Gadgetmac’s CES 2012 Coverage

Starting yesterday and coming into full swing today, nerds and geeks from all corners are celebrating for CES 2012 has finally begun. The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show is one of, if not the, biggest tech events of the year. Companies from all over congregate in Las Vegas to showcase their newest products. We will be giving you updates with the best stuff coming out of CES!

Check after the break to see a breakthrough of several categories that will be touched upon during CES and to see continuing coverage of the show throughout the week! Be sure to head over to our CES 2012 page for all things CES.

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's New ENVY Series Laptops Totally Don't Look Like MacBook Pros

What do we have here? HP's premium new ENVY series of 15-inch and 17-inch slim portable laptops are made out of spanking aluminum chassis with built-in Beats audio, black backlit chiclet style keyboard layout, multi-touch trackpad and a 6.1 Beats Audio speaker system that includes a total of six speakers and a subwoofer built-in that are controlled by a nifty Beats branded volume control knob. You'll be able to configure both the ENVY 15 and ENVY 17 models with Intel's latest quad-core processors, slot-loading Blu-ray drive, 16GB of RAM, AMD graphic processors with up to 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM, full HD LED 3D display and even stuff up to three storage drives like two hard drives and one SSD to create your ultimate portable machine. 

It's do doubt HP's newest ENVY series looks stunning. Did anyone else think HP wasn't being very creative with their so called innovative design? Anyway, you'll be able to pick one up on December 7 starting at $1,099.

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.

HP Announces First WiFi Mobile Mouse

While HP's latest WiFi connected wireless mouse isn't going to win any design awards anytime soon, it's the world's first WiFi wireless mouse with an impressive 9-month battery life. No other wireless mouse currently on the market comes even close to this. HP claims it's an easy one-time pairing process on Windows 7 while Mac users will have to settle for their Magic Mouse instead. HP claims that in order to pair over WiFi, a PC running Windows 7 is required. If you're a Mac user, there is nothing here to keep you interested anyway. The 1600cpi laser sensor and 5 programmable buttons are still very basic. The HP WiFi Mobile Mouse will be available in June for $49.99. I think I'll stick with my Razer mice for now.