hp touchpad

The cast of Buzz Out Loud has a message for HP that we hope they'll hear: guys. Seriously. Please stop talking. Don't tell the press you may or may not spin off your PC unit if you can figure out what that would mean for the company, and don't let the EVP of the PC business say HP might get back into tablets. I mean, how hard is that, really? Plus, Wikileaks springs a major leak, and Beyonce's baby pwns Twitter.

On today's show, an earthquake appears to be headed right for us, and all we can talk about is HP and WebOS some more! Plus, Lenovo's baffling decision to drop the ThinkPad Tablet into the marketplace at $500, when fire-sale frenzy is at its peak. Um. Oops. And would Apple risk fragmenting the iPhone in order to get into emerging markets? We'll see. Oh, and quick hicks!

HP has a winner on its hands, now that it's killed off that particular winner. The Internetorati clamor to buy discounted TouchPads, while HP's stock plummets 20 percent to a six-year low. So, Apotheker, who's right? You or the geeks? Also, Facebook finds out once again that censorship is hard, and the real reason aliens want to kill us: we'll ruin the entire galaxy if we get off this rock!

If you stood by believing all of HP's grand proclamations about standing by WebOS and supporting it to the end, you're finding out the hard way that love really does hurt. A lot. Plus, we discuss whether HP really can make it in the post-PC world, and whether this was or wasn't the best week Microsoft has had in a long time. Also, we invent the Mail Truck Alternative to waiting 8 days for online TV, dish out some love advice on Computer Love, and find out why "kids" is apparently a dirty word.

We celebrate the patent wars with Zynga while Google's stock gets downgraded. TV Studios think its a good idea to pull back their content on the Web and if you've ever faked a phone call on your cell phone, you're not the only one.

Tablets are generally expected to be "thin and light" small computers with unobtrusive interfaces. Some tablets are thinner and lighter than others, however.

While we've praised tablets like the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 for their sleekness, and dinged the HP TouchPad for being too bulky, the Thrive poses an interesting question. Is a bulky tablet inherently a bad thing or can a tablet justify its extra mass?

In an attempt to answer that question I take a long hard look at the Thrive, including its full ports, swappable battery, and removable back panel. I … Read more

Apple and Google like to boast about the size of their respective app stores as a measure of their popularity among developers, and by extension, customers. Hewlett-Packard is about to make a big push into that same market and does not have the ability to compete in that area. So rather than the size of its app store, HP is banking on the size and reach of the company to convince developers to climb aboard their WebOS ship.

When the HP TouchPad goes on sale Friday, the company says its first tablet will have between 300 and 400 native tablet … Read more

On the eve of the launch of its TouchPad, Hewlett-Packard is signaling that it's ready to stir things up in the mobile-OS business.

Today, CEO Leo Apotheker told Bloomberg that HP has had discussions about licensing WebOS.

"We are talking to a number of companies," Apotheker said. "I can share with you that a number of companies have expressed interest. We are continuing our conversations."

Bloomberg says it's heard from unidentified sources that Samsung is one of those companies, but a Samsung spokesman denied that. HP did not elaborate on who potential partners could be.

HP has revamped the WebOS operating system it bought with Palm almost exactly a year ago and made it ready for tablets. Apotheker's comments today expand on earlier statements that he would entertain the idea of licensing WebOS to other players in the mobile-devices business. … Read more

When Hewlett-Packard's WebOS tablet debuts next week it won't have nearly the number of apps as its competitors. But the company thinks it can use that to its advantage. That's where WebOS Pivot comes in.

HP introduced the feature of its HP App Catalog today for the first time. Pivot is essentially a magazine, published every month, with its app store. It will highlight featured applications, interesting developers, and popular apps.

Pivot will have articles and photos from "journalists and photographers affiliated with leading publications," and guest columns from "notable" writers, according to the company's release. All of the content will be about, you guessed it, apps. The content will be tailored by geographic region where HP devices are available and published in English, French, German, and Spanish.

Several questions probably pop to mind. Like, what does HP know about content publishing? But even more importantly, why go through all the trouble with a monthly publication for apps? … Read more