One of the tiniest smartphones in recent history has made an appearance here at MWC – we’re of course talking about the HP Veer, the upcoming webOS-powered smartphone introduced hand-in-hand with the HP Pre 3 and HP TouchPad a couple weeks ago.

Honestly, the Veer is one of the smallest handsets you’ll be able to find on the market (once it is out), so if you’re on the lookout for a compact, but still highly-functional smartphone, the HP Veer looks to be a very strong contender. Naturally, from the day of its announcement we were wondering if its 2.6” capacitive screen would be big enough to allow for comfortable usage, and now that we’ve gotten the chance to play with it some more, we can confidently say that the Veer is quite usable…

Read the whole hands-on at PhoneArena.com!

Back in the day, the original Palm Pre was an iconic device despite its delayed launch and Palm’s funding problems. WebOS undeniably has one of the most original concepts for a platform with the card-based webOS, but the Pre seemed to be always plagued with problems and the most important one of them is the lack of massive developer support as seen on iOS or Android. The HP Pre 3 marked an important threshold – the end of the Palm era and the transition to HP for webOS. We were eager to take our hands on the upcoming Pre 3 to see if it has the potential to build on the legacy of Palm, so read on.

The HP Pre 3 brings initial relief – the screen is finally bigger than on previous Pre handsets at 3.58” with a WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels). Actually, the whole device is notably bigger. But at the same time, 3.6 inches is starting to be considered a bit small in the high-end segment and with its Summer release date the Pre 3 might remain the only flagship handset with such a small screen size. Nevertheless, it is a big improvement and webOS looks even better on the HP Pre 3. And it is not only the looks – the whole experience feels richer. The handset is compatible with the Palm TouchStone wireless charging dock as well.

Read the whole hands-on at PhoneArena.com!

HP’s developers presentation didn’t bring any new mobile products after the announcement of the HP Veer, HP Pre 3 and the HP TouchPad recently, but it did show a preview of the updated App Catalog with a heap of new features for tablet use.

The most notable one seems to be the newly introduced “Browser” mode styling the apps in a magazine-like way. This will provide richer presentation of apps and allegedly more flexibility for developers when it comes to launching apps. The catalog also keeps its traditional list view, but now it will be accessed through the “Search” tab.

Other additions include the “Save for later” option for all of the applications. This major overhaul to the App Catalog will bring not only visual improvements, but functional ones such as Carrier Billing and support for Promotion codes. Carrier Billing just sounds a bit easier and easier aids sales, while promotion codes are a perfect way to give some flexibility to developers wanting to push their apps. The new catalog is still months ahead of us, but hey, it is coming in the summer and we’re all looking forward to that.

source: PreCentral

Image courtesy of PreCentral

Previously, we already knew that pre-orders were available for the Pre 2 through HP’s web site with an expected ship date of February 17th, but now Big Red has officially come out on the matter regarding the latest webOS powered smartphone.

Starting on February 17th, you can head on over to any of your local Verizon Wireless locations and pick up a Pre 2 for the on-contract price of $149.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate. Interestingly enough, Verizon’s pricing is still a $50 increase over the $99.99 that HP is asking for through their website. So if you really care about the savings, it’s best to pick one up through HP, other than that, you can stroll into any of Big Red’s stores in a couple of days to pick up a brand spanking new Pre 2.

As much as we’re all yearning for those next generation webOS smartphones, this is the next best thing over the last generation webOS devices that are still lingering around.

via PreCentral

Sure we’re all drooling over HP’s upcoming webOS powered smartphones, but if you want to sample webOS right now, we’d imagine that you wouldn’t mind picking up a Palm Pixi Plus for cheap.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen third party resellers knocking off some serious cash off of Verizon’s Palm Pixi Plus, but it’s so much better when they’re selling a no-contract required device for dirt cheap. This time around, Daily Steals is offering the miniscule Verizon Palm Pixi Plus for $54.99 – with free shipping! That’s pretty impressive considering that you won’t have to sign any lengthy contracts and easily beats the usual $200 and up cost related to fully priced smartphones.

Now don’t wait too long because this offer is good for only a limited time. As it stands, there is approximately another 13 hours left before this promotion expires, but we’re guessing this isn’t going to be the last time we’re going to hear about the Palm Pixi Plus for Verizon.

Thank Nicholas!

source: Daily Steals

During the “Think Beyond” event, HP made one or two noteworthy announcements, but none caused more confusion (and excitement) than the one HP is to integrate webOS into its computers.

Phil McKinney, CTO of HP’s personal systems group, gave an interview for The Seattle Times, and shed some light on this issue.

First of all, this is not a virtualization mode (and HP is not dumping Windows altogether), but rather a webOS integration – one, which will target to bring an ecosystem consisting of phones, slates and PCs – and one that’s good for both the business and the casual user. It seems the main word here is differentiation – a way to stand aside from the rest, not unlike Apple did some time ago:

“Q: So HP’s taking Apple’s approach, with integrated software and hardware development?
A: I think the key is that if you want to differentiate in the marketplace you need to be able to control the key points of the differentiation.”

