From what we've been seeing and hearing so far, this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is going to serve a heavy dose of Ultrabooks to attendees and could emerge as the prevailing theme, much in the same way 3D dominated last year's show. Hewlett-Packard is getting a head start and has released a short teaser video of its upcoming Spectre Ultrabook, presenting it as if it's going to be the Holy Grail of laptops.
Somewhere out there, perhaps in an alternate timeline or in another universe millions of light years away, Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad tablet is the one to beat after living up to its potential as an iPad killer. But in this timeline and in this universe, the TouchPad is an obsolete relic that was pulled from the market almost as quickly as it appeared, and the future of webOS lies in the hands of open source developers. Could things have worked out any differently?
Maybe your budget doesn't allow for a 30-inch IPS monitor, especially after the holiday shopping season left us all a little lighter in the wallet. Or perhaps you don't have room for a ginormous panel, or a strong enough videocard to drive a super high screen resolution. On the other end of the spectrum is Hewlett-Packard's new Compaq-branded LE2002xm monitor, a 20-inch LED backlit LCD display priced at an even $155.
A new report from VentureBeat sheds some light on the HP decision making process that ended with webOS being open sourced a few weeks ago. Sources within HP say that the company was asking for a whopping $1.2 billion for its Palm and webOS assets. For those of you keeping score, that is exactly what HP paid for Palm back in April of 2010.
Late last month, researchers at Columbia University claimed to have discovered a vulnerability in some HP LaserJet printers that, if exploited, could let attackers set printers on fire from afar. HP bristled at the suggestion and went as far as calling it “sensational and inaccurate reporting.” Despite ruling out any remote combustion potential in any of its printers, the company did acknowledge the security vulnerability and offered to issue a remedial firmware update at the earliest. That firmware update is now available. Hit the jump for more.
If you’ve been beaten out at getting a cheap HP TouchPad, you might have one last shot. TigerDirect has a limited stock that it is doling out as part of a bundle deal. You won’t be able to buy just the tablet, but the bundles are not unattractive. These things are going fast, so don’t think it over too long.
Praise tech Jesus, webOS still has a pulse! The mobile OS seemingly doomed to a cold eternity in a digital graveyard has been granted an open source reprieve. Great! Only question is, what comes next?
If Hewlett-Packard were a living, breathing entity, it might have a future in politics where it's perfectly acceptable (or least expected) to flip-flop on key issues. You know, things like whether or not to forge ahead with its PC business, the $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm only to later flip webOS to the open source crowd, and the whole TouchPad fiasco. And did we mention HP is once again interested in building webOS tablets?
When HP named Meg Whitman the new CEO earlier this year, she wasted little time in firmly reversing the course set by Leo Apotheker, her predecessor, and declaring that the company would be keeping its PC business after all. WebOS, however, was a different matter. Whitman’s dragged her feet making a call about the black sheep operating system, leading to intense speculation. Will she sell WebOS? Kill it? Keep it? Turns out the answer as D) None of the above. Today, HP announced that WebOS is going open source.
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