Palm’s (and HP’s) upcoming PalmPad tablet leaked on Fox News of all places, and it has some aces up its sleeve. First off, it might be announced at CES in two weeks, and will feature a 9.7″ screen, the same size that the iPad sports. The PalmPad is supposedly thinner that [...]
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CES, CES 2011, Palm, Rumors, palmpad, usb 3.0
December 21st 2010 | Posted by Dieter Bohn
FoxNews has uncovered the above sketch detailing the upcoming palmPad, which they say will debut at CES in January. They say there will be four models of the palmPad, all running webOS 2.5.1. They claim that all four will be "a spin-off of the never-released HP Slate." That latter claim is incorrect, of course, as the Slate was released, albeit in limited form.
One version, for consumers, will run on Sprint’s WiMAX 4G network with specs "nearly identical" to the iPad, but adding HDMI-out, front and rear-facing cameras (1.3mp and 3mp). The palmPad is apparently slightly thinner than the iPad, with a 9.7" inch screen, weighing 1.25 pounds, has a USB 3.0 port, and what they are calling a "multi-switch" that presumably is designed as a silent switch.
The image above provides further details – including an optional dock. Up top we see what appears to be power, volume, and that "multi-switch" switch. On bottom we see a dock connector and two audio ports, presumably one is a speaker and the other is a microphone. On the right we see a headphone jack and the aforementioned USB 3.0 port. The lefthand side is more curious, there is a section that looks like it could be a SD card slot and what looks to be a Mini-HDMI port for video-out.
Another version will have an 8.9" screen and be targeted towards education. That will be debuted later in the year. Clayton Morris suggests that the palmPad (note the lowercase p in Palm) will be announced at CES in January and released in March.
UPDATE: Not to toss too much cold water on these rumors, but a couple things to note. A closer look at the supposed palmPad sketches next to the Windows 7 HP Slate seem to strongly indicate that what we are looking at is simply sketches of the Slate with the palmPad name attached to them. The Press Shots from this Engadget Gallery show that all of the ports line up exactly with the sketches above, including the supposed ‘palmPad dock’ above.
Whether this means that the rumor is false or the result of a mashed-up leaked document that happened to include the Slate’s photos pasted with the PalmPad’s specs or… something, we don’t know. In any case, consider this one to be developing instead of confirmed.
UPDATE 2: We might feel a debunk coming on. This is the HP quick speck sheet from HP in PDF form. The images match the above images from FoxNews exactly except that "Optional HP Slate Dock" has been replaced with "Optional HP palmPad Dock." The numbers match as well. In other words, the image from FoxNews is most definitely a repurposed HP Slate. It’s still possible that somebody from within HP simply used those images as a stand-in on the palmPad specs, but again, this one’s up in the air, folks.
Source: FoxNews
CES, CES 2011, ces2011, conventions, news
December 2nd 2010 | Posted by Dieter Bohn
If you’re trying to read the tea leaves on HP & Palm’s plans for the Consumer Electronics Show in January, here’s a small bit of information to toss in your cup. In previous years we got big events from Palm – the announcement of the Pre itself in 2009 and the Pre Plus / Pixi Plus / PDK gaming in 2010. Many folks have been expecting big things again in 2011 (including the PalmPad), but that picture may be a bit more muddied.
WebOS World took note that HP is no longer listed as a exhibitor for CES (they previously were listed) and looking at Palm’s listing we see they’re set to have a large meeting room instead of a show-floor booth – same as what we saw earlier.
But as the graphic above exhorts you, don’t panic. Palm passing on the show floor is not surprising – in both 2009 and 2010 Palm didn’t put their wares out there for the hoi polloi to fondle. Instead they had swank but semi-private digs in the very same room they’re listed in for 2011. We’d would have liked to see them change their mind this year and let any old person check out their stuff, but that it what it is.
Stranger is HP no longer showing up on the exhibitor list. We simply can’t imagine the world’s largest computer maker not showing up for CES whether they intend to to display webOS-based wares or no. More likely is HP is making some changes to their plans for the event.
We’ll let you know when we hear more and either way, we’ll be live at CES to report on what HP and Palm do (or don’t?) have to show.
Source: CES Exhibitor Directory; via webOS World
UPDATE: Turns out HP was just moving around. PreCentral reader Stellarion found that HP has moved from the showroom floor up to North Hall Upper Level Meeting Rooms – N246. Now they’ve got an entire room to themselves instead of trying to deal with everybody else on the floor.
Source: CES Exhibitor Directory; Thanks Stellarion!
3D gaming, Archos, CES, CES 2011, Editorials, Featured Articles, HP, HP Slate, Motorola, PWDC, Palm, Palm webOS Developer Conference, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Slate, Sprint, Todd Bradley, blackberry playbook, iPad 2, iPod Touch, ipad, palmpad, printers, tablet, webOS printer
October 4th 2010 | Posted by mrkalel
You know and love @MrKal_El on Twitter, now know and love him here as he gives us his opinion on how Palm and HP need to make a splash, and soon.
Recently I’ve been engaged in a bit of a debate (on Twitter, naturally) regarding Palm and HP at CES 2011 and potential for the reveal of the much-rumored PalmPad. If you were to ask me, I’d say that January of next year is too late to reveal the PalmPad in what is fast becoming a crowded tablet market.
So I’m going to take a moment to expand a bit on what I feel would be a agressive (but possible) release schedule for webOS hardware and software to succeed in the current market.
