HP has announced its second Android-powered device, the SlateBook x2, which is the first Tegra 4-powered, 10-inch Android convertible tablet. A superpowered NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor powers the system, with a 1920 x 1200 IPS display, with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean where the only customizations that HP has added are a text editor, file explorer, and others. To bolster the feel of using a laptop, HP added a touchpad and 2 USB 2.0 ports, along with the support for a second battery to prolong usage time. PR after the break.
And so, the fate of webOS has once again been switched hands. From its creator, Palm, which was absorbed by HP, which now has been sold off with the required engineers, patents, and software to LG. It turns out that LG already has a plan for webOS, and that is to power the operating systems of their next line of smart TVs. Skott Ahn, LG’s president and chief technology officer, pointed out that “It creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices.” The webOS team will set up base in LG’s new Silicon Valley facilities to start off.
Most Google Chromebooks are in the 11 to 12-inch screen size range. This time, HP has upped the ante slightly with the announcement of the Pavilion 14 Chromebook with a 14-inch 1366 x 768 screen. That means a bigger keyboard and trackpad to back that up, so it’s more like an everyday laptop. Other specs include a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, and integrated graphics — nothing better than the average Chromebook, except this time there’s pretty bad battery life: 4 hours and 15 minutes, which is usually less when actually tested. All of this mediocre will cost you $330. Le sigh.
Another expensive tablet hybrid for Windows 8, another lower chance of it becoming intensely popular: the HP Envy x2 will feature an 11.6-inch detachable screen that will start at $849.99, includes Beats Audio, NFC, and an 8-megapixel camera, that brushed aluminum finish that some love to the end and beyond. It will be available starting November 14th. Via: 
For once, a really honest looking Windows 8 tablet has been announced (besides the Surface from Microsoft), and it looks like it could be HP’s winning machine — but they won’t sell it to consumers; in fact, it will only be sold through enterprise vendors (essentially to corporations). This, in itself, sucks. The HP Elitepad’s specs are very nice, however: a 1280×800 display (between a horrid 4:3 aspect ratio and a 16:9). For physical area, it measures 0.36 inches thin and weighs 1.5 pounds, is built on the new Intel Clovertrail platform, has 2GB of RAM, a 1080p front camea and the 8-megapixel rear camera, and the option for up to 64GB of storage.
Hey, guess what the latest innovation is? Probably this 23.6-inch HP Spectre One deskop. It’s the first real desktop computer you can use with Windows 8 that sounds incredibly reasonable and probably awesome. The 23.6-inch display is actually a capacitive multiouch panel, the latest Ivy Bridge Intel chipsets, discrete NVIDIA graphics for gaming, up to 8 gigabytes of RAM, USB 3.0 connectivity, HDMI-in and the choice of HDD or SSD. Plus the back panel is removable for easy upgrading.
Now there are ultrabooks — and then there’s this. The HP Envy Spectre XT is the latest design from HP aimed to be the thinnest of all of the ultrabooks they are spewing out in press releases today. It features an Ivy Bridge, 3rd generation Intel processor, tapered edge design, is 14.5mm thin, weighs 3.07 pounds, 13.3-inche (1366 x 768 resolution) screen, features 8 hours of battery life, starts at $999.99, with 4GB of RAM, Beats Audio and a 128GB solid state drive. The Envy Spectre XT continues to be premium, allowing for 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, and Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi) technology, a backlit keyboard (unlike the cheaper Envy 4 and Envy 6 ultrabooks), and an HD webcam, with a Pro variant in the works that features a TPM module and Windows 7 Professional. It comes out June 8th. Gallery below.
In the last hurrah of the grand webOS saga, the famed CEO, Jon Rubinstein has left the company. He was responsible for bringing Palm from the bottom of the market to owning and operating one of the best mobile operating systems ever created, webOS. This has been confirmed at AllThingsD, in a brief statement from an HP spokesperson: “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well.” And that was that.
Since webOS is being made open-source to keep it alive (thus entering Android territory), HP has made it official that the code for open webOS 1.0 will be available this September, while the Enyo 1.0 and Enyo 2.0 code is available today. What is Enyo, you ask? It is the application framework behind webOS 3.0 used on the Touchpad; when all versions of code are compiled together, it will be known as Open webOS 1.0.
