UK tech blog Pocket-lint had a recent discussion with Stephan Batteaux, HP’s portfolio manager for inkjet and Web services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Batteaux confirmed that HP was considering moving its Android-powered printers to webOS, but said it was more likely the switch would happen in 2012. Batteaux said that the switch would give HP "more access to a wider development community," and that HP would be releasing an API for its app-based printers "in the coming months."

Of perhaps greater interest to the webOS community, though, is Batteaux’ response to developer concerns about devoting resources to Android (printer) app development, only to have to shift to webOS at some near future time. According to Pocket-lint, Batteaux said that HP "was working on a way to make it easier to merge the two together in the future." Whether he’s referring to the web-standards-based App strategy or some other more ambitious porting strategy is unclear, but interesting nontheless

Batteaux is scheduled to speak on "From Web-OS [sic] to E-print : the new Eco-System between devices" at the HP City event in Forest, Belgium on December 9th. Perhaps we’ll get some more detail from that presentation.

 Source: Pocket-lint.com

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HP’s continuing to use their new consumer property – Palm – in adds for other products. Just recently they launched a new series of printers including an ePrint feature that lets your print photos over the web, from your computer or smartphone. Now before you get excited over that “printing” dialog shown on the screen of the Pre (really, an original Sprint Pre?), we’re going to tamp down your enthusiasm with a dose of “the ad agency did that for effect” realism.

HP’s ePrint system is unique, but it’s not as integrated as the commercial would make it seem. With ePrint the printer is essentially assigned an email address to which you send your file or picture as an attachment, which the printer then takes and prints. So it’s compatible with any device that can send emails with attachments, including webOS devices and every other modern smartphone, and of course all manner of laptops, desktops, and other computing devices. Though we do like the idea of setting our grandparents up with an ePrint printer and just emailing them pictures that will print automatically without their having to fuss with downloading attachments (or checking their email).

The Pixi’s also been also included in an ePrint email sent out to HP customers. Amusingly, HP also features the eStation printer-tablet combo thing in both the commercial (after the break) and the email flyer. We have to wonder which HP will have more (or less) success pushing: old Palm hardware or a quirky hard-to-rationalize hobbled Android tablet and printer device.

Source: YouTube, HP; Thanks to everybody that sent these in!

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HP has been on a shopping spree like a winning contestant on The Price Is Right, having recently acquired several tech companies at multi billion dollar prices. In an interview with Venture Beat at the DEMO Fall 2010 conference, HP Vice President and CTO Phil McKinney took some time to explain what all of this means to the consumer. McKinney said the purpose of all these acquisitions is to create a line of products that can be bought at one time and already work together seamlessly out of the box: “You integrate them and take the burden off the customers of doing that." He added that this would also reduce cost and add value.

The companies that HP has acquired recently are PC software and hardware makers that seem to have little to do with mobile products, but the fact that HP is thinking in terms of integrating its products together certainly makes one wonder what this means for smart phones and tablets. McKinney said that HP has "significantly expanded the staff" at Palm and that they are working as fast as they can to catch up with the iPad with their upcoming Slate and webOS tablets, scheduled for a late 2010 and early 2011 release respectively. When they are released, he pointed out, they will have tremendous reach with HP’s more than 100,000 retailers worldwide.

Once again webOS printers were mentioned and though printing from a webOS smart phone or tablet were not mentioned, he did say that sending quick print jobs like coupons would be very quick and effortless on one of these magical new printers.

Source: Venture Beat

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Prior to snapping up Palm, HP was very intently studying the tablet space. It was obvious that a Windows 7 tablet was in the cards (Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed one off at CES), but whether they were working on something else wasn’t clear. Rumors and leaks and blurry cam photos soon surfaced of an Android-powered tablet and printer combo code-named the Zeus (or Zeen (or c510)).

HP’s finally gotten around to announcing this fantastical mystery device, and it’s called the HP Photosmart eStation AiO. AiO stands for all-in-one (as in printer/fax/scanner/copier), but the tablet is obviously the interesting part of this combination: it runs Android 2.1, but it’s nowhere near the typical Android experience. Instead this sucker’s been heavily skinned and locked down with the help of Yahoo (yes, Yahoo tinkering with Google’s OS on HP’s printer), leaving users with a host of Yahoo widgets and a handful of HP ePrint apps, plus email and browser and a Nook eReader app.

