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 today was found to have filed a trio of trademarks for devices that could represent of Palm's 2011 webOS lineup. The USPTO filings refer to the Gyst, Myte and Veer in generic terms but which could fit the description of a smartphone. PocketNow suggested the three could be the previously codenamed Mantaray, Stingray and Windsor, since the previously mentioned Broadway may be the Pixi 2.
Motorola's Android 3.0 tablet has emerged again tonight with a leak that shows both clearer images and more detailed specs. The new images from well-known Verizon leaker WN Russell reflect the same device shown off by Google VP Andy Rubin and show a 10-inch slate with the completely overhauled interface, including the new navigation bar and lock screen. The back shows the expected five-megapixel camera with flash as well as a large external speaker and what appears to be standard USB ports on the bottom.
Motorola's co-CEO Sanjay Jha dropped strong hints of future plans, as well as those from Apple, at the Credit Suisse conference on Wednesday. The leader of the soon to be independent mobile firm confirmed that he was onboard with Verizon's LTE plans and would have smartphones and other devices "early next year." They weren't identified but may include a Verizon edition of the Olympus phone as well as the MotoPad, a seven-inch tablet.
HP and Palm's Joe Hayashi at the Palm Developer Day this Saturday provided some of the first details of the developer platform that will support a slew of new webOS devices next year. The Enyo framework will replace Mojo and is built to support different designs beyond the mix of touchscreen and physical keyboard, such as full-touch phones and tablets like the PalmPad. The JavaScript code underneath should run faster and will be more modular to help fix bugs and add new features sooner than before.
Lenovo's LePad tablet will have a US launch sometime in 2011, CEO Yuan Yangqing said on Friday. The company leader didn't provide a price or a ship date to the WSJ, but he also delayed the Android device's release in China, where it would now ship early in 2011 instead of the originally planned December. As much as $15.1 million was already being invested in mobile app developers to foster a custom app store that would launch with the LePad.
HTC may have faced a rare rebuff from Google that would stall its tablet efforts, a JPMorgan analyst said today. Google is said to be focusing most of its attention on Motorola's tablet as a halo device for Android 3.0 and LG's Optimus Pad for Honeycomb (tentatively 3.5), pushing the internal readiness of HTC's own design from December to sometime in spring 2011. The note, picked up by Taiwan's Apple Daily, didn't explain why Google would risk delaying HTC's device.
Motorola's 2011 plans may have solidified today with the discovery of three certifications for a mystery device. The Olympus MB860, believed to be one of Motorola's tablets or possibly the Terminator phone, has passed certifications through the Bluetooth SIG, the Wi-Fi Alliance and previously the UPnP Forum. The sites publicly list it as a smartphone, but the Bluetooth SIG unusually changed the name of the device to a vague BT0001, suggesting Motorola had a vested interest in keeping its real model number and purpose a secret.
Verizon and Disney today formalized a deal that will bring the ESPN sports channel's content to tablets as well as more to FiOS TV. The plan will give access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Buzzer Beater and Goal Line both on computers and in a tablet-optimized format. The approach is limited to FiOS TV subscribers but will let them authenticate themselves for access when the service goes live in "coming months."
The NFL tonight said it was talking about bringing American football video to Verizon tablets. It didn't have details but was determined that a deal was just a "question of what shape or form." Verizon declined to comment to the WSJ but admitted that video was an important part of how it pushed data use on its networks.
