HP: webOS To Be Open Sourced

 

Good news. And bad news. 

The Good

HP has decided to open webOS and contribute it to the open source community. Meg Whitman and Co have decided that the company will still be an “active participant and investor in the project” but have decided that they cannot continue to pump money into the project, so its looking to the community to do its work for it.  

This is great news for those who love their webOS devices and were saddened at the possibility of the program being axed. The question is if HP will be producing any new hardware for the newly opened operating system.

The Bad

It seems that the webOS hardware lineup isn’t going to be producing anything any time soon. Regarding the future of webOS hardware, the company has stated that it will “explore the viability of putting webOS on devices”. That doesn’t sound like good news to me but the company has said that current owners of webOS devices will continue to receive software improvements and updates in the future. 

HP has posted a set of FAQs for any more questions you may have. 

HP Chairman Uses A MacBook Air, Says No Thanks To ENVY

If HP's latest ENVY series of laptops didn't strike you with a hint of blunt ripoff of Apple's MacBook Pro, this certainly sums it up. HP chairman Ray Lane is a Mac user. More specifically a MacBook Air user. Oh the irony and awkwardness! We wouldn't be surprised to see him using an iPhone instead of a webOS smartphone as well. Just goes to show HP's laptops and Windows OS just doesn't cut it. 

HP Shaves Off $100 Off TouchPad Retail Price

Well what do you know, starting tomorrow, you can score yourself a 16GB HP TouchPad running the sleek WebOS for only $400 while the 32GB will run you $500, that's $100 off the regular retail price. Does this mean HP is having a hard time selling the TouchPad when you've got a tablet leader such as the iPad around? That's generally the consensus when prices are reduced. HP does state that the price reductions are just for a limited time only. So if you want to score yourself a TouchPad, now is the time. Head on over to HP's TouchPad offer page for more. Now if only Apple slashed prices on their products.

HP TouchPad Ready To Grab Your Pre-Ordering Money

HP's TouchPad tablet is now officially available for pre-order at your favorite online and offline retailer in exchange for your hard earned cash. The TouchPad sports a 9.7" display and runs on WebOS, formally owned and developed by Palm. HP's TouchPad looks like it could be a good iPad 2 contender amongst the majority of tablets running on Android. You can pre-order the TouchPad in two configurations. The 16GB model will run you $500 while the 32GB model will set you back $600. HP has put out a few videos demoing some of the features of their new tablet running WebOS calling their Touch to Share feature, "magic". We'll just have to wait and see how magical it really is when it starts shipping on July 1st.