During HP’s “Think Beyond” event, in addition to revealing the HP Veer, the company unveiled the latest and greatest from the new webOS Global Business Unit, which was in charge of both hardware and software engineering under their management. The devices they showed off would be the refined Pre 3 and the bulky yet powerful HP TouchPad.
The Pre 3 was for all intents and purposes, the best display of what HP’s resources could do for Palm and the G.B.U. It had a chance to both sway public opinion and make webOS competitive again from a hardware perspective, something that really hadn’t been seen since the launch of the original Pre. Sadly though, the device only saw release in the UK for the span of an entire day before HP announced the end of webOS hardware development. This made the Pre 3 both the most powerful, but also among the rarest of webOS smartphones (outside of the unreleased Windsornot & Mako concept phones). the Pre 3 was never officially released in the U.S., yet was sold through the HP store in California before being put on sites like Amazon and eBay to be sold off. The device was made for ATT and for Verizon, yet the latter device is a far less common variant.
A commonality among webOS enthusiasts is their ability to maintain the usefulness, applicability, and capabilities of their favorite aging hardware. The GSM Pre3 and Veer were touted as having 4G capability but truly only have “FauxG” speeds. That same fact resounds for owners of the HP TouchPad 4G or the much more rare and GSM-capable HP TouchPad Go. Oh well, speeds are slower but we don’t really care because we love these devices, right? Sort of! We DO love the devices but who can leave “well enough” alone? Grab your favorite spudger and torx screwdriver set because what I’m about to show you will have you clamoring to replace the old Ericsson card inside your “4G” TouchPad and you’ll be surprised just how simple it is to do.
Unless you’re just coming back to webOS from another platform or you’ve been hiding under a mobile-tech rock, you are aware that