PalmPad from HP

HP is poised to announce three WebOS tablets early next year, Fox News is reporting. All three will be variations of one design, called the PalmPad, and will run a version of WebOS, the operating system for the Palm Pre smartphone. HP acquired Palm in the spring.

Fox says it obtained the spec sheets of the PalmPad from a "trusted source." It's said to have a screen similar in size to the iPad's 9.7-inch display, but it will also include an HDMI port for feeding video to an external screen (the iPad requires a special dongle to do this). Palm's tablet will also have front- and rear-facing cameras, both with LED flashes, the report said. Weight it said to be 1.25 pounds.

For data, the PalmPad will be able to connect to Sprint's 4G WiMax network, though Fox had no details about pricing or whether a contract is required for purchase. The three Palm tablets are said to have only "minor" hardware differences from each other, and all three will run WebOS 2.5.1 (the current version is 2.0). A fourth PalmPad is planned for fall 2011 and will be tailored for university students, with a slightly smaller (8.9-inch) screen.

HP's WebOS tablet has been in the works for a long time. The company confirmed it was working on such a device in an earnings call earlier this year, saying a WebOS tablet product would be coming in "early 2011."

The Fox report says HP will unveil the PalmPad at January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). According to the show's official schedule, HP has no plans for a press conference or keynote presentation at CES, although the company will have a presence there. A query to HP wasn't immediately returned.


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374607,00.asp