By September, HP expects the entire project to be finished. Meanwhile, Enyo, a webOS application framework that made its debut with webOS 3 on the TouchPad, is available today, open sourced. As well as this, an update of Enyo 2.0 has also been released along with its source code. As The Verge points out, this shows that HP is making good on their promise to ”be an active participant and investor in the project.”

There are plenty of other releases on the schedule, such as UI Enyo widgets and the switch to a regular Linux kernel, meaning wider hardware compatibility, as long as HP sticks to schedule.

Open webOS will be available for developers HP TouchPads later in the year, and HP is looking into putting Open webOS onto all webOS devices, including my Pre 2.

So will this see webOS compete with Android and iOS? Probably not. But it’s a big step into giving the OS a real ecosystem, even if it remains small. And who knows what company might actually start releasing some webOS phones or tablets.

Their source didn’t leave many details around, apart from saying that an official portal will be online tomorrow. Strangely, the device in the video doesn’t have keyboard, so hopefully tomorrow brings clearer news and possibly an explanation.

All we can do for now, however, is speculate and watch the shiny, deliciously thin laptop in the video right after the break.

The HP Touchpad - the product that killed webOS (Image: HP)

With the news of webOS being open sourced on Sunday, let me tell you that, in my opinion and as a previously firm supporter of webOS, the platform is dead. And it cannot be revived no matter how hard HP tries either. Their damage to the platform and devices has been done and cannot be repaired until some amazing product is made, which knowing HP’s history with webOS is an unreachable dream.

Any possibility of a revival has been molested by HP and their mind numbingly pathetic and idiotic decisions that could only come from people who are out of touch with the entire industry and where technology and people are going. Or monkeys. They could be monkeys.

But before I bore you with why webOS is doomed, let me go through the disaster that was the HP acquisition of Palm. In April 2010 HP buys Palm for US$1.2 billion. February 2011 HP introduces the Pre 3, the Veer and the infamous Touchpad.

The Veer was and still is one of the stupidest phone ideas in the smartphone era and sold terribly. I could’ve told you at any time that a small smartphone is an incredibly niche product and would not sell well no matter how much money they put into marketing. But HP insisted that people want small, chunky phones.

Then the Touchpad is rushed out, and could’ve been a good product but it is released too early and HP kills it too by announcing an upgraded 4G model with a faster processor 12 days after the original release of the Touchpad, treating tablets like their computers: disposable goods.

Then, as well as the Touchpad, the other product that had a grain of potential, the HP Pre3, is killed before it can even be sold as HP shuts down the whole webOS hardware lineup and the Touchpad is officially killed under two months after release. And then HP sells the remaining HP Touchpad models for US$99. Wow.

And the other project with potential, the Pre 3, doesn’t even get a try. And it could’ve actually worked, but instead HP acts like a car maker that decided to “make dem tablets.”

The Grim Reaper - Meg Whitman (Image: Chris Soutcott/TECHGEEK.com.au)

The original problem with webOS was always the lack of quality hardware. Nobody could seriously look me in the eyes and tell me that the Touchpad or Pre were built well. And I know, as a Pre 2 owner, that the build quality, while not terrible, isn’t great. And now HP has completely stopped making hardware, until at least 2012-2013. And by 2013 it is too late to release a forth tablet OS as iOS, Android and Windows 8 will already be deep into fighting over the tablet market share and webOS cannot be sustained on a small budget, even with an open source community. And I wouldn’t trust a webOS tablet from HP ever again after the tiny lifespan of the Touchpad.

The design of webOS was and still is great, but it was only a little worse than iOS feature-wise when it came out. And now, years later, it is still the same OS as when it was made, while iOS and Android have matured and truly become greater. webOS still feels like it was made in 2009 whereas iOS and Android could make you think otherwise. And little things, like the old browser and lack of quality apps, hasn’t changed either. And things like HP replacing Google Maps with a crappy Bing Maps app shows that they are more interested in money than making a good product and making money from that.

And what kind of developer is going to build apps for webOS now? Either homebrew or teenage developers tempted by the free webOS store submission fee or crazy developers with some other goal.

Now webOS will join MeeGo and other OS’ that failed, were made open source and then gained no traction.

Or, and I’d love this, I could be proven wrong. Please HP, don’t prove me right again.

The following article was posted on Chris Southcott’s personal Tumblr. We have received permission to republish the article – we have slightly modified the title and some of the content due to the date of publication.

