Once again the HP TouchPad surprises me! Developer GameLoft, who has a massive army of clones doing battle on the iTunes App Store and also has some games that work on one or two Android devices, has just started an awesome sale for … their HP TouchPad games!

Games on sale include NOVA 2, Shrek Kart HD, Asphalt 6 and Assassin’s Creed – Altairs Chronicles HD!

Here is the description for NOVA 2:

The ultimate sci-fi FPS is back!

Get ready to step into a whole new level of gaming! 6 years have passed since the events depicted in the first episode. Humanity is

HP has put up a press release regarding the fate of WebOS.  WebOS has been given to the open source community.

HP will engage the open source community to help define the charter of the open source project under a set of operating principles:

• The goal of the project is to accelerate the open development of the webOS platform
• HP will be an active participant and investor in the project
• Good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation
• Software will be provided as a pure open source project

This is probably the best thing that HP could have done with this.  Once everything is finalized, it will then be… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The HP TouchPad has now been playing the game of ‘bring out your dead’ for twice as long as it was a living product – but this weekend might be the end of the road. HP is having a fire sale on the TouchPad starting at 6:00 p.m. (Central Time), Sunday, December 11th via its eBay store.

Here is the text of the message sent to HP employees:

To: U.S. HP Employees

HP employees will have a chance to purchase a refurbished HP TouchPad via eBay before the sale is announced to the general public. Specifically, the TouchPads will be offered through one of HP’s newest marketplaces for close-out and refurbished HP

Two interesting pieces of contrasting TouchPad news: one about failure and the other success.

From AllThingsD, we get a snip from the recent HP earnings report specific to Palm, webOS and the impact of folding up that business on their results. Here is their quote from the earnings report:

Non-GAAP earnings and operating profit information excludes after-tax costs of $3.3 billion, or $1.56 per diluted share, related to the wind down of HP’s webOS device business, impairment of goodwill and purchased intangible assets, amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

It is nearly three full months since HP killed off webOS and the entire former Palm line of webOS-based devices. None of this is news – the HP TouchPad was killed after only six weeks of life, and immediately placed on a fire sale which was widely reported and caused an internet-breaking amount of interest. In the ensuing three months, hardly a day has passed without some mention of HP, webOS or the TouchPad – which is a far cry from the yawn-inducing life of webOS prior to that. So, as I say from the start – these last few months since the death of webOS have been the liveliest since the very first announcements!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Now that the carnage from HP’s “firesale” has finally settled, HP announced that the Touchpad is officially out of stock never to be heard from again. We can go on about our normal lives of hoping for better tablets while paying a premium price for a good product. The fact that the  hardware is no longer being made basically makes it impossible to to score one unless you stuble upon some old stock leftovers somewhere. Otherwise you can try your chances on Ebay or Craigslist.

There have been a fair share of crappy tablets released in the past few years, mostly third-party resistive screen tablets with some resemblance of Android as the OS… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Nexus404

If you are one of the unlucky shoppers that had a cancelled order during Touchpad firesale through OnSale (Amazon), then you might be in luck. While doing the usual Touchpad search before bed I came across a link that was posted on the chat over on SlashNet. The link led me to page that required I put in my original order number and email. From there I received a link in my inbox to a generic looking OnSale order form. This process took some serious time and nail biting, probably due to the fact that the server was getting pounded from all those who attempted to originally purchase the… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It is hard to believe that the #2 Tablet in the world was released and cancelled within six weeks … but that is the situation with the HP TouchPad. ‘Soft launched’ in early July and formally launched a couple of weeks later, the webOS tablet was cancelled with the entire webOS product line by mid-August and existing inventory sold off quickly in a ‘fire sale’.

