We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this special announcement: Mobile Nations podcast is broadcasting live tonight at 9PM. There’s a lot for us to talk about between HP dumping webOS hardware to Google gobbling up Motorola, and we can’t sit on our hands anymore. So we’re broadcasting live tonight at 9PM Eastern (6PM Pacific, 1AM UTC).

Mobile Nations brings together the heads of the SPE communities, with at the very least Rene Ritchie of TiPb, Kevin of CrackBerry, Phil of Android Central, Dan of WPcentral, and – of course – Derek of PreCentral (plus maybe a few others). There’s going to be a lot to talk about, and things will be kicking off at 9PM Eastern, so be there. It’s going to be amazing. There might be tears.

Join us here, or at MobileNations.com.

After Apple introduced the iPad I wondered out loud on iPad Live whether it would leave any air in the room for eventual tablet rivals. It turns out I might have been right, but also might not have been right enough. The iPad, and now iPad 2, might not have left any air in the room for any hardware rivals, tablet or PC.

HP is not only killing off their webOS hardware and looking to license the software, HP is spinning or selling off their laptop and desktop computer business as well. Why?

The tablet effect is real and the TouchPad is not gaining momentum in the marketplace.

And since we know there’s no tablet market, just an iPad market, the real meaning there is pretty clear.

I was a PalmOS user since the Visor and while I never owned a webOS device, I have tried them and liked them and it’s disappointing to see HP cut and run like this. Sure it’s easier to say “make better hardware” or “get better carrier deals” or “ship more mature products faster” and really difficult to do, but that was the job HP signed up for.

Maybe Amazon or Facebook, or a jilted Android manufacturer will pick up webOS and show HP what a company of will can really do?

Keep reading PreCentral.net for ongoing coverage and let us know — did Apple and the iPad kill HP’s hardware business, and who would you like to see run with webOS?

HP has just announced that they’re killing off webOS devices, namely the Pre, Veer, and TouchPad — or everything that competes with iPhone and iPad.

In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

Derek Kessler, editor of our sibling site PreCentral.net pulls no punches:

So what does this mean? The statement was carefully worded to state that they’re “discontinuing operations for webOs devices,” not webOS as an operating system. If anything, this should add fuel to the second option we discussed earlier today when the shocking word of an HP breakup first surfaced: HP is more interested in webOS than devices. They tried to give it a go with hardware, but quickly realized that they weren’t going to be able to make it work without massive long-term investment and commitment. So less than a year after acquiring all of Palm for $1.2 billion, we’re looking at a hazy future for webOS.

My wish: Google buying Motorola to prevent against manufacturers turning away from Android leads at least one manufacturer with more savvy and stomach than HP to turn away from Android and towards webOS. An HTC ThunderBolt II or Samsung Galaxy S III with Cards and Synergy would be very, very interesting.

Keep your browsers locked to PreCentral.net for continuing coverage.

[PreCentral.net]

AT&T has confirmed to Engadget that, as of August 21, they’ll be removing all but the unlimited SMS/Text messaging plans:

“We regularly evaluate our offers and are making some adjustments to our messaging lineup.

Starting August 21, we’re streamlining our text messaging plans for new customers and will offer an unlimited plan for individuals for $20 per month and an unlimited plan for families of up to five lines for $30 per month. The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers. Existing customers don’t have to change any messaging plan they have today, even when changing handsets.”

With iOS 5 and iMessage likely set for an early October launch, AT&T was facing a world where Apple provided an easy, integrated way to seamlessly exchange free instant messages inside the same Messages app that hosts costly, carrier-based SMS/text messages. Arguably, a subscriber who’s friends and family were also mostly on iPhones could have downgraded to a lower plan to save some money.

Now that can’t happen. It’s unlimited or nothing. And as MG Siegler points out on Paris Lemon, it’s quite a coincidence.

SMS is huge money for carriers considering the data used is next to nothing and the price is stratospheric, and iMessage was a threat to that traditional, exorbitant revenue stream.

Now we’re just left to wonder which other carriers will follow suit.

