The HP TouchPad is facing some tough competition in tablets – the ubiquitous iPad, heaps of Android pretenders, and even small yet promising BlackBerry PlayBook. You might think that’s as serious of an environment as it gets for HP’s webOS tablet, but that’s when British comedian Russell Brand pops in to do some of the explaining and promoting.

First, you’ll get to deeply understand how flicks and swipes on a tablet are different than dealing with boogers, but then you’ll also learn how to handle multitasking and get informed about Brand’s only great idea. If that’s not enough, a brilliant line explains notifications on webOS: “Here’s a message now, I’m just ignoring it.” And quite frankly, with mails, notifications from social networks, microblogs and just about every other website, ironically, that seems more important than ever.

Finally, if you’re thinking “I’m bored now, breathing in and out, on a planet with the Amazonian rainforest, animals, natural wonders, the pyramids,” you know what you can do, right? Brand suggests to grab an HP TouchPad, but we’d advice you to stay tuned for our in-depth review which is coming soon.

source: HP via ElectricPic

Compared to the tiny confines seen with the HP Veer 4G, the TouchPad is by far the ideal choice when it comes to web browsing with a webOS device – mainly due to its much larger display and Flash support. Needless to say, web surfing is always going to be one of the heavier sought out features with the TouchPad, but after seeing other tablets before it excelling highly in this area, we just need to see for ourselves right away on how it performs with the webOS 3.0 tablet.

Actually, we decided to see how it performs against the competition – and in this case, we’re using an iPad 2 to see how it delivers the goods to the table. Connected to the same Wi-Fi network, we opened a link in a window to see which one loads up the same page first. And right off the bat, it’s evident that the TouchPad is delayed with its operation in rendering the page. Both pictures and text load up in a timely manner right away on the iPad 2, while the TouchPad takes quite a bit of time before loading up anything at all. Furthermore, there’s some choppiness evident with the TouchPad’s navigational controls – meaning, kinetic scrolling and pinch gestures aren’t as smooth looking compared to the iPad 2. However, the one advantage it holds over Apple’s pride and joy is the fact that it’s able to provide that desktop-like experience thanks to its support for Flash.

Granted that Apple has spent a great deal of time refining the web browsing experience with the iPad’s browser, we’re still in the early beginnings with the TouchPad – albeit, we’ve already witnessed the PlayBook in the same scenario before, but it managed to hit the mark dead on. Still, it’s tolerable from what we’ve been checking out so far, but after seeing the competition before it, there’s naturally going to be a lot of expectations going forward in this area.

Following up on the trend that seemingly was started by the original Palm Pre, the optional $79.99 Touchstone Charging Dock for the HP TouchPad combines the functionality of any pedestal stand, while juicing it up via inductive charging.

Much like the original Touchstone for the Palm Pre, the one for the HP TouchPad follows in the same premise by allowing you to lay the tablet on top of it. Naturally, the kickstand that supports the weight of the tablet is adjustable to almost any angle – thus, allowing us to view the tablet’s display comfortably. Luckily, it functions both ways as the Touchstone accommodates it in either portrait or landscape orientations. Included with the Touchstone is the regular looking wall adapter, which houses a standard USB port – however, we’re rather thrown back by the fact that it doesn’t use an ordinary microUSB cable to bridge the connection. Meaning, if the cable gets damaged or becomes defective, you’ll need to replace the entire Touchstone as opposed to just the microUSB cable that’s in use with the original one…

Read the full story at PhoneArena.com!

Six months after it was officially unveiled, HP is about to embark on an unknown path with the official launch of the HP TouchPad literally right around the corner – in fact, it’s going on sale starting tomorrow! Looking back at it, the Palm Pre ushered in the era of webOS goodness, but in between the time since it launched, the platform has struggled to be fully adopted by the community as the onslaught of competition from all corners has seemingly extinguished its candle. Now that Palm is in a better position with HP, the TouchPad is indeed the culmination of their forged relationship – and the timing couldn’t have been better.

Rather than going all out with some sort of flashy packaging, HP takes the reserved route as a single image of the TouchPad gracing its front cover – with the distinguishable HP logos etched onto its side. Naturally, the overall clean approach is most evident in the rear, where we find only the box’s contents and pertinent information lined up towards the bottom edge. Sliding off the outer casing, we’re greeted to the plastic wrapped HP TouchPad, with a small packet beneath it etched with the words “now comes the fun part.” Well, it’s not actually the fun part because we’re only presented with the usual set of documentation and a useful microfiber cleaning cloth. In the left compartment of the box, we find its wall charger and microUSB cable. As always, we’d like to see more in terms of accessories, but it’s the normal thing we come to expect nowadays…

Read the whole hands-on at PhoneArena.com!

Okay, it is no secret that webOS is not the most popular mobile platform around. However, its low market share might soon be on a rise as Leo Apotheker, HP’s CEO, announced that the company is already working on licensing webOS to other players on the smartphone market.