It seems like forever but HP has finally decided the fate of webOS and the internet is blowing up with mixed reactions of the deal. The company, which only bought Palm and with it webOS in April 2010, has already thrown it into the too hard pile, even after spending US$1.2 billion on the acquisition.

Instead of continuing to focus on webOS, HP has today announced plans to give it back to the open source community and while they will be “active in the development and support of webOS,” this really sounds like they just expect the community to fix their mistakes. There is still no HP hardware either.

Your number two tablet - the HP TouchPad (Image: HP)

Yes, turns out HP is the new second-place winner in the tablet market, beating Samsiung with a small margin. This is according to a new NPD report for US non-iPad tablets sales between January and October, which saw 1.2 million non-iPad tablets sold.

HP managed to capture 17 percent of the market, according to NPD’s report. You can attribute HP’s success was because of the firesale it had on the TouchPad – which it reduced to $99 to offload the stock across the country (and in fact worldwide). HP has not officially confirmed that it will make any more of the tablet, so you can expect this to be a short-term victory against Samsung.

Samsung, in the meantime, managed to grab only 16 percent of the non-iPad market. This is despite the fact that it has been in the market longer, and its Galaxy Tab tablets have been one of the more popular Android-powered tablets.

Following Samsung was Asus (10%), Motorola (9%) and Acer (9%). Motorola has already announced its successor to the Motorola XOOM – despite its foray into tablets has not produced the sales it were expecting. You can expect everyone else to announce new tablets this year in order to try and capture a foothold in the tablet market and stave off competition from Apple.

Are people looking at alternatives?

According to NPD’s Stephen Baker, people are looking at the alternatives. In a press statement, he said, “According to NPD’s Consumer Tracking Service, 76 percent of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn’t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business.”

This effectively means that they know the tablets are out there, and that many are weighing up the options. The iPad, while its popular, may not be for everyone. However, what is more important in that statement is the other 24 percent. They did consider the iPad – and it may be the pricing that could have attracted them to buy a non-iPad tablet.

And it seems pricing is now the key. HP’s TouchPad sold like hotcakes on a $99 price point, while the Kindle Fire – which is essentially a media consumption “tablet” – is also doing well on a US$199 price point.

The likelihood of the others making their pricing a tad cheaper, however, is not going to happen in the near future. Tablets are still a small market and, unlike laptops and smartphones, it is a small crowd that is making tablets. Though, it might change as it appears many are jumping into this market.

UPDATE: Rumours are intensifying after Meg Whitman, current CEO of HP, told a room of HP and Palm employees that a final decision to continue or not continue to support the fledgling webOS will come in three to four weeks.

She says that “It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision” and that if HP does decide to keep the platform it will “do it in a very significant way over a multi-year period.” The delay has been caused by the recent decision on HP PC business and the work behind HP’s Autonomy aquisition. If HP does decide to keep webOS, Whitman has suggested they will focus on tablets more than phones.

It’s going to be interesting, but today all we can say is stay tuned to TECHGEEK.com.au.

ORIGINAL: The rumours that HP is selling webOS have grown stronger since last nights report from Reuters. Now The Verge is reporting that, according to “multiple sources”, HP is holding a all-hands meeting tonight, led by Meg Whitman, that will decide the fate of webOS.

As we told you yesterday, the purchaser is rumoured to be IBM, Oracle, and RIM as well as a few unlikely contenders.

Details are scarce, but you can be sure TECHGEEK.com.au have all the news on the sale of webOS as it comes to hand. Fingers crossed something good happens.

Remember when HP bought Palm in 2010? And remember when HP killed webOS little over a year later in August? Ah, good times.

Well, it turns out that HP is looking to close the chapter that is Palm and webOS for good, with a report from Reuters saying that they are looking to sell the webOS unit for “hundreds of millions of dollars,” which isn’t surprising given the recent events.

The currently rumoured candidates for the purchase are Oracle, where Mark Hurd, who bought Palm when he was in charge of HP, now resides, Amazon, Research In Motion, IBM, and Intel, but these could be wrong or change at any minute.

When HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion dollars in April of 2010 things looked fairly bright for the company. Palm seemed lost in the new age of smartphones and with little resources, a fairly nice OS but fairly bad hardware, HP sounded like the perfect company for them. Sadly, HP didn’t feel that way and ran webOS into the ground with more subpar hardware and stupid business decisions, as well as not building and refining the OS.

