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HP Confirms Slate To Run WebOS
Kilrah_il writes "After HP bought Palm a few weeks ago, many rumors emerged regarding the new parent company's plans to further expand the scope of devices running WebOS. Now it appears that at least one of the rumors is true: The Slate will be running WebOS. 'Today an HP exec has confirmed that the company is developing a WebOS tablet which should be available by October.'"
If it was running Android... probably would get one
Windows, yeah I would get one.
WebOS? nah.
It would need to be mildly useful for more than browsing the internet at that price.
Waiting for someone to make a good quality, aesthetically-pleasing and ergonomic tablet with Android as its OS. No tablet for me until then.
Apparently nobody bothered to read the first sentence of the article.
"Ever since HP announced plans to acquire Palm a few weeks ago[...]"
Tablets have been running full OS versions for years and they failed. Two thumbs up for HP figuring this out and moving forward with a proper touch based OS on their tablet.
Will be interesting to see what kind of approach HP takes with WebOS. They're in a unique position where they might have the best of both the iPad and Android tablet worlds in that they can provide a much more open experience akin to Android, but still be able to achieve the advantages Apple has from designing both the software and the hardware. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
It isn't a computer replacement, the formfactor already limits the uses and so I like the limited software.
However, the Palm homebrew comunity has X running on webOS so if you want, you can have "real" apps.
I think you naysayers really need to try it, even if it isn't for everyone, it is going to be a great class of device for lots of people.
Probably going to be more successful than one running Windows.
Yes, cheers to HP for letting apple figure out that a full OS wasn't working on tablets and applying a limited, truly touch oriented interface to the device...
HP hasn't even made the device, they didn't even write the OS they plan on using, they bought it. From a once innovative company that died playing catchup and copying the innovations of others...
OK.. I retract that. The more I think about it, the more it sounds like every other tech company out there, at one point or another...
Which OS in particularly do you want them to use?
I believe you can already get Linux and Windows 7-based tablets, and they haven't exactly been flying off the shelves.
Are you saying you are in the market for a tablet, but you are just waiting for one with the right OS? Or are you waiting for Linux or Windows to be updated with a better touch interface? Or apps to be created/updated for these OS's to be better touch enabled?
And are there enough copies of you that will buy this device to make it worthwhile?
On another note, what specific problems do you have with PalmOS?
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
If that's what you want, there are a bunch of those available for you already. None of them have been very successful, and the only ones that sell in decent numbers are the convertible ones. Otherwise they're all like netbooks with the keyboard removed.
For now I'd either go with Android, bank on Google and Java and that environment, or wait for MeeGo to grow up a bit and then develop what amounts to a standard Linux system (linux, GNU coreutils, etc...).
Either way you'll need to write some code for touchscreen UIs, but at least both platforms are pretty darn open.
WebOS has some open stuff in the base layer, but their entire GUI layer is pretty much closed, right? So why would anyone choose to develop for it? I mean, if you want a closed-source environment, why wouldn't you just go with Apple's offerings?
coding is life
HP figured it out? Don't you mean HP waited around to see if the iPad is successful and for Apple to figure it out, and then follow suit?
History and reality beg to differ. If anything, history has shown us that a "full" laptop or desktop OS is NOT what people want on a tablet. The UI for a tablet needs to be different than a desktop. Simply sticking windows or OS X onto a slate and substituting your finger or a stylus for a mouse and displaying an on screen keyboard is not, according to historic sales of tablets, and current sales of the iPad, what people want. I had a Windows tablet and the only thing it better at was browsing the web. For everything else it was worse and I ended up using my Thinkpad and lugging two machines home at the end of the day. I gave the Tablet back to IS after 3 weeks...
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
http://www.slate.com/ is running the thing.
HP contracted the thing out to Slate?
Is there a lawsuit in the future?
That. I recently broke down and bought an Axiotron Modbook. This is a standard MacBook that has a Wacom tablet stapled on the top of the machine. Runs real-live OS X (cue snarky comment about 'real' OS. Just note, it does run EMACS).
