HP Planning To Enter The 3D Printer Space

By John Biggs at TechCrunch: 

HP CEO Meg Whitman casually noted that the company would have a “big technology announcement” in June related to the 3D printing space, a move that could place 3D printers into the hands of casual home and industrial users. Whitman also mentioned that the company has solved a number of 3D printing problems and expects that “the bigger market is going to be in the enterprise space.”

Whitman made these remarks in her regular shareholders call. There was no mention of an exact date.

HP first came onto the 3D printing radar in February when CTO Martin Fink said he expected the company to begin working in the space later in the year. “HP is currently exploring the many possibilities of 3D printing and the company will play an important role in its development,” he wrote.



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HP Gets Back Into The Smartphone Game

HP Gets Back Into The Smartphone Game With 6- And 7-Inch Android Monster Handsets

HP isn’t letting a little thing like its Palm’s WebOS debacle stop it from trying to crack the lucrative smartphone market – it revealed to Re/code today that it will ship new 6- and 7-inch Android-powered smartphones beginning in February, kicking off in the growing Indian mobile market.

The smartphones (no they’re not tablets, though their size would seem to indicate otherwise) distinguish themselves by being voice-operated, and based on HP’s first render pictured above, look an awful lot like a scaled up BlackBerry Z10 or Z30, with the pixelated back panel of a Nexus 4.

The HP Slate 6 and Slate 7, as they’re called, are powered by Android 4.2, sport a quad core processor and each have 16GB of onboard storage, complete with MicroSD card expandability for adding up to 32GB more. Neither is full HD resolution, with the Slate 6 offering 1,280 x 700 pixels on its IPS display, and the Slate 7 bumping that up a notch with 1,280 x 800. They’re both under 10mm thick, and they sport a modest 5-megapixel rear shooter, with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. They also have front-facing speakers, a rarity among tablets or phones.



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HP Wants to Print Your Twitter Wishes On Balloons and Set Them Free

By Sarah Kessler at Mashable: 
Would you be more likely to stick with your New Years resolutions if they were printed on balloons and set free in the Middle Eastern sky? Thanks to a festive marketing campaign from HP, you now have the opportunity to find out.
HP is printing tweets about New Year wishes on helium balloons and letting them go near its Middle East headquarters in Dubai. It’s calling the project the TwitterWisher, and only tweets submitted through the TwitterWisher website will be considered for flight.
People who find a freed balloon can enter its ID number at the same website in order to plot it on the map. Anyone can watch the balloons take off through a live video stream. The company seems to be aiming for a modern-day message in a bottle, complete with a sense of global connectedness.
“The HP TwitterWisher lets people spread good cheer and wishes and connect with people all over the world as we cross over into a new year together,” Suad Merchant, a HP Middle East marketing manager told Middle East business website AMEinfo.com.
Here’s hoping no birds choke in the process.

HP working on licensing webOS to a number of interested companies

Okay, it is no secret that webOS is not the most popular mobile platform around. However, its low market share might soon be on a rise as Leo Apotheker, HP's CEO, announced that the company is already working on licensing webOS to other players on the smartphone market.

HP TouchPad Goes Up For Pre-Order Starting At $500, Will Be Available July 1

It's true, the TouchPad, HP's inaugural webOS tablet, won't go on sale in the states until July 1, but that doesn't mean you can't claim yours pronto. She's up for pre-order at a long list of retailers that includes Amazon, NewEgg, Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Radio Shack, J&R, Office Max, Office Depot, Costco, Sam's Club, PC Richard & Son, Micro Center, and even Nebraska Furniture Mart.

HP pays to have its Veer listed on top of the Twitter trend list

HP Veer was being promoted to the kids through the use of television ads starring iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove. The ads are in rotation at Nickelodeon which explains the demographics that HP is aiming for with that commercial.

In addition to spending money on television, HP is using Twitter to promote the pint-sized smartphone. The Palo Alto based tech company is reportedly paying Twitter $120,000 a day to have #HPVeer listed on top of Twitter's trend list. Among the other names and phrases on the Miami version of the list is Katy Perry and pancake restaurant IHOP. To make sure that there is no question on why the device is listed on top, a small yellow bar that says "Promoted" is placed right next to the listing.