I really hope that when HP does eventually sell the OS and hardware, which they will, the new owner will have actually thought out the purchase and have a role for the company that has made some innovative decisions along with dumb ones. Or history could just repeat itself.

Amazon appears to be the front-runner amongst a number of companies that are in talks with HP over buying Palm and it struggling webOS business, after acquiring the company in April 2010, according to a report published last night.

According to VentureBeat, quoting “a well-placed source”, HP is looking to dump both Palm and webOS as soon as possible, which is a big backflip from its commitment to the webOS platform. In addition, Amazon’s deal with HP is the one that is nearing completion.

It should also be noted that Palm’s former CEO (and now HP’s “senior vice president of innovation” – very ambiguous) Jon Rubenstein joined the board of directors at Amazon. It also appears that he may have hinted at a tie-up with Amazon in an interview with This is My Next in July:

I would say Amazon would certainly make a great partner, because they have a lot of characteristics that would help them expand the webOS ecosystem. As to whether there’s been discussions or not… that’s obviously not something I’m going to comment about.

However, it might not look as daft as many people think. Amazon is expanding towards hardware – after expanding to the cloud – and creating a massive ecosystem with digital entertainment and online shopping. Acquiring Palm would give it hardware expertise for future tablets, and not to mention some patents it could use.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is currently running a forked version of Google Android, removing everything Google and redesigning the entire UI to differentiate it from other Android tablets running Honeycomb (Android 3.x).

WebOS would allow Amazon to have its own operating system and even rival Google with deep integration with its services – something that would give it an advantage over Microsoft and Google, and could closely rival Apple.

Though, that’s all speculative.

Both companies are keeping quiet, though now everyone is keeping an eye on HP over who would take Palm and webOS from their hands.

Palm's hardware and software is on life support (Image: Palm)

A rumour is now circulating that HP could now cancel its planned PC spin-off after former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has now been announced as the new CEO of the company. This could also mean that Palm has a chance to continue to live on, if Whitman doesn’t decide to spin or axe webOS’ hardware division.

According to Digitimes, the fear of HP’s spinoff plans have pushed people to redirect orders of HP laptops to rivals Acer, ASUS, Dell and Lenovo. In fact, Acer is reported to have higher than expected orders from its partners.

Ouch, that’s got to hurt.

So, what does this mean for Palm? Well, since it is part of the Consumer PC business unit, it will most likely be saved if Whitman reverses the idea from her predecessor, Leo Apotheker. Apotheker, CEO for just 11 months, has seen the stock plummet down to 47 percent and was from the business computers unit, and hence could explain why he was pushing the idea.

But that’s an if. She could still continue to follow the path of Apotheker, or even just sell of Palm altogether.

Palm is on life support, and its future is now in the hands of person whose background is internet auctions. It really needs some grace of God to survive.

Not a good sign for the US economy, but nevertheless HP has decided to add more people to the number of the unemployed. The company will axe as many as 525 jobs from the webOS division, following plans of its shutdown.

Sources talking to AllThingsD said layoffs are beginning this week. HP has confirmed that it has been axing jobs, but have not confirmed the numbers, saying in a statement “As communicated on August 18, HP will discontinue the development of webOs devices within the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ends Oct. 31, 2011.”

“As part of this decision, the webOS GBU is undergoing a reduction in workforce. Today’s actions are part of this initiative. During this time, we stand by our commitment to our webOS customers and will work to ensure that support and service for customers are not adversely affected. HP is exploring ways to leverage webOS software.”

The company has already announced that the webOS platform was still going to continue and moved the software division to another part of the company, the hardware side aren’t that lucky and appears to be where most of the cuts are made.

It is apparently discussing licensing it to other manufacturers, but who would? HTC. Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have Android. Nokia is in bed with Microsoft and Windows Phone 7. The only one would be, um, ZTE?

HTC has said that it is considering buying a mobile operating system. HTC have noted that the company has discussed this internally but will not act “on impulse”.

Now that HP’s WebOS device production has been discontinued, HP have been seeking licensees to purchase the OS and use it on their own hardware. It is speculated that HTC and Samsung are concerned about Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility and may wish to seek over operating systems to keep their competitive edge.

