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

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While we’ve been tracking Pixi 2 rumors for some time now, it seems that the codename guessing game has just gotten more interesting. Along with the news that Palm’s codename for the PalmPad is ‘Topaz,’ Engadget reports that Palm plans on releasing a "low end teen phone" without a physical keyboard on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T.

We don’t know if this maps to the Pixi 2 / Broadway rumors (Strangely, this new teen phone is supposedly codenamed "Castle."), but it perhaps it could be the "smallest smartphone ever" that Todd Bradley told HP employees about in the last all-hands call – which Bradley said would launch on SFR next month.

In any case, after so many months of not hearing much at all in the way of hardware rumors coming out of Palm, having too many codenames – from Broadway to Windsor to Mantaray to Stingray to Castle (redux) to Myte, Gyst, and Veer to Topaz – feels nice, eh?

Source: Engadget

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Looks like HP and Palm are thinking ahead, preparing a keyboard to go along with the PalmPad. Engadget snagged the above slide which points out that the keyboard is "ultra slim" and lacks a number pad. It also sports "WebOS [sic] function keys."

The keyboard is designed to work with the tablet, which is reportedly codenamed "Topaz." As we expected, the tablet won’t have any buttons on the front. It’s said to "echo" the design of the keyboard.

Source: Engadget

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One of the best ways to predict how a company’s strategy may be evolving is to look at its trademark applications, publicly searchable via the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Trademarks protect brand and product names, but since they are specific to different industries and categories, the application must also include how the mark will be used. Taken as a whole, one can make some educated guesses about upcoming releases (consider the PalmPad name, which was revealed through a trademark filing in July and seemingly confirmed by HP’s Todd Bradley in late September). Still, given that trademark applications are quite cheap (either $275 or $325 each when filed electronically), these applications can also be red herrings, meant to mislead competitors and analysts alike.

Given the above, we’re not sure how much we should rely on a few of HP’s most recent (and intriguing) trademark applications. On December 14th, HP filed applications for three trademarks that could be names for portable devices: MYTE, GYST and VEER. The descriptions for the products or services for these proposed trademarks are typically broad, covering:

Computers; computer hardware; computer software; computer peripherals; computer and communications networking hardware and software; computer hardware, namely memory cards; computer hardware for telecommunications; computer monitors; computer keyboards; mobile digital electronic devices; mobile computers; handheld computers; portable computers; tablet computers; personal digital assistants; electronic organizers, electronic notepads; computer memories; telephones; mobile telephones; pagers; smartphones, videophones; mobile and handheld communications devices for sending and receiving data, information and other digital content, including audio and video content, namely handheld computers, mobile phones and smartphones; photographic and video cameras; audio players; video players; multimedia players; computer communications software; computer software, namely, prerecorded computer programs for personal information management, database management software, character recognition software, telecommunications software, telephony management software, electronic mail and messaging software, paging software, database synchronization software, computer programs for accessing, browsing and searching online databases; computer game programs; video game software; downloadable computer and video games; downloadable music, audio, video and entertainment related content; computer carrying cases; accessories, parts and cases for all the foregoing sold as a unit; instruction manuals in electronic form supplied with the foregoing sold as a unit; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of data, text, graphics, sound or images; blank magnetic data carriers; prerecorded magnetic data carriers featuring software for use in connection with handheld communications devices, namely, mobile phones and smartphones; calculating machines, data processing equipment

Yes, we see "mobile and handheld communications devices" in that list, but we also see many other terms that may not relate to smartphones or tablets. Still, HP’s other trademarks don’t include "smartphones" in their descriptions (besides the oddly evocative "JUST RIGHT IT" from September 2010), so these do raise some possibilities.

By the way, for those of you who may be wondering whether HP’s spellchecker is on the fritz ("Myte"? "Gyst"?), keep in mind that generic and descriptive words cannot be protected as trademarks. Companies often use misspellings that resemble actual words to evoke the original words but still potentially get trademark protection. Think about "Compaq" as a brand for (in 1982) compact portable computers, and you get the idea.

Sources: USPTO.gov, Pocketnow.com; Thanks to Azthel in our forums and Steve via e-mail for the heads up!

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While we’re not fond of reporting what every analyst says, lately there’s so few out there that even remember that webOS exists so we’re duly reporting this one via Forbes. According to BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman, HP will ship its first webOS tablet in March 2011. Bachman’s information comes from a recent trip he and his BMO colleagues took to Asia, where they met with "more than 30 tech-related companies."

According to Forbes, Bachman isn’t "overly optimistic" about the webOS tablet and its share of the 40 million worldwide tablet sales that BMO expects for 2011.

Source: Forbes (Thanks to tasogare in our forum for the heads up!)

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Palm promised that HP webOS 2.0 would be available by the end of 2010. In a way, they’ve delivered, if you want the updated operating system all you’ve got to do is buy a Palm Pre 2. Maybe that’s not the most ideal of solutions, as most of us would prefer that we get the update free-of-charge and over-the-air on our current devices, but it’s looking like the old frustrating but purposely vague “coming months” line is what we’ll have to wait for.

