apparently it’s buggy as well, oh and you have to use the physical keyboard to enter the Opt+Sym+K command that opens the virtual keys. Still, none of these shortcomings are going to stop us from sketching out slick, slim slate phones in our diaries, translating that understated elegance of the Pre 2 into a screen-dominated form factor with our unbridled imaginations, leaving the Pre’s cramped hardware keyboard in the past as we sprint into a glorious future of tangible webOS 2.0 market share and maybe a threaded email app or something. Sorry, we’re done. Check out a video of the keyboard in action while we wipe the drool off our chins.

Continue reading Software keyboard pops up in webOS 2.0, dreams of a Palm slate phone flourish

Software keyboard pops up in webOS 2.0, dreams of a Palm slate phone flourish originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers from security firm SecTheory have described a handful of flaws in webOS, saying that the platform — by its very nature — is more prone to these sorts of things than its major competitors because Palm puts web technologies like JavaScript closer to webOS’ core where system functions are readily accessible. At least one of the flaws, involving a data field in the Contacts app that can be exploited to run arbitrary code, has already been fixed in webOS 2.0 — but the others are apparently still open, including a cross-site scripting problem, some sort of floating-point overflow issue, and a denial-of-service vector. We imagine Palm will get these all patched up sooner or later, but as SecTheory’s guys point out, how long is it until mobile malware becomes a PC-sized problem?

Security experts unearth unpleasant flaws in webOS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 01:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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