HP's Leo Apotheker totally open to licensing webOS to other handset makers

We just wrapped up our liveblog of HP CEO Leo Apotheker's appearance here at D9, and while he certainly spoke far too frequently about printers, there was one nugget that we just couldn't overlook. When speaking casually about the future of webOS on non-HP handsets, he noted that the firm was looking to license webOS to various other hardware manufacturers. Granted, the bulk of these are likely to be wrapped up in the enterprise, but he's not tossing out the idea of using webOS on other mobile devices. When asked if he'd consider licensing webOS to a company like HTC, he confessed to being very willing to having that conversation should the scenario present itself -- a stance that's quite different than the one held by the "old HP." It's hard to say if he's just shooting the breeze or if there's already a company or two behind the scenes looking to do just that, but either way, you can bet we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for any webOS creations sans HP's labeling. Talk about a serious play to get the attention of developers.

webOS on PCs will be an 'integrated experience'

HP closed its recent "Think Beyond" event with a remarkable announcement that webOS would becoming to PCs. How, exactly, the company planned on doing that has been a mystery. The Seattle Timesjust interviewed HP's CTO, Phil McKinney, who helped put to rest some premature speculation that HP would be dumping Microsoft Windows in favor of webOS while adding some clarity (though not much) to its webOS on everything strategy. According to Phil, people still want an OS appropriate to PCs, tablets, and smartphones with webOS pulling it all together by "taking the existing operating systems and bringing WebOS onto those platforms and making it universal across all of our footprint." That doesn't mean that webOS will run as a virtualized instance within Windows. Phil says, "it's not virtualization. It's an integrated WebOS experience we're looking to bring." He then adds, "We're working with Microsoft on the future of Windows and we're very optimistic on what that future is, but what we think is we can bring an enhancement to that." The goal is to create a large device footprint that makes webOS a very attractive platform to developers -- "you can develop your WebOS app that'll run on your phone, your slate and your PC," according to McKinney. Hmm, apparently HP didn't get the Elopcalypse memo about the "three-horse race" that considers HP's and RIM's ecosystems irrelevant.

HP revamping webOS App Catalog for tablet use, adding carrier billing and magazine-like view

If HP wants webOS to be a competitive mobile ecosystem, the platform's app store has an awful lot ofcatching up to do -- but in terms of raw features, it sounds like the company plans to get with the program soon. PreCentral attended a developer presentation at MWC 2011 where HP showed off a brand new version of the App Catalog specifically designed for the tablet-friendly webOS 3.0, and found it will come with a handful of features that should make it eminently more useful. As you can see in the image above, there are presently four tabs, but two of them are worth calling out: the "Browser" is said to be a magazine-like interface for browsing through apps, while the "Saved" tab lets you bookmark apps you're interested in to consider for purchase or download later on. Perhaps more importantly, the process of actually paying for programs should be streamlined quite soon: HP told attendees that carrier billing and promo codes would find their way into the webOS App Catalog by summer at the very latest, in time for a webOS 3.0 launch, which suggests that it could possibly hit smartphones even a mite sooner.

HP Veer too small for 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB port, gets magnetic connectors instead

It was bound to happen sooner or later with phones becoming increasingly anorexic, but we can't say that HP's solution to not having room for a 3.5mm headphone jack or a microUSB port is... um, awesome. Just as consumers had their voices heard when HTC decided to require an ExtUSB adapter to use standard headphones with the T-Mobile G1, we're guessing that quite a few potential Veerbuyers will be soured by the idea of carrying around yet another dongle just to have access to a very basic port. After all, what's the point in toting around the world's smallest webOS device if you're also forced to lug around one (or two) of the world's most annoying adapters? According to Pre Central, the Veer will ship with a pair of these clips -- one of 'em attaches a USB cable for charging, while the other adds a headphone jack. Of course, Bluetooth listeners needn't worry over the latter, but those who'd rather not mess with a Touchstone will need to be extra cautious when it comes to packing your charging cable and USB nub. We'd obviously prefer the oxygen we breathe to simply recharge our gizmos in a feat of perpetual engineering, but till then, it looks like Veer owners will be tied tight to at least a couple of accessories.

Video - HP's "Touch to Share" eyes-on, starring the TouchPad and HP Pre 3

Tablet manufacturers love to talk about how magical their devices are, but HP's Touch to Share truly is something else -- you simply bump a paired Pre 3 into an HP TouchPad slate, and the data beams over the air -- in this case, loading a website URL a la Chrome to Phone. While it uses the same induction coil technology to connect the twain as HP's Touchstone dock (and Bluetooth to actually pipe those packets through the ether), you don't actually need a Touchstone to make the magic happen this time around, only a pair of compatible devices. Representatives tell us that you do have to pair them beforehand, as well -- you wouldn't want an errant Pre 3 owner to swipe your banking session while you're on the go, now would you? Don't miss the video above.

