HP announced on Monday that it has followed through with its intentions to acquire Autonomy and has purchased the enterprise information technology firm for £25.50 per share in cash. HP will allow Autonomy to operate as an entirely separate arm; Autonomy will continue to be led by its founder and CEO Dr. Mike Lynch, who will report to HP’s newly appointed CEO Meg Whitman. “We are committed to helping our customers solve their toughest IT challenges,” HP president and chief executive office...

Acer, ASUS, Dell, Lenovo and HP will begin to mass produce Intel-powered ultrabooks in September, on schedule for a second-half launch, DigiTimes reported on Tuesday. ASUS’ UX21 ultrabook will be the first such device to market, despite reports to the contrary that HP would release its device before ASUS. Instead, HP’s ultrabook may not launch until the fourth quarter or early next year, a far cry from the original rumored August launch date. Models from Acer and Dell could be late to the market, ...

During the Computex trade show in May, Intel laid out its vision for new “Ultrabook” notebooks that will blend the performance of today’s laptops with a tablet-like experience in a thin and light product. While the company originally said that ASUS’ UX21 notebook would be the first such device when it launches in time for this year’s holiday season, a new report from DigiTimes suggests that HP will beat ASUS to the market. Reportedly, the computer manufacturer will use Foxconn Electr...

In my review of the HP TouchPad, which we published last night, I went off on a tangent about the “touch-to-share” functionality Hewlett-Packard introduced with the TouchPad tablet and the Pre 3 smartphone. I think it bears repeating. In a nutshell, touch-to-share allows the user to tap a webOS smartphone to the TouchPad in order to push any URL in an open browser page from one device to the other. I wrote at length about this feature, which is still in its infancy but exhibits tremendous potenti...

Hewlett-Packard will follow up its TouchPad launch next month with the release of an unannounced 7-inch tablet in August, Taiwan Economic News reported on Friday. Citing information from an Inventec Corp. subcontractor, the Taiwanese manufacturer is said to have received a healthy number of tablet orders from HP. The Palo Alto-based company has reportedly ordered between 400,000 and 450,000 tablets per month from Inventec, which also manufactures notebook computers for HP. The source claimed that HP’s o...

According to Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker, HP personal computers will begin pulling double in the very near future. “Starting next year, every one of the PCs shipped by HP will include the ability to run WebOS in addition to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows,” said Apotheker. HP’s chief is trying to incentivize developers to create software for his company’s acquired platform, which he sees running on HP phones, computers, and printers. Currently, software comprises 2.2% of the company&...

Hewlett-Packard reported a solid quarter Monday evening, as the consumer electronics giant posted earnings that beat analyst expectations. HP’s net revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter of 2010 came in at $33.3 billion, up $2.5 billion from the fourth quarter last year. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was also up year-over-year, jumping 17% to $1.33. HP raked in a total of $126 billion in net revenue for its full fiscal 2010, up an impressive 10% from 2009. Looking forward, the company now projects 2011 revenue to ...

If a report from financial paper The Taiwan Economic Times is to be believed, freshly acquired Palm Inc. is getting ready to fire up the afterburners and fuel them with bags full of HP’s cash. The paper cites industry sources in claiming that Chinese manufacturing giants Foxconn and Compal were recently awarded new contracts for a total of five to six new Palm-branded devices. Among them is the fabled PalmPad, a webOS-powered tablet that will compete with the Apple iPad, the BlackBerry PlayBook and the ...

Last Friday, HP CEO Mark Hurd resigned amidst sexual harassment allegations that his former employer chose to make public. Monday, in a letter to the New York Times, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison did not mince words about his thoughts on the forced resignation of Mr. Hurd. “The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. [...] In losing Mark Hurd, the H.P. board failed to act in the best interest of H.P.’s employees, shareholders, ...

Previously, HP had stated that they were on track to release an Android tablet before the end of 2010. Now, according to the sources of AllThingsD, this timeline is no longer valid. “HP’s Android slate has been delayed and won’t ship before the end of the year as planned,” wrote ATD. HP has, through its own admission, been developing a Windows 7, webOS, and Android tablet simultaneously. Perhaps this is a sign that HP is refocusing its efforts on its newly purchased webOS? Whatever the reaso...

The NYT has an interesting article up about the iPad — no, it is not about how great it is. The iPad may prove to be the catalyst for what was previously a struggling market… the tablet. The tablet PC never really excited consumers the way manufacturers had hoped. Flimsy hinges, sub-par software, and a lack of device sex appeal were largely to blame for the floundering sales figures. What will the new tablet look like? First, scratch the name. Tablets were so 2002; the new set of devices are calle...

Mobile travelers rejoice, your battery woes may be alleviated, at least a little bit. HP announced today that you can get 24 hours of run time on a single charge with their HP EliteBook 6930p. The HP EliteBook 6930p was specially configured with an Ultra Capacity 12-cell battery, a power-saving Illumi-Lite LED display, an Intel 80GB SSD and Windows XP with the latest Intel graphics driver and HP BIOS. Phew, got all that? The battery life rating is based upon “an industry standard benchmark” so you...