Live from HP / Palm's 'Think Beyond' webOS event!

We're inside and things are getting underway -- the event officially starts at the times below. Read along after the break to see what's happening right now!

07:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
01:00PM - Eastern
06:00PM - London
07:00PM - Paris
09:00PM - Moscow
11:30PM - Mumbai
03:00AM - Tokyo (February 10th)
05:00AM - Sydney (February 10th)

12:04PM And we're done! They're playing one more video of the new gear, but we're off for some more serious hands-on time.

12:04PM Synergy is not just a design philosophy -- it's HP's central motivation.

12:03PM HP webOS -- now in S, M, L. Very cute.

12:02PM "What you saw today is just the beginning." A full commitment to develop the full potential of webOS, from small to big, from local to global.

12:01PM Todd Bradley just told us that Serena Williams and MC Hammer are here. Thanks, Hammer!

12:01PM "On a personal note, I first started at HP. A lot's changed since then -- including me!" Showing a pic of the young Jon -- so dashing!

12:00PM Ruby's back out -- thanking everyone at HP. Huge smile on his face.

12:00PM HP's new slogan is "everybody on."

11:58AM Soundtrack to the video is a super-nerdy cover of Walk on the Wild Side. Really weird.

11:58AM "At HP what we're gonna do is invite everybody on." Video time!

11:57AM This is a new beginning for "the computer is personal again."

11:56AM "We'll have a lot more details to share throughout the year."

11:56AM webOS is coming to PCs! They're working on it -- coming later this year. "Do the math on 2 PCs sold per second... that's the start of something pretty big."

11:55AM "We're thinking beyond today." Taking webOS to other connected devices, including printers, and some form factors you haven't seen before."

11:54AM Todd Bradley is coming back to tell us about future webOS plans.

11:53AM HP wants to make this a transformative moment in mobile.

11:47AM The magazine apps do look quite nice. Screen size looks right, and there's interactivity here -- not like static magazines a la Nook Color or Zinio.

11:45AM Ah ha, now we're getting a magazine demo on the TouchPad.

11:44AM What would be crazy is if Randall was just sort of lukewarm on the TouchPad.

11:44AM Let us just give you the gist. Time loves HP and Jon, they love webOS, and they love the potential of the TouchPad.

11:44AM Okay, they're bringing up Randall Rothenberg from Time. This is getting a little absurd. Feels like the brakes have really been put on the event.

11:43AM Go Time Inc.!

11:42AM Do you love magazines? If you do, you'll love this video. Also, if you love weird, generic rock.

11:41AM It's a video all about magazines.

11:40AM Ah ha -- a video!

11:38AM Lots of infrastructure talk here...

11:37AM Steven is talking about Connor Lacombe -- a very young (and super talented) developer! Nice.

11:36AM And Word Ace.

11:36AM "But webOS doesn't just help big developers like Facebook." Now Steven is talking about SelfAware Games -- makers of Card Ace.

11:35AM "I'd like to show you how this is happening. Let's look at Facebook." Steven is going down the list of (admittedly impressive) Facebook implementation in webOS.

11:34AM "The webOS dev community is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. WebOS is the premiere platform for enable fantastic experiences for users, no matter how they're delivered."

11:34AM "HP is delivering on the promise of webOS. These products are just the start to build the largest installed base of connected users throughout the world. No other company could put forward such a goal."

11:33AM "I'd like to invite Steven McArthur up, our SVP of applications and services."

11:32AM Jon is back out.

11:32AM That got intense.

11:32AM "So I changed my speech because Dr. Paul was so incredible... bottom line is that our conduit for emotion is sound... when we make a record there's a feel and a sound to it. So we've been working with HP and developed a hardware / software solution. I can tell you that HP's laptops actually feel the way the music feels in the studio to us. So I want to thank Todd and everyone at HP. Thank you."

11:31AM "So what does the CE industry need right now? We know the dirty little secret... they need differentiation." He's really getting deep here.

