HP has finally shown their new TouchPad, that runs the Palm WebOS.It looks remarkably like an iPad.
The device is the first Palm branded product to be launched by HP who acquired the brand last year. Weighing in at 680 gram the 9.7-inch capacitive multi-touch screen device is, 13mm thick and remarkably similar to the Apple iPad.
When the new Palm WebOS was launched many observers expected Apple to take action because of similarities between the Apple iPhone OS and the new Palm offering.
Similar to the iPad the new device has a home button on the front of the device in exactly the same place as Apple has on the iPad.
 Click to enlarge |
Inside the screen it’s all about Palm’s webOS and its unique multi-tasking friendly ‘card’ UI. It also has a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM and, it’ll come in 16GB, 32GB models.
It also has inbuilt gyroscope, accelerometer, compass and a set of stereo speakers.Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein claims that the device is “screaming fast,” and the software UI downright luscious.
There’s a new paneled email application a Growl-like pop-up notification system, plenty of cal / email integration courtesy of HP Synergy, a slick virtual keyboard, VPN support, wireless printing as well as Google Docs, QuickOffice, Dropbox and Box.net compatibility.
It is not known at this stage when the device will be launched in Australia which comes with a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera (for Skype video calls).
Like the iPad it has rounded edges and a rounded back and according to HP delivers eight hours of battery life.
It also comes with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a SIM-card slot for on mobile broadband and can be charged through Palm’s wireless touchstone technology as well as through the now-standard microUSB port.
HP has also revealed a new Palm Veer and Pre3 Smartphone. The Veer is billed as one of the smallest smartphones ever and has the front surface area of a credit card; it tucks a slide-out keyboard underneath a 2.6-inch, 320×400 display. It still has an 800MHz processor fast enough to handle Flash and has HSPA+ 3G supports for fast downloads on major networks.
The Pre3 is an upgrade to the Pre2 released in the USA last month. It appears that at this stage there are no plans to launch the device in Australia.
The new Pre has a much sharper 3.6-inch, 480×800 display, as well as a front camera for video chat. A 1.4GHz processor gives it another leap in performance, as do HSPA+ and (on CDMA carriers) EVDO Revision A. HP has taken design issues to heart and now has a new keyboard better for larger fingers.
All of the devices run webOS 2.1.
