HP Introduces The TouchPad

The third major product announcement from HP today was of course the much anticipated tablet, the HP TouchPad. The Veer and the Pre 3 look great, but this was always what the event was really about. 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.

HP Veer: Itsy Bitsy Power House

“The Pre 3 might be stealing the majority of the headlines in the coming days, but HP also unveiled the HP Veer today, a diminutive little smartphone that is about the size of a credit card.
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 320×400 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.” via mobile-review.com


Pre 3 Brings New Awesomeness To webOS

“HP have just taken the lid off their new smartphone, the Pre 3. Unimaginatively titled it may be, but this thing is packing some very serious fire power. If the Pre 2 wasn’t exactly setting the world ablaze as a successor to the original Pre the Pre 3 is definitely bringing the goods. The form factor is pretty much the same as previous models, but there are some pretty sweet improvements here such as the 800×480 3.6 inch screen and the QWERTY keypad looks more spacious too. Under the hood there is a ridiculously fast 1.4 Ghz (yes 1.4 Ghz!) Qualcomm chip that runs the whole thing with 512 MB of RAM to back it up (the same as the Pre 2). The handset supports 720p HD video and sports a 5 MP camera on the back for taking pictures as well as a front facing camera for video calling. Undoutedly the coolest part of today’s announcement was the interaction between the Pre 3 and the new HP tablet, the TouchPad. Tapping the Pre 3 against the TouchPad immediately transfered a web page from the tablet to the phone. You can’t get much slicker than that. The two devices also hook up in other ways, such as text messages and phone calls transferring to the tablet when the phone isn’t being used.