| MacUpdate Weekend Sale | :This weekend MacUpdate has slashed prices on Painter 12 and Painter Lite. Painter 12 retails for $429, but has been reduced by 54% to $199. Painter Lite has seen a 58% price cut from $69 to $29. Hurry, because these deals are only available until May 19th 2013. |
The TouchPad Go tablet from HP, was due to ship just a few weeks after HP decided to drop its webOS hardware, has now shown up in live images. A prototype of the 7-inch tablet, codenamed Opal, was apparently in the hands of a user from a Chinese forum site for three months. The specs on the back of the unit match those revealed in the FCC filing from August.
HP's decision to get out of webOS hardware may have come as much from HP's top-level commands as anything from the webOS team. Insiders in the former Palm group disclosed that having HP onside hadn't translated to more resources. Staff focusing on one project have often delayed another, leading to hardware that was often several months overdue, GDGT heard.
HP has reportedly chosen Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Inventec to build the seven-inch webOS tablet, which is referred to as the Opal, a subcontractor has told Taiwan Economic News. The device, which serves as a smaller counterpart to the 9.7-inch TouchPad, is said to be ready for production with an estimated launch time-frame aimed for August.
Another leak from Staples has emerged that points to the store being told of long-term tablet plans. Along with seeing April launches for the Xoom and the BlackBerry PlayBook, the Droid-Life retail screen cap shows both Dell and HTC 10-inch Android 3.0 tablets as "coming soon." The seven-inch HP Opal is also listed in a similar state along with its known cousin, the TouchPad.
HP's new CEO Leo Apotheker said in an interview late Thursday that at least some of the webOS hardware due at the February 9 event will ship quickly. He promised the BBC that these would be real, near-term introductions and that the hardware would be ready 'just a few weeks later.' The company was backing away from the mistakes of premature announcements that it made with devices like the Slate 500, which was unveiled in early January 2010 but didn't ship until October and had lost nearly all attention to the iPad.
HP's Opal and Topaz webOS tablets may have a heavy media leaning based on rumors this evening of its content deals. Its cloud storage is now thought to be used for a media store. Clayton Morris, the source of past claims, understood that it may initially involve a deal with Amazon for its MP3 and VOD services but could switch to a semi-independent service based on more
A follow-up leak has given away how webOS will work on HP's Opal and Topaz tablets as well as future touch-only smartphones. The interface on a larger screen will now be split into panels depending on the screen size of the device. A smartphone would only see a single screen, PreCentral found, but larger tablets would see two or three panels, such as a list of messages side-by-side with the message bodies.
More details have popped up for HP's Opal and Topaz tablets that in a leak that shows at least some parallels to the iPad. Both devices will be the only known mainstream tablets outside of the iPad to have 1024x768 screens. Engadget's contacts added that the 9-inch Opal's dimensions will be so close to those of the iPad that it will be just 0.04 inches smaller on average than its Apple counterpart.
Supplier insiders claimed Tuesday night that HP would ship its first webOS tablets in March. The Palm team reportedly finished designing its tablets in 2010 but won't have its contractor, Inventec, ship until March. Digitimes' contacts said the delay gave HP and Palm time to test the software and coordinate the launch.
HP played a rare game with the media Tuesday night and sent out a second pseudo-invitation to its February 9 event that hinted much more was on the way. The brief notice hinted that leaks of the Opal and Topaz tablets were incomplete or outdated and that much more could appear at the special gathering. "Think you saw the latest on Engadget?" it read. "Think again."
HP's webOS tablets were finally uncovered for the first time in a leak that has given some of their first concrete details. In addition to the nine-inch Topaz, a seven-inch counterpart known as the Opal is due to arrive with a heavy focus on e-reading. Both of the Palm-designed slates were identified by Engadget as having front facing cameras, micro USB for docking and what may be a unique "premium audio" focus with three speakers.