According to a post on O2 Germany’s official Twitter account, webOS 2.0 won’t hit Palm devices on their network until the first quarter of next year, otherwise known as sometime between the beginning of January and the end of March 2011. O2 Germany’s Twitter timeline has always been remarkably frank about the state of Palm devices, so we’ll take them at their word, disappointing as it may be.

Separately, the folks over at webOS en Castellano heard from “private forums” that current Pre and Pixi devices might skip over webOS 2.0 and head straight to version 2.1, though they were given no timeline. That’s 2.1, not minor bug fixes 2.0.1. Our guess as to what’s in this until now unheard-of version of webOS: optimizations for the lesser hardware of previous generation (i.e. not Pre 2) devices and the absent Exhibition mode.

As always, we advise that you season your reading of rumors like this with a dash of salt, though you should keep in mind that the American Heart Association recommends you not exceed 3,000 milligrams of sodium in a day.

Source: O2 Germany (Twitter); webOS en Castellano; Via: webOS Blog.de; Thanks to Julian, Herman, and Gizmo21 for the tips!

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We’re still tracking rumors on the Pixi 2, which we hope will be a Pixi with beefed-up internals that is no longer a huge step down from the Palm Pre. After seeing the Broadway in code twice now and hearing vague rumors the Pixi 2 might hit Verizon, we are firmly in the believe camp now.

One more piece of evidence – jerseydevil in our forums just sat in on an "HP All Employee Broadcast" wherein HP VP Todd Bradley said that "the smallest smartphone ever available" would launch on SFR in France next month. Rings true to us, SFR is fast becoming the Palm’s coziest carrier – they’re still the only one to have launched the Palm Pre 2 with webOS 2.0.

Bradley also claimed that HP / Palm would step up their releases next year "HP will ship a new smartphone every two months." That’s an agressive schedule, though naturally it still won’t hold a candle to the flood of Android devices hitting the market practically every week.

Source: PreCentral Forums; Thanks to Jonathan Ezor for the tip!

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If you were paying close attention to webOS land over the weekend, you may have noticed some drama – namely that a user at xda-developers claimed to have gotten webOS up and running on a Sprint HTC Hero. Although the project itself still sounds feasible enough, it may have been run off the rails by what turned out to be a fake.

Several xda members have attempted the process themselves, and our man Jerry over at Android Central ended up bricking phones, sadly. Several days of hopefulness ended with a blurrycam photo that took a Pixi screenshot and slapped it on a Hero. Said Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals’ Twitter feed: “Looked at the so-called webOS "port" to HTC Hero. It’s an unmodified webOS rootfs running on an unmodified Android kernel. Doubt it works.” Indeed, the whole thread had to be shut down.

Of course, on top of the technical difficulties behind getting webOS up and running on different hardware, there are also legal issues. We can’t see Palm being all that cool with a third party distributing modified webOS ROM images. webOS is Palm’s intellectual property, after all, and redistributing it as sandix is doing is a blatant violation of copyright law, as the poster himself admits. 

It’s all an object lesson in how hungry the world is for new and different hardware running webOS. If the possibility of even the staid Sprint Hero running webOS warms the blood, imagine how people will get when it finally arrives on something more impressive.

Source: xda-develpers; Thanks to windzilla for the tip!

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If HP is betting big on webOS, chances are they’re going to be placing some very large orders for their next generation devices. If sketchy record owner DigiTimes is to be believed, HP and Palm are doing just that with the expected webOS tablet for next year. Apparently Inventec is anticipated to land the contract to build the device (contrary to earlier rumors pointing at Foxconn), with an order of 6-7 million units. Inventec is also the builder of Barnes & Noble’s Android-powered Nook Color, of which they’re expecting to ship over one million by year’s end.

Is this plausible? Sure, but we’re going to take this one with prodigious salt. We want to believe that HP expects they’ll be able to sell several million PalmPads in the first year of its life (that’s assuming that it even ships early in the year), but we still have yet to even see the device. Either way, the rumors are swirling that the device is coming, hopefully it won’t be too long before it’s actually formally announced.

Source: DigiTimes; Via: Electronista; Thanks to Zen00 for the tip!

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Count us in with our pals at @everythingpre who wondered what happened to keep the Verizon Palm Pre 2 from landing on store shelves in time for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Seems to us that even though Palm only promised "coming months" for the device, it would have been significantly better if they had managed to get the device released in time for the biggest shopping weekend of the entire year. Still, if you’re down with AT&T, you can go on and get the unlocked Pre 2 right now.

We don’t have a good bead on when exactly Palm and Verizon will be able to get their ducks in a row to launch the CDMA version of the Pre 2, but we do have another reason to keep the Pixi 2 on our radar. There hasn’t been much grist for the rumor mill since we first saw the Broadway (the presumed codename for the Pixi 2) pop up in early October except the codename drop from webOS 2.0 that also included the Broadway (amongst other code names like windsor, mantaray, and stingray). However, we have recently heard that a third party is promising that both the Pre 2 and the Pixi 2 should be landing on Verizon "soon."

25 days until Christmas. Let’s hope it doesn’t become another arbitrary, it’s-just-us-but-really-it-ought-to-happen "deadline" that gets missed.

Thanks anonymous!

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