Whoa. If the rumors that Hewlett-Packard wasn’t doing Android because they bought Palm (and therefore WebOS), then what do we have here? Spotted in China, the photo above is a seven inch Android tablet that HP will be selling bundled with their PhotoSmart eStation C510 printer. Although “Android” might be a bit generous for the software powering the tablet. It doesn’t appear to have GMail or Android Market or any other important Google applications, and it’s running a UI that HP calls TouchSmart.
While Android 2.1 (Eclair) is powering the OS below, the preloaded apps are custom versions of Facebook, Yahoo (fairly well integrated), Barnes & Noble (Nook compatible), HP’s Gallery app, and Snapfish. There’s some video preloaded if the home screen above is to be believed: Sixty Minutes, MSNBC, and Dreamworks. There’s an email client and a web browser as well. Obviously the tablet is geared toward photo sharing and printing, as well as ebook reading, printing and purchasing, of course. TouchSmart seems to be locked down, preventing the user from accessing the Eclair interface or adding anything else to the screen.
The “Zeus” printer that the Zeen is bundled with has a docking station that turns the tablet into a fairly powerful menu interface. Have a look:
HP doesn’t seem to have any plans to sell the tablet without the printer, as the existing SKU for the tablet alone has been canceled. The Zeen and Zeus bundle (where Zeus is the printer) will retail for $399 and the expected shipping date is September 20th.
Most of the HP product pages for the bundle are focused on the printer, but here’s the one page with more info on the Zeen tablet.
