Palm

Intel hires former Apple exec to head ‘smart devices’ team

Since turning down the opportunity to manufacture chips for the original iPhone, Intel has had problems breaking into the mobile industry. Go ahead, try to name a smartphone or tablet that has one of Intel's processor inside.

But that doesn't mean it's giving up. In its latest move to try to break into the mobile space, Intel has hired former Apple VP Mike Bell to head up a new 'smart devices' team, a group tasked with turning cool technology into products...

Apple licenses $10 million worth of patents filed by Palm and others

This is kind of interesting. Access, a Japan-based software company, published a release on its website this morning noting that it had entered a licensing agreement with Apple for a number of its patents. The firm's portfolio is quite large, featuring IP from Bell, Palm and others.

The particular patents that Apple is said to have acquired the rights to came from PalmSource, the company behind Palm's original mobile operating system. In 2003, it spun off of Palm as an independent company, and in 2005, Access acquired it and its intelectual property...

Chart: how US mobile landscape changed in 7 years

Research firm comScore today released a comprehensive report on mobile landscape in the United States and elsewhere and one particular chart stands out as another example of how the smartphone market is a duopoly between iOS and Android, with Apple and Samsung increasingly taking industry's profits at the expense of - well, pretty much every other handset maker out there.

Spanning 2005-2012, the chart paints an accurate picture of platform dynamics when it comes to the competitive market for connected mobile devices...

LG buys WebOS from HP to use in future smart TVs

The 2013 Mobile World Congress (MWC) officially kicked off in Barcelona this weekend, meaning you should prepare for an onslaught of device announcements and other mobile news over the next few days.

In fact, LG has kicked things off already by dropping a bombshell today. The South Korea-based electronics giant has apparently purchased WebOS from Hewlett Packard, and plans to use it in future products...

Steve Jobs threatened Palm with patent suit over employee poaching

By now, you've probably heard of the anti-poaching civil suit that's been brought against Apple, Google, Intel and others. Former employees are suing the companies for allegedly conspiring to keep each other from recruiting out of each other's firms, which is definitely illegal.

The evidence in the case before hand was already pretty damning. But looking at these court documents that were just made public yesterday, it might now be open-and-shut. The filing features emails, between executives, openly discussing an anti-poaching agreement...

StyleTap Wrapper Brings Palm OS Apps to iOS

Palm fans haven't been the only ones to mourn the demise of the aged platform. Now the few developers who made it their job to create Palm OS apps have a lifeline, and it's a lifeline that could open up a brave new world of mobile app development for those who have been left behind.

StyleTap's new iOS Wrapper SDK allows developers to take their old Palm OS apps and make them ready for submission to Apple's App Store. Whether Apple sees fit to accept the submissions, though, is anybody's guess.

HP Killing All webOS Devices, Another One Bites the Dust

In what some would call a totally insane move, HP has announced that it will be discontinuing its line of webOS devices, most notably the newly-released TouchPad tablet. HP bought Palm and the webOS platform last year for $1.2 billion.

While this doesn't immediately effect Apple, it is interesting that one more iPhone/iPad competitor has bit the dust. Who will be left standing this time next year?