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Mystery software venture to focus on webOS, Enyo, cloud The Hewlett Packard global business division formerly known as Palm is in major upheaval yet again, as HP moves to spin off its webOS team into a new subsidiary, to be called Gram. The new venture was announced at an internal meeting late last week, webOS Nation reports, but exactly what Gram is being launched to accomplish remains something of a mystery. Newly christened Gram employees are being told to treat the venture as they would a startup. They can discuss what they're doing with close friends and family, but outsiders...

HP just announced its plans to discontinue operations on webOS devices, specifically the recently announced TouchPad and webOS phones. The future of webOS is uncertain as HP simply added that it would "continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward". This likely means that HP is looking to either license out the software or dump it in an outright sale.  At this point I don't know that HP needs to be at the helm of the webOS project. Licensing it out could generate short term revenue from companies looking to hedge their bets against Google/Motorola,...

On Friday, Nokia announced that they were adopting WP7 as their operating system. Although some open source advocates might see this as a set-back for Linux, Android is already the best-selling Linux OS of all times. Meanwhile, as a Ben Zander student, all I see is possibility and the the world of opportunities that this opens to developers. Although they will continue shipping Symbian for a while, they are effectively sun-setting it. Just like you can still purchase Itanium systems from HP, nobody really develops for those anymore. Nokia had this chart to offer on Friday: This is fascinating turn...

The Touchpad, not reliant on Android, Windows or (of course) iOS, is a sign that HP demands to be taken seriously as a software company.Yes, HP (HPQ) has now jumped into the tablet fray with its TouchPad.  It's a whiz-bang cool gadget, and some folks will want to rush out and buy it.  Are we talking iPad numbers? Not likely, but whether HP sells as many of its flavor of tablets  in this first outing isn't perhaps as important as HP finally wrenching its destiny away from Microsoft (MSFT) and placing it in its own hands. Let's be very clear,...

Last year Qualcomm told us about the MSM8960, its next-generation Snapdragon SoC based on a brand new microprocessor architecture. Today Qualcomm announced some more details on the architecture behind the MSM8960 as well as a couple of new SoCs based on that architecture.   The CPU architecture is codenamed Krait. I'll be meeting with Qualcomm later today to talk about architectural details in greater depth as today's release has little information other than some general performance numbers. Krait, like Scorpion before it, is a ground-up CPU design by Qualcomm. The architecture will debut at 28nm and run at speeds of...

RBS (LON:RBS) have today advised that they remain buyers of ARM Holdings Plc (LON:ARM) in light of recent developments at HP. Last night, HP announced it would use the Palm/WebOS in its PCs later this year. According to RBS this could help ARM penetrate the PC market as the WebOS is based on ARM CPUs. Didier Scemama at RBS says: "We believe this announcement is potentially significant for ARM as HP, the leading PC vendor, intends to use a different OS than MSFT’s Windows, in its PCs. "Currently all HP’s PCs are based on x86 processors from INTC or AMD....

We're here at HP's webOS 2.1 event in San Francisco. HP has announced a couple of big things today; a tablet (HP TouchPad), a (tiny) smartphone (HP Veer) and a professional phone (the Pre 3), all running the webOS 2.1 operating system.The TouchPad is a 9.7" (1024x768) tablet powered by the Qualcomm MSM8x60 SoC with a 1.2GHz dual-core Scorpion CPU, a 1.3MP webcam, 16 or 32GB storage, 1GB RAM and 802.11 b/g/n. The TouchPad weighs in at about 1.6 lbs and 13mm thick. The TouchPad WiFi-only version will be coming to US sometime this summer with 3G/4G versions and other...

Oh, hello. A trusted tipster just sent in these internal renders of HP / Palm's "Topaz" webOS tablet, which is one of two tablets currently being developed in Sunnyvale. That's right, two tablets: the 9-inch Topaz and a 7-inch model codnamed Opal -- a lineup that fits nicely into Palm's "Something big, Something small, Something beyond" tagline for its upcoming February 9th event. Looking at the render, we're seeing the no-button design we'd previously heard about (we're assuming the gesture area rotates with the display), a front-facing camera, a micro USB port on the bottom, and what appears to be...