[Engadget, ParisLemon]

Why would Google pay $12.5 billion for Motorola? It cost them 18 months of their profits. It’s 3 times what Apple, Microsoft, and a consortium of others paid for Nortel’s patents. It’s 10 times what HP paid for Palm. Hell, Google is guaranteeing twice as much in break-up penalty alone as HP paid for Palm. Why would a smart company like Google, one that’s already sunk untold resources into an OS they essentially give away for free, spend so much of their capital on a single Android licensee for whom profitability is a somewhat distant memory?

Patents is the throw away line, the canard Larry Page foisted at the end of his blog post and the sound bite rival Android ODMs repeated, Stepford-like when welcoming Motorola’s new overlord to the Open Handset Alliance table. Were Motorola’s patents worth 3 times Nortel’s? Were they worth 10 times Palm’s? (Especially considering Apple and Microsoft are already suing Motorola and Palm’s patents are such that there hasn’t even been a whisper of patent-suit in their general direction?)

Likewise set top boxes. Apple calls Apple TV a hobby. Google TV could, perhaps, charitably fall into that category as well. Granted, getting Android software onto the actual cable box is more compelling than an iOS box in addition to a cable box, but the key word in all these equations is “cable”. Both traditional land-based cable companies (most of which are monopolies) and satellite companies, (which are duopolies or oligopolies), have vested interests in control and content and they’re the ultimate arbiter in which boxes they offer and to whom. (TiVo and Windows Media Centers with cable cards haven’t fought their way out of that paper bag yet either.) Is that business worth $12.5 billion?

Let’s get Oliver Stone about this for a minute and look at a) where Google makes their money, and b) the historical reason for Androids existence and continued development.

Google makes their money from advertising — monetize eyeballs and attention — traditionally off desktop web based search using their AdSense and AdWords engines. The world is moving to mobile, however, and Google being the brilliant company they are, and a one-trick pony being the danger that it is, they’ve expanded into email based advertising (Gmail), bought into video based advertising (YouTube), finally made a credible beachhead into social networks which could be advertised to (Google+), and have previously bought a leading mobile advertising company (AdMob) to help diversify and position themselves for the future. It’s still one pony, but it’s learning more tricks.

Android was created by Andy Rubin and team — the folks who originally brought you the Sidekick — and bought by Google in a move somewhat at odds with Google’s previously web philosophies (which likely accounts for the parallel existence of ChromeOS). While Android doesn’t directly allow Google to make money in their traditional way, it provides a platform where Google can do just that. Historically that’s important because pre-2007, mobile was owned by RIM’s BlackBerry, Palm’s (and PalmOS’) Treo, and by Google’s rival, Microsoft and their licensed Windows Mobile platform. Those, mostly front-facing QWERTY devices with incredibly bad browsers (Blazer, Pocket IE, etc.), defined the industry so much that early Android devices looked exactly like them. And intentionally so. Someone familiar with a Treo or BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Standard device could put one down, pick up an Android, and push aside (no NOC or ActiveSync), get a familiar mobile experience.

That was important to Google because, while they owned advertising, they had no control over the screen needed to display those ads. Conceivably, at some point, Palm or RIM or Microsoft could pull a switch, wall a garden, and lock Google out of a mobile OS as quickly and completely as Facebook has locked them out of a growing portion of the web. (This was never as much of a concern on Windows, which owns most of the desktop market, as it’s been subject to such regulatory scrutiny that Microsoft likely couldn’t ever do wall up IE, much less Firefox, Opera, or other alternatives.)

Android gave Google a mobile insurance policy — if any of those then-dominant companies cut them off, Google could pour ad-bucks into replacing them with Android.

Then the iPhone happened, and not only did it revolutionize the smartphone market, it put a useable browser in a smartphone for the first time. Google was so into this idea that then Google CEO and Apple board member, Eric Schmidt, briefly took the stage with Steve Jobs at the iPhone introduction to show Google properties would be right there with it.

Google also immediately stopped efforts at launching a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Standard clone and began work on iPhone clones. (Much to their credit — it took most competitors years to come to that realization.) They did that because, once again, regardless of how good a browsing (and advertising) experience iPhone (and subsequent devices like iPod touch and iPad) were, Google didn’t own them, and that meant they were now one exclusive search deal with Yahoo! or Bing away from being marginalized from the biggest thing in mobile.