A very mixed bag. Using a stylus is hampered by the poor decision to run a low end Wacom product with a terrible pen and software that is unable to change the very limited button repertoire based on application. Hardware / Software integration is poor. Support is pretty weak (the company rarely shows up in the forums). Nice idea, but it just "Doesn't work". At best it will be a very niche product - it's fun to work Photoshop in your lap - but actually frustrating because PS really needs a keyboard to be productive.
So, in short, it's just like every other full OS tablet that litters the landscape. Neither fish nor fowl, never really tuned up, never really achieve any market success. This is why the future of tablets is a limited OS with finger touch as the main input.
Now, there isn't anything (at least to my knowledge) that prevents His Jobness to release an iPad pro (aka 'the MaxiPad') that lets you get out on a real USB ports, runs CUPS, runs Terminal, comes with a Pony, etc.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
because those were tablet laptops, not the new hardware design that people actually now seem to want. and the OS needs to be real, whether windows, linux, or mac os. now the GUI on the other hand, which HP has been doing a good job on with their touchscreen stand computers, with a windows back-end so it can run REAL programs. but now you get yet another worthless app-based OS that can't do jack shite. wonderful.
At least on the OS front, all of the companies (including Apple) have taken the easy way out...
Looking at the usability, and yes, sales, of Windows Tablet PCs, it wasn't rocket science to figure out that existing OS's just weren't going to work. They just weren't designed for touch, and add-on hack to try and accommodate it were clunky at best.
Given the expense and size limitations of decent touch sensitive screens, and the increasing muscle available to smart phones, they were a natural place to build a touch based OS. Because of the limitations of the phne platform (again, processor, memory, etc. but also the appliance aspect of the devices, not to mention vendor locks...) The OS for a phone could also be much more limited in its' capabilities while still being well ahead of the curve.
Apple, taking the easy way out, used their phone OS on the iPad. The iPhone OS is polished, capable and elegent enough that they can get away with it for a while... But in doing so they are more or less ignoring the fact that the iPad is not the same type of device as a phone or iPod.
Of course, since Apple is getting all of the attention, all of the praise, and all of the sales and profits (the important parts)... everyone else is thinking that they should use a phone OS for their competing tablets also.
It is a stopgap, at best. Someone needs to take the time, do the research, and do the work to write an OS for these devices instead of trying to patchwork add and remove bits and pieces of systems clearly designed for other purposes.
Here you go. We already have that.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
How does running keyboard centric applications on a bodged-together low resolution stylus-based display indict using a full OS on a finger based tablet with touch-aware applications?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
define real os... If you want a PC in tablet, you can get it right now... obviously you didn't, ask yourself why ?
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
It even runs 2 real OSes then, Mac OS *AND* EMACS ?
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Yes, yes, yes and yes.
You are welcome on my lawn.
they said it would run on HP tablets but did not say it would be on the HP Slate they showed earlier this year. But the silence regarding that product means something too. They are probably having problems getting Windows 7 to run well enough on it to be competitive or you know they'd be taking the marketing $$ from Microsoft to be spreading the love for Windows 7.
What is also interesting is how they are staying off of netbooks with WebOS. As you all know, Microsoft now owns and controls the netbook segment and they are doing a good job at killing it off. More specifically, they dictate what screen size a "netbook" has, what the maxium processor size can be and other specifics which pin the device down. And because Microsoft controls OEMs regarding netbooks, HP and others are not going to go up against Microsoft now that MS has stuck their flag into that segment. Only Google and a few independents have the balls to oppose MS there. Remember, the Thai manufacturing association said they fear Microsoft so they are staying away from putting Linux on anything which looks like a PC/notebook.
HP has to dance lightly around what they do with WebOS for fear of upsetting Microsoft so don't expect too much from them. IMO
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Apparently somebody went out and shipped a Brazilian Android tablets with a 7 inch screen. They're all over the place out there. Getting the 10 inch screen is going to be pretty tricky - I understand Apple bought them all. Maybe we'll see some Android tablets in the 12 inch display.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I hear lots of bla bla tablets sucked before the iPad bla. But I had a Compaq TC1000 (2003 vintage) for a while and I fail to see what I was mising by not having an iPad. Stylus meant I could actually write, click on and move stuff around properly with it; lazy susan keyboard attachment meant I could treat it as a laptop. I had no need to fat-finger gestures when I had the precision of a pen-point - not that I'd have said no to gestures as an addition, but it's hardly a deal-breaker as far as being able to work and browse with a useful tablet device.
