Hasta La Gadget!

And just like that, the rumor mill smirks. HP has just come clean with a device that we’ve been hearing more and more about over the past few weeks, and with it will come the next generation of webOS that we’ve been hearing about for even longer. The Palm Pre 2 will be the first device to ship with HP webOS 2.0, with the revamped and renamed (presumably to use on more than just Palm smartphones) mobile OS promising “true multitasking,” Stacks (for organizing apps) Just Type, HP Synergy (links your email and social networking accounts), Exhibition (enabling users to run apps designed specifically for the Palm Touchstone Charging Dock) and support for Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 Beta. It’s also bringing along a new Favorites tagging option, Skype Mobile (on the Verizon version only), text assist, integrated Quickoffice, VPN support, a redesigned launcher and full support for Bluetooth keyboards and SPP peripherals.

As for Pre 2 itself? Little is being revealed at the moment, but we’re told to expect a 1GHz CPU, a five megapixel camera (LED flash, extended depth of field, geotagging, and video capture), glass display and a “sleeker, streamlined design” that still combines a touchpanel with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. In other words, it’s a faster, slimmer Pre, and some would argue it’s what the Pre Plus should’ve been. At any rate, SFR customers in France will get first dibs on Friday, with Verizon and an undisclosed carrier in Canada scheduled to get it “in the coming months.” Oh, and as for US-based developers? They’ll be able to purchase unlocked UMTS versions of the Pre 2 (!) in their homeland, though pricing remains elusive.

Update: The Pre 2 portal is now live, showcasing a 3.1-inch 480 x 320 (HVGA) multitouch display, a black enclosure, Exchange support, built-in GPS, ambient light / proximity sensors, an accelerometer, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 16GB of inbuilt storage space, a battery good for around 5.5 hours of talking and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Continue reading Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon ‘in the coming months’

Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon ‘in the coming months’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, now that we’ve got a bigger shot of this thing, we can definitely say that it’s neither a Pre nor a Pre Plus… so assuming it’s not some sophisticated fake, you’re feasting your eyes on Palm’s next-gen model here. Given how close it is to the model it’ll presumably be replacing, we can’t help but feel like the Pre 2 should’ve actually been the phone we call the Pre Plus today — and it should’ve launched six (or more) months ago — but in the event webOS 2.0 doesn’t come to older devices, we suppose that alone will be the impetus some current owners need to upgrade. ‘Course, the 1GHz processor should be nice, too. Hit up the source link for a few more shots of it slinking around the wild; meanwhile, we await Palm’s move on an official announce.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Palm Pre 2 in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are two ways you could take the news that Hewlett-Packard has confirmed WebOS phones for early next year. One is “At last! What took so long?” The other is “Thank God they didn’t rush this thing.”

Speaking at a Conference in Barcelona, Spain yesterday, HP senior VP Eric Cador said “You will see us coming early next year with new phones” and added that Palm’s WebOS is “extremely fundamental.”

HP bought Palm earlier this year, so releasing new phones early next year is still pretty fast. But if we have learned anything from the runaway success of the iPhone and iPad, it’s that these things can’t be rushed: Apple’s devices were in development for years before they launched.

What we’re really looking forward too, though, is a WebOS tablet. Could it be that HP, once known for innovation but now just another commodity gray box maker, is taking its time to come up with an amazing, killer product? Let’s hope so. Right now, there’s only one tablet worth buying, and that lack of competition is not good for the consumer.

HP to launch new webOS phones in early 2011 [Reuters]

Image: New Palm Pre WebOS screenshots

See Also:

• Official: HP Slate Will Run WebOS
• HP Slate Could Get a Makeover With Palm's WebOS
• HP: WebOS Slate on the Way
• HP Buys Palm for $1.2 Billion
• Palm Previews WebOS 2.0: Tablet Ready?

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Note the plural use of “phone” in that headline quote. It comes from HP’s Senior VP Eric Cador who said, “you will see us coming early next year with new phones,” when speaking at an industry conference today in Barcelona. Of course, he’s referring to smartphones running webOS and not some WinMo followup to the iPAQ Glisten for crissake. Sure, it’s not much, but when you’re as desperate as we are for the next Palm device then every scrap of information counts.

HP: New webOS ‘phones’ coming early next year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 06:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that HP’s Todd Bradley is one of the leading candidates to succeed ousted CEO Mark Hurd, and it doesn’t look like he was doing much to dissuade that notion at the now happening TechCrunch Disrupt conference. In addition to addressing a question about whether it’s ethically wrong to charge so much for ink by responding “ask me next year, if I take the [CEO] position,” Bradley also sounded more than a little like a CEO throughout, and made a fair bit of news in the process. That includes a confirmation that HP won’t be licensing webOS to other companies, and the attention-grabber of a statement that “emulating Apple is not part of our strategy.” As if that wasn’t enough, Bradley also made the rather bold promise that HP will sell 15 million webOS-based printers next year alone, and he predicted that tablets will become a $40 billion market within the next few years — a market that HP plans to enter in a “big way.” Head on past the break for a video of the interview.

Continue reading HP’s Bradley: HP isn’t trying to be Apple, will sell 15 million webOS printers next year

HP’s Bradley: HP isn’t trying to be Apple, will sell 15 million webOS printers next year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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