Palm

Amazon has been tipped as the latest potential suitor for what remains of Palm, with insider sources at HP claiming the mega-retailer is close to finalizing a deal. HP is reportedly looking to rid itself of Palm as soon as it can, VentureBeat's tipster tells them, and while there are apparently "a handful of contenders" interested, it's Amazon that's closest to handing over the cash. However, it's unclear from the leaks whether Amazon would be buying Palm's hardware business, the webOS platform, or both.

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HP is shedding as many as 525 people from its webOS team, with the staff cull expected to begin sometime this week. The company confirmed to AllThingsD that the job cuts were taking place - though refused to specify an actual number or any other details of the losses - though reiterated its intent to explore "ways to leverage webOS software."

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HP apparently intends to split the webOS Global Business Unit into two, pushing the webOS software side over to the Office of Strategy and Technology while the ex-Palm hardware arm stays a part of the Personal Systems Group. The division, leaked by two internal HP emails passed to PreCentral, will leave HP free to license off webOS to other companies without the competition of the same group developing devices with it. Alternatively, it could be a simpler way for HP to close the door on its webOS hardware altogether.

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As you may have already heard, that being if you do not live under a rock on the moon of course, that HP recently announced they'd be discontinuing production of their webOS-related products, including the TouchPad tablet, as well as looking to take an alternate path with webOS - more than likely attempting to keep the platform alive by licensing it out to alternate hardware manufacturers in the near future. While it seemed to some that announcing they'd be giving up on the hardware end of webOS in the first place sounded the death bell for the mobile OS, HP has taken a seemingly well conceived gamble and made the HP TouchPad webOS tablet cost between $99 and $149, resulting in monster sales and sold-out stores all across the USA. What they're doing today is taking major advantage of the situation by offering up a handful of otherwise pay-to-own apps as completely free downloads.

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HP's decision to amputate its webOS hardware line and attempt to tourniquet the cash gush has left the platform's future in the air. The TouchPad and Pre lines may be dead in the water, but HP has made it clear that the company is "not walking away from webOS" but instead, according to developer relations VP for the platform Richard Kerris, intends to "explore the best hardware partner for it." Who, though, might be in the market for a plucky platform yet to find a manufacturer who can match it with appealing hardware? With the mobile segment in its current flux, there are some big names out there who could well be interested.

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Let me see how simple I can make this because there are just a few facts that you should know, probably the most important facts of the day if you don't count most of the other facts from the HP/webOS situation everyone was freaking out about earlier today. Head to that link for most the details, then come back and remember this bit: HP is weighing spinning off its PC unit. This basically means that HP is looking to do SOMETHING with its PC unit, also known as HP's PSG, or Personal Systems Group, this sect of HP responsible for PCs, hand-held PCs such as mobile devices, software for the home, and more. SOMETHING means either a complete selling off of the PSG portion of the company or "spinning it off" meaning it would still sort of be part of the company, but it'd be like Beavis and Butthead's Daria or Happy Days' Mork and Mindy or Laverne and Shirley - separate but in the same universe.

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A couple days back the support page for the Pre3 from HP hit the Orange website in Europe. There was no mention of when the phone would land though and how much it would cost. We still don't know what Orange will be offering the Pre3 for, but we do know what Palm Europe is selling the device for now. The Pre3 is up on the Palm Europe website for £299.

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Ex Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein is stepping away from his central role in webOS management at HP, with Stephen DeWitt of the personal systems group stepping in to take charge of the TouchPad and smartphone platform. According to Palm, Rubenstein's new role as senior vice president for product innovation for the personal systems group will allow him to "leverage his experience with consumer products to propel innovation across a broad range of areas"; however, that isn't reassuring TouchPad owners, who are concerned that HP is diluting its enthusiasm for the webOS platform.

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We've been demanding a tablet running webOS for years now, and it's taken HP's new stewardship of the software to guide just that onto store shelves. Palm's mobile platform always seemed to good to be left solely to smartphones, and the HP TouchPad is the inevitable result. Problem is, the iPad has already made its presence well and truly known, dominating the consumer tablet market, and Android's Honeycomb drive gains OEM support by the week. Can the multitasking charms of webOS 3.0 promise the TouchPad a bright future, or is it simply a case of too late to the party? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

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If you are a big fan of the Palm Pre series of smartphone and want the latest that HP and Palm have to offer the Pre 3 has been tipped to ship on July 8 by UK retailer Play.com. The smartphone can be pre-ordered right now and the SIM free, unlocked price of the Palm 3 is £349.99 with shipping included. The Pre 3 runs WebOS 2.2 and has decent specifications.

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Well, that didn't take long. O2 Germany only began pushing out the webOS 2.1.0 update for Palm Pre Plus handsets a few hours ago - complete with the stern warning that it was for the German model and no other - and already a doctored version is up and running on other models. Olivier Charavel got webOS 2.1.0 on his French Pre Plus, and the best news is that it grants the smartphone with a new lease of life.

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HP's suggestion that older webOS devices wouldn't be seeing 2.x updates seems to have been overly cautious: an upgrade to webOS 2.1.0 is now available for the Palm Pre Plus on O2 Germany. According to the support page, Pre Plus owners can punch their serial number into a webOS doctor to find out if they're eligible; unfortunately right now that means only O2 Germany handset owners get the update.

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