HP Takes On Apple, Google For Handheld Futures

Hurrah – HP’s recently-acquired Palm unit has updated its webOS software, unleashing a whole new world of handheld gaming. Well, not quite, but with HP already saying it intends using its newly-acquired webOS to spark a whole new period in connected device development, then we’ll be watching the Palm OS for some time to come.

In future expect printers and all manner of other digital devices to speak to each other using webOS. Beyond this, HP has also confirmed plans to unleash a whole new wave of webOS-powered netbooks and slates.

And in a sign that it isn’t all going to be Apple versus Google forever, HP seems intent on setting up a competitive tryptych, even extending this to music and media services.

After all, we know Google and Apple are pretty likely to offer music streaming services by the end of the year.

HP’s $30 million purchase of music streaming service Melodeo suggests the company intends putting its formidable weight up against the two new wunderkinds of tech as the battle for the digital home becomes a battle for control of the digital hub at the center of the world, with, or without, the approval of a certain diminutive pop star…

The latest webOS update is pretty minor, overall, but it does mean that if  you own a Palm Pixi (and at prices starting from one cent, surely some people do?) then you get 3D gaming, which Palm Pre owners already enjoy.

Palm says the release also fixes a “rare problem so that podcasts now download correctly”. Another patch means, “if a user enters text in a field on certain websites, the screen focus now remains on the text being entered.”

As we said, webOS will be around for longer, we’re curious to see where HP takes this new baby.