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On the stage at the D9 conference, CEO Leo Apotheker hasn't dropped any bombshells except, well, this: a response to the folks at This is my next:

Q: You might license to WebOS. That puts you in direct competition with Microsoft?

Leo: I happen to believe that WebOS is a uniquely outstanding operating system. It’s not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices. There are all kinds of other people who want to make whatever kind of hardware they make and would like to connect them to the Internet. We’ll make it available to enteprises and to SMBs. It will run on lots of HP devices.

Q: Would you license it to HTC?

Leo: It is certainly something we would entertain.

Yowza. That's quite the about-face from previous statements both at HP and long-standing statements from Palm, where the "tight integration between hardware and software" ruled the day. It's been many years since an OS made by Palm found its way onto third party hardware and, well, back in those days it was the third parties (namely Sony and Handspring) that brought the real innovation to the hardware. While earlier in the talk Apotheker made it clear that initially HP is only looking to release their own hardware products to "gain credibility," the idea of HTC or Samsung bulding the hardware running webOS is tantalizing, innit?

Update: AllThingsD has posted the video of Joshua Topolsky's exchange with Apotheker, and it adds some additional context to the quotes. The video is after the break, but lets say that it seems that the HP CEO has more interest in sending webOS into closed corporate environments than to competitors like HTC. But... it's something he's willing to entertain. Either way, the fact that HP posted this onto their corporate blog indicates that they're not backing away from the comments - perhaps Apotheker's not a McNamee after all...

Sources: All Things D, This Is My Next, HP Data Central

The D9 conference kicks off tonight and HP CEO Leo Apotheker is slated as one of the keynote speakers. We'll be curious to see if he will re-confirm the previously-stated June ship date for the TouchPad. In any case, we expect webOS to be a major topic of conversation for the new CEO.  HP VP of Developer Relations, Richard Kerris, will also be onhand at the event, so if you're one of the fancy folk with an invite, be sure to say howdy.

 

Actually, if you're there, be sure to pick up your Schwag Bag, which will include a slew of free stuff including the diminutive HP Veer, which HP is giving away to all attendees.

Sources: D9 Conference, D9 "KatieCam", @richardkerris; thanks bobsentell!

Eagle-eyed PreCentral member martinspurr took a look at the document we leaked over the weekend and rather than staring longingly at the June 12th release date, he took a closer look at the apps shown on the TouchPad itself. Specifically, there's an app there called "eReader" with an icon shaped like a newspaper titled "Daily News" and sporting a big ol' RSS icon.

While an app called "eReader" would have us assuming that it's for reading books, we know that Kindle is coming. Add in the Newspaper shape and the RSS icon and the best guess has to be that HP will be rolling an integrated RSS reader into the TouchPad. PhoneArena grabbed a slighly larger version of the icon from Best Buy earlier this month as well, though in that case it's nestled up against a now-defunct DocsToGo icon.

Source: PreCentral Forums; Thanks martinspurr!

TouchPad news has been flying in at a really rapid pace and while we've already hit the big stuff, there's plenty of smaller bits that are worthy of mention today. Let's round 'em up.

Pressebox.de has a press release touting "exclusive apps for the new HP TouchPad" including AlloCiné, Sooloos, Marmiton Touch, Orange Mécanique, Auto Motor and Sport, My HP, TV drama, Gala, Cinema, Focus Online, N24, stern.de, OK Magazine, and of course, Kindle for webOS. Thanks Shoe!

@renehennig attended a webOS Connect event in Paris where he heard HP's Richard Kerris say that webOS 3.0 on the TouchPad will eliminate the problematic geographic restrictions that have kept previous webOS devices from switching their default country. via webosroundup, thanks Mike5!

Looking through the document we just leaked suggesting the June 12th launch, we see that the TouchPad will ship with a 10W AC adapter (just like the iPad). We also see that HP seems to be launching with just two accessories: the case and the TouchStone stand.

An anonymous tipster writes in that there will be a FaceBook app for TouchPad / webOS 3.0 - again developed by Palm with help from FaceBook - that will be "completely different" and have Facebook Messaging built into Synergy. Thanks anonymous!

Finally, HP has been showing off the TouchPad at the HP Byron Nelson PGA Championship. An attendee wrote in to say the HP rep on hand said the TouchPad is coming "very soon" and that the Pre 3 will come a bit later (in the "60 to 90" day range). The tipster also got a demo of an easter egg: "If you pulled a card down, it stretched like a slingshot and then flew away and 'yelled' (think angry birds), pretty cool." Thanks anonymous!

When it rains, it pours. Following up on our exclusive Wal-Mart TouchPad distribution leak, we have the above internal document from OfficeMax pegging retail availability for the chain on July 17th. We'd say that would make us worry about the earlier-suggested early/mid June launch, but our tipster assures us that OfficeMax is often behind the curve when it comes to stocking tablets. 

The OfficeMax document also suggests that the TouchPad will be available in both "3G and 4G" versions. While a 3G version is technically not a surprise since HP / Palm have listed that in the specs since launch day (though never tecnically announced it), the 4G is either a shockingly awesome new development or a mistake on OfficeMax's part or... yet another example of the slippery definition of "4G" on AT&T's network. webOS fans should stay tuned for more information, but then again, "staying tuned" is pretty much the default stance these days already.

Meanwhile, another Wal-Mart tipster went ahead and checked their system and sent us the screen you see at right. Although there's no date on the screen, yon tipster informs us that this particular inventory screen would show bupukiss unless the launch was imminent. It also confirms that the price for the 32g TouchPad will clock in at just under $600.