CES, E-Reader, E-books, Palm Pre, Skiff, news
January 14th 2010 | Posted by Jonathan I Ezor
Somewhat lost in the intense excitement of Palm’s presentation at CES was a Pre-related demo by Skiff, the newly-formed Hearst spinoff which is teaming with Sprint to offer electronic versions not only of books but of newspapers, magazines and blogs. While Skiff is developing its own standalone e-ink Reader, it is not limiting its service to the device. Instead, Skiff will offer its content for PCs, tablet devices and (most relevantly) smartphones.
As reported by Dan Costa on PCMag.com, Skiff was at CES last week, and demonstrated its reader for the first time, together with a prototype with color e-ink. It also, though, showed its software running on a Viliv tablet and a Palm Pre (a logical choice, given the company’s partnership with Sprint). While the article (and another piece by Engadget) did not provide launch dates for the Pre software, nor discuss whether non-Sprint Pres would be able to run Skiff, it is good to see yet another content player focus on the Pre as a delivery mechanism.
Alan Mulally, All Things D, App Catalog, Apple, CES, Ford, Jon Rubinstein, Kara Swisher, PDK, Palm, Pixi Plus, Pre Plus, Roger McNamee, SFR, Sync, The Art of War, Verizon, Walt Mossberg, android, ares, iPhone, iTunes, ipod, news, palm pixi plus, palm pre plus
January 11th 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
A few months ago we were laughing at/with Palm investor Roger McNamee after his All Things D interview with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. And this year at CES, Palm saw fit to send just CEO Jon Rubinstein into the gauntlet, and even in the face of what some may call some rather nonsensical and unnecessarily combative and prying questioning from Swisher alone, he held up well. Sure, Swisher wanted to know what’s coming next, but Rubinstein would have nothing of it and refused to divulge any new details. That said, there were still some interesting things to take away from the interview, like Rubinstein’s admission of having never used an iPhone.
App Catalog, Asphalt 5, Brain Challenge, CES, CES 2010, Dictionary, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Glu, Glyder 2, Let’s Golf, Lucy, Monopoly, My GPS, Need for Speed Undercover, Scrabble, Speed Limit, Sudoku, The Oregon Trail, The Sims 3, X-Plane 9, apps, tetris
January 8th 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
So yesterday might have been a big day at CES 2010 for Palm. We got the Palm Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus, and they’re going to be exclusive to Verizon. We got the Pre headed to SFR in France. We got Flash, a webOS App Gallery on PreCentral, video recording, and webOS 1.4. But what’s exciting, and what we get right now, is new apps. And those new apps come with 3D gaming, ala the iPhone. In fact, Palm’s new Plug-in Development Kit allows developers to make C and C++ apps that will work beautifully on webOS. As such, developers like EA, Gameloft, and Glu are here and showing off what that delicious hardware is really capable of. Curious what games are available? Well, while you’re waiting for the App Catalog to load, we recommend you hope right past the break and catch a glimpse for yourself of our daily list.
CES, CES 2010, Palm, Pixi Plus, Pre Plus, Verizon, news, palm pixi plus, palm pre plus
January 7th 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
You’ve read the liveblog, you’ve commented on all the articles, but there’s just something to be said for having been there to watch it all happen. Sadly, we don’t have a time machine big enough to fit all of you, so this will have to do. This, being a the full video of Palm’s presentation today at CES. Revel in the awesomeness that is all of this packed into less than an hour:
- Pre coming to SFR in France
- PreCentral webOS App Gallery brings the App Catalog to your browser
- Palm reveals open web distribution of webOS apps
- Video recording coming to webOS
- Flash 10.1 coming soon to a Palm near you
- Palm brings the games with native development
- Palm makes the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus official, Verizon only, and with tethering
- webOS 1.4 coming in February with built-in Flash, video, etc
- Palm CES 2010 Presentation Gallery
- Hands-On with the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus!
App Catalog, CES, Featured Articles, Palm, PreCentral webOS App Gallery, app gallery, apps, news, precentral, webOS App Gallery
January 7th 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
One of the complaints we’ve heard often from Pre and Pixi owners is that the only way to browse the App Catalog is on their devices. Today we’re pleased to announce that those complaints can be set to the side, as we at PreCentral have partnered with the good folks at Palm to bring you the PreCentral webOS App Gallery.
Palm has been gracious enough to provide us with a free and open feed to the App Catalog, and that just makes them pretty much awesome. We’ve taken that feed and converted it into something that you can easily browse on your desktop machine, as well as in the webOS web browser. Right now you can check out the latest updates, search for apps, browse the various categories, and check out screenshots. This is in beta from both ourselves and Palm, so don’t be surprised to see more exciting additions in the days and weeks ahead (once we recover from the excitement that is CES). [Note from Dieter: Very beta, we're working on improvements, thanks to everybody who has sent in suggestions!]
Want to check it out? Of course you do. Just point your browser to http://www.precentral.net/app-gallery
CES, Palm, Palm Pre, Pixi, Pixi Plus, Pre Plus, Sprint, Wi-Fi, news, palm pixi, palm pixi plus, palm pre plus, pre
January 7th 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
In what comes as little surprise by now, at CES Palm has officially announced the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus smartphones. The two devices are marginal upgrades over their predecessors, with the Pre Plus having double the memory of the original Pre (16 GB vs. 8 GB) and losing the center button, while the Pixi Plus gains Wi-Fi over its Sprint counterpart and coming in multiple colors.
Both devices are exclusive to Verizon and will be launching on January 25th, pricing unknown at this time. They will come with a new app called Mobile Hotspot, otherwise known as mobile Wi-Fi hotspot tethering. The Wi-Fi hotspot functionality can support up to five connected devices at a time. At this time, it doesn’t appear that the Mobile Hotspot app will be making its way to webOS devices on other networks.
Pricing for the Pre Plus, Pixi Plus, and service on Verizon was not announced.
UPDATE: Press release after the break.