One of the biggest criticisms of WebOS since its debut on the original Pre over two years ago has been the appalling lack of a native Microsoft Office-compatible app for viewing, editing, and creating documents. Viewer-only versions of Documents To Go are available for WebOS 1.x smartphones while the Veer and TouchPad currently ship with a read-only version of QuickOffice. However, a version of QuickOffice with editing capabilities remains unreleased a year after it was first referenced. DataViz dropped support for WebOS entirely last year shortly before being acquired by RIM.

While it's not exactly a hard release date, QuickOffice has made an update to their website clarifying the situation about the differences between the full versions of QuickOffice on WebOS 2.x smartphone vs WebOS 3.x tablets. TouchPad users will receive the full version of QuickOffice for free via a forthcoming App Catalog release. Smartphone users, presumably including all current and legacy WebOS 1.x and 2.x devices, will have to pay for the full version of QuickOffice. QuickOffice states that smartphone users signing up now to their mailing list will receive a "special exclusive discount when the paid upgrade is available".

Coinciding with the start of August, HP has now delivered on the eagerly-awaited WebOS 3.0.2 build 68 update for the TouchPad. A full change log is available from HP here. Read on for my initial impressions of the update and how it would have impacted my TouchPad review score had it arrived prior to August 1st.

Installation
I fired up the TouchPad and did not receive an automatic notification that the update was available. I was, however, able to pull it using the "System Updates" icon in the Settings menu. The update was 38 megabytes in size and downloaded rather slowly over my 24 Mbit/s U-Verse connection. The entire process of downloading, unpacking, installing, verifying, and rebooting the TouchPad took approximately 36 minutes, a good bit longer than I am accustomed to with Android OTA updates.

Better late than never! HP's anticipated TouchPad 3.0.2 update is now live, having been made officially available yesterday evening to commemorate the device's first month on the market. Weighing in at a moderate 38Mb, this update can be pulled from the TouchPad's "System Updates" checker.

The main attractions of the update are enhanced performance across the board, along with two new apps (Clock and Calculator), web browser improvements, and a number of lesser enhancements and bug fixes.

HP's Jon Zilber chimes in with a post about the update on the official Palm Blog and while a full change log is also available on HP's support site.

HP's TouchPad is not only the first ever non-smartphone WebOS device, but also the first non-phone "Palm" device since 2005's TX and Z22. As such, ever since its February unveiling, the combined HP/Palm entity is placing a tremendous amount of faith that the the TouchPad will spearhead a rebirth of WebOS, now debuting in verion 3.0 form on this device.

Read on for my in-depth TouchPad review.

After missing their self-imposed end of July deadline, HP's Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations for WebOS, Richard Kerris, Tweeted this morning that the eagerly-awaited WebOS 3.0.2 update began its rollout sometime today, August 1st.

A quick perusal of various forums and Tweets online reveal that the OTA update has not yet begun rolling out and my review TouchPad still reports that it's up to date. However, a PreCentral forums post from MateoSolo had word from an anonymous HP insider with a minor bit of updated info. The rollout will now supposedly be launched around 3pm. The following change log was also mentioned in the post:

On the heels of their July 12th article discussing the recent management shakeup at HP, last week Bloomberg interviewed Todd Bradley, HP's Executive Vice President of the Personal Systems Group, from the Fortune's Braintech conference in Aspen, Colorado.

During the course of the six minute YouTube video interview segment, Mr. Bradley discusses the future that WebOS has within HP's product family. "Ubiquity" is used several times through the interview, and he mentions the importance of tying the company's software offerings to their hardware products via the cloud.

As HP prepares to rollout the substantial WebOS 3.0.2 for the TouchPad at the end of the month, a number of new services and apps are arriving in advance of the big update. Here's a roundup of the most notable of the most notable new media-related applications.

First off, we have HP's MovieStore video rental service available now in the App Catalog. Powered by RoxioNow, TouchPad customers in the U.S. have access to a number of recent film and Television shows for both purchase and rental. TouchPad users in countries outside the United States are directed to the Viewster app for their rental needs.

Music-wise, HP is currently promoting the 7digital MP3 app, though an HPPlay-branded cloud music service is expected to eventually arrive for WebOS users. The 7digital MP3 store offered DRM-free major music songs, since the WebOS version of the Amazon MP3 app is not currently available for the TouchPad but is expected soon.

Last week, Precentral received quite the bounty from an anonymous HP insider in the form of a leaked HP roadmap. The internal presentation covers a period of time ranging from the Veer 4G's launch in May/June to an unspecified time later in Q3.

Since the launch of the Veer and Wi-Fi TouchPad have already occurred, let's look at what HP has in store for the coming months. August will bring a flagship version of the TouchPad in the form of a "glossy white" 64Gb version with a CPU boosted to 1.5Ghz. It's unknown if this is merely a higher-clocked version of the same Qualcomm APU found in the current TouchPad or an entirely new processor altogether. At any rate, this should go a long way to address some of the TouchPad's major performance issues with WebOS 3. It's unknown if the 64Gb TouchPad will also be offered in black or if the white case will eventually trickle down to the lesser SKUs.

Earlier this month we took a look at the initial crop of HP TouchPad reviews from around the web. For two rather unique takes on the TouchPad, we have two newer opinion pieces that take a fresh look at the TouchPad in the immediate aftermath of its launch and this week's news of Jon Rubinstein's reassignment within HP.

Up first, long-time tech industry pundit John C. Dvorak takes issue with HP's marketing department in his "Russell Brand Representing HP? Really?" editorial. In the piece, he has harsh words for HP in their choice of choosing "sleaze bag celebrities" to promote the TouchPad. Mr. Dvorak remains convinced that fans of TV's "Glee" are long-time iPad and iPhone users and that boxers such as Manny Pacquiao will not resonate with the early adopter techie crowd HP is trying to woo. He then goes on to criticize HP's handling of the TouchPad launch and a slew of mostly negative early reviews. HP's ability to generate Apple-style buzz for its products is also called into question before he simply states that the TouchPad is the "worst orchestrated new product rollout I have ever seen."

Coming less than two full weeks after the wi-fi version hit store shelves, HP and AT&T have officially announced the TouchPad 4G for AT&T.

In an announcement made via their (still) Palm-Branded blog, HP has moved swiftly in announcing the next iteration of TouchPad. Much like the Veer 4G that I reviewed last month, this is not a "true" 4G device in the LTE sense of the word; it will unsurprisingly stick to existing AT&T HSPA+ radio and network technology. The TouchPad 4G will only be offered in a 32Gb storage configuration and is receiving a nice spec bump in the form of a 1.5Ghz dual-core CPU. Also mirroring the differences between wi-fi and 3G iPads, the TouchPad 4G will also have native GPS functionality due to its integrated chipset.

No word as of yet on official pricing or availability but availability sometime in August would likely be a safe estimate. Since HP is currently meeting Apple at all of their respective price points, a $729 price would appear logical, since that's what the going rate is for an AT&T or Verizon iPad 2 32Gb.

Now that the TouchPad has been on retail shelves for nearly two weeks, a growing number of complaints from both professional reviewers and users alike have prompted HP to respond to various criticisms leveled at the first WebOS tablet.

HP's Senior VP of WebOS Ari Jaaksi took to his personal blog to address some of the complaints voiced online. He states that many of the device's performance issues stem from users hammering the TouchPad with the day 1 setup routines and from copying tens of gigabytes of locally-stored data. He does admit that "we do not handle the situation as well as we should and WebOS may get sluggish. We need to clearly improve the system performance especially when setting up new accounts and downloading a lot of data".