HP CTO Phil McKinney (a standup gentlemen, if we may say so) has thrown his hat into the ring to get a panel at next March’s SXSW event, proposing a presentation titled “Hacking the Future,” wherein he would discuss his vision for how personal computing will be rolling along during the next decade, replete with “bold predictions.” While we predict that the fabled flexible display sheet will make another appearance, HP’s Mark Budgell posted a pair of teaser photos on the Twitter that have us in a bit of a tizzy.
See, there are at least three different devices teased here: a bigger tabletish thing, a smaller smartphoneish thing, and a wide wristwatchish thing. Problem is this: all three are blacked out into oblivion. So what are they? If we had to take a guess, it’s a webOS tablet, a new webOS smartphone, and that internet-sharing wristwatch HP’s talked about before (the watch provides the web connection and shares with your devices, ala Mobile Hotspot). But are these mere concept prototypes, or is McKinney playing with actual devices we’ll see in the near future. While we are hoping and praying that these are actual working devices we’ll be using soon, we wouldn’t count on it. McKinney’s presentation is on computing five to ten years from now, not six months to a year.
Enough of our jabbering and speculation – what do you see hidden behind the black boxes? If you really want to find out, you’ll head to SXSW’s panels page and vote for McKinney’s panel (registration required).
Source: MarkatHP on Twitter, SXSW; Via: Gizmodo; Hat tip to Andrew