HP Kills TouchPad, AT&T Hikes Fees and Brainy IBM Chips: BYTE Newsbriefs

In a sharp tactical reversal, Hewlett-Packard today killed its WebOS-based HP TouchPad tablet and smartphones.

Earlier this year, HP unveiled its Palm-designed WebOS family of phones, tablets and PCs with great fanfare. Find coverage here.

The HP TouchPad, released in June, was yet another competitor struggling in vain against the Apple iPad. Recently, HP slashed prices on the tablet. And another one bites the dust.

In a preliminary financial report today, HP said growth is slow at just 1 percent. Today HP said it is renewing focus on business tools and cloud services.

Also in today’s news, Apple went after Samsung. In the Netherlands, Apple legal reps demanded Samsung immediately cease sale of Samsung Galaxy Tab products in Europe. We talk about this in depth on today’s episode of BYTE Wireless Radio with BYTE’s Craig Johnston, Fritz Nelson and me.

And … bad news for heavy AT&T texters today. AT&T issued a statement saying it’s getting rid of its lowest cost texting plan of $10 a month for 1,000 text messages. On Sunday, a new plan doubles the cost. The deal now will be $20 a month for 1,000 texts. Or opt to pay per message – to the tune of 20 cents a pop. Read the full story here.

Watch BYTE for Windows 8 coverage as we prepare to attend Microsoft’s BUILD developer conference next month in Southern California. Here’s a nice Windows 8 piece.

Did you catch IBM's announcement of new chips today? My colleagues at InformationWeek report how these chips use neural synaptic-like technology.

BYTE's Mike Rothman is keeping tabs on Evernote. The firm today announced its acquisition of Skitch, the popular iOS graphic enhancing tool. With Skitch, Rothman reports, users can add arrows, annotations, text and graphics to photos using a touch interface.

The app cost $19.99 but, with the acquisition, Skitch now is free from Evernote. It'll be out on Android soon, reps added.

Have a great day!

Based in San Francisco, BYTE senior editor Mike Rothman contributed to this story.