It seems that HP is taking the long winding road to showing the world what it really intends to do with all that technology and patents that they have been able to obtain through the whole Palm buy out issue.
For those unfamiliar with recent events, mobile phone maker Palm has taken severe financial loses and the company was put up for sale earlier this year. With the company’s future looking bleak, many of the top executives have already jumped ship leaving behind the captain at the helm of the sinking ship.
Despite the financial setbacks, many other phone makers have been eyeing Palm’s resources –particularly for the very successful WebOS mobile platform and of course, the patent library owned by the company. Taiwan based HTC was among the companies confirmed to be interested in getting Palm.
This is why it was a complete surprise to learn that it was actually HP that decided to buy out Palm and take the company under its wings. According to HP, the reason they chose to purchase Palm was for the WebOS mobile platform, which was ironically followed up by a statement that they would not be working on smart phones. This statement was quickly changed after a massive public outcry. The statement then changed to HP looking into smart phone development, but not at the moment.
Now it seems that they are taking that much needed long hard look as the latest image teaser of CTO Phil McKinney shows that the company is indeed working on a smart phone type device. But that is all HP is willing to let the public know. For all practical reasons, the images could very well be showing Phil holding a small remote control.
In any case, the SXSW 2011 event is coming up and we can all expect to see what these intriguing devices are.
Posts Tagged ‘Palm-WebOS’
HP’s Battle Plan: Tease Us to Oblivion
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010Apple iOS and Palm WebOS Updates Fail to Impress
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
It seems that both Apple and Palm users have something to be disappointed about with regards to recently rolled out updates for their devices.
In Apple’s corner, the iOS 4.0.1 update was intended to somewhat fix the iPhone 4’s prevalent antenna issue. Since Apple has been insisting that the reception problems the iPhone 4 has been experiencing may be attributed to a simple miscalculation in their signal formulas, there was a ray of hope when they announced an upcoming software update.
However, it seems that the iOS 4.0.1 update did little to improve the signal issue. Instead, it just made the signal bars displayed on the iPhone 4’s screen look a little bigger.
Well, in terms of the code, Apple did change the algorithm slightly so that the signal bars displayed will be a little less optimistic. This does not improve anything when you accidentally block the iPhone 4’s lower left portion.
If that is not enough, some of those who have tried to install this update early have been met with problems, particularly when trying to install using their desktop computers. This has resulted in a few bricked iPhone units.
As shown by their recent actions, Apple seems to treat the mobile industry as a joke. The once unstoppable giant is now suffering blows left and right from dissatisfied consumers and competition that they happened to pull into their mess (like RIM).
In the Palm corner, the newest WebOS update has also been released to the public. Version 1.4.5 for the Pre and the Pixi (along with the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus units, of course) has resulted in an annoying issue for developers.
Instead of helping Palm units turn into decent mobile gaming units, a software problem ensures just the opposite. It prevents any app from having access to the mobile phone’s internal data, resulting in a number of crashes.
Understanding Mobile Platforms
Friday, June 25th, 2010
It is a commonly accepted fact that operating systems are part of what makes or breaks a smart phone, and more often than not, gear heads would put aside the hardware issues as long as they get the right operating system.
This is because a good operating system will have an average phone performing well. Whereas a badly designed OS would make even a high powered handset seem clumsy and jerky to use. Take the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2, this smart phone has plenty of good hardware features, but the Windows Mobile operating system tends to slow it down a lot, and the fact that it relies on a resistive touch screen display means that it requires a stylus to be operated properly.
At the same time, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini is a very mid range smart phone in terms of today’s hardware standards, but the Android 1.6 Donut OS 
makes it a very well rounded device. Speaking of the Android OS, the HTC Desire and the Dell Streak push the limits in terms of both hardware with their high speed 1GHz CPUs and software (with the newer Android 2.1 Éclair).
Some manufacturers rely heavily on proprietary operating systems. Take the Palm WebOS, RIM BlackBerry OS and the Apple iPhone OS. Since the devices that make use of these platforms are specifically designed to maximize the capabilities of the OS, the user experience is not only uniform, but the all of a phone’s features are also fully utilized.
This is why it is important for buyers to know what kind of operating systems they want before they decide to purchase a mobile phone. Even if the hardware seems like a good fit, if the OS is not compatible with a user’s needs then choosing a different device would be the wiser option.
WebOS 1.2 – What To Expect
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
The Official Palm Blog has released a list of features we can expect in the new webOS 1.2.
For starters, Palm Synergy has been improved to allow users to sync their LinkedIn contacts, something previously unavailable; meaning that information from your contacts LinkedIn profiles, such as job titles, will now show up on your Palm Pre contact list. The update also makes room for some new variations of instant messaging contacts. On a side note, the more business minded webOS 1.2 users will be able to make use of support for heterogenous EAS policies.
There is also the addition of a filter allowing you to search whichever email folder you are currently browsing through, letting you enter a search term to find whichever message you are looking for quickly and easily.
After feedback from users indicated that they wanted the ability to download files directly in their mobile phone internet browsers, they have been given just that. (We think Palm taking their users feedback into account is great, and this feature is sure to be a real crowd pleaser.)
You will now also be able to download MP3 tracks from the Amazon music store using either Wi-Fi or WLAN connectivity – another major internet related plus – as well as being able to tap a phone number which is connected to a calendar note and dial it from there, as well as an added function to pause a podcast and have it resume from where you left off by default.
The final feature of real interest to us is the new ability to copy and paste text from web pages and emails – something a lot of users have been looking for since the beginning.
All in all a great update to a great OS – expect to be pleased.