HTC’s Cher Wang told reporters: “We can use any OS we want. We are able to make things different from our rivals on the second or third layer of a platform,” Wang said. “Our strength lies in understanding an OS, but it does not mean that we have to produce an OS.”

At this current time, the only available OS that HTC could purchase is HP’s WebOS, as HP are open to offers. Who knows, maybe HTC will buy Symbian?

Source: TheNextWeb

Well, Samsung is out. The CEO, Choi Gee Sung, has said while attending the IFA electronics expo that the company is not looking to purchase the WebOS system from HP, despite speculation that they were looking to boost its software assets.

“It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” he told Bloomberg in Berlin.

HP axed all of the WebOS products that it had, and is now looking to get rid of the OS it bought in its acquisition of Palm just 18 months ago. Speculation pointed to Samsung, HTC or even Facebook as companies interested in the OS.

However, the likelihood that Samsung and HTC were going to buy it was pretty small. Both are strong backers of rival Android and they already have phones for Windows Phone 7. Samsung also has its own internal OS called Bada. Their need for WebOS isn’t there.

Well, unless HP ties it to a possible acquisition to its consumer PC division that it is trying to spin-off or sell. Samsung is also pointed by analysts as a potential buyer, which they have also denied.

The WebOS platform was seen at the time as revolutionary, especially with multitasking, when it first came out. However, the Palm Pre – the first device to run the OS – came out after the hype had died down and Apple’s iOS managed to catch up to match or even better the features promised. Since then, it has now struggled against Android, Windows Phone 7 and even Symbian.

The hardware that HP pushed out, especially the tablets, did not help its survival. So, when HP axed it, it did not come to a surprise to many – except for Harvey Norman, who were so outraged that they pulled it off shelves after three days of sales.

At least they have a somewhat decent user base – thanks to their firesale of tablets at $99. Because without that, it may never get rid of the OS because no one would want to support it.

It's about to get a second life. (HP TouchPad/supplied)

WebOS may continue to be with HP, with the company announcing plans to make one more batch of its now-successful TouchPad after the firesale in order to appease demand for the tablet that was supposed to be killed off.

According to Reuters, the company was “pleasantly surprised” by the demand generated by the firesale. Yes, because you too would be surprised by the fact that you undercut your profits in order to get rid of the stock only to find it popular.

After announcing that it will stop producing webOS devices, like the HP TouchPad – was was on sale just for three days in Australia before HP pulled the plug, the company’s decision to make another batch of tablets could see webOS being revived as a competitor to the iPad – because it could have a significant number of users now, thanks to its AU$98 pricetag.

However, it is unknown if HP would mark up the price – which would cause a repeat of the same problem, the price is “too high” (especially after the fire sale) or leave it as it is. But no matter what, HP will still make a loss on the tablet – though, hopefully a taste of a TouchPad could mean that they are hooked on webOS (likely not, though).

Essentially, the biggest problem with HP is the continual shift between strategies – between focusing on the consumer and enterprise markets. It’s current CEO, Leo Apotheker, definitely is more focused on enterprise and the selling off or spinning out of its PC consumer business – a shocker when it was announced as it is the world’s largest PC maker (because HP is smart for selling its most successful part of the company) – further points to his vision for HP.

It doesn’t mean the shareholders are happy with it. Its stock price went down 20 percent during the day he announced his plan, wiping $16 billion of its value. While its shares are slowly going up again, the company is still below its price before the announcement was made (which is that red circle)

It’s a bad time to be a HP shareholder. It’s worse if you are HP employee in the unit.

The product that killed the operating system. (HP TouchPad/supplied)

Two reports have emerged just recently that the team inside HP that was responsible for the WebOS hated the two HP devices, the Veer and the TouchPad, and even went as far as testing the OS on the rival iPad 2 to compare it.

It ran twice as fast. Yes, you have read that correctly.

According to The Next Web, the team, known as the Personal Systems Group, had a particular dislike of the two products. They saw the products as killing the entire operating system and that the company did not tell even the head of WebOS about the shutting down of the hardware division.

Despite the hatred, the article says that people were still shocked as they had hoped that a new product could seek better hardware. There was even talk about producing a 7-inch TouchPad Go and was already in production before the announcement. It was said to have a better looking and nicer design than the TouchPad.

But instead, they killed the hardware.