FWIW, I'll admit that the stylus was heavy - but this was fixed with the TC1100, which also featured a faster non-Transmeta CPU.
To 'root' my pre on the first day involved only downloading the official development platform from Palm for Linux. I didn't have to go to Windows or OSX or wait for someone in the community to 'jailbreak'. Meanwhile, Android phones from most manufacturers take a few weeks for the community to jailbreak before the fun begins. I'd rather go with a platform where the manufacturer blatantly allows the users the power Palm does. I find it ironic as the base platform is more closed in theory, but in practice is a bit more amenable to hacking.
Though I'm personally not enthused about their HTML5/Javascript 'premiere' approach to applications, I do like the simplicity of SDL/GL/C code to develop other apps.
As a user, I find WebOS' current interface a bit slicker on the multitasking front.
Of course, all this said I don't think I'll ever be interested in a tablet. It's in a useless spot for me of not being as useful as a laptop yet not as convenient as my 'phone'.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
It doesn't. My point being that current 'normal' operating systems DON'T include significant touch based functionality and certainly the applications aren't there yet. Thus, my contention that a 'specialty' OS and application suite, one engineered to deal with the advantages and limitations of the tablet form factor, are going to be the best solution.
My last paragraph was simply a dig at Apple to make the iPad unnecessarily crippled.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Define a "real" operating system... AN OS is only required to.. well... operate the system it is controlling... The OS on a "dumb" flip phone is no less "real" or "complete" for it's lack of printing, or ability to install random apps, or run flash. So long as it does what the manufacturer and designers intended it to do.
A tablet is a different device with different capabilities and a different purpose than a laptop or desktop, so a different OS is in order. There is a lot of room to debate whether a phone OS is the right way to go. For what it is worth, I think Apple will have an easier route to turning the iPhoneOS into something truly suitable for a tablet. It is essentially OSX under the hood, and I think they will have a better chance of adding the needed pieces as they become available in the right adaptations. WebOS on the other hand started specifically designed for phones, and I think HP will have more work to do to convert it to a more capable system...
1) So, basically you're waiting for somebody to come out with 'something' better, but you have no idea what features and/or capabilities it may have [other than it's not the iPad and doesn't use PalmOS].
2) Given (1), you can't really say there are enough copies of you to make it worthwhile, unless you happen to be personally wealthy enough to create this magical device yourself. And fund the development of the OS. And fund the development of the apps you want.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I was responding to
This is why the future of tablets is a limited OS with finger touch as the main input.
Limited and specialized have pretty different implications.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The entire argument for running Windows 7 (a "real OS", for whatever that means) on a slate tablet is that you can run all your existing Windows programs, like Photoshop, on it. This guy has a tablet device, and is running Photoshop, and says it doesn't really work, due to lack of keyboard. Take away the stylus, and it'd get even worse, because Photoshop is in no way optimized for finger input. That's why I never get everyone being all excited about running existing Windows apps on a touchscreen slate. Almost none of those apps have any kind of support for touch, and have UIs optimized for keyboard/mouse input. There's an app running where I work on a touchscreen display. Its painfully obvious there was no thought of touchscreens when it was designed. Its so bad that someone hooked a mouse into the computer running it, so there could be some kind of control.
The problem with that touchscreen UI layer that HP adds on is that, as soon as you go away from the few specialty apps they came up with for use with that layer, you see how painful it is to run regular desktop apps with a finger based interface. At least on Android, iPhoneOS, and WebOS, the apps are designed from the beginning to be used with a finger.
Maybe a Thinkpad convertible like x61 tablet or x200t would have been good for you? I've been thinking about getting one but would like to know how well linux works with those.
I have enough stuff to tinker with my n900 at the moment though so will probably wait until I can get x60/x61 tablet for 200€ or so from ebay :D
And are there enough copies of you that will buy this device to make it worthwhile?
