The device made no pretense of being a productive business, home office, or homework tool. The emphasis is on entertainment.

"No matter where you are or what kind of fun you're in the mood for, the HP Slate 500 is all you need," reads the product description, which doesn't include the price or a release date. "Exclusive HP software gives you access to photos, videos and everything on the Internet with just a touch, while Windows 7 Premium gives you the power to do what you want."

The Slate has an 8.9-inch screen, video and still cameras, a gigabyte of memory, a 1.6-gigahertz processor , and supports input from an electronic pen "to write or draw as if on a piece of paper," HP said.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the Slate in January, but three months later came insider reports that the device was dead on arrival as HP's acquisition of Palm made it more likely the company would want to promote Palm's webOS rather than Windows 7. On July 12, at Microsoft's developer conference, Ballmer pointedly did not mention HP or the Slate as he touted relationships with Toshiba, Acer, Dell, Samsung and Sony for Windows-based tablets. (HP's logo did, however, appear on a slide display alongside other companies as he spoke.)

HP has suggested that the Slate's appearance online was a trial balloon, saying it is "in customer evaluations now and will make a determination soon on the next steps."

The Slate mystery deepened late Wednesday afternoon when the tablet posting disappeared from HP's site.

Releasing the Slate with Windows would mean putting the device up against a likely Palm tablet with webOS. HP has reportedly applied for a trademark on the name PalmPad. A Palm tablet would, in a way, bring the company full circle, since its Palm Pilot personal data assistants in the 1990s first popularized the touchscreen.

But HP will have plenty of competition in what is likely to be a crowded tablet market spearheaded by Apple's incredibly successful iPad, which launched in April. Sales have topped three million, Apple says. (continued...)

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