webOS Weekly - HP Making Moves 14
by Tim Stiffler-Dean Sat, 30 Apr 2011 7:13 pm EDT
Another week has passed, and a bit more news has found its way through the webOS community ecosystem and into the discussions of those many people that are waiting for more. In fact, more than just a "bit" more news has made its way around, you might almost call this a "moderate level" of news stories that needed to be shared. HP has been busy this week with a few projects, and the community is starting to get some excitement back as released dates come closer and closer.
Hop on after the break for stories from around the web, social networks, youtube videos and more. If you ever have something you would like to share in a future "webOS weekly", send an email to tim@precentral.net so we can get it up.
Latest News
- Is the HP Veer, excuse me, HP Veer 4G coming sooner rather than later? If it's true that HP is planning on celebrating the launch in May, and if these photos of marketing vehicles haven't been fabricated, we could easily be seeing the Veer 4G launched within the coming weeks. That can only mean one thing: the Pre 3 and TouchPad are just around the corner as well.
- Who cares about the marketing vehicles when we have pictures of a device that could be released as soon as next week? PocketNow has apparently gotten some word (and images) from HP that a white Veer 4G running on AT&T will be going on sale as early as next week! What do you say to that?
- In preparation for users that have multiple devices with access to the same webOS profile, HP has made an update to the Palm Profile Manager website to include some information that might help managing multiple devices easier.
- The webOS CONNECT events continue moving forward with new venues being chosen for May in two large cities in Europe: Paris, France and Berlin, Germany. Our North American-based team may not be able to make it to these events, but we know a lot of you will. See the details here.
- We've been asking for Application Promo Codes for a very long time now, and this last week HP has made them immediately available (and with virtually no warning) to all webOS 2.1 users via a new App Catalog update. If you're running 2.1 and haven't gotten the update yet, you can do so now in the Software Manager app. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait a little longer until the update propogates around to the rest of us.
- Three FCC filings have us interested in the devices that should be released this Summer, of the TouchPad and Pre 3 variety. First the TouchPad gets filed through with an offering for a WiFi version. Then we get word that the Pre 3 will be launching with webOS 2.3 (where's 2.2?). And finally an HP webOS Bluetooth keyboard gets passed with pictures of a "steamy hot tear-down" that you can check out here.
- In the app world the big news, again, comes from the WebOS Internals team, which has released a new version of Impostah that will help our global friends get around that Paid App Catalog wall and buy some decent apps for once. Impostah 0.8 is available via Preware, and helps out with some very cool problems that some people have been running into lately.
From the Blogs
- Christian is a guy that has been familiar with HP and webOS for a long time, and now he is getting ready for a certain challenge familiar to others of us in the community: can he live for 60 full days using only a TouchPad and Pre 3? Obviously, there are some caveats to what he would like to accomplish, and he's hoping for some HP sponsorship out of it all. But hey, maybe he'll get further than that other guy who tried this same thing a year ago.
- Perhaps it's not webOS news per se, but a recent article published about the Post-PC era is certainly one that is relevant to the tablet computer market that is just getting started (and that the TouchPad is entering). There are a lot of good thoughts in this short interview on asymco, but your voice is needed as well in the comments below.
- While Ian Beck has just announced a new version of his app TapNote 1.3, as well as TapNote Lite, he makes it clear at the end of his announcement exactly why he's building these applications. It's not necessarily for the money (though that's nice) or building a huge name for himself, but he's found a great amount of joy in making users happy. That's something many webOS developers have probably gotten over the nearly 3 years we've been around.
Everywhere else on the web
- ZackTheComedian was recently in a chat with Sprint Customer Care to talk about webOS devices and getting updates on current hardware that is available, and strangley he managed to get a tip out of them (while recording video) about webOS 2.0 coming to Sprint Pre and Pixi devices sometime soon. We can't necessarily get all of our hopes up about this, but it's still something fun to think about.
- webOS CONNECT London was over nearly a month ago now, but that doesn't mean the videos have all been uploaded yet. Ben Tattersley, the "Teacher of all things webOS" has given a splendid presentation at the event, and his video has now been uploaded for everyone to see.
- Twitter user @aquitayo has shared a chart with the rest of us worth checking out. We already knew that HP was the Number One computer manufacturing company in the world, but just by how much? This chart should help you figure those details out on your own.