11:30AM "We went on a mission to fix sound and make it great in the HP Envy. We worked for 8 to 10 months with Dre and myself with engineers, Will I Am, Kanye West, Bono... we had all these guys listen to it. We have a million laptops with Beats Audio."

11:29AM "I said we have to fix this. I watch musicians playing music and making music on PCs, and I said, this is unacceptable. I kept talking and Todd said 'shut up... I agree with you.'" Ha!

11:28AM "But about two years ago, I met Todd, and I said I can't do anything with these headphones... the music is getting squashed. Paul McCartney can remaster the Beatles, but when you play it through a Dell laptop, it sounds like crap."

11:27AM "We record our music in 24 bit... the record industry downgrades that to 16 bit, then ships it to iTunes and digital services. Why? I don't know. But we're changing our pipes to 24 bit, and other people are... Apple has been working with us on it and they're great."

11:26AM "We're working on anything from the files, to the PC, from headphones and speakers... right to the consumer."

11:26AM "We're trying to fix the degradation of music through the digital music. That's what's happening on a massive scale."

11:26AM "If I had known I was going to follow Dr. Paul Jacobs, I would have brought Dr. Dre." Ha!

11:25AM Wow. Jimmy is really seriously styling.

11:25AM "The TouchPad is also the only tablet to support Beats by Dr. Dre technology. I'm thrilled to welcome Jimmy Iovine to talk about beats." Ha! Jimmy is out.

11:24AM And Dr. Paul is off! And Jon is back!

11:24AM HP... no offense to Dr. Paul, but why did you bring him out at the tail end here? It's a little... uh... dry.

11:22AM Okay, we do love Qualcomm and everything... but when do we get our hands on some of these things?

11:21AM "This combination of webOS and Qualcomm allows HP to deliver the full web and multimedia experience with sleek and elegant hardware designs. What you see in the Veer and Pre 3 and the TouchPad, these are our latest innovations."

11:20AM "Let's talk a little about these HP webOS devices, and our collaboration."

11:20AM "The focus is on power efficiency. That's what mobile demands. These aren't off the shelf ARM cores."

11:19AM "Todd talked about HP's mission to give consumers effortless access to their content... that requires a lot of powerful, enabling technologies. When you support a variety of devices, you need a variety of options. Our Snapdragon is a family of chips."

11:17AM Dr. Jacobs is listing off the many products their chips power. It's many. Many many.

11:17AM "You look at these products... they're proof that the future is wide open when it comes to growth and opportunities in the mobile space. We're very happy that HP chose us for this first wave of HP webOS devices. When you have the scale of HP, you can work with anyone -- and they chose to work with us."

11:16AM "Is that great stuff!?" He seems pumped up.

11:15AM Dr. Paul Jacobs from Qualcomm is out.

11:15AM "We're working with some great partners here. Qualcomm, for instance. Snapdragon CPUs power each of these products."

11:15AM Jon is back. "A WiFi version of HP's TouchPad will be available in the summer, followed by 3G and 4G versions."

11:13AM Okay -- Jeff just mentioned Skyping in people on the device... we're pretty sure.

11:13AM "Hey all, sorry I couldn't be there... we've been partners with HP for about 10 years. Now here's the HP TouchPad... it feels like HP has hit it out of the park."

11:12AM "DreamWorks titles will be available at launch. Here's Jeffery Katzenberg had to say about the TouchPad."

11:12AM "As you'd expect, we've been keeping a tight grip on our test units, but we did let some partners have them. DreamWorks, for instance..."

11:11AM Touch to share... we heard about this. Literally touching!

11:11AM Really cool idea.

11:11AM Wow. So he took his Pre and tapped it against the TouchPad, and the site bounced from the TouchPad to the phone!

11:10AM "I'm not taking my TouchPad, but I am taking my Pre 3 to dinner. When we put these together, we can make magic happen."

11:09AM "I need to do one last thing, I need to figure out where I'm going to dinner." Just Type for searching email. This all feels so intuitive.