Another report has claimed that the team felt constrained by the hardware chosen by HP and could not develop innovations for the OS or else it would run too slow (and hence the testing on the iPad 2, just to show how slow the current hardware is).

The main problem, according to the article, was that the technology chosen was already created. The buyout of Palm was only to acquire an operating system for it, as it viewed the open-source Android as “utterly crap” in terms of customer experience and interaction. In addition, it was designed for a Qualcomm chipset, and any changes to that would have required a reworking of it.

It’s been just 16 months since HP acquired Palm and this morning HP has announced that they will “discontinue operations for webOS devices.” After releasing the Veer and TouchPad, HP has determined that the devices have “not met internal milestones and financial targets.” And while this isn’t the death of webOS, with the company saying that they will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward,” it is pretty close.

This is in no way good news. webOS was definitely falling behind the competition, but it still had plenty of potential to become great. HP just couldn’t do fulfill that potential, with a lack of good hardware or updated software.

It isn’t fair to those who have bought the Veer or TouchPad, especially after it’s release just weeks ago in the US, but who could blame HP. The devices were obviously not selling. But it’s still sad to see Palm, a company that was once quite impressive, become so boring and unprofitable. Rest In Peace.

Jon Rubinstein with the original Palm Pre

HP has today announced that, just eleven days after the anniversary of their purchase of Palm, they will be giving Stephen DeWitt the task of leading HP’s webOS global business unit. Previous head Jon Rubinstein will now take over as Senior Vice President of Global Innovation for HP’s Personal Systems Group (lovely name HP).

Whether this was a long time in the making or due to the Veer and TouchPad’s poor reception we don’t know. What we do know is that the times, they are a changin’ at HP. Press release after the break.

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 11, 2011

Building on the successful launch of HP webOS 3.0, HP today announced it is accelerating the global expansion of webOS.

To support this next phase of growth, HP has appointed Stephen DeWitt as senior vice president and general manager of its webOS global business unit. Jon Rubinstein, the visionary behind webOS, will assume a product innovation role within the Personal Systems Group (PSG) at HP.

This announcement underscores HP’s strategy to provide a seamless, secure, context-aware experience across HP’s product portfolio, and to deliver innovation at unmatched scale.

“With the successful debut of our first wave of webOS-based products, we are drawing on our deep executive bench to position the right leaders in the right roles to accelerate the long-term growth of webOS,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, and member of the Executive Board, HP. “Stephen DeWitt has a proven ability to build and scale organizations into global, multibillion dollar operations, and I am confident that he will take webOS to the next level. At the same time, we continue to leverage the core strengths of Silicon Valley icon Jon Rubinstein to apply his considerable talents across the PSG portfolio.”

DeWitt, who has been leading the PSG Americas region at HP, will be responsible for all aspects of the webOS business, including engineering, research and development, sales, marketing and go-to-market support. In his new role, DeWitt will spearhead the creation of a fully integrated, global developer and independent software vendor program to deliver new consumer and business applications. DeWitt’s team also will create a dedicated mobility practice with HP’s partner community, with the goal of delivering consumer and enterprise solutions globally.

DeWitt has dramatically improved PSG’s profitability and share position in the America’s region since his arrival to HP in 2008. He is succeeded by Stephen DiFranco, head of the Solutions Partners Organization for the Americas region at HP.

“Innovation is at the core of webOS, and I look forward to working with our talented team of engineers as we strive to develop the industry’s most compelling set of products, solutions and services in markets around the world,” said DeWitt. “As part of our investment in the future of webOS, we are working in lock step with the developer community, our channel partners and the start-up community to create an application ecosystem that delivers on HP’s mobile connectivity strategy.”

Jon Rubinstein has been named senior vice president for Product Innovation in the Personal Systems Group at HP. He will continue to report to Todd Bradley in this role, helping to propel innovation across product lines. HP will leverage Rubinstein’s passion for building exceptional consumer products and his long history of driving game changing innovation, such as webOS.

“With the launch of webOS 3.0, our team has delivered a world-class platform for HP to leverage going forward, and it is now time to take things to the next level,” said Rubinstein. “With webOS under Stephen DeWitt’s proven leadership, I’m looking forward to my new role and driving further innovation for webOS and other PSG products.”

The UI is the same as the regular webOS UI, with cards, but is scaled to the big screen extremely well. Unique to the TouchPad are growl-like notifications, two-pane applications and an on-screen keyboard.

