Breaking News: HP retires Palm brand, launches TouchPad tablet, Pre 3 and Veer smartphones

The HP Veer, Pre 3 smartphones and the TouchPad tablet are HP's new trio of WebOS devices Palm is dead, long live HP. Today's Think Big announcement from HP lifted the lid on the TouchPad WebOS tablet, a spanking new Pre 3 smartphone and a funky new smartphone called the HP Veer. Highlights from the event in San Francisco today include:

• Palm is gone as a brand but WebOS remains part of HP
• WebOS is coming to PCs and notebooks, soon
• The HP Veer is a tiny WebOS smartphone - essentially an even smaller version of the Pre 2 with similar features (8GB of memory, 800Mhz Snapdragon processor, mobile hotspot, 5 megapixel camera)- out in Spring.
• The HP Pre 3 is a larger Pre, now with 3.6" inch screen, a larger QWERTY keyboard, dual cameras, a Qualcomm CPU running 1.4GHz, geared towards business users. Out in Summer.
• The HP TouchPad with a 9.7 inch display, 1024 x 768, 1.6 pounds, Beats audio, video calling, 1.3 megapixel webcam, 16GB or 32GB storage, dual core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor. Accessories include keyboards, cases and docks. Like the BlackBerry PlayBook, the HP TouchPad can interface with the WebOS smartphones (possibly for wireless 3G data) but will also work as a standalone Wi-Fi tablet.
• New touch-to-share feature allows you to tap TouchPad and Pre/Veer and send websites, files and other documents wirelessly between the two devices.
• WebOS devices will be able to print to HP printers from the outset.
• HP is putting considerable R&D and money towards WebOS

  Pricing and availability for the Canadian market has not yet been released.

CES 2011: Motorola Launch Highlights (video)

Here's a slice of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2011) with video taken during Motorola Mobility's landmark launch event where they revealed the Motorola Xoom Tablet, the Atrix, Droid Bionic and Cliq 2 smartphones.