11:08AM "You're having way too much fun... take a few minutes and wrap it up." Ha! Pretty smooth, however. Obviously over WiFi.

11:08AM And, we have a video call.

11:07AM Ha! A call just came in from Jon... "Hey, let's switch to video."

11:07AM Page turn animations. People love those!

11:07AM Brand new Kindle app for webOS. Looks quite nice so far.

11:06AM "Our customers will have options on how to subscribe and purchase this content. We're working with partners like Time, but we're also making this a great platform for reading books by partnering with Amazon for Kindle."

11:05AM "Here's a recent issue of Sports Illustrated." Full magazine experience here.

11:05AM "It's not just about immersive gaming... it's about immersive reading too."

11:05AM A flight simulator... not bad looking. "If I'm about to crash... I can flip back to the card view." Apparently this app was done only with a few days of work.

11:04AM "Let's see an example of some Open GL gaming."

11:03AM "No we've seen some of the core webOS apps. I want to show you what our devs are building on webOS."

11:03AM "Let's not forget that printer. The proof is in the pudding... there you go."

11:03AM "This is seamless integration with social networking."

11:02AM Nice, Facebook comments from within the photo, and you can respond.

11:02AM "Here are my Facebook photos. My wife loves this, she wants to put it on the fridge. At HP we know a few things about printing. We now can support wireless printing to almost all of the devices we've shipped over the last few years."

11:02AM The new app integrates cloud photo services as if they were photo albums on the device.

11:01AM Taking a look at the photos app right now. Totally redesigned.

11:00AM Really nice integration. Very fluid. Some cheers for that.

11:00AM Just Type in action... which now includes posts to Twitter.

10:59AM "This sounds like a nice day, some dinner with friends, I need to let the world know how I feel -- I need to Tweet this." Ha!

10:59AM "In order to type something like this on other devices, I would have to switch about four times, but not here."

10:58AM Great keyboard clicking sound.

10:58AM "We all have different sized hands..." You can change the size of the virtual keyboard. That's a nice touch.

10:58AM "Our messaging app is special -- it integrates all of your services in one app."

10:57AM "While I was browsing, I saw some people were trying to get ahold of me. Notifications in webOS are unobtrusive." This is nice, they're kept up top in the status bar, and appear in a dropdown. Somewhat of a desktop paradigm which works perfectly.

10:56AM Browsing looks solid -- very faithful recreations compared with the desktop versions.

10:56AM "Let's go to another page... maybe some cooking ideas..."

10:55AM "My daughter likes Kung-Fu Panda... someone sent me an email about the sequel. Here's a Flash video..." Wow, nice and smooth playback of fullscreen streaming Flash content.

10:55AM Small jab there.

10:55AM "Multitasking was not an afterthought, it was a design principal from day one."

10:54AM This is what webOS was born to do.

10:54AM We have to admit, the multitasking looks amazing here. Would make using a tablet roughly a million times easier.

10:53AM "As you can see, I get too much email. I want to delete several of these at once. We added multi-select." Ah ha -- you touch the gesture area and multiple messages. Finally!

10:52AM The email app looks almost identical to iOS.

10:52AM Ah, but you can drag over a third pane to see accounts. Interesting.

10:52AM You drag a handle in the corner of your email window to reveal your list of messages. Interesting step, but seems odd. Should be revealed off the bat.

10:51AM "Let me show you an app that we spend a lot of time in -- email."

10:51AM "This is true multitasking."

10:50AM "Now if only I had Jon's Black AmEx card I could buy that diamond..." Ha!

10:50AM "Here's my to-do list... since I'll be away on Valentine's Day again, my gift better be good." Laughs. "I thought, a diamond."

10:50AM Actually, looks like notifications appear on the status bar up top, then hide themselves.

10:49AM New paneled photos application.

10:48AM Cards and animation looks pretty smooth on the TouchPad.

10:48AM "Let's look at what makes webOS so special." Well this is special.

10:48AM "The TouchPad and Pre 3 talk to each other. I can get my texts here, and I can also do phone calls on my TouchPad."

