News to know: HP-Palm; Microsoft-HTC; Gizmodo iPhone; earnings
HP's acquisition of Palm, the HTC-Microsoft patent agreement, more twists in the Gizmodo iPhone case and a roundup of earnings lead today's top headlines. Get the day's rolling posts via Twitter, RSS, or email.
Here are the key themes for Thursday, April 29:
Hewlett-Packard saved Palmwith a $1.2 billion acquisition bid that would put HP smack dab in the middle of the fast-moving and highly competitive mobile game. What does this mean for longtime HP partner Microsoft? And what about RIM, a leader in enterprise? Better yet, what will webOS do for the HP Slate, as it goes against the iPad?
Microsoft and HTC have cut an interesting patent deal that allows the phone maker to build phones using Google's Android OS. This is clearly bigger than just this one deal. Does Linux play a role? What about Apple?
This ongoing drama about Gizmodo and the "stolen" iPhone prototype takes more turns, with prosecutors now defending their possibly First Amendment-violating search and seizure on the home of the tech site's editor. Not to be outdone, a lawyer for Gizmodo says tech site would have a strong case if it decided to sue the police over the incident.
On the earnings front, Comcast improved as the economy continues to pick up, AOL was disappointing across the board and Sprint narrowed its losses but tried to stay focused on 4G rollout.
A trip down memory lane: Today's photo gallery looks back at Palm products over the years.