Then, even though Apple owned mobile browsing, Apple introduced the App Store which repackaged the web from browser-centric to app-centric, and into a place much more difficult for Google to present the traditional ads that made up most of their revenue. (Buying AdMob helped, though Apple’s back-and-forth policies on what data could be collected and shared didn’t.) It wasn’t Facebook bad for Google, but it wasn’t good.

So Android became even more important, though at equal and opposite cost. To drive adoption and win market share, Google gave Android away for free, under a very manufacturer- and carrier-friendly Apache license. Verizon licensed “Droid” from George Lucas, put together a great ad campaign with some well differentiated hardware from Motorola, while HTC and Google collaborated on the Nexus One, and suddenly Google was back in the mainstream and geek-centric mobile games. (Honeycomb, not so much as it is but as it will be after a few more iterations, was a very similar response to iPad and its share of mobile web traffic.)

But manufacturer- and carrier-friendly Apache licenses are bastards to deal with in the real world. Verizon put out a phone with Google stripped out and Bing stripped in, destroying the very reason for Android’s existence in the first place. AT&T locked out sideloading. Manufacturers secured bootloaders. Carriers everywhere began pre-installing crapware. China forked Android. Could Verizon one day do the same? Could Amazon? vOS or AmazonOS with Bing everywhere, and Google forced to bid for placement on the very platform they’d spent their resources developing and promoting? (Hey, the JooJoo2 — sorry, Grid 10 — reduces Android to a kernel with Amazon appstore and Bing search sitting on top of the revenue layer.) Companies like Skyhook even tried to take Google out of the data collection loop, resulting in the first real, public example of Google retaliating with what Android power they still had left (and also resulting in a lawsuit from Skyhook questioning how Google wields that power.)

At the same time, Samsung started to grow their own OS with Bada, HTC was making Windows Phones, and Motorola bought a company that could, conceivably, give them their own version of webOS one day. (While HP made some noise about licensing webOS itself.)

Meanwhile Microsoft and Apple began suing Android ODMs, Microsoft in an effort to make Android more expensive and Apple in an effort to make it less usable. HTC agreed to pay Microsoft $5 a unit, making it a credible threat. Apple hasn’t achieved much of anything other than temporary — and overturned — sales injunctions but that could change. While Google makes little off Android handsets today (conversely, Apple owns 66% of mobile profits), making nothing is much, much worse. The idea of losing “free” and losing the UI candy and UX touches that make iPhone so popular once again showed Google that even with Android it still wasn’t in control of its own destiny.

Google still lacked a manufacturing arm that could, if everyone and everything else turned against them — if Samsung forked Android or went all in on Bada, if HTC switched to Windows Phone, if LG inked an exclusive deal with webOS or rebuilt it themselves — produce mobile products that still offered great value and great experience and did so with Google’s software and services inextricably and irremovably backed in.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Motorola.

Sure, there’s some risk that, with the Motorola deal, Google will alienate licensees and, ironically, drive them exactly where Google was afraid of — Bada and Windows Phone and webOS, etc. But Google has shown time and time again they’d rather be secure in and of themselves even if it costs them a partner (like Apple on iOS, Skyhook and mapping companies, etc.)

Motorola brings a second pony to Google’s show, a gateway to potentially Apple-like hardware profits in both mobile and set top boxes that also happens to have some patents. But most importantly –

Like Android has been from the beginning, it remains today — insurance for Google, and in that regard, Google just doubled down and upped their policy by $12.5 billion.

Daily Deal: Speck CandyShell Case for AT&T iPhone 4 only $7.95!

For today only, the TiPb Store has the Speck CandyShell Case for AT&T iPhone 4 for only $7.95 — that’s a whopping 77% off. It’s never been more affordable to give your iPhone a splash of color — white/charcoal, dark blue, gray/lavender, pink/black, and black/gray — go get yours before they’re gone! (Heck, at this price, get a couple of them!)