10:47AM "I have a TouchPad in my hands. As Jon pointed out, the hardware is beautiful. I think I just got a text... I could go to my Pre... but I don't have to." Oh!

10:47AM "Okay, that's one, it's time to relax. I like to drop my phone on my desk. Drop it on the Touchstone. It switched into Exhibition mode. It's my photo frame, or shows my upcoming appointments. Once I'm home, I want to use my new HP TouchPad."

10:46AM Boy the keyboard looks spacious.

10:46AM "I'm going to Mobile World Congress, I need to confirm my flight. I take out my Pre 3."

10:45AM "Here's a scenario... I'm coming home after a long day of work. That's my home."

10:45AM "Today is very exciting for all of us at HP. Let's dive deeper and see how these products work."

10:44AM Sachin Kansal is out to demo the device.

10:44AM It's demo time!

10:44AM "Using Touchstone our devices can share information wirelessly... more on that in a minute." Hmm...

10:44AM Accessories: case / stand, keyboard (the one we scooped recently!) -- a new Touchstone dock.

10:43AM QuickOffice, Google Docs, Dropbox, and Box.net compatibility. VPN, video calling, wireless printing.

10:42AM Virtual keyboard is here -- looks very clean. Nothing shocking thus far.

10:42AM webOS accounts work in tandem on the phones and the TouchPad -- just log in and it populates your info.

10:41AM Front-facing 1.3MP camera

10:41AM Notifications are shown like Growl pop ups in the corner.

10:41AM New paneled email application, very similar to iOS.

10:40AM Cards are here, and grouped in Stacks, just as you'd expect.

10:40AM Ouch... "Some of the work in the industry shows we have a lot of fans of webOS." Sting, RIM!

10:40AM "The TouchPad is screaming fast."

10:40AM Using the newest Snapdragon -- dual core 1.2GHz CPU

10:39AM 16GB or 32GB of storage, twice the RAM of the Pre 2

10:39AM WiFi 802.11b/g/n -- Bluetooth 2.1

10:39AM Video calling, Beats audio

10:39AM 9.7 inch display, 1024 x 768

10:38AM Weighs a little over a pound and a half, 13mm thick

10:38AM "This is the first in the webOS TouchPad family. For the first time webOS is on a device that lets the intuitive nature shine through."

10:38AM Yep -- looks a lot like those renders we saw!

10:37AM Huge applause.

10:37AM "This is the HP TouchPad."

10:37AM "With the Veer and Pre 3, HP is bringing innovation to customers. When we first developed webOS, we designed it to run on a variety of devices, but we've only done smartphones so far -- today that changes."

10:36AM "We've taken our Touchstone technology even further. When you set down your device, Exhibition mode automatically launches."

10:36AM "This phone is built for serious speed, and serious fun... available this Summer." Eek -- that's a long wait!

10:35AM Qualcomm CPU running at 1.4GHz!

10:35AM Two version -- HSPA+ and EVDO Rev A world phone -- 8GB or 16GB. RAM is the same as Pre 2.

10:35AM 5-megapixel camera and forward facing camera

10:35AM Yes.

10:35AM 3.6-inch 800 x 480 display

10:34AM Full touchscreen plus hardware keyboard.

10:34AM "Finally a phone you can use for business that you don't want to leave at work."

10:34AM "Meet the Pre 3." Cheers!

10:34AM "As I said before, customers want a device that works for them. They want a device that makes it easy to do email, calls, browse the web... and they wonder why that's so much to ask... we're introducing a smartphone for professionals..."

10:33AM The Veer is available in early spring.

10:33AM "Never before has a smartphone done so much, and felt so little."

10:32AM First to use Snapdragon 7230 processor

10:32AM HSPA+, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, 8GB storage, RAM is equal to the Pre 2

10:32AM It's got 8GB of storage and the same memory as the Pre 2.

10:32AM The HP Veer.

10:32AM "This is the HP Veer." It's tiny!

