McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer for HP’s Personal Systems Group, kicked off the MobileBeat 2010 conference with a brief presentation followed by a question-and-answer session in which he reaffirmed the current goal of the personal computing industry: To figure out what the hell people want in a device bigger than a smartphone but smaller than a notebook PC. Now armed with Palm’s webOS operating system following its completion of that acquisition two weeks ago, McKinney promised that HP would build slates and phones that are both “open” in terms of application development and consistent in terms of the user experience across multiple devices.
He didn’t have anything new to discuss, such as whether or not HP is still planning to build slate devices based on Microsoft’s Windows 7. But one technology that could make a difference in how consumers adopt these middle-of-the-road devices is a flexible display, which McKinney unrolled from a cardboard tube to show off to attendees. Flexible display is one of those tech-industry ideas that has been about five years away from becoming reality for around 10 years. We’re still pretty far away from the ultimate goal of a computing device you can roll up and stick in your pocket, McKinney said, but HP Labs has been doing a lot of work on this technology over the past few years and has gotten to the point where it can marry its investment in transistors and printing technology to literally print these kinds of displays.
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If you were having trouble deciding on which case to buy for your iPad, here’s one more to think about. Case-Mate is debuting the Venture case for the iPad, and this one even comes with an included stand. The multi-function Venture looks like a smart, black portfolio on the outside with its polyurethane material and green lining. But the cover also folds over into a prop stand, which should be especially useful when you want to watch movies hands-free on your desk or even that little tray-table on the back of the seat in front of you on an airplane.
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The Phantom Eye, an unmanned aerial vehicle from the company’s Phantom Works division, is expected to make its first flight early next year. Boeing is pitching the demonstrator UAV as a “first of its kind” aircraft that “could open up a whole new market in collecting data and communications”. A decade into the 21st century, surveillance drones are nothing new considering the now long-running successes of aircraft such as the Predator and the Global Hawk. What sets the Phantom Eye apart is the hydrogen propulsion system. Although hydrogen has been bandied about for some time as an alternative energy source, it has yet to progress much beyond the novelty stage.
Boeing, understandably, accentuated the positive. “The hydrogen propulsion system will be the key to Phantom Eye’s success,” Drew Mallow, Phantom Eye program manager, said in a statement. “It is very efficient and offers great fuel economy, and its only byproduct is water, so it’s also a ‘green’ aircraft.” It is expected to fly at an altitude of 65,000 feet (19,812m) for up to four days. The initial flight in early 2011, however, is expected to last only about four to eight hours. Between now and then, it will undergo a series of ground and taxi tests. At the unveiling Monday, the engines were not mounted on the Phantom Eye. The prototype and its various component will be heading to the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California for final assembly.
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