In other words: we feel very confident about three things. 1. Wal-Mart is planning for a June launch of the TouchPad. 2. OfficeMax is planning to stock it in July. 3. HP's large distribution network means that America's retail employees can take a break from the customer service slog to fling cards around to their hearts' delight.

Thanks anonymous x2!

One of the webOS community's mantras has always been "You can't brick a Pre." "Bricking" is essentially rending a device un-usable via software hacks. With previous webOS devices, unless you software hacks did something crazy to the hardware (like melting stuff from overclocking), you could always recover to a factory state with the webOS Doctor. No craziness with bootloaders (Hi HTC!), no mucking about with custom ROMS: simple, robust and open.

Well, the Veer is also as simple and open to hacking as any webOS device, but it's a bit less robust. To wit: Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals has managed to brick his. The new wrinkle here is there's a new chip whose purpose is to interface with the new Touchstone / Touch to Share technology in the Veer. It's required to let the phone boot and if its firmware gets screwy, the phone is bricked. There's a command-line binary called "PmA6Updater" to program that A6 chip and to keep from bricking your Veer, stay far far away from it.

However, Whitby's loss is our gain, as he took the 'opportunity' of a bricked phone to take it apart and show off the insides. We can now see much more than the semi-removable battery PreCentral showed you earlier this month, so hit up the source link below for the disassembly action. While you're hitting links, WebOS Internals is looking to get another Veer or two to help continue their hacking on the device, so make with the clicks on the donate link below.

Sources: WebOS Internals, PreCentral Forums

After filling us in on the $599 pricing of the 32gb TouchPad, our tipster has given PreCentral convincing evidence that Wal-Mart expects that HP will begin shipping TouchPads to select stores beginning on June 2nd. Wal-Mart is also set to receive new displays for the product the week of June 6th. In other words, if Wal-Mart is any guide, the TouchPad could literally be less than two to three weeks away from availability.

Is Wal-Mart a good guide? Well, you don't get to be a huge retailer like Wal-Mart unless you absolutely don't mess around when it comes to distributing products around the county (and the globe). You don't get to be a huge PC company like HP unless you hit your promised ship dates to your most important vendors. 

An exact date is hard to pin down, but signs are good that HP's promised "summer" release date for the TouchPad could actually mean early-to-mid June. That period, by the way, lines up nicely with the massive ad campaign we told you about earlier today.

Thanks Anonymous!

We've been wondering when the marketing ramp-up for the Veer would start because to date it's been pretty thin: some spotted Mini Coopers, Manny Pacquiao's supposed involvement, a YouTube ad and NYT ad, and some Lady Gaga antics in the New York subway system.

According to Agency Spy, it's coming soon and it's going to be pretty big. They've been tipped that HP is shooting new ads for the Veer and TouchPad with celebities likes Russell Brand, Lady Gaga, JayZ, Kanye West, and Lea Michele. Supposedly HP has laid out upwards of $10 milion on the celebrities, but that wasn't quite enough to get an actual commercial shoot with the Gaga herself, who apparently was kept from the set by Google.

All these music celebrities also lends credence to the idea that HP's rumored music service, HP Play, will have a big part in the webOS ecosystem. More important (we assume) than celebrity name dropping to webOS faithful is the rumored dates for the campaign to start hitting airwaves: early June.

Source: Agency Spy; Thanks mc_gusto!

An anonymous tipster gently suggested we take a look at a little something called "HP Play" and look we have. The tipster says that it will be the branding for a new music service from HP that will work with the TouchPad (and presumably any HP product, webOS or not) and suggested the service is in testing right now.

Indeed, a Whois lookup on hpplay.com reveals that it was registed by an HP employee in the Melodeo division on February 9th - the very same day that HP revealed the TouchPad, Veer, and Pre 3 at Think Beyond.

Until now, HP Play has lived as a Facebook promotional page with a heavy emphasis on Beats Audio. They've racked up 150,000+ likes by giving products away in several contests and the page itself continues to see fairly heavy activity building the HP Play brand. In fact, the consulting firm that helped create HP Play mentioned on their portfolio page (since removed, but available in Google cache) that the brand was designed from the get-go to "be scalable enough to outlive any particular campaign."

We've been looking into the Melodeo / NuTsie service ever since HP acquired them last June. Currently, it is a mixture of Pandora-style music streaming and also direct-from-your-own-iTunes library streaming. While we have plenty of ideas of how HP could use the iTunes-streaming technology, we are growing more sure that HP will need to "think beyond" the relatively thin feature set we saw in our exclusive preview of a private beta of nuTsie for webOS. Cloud Music services such as Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music have already launched and most assume that Apple's iTunes Cloud can't be far behind.

The "HP Play" seems strong enough to us for HP to use it as their direct competitor to iTunes for video as well as music, but we'll see if that turns out to be the case. What does seem clear is that HP has bigger things planned for it than simply a Facebook page to promote Beats Audio.

Sources: HP Play on Facebook, hpplay.com WhoIs lookup, Google cache; Thanks anonymous!

What do you do when you have an impending tablet launch and a core group of ridiculously passionate users waiting for it and you have a platform which seems to be well-liked but suffers from a serious dearth of apps? Well, first you start hosting developer sessions at your HQ as well as abroad, then you get those TouchPads in the hands of key developers. So tweets iOS developer Mark Gurman, who writes "HP has started giving TouchPads to app developers ahead of launch." No word on whether the units are loaners or not.

We're still expecting that launch will happen next month thanks to the words of CEO Leo Apotheker and various HP reps. Real TouchPad units in the hands of developers bolsters the hope for a June launch and also bolsters hope that we'll see some great apps for the TouchPad. Both should help ease any heartburn webOS fans may have after hearing about HP's quarterly financial woes.

Source: @markgurman