Come now, this is slashdot. You should already know it's unlikely he has replicated.
Bingo! I purchased (and returned) a Windows 7 based netbook. Touch screen & finger does not equal mouse. The problem is the OS is built from the ground up to *not* be touchscreen friendly. Using a finger to poke at a narrow scrollbar on a 7" screen is a deal breaker for me.
Absolutely. It's dumb to run Windows or a desktop OS on these things. Finally companies are starting to get it.
The iPad is successful, in part, due to the App Store and the large set of touch based applications already proven on other iPhone OS devices. I'm not familiar with the Palm Pre to know what kind of app selection it has and how well-done the UI is on them. Windows based touch devices have never taken off because it is Windows (a desktop, full PC based OS) with a thin touch veneer on top rather than a touch-based, thin client OS.
I wish HP well expanding Web OS and developing it into a viable competitor to iPhone OS and Android.
- Jasen.
P.S. I also think they could end up ignoring the consumer space and develop Web OS devices for their "vertical enterprise markets" like hospitals, etc.
Or Un*xens or whatever. As much as in the late 90s things looked pretty bad as much as now there's hope out there: Apple (Macs and iPhones/iPads), all the Android phones... It's all Un*x craze now. It's really good see that.
WebOS? Linux kernel of course. Thanks HP. Thanks to all these big companies who aren't drinking the MS kool-aid!
I have debian running chrooted on my pre already, and I've read that tapping into a gui (probably a very stripped down gui with an ancient feather-light window manager) via VNC is doable. Regardless of the fact that WebOS is a fantastic GUI that I'm drooling to use on a tablet, being able to pop a window and run any X11 app that's got an arm .deb sounds pretty enticing. I'm sure far better programmers than me could do some pretty slick stuff with that foundation alone.
Also, as far as being "real," I'm running ondemand frequency scaling, powertop, echo'ing to /proc to set stuff etc, while ssh'd into it. I know "real operating system" is a wildly subjective term, but it *feels* a lot like working on a standard linux box.
They don't need to worry about Microsoft much since HP already cancelled the WIndows version of the Slate.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Clip and save:
HP announces new android and windows versions of it's tablet. "The developer pool is already annoyed with having to support *3* platforms, the idea that a 4th tablet platform was wanted, let alone needed was completely ludicrous" said HPs new Vice President of Trying to Make the Dumb-Ass Purchase of Palm not Seem Effing Stupid. "The fact that the market collectively yawned and even desperate-for-traffic tech bloggers were ignoring the move should have clued us in". "When not a single pundit; even the one's you're paying says anything nice about the move, if they take notice of it at all, well... It's a message. And it may have taken a few years but HP listens. We've even just released Windows 95 drivers for some of our computers. None of the ones anyone buys, of course. But some of them."
Both Android and WebOS are not 'Linux' in its full meaning. They have many proprietary components, access to the kernel is locked, and the applications must be written in some really exotic languages (Java dialect, that no one supports and ... HTML?!) because device manufacturers don't want anyone messing up with their hardware. This means: no porting of existing software and no multi-platform apps.
I'd prefer Maemo.
I had worked on a register with a touchscreen, and WinXP. THe register part worked and you could enter data fast because things like scrollbars and buttons were huge. But when you had to switch to something in Control Panel for instance, since the widgets were normal size instead of touchscreen size, it would always be a struggle to move or close a window using any of the GUI buttons.
I agree, forget about using standard desktop OSes. And that's what the iPad is demonstrating.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
So when this ships, iPad will be running iPhone OS v4.1 with multitasking of 300,000 C apps, including about 100,000 games, a game network, encryption with remote wipe, remote find, thousands of accessories, the whole iPod music and movies experience, about 25 bookstores, the fastest and most responsive mobile experience, and between 10 and 20 million installed base. Plus a line of iPhones and iPods that can run many of the same apps, and a line of Macs with the same core OS and free iPhone developer tools.
So many questions:
- how are they going to compete without apps?
- are they going to expose a comprehensive C API so developers can port iPhone apps? (weird how the Android C API is locked down but people call it "open", huh?)
