HP In Talks To License WebOS To 3rd Party Vendors.

Thus far webOS has remained a strictly in-house affair. Neither Palm or HP have made any move to allow outside parties a piece of the webOS pie (similar to how Apple and RIM run things). But times could be a changin’ as a new report by Bloomberg claims HP is in fact in talks with several 3rd party vendors looking to give webOS a new home. The “claim” comes from HP CEO Leo Apotheker himself, who says

“We are talking to a number of companies. I can share with you that a number of companies have expressed interest. We are continuing our conversations.”

Apotheker declined to name any specific “interests”. Bloomberg, however, goes on the record saying three separate anonymous sources have come forward to claim Samsung is webOS’ first outside target.

As usual this is all pretty informal, unofficial information. Still, the webOS faithful should be at least a tad excited. Where HP/Palm have repeatedly failed at bringing any large number of webOS handsets (or simply good handsets at that) to market, 3rd parties could pick up the slack. Here’s to hoping…

Microsoft Releases Mango (Beta) Under Early Access Program.

Calling all Windows Phone 7 Developers: Check your inboxes. According to the Windows Phone Developer Blog, invites are starting to trickle out today thanks to a new “early access program” inviting the talented code weavers of the WP7 would to get their hands on an early copy of Mango before it launches later this year.

For now, the full global distribution of developer-only builds and test software hasn’t been completely figured out by the WP7 team, though they promise such kinks to get ironed out in the coming weeks. With that said, interested parties need only download the new Windows Phone Developer Tools beta 2 suite to join the party.

The current list of supported countries for the new Early Access Program include:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States

Anyone with access to the Early Access Program and Mango is encouraged to drop us a line and tell us what you think!

Possible DROID Bionic Snapped By Mr. Blurrycam.

The DROID Bionic saga has been a toiled, lengthy journey with few updates from Verizon or Motorola over the last couple of months. What once was set to dominate the Sprint Android season has now been relegated to late summer. Nonetheless, we maintain that the wait is well worth if if rumors of a processor swap from an Nvidia Tegra 2 to a TI OMAP (4430 or 4440) + PowerVR SGX 540 GPU combo prove true.

We’d normally be a tad leery of such blurry snapshots as the one one above, however, previous leaks featuring much clearer Bionic images pretty much line up with the blurred edges of this latest picture.

In the end we just want the Bionic in-hand. Now.

Nokia 700 (Zeta) Leaks Out With Belle UI In Tow.

Nokia’s Symbian ship may be sailing into the sunset, but before they eclipse the horizon they’re dropping off up to 10 more Symbian-powered handsets — namely the 700 (Zeta) you see above. The 5-megapixel camera located around back should be provide decent pics with the 3.2″ “nHD AMOLDED” display ensuring colors pop in just the right hue. Toss in NFC and the new Belle UI and you’ve got a rather slick Symbian device. Now if only developers cared about Symbian…

iPad or iBad? The Missing Apps We’re All Waiting For

Apple has sold more than sixteen million iPads. It’s a computing revolution – bringing sexy computing into the hands of consumers in a never-before-seen way. The sleek lines of the iPad make it an aesthetically desirable device, and the touch screen can be satisfyingly activated by the deft flick of the wrist. It’s a thing of beauty and boasts a plethora of ingenious applications.

Why, then, have some of the biggest names in the business neglected this new platform? It works a bit like an iPhone, but the giants of the internet have taken this as an excuse to rehash their existing apps and publish them for iPad in basically their existing state. Porting an iPhone app directly onto iPad results in what can only be described as a ‘rustic’ interface, where the emphasis seems to be very much on making-do.

These are the iPad apps and the iPad gaps we’ve noticed recently…

Android Market Stats: 1 Billion Apps Downloaded In Past 60 Days. 4.5 Billion To date.

According to Google’s mobile advertising sales director, Europe Ian Carrington, the Android Market has doled up 1 billion app downloads in the last 60 days. For comparison’s sake, hitting the initial 1 billion mark took a full two years. Currently the total number of Android Market app downloads totals over 4.5 billion.

You can also add the claim by Android chief Andy Rubin that Android sees 500,000 new activations per day as further evidence to Android’s unstoppable growth.

With all that said, you can use the facts listed above in your next argument with people who think Android is slowing down — in any form.

iPhone: 4 Years Later. [Infograph]

Exactly four years ago to the day, Apple introduced the iPhone. And love it or hate it, the iPhone changed the mobile landscape faster than any previous phone — smartphone or not — ever had. The biggest departure from the at then, modern smartphone, was the use of a large 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen display that looked better than anything around. Add to that a new OS that was completely touch driven and you can see why the iPhone has grown into the multi-device juggernaut it has today.

But before we get too nostalgic, let us stop and simply point the iPhone lovers to the handy “History of iPhone” infograph waiting just after the break. Everyone else — move along…