HP buys palm...

[muddi900]

Details: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/9ROsDYoSNwo/

So maybe we'll get WebOS phones that do not suck.

[Satertek]

I didn't know they still made iPaqs. I assume this purchase means they want to make a big push back into the smartphone business they helped to start.

Will be interesting to see what they churn out.

[J Arcane]

Technically, HTC made them, Compaq just put their name on it.

[Serapth]

Wow, HP, where old technology goes to die.



Compaq ( Digital, Alpha ), SnapFish, VoodooPC, EDS and now Palm.

They WAY overpayed. There were almost no other bidders and Palm stock TANKED lately. There patent portfolio isn't actually that big, as they spun off a good chunk of the company years ago.



BTW, the Compaq iPaq totally missed the chance, they were truly and completely the shit back in the day. I owned a Palm III and the comprable iPaq back in the day, and the iPaq was worlds more advanced, then each version was.... the same, followed by, the same. Plus, there wasn't an ounce of sexy, notta.

[Xerxes]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/04/webos-slate-hp-pixi-rm-eng.jpg (http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/28/hp-opportunities-for-webos-smartphones-slates-and-potentiall/)

This just makes me think things are going to get a lot more complicated on the mobile OS field. I mean choices are good, but it's going to be like consoles with it's exclusives and what not. One group getting the apps you want and the others getting whatever.

[evilgoodwin]

Does this mean my phone won't be able to sync to my pc without installing 5 worthless applications that run in the background all the time? :P

[Serapth]

Does this mean my phone won't be able to sync to my pc without installing 5 worthless applications that run in the background all the time? :P

Do you mean iTunes, iTuneHelperService, Safari, Bonjour and AppleUpdater service?

[Draconis]

IF, they adopt WebOS towards the Tablet end, we could definitely see some good products coming down the pipeline. Provided HP doesn't take the cheap route on parts.

Which, they usually do.

Speculation is going around right now that this is a move to make them more stable on the mobile phone space, without being forced to use Microsoft's OS on the hardware they produce for Mobile Phones.

If HP plays their cards right in this regard, it could be very lucrative for them. They will not be beholden or tied to Microsoft in this regard, and it could net them more money in the longrun. But they have to play this right, which remains yet to be seen.


However, I am inclined to lean towards Serapth's thoughts on this. HP has a severe habit of buying up stuff...and butchering them into non existance or a pale, miserable, ghost of its once former self.

Time will tell. HP is very capable of making rock solid products. It's just that in my experience, they far too often take the cheap route.

[Expugnare]

Do you mean iTunes, iTuneHelperService, Safari, Bonjour and AppleUpdater service?

Thanks for reminding me, I just reinstalled iTunes to put some music on my iPhone and I forgot to murder all their bloody autostarting processes.

[evilgoodwin]

Thanks for reminding me, I just reinstalled iTunes to put some music on my iPhone and I forgot to murder all their bloody autostarting processes.

See, that's what I like about my Pre. It installs... nothing. Nothing at all is installed when you hook it to your PC! You use it as a usb drive to put anything on and off of it.

HP WILL make some fucking awful "sync" software loaded with ads and eating up resources to cater to asshats who don't know how to copy/paste from directories. I wouldn't be surprised if they locked out accessing the phone via USB to kill the homebrew scene under a bullshit banner of "Piracy" or "Hackerz."

...and we still don't have Flash yet, which was demoed in, like, January.

[muddi900]

See, that's what I like about my Pre. It installs... nothing. Nothing at all is installed when you hook it to your PC! You use it as a usb drive to put anything on and off of it.


What the fuck? This is not something revolutionary or amazing. Every cheap ass phone with a camera released in the past 5 years works like that. Every cheap chinese mp3 player works like that. Apple, the market leader in most major markets, treated its customers like idiots by making sync mandatory for ipods, so it became ok for every fucking tech company to do that.

Anybody who thinks "RClick->send to" is more complicated than syncing ipods with itunes is shitting themselves. I would point out though, that while itunes sucks, but it sucks less than the rest of the awful syncing apps. It was atleast barely usable.

[J Arcane]

I have no software installed for my G1, it just reads like a USB drive and lets me write to the SD card that way.

If I install the dev software, there's some other nifty things I can do in command line, but that's only really for guys who want to root it, it's not at all necessary for end users.

[JayVe]

Palm devices don't need a PC... at all. They are entirely cloud-based devices.

HP has been very aggressive in their touch support for upcoming products. I can't wait to see what they do with webOS. I was already planning to pick up the HP Slate when it comes out, and try running the webOS emulator on it. I'm drooling at the thought of a native slate form factor webOS device.