- will they get 10 hours of battery life?
- will they have Flash, will it work, will anybody care?
- will the onscreen keyboard suck? (so far, all WebOS devices had hardware keyboards)
- will there be a single feature that iPad doesn't have? (iPad already has cheap USB and SD card accessories and will likely have a video cam accessory by October)
- will they have no contract unlimited data for $30/month?
- will they have a 16GB Wi-Fi only model for less than $499? (an unsubsidized Pre is $599, the original HP Slate was $549, and Nexus One with 4GB costs $529)
- why wouldn't this just be iPod versus Zune all over again?
- will all the PC enthusiasts who are still at this time ranting about how "useless" iPad is and how much better the original HP Slate was going to be now rally behind this because it's from HP, even though it has many fewer uses (apps) than iPad and no longer runs Windows?
I definitely think HP are going in the right direction dropping Windows for Unix and dropping 3rd party software for 1st party. But they are so far behind. Apple worked on iPad for 7 years before releasing it, and HP will have had less than 7 months. WebOS has been shipping for a year, but when Apple started iPad 7 years ago, OS X had been shipping for 3 years. Along the way, Apple started making their own batteries and CPU's to get to where they could make iPad.
The key thing with iPad is the apps morph it into about 100,000 niche devices. So people buy them for very different reasons. It's like for any particular user, the killer app is completely different, but iPad has it. The killer app on iPad is apps. Not the Web, not email. All that stuff is a free extra. I know people who bought iPad just for WebEx, others who bought it just for the art tools, others purely as a camera accessory, and others who bought it only for Netflix and iTunes.
Even though I have an iPad and am really happy with it, I can't help but sort of root for HP because at least they stopped, turned around, and starting going in the right direction. And it's kind of fun to see Microsoft jilted and Ballmer shown up as a stooge again. But they have a long way to go from generic DOS boxes to competing with iPad.
You do realize that there are these things called "bluetooth keyboards and mice" that let you add a keyboard and mouse to a tablet in a case where you'd really need it, right?
It's not hard to even just have a simply combo keyboard / collapsable stand for the tablet that you can toss in your bag. The biggest reason people want something like a Windows tablet is so that you can write notes by hand, potentially convert it to text (I've only seen limited demos of the software, so I don't know how well it really works), and link it out to something like OneNote to organize, search, and share your notes - this would be a godsend for people in college / grad school.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
is it too much to ask for a tablet to run a real operating system?!?! the slate had a chance to rise up, now it's just going to be another oversized under-capable phone a la worthless iPad. fire the CTO that made this decision.
Why? Why do you want a "real" operating system? Why do you need something so full featured? The Apple and the iPad faithful would have you believe that the iPad is taking over general purpose computing. That the "PC" world is fearful of the shift. This is wishful thinking and marketing smoke-and-mirrors.
The reality is that the iPad (and up-and-coming similar products) are streamlined information ("content" if you will) delivery platforms. It's the right interface for specific tasks. It isn't the right interface for all tasks. A full feature OS is not required in this environment and, in fact, likely a complete mis-match for what this interface is good at (not that I wouldn't mind the ability to extend said OS as desired).
Possibly, but IS/Engineering was testing out some tablets. Needless to say we didn't end up keeping any, and I could do without the touch screen on my laptop.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Probably, but if any product is going to be able to compete with the iPad, it will have to be something where the same company controls both the hardware and the software. Consumers don't care about freedom in the FSF sense, they care about what works best for them. So HP is starting out on the right track. I don't think they will succeed, but at least they are starting (well, restarting) with the correctly by doing it themselves (through acquisition, though).
For a WebOS tablet to reasonably take on the iPad, it will have to be top-notch hardware (no, that does not mean an SD card slot, or USB), and it will have to have top-notch software. I just don't see how HP will be able to get close enough to the iPad in either of those. If they market this as an iPad competitor and go after the average consumer, they will fail. If instead, they go after some other niche, they may certainly be able to gain some traction.
I would absolutely love it if HP were to make this into a sort of engineering device, but sadly that HP is dead. They are a consumer company now, and there isn't a consumer company on the planet that can out-design and out-engineer Apple.
