HP Pre 3 to be released in UK before end August

Pre-pare yourself -- the HP Pre 3 lands in Britain this month. HP has confirmed the sequel to the mildly popular Palm Pre 2 will bring the new webOS software and apps to the UK before the end of August.

The Pre 3 is the successor to the Pre 2, packing a speedier 1.4GHz processor, 3.6-inch screen and more spacious keyboard. It uses HP's gorgeous and intuitive webOS software, which is styled like a deck of cards.

One of our favourite features is the 'Just Type' option, which lets you type something first and then figure out what you want to do with it afterwards -- whether it's searching the phone or the Web, starting an email or sending a text.

An HP boss told our business-minded buddies at sister site ZDNet UK that the company also plans to expand the app ecosystem for webOS phones and tablets, such as the Pre 3 and HP TouchPad. HP is working hard to muster enthusiasm for WebOS, even building into new devices a digital magazine called Pivot that highlights new and interesting apps.

HP reckons its focus will be on quality rather than quantity, as the platform can't hope to compete with the sheer number of apps in Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market. Which makes sense: there are millions of iPhones, iPads and Android devices out there so there's enormous demand for apps, but webOS will never reach that kind of demand with such a small range of products.

That said, webOS may take off when HP puts it on computers, and even devices made by other companies. webOS will work alongside Windows, although HP hasn't revealed whether it'll dual-boot into a separate environment or sit on top of Windows as an interface.

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