10:30AM "Our latest release of webOS is 2.1 -- it gives users tons of great new features. So far we've delivered 5 devices, including the Pre 2, available for pre order from Verizon tomorrow."

10:29AM "Yesterday, Laptop Magazine voted us the champion of the OS Bowl." Cheers and laughs for that.

10:28AM "We have a lot of stuff to show you today. It's been a little over two years since we introduced the Palm Pre." Jon is going down the list of praise for webOS and their devices. We got a shout out!

10:27AM "With HP, we can now scale webOS globally. As most of you know, one of our developments is Synergy -- it merges your data from across the cloud and brings it together in an easy way. If info changes in the cloud, it's automatically updated in your phone. Now HP is bringing that to more products that help you connect."

10:26AM "Thanks Todd -- and thanks everyone. Welcome -- it's great to see you all here. It's great to be doing this event in SF. And it's great to be presenting as part of HP."

10:25AM Jon is out!

10:25AM "What I first saw what webOS could do across devices... it's an experience I'll never forget. You see it and know with certainty that progress is happening. And with that, it's my pleasure to invite on stage a leader who's gotten us here today -- please welcome Jon Rubinstein."

10:25AM "We start with unique and differentiated tech. It's going to thrill, engage, and excite devs and consumers alike."

10:24AM "This work is precisely the place we're focusing on delivering value. By seamlessly connecting that content and those devices."

10:24AM "But no one, before today, has developed a solution that works between these devices. A solution that gives you effortless access to that digital universe."

10:23AM "Let's look at this market. Very few of you own just one device. Maybe three or four. We've seen an explosion in services and web content that we consume. We have more and more people accessing more and more content. That's a lot of mores."

10:22AM "When Jon and I had our first conversation, I was convinced we could do that."

10:22AM "More than half a century ago David Packard said the reason for a company to exist is to make a contribution."

10:22AM "We've embraced the webOS dev community. We keep the tools in the garage -- unlocked."

10:21AM "What we've focused on is how we bring the scale. Since acquiring Palm, we've added hundreds of engineers. Adding to an already amazing team, led by Jon Rubinstein."

10:21AM "I think the most conservative estimates for the connected device market is low. We're in the early stages of a market that's going to continue to grow in size, importance, and relevance for years to come."

10:20AM "In the last 60 seconds, we shipped 120 PCs, printers... not bad."

10:20AM Todd is talking about how HP can deliver innovation at scale.

10:19AM Having some internet issues here...

10:19AM "We have a history of firsts. We have a tradition of creating firsts."

10:16AM "Good morning. Welcome to SF. Friends, guests, everybody. So I'd like you to think back to that moment in time when you experienced something for the first time."

10:16AM Todd Bradley is out!

10:16AM Lights are down... here we go!

10:13AM Also lots of people from the Palm developer community. Here's hoping the event pays off their patience.

10:12AM The tech industry is out in force for this event. Lots and lots of familiar faces here. No one is missing it.

10:11AM Okay. More LCD Soundsystem. They're just kind of playing the record now.

10:09AM So the event is a little late. We're not going to hold it against them.

10:08AM There's something very interesting happening under a cloth to the right of the stage. Wonder what it could be?

10:07AM More LCD Soundsystem.

10:01AM Really good vibe here. Everyone seems super excited about what is in store. I don't think there's any doubt that the industry would like to see this group do something new and interesting. We certainly would -- and we know this team is capable of it. No pressure guys.

9:59AM As in none.

9:59AM We're guessing there's a not so subtle message here. Also of note, not really any Palm logos on anything anywhere. At all.

9:59AM And we're inside! LCD Soundsystem is on, "I Can Change" -- nice touch!

9:33AM We're going to go angle for a good seat. Stay tuned!

9:31AM We're inside the venue and waiting in a holding area just outside of where the main event will take place. It looks like there's a curtained-off hands-on area behind us, so expect to see some real action later. There's a bit of 90's-ish triphop on the sound system, and everything is very colorfully lit. Fun!