This ain’t no Google experience, but signs right now indicate that it’s not what we should expect from webOS and Palm under HP. Despite its Android roots, the eStation AiO is a dedicated device. It’s not a tablet computer by any means: it’s more a super-advanced control interface for a printer with some on-the-go on the side. Which is kind of, uh, interesting? Let’s just hope that this isn’t what HP has in mind for their webOS printer idea too.

Source: Engadget; Thanks to everybody that sent this in!

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Welcome to Point Counter Point, wherein Derek vents his spleen like the dour misanthrope we’ve all come to know and love, Dieter consoles us all with rainbows and unicorns, and the truth lies – as it always does – somewhere in the middle.

Today’s topic: What to make of all the pie-in-the-sky future talk we are hearing from HP instead of actual product announcements.

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HP’s been making a lot of noise about building an ecosystem of webOS device. They’ve talked about tablets and netbooks and printers, oh, and maybe some phones too. But they haven’t really laid any public concrete plans as to what is coming next. We have a sneaking suspicion that the overwhelming response to this question is going to be "OMG new smartphone now!", but we thought we’d ask anyway. So, here goes…

What kind of webOS device do you want next?Market Research

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Promising bigger and better things for the future, Palm’s email to customers about the HP purchase (or is it HP’s email to customers about the purchase of Palm? We can’t tell anymore…) indicated that there is indeed a new generation of Palm webOS products brewing (emphasis ours):

Great news. Palm is now part of the HP family. And that means bigger and better things for customers like you. With the power of HP behind us, the excitement created by the first Palm® webOS™ phones will grow even stronger as we introduce a new generation of devices. At the same time, you’ll still receive the same outstanding support that you’ve come to expect from Palm.

Of course, that’s little surprise, and the folks at Palm, Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard, is being their characteristic tight-lipped selves. New smartphones? A tablet or two? Sure, maybe.

But what else does HP make that could benefit from a dose of webOS goodness? A lot, it would seem. A quick perusal of HP’s product catalog reveals a veritable cornucopia of devices ripe for some newness. Apart from the printers that HP keeps crowing about, and the tablets they keep hinting at, several other devices fit the bill. How about a webOS-powered netbook? Or a TouchSmart desktop PC running super-sized webOS? What of the webOS digital photo frame that passively brings seamless multi-tasking to your desk? Or maybe we could see the resurrection of the PDA, this time running the awesomeness that is webOS? Okay, maybe that last one’s a bit far-fetched.

The possibilities for the future of webOS on HP devices are pretty much wide open. Only time will tell where webOS is going to end up, but we wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few HP devices outside of the Palm division are running webOS this time next year.

Source: Palm

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HP, the soon-to-be-Palm-parent-company is moving quickly and strongly into Internet-enabled printers with its new ePrint Platform and four new "e-all-in-One" printers. These products will enabled users to send print jobs via the Google Cloud (Docs, Photos and Calendar), using new apps from partners like Crayola and Live Nation, and most relevantly for this community, "from any web-connected device – smartphones, iPads, netbooks and more", according to Vyomesh Joshi, HP’s Executive Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group. The release goes on to very specifically mention the possibility of "an executive on a train sending a presentation from a Palm Pre or Blackberry smartphone to print and pick up at a FedEx Office Store."

The Times piece, a feature on Vyomesh Joshi, includes a quote which could as easily be talking about future webOS development as printing:

"’Now that H.P. is going mass-market with this technology, we will more actively program to it,’ said Steve Youngwood, an executive vice president at Nickelodeon."

While this announcement is not expressly about putting webOS on printers, it shows that HP’s overall strategy of improving mobile data use from creation to production, a strategy for which webOS and the Palm smartphones will be a key component, is both moving ahead and getting positive attention.

Source: NYT and HP

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HP is just finishing up their quarterly earnings call (hint: they’re doing just fine) and CEO Mark Hurd has just confirmed that we should expect HP to give us devices "beyond smartphones into form factors such as slates and web-connected printers." We’re not entirely sure how much value-add there is to a printer on webOS just yet, but our wheels are turning.

As for the slate, well, at this point it would be a surprise if an HP executive didn’t drop a hint about a webOS slate on a call like this – or heck, while making dinner reservations. They’re really excited about a webOS slate.

via @hpnews

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