HP TouchPad WiFi Hits Tabtown July $499

Another day, another tab release. This time its HP’s turn, announcing its newest take on the tablet will hit July.

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However, the difference is, shock horror, it’s not an Android. HP has decided to jump on its own webOS, for the device that is said to look remarkably like the iPad.

TouchPad also boasts a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a SIM-card slot and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and an 8 hour battery life.

Weighing in at 680g, the 9.7-inch capacitive multi-touch screen device is an ideal business companion with email integration courtesy of HP Synergy, a slick virtual keyboard, VPN support, wireless printing as well as Google Docs, QuickOffice, Dropbox and Box.net compatibility.

However, us Aussies will have to hold out a little longer as TouchPad will be untouchable for us until some unconfirmed date later this year.

And HP Australia were not giving away any other details about specs or pricing either.

And since HP is the top selling PC brand here in Australia, it could win users of its office based systems over with its compatibility across devices. The tab will be compatible with its Veer smartphone.

“What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, Senior VP, Palm Global Business Unit, HP.

“The platform’s unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use.

And the Palo Alto giant is promising more exciting times  to come with its fledgling platform.

“This is only the beginning of what HP’s scale can do with webOS,” Rubinstein added.

Priced at $499 TouchPad will come in 16GB or 32GB for $US599.

This comes as just yesterday rival Toshiba announced its 10.1″ Tablet running Honeycomb 3.0 would go on release here later this month, having just debuted for the first time in LA this week and RIM Playbook tab goes on sale here on June 20th.

It’s hard to keep up in tabtown, these days. 

Read REVEALED: iPad 2 V Toshiba: $579 10.1 Android Tab Hit Oz June here