During Hewlett-Packard’s earnings call today, the company confirmed that a webOS tablet is coming, and that it will release “a webOS-based product in early 2011.” This will be the third operating system that HP will support, the others being the Windows 7-based Slate and the Android-based Zeen e-reader.

HP has been in the news a lot lately, as the company has acquired Palm and forced its CEO to resign after the HP board found his business practices to be unethical.

The Palm acquisition caught everyone off guard, but made perfect sense as HP had been wanting to cash in on the smartphone craze. webOS is Palm’s flagship mobile operating system, and it had been intended to use in other larger scales, but Palm could not afford it.

It will be interesting to see what brand will be stamped on the tablet. There has been no confirmation on whether or not the Palm brand will exist under HP’s ownership.

Google has begun developing its own tablet, which will run a Chrome operating system, and will be built by HTC. The Taiwan-based company seems to be the go-to manufacturer for Google, as HTC built the Nexus One as well.

No specifics on hardware have been provided thus far, but Download Squad predicts that the tablet will be based on nVidia’s Tegra 2 platform with a 1280-by-720 multi-touch display.
The Nexus One had great features, so one could expect the same for Google’s first tablet. Expect it to be cheaper than the iPad too.

Google plans on offering its tablet in conjunction with Verizon, sources close to the situation have said. This isn’t the first time, in recent history, that Google and Verizon have worked together. Both companies recently proposed their own Net Neutrality plan to the FCC.

The tablet is rumored to be launched on November 26.  The launch date is a smart move for Google and Verizon, both, as the 26th is Black Friday — the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States.

When Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta 2 released yesterday, many users were disappointed at the bloated and complex nature of some of the programs — most notably, Windows Live Messenger.

While the program is definitely bloated, Messenger shows that Redmond can still come up with nifty new ideas to innovate and keep its Messenger client relevant. Third-party instant messaging clients are already mimicking the integration into social media.

Look at the new beta for Trillian 5 for example.

Even though at first I didn’t like the change, I’m already used to using WLM to browse my Facebook stuff. I don’t even need to query the Facebook website if I already have WLM open and chatting with my friends.

Just think about how great it would be to view Windows Live Essentials 2011 on your Microsoft-branded tablet. The tablet is supposed to be running a variant of Windows 7, so a similar app for the tablet could possibly be developed with all the social interactions intact.

The ability to chat with your Windows Live Messenger friends list, browse Facebook, and even chat with your Facebook friends are all features would come in handy in one app. There is already a similar app for the iPad called “Flipboard”, but the app isn’t developed by Apple — it’s a third-party.

Microsoft is coming into the tablet business with a huge advantage: a lot of the problems Apple faced have been fixed, and Microsoft knows how to avoid those mistakes. And just like it always is, Apple will innovate and stun the market while Microsoft is late to the party. Once things die down or Apple has a huge problem, Microsoft comes in with its solutions and pushes Apple to the side.

Amidst antenna issues and battery problems, it looks like Microsoft is making its way to the table with the tablet and its Windows Phone 7 devices.

I just hope the tablet’s name is catchier than “BlackPad“.

For the first time in Microsoft’s 35 year history, Microsoft has launched a website that counters Apple’s constant barrage of ad campaigns against the Redmond, Washington-based company. Apple is quite known for its anti-PC advertising campaigns, like the “Get a Mac” campaign featuring Justin Long.

Apple has always made Microsoft look like its nerdy older brother, with Apple being the cool and hip younger brother. According to the statements made on the website, Microsoft agrees — just a little.

The website states that while Macs aren’t very customizable, PC’s can be altered in many ways and that the PC interface isn’t as complicated compared to the Mac interface. Microsoft also brings up compatibility, sharing, and work use.

Alex Albrecht of Diggnation had a good theory on why Microsoft has continued to let Apple denigrate Redmond and its products: Microsoft simply did not want to publicly acknowledge Apple as a competitor. If Microsoft did, Albrecht said that it would give Apple market credibility.

Apparently, Woz and Co. don’t mind any longer.

Microsoft is slowly, but surely, becoming a threat against Apple and the products that launched the Cupertino, California-based company into the mainstream. Microsoft is currently developing and designing a tablet and a smart-phone operating system among other things.

Research in Motion Ltd. has plans to introduce a tablet in November to compete with Apple’s increasingly popular iPad tablet, according to Bloomberg’s sources. The device, which is going to be called “Blackpad”, will cost around the same as the iPad, starting at $499.At around the same dimensions as Apple’s tablet, the Blackpad will include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that will allow you to connect to your BlackBerry’s Internet.

“They can’t wait for a second generation of devices from Apple or they’ll fall too far behind,” Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw Inc., told Bloomberg.

Several other companies, like Microsoft for example, have also been rushing to come out with their tablet to rival the iPad.

“With the success of the iPad, RIM faces an uphill battle,” said Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst William Power, who has “a ‘neutral’ rating on RIM’s stock”. “RIM really has yet to demonstrate that it can roll out touchscreen technology to match the leaders in the space, most noticeably Apple.”

RIM is also betting that its tablet will become the favorite for its e-mail capabilities and for the corporate love that it’s BlackBerry smart-phone receives.

One thing that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has always been great at is admitting whether or not another company has struck gold with a product, and following the trend of the times.

Ballmer has been adamant about Microsoft’s venture into tablets, like he is with anything Microsoft-related, and told financial analysts that Microsoft would be entering the tablet scene with “full guns” and that the Microsoft-manufactured tablet would be running a version of Windows, presumably a variant of Windows 7.

“They’ll be shipping as soon as they are ready,” Ballmer told the conference, not giving any details. “It is job one urgency. No one is sleeping at the switch.” Ballmer also noted that his company’s goal was not to only deliver products, but “to deliver products that people want to buy.”

As to how many iPads have been sold, Ballmer said, “they’ve sold certainly more than I’d like them to have sold.”