HP took a dig at Apple, saying the TouchPad has the “full web” with Adobe Flash. It can play games, has books and newspapers (Kindle app for now), the ability of Magazine Subscriptions (probably more details on that soon), Music Sync support (don’t know what that means) and Beats Audio sound quality.

The device also has a keyboard accessory (probably sold seperately), which might I say looks a lot better than the iPad’s dock. Also available is a stand.

And for “Work” the TouchPad supports QuickOffice, Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net. Also supported is VPN, video calling and wireless printing.

Also, during the conference, HP showed that the Pre 3 and TouchPad can talk to eachother (hopefully not literally, or I’d get rather selfconfident).

If your Pre 3 gets a text message or phone call you can view or take it on your TouchPad.

Another usage for this connectivity displayed at the conference was the ability to “tap” the two devices together and in the demo, this brought a website being displayed on the TouchPad to the Pre 3, in seconds.

Jon Rubinstein said that, ”A WiFi version of HP’s TouchPad will be available in the summer, followed by 3G and 4G versions.” No word on what that means for Australians and whether or not any of these gadgets are going to be released internationally.

Image Source: Engadget.com

At an event in San Fransisco, HP (and Palm) have announced 2 new phones, the Veer and Pre 3.

The HP Veer is powered by Palm’s webOS. It has HSPA+, 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, 8GB of inbuilt storage, an Accelerometer, proximity and light sensor and a Snapdragon 7230/800MHz CPU.

The Veer is tiny when shut (it’s a slider) and Palm/HP compared it’s size to a credit card, of which when closed it was the same size.

Next HP/Palm showed off the Pre 3. The Pre 3 has the “largest QWERTY keyboard”, a gesture area, a 3.6″ 480×800 WVGA display, a 5-megapixel camera with HD video and a front-facing camera for video calling.

[developing]

Tom Wood, who also happens to be a known advocate of cyber-bullying prevention, also finds himself doing Stewart’s job.

And yes, Stewart and James will be back next week (hopefully). Hope you enjoy the episode. See you all next week, and don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE!

DOWNLOAD MP3 | SUBSCRIBE via iTunes | SUBSCRIBE via RSS

The Top Stories

Steve Jobs goes on medical leave again
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/18/steve-jobs-goes-on-medical-leave-again/

Apple’s bright view outshines Jobs’s plight
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70G2Y320110119

Google changes CEO, moves Schmidt to Chairman
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/21/google-changes-ceo-moves-schmidt-to-chairman/

Headache for Uni of Sydney as student data exposed on web
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/20/headache-for-uni-of-sydney-as-student-data-exposed-on-web/

Nintendo 3DS to launch 25 March in Europe, 27 March in North America
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/20/nintendo-3ds-to-launch-25-march-in-europe-27-march-in-north-america/

Nintendo reveals new information for Nintendo 3DS
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/20/nintendo-reveals-new-information-for-nintendo-3ds/

U.S. Approves Comcast’s Acquisition of NBC U, but With Conditions
http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/20110118/u-s-approves-comcast%E2%80%99s-acquisition-of-nbcu-but-with-conditions/?mod=ATD_rss

Comcast will retain NBC’s stake in Hulu, but is stripped of control
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/01/comcast-will-retain-nbcs-stake-in-hulu-but-is-stripped-of-control.html

Stewart’s Tom’s Briefs (1)

The Samsung Secret – Why U.S. Galaxy S Phones run Android 2.1 Still
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=913045

Mobile payments are coming to Starbucks
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41153715

Eighth grader knocks Angry Birds out of the top free spot on the App Store
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/17/eighth-grader-knocks-free-angry-birds-out-of-the-top-spot-on-the-app-store/

Playboy Magazine coming to iPad in its uncensored form in March, including full back catalog
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/19/playboy-magazine-coming-to-ipad-in-its-uncensored-form-in-march/

In Other News

Bloomberg: PSP2 announcement next week, PlayStation Phone at MWC
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/19/bloomberg-psp2-announcement-next-week-playstation-phone-at-mwc/

iPad 2 Retina Display confirmed by a picture of wood?
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/18/ipad-2-retina-display-confirmed-by-a-picture-of-wood/

FaceTime, Camera and PhotoBooth Icons Confirm Camera in iPad 2
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/20/facetime-camera-and-photobooth-icons-confirm-camera-in-ipad-2/