We're talking about the HP that sold hundreds of thousands of laptops to consumers knowing that they had defective chipsets on the motherboard. They didn't discover this after shipping the laptops, they were aware of the problem before the first one was shipped and they had a choice: rework or repair the defective units before shipping, or ship them in defective condition and screw the customer.
Being the HP that we know - the one that didn't see a problem with "pretexting" - no, let's call it spying / eavesdropping on journalists reporting on their products - they decided to just go ahead and ship the defective products and let customer service deal with them. They stonewalled for as long as they could and insisted that there was nothing wrong with those products - even though they KNEW that they were defective. Finally, they "resolved" the problem by issuing a BIOS patch that caused the system fan to run at full speed constantly - this conveniently postponed the inevitable failure until after the warranty ran out.
They also extended the warranty for those units who had already failed - or so they said, but when owners of those products tried to get them fixed under warranty they were either given a repair consisting of replacing their defective motherboard with another defective motherboard - or more commonly, they refused to honor the warranty on these products. I have personal knowledge here; I had one of their defective products that was completely dead and they refused to repair it under warranty.
So while I would like to see a tablet running WebOS, I would never consider buying it if it was running on HP hardware. They've already proven to me that they'll build substandard products and refuse to repair them under warranty - they fooled me once but never again. If you want to buy one of these, keep this warning in mind.
google should buy them
even starting behind, webOS seems to have more potential
not that it will necessarily succeed
but I am not really interested 100,000s of games
or exclusive content from big media companies
so I am probably not in the Ipad target demographic
which is fine
Now, there isn't anything (at least to my knowledge) that prevents His Jobness to release an iPad pro (aka 'the MaxiPad') that lets you get out on a real USB ports, runs CUPS, runs Terminal, comes with a Pony, etc.
I'd say - and this is just a guess - that they would avoid this as it would likely step on the toes of the lowend macbooks.
True, but Windows APIs does allow one to write touch-enabled apps - it's just that very few people bother too. But then, if there would be a popular Win7 touch tablet, it might just be different.
Oh, and few apps, sure... but when compared to the total number of existing apps for WebOS?
As others have noted, a tablet with Android I can at least understand - there's plenty of software there already. But WebOS?
I envision the webOS tablet will compete with the iPad based on:
Looks like it only really bests Andrioid on the last point, but I think there is still room to grow in the tablet market.
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So in order to properly use this Slate tablet, you also have to lug around a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and probably the chargers for them, or some extra batteries. So how is that better than an iPad, where you can use a bluetooth keyboard with it as well? And use software specifically designed for this device?
That's no Google's style. They take the Linux model for their products, where they put out a customizable, extendable product. That's why Android has such disproportionate mind-share here on Slashdot, because it resonates with the geek mindset.
A "whole widget" solution is not in Google's DNA.
old astroturfer copypasta is old
You do realize that there are these things called "bluetooth keyboards and mice" that let you add a keyboard and mouse to a tablet in a case where you'd really need it, right?
If that's how you think a tablet should work, why not just buy a laptop?
>- will there be a single feature that iPad doesn't have? (iPad already has cheap USB and SD card accessories and will likely have a video cam accessory by October)
Real and useful multitasking. The cheap USB and SD card accessories suck by the virtue of being accessories, and having to plug in a webcam in such a portable device is even more ridiculous considering how cheap and easy it is to integrate one into a phone, not to mention a much larger tablet.
- why wouldn't this just be iPod versus Zune all over again?
Seeing how the Zunes are considered to be as good as, if not better, than ipods, I'd be happy with this outcome. However, if anybody could guarantee that one product will outsell another before it is even released, they'd be richer than Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and that Ikea guy combined.
I want a tablet running {...} even a full Linux distro {...} I'll pay in the $500-$600 price range for a tablet in the 10"-14" range
Then get a Touch Book. Has more or less everything you need (minus perhaps a good support for Flash, due to adobe not releasing support for ARM-based CPUs).