In early August Staples had a big sale paired with a ‘weekend coupon’ from HP for $100 off, making the TouchPad a delicious $299! Yet I didn’t buy one, and described why here. I also subsequently discussed the abysmal TouchPad sales and then derided HP as

Today on Google + I saw the following post from Francis:

We’re writing to inform you that your order XXX-XXXXXX-XXXXX from onSale has been canceled because the item(s) you purchased were out of stock. Please return and place your order again at a later time.

When I returned to my desk I checked my email … and of course I had the same thing waiting. The ‘item’, of course, was the HP TouchPad – recently discontinued and then put on fire sale clearance by HP for $99/$149 for the 16 & 32GB models.

These emails are amongst the literally tens of thousands sent by Amazon.com on behalf of onSale, a MacMall affiliate. And… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The Palm brand may be gone but their vision, and their under-appreciated WebOS operating systems are alive and well thanks to HP. Today’s Gear Deal brings us one of the HP Pre devices, the HP Pre 2.

The HP Pre 2 is the successor to the Palm Pre and features WebOS 2.0, a 3.1″ 320×480 display, a slide-out keyboard, a 5MP camera and hotspot capability. It has 16GB built-in storage and offers up to up to 5.5 hours talk time.

As HP explains, the HP Pre offers “Mobility plus apps”.

Speed up: this is the fastest Palm Smartphone yet1, 2

Simplify your life with the features of the new HP

We’re all Palm fans from way back in the day. So while none of us are currently using WebOS, we were all excited to follow HP’s recent announcements! Of course, big geeks that we are, everyone had their own opinion on the new entries to the smartphone and tablet world …

Carly Z: Anyone else following the HPalm stuff? Amazing what HP’s deep pockets can do.

Francis Scardino: yeah, works out for us…(greedy consumers) The touchpad looks awesome. Touchstone support is a winner. No cords for you.

Carly  Z: All… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

(image courtesy Engadget)

It’s about time! Looks like the wait may have been worth it for WebOS fans, as they’ll be getting a Kindle app on the new WebOS Touchpad! They’ll also have extra bragging rights since the Touchpad version of Kindle will be the first to support Collections (though presumably this means Android and iOS will be hot on its heels).

What’s very vague from the press release is whether Kindle will be coming to the Pre 3 or any other WebOS phones. Amazon doesn’t say, and HP didn’t mention it during their presentation today. It seems likely, but then again Amazon has ignored WebOS up until this point, and if they’re on the… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

One of my favorite games on the iPhone and iPad to play is MahJong. The speed, or lack thereof, appeals to the slow-moving, bum-reflex old fart in me, and plus I like puzzle games.

One of the better versions of MahJong for the iPad and iPhone is from Astraware, a game maker I quite like. And now they’ve ported their popular app to the Palm Pre and Pre Plus devices. Ordinarily going for 3 bucks, it’s on sale now for only a single ol’ George Washington dollar (or “Warshington,” as my step-Mom would say). So maybe you should hie on over and check it

Back in our Palm days — which many of us here at Gear Diary still miss, I might add — Astraware was one of the go-to companies for Palm games.  And while Palm may be on shaky ground these days, Astraware at least hasn’t given up, releasing a pair of new games for the Palm Pre:

• Astraware Casino: http://www.astraware.com/webos/casino
• Police Range: http://www.astraware.com/webos/policerange

There’s life in the ol’ Palm platform yet, I’m guessing.  And if you’re a Palm Pre owner,  then hey, check them out!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I am a longtime Palm supporter; I had a Palm Pilot 1000 within a few weeks of their release.  I loved the built-in Graffiti, the form factor, the built-in functionality . . . I was a big fan.  And until Palm started dying on the vine, I continued to purchase Palm devices in favor of other options (we pause now to acknowledge the before-it’s-time greatest of my old Tapwave Zodiac).  So I was pretty excited to see Palm come out with WebOS and the Pre.

Well, I know it ain’t selling all that great, but Astraware hasn’t given up, bless ‘em, and they are now offering a number of games for webOS.  Yay, Astraware!  Want… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...