- When looking at the upcoming Pre 3 and TouchPad, it's easy to get wrapped up in saying how the new devices will compare to the competition. @hpwebosfan has shared some of the details of the Pre 3, as well as how it looks compared to the C40 we used to talk about so often. Could the two be one in the same?
- HP CEO Leo Apotheker had a great interview recently with the Editor-at-Large of Fortune Magazine, Adam Lashinsky. You can see parts one and two of the interview here, and see what conclusions you might come down to from what Apotheker said about the future of webOS.
14 Comments
Hi all,
To me this is all music to my ears!
take care all,
Jay
Way to late....our poor webos is being held back by ancient hardware....so sad...I cannot remember the last time Ive seen an ad anywhere for webos/Palm hardware...in the mean time the consumers mind is flooded by Android and IPhone ads 24 hours a day! Its so sad cause webos has alot to offer but will Never truly succeed cause of that...Developer interest would even grow if they were sitting on the couch and caught a kewl HP/palm ad on tv...please use ur brains...the problem is soooooo freaking obvious!!!
what this article tells me is that no one (probably even HP themselves) still has any real clue when the pre 3 will be released and on what carrier.
ZackTheComedian is an idiot trying to start spreading rumors. I watched the video. How the **** do you conclude from that conversation that webos 2.x will be coming to Sprint's current webos devices!?
The customer rep was cold and not informative on his responses, just like Jon Rubinstein is during his interviews.
Pointless.
This post alone is making me want to switch to android more and more.
I'm so angry right now because of these stupid rumors and because i still have a shitty pre.
I feel like Hitler learning the latest plans for webos
And I quote:
"We can't necessarily get all of our hopes up about this, but it's still something fun to think about."
If u are considering Android I just got the DROID Pro by Moto a couple of weeks ago after having a preplus for a year. Let me tell you it is freaking awesome...full qwerty, free navigation and gps that works flawlessly, free full song downloads, a 1ghz pro...758 ram and I got it for 53 bucks CPO through VZW with a 1 year warranty....plus there are about 20 task managers that allow u to switch between apps mimicking webos' best feature...easy transition from Palm and an instant upgrade!!! The apps give your smartphone the ability to do what u want to do and do it free at that and believe me DROID DOES!!!!!
I will believe the phones exist when they are on store shelves. Almost 2 yrs to get a new pre on sprint (if they get it) All it is talk talk talk. Getting old.
Web OS is the best mobile OS on the market hands down. With that said, I jumped to Android last August and doubt I will be coming back. The lack of developers, apps, inspiring hardware and public mindshare made me leave. It's sad to me that the best OS on the market can't get enough users to be competitive. The HP Pad looks great, but HP has their work cut out for them in the enterprise market. My company is currently issuing Windows 7 based tablets. I still hang out here looking for great updates and cheering HP Palm to inspire me. Call me a troll, traitor or whatever you want. I still tell people about what a great product Web OS is and can be. If you believe the writers on this site have sat around waiting for new hardware, you are wrong. They are carrying around Android and iOS devices all of the time.
But you haven't left yet...how can you come back?
Hoping that it's better to be a little slower, and get it right, than bring it out early, and **** it up. WP7 has shown how not to do it, Android, despite the popularity, is hitting that wall (see ZDNet article on Vista/Honeycomb). The public seems to be ready for "anything but Apple".
Woke up this morning and wanted to do a little shopping for some cheap knock-off garbage and immediately came to the post - had to read 3 post before I found a spammer post. I was getting worried that the avenue for cheap, knock-off, worthless and illegal merchandise had dried up.
Regardless of the Sprint May 2nd rumors outcome; I will never buy another WebOS device unless HP soon makes good of their "make things right" pledge. How else can one justify purchasing another of their devices with the risk of HP hosing their customers and following broken promises with the silence treatment again. From what I've recently seen HP doesn't deserve any of our hard earned cash by them allowing an OS with great potential to fester and die and leave their customers holding the mess and fend for ourselves.
agreed. Finally HP is knocking off $100 on the 16gig touchpad. HP should have knocked off $100 off of each touchpad!!! This is another Rubi thing!!! He thinks as long as it states webos we will buy it.
Could this be WebOs in the future? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38&hd=1