The Register reports HP intends to build a tablet device that will run Palm’s WebOS.  No shock, considering WebOS might be the best mobile OS on the market, and iPad has proven the market exists.

This one from the New York Times is getting killer press in tech circles.  We’re all always trying to understand why a company like Apple can consistently innovate while another one with more than ample resources cannot.

Case in point: Microsoft.  Every one of us has been somehow touched by Microsoft products, yet almost no one considers anything outside perhaps the first release of Windows or even Windows 95 as somehow innovative (and even those were also-rans to Apple technology since I brought them up).

Seventeen year Microsoft VP Dick Brass (he left in 2004) seems to have as good an angle as any into why innovation is absolutely counterintuitive to Microsoft culture:

Despite having one of the largest and best corporate laboratories in the world, and the luxury of not one but three chief technology officers, the company routinely manages to frustrate the efforts of its visionary thinkers.

• “…early in my tenure, our group of very clever graphics experts invented a way to display text on screen called ClearType. It worked by using the color dots of liquid crystal displays to make type much more readable on the screen. Although we built it to help sell e-books, it gave Microsoft a huge potential advantage for every device with a screen. But it also annoyed other Microsoft groups that felt threatened by our success.  Engineers in the Windows group falsely claimed it made the display go haywire when certain colors were used. The head of Office products said it was fuzzy and gave him headaches. The vice president for pocket devices was blunter: he’d support ClearType and use it, but only if I transferred the program and the programmers to his control. As a result, even though it received much public praise, internal promotion and patents, a decade passed before a fully operational version of ClearType finally made it into Windows.”

Several other reasons are cited, including risk and the antitrust issues of the late nineties, so you’ll want to click the link above and read the full article at NYT.

And you think your company has culture issues.

The China Times report that included it was the only one that correctly identified the iPad’s 9.7″ screen size.  Here’s the  Mac Rumors final wrap-up, including the China Times details.

Individual contributors on the Ars Technica staff discuss in detail their thoughts on the new Apple iPad here.  Of the breakdown articles I’ve seen I think this one’s the best, because seemingly everyone in this article comes from their own unique angle regarding the utility of Apple’s latest device.

At a high level I’d say the pundits are about as receptive to this thing as they were to the MacBook Air on its release (which means “mixed”).  There’s no doubt this is a groundbreaking device in several ways, but the issues continue to seem to be related to how the device fits in people’s lives, and most of the rationale flows from Apple’s choice of the iPhone OS and what that means to using the device to compute conventionally (in other words, using a fully open and functional device like a laptop).  Some naturally want to relate this as lacking in comparison to similar devices while aloud deciding if it’s a dealbreaker for their daily use.  Is it as good as my phone, laptop, netbook for what I do every day?  There’s the first question everyone always asks.  And once they determine, as everyone still does, that there is no ‘one device’ for all their computing needs, price creeps in, ‘gee whiz’ creeps in as well, and things get muddled.

Here’s what continues to permeate for me:

• Great entry level price for what you get: it’s hard to imagine getting this form factor with these capabilities at this price anywhere else.  Not even close.  And by ‘these capabilities’ I mean this: you get the best mail, contacts, word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools Apple makes (in other words, the best you can buy), plus everything in the Apple App Store with eBooks, games, productivity, and other apps you’ve already bought for $499 plus the thirty bucks for the iWork stuff.  Add in Safari and this is really unbeatable utility at the price.
• No way – this can’t be the OS we’re stuck with for a long time.  I don’t believe for a second that we’re stuck with what is nothing more than the iPhone app screen blown out and tiny little Phone apps being single tasked. When summer comes we’ll have an all new iPhone and an all-new iPhone OS.  Since Apple’s known for bumping up features fairly quickly after initial release (see the original iPhone) is it worth it to wait a few months?
• Why 4:3 resolution?  What is this?  1960?  I hate everything with a 4:3 resolution.  I’ve banished old TVs from my home with no replacement in sight just to say goodbye to the old, highly unpanoramic view.  I even chop off the top and bottom of 4:3 TV programs to make them widescreen.  And now that I’ve cast them out Apple wants to to buy a device that’ll remind me of my old letterbox watching days.  Oh sure, I can zoom in and lose the left and right edges of my widesreeen movies, but I hate watching anything in 4:3 still, so what’s the point?
• I know Apple is taking me somewhere, but how soon?  Should I buy now and enjoy the utility this device delivers or wait?  The Apple R&D didn’t promise me multitasking or a 16:9 or even 16:10 tablet, and that price is still pretty compelling for what you get.  This thing easily will go on trips, it’ll be around for casual business meetings, and it’ll be perfect for taking in media or getting the small stuff done on long car drives.

