Details of HP’s webOS Tablet Strategy Emerge

We’ve been expecting HP to show off at least one webOS-based tablet at a February 9 event. Now it looks like Engadget has gotten some leaked renders and marketing materials that show off some of the company’s tablet strategy.

When HP acquired Palm last year, it was clear that the company saw plans for webOS beyond just the smartphone. The company affirmed its plans to enter the tablet space in July.

Now Engadget is publishing information from a “trusted tipster” that sheds some light on HP’s plans.

The tipster reveals that HP is planning not one, but two tablets: a 9-inch model codenamed Topaz and a 7-inch model called Opal.

The rendered images Engadget obtained show off the Topaz, and the unit looks like a cross between an iPad and a Palm Pre. From the renders, it looks like the device will not have any physical buttons (capacitive perhaps) and will include a front-facing camera.

The render also shows off what looks like webOS on the device itself. Perhaps more than any other mobile OS, we expect webOS to have the easiest transition to larger-sized devices, so this makes sense.

While specifics like price and specifications weren’t revealed, Engadget did get a hold of what looks like an internal slide with a tentative release date slated for this September. This slide was for the Opal, so perhaps HP will be releasing the Topaz tablet more quickly.

Our only concern for HP is that announcing a device more than six months in advance, especially given the competition from — well, everyone — could wind up putting the company at a disadvantage.

Although webOS is better designed to scale to multiple device sizes than many of its competitors are, the lack of brand recognition in the smartphone market — when compared to iOS, Android and even BlackBerry — may limit some of the initial customer base.

We still think the potential for a webOS tablet is immense and we look forward to seeing what HP unveils next month.

A Paintbrush Stylus for iPad [VIDEO]

This week, I had a chance to review the Nomad Brush, a beautiful, handcrafted stylus designed for painting and sketching on the iPad.

The stylus feels and looks like an actual paintbrush, complete with a 5.5-inch wooden handle and a mix of natural and synthetic fibers selected for their conductive properties. When I first came across this demo video of the stylus last week, I was skeptical that the iPad‘s touchscreen surface would be able to pick up the stylus’s soft bristles, but I’m happy to report that the iPad easily responds to the touch. It allows for free-flowing brush strokes much like a real paintbrush, and an elegance of line I was previously unable to achieve using my fingers or a regular stylus.

Since we’ve only used the brush for a day, we can neither guarantee that it will work a year or even a month from now with heavy use, nor whether the bristles will hold their shape. (As a side note, we’re still looking for a way to keep those bristles intact while traveling; I plan to use my standard canvas brush holder in the meantime.) Given how much we plan to use the thing, we should have a pretty good idea of how it holds up by the time the brush goes on sale in early February.

The Nomad Brush was conceived by Don Lee, a 39-year-old architect based in New York. After 14 years as an architect, Lee decided to take a year-long break from his profession “to rejuvenate [his] creative side,” he explains.

As part of the rejuvenation process, Lee took up sketching on the iPad. “The finger is by far the most efficient way to navigate the iPad, but when it came to sketching, I just couldn’t get used to it,” Lee says. “As a problem solver by nature, I started to tinker and found a solution, and that’s how the Nomad Brush came about.”

At launch, only a black version with a 5.5-inch handle will be available for purchase, followed by a version with a white handle. In the future, Lee plans to create additional versions with varying brush head sizes and handle lengths. Pricing has not yet been disclosed, though given that each stylus is hand made, we expect it will be a bit pricier than the typical stylus.

In the meantime, check out our hands-on video below

Android Surpasses Apple as the Leading OS on Mobile Ad Network

Mobile advertising network Millenial Media announced today that the Android OS has surpassed Apple’s iOS as the leading smartphone OS on its network.

The news lends further support for a prediction Gartner Research made in September: that the open-source Android OS would be the leading smartphone OS by 2014.

Android phones outsold iPhones for the first time in early 2010, and a report from Nielsen recently revealed that Android increased its share of new smartphone buyers between January and November while Apple’s share remained about steady and BlackBerry’s decreased.

Part of Android’s advantage is that it runs on devices from multiple manufacturers, while Apple’s and RIM’s operating systems run only on their devices. Apple is still Millenial network’s leading manufacturer with about 21% market share.

At least on Millenial’s network, however, Android is getting a lot of attention from advertisers. Android ad requests grew 141% from Q3 to Q4 of 2010 while Apple requests grew 12% and RIM requests grew 60%. Android apps also dominated, accounting for 55% of revenue from application platforms.

These stats only apply to Millenial’s network, which the company says reaches about 80% of the mobile phone-carrying U.S. population. But given recent trends, we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that other networks are seeing similar shifts in smartphone market share. It will be interesting to see if next month’s release of the iPhone for Verizon can pull iOS back into the lead.

BlackBerry Playbook Tablet

Research in Motion is set to enter the tablet space with the BlackBerry Playbook, which weighs in at less than a pound and sports a 7-inch touchscreen. There’s also a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, paired up with a 3-megapixel front-facing cam for videoconferencing, a likely use-case for RIM’s business customers.

We got a chance to check out the device last week at CES, where BlackBerry Marketing Manager Jeff Gadway demoed some of the features of the Playbook. Let us know how you think it compares to iPad and the plethora of new Android tablets in the comments.