HP Introduces The TouchPad

It's running a previously unseed webOS 3.0 build and is just a smidgen smaller than the iPad, sporting a 9.7 inch display. It's just over one and a half pounds in weight and measures just under 14mm thick.

In terms of the actual specifications we're looking at a 1.2 Ghz Snapdragon processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB (or 32 GB) of internal storage and all the usual wireless connectivity options. The initial version will support WiFi only, but 3G and 4G versions will be released later.

The demo of the TouchPad in action really presented it in a good light, full screen Flash video played back smoothly and webpages rendered about as well as they would on the desktop. The interface looked to really flow with things like notifications being unobtrusive whilst access to services like Twitter and Facebook was pretty effortless.

The real killer here though is the interplay between the TouchPad and the Pre 3. The TouchPad can handle calls, video calls (yes it has a front facing camera) and text messages when you aren't using your Pre 3. The interaction was extremely fluid and the ability to transfer content from one to the other (called 'Touch-to-Share') e.g. the webpage you are currently viewing looks, for lack of a better word, breathtaking.

There are other tablets out there of course, but ever since the iPad this is really the first tablet I've heard about that really feels like it's bring a new game to town. HP have really raised the bar with this one. Hit read more for a spectacular video!

HP Veer: Itsy Bitsy Power House

Don't let the small stature fool you though, like it's bigger brother the Veer is doing some serious business under the hood. Take the processor, for example, it's a 800 Mhz Qualcomm affair, not bad at all given the size of the handset and more than adequate for most tasks. The camera comes in at 5 MP just like it's big brother the Pre 3 and there are all the usual connectivity options e.g. Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.

The screen is obviously smaller, measuring a still respectable 2.6 inches with a 320x400 resolution. It was hard to see from the presentation, but given the size of the handset overall I'm left wondering how usable the QWERTY keyboard will be.

Given how popular itsy bitsy handset tend to be, just look at the likes of the X10 Mini, which got quite the following, the Veer could prove to be a pretty big hit for HP. Hit read more for a video!

HP Pre 3: 1.4GHz Qualcomm CPU, 3.6-inch WVGA, coming this summer

The first Pre breathed new life into Palm. The Pre 2, on the other hand, didn't exactly have the same luster and longevity. Here's to a decidedly Palm-less round three. The QWERTY slider with the all-too-familiar form factor has a 3.6-inch 800 x 480 display (a marked improvement over past Pres), 5 megapixel camera with AF and LED flash, 720p HD video, a front-facing camera for video calling, mobile hotspot, and webOS 2.2. Under the hood? A Qualcomm MSM 8x55 CPU running at 1.4GHz (!), 802.11a/b/g/n 5GHz, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, A-GPS, a 1230 mAh battery, HSPA+ and EVDO Rev A -- yep, it's a world phone -- and the same RAM as the Pre 2 (that's 512MB DRAM). It'll be Touchstone compatible, naturally, and will switch to Exhibition mode when docked to show pictures and upcoming appointments. There's some interesting synergy going on where the TouchPad tablet can take Pre 3's phone calls, and just touching the two devices together will let you share URLs (aptly titled touch-to-share). This one's gonna keep you waiting, though -- availability is this summer with both 8GB and 16GB storage options.

HP / Palm tablet to feature Touchstone dock, cloud storage, Beats audio and Tap-to-Share smartphone integration

Now that the kitty's out of the gemstone bag, we're slowly starting to connect the dots that obscure the details of Palm's soon to be announced "Topaz" and "Opal" tablets. First up is information from one of our original trusted sources who claims that the Opal will measure 180 x 144 x 13mm (making it a bit shorter and wider than the 190.1 x 120.5 x 12-mm Galaxy Tab) and feature a 1,024 x 768 pixel TFT LCD display. We're told that the bigger Topaz tablet will ship about three months before Opal and measures in at 241 x 190 x 13mm (making it nearly identical to the 242.8 x 189.7 x 13.4-mm iPad) with a pixel resolution that could be the same as the Opal (our source wasn't 100 percent on this). We're also hearing that the "premium audio" we saw on that leaked marketing slide will indeed be powered by HP's Beats audio processing, and that the tablets will be provided with "tens of gigabytes" of cloud storage -- so much that it dwarfs the local storage on the devices. Good, because you're going to need it from the looks of some additional information we just received. Click through for the detail.