palm

How many Palm employees did HP just lay off?

I'm not quite sure, but make no mistake Hewlett-Packard has cut some former Palm staffers from its ranks as it closes its acquisition of the smartphone maker. I'm hearing different numbers from sources (once) close to the company, so it's difficult to put a firm number on them. Sounds like it's not too, too many though. Double digits, not hundreds. Still: sad and awful.

"Part of the integration strategy is consolidation of functions and operations, as appropriate," a spokesman for the company told me. "There always is turnover in organizations. Palm employees overall … Read more

HP completes Palm deal, eyes WebOS hardware

And just like that, Hewlett-Packard is a relevant smartphone company again.

The world's largest PC maker now has a mobile operating system of its own after completing its previously announced acquisition of Palm for $5.70 a share, which works out to roughly $1.2 billion. Jon Rubenstein, the former Apple executive who was charged with bringing Palm back to prominence as its chairman and CEO, will report to Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's personal systems group.

HP has sold smartphones with the Windows Mobile OS for several years, but that operating system has lost considerable … Read more

Palm shareholders approve HP takeover plans

Palm stockholders at a special meeting Friday approved plans for the company's acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, according to an SEC filing.

The transaction is expected to close on July 1, according to the filing.

The companies announced in April that computer giant HP would buy the struggling smartphone maker for $1.2 billion. The deal then had already been approved by both companies' boards of directors.

HP has long touted Palm's appealing IP portfolio and says it has plans to put Palm's WebOS on tablets, smartphones, Web-connected PCs.

The 404 607: Where we've got our finger on the kill switch (podcast)

Today's episode of The 404 Podcast begins with a conversation about a new bill that would give President Obama the ability to shut down the Internet.

Proposed by Senator Joe Lieberman, the "Internet kill switch" would, in the event of a "cyber-security emergency," suspend access to popular search sites like Yahoo and Google, in addition to placing Internet service providers under the control of the White House.

The bill's biggest opponent is a tech lobby group called TechAmerica, which argues that the law would give President Obama absolute power to silence free speech under … Read more

Palm's latest WebOS head-scratcher:
A featured app for featured apps

There's a lot we like about Palm's WebOS platform, but when it comes to the App Catalog, there are some decisions that leave us scratching our heads.

The latest is Palm's new free program, called Featured Apps, that rotates through a roster of "great handpicked apps each week" on U.S. phones in the Pre and Pixi family.

The app certainly looks good, and it's polished enough that we wish Palm would hurry up and replace its entire spartan App Catalog with the Featured Apps design.

However, with a channel dedicated to EA Games, … Read more

Google serves up knowledge bytes on iPhone, Android, WebOS

When is Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday? What is the currency used in Kiribati? If you've got a short question burning a hole in your brain--and an Android, WebOS, or Android phone in your hand--Google may be able to help.

On Thursday, the search giant opened its ability to surface short answers to definitive search queries to select mobile platforms. Search in English for a well-documented query, like a country capital or president, famous composer, or movie release date, and you should see an answer--and its Web sources--surface near the top of the search results page.

Not every … Read more

Palm settles shareholder suit

Almost as soon as the news hit that Hewlett-Packard planned to purchase Palm for $1.2 billion, shareholder lawsuits started rolling in. On Wednesday Palm said it had settled at least one of them.

The suit, Steve Ubaney v. Jonathan Rubinstein, et al., was filed May 5 in Delaware, on behalf of Palm shareholders that thought CEO Rubinstein should have held out for a selling price higher than the $5.70 per share it accepted from HP. In an SEC filing, Palm did not disclose the details of the settlement, which was reached Tuesday.

And other similar class action suits … Read more

WebOS notifications designer leaves Palm for Apple

The man behind the notification system used in Palm's WebOS is ditching his future HP overlords for iPhone central in Cupertino.

The blog PreCentral saw on Rich Dellinger's LinkedIn page that he was moving from Palm to Apple, and according to his Twitter, it appears he started on June 1. Dellinger worked at Apple from 1999 to 2006, back before the original iPhone and its iOS was made public. He returns to Apple as a senior user interface designer. It's not clear what he'll be working on, but it's easy to assume his expertise in … Read more

HP: Palm buy not about smartphones

When Hewlett-Packard ponied up $1.2 billion for struggling smartphone maker Palm, the move was widely seen as a quick way for the PC and enterprise services company to get into the burgeoning mobile device market.

Not so, HP CEO Mark Hurd said Wednesday. At the Bank of America Merrill Lynch technology conference, Hurd said his company has broader plans.

He told the audience that HP did not "spend billions of dollars trying to go into the smartphone business; that doesn't in any way make any sense," according to a ZDNet report.

We didn't buy Palm … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1237: Facebook privacy hangover (podcast)

Our verdict on Facebook's privacy retool: well ... we're tough graders. Also today, will Steve Ballmer show up at the WWDC keynote? Palm loses its mobile UI design guy to Android, which is good news for Android, but continuing bad news for Palm and WebOS. Also, introducing Darth Vader's Dog.