The Official HP Palm Blog

Pre 2 available in Verizon Wireless stores on Thursday

Verizon Wireless today announced that the Pre 2 smartphone will be available in Verizon Wireless stores and online on February 17. You can also pre-order it now here if you're anxious to get your hands on this powerful phone featuring webOS 2.0, including true multitasking, HP Synergy, Just Type and support for an Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta in the browser.

Paul A.

Thanks (really!) for the feedback

Yesterday was packed with announcements about our latest products, partners, and personnel. We heard some great feedback about the excitement around our news.

And we also heard some concerns and frustration about a few specific issues, such as a lack of detail around product availability timing and pricing, and especially about the absence of future over-the-air updates for older webOS phones.

Rest assured that the HP team has been hearing these concerns. To make the experience you’ll have with the Veer, Pre 3, and TouchPad as powerful as possible, we’ve had to make some tough decisions that had an impact on our earlier webOS devices.

Our original expectation was that we’d be able to support older phones as well as the new product line. But ultimately it became clear that we would need to choose between supporting the past with over-the-air updates and ensuring that our upcoming devices would live up to your hopes and expectations for them. It was a difficult and, frankly, painful decision for us, and we realize it was a frustrating outcome for many of you.

We’re working on something that we hope will help make things right for you. We’ll be sharing the specifics with you when they’re ready. Although some of the outcry has been a little hard to take, we also appreciate the fact that you care enough about what we’re doing to express your reactions. (And we even manage to get a chuckle out of some of your more pointed criticism – yes, jonnybryce, I’m talking about you.)

Jon Zilber

Next steps for the webOS developer community

Earlier today, we unveiled three new webOS products and shared our vision for how HP webOS will intelligently connect a broad range of devices across your digital universe. The invited guests who shared the stage with the HP team give you a sense of just how diverse that universe is: Jeffrey Katzenberg (CEO of Dreamworks), Jimmy Iovine (Chairman, Interscope, Geffen, A&M), Randall Rothenberg (Chief Digital Officer, Time Inc.), and in the audience tennis superstar Serena Williams.

This evening, we had another gathering for a different part of the webOS community: our developers. The over 500 webOS developers in attendance had the chance to hear about how the HP will be helping them build and market the apps to run on all of those web-connected devices.

In addition to an overview of Enyo and other tools for webOS app development, those in attendance also heard about another key part of the strategy for growing and helping the developer community succeed: Richard Kerris, HP’s new VP/Head of Worldwide Developer Relations for webOS.

Richard comes to HP most recently from LucasFilm where, as Chief Technology Officer, he found innovative ways to leverage technology developed internally across the various LucasFilm business units, such as Industrial Light & Magic and LucasArts. Leading the team that engages with the developer community for all webOS devices, he defines his goal as “nurturing the passion that’s been sparked by webOS while helping developers find ways to thrive by engaging with the many different opportunities that HP can create for them.”

Richard faced a similar challenge earlier in his career when he led the team that helped developers migrate to OS X. But he sees the opportunity with webOS a little differently: "I'm excited about the potential for this growing ecosystem of devices. The road will be tough at times, but the payoff will be huge -- and we'll get there by listening to and working with our developers." 

Echoing that philosophy of putting the developer first, the gathering was decorated with a series of posters each of which was inspired by a different webOS app. Developers who'd like their own copy of this whimsical and inspiring artwork can get in touch with devmarketing@palm.com. 

Jon Zilber

Today's webOS event on YouTube

For those of you interested in seeing this morning's webOS event in its entirety, it's now up on YouTube. Check it out.

   

Paul A.

HP webOS: The next big thing -- and the next small thing, too!

If you’ve been following our news for the past few weeks, you’ve probably been wondering “Think big? Think small? Think beyond?” Today, we can finally give you some answers to those questions you’ve been asking yourself.

Today we’re sharing not just some cool product news (getting to it in a second…), but a vision for HP webOS. Companies talk about visions all the time – “today we’re going to share our vision for the first chocolate-covered portable snowblower” – but what we’re sharing today is more than just some exciting new products (yes, yes – in a moment).

Over time, you can expect HP webOS to become part of your entire mobile experience, not just your phone. With our announcements today (almost there), you can get a taste of that vision with webOS products available in three new flavors: small, medium, and large.

There’s been plenty of speculation about “large” – HP TouchPad. If you’re a fan of webOS (and apparently lots of folks are), you’re going to love what webOS can do when it has plenty of screen real estate to play with. Not only does TouchPad boast a bright and beautiful screen (perfect for video calling), but the overall experience is enhanced by Beats Audio technology for great sound through the built-in stereo speakers. TouchPad has plenty of horsepower to ensure a great multitasking experience, whether you’re using it for work or play (or both at the same time).

Now for the “small” announcement – HP Veer. The Veer packs a huge punch in an amazingly pocketable form factor. About the size of a credit card, it sports a slide-out keyboard, full multimedia capabilities, built-in mobile hotspot functionality, and a nifty magnetic connector. With 8 GB of storage and same memory as the Pre 2, it has enough under its diminutive hood to play even the most intense 3D games.

Finally, here’s a happy “medium”: the HP Pre³. Building on the award-winning Pre platform, the Pre³ bumps up keyboard size and the display resolution, adds video stabilization, a 1.4-GHz Qualcomm processor, and a forward-facing camera for video calling.

What else? To get even more of a sense of how we’re “thinking beyond” with webOS, check out more details of the new products, accessories (like the new Touchstone functionality), partners (like the new Amazon Kindle app, fun apps from Dreamworks like Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, and some innovative new publications from Time) over on the Palm website.

Jon Zilber

Ready to peek into the beyond?

What’s on the horizon in the world of webOS? We’ll be sharing some details one week from today. You’ll be able to catch all our news right here (or via @palm on Twitter or at facebook.com/palm), and if your name happens to be Ben McGinnis, you’ll be joining us in person in San Francisco.

Ben (aka @benmacguinness), a graduate student from Columbus, Ohio, pursuing a Masters degree in Instruction Technology at Duquesne Unviersity, was the winner in our “Think Beyond” contest. He's especially excited to see what HP and webOS can do for tomorrow's classroom. 

Meanwhile, as a little thank you to the many, many of you who entered our contest, how about a little sneak peek at part of what we’ll be sharing next week (along with a handy countdown timer)?

   

Like what you’re seeing? (Or what you think you’re seeing?) Now, I’m not really supposed to be sharing this video just yet, so do me a favor – don’t tell anybody about this video by tweeting “I am SO ready to #thinkbeyond http://youtu.be/uhzS_5jUHBc on February 9.”

(Bonus: Want another slightly sideways peek into the future? Here's one more video you might enjoy.)

Jon Zilber