As our loyal readers may point out, the news coincides with the speculations from not long ago that HP could let other manufacturers use its mobile platform in an effort to bring the webOS ecosystem to a higher level. Which smartphone makers are interested in webOS is not exactly clear at this time, but people in the know claim that Samsung is on the list. This comes as a bit of a surprise as the company already has a number of successful Android smartphones in its portfolio while bada OS is surely not leaving the stage anytime soon. Would it make sense if a third platform makes it to Samsung devices?

As HP is still negotiating the licensing details with the undisclosed companies, there is no exact time frame given as to when we might eventually see the first non-HP webOS device hit the market.

source: Bloomberg via GSMArena

The 9.7-inch HP TouchPad might have been on your wish list for quite a while as it was announced way back in February, but if you can’t even wait for a couple of days until the official release date on July 1st, you might want to go to your local Wal-Mart. The tablet has already hit the shelves of a few stores, but this video demo below comes from Kansas.

The demonstrated unit was put on display with Wi-Fi connectivity turned on, so the shopper could take a detailed six-minute look at the functions of webOS 3.0 on the TouchPad. Judging from the video, the tablet looks very responsive, with smooth swipe and pinch gestures. The pricing of the tablet stands at $500 for the basic 16GB Wi-Fi only model, while the 32 gig version will set you back $600.

source: Electronista

When webOS initially came onto the scene, its future in the industry was unclear, but nonetheless, there were plenty of early adopters that decided to take the plunge with the new platform. However, those same exact early adopters might have been shocked when HP announced that certain legacy devices wouldn’t be able to upgrade to webOS 2.x and up.

Fortunately though, HP has something in store for those early adopters of webOS seeing that they are offering a $50 savings off the purchase of a new 32GB model of the HP TouchPad. Actually, that $50 savings is in the form of a mail-in-rebate, which requires you to send in a few different documents to receive it.

One of our readers sent us an email they received regarding the promotion, and after looking into it, you’ll need to send in the serial number of your eligible legacy webOS device, receipt from your 32GB TouchPad purchase, and the UPC code from the TouchPad packaging. And if you’re curious about the eligible legacy devices, they include the Palm Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi, and Pixi Plus. Once you manage to secure all of that, you’re probably going to send them in for processing – albeit, those instructions have yet to come through.
Still, that’s definitely a nice gesture from HP considering that those early adopters took a gamble with the platform. Well, if you didn’t pick up a legacy device, you might want to befriend someone who did to receive that awesome $50 savings off the upcoming TouchPad.

Thanks John!

source: Palm (1 & 2)

While HP’s TouchPad is getting ready to hit shelves stateside in all of its 9.7-inch webOS glory, a smaller version of the tablet might be already in the works, a report by Taiwan’s Economic News says. Hewlett-Packard has picked supplier Inventec, which will receive some 3 million orders for tablets this year, but it’s the 7-inch slate planned by the company that catches attention.

The report claims that the company will announce the small tablet this August. In comparison, the 9.7-inch TouchPad is launching July 1st across various retailers nationwide. Unfortunately, there were no further details about the device, but judging from the competitive $499 price tag of the 16GB TouchPad, we expect to see an even more aggressive price for the seven incher. Combine this with a dual-core processor and the power of webOS, and this would sounds like the right combination for popularizing the platform, wouldn’t it?

source: Economic Times via CNET

HP has a pretty steep uphill battle ahead of them, especially with their upcoming TouchPad tablet. The iPad is still the dominant force in the tablet market, and even the Android juggernaut is only slowly gaining market share. Meanwhile, HP has yet to prove that webOS can be a commercial success on any device, let alone a tablet. But, of course, HP doesn’t need to let the merits of webOS stand on their own in order to pull in users, they can always give stuff away for free.

In an interesting deal, TouchPad buyers will be getting 50 GB of free cloud storage from Box.net. This deal was unearthed by a Walmart employee who was just playing around with a demo unit of the TouchPad. Box.net offers a lot of really cool features including integration with Google Apps, Salesforce CRM, NetSuite, and a host of other services through powerful API tools.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to know how long this deal may last. Box.net users get 5 GB of storage for free, but the 50 GB plan is $20 per month. So, while the storage may be free at first, it seems like something that you’d have to pay for eventually if you want to keep it.

source: PreCentral via Geek.com

Wow, this took a while. Unlocked Palm Pre 2 devices got their webOS 2.1 update in early March. And it’s taken a ridiculously long time for it to come to Verizon’s CDMA Pre 2. But alas, maybe we should just be grateful that it came at all, considering the Palm/HP transition?

We’re done ranting; it’s time to rave. The webOS 2.1 update, which is being pushed out in a piecemeal fashion, brings a lot of fantastic features. One fun addition is Exhibition, which allows you to set specific display functions when your device is being charged. You can choose from a clock display, a slideshow of your photos, or your daily agenda.

Next is voice dialing, which is prompted by holding down the volume key, or by long-pressing the phone dialing pad. Voice dialing doesn’t seem like much, but if you got accustomed to it on your previous device, it can be sorely missed.

WebOS 2.1 also adds text messaging backup, and support for Bluetooth keyboards. We think the physical keypad is pretty terrific on its own, but it’s nice to have the option. There are also a number of bug fixes pertaining to email threads, photo thumbnails, messaging, task searches, and security. Now, where is Sprint’s Pre 2 update?

source: webOSroundup