We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to taste the webOS integration on our PCs.

source: Seattle Times via PreCentral

It was only two days ago that the HP TouchPad became for real as it was shown off at HP’s “Think Beyond” event in San Francisco. And with almost every new product debut, many are left wondering about a couple of the more important aspects of the device – such as pricing and launch date.

Obviously, there is already a lot of buzz surrounding the HP TouchPad, but it’s being reported that the webOS powered tablet will be making its debut some time in June, which of course, is still a few months away. Furthermore, the rumors pinpoint it to holding a $699 price tag which might fall in line with the expectations of some people out there. Definitely not cheap by any standards, it’s still priced slightly less than the $799 Motorola XOOM – which will showcase the latest iteration of Android.

Now don’t start scrounging for some cash to save up for this puppy just yet because you might never know what HP might end up announcing down the road. With Palm bringing along HP’s presence, they can better manage competitive pricing with the TouchPad  without the worries about adversely hitting their bottom line.

source: BGR

HP/Palm’s “Think Beyond” event yesterday was a milestone for webOS after the acquisition of Palm by HP. The good old Pre 2 suffered delays, which, coupled with the advent of Windows Phone 7, put a question mark to HP/Palm’s ambitions for the third spot in mobile operating systems. Jon Rubinstein, however, had a pair of handsets in his pockets to try to convince us that HP has the software and hardware to compete.

HP presented the newest HP Pre 3 with a 1.4 GHz processor and a 3.6-inch screen and its smaller webOS counterpart, the HP Veer. It also unveiled the exciting HP TouchPad, the first webOS tablet, sized just like the iPad, but expected with a dual-core Qualcomm CPU and 1GB of RAM. What about their performance? Check out the full video of the “Think Beyond” event below and see the latest webOS in action.

source: HP/Palm (YouTube)

Sure we all know that a successor is already on the way, but if you can’t wait for its arrival, then you just might want to pick up a pre-order for the HP Pre 2.

The latest webOS powered device is now positioned to ship out starting on February 17th for $99.99 with a 2-year agreement. Of course, Verizon will be the carrier of choice for this one, but interestingly enough, there is still no pre-order page up on Big Red’s web site regarding the handset. Meanwhile, you’ll have to fetch your pre-order directly from HP, but as we all know, coming to the conclusion of siding with the HP Pre 2 is going to be rather difficult since the Pre 3 has been announced.

Regardless of that, if you don’t want to sign your life away for the next two years, you can always resort to forking over $439.99 for the full price of the model.

source: HP via PreCentral

The common thread in today’s “Think Beyond” event, where HP announced two phones and a tablet was that they were all powered by the newest iteration of HP webOS (2.2 for the phones, and 3.0 as the tablet version), what began as Palm’s light and efficient mobile operating system.

We all know how good webOS is at multitasking with its card view, and how handy its universal search and Just Type are. These functions stay, but a ton of new stuff is added to bring it up to par with the latest in the land of mobile OS. Jon Rubinstein mentioned they have included more than 50 new features, like voice dialing and VPN suport. While these don’t sound mighty impressive, just playing catch-up with the best out there, the actual performance demoed was rather slick.

The email app on the HP TouchPad, for example, receives pane view like on the iPad, or in Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, supports multiple accounts and a couple of messages can be deleted at once. The messaging, Email, IM, and other notifications are unobtrusive, and can be swiped off the drop down windows. Apps can just be flicked away to close too.

When you place the webOS device on the Touchstone wireless charging dock, Exhibition mode appears, which shows your Calendar, weather, clock and photos, context aware. Wireless printing is also taken to the next level. The printer drivers are integrated, and you can print straight from the photo app, which, by the way, is connecting your Facebook, Photobucket and Flickr albums as well.

And, finally, the HP Synergy software appears to tie in your personal and professional contact and communications, and have them all synced up in the HP cloud. HP demoed partnerships, hence apps, with Skype, Amazon (Kindle), Dreamworks, Time Inc., Sports Illustrated, and some others. Cool 3D games were presented too, with webOS aiming to be one of the best for gamers. We’ll see about that.

The new Touch to Share function is actually the coolest thing – you tap the HP TouchPad tablet with the Pre 3, for example, and the website you were just browsing, with some needed info, magically appears on the phone. The same goes for sharing documents, pretty nifty. All in all, webOS keeps its best features, and new ones are added, which raise it up to the best out there. Now all we need is apps and more apps.

We saved the best for last. HP dropped the bomb, announcing that webOS is expanding its horizons to a number of devices with “different form factors” like printers and, get this, HP computers. That part with HP desktops and notebooks, powered by webOS really came out of nowhere. HP claimed this miracle will happen later this year, and, knowing the computer giant’s revenue, R&D reach, and the fact that it ships 120 devices like computers and printers per minute, Microsoft’s life just became tougher.