• Shop Speck Products CandyShell Case for AT&T iPhone 4 now!

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Imminence: Watch the seconds tick towards that special occasion, or keep an eye on the passing hours until your important deadline. [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• DigiGarage: A simple way to sell and discover new items at great prices in your area. With in-app messaging and notifications, it’s super easy to communicate with potential buyers and sellers! [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

• Mr. Coffee: The only App. that will allow the iPhone to make coffee! And much more! You can make: Espresso, American coffee, cappuccino and tea with a 3D graphics and a liquid handling never seen before. [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Save Dodo: The Dodo birds are alive and well.They are quite a big family but they all share the same dream…fly like all the other birds. Help them to achieve their dreams (or at least help them feel like it). [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• EGDR808: A drum machine that emulates the vintage hardware from the 80′s. [$0.99 for iPad - App Store link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Quickoffice has updated their business and productivity iPad app, Quickoffice Pro HD, with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yammer integration as well as Evernote support.

Details and screenshots after the break.

[App Store link]

Providing additional connectivity for users, Quickoffice Pro HD 3.0 now offers new social sharing and publishing integration with popular social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Yammer and LinkedIn, and can also access content via Evernote and Catch. Mobile users can now interact and collaborate with friends and family on the go, while increasing their productivity by integrating with the cloud.

Update includes:

• Access & Store Your Files Using Catch and Evernote.
• Share Your Files with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yammer.

Quickword® – Advanced Word Document Processing

• New! Find and Replace
• Create, Open & Edit Microsoft Word documents
• Multi-Edit Toolbox for fast and convenient edits
• Edit in Page-layout mode, retaining full format print view
• Scroll bar to preview page thumbnails and jump to any page in any size document
• Extensive text formatting; bold, italics, underline, font sizes/styles
• File support: Edit (97-2008) DOC, DOCX, TXT

Quicksheet® – Advanced Excel Spreadsheet Editor

• New! Find and Replace
• Create, Open & Edit Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
• Multi-Edit Toolbox for fast and convenient edits
• Formula builder to easily create calculations
• Supports advanced Excel features
• Copy/paste cells, columns, rows, cell ranges & formulas are dynamically updated
• Extensive number, cell, and text formatting; bold, italic, cell background, font color, symbols, wrap text
• File support: (97-2008) XLS, XLSX

Quickoffice Pro HD is available on the iPad for $19.99.

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

We’ve been talking so much about the iPhone 5 lately that it feels as if the iPod touch 5 is flying a little under the radar. Usually the iPod touch gets to headline Apple’s annual fall special event but this year it sounds like the iPhone 5 is going to be stealing that thunder as well. Also, while iPod touch used to have the kids and the “I want iOS but I don’t want an iPhone” market all to itself, it now has to share that with iPad, which isn’t as portable but can be easier to use in some circumstances.

So how about we give the iPod touch 5 some love and ask what you want to see Apple announce for it this year?

An Apple A5 chipset seems a given, and that should be great for gaming with its 9x performance (and AirPlay mirroring in iOS 5, which is fabulous.)

It’s already got a Retina Display but not as good a quality one as the iPhone. Maybe Apple could raise the bar on that? Speaking of which, while iPad Touch 4 got cameras, they were… disappointing to say the least. Could Apple finally get serious about iPod touch optics and give us at least 5 megapixels on the back and a FaceTime HD camera on the front?

128GB as an option is something our readers always ask for. Could Apple finally do it? (And maybe retire the iPod classic at the same time?) And the big question — could they add a 3G radio like the iPad has had since it launch?

What else could they do? What else would you want them to do? 3D? Bigger screen? Glowing Apple logo? It’s your turn to tell us!

Technology blog *All Things D” reports that Andy Miller, VP of Apple’s iAd mobile advertising division, is leaving to join venture capital firm, Highland Capital.

Miller came to Apple as part of the Quattro Wireless acquisition, which Apple purchased after losing out on AdMob to Google. He reported directly to Steve Jobs. iAd, however, has faced a number of issues and hasn’t exactly set the mobile ad world on fire.

No word yet on who will replace him.

[AllThingsD]