The Digital Sketch is designed to connect remotely to a central computer – operated by the teacher – allowing teachers to distribute text books and information with ease whilst keeping an eye on the student’s work.

The Pocket Whiteboard is not – unfortunately – a foldaway whiteboard that fits in the pocket; it is a mini-projector that turns almost any flat surface into a digital whiteboard. The plug-and-play nature of this piece of kit makes installation simple and allows deployment almost anywhere.

HP also plan to launch the Presentation Station 100 and the Multiseat t150. The former of these items is a portable podium with a notebook dock, keyboard tray and mouse-holder built in. It also includes brackets for attaching all manner of other tech devices such as DVD players, projectors and… well … whatever you can think of really.

The Multiseat t150 Thin Client allows up to 10 students to share a single host computer, allowing increased access to technology for students. This is the only one of HP’s new educational devices currently available. Students and teachers will have to wait until the end of April for the Presentation Station and the end of March for the Digital Sketch.

The Pocket Whiteboard is due for release before the end of February.

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The latest rumblings from the HP camp suggest that new devices supporting their Web OS platform – including a netbook – may be just around the corner.

Following on from the Palm Pre Web OS smartphone – and HP’s purchase of Palm, the company that developed Web OS last decade – HP announced via an introductory video that it would be launching Web OS on a “phone and a slate and a netbook”.

Well we know that a slate device is in the pipeline in the form of the HP Topaz, but as yet no netbooks have been rumoured featuring Web OS.

Evidentally un-phased by the flattening of netbook sales over the past 12 months, it looks as if HP are fully prepared to take the plunge with this one, and unleash Web OS in the netbook format.

Internet chatter is speculating that HP will be forced to completely redevelop the operating system for a larger desktop – given the current trend in netbooks with 10 inch displays, it looks likely that this will be the case.

Further details of HP’s foray back into the netbook market are expected at the Web OS event on February 9th.

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This was announced at a presentation for the Dual-Core Atom N550, which powers HP’s Mini 5103 netbook.

So what does this mean for the future of netbooks? The Atom’s dominance in this market could lead to app producers creating a raft of netbook-specific applications, tailored for use with the Atom processor.

The omnipresence of the Atom processor in netbooks has provided app developers with almost competition free market. These figures give developers the confidence that when they market their apps for an Atom powered device, there are 70 million of those devices to sell to.

A surge in netbook-specific apps would give the netbooks “unique selling point” over the tablet as the two machines prepare for battle in 2011.

However, the strategic importance of this selling point will depend upon the quality of the apps and the quantity of developers prepared to put their necks on the line for the netbook.

In the meantime, Intel will be hoping that the new dual-core Atom powered machines will further boost their sales in the coming months.

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