Latest rumor: iPad 2 won’t feature Retina Display
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20028878-37.html

HTC to launch Flyer tablet PC in March
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110119PD217.html

W3C brings out a new logo for HTML5… wait, what?
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/01/19/w3c-brings-out-a-new-logo-for-html5-wait-what/

Last Days For Central IPv4 Address Pool
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/22/057227/Last-Days-For-Central-IP-Address-Pool?from=twitter

Stewart’s Tom’s Briefs (2)

Google Launches Fourth Annual ‘Doodle 4 Google’ Contest
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375961,00.asp

“Angry Birds” To Become an Animated Series
http://mashable.com/2011/01/20/angry-birds-animated-series/

Apple “screwing” new iPhones out of simple DIY repair
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/01/apple-screwing-new-iphones-out-of-simple-diy-repair.ars

Duke Nukem Forever Gets Release Date, New Trailer
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/01/duke-nukem-forever-release-date/

Don’t forget, you can catch a bit of the pre-show recording over at our new Insider blog – TECHGEEK.com.au Insider.

HP Pavilion dm1-3010nr (Image: HP/Verizon)

While we covered the HP Pavilion dm1 already in a separate post, the company has released plenty of other laptops that should get some mention at CES.

PAVILION DM1-3010NR & COMPAQ CQ10-688NR
While having names that are very unpronounceable, the company is touting these two computers as the first notebook PCs to be on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

The Pavilion dm1-3010nr will be less than 1-inch thin, have an 11.6-inch display and will include the latest VISION technology from AMD – which includes DirectX 11 compatibility. It will also have 320GB of storage, 9.5 hours of battery life and a full-size keyboard, media card reader, HDMI port and GPS.

The Compaq CQ10-688nr is also a less than 1-inch thin laptop, but with a 10.1-inch anti-glare LED display on an Antom N455 processor. It also has a media card reader, webcam, and 8.6-hours of battery life. Both laptops can also be used as mobile hotspots, via its integrated Internet Connection Sharing application.

Release dates and pricing have not been confirmed.

HP ENVY 17
The HP Envy 17 is to get an upgrade to include 3D graphics and will include DDD’s TriDef 3D Experience Ignition Game Player. It will also feature Beats Audio and HP’s own Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer; a 17.3-inch HD display and up to 2 terabytes of storage. It’s expected that it will AMD Radeon HD 6850M and Intel’s “Sandy Bridge” Core processors. Wireless Display technology from Intel is also included.

The updated HP ENVY 17 has not been given a release date, and pricing has also not been released.

PAVILION DV6, DV7, P6700 / SLIMLINE S5700 / ELITE HPE-500
The Pavilion line is to get an update for both its desktop and notebook lines. The notebooks and desktops (Pavilion P6700, Slimline S5700 and Elite HPE-500) will now feature Intel’s “Sandy Bridge” Core processors and AMD’s Radeon graphics cards inside. The desktops will also feature HP’s Multi-Display Capable technology that will allow users to have two side-by-side monitors act as one huge monitor – excellent for gamers.

The updated line is to be out on January 9. The dv6 will cost $899.99, while the dv7 will cost $999.99. The p6700 desktop will cost $299.99, the Slimline will cost $329.99 and the HPE-500 will cost $599.99.

HP MINI 210
The HP Mini 210 is getting expanded with two new styles – iceberry and raspberry. The notebook will be less than 1-inch thick and be powered by an Intel Atom processor. Battery life, from its six-cell battery, is said to be 10.75 hours. The netbooks are expected, however, to still have most of the same internals.

The HP Mini 210 iceberry model will be out on January 9 for $349.99, while the HP Mini 210 rasberry model will be an exclusive to Best Buy in the US and will be out on January 23 for a price tag of $329.99.

HP has brought a brand new notebook that promises to combine the performance of a standard notebook with the size and mobility of the netbook. Called the Pavilion dm1, it is less than 1-inch thick and features an 11.6-inch display.

It also features an AMD processor and the latest VISION technology that has DirectX 11 graphics processing unit within the main processor. It also has 10.75 hours of battery life, it will also feature 750GB of storage and speakers with Dolby Advanced Audio.

Users can also choose to add an external Blu-ray disc player, and GPS for mapping and navigation.

It will come out in January 9 with a price of $449.99.No word ifit will come out outside of the United States.