What do you think?  Is this the device for you?

Apple’s now shared ‘the most hyped tablet since The Ten Commandments’, and here are our initial likes and dislikes.

The likes:

• The price: $499 is a good starting point that should get the device into a lot of hands.
• Reworked versions of Apple’s iWork apps – Pages, Keynote, and Numbers – are awesome for the Apple iPad (they can be purchased from the App Store for $9.99 apiece).  They’re just as elegant as their Mac OS X counterparts, even including things like a number keypad keyboard for Numbers.
• Beautiful if not anticlimactic industrial design: the casing looks like Apple lopped off the bottom of one of their current MacBook Pro’s – not at all unsurprising to those who’ve kept up with Apple’s design evolution.
• Successful integration of the PA Semi chip technology they bought two years ago: the fluidness and speed of the iPad’s screen transitions and interface reveal the first of many great mobile processors built and sold by Apple.
• iBooks, Apple’s new book app, presents itself just like a bookshelf.  If you like Delicious Library this thing looks like a complete lift of that design.
• Email and calendar apps look fantastic: Apple’s integrated layouts and visual touches that make both seem like fitting replacements for paper organizers and snail mail.  Let’s hope that’s one design that makes its way to Mac OS X and iPhones.
• Great third party apps will once again set the tone for what’s possible: Need For Speed, Brush, and MLB.com all look fantastic.  We were particularly blown away by Major League Baseball’s live games with highly sophisticated overlays and Brush’s ability to turn the Apple iPad into an instant traveling canvas.  So will this thing revolutionize art and media? Quite possibly.
• A dock: the one thing holding some folks back would have been the lack of a true keyboard for hardcore typing.  This is the killer peripheral, because it’ll vault the Apple iPad into corporate territory. It’s the answer to the mobility question for knowledge workers.

The dislikes:

• Non-standard aspect ratio: if you were expecting a cool 16:9 display, you’ll be disappointed.  The form factor looks much closer to old school 4:3 than the current aspect ratio used for digital television and many movies.  This means the iPad’s 9.6″ screen won’t feel as immersive as you’d hoped unless you zoom on in video content.  However, you’ll likely find it well-suited for checking email or your calendar, since both apps are included and look fantastic.
• AT&T Wireless is your only cell service provider: come on, Apple.  I hope this is only due to some preexisting contract and we see it open up.  Not only that, most of us are a little miffed that we’re going to have to feed ATTWS once again after handing them 200 bucks a month already.   Where does this end?  More importantly, when does this end?
• Old apps often look downright stupid in their iPhone format: we were hoping Apple would allow the interface to show multiple iPhone apps at once, but that isn’t the case.  Instead you’ll get a choice to either blow them up to full screen – which looks a tad odd with apps like Facebook – or run them barrenly at normal size with nothing more than a giant black bacground covering the rest of the screen.  That’s right: no ability to run multiple apps onscreen at once.
• Where’s the video camera?  In other words, where’s one of the coolest things Macs do smoothly, and that’s teleconference?  Is it an issue of positioning the device?

After we’ve gotten a chance to spend more time with the new Apple iPad, we’ll be back to report more.

Apple Tablet: The Second Stage Media Booster Rocket.

The original 1983 Apple tablet concept… enjoy!

More new Apple tablet details, including twin dock connectors to hook up your tablet to a dock that’ll let you view it in landscape mode and a large antenna panel to counteract the inevitable aluminum back cover.

The Apple January 27 special event is confirmed with the words “Come see our latest creation”.