HP thinks the TouchPad will be 'better than number one,' if that's even possible

HP's expectations for its new TouchPad tablet are running pretty high -- so high, in fact, that they can only be expressed with a make-believe number. During a recent press conference in Cannes, HP's Eric Cador boldly declared that his company's new slate won't just be the best on the market, it'll be the bestest. Cador explained:

"In the PC world, with fewer ways of differentiating HP's products from our competitors, we became number one; in the tablet world we're going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus."

A spokesman later confirmed that the device will launch in the UK with apps from the Guardian, Sky and Last.fm, but promised that "thousands" of other apps are on the way. The metrics might sound a bit optimistic, but the message is clear: HP thinks the TouchPad will annihilate the iPad and blow our minds to smithereens. We'll just have to wait and see whether it's as explosive as advertised.

The Daily Telegraph

Walmart prices HP TouchPad 32GB at $599?

PlayBoy Magazine might not have had the HP TouchPad's price dead to rights, but it also might not have been far off the mark -- if this allegedly leaked Walmart database entry is correct, the 32GB version of the webOS slate will cost $599. PreCentral nabbed the above image, as well as supplementary documentation suggesting an $80 sticker price for the Touchstone Dock, $50 for a first-party case, $30 for a spare AC adapter and $70 for the official Bluetooth keyboard. Of course, that $599 price tag puts the 9.7-inch tablet squarely in the sights of Apple's 32GB iPad 2. We can't wait to see if it's worth the cash to pick up this underdog.

PreCentral

HP Touchpad and Pre 3 pricing revealed... by Playboy Magazine (update: just estimates)

Hey, we're growing kind of close to that "summer" release window for HP's marquee mobile devices, aren't we? Playboy Magazine sure thinks so, as its latest issue (June) comes with pricing for the Pre 3 and Touchpad, information we haven't yet heard from anywhere else. The 3.6-inch smartphone with a sliding keyboard is expected to land at the industry-standard $200 on contract, while its 9.7-inch tablet brandmate should make itself available for $500 without any subsidies. These numbers are stated authoritatively, as if already known, though we'd still urge a note of caution until HP itself blurts the prices out. Skip past the break to see evidence of the Touchpad pricing as well.

Update: False alarm, people. The author of the Playboy article -- yes, Playboy reads Engadget, apparently -- got in touch with us to say that the numbers quoted were just price estimates rather than concrete insider intel. Oh darn.

PreCentral