As well, turns out, Tom doesn’t concentrate during a Sunday, and Terence really doesn’t like time differences. We also discuss Windows Phone 7, the new Twitter and, of course, Bing.

We’ll see you in our original timeslot on a Saturday/Sunday midnight schedule. Enjoy the weekday!

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SHOW NOTES

HDCP Master Key Is Legitimate; Blu-ray Is Cracked
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/09/17/0247246/HDCP-Master-Key-Is-Legitimate-Blu-ray-Is-Cracked
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20016768-245.html
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/14/hdcp-master-key-supposedly-released-unlocks-hdtv-copy-protect/

Windows Phone 7 will be GSM-only in 2010
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20016752-56.html
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-celebrates-windows-phone-7-rtm-with-funeral-parade-for/

Nielsen: Bing passes Yahoo in intentional search
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20016310-56.html

Meet the new Twitter.com
http://twitter.com/newtwitter
http://blogs.forrester.com/augie_ray/10-09-14-breaking_news_twitter%E2%80%99s_new_user_interface_and_what_it_means_you

Here’s the new iPod Nano’s dirty little secret (the Shuffle’s, too)
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/09/heres-the-new-i.php

PS3 jailbroken with… a TI-84 Plus calculator
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/11/ps3-jailbroken-with-a-ti-84-plus-calculator/

YouTube Starts Testing New Live Streaming Platform
http://mashable.com/2010/09/13/youtube-live-streaming/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable)

Internet Explorer 9 Beta now available

http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/17/internet-explorer-9-beta-now-available/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/16/no_ie9_9_on_windows_xp/

HTC brings out stylish Desire HD, Desire Z
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/15/htc-brings-out-stylish-desire-hd-desire-z/
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/15/vha-gets-desire-hd-as-an-exclusive/

Get Ready… Yahoo! Mail Beta Is Coming
http://www.ymailblog.com/blog/2010/09/get-ready-yahoo-mail-beta-is-coming/

STEWART’S BRIEFS

Ingenious gadget turns any iPad into an Apple netbook
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/09/kensington-keyf.php

Kmart starts selling a $190 Android-based netbook
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/09/kmart-starts-se.php

CTL 2goPad SL10 Windows 7 tablet available to pre-order for $499

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/17/ctl-2gopad-sl10-windows-7-tablet-available-to-pre-order-for-499/

Lenovo LePad to ship in December, IdeaPad U1 Hybrid dock slated for January 2011
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/17/lenovo-lepad-to-ship-in-december-ideapad-u1-hybrid-dock-slated/

PhotoFast’s PowerDrive-LSI PCIe SSD screams past the competition at 1400MB a second
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/17/photofasts-powerdrive-lsi-pcie-ssd-screams-past-the-competition/

Acer’s dualscreen laptop leaks out with Core i5 CPU?
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/11/acers-dualscreen-laptop-leaks-out-with-sizable-screens-core-i5/

NSW gets live traffic maps in $3m upgrade
http://www.cnet.com.au/nsw-gets-live-traffic-maps-in-3m-upgrade-339305931.htm?feed=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+CNETAustralia+(CNET+Australia)

Flickr reaches 5 billion photos uploaded mark
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/19/flickr-reaches-5-billion-photos-uploaded-mark/

27″ LED Cinema Display Now Available.
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/18/27-led-cinema-display-now-available/

Steve Ballmer is rumoured to be making a cameo at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) – Apple’s biggest event that it holds every year for developers? According to Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, who said that he will make an appearance on the opening keynote held on June 7. The topic? It’s most likely going to be about Visual Studio 2010, which will allow developers to write native applications for the iPad, iPhone and Mac OS X.

Any thoughts?

Google is said to be preparing to make a rival to the Apple iPad, with a rumoured Android-powered tablet, according to the New York Times. According to the paper, Eric Schmidt confirmed the existence of the device to friends at a recent part in Los Angeles; along with some experimenting with a few publishers to find a way to deliver books and magazines – similar to what the iPad does (and the iPhone/iPod touch soon) with its iBooks app.

And while we are on the subject of tablet rivals, remember HP has a slate coming out soon, plus Microsoft has Courier – though NYT reports that engineers over at the Windows maker have some concerns over the battery power needed to run two screens and its coming out in 2011, though that’s not been confirmed. Also reported is that Nokia is working on an e-reader, though Nokia has no comment on its existence.