HP introduces a new device
I have been discussing HP’s recent acquisition of Palm with several friends in the industry. Their reaction is, not surprisingly, mixed, with some believing WebOS devices like the Palm will eventually disappear altogether, and others believing with equal conviction that HP has a good chance of being a huge success. WebOS currently represents only four percent of the mobile device market so they clearly have an uphill battle.
As a first step, HP has just released a new smartphone called the Veer. It is a 4G device— although the term “4G” has lost some meaning over the last several years, as it has gone from describing a very fast internet connection technology to describing services that are marginally faster or, in some cases, not even as fast as current 3G networks.
The Veer is quite small, measuring 54.5 mm (2.15 inches) wide, 84.0 mm (3.31 inches) high and 15.1 mm (0.59 inches) thick, and weighing 103 grams (3.63 ounces). It has a 2.6-inch touch screen with 320x400 pixel resolution, which supports 18-bit color. The Veer has a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard. There are the usual additional hardware features including a 5-megapixel camera with extended depth of field, geotagging, and video capture, built-in GPS, an accelerometer, and ambient light and proximity sensors. The phone uses two microphones for noise cancellation which is supposed to result in quieter calls. There is 8GB of mass storage with about 6.1GB available to the user. The 910 mAh, nonremovable battery provides up to five hours of talk time or 300 hours of standby time. It is charged using a wireless charging device.
The Veer supports WiFi and Bluetooth. It can also serve as a router allowing WiFi connected devices to use the 4G internet connectivity of the device. It supports USB for connection to a laptop or desktop computer. It is available in either black or white.
At this point, there are already a number of interesting applications available for the Veer.
One thing about WebOS that may be very useful is that there is no cost to become a developer, and most apps are written in JavaScript with the presentation layer as HTML and CSS. HP provides a framework to make writing apps quicker and to make accessing system features easier. This may encourage further application development for WebOS devices.
Another interesting feature is that one does not have to “jailbreak” or “root” the device to make special features available. What other platforms call jailbreaking or rooting, HP calls entering developer mode. They don’t make the user jump through hoops, purchase device certificates, or use questionable tools. Instead, they provide simple shortc0uts from the launcher and phone apps.
In the United States, the device is only available through AT&T. The cost with a contract is $49.95. As a replacement phone it costs $449.99.
More information can be found at: http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/webos/us/en/index.html?jumpid=hpr_r1002_USEN_webos