10 New Tablets Ready to Challenge the iPad

One of the standout trends of CES 2011 was the tablet. No fewer than 80 tablets were on display from manufacturers from across the globe, each hoping to take a piece of the growing market, led by the iPad.

Most of the tablets, unsurprisingly, were running Android. With details of Android 3.0 Honeycomb just starting to eke out in earnest at the show, most tablet makers were instead running customized versions of Android 2.2 or 2.3. By the time many of the tablets we looked at hit the market, we expect that they will ship with Honeycomb.

We’ve compiled a video gallery of some of our favorite tablets from the floors and hotel suites at CES. While most of these run Android, the BlackBerry PlayBook and the Windows 7-based ASUS Eee Slate EP121 also made strong showings.

The first Android 3.0-based tablet, the Motorola Xoom, was one of the big stars of CES, and we can’t wait to see it do more than running demos.

One of our surprise favorites of CES 2011 was the ASUS Eee Transformer. As someone who previously wasn’t sold on the concept of a detachable netbook/tablet combination, I have to say, I like ASUS’s approach in this space.

2011 is going to be a great year for tablets — Android or otherwise — and we look forward to watching these devices come to market and seeing what other surprises are in store for us from other manufacturers.

Do you plan on buying a tablet in 2011? Let us know in the comments.

Dell’s 4G Streak 7 Tablet

We recently took Dell’s Streak 7 tablet, a 4G tablet that made its debut at CES, for a bit of a test drive.

The Streak 7 is Dell’s successor to the Streak, an early Android tablet that — at 5 inches — was barely larger than a smartphone. It shipped with Android 1.6 and was slowly upgraded to a later version of the OS.

The Streak 7 is an upgraded experience with a 7-inch screen and Android 2.2 (Froyo) — still a far cry from the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablets we saw elsewhere at CES, but a definite improvement over the last model.

The Streak 7 has a front-facing camera for video chats, a rear 5 MP camera with a flash for taking photos, built-in Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities and up to 32 GB of storage.

Like its predecessor, the Streak 7 will be available on T-Mobile; it will be T-Mobile’s first 4G tablet.

In the two demo videos below, we see the Streak 7 as a great device for connecting to all the other devices and media in your home — as a sort of remote control for your digital life, as well as a stand-alone device.

Take a look, and let us know what you think in the comments.

A sea of tablets at CES, but no iPad-killer

Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha shows the company's new Xoom tablet (Reuters)
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – It was easier to find a tablet this week in Las Vegas than a taxi.

Rivals determined to prevent Apple Inc from dominating the tablet market the way it did with digital music players unleashed a tidal wave of touchscreen devices at the Consumer Electronics Show.

This year may well produce a viable competitor to Apple's iPad. But CES only served to underscore the challenge they face.

Of the slew of tablets on view at CES, devices from Motorola and Research in Motion were standouts. But none rose to iPad-killer status, analysts said. Some, lazier vendors seemed to use the show as a whiteboard to sketch out half-baked ideas.

Rich Beyer, chief executive of Freescale Semiconductor, which makes chips for tablets, said in an interview ahead of CES that Apple's rivals are still testing the market.

"I think a lot of people are hoping that this market is not going to be like Apple and the MP3 market."

Rivals are already playing catch-up, after Apple moved assertively to define the tablet market, sacrificing its precious margin profile to price the iPad at $500.

There is undoubtedly an opportunity for other tablets, particularly with different screen sizes and in the corporate market, where Apple has not traditionally been very successful. And the sheer ubiquity of tablets based on Google's Android software makes that the platform that Apple cannot ignore.

The tablet segment is expected to more than triple to 50 million units in 2011, with Apple seen as by far the dominant vendor.

Despite Apple's big head start, no one expects its competitors to stay away. Sony Corp said it hopes to become the world's second-largest vendor of tablet devices by 2012, but failed to show anything.

Paul-Henri Ferrand, head of consumer marketing for Dell, said: "Apple can't expect to have the tablet market to itself."

CORPORATE DEMAND

A host of manufacturers are producing tablets based on Android, which is free to license. But Android tablets will face the added challenge of not only competing against the iPad, but also one another.

"Android will be a key player in the tablet market but it will be hard for any single vendor to challenge Apple," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Lenovo, LG Electronics and Asustek Computer were just a few of the companies showing off Android tablets at CES.

Some tablet makers await the next version of Android, known as Honeycomb, expected in the next few months, before moving ahead.

"The key to non-iPad market is a more robust version of Android," said Ujesh Desai, vice president of product marketing for Nvidia, whose fast, dual-core Tegra 2 chips power tablets from Dell and Toshiba.

"With every update that they've come out with, it proves that they're getting better and better," he said.

Microsoft's Windows software is cropping up on a few tablets, but it is not well-suited for the devices.

Kumu Puri, a senior executive with Accenture's consumer electronics practice, said vendors cannot ignore tablet demand from corporate customers.

"If the traditional computer manufacturers aren't thinking about how this is going to effect their lineup for the enterprise, they might end up holding the bag," she said.

Tablets from RIM and Hewlett-Packard will be closely watched precisely because they do not use Android, and may be able to offer users an experience they cannot get elsewhere.

RIM's 7-inch PlayBook tablet, set to launch in February or March, received positive early reviews after the company offered hands-on demos at CES.

HP is hosting an event in early February where it is expected to show off a tablet running on webOS software, which the company acquired when it bought Palm last year.