And technically WebOS is Linux at its core, with "dev-mode" (i.e.: installing software from things other than the official application store) available out-of-the-box, and a bunch of various Linux stuff already compiled from Optware. The only limitations are its non standart graphic interface: it's Web-based instead of X-based (but still has SDL support if you want full screen games and the like).
Also doesn't feature a decent note-taking application (unlike the PalmOS), only a post-it application.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
They're blowing it completely by not going android. There's usually room in any given market for about three major competitors before consumers begin to get confused. So, Apple, Android, and Palm. Only, Palm is a distant third here and HP doesn't exactly have a good name any more. Average consumers think of them as a company that makes professional (read: expensive, ugly, and heavy) equipment and printers. Geeks are fucking over HP, which sells crap at a premium and proceeds to provide the worst service imaginable. They should have jumped on the Amazon train, which would have given them some immediate cred.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
As a windows developer I was hoping that they would go with windows. No, I'll be looking for something else. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone else come out with a windows base pad.
HP does have a desktop touch-based product.
If that thing had WebOS running on it, and you could buy the smaller pad version as well, that would allow you to really start thinking of WebOS as a scalable development platform with multi-touch.
And while it's doable, I don't think Apple's going to approve of/not undermine someone selling a rig to convert the iPad into a desktop setup. The pad is always going to be able recreation, whereas HP could push pads/phones/desktops coordinated to do work, all using the same platform.
Exactly. There was nothing wrong with what MS did with tablets, it worked quite nice, and absolutely no-one that I knew bought one.
Tablet is a bad general form factor and iPad is only selling because it's sexy. Tablets work on pocket size devices because space is at a premium, but once something stops fitting in a pocket or a handbag, you may as well have a laptop.
Sure, there are niche uses for these things, but I reckon most iPads will be collecting dust within weeks.
Wow, you really don't understand the concept of "specialized tools", do you? It's a tablet when you need it to be and a laptop when a tablet isn't good enough. If you're travelling anywhere, you're going to be taking a bag to carry the laptop or tablet and it's charger, how hard is it to toss a keyboard and mouse in there too?
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
No, if you bothered to read I said you can hook up a bluetooth keyboard and mouse "in a case where you'd really need it". I never said it would be the main mode of input or that everyone would want to use them at all. Just that for the certain applications that come along where you feel it's necessary, you can use a keyboard and mouse because you're not FORCED to use any one form of input.
So how is that better than an iPad, where you can use a bluetooth keyboard with it as well? And use software specifically designed for this device?
Because, as someone who owns an iPhone, I can tell you that there's virtually nothing worthwhile for office / productivity apps for the iPhone / iPad. A tablet PC (regardless of if it's running Windows, Linux, or OS X) would have a truly usable software library that you'll never see on media consumption devices like an iPad.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Yay! You may take this with a grain of salt, since I'm a Pre owner, but I think that WebOS is the best UI when comparing it with Android and iPhoneOS. The "card" concept is excellent, and so beautifully implemented. iPhoneOS is pretty good, but the lack of multi-tasking is a deal killer for me. IMO, even the newest versions of Android look unpolished. I do wish I had access to more good apps in WebOS, though.
Palm was destroyed by the very same thing that almost killed Apple - trying to build an open platform.
Palm dominated the early PDA field, but decided at the height of the dotCom era to get out of device manufacturing, and into developing a platform. The next major batch of innovations came from Handspring, which FINALLY put a GSM phone in a Palm device, and let to Palm eventually contracting back to an integrated device manufacturer.
Their forays into WinMo are the only thing that kept them from dying through their multiple attempts to reboot Garnet.
I wonder how much of the craptastic handwriting experiences to be had with "convertible" tablets has more to do with screen resolution than anything else. I mean, how does 1024x768 compare to 150dpi on a piece of paper? With 4" screens now routinely doing 900x400 (moto droid) why can't our laptop/convertible resolutions get half-an-order-of-magnitude better?
Looks like HP won't be running webos on slate!
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/24/hp-slate-isnt-rumored-to-be-switching-from-windows-7-to-webos/
..that HP/EDS/Palm is a TITAN compared to Apple.
They could give these devices away as part of packaged deals to corporations with EDS created applications and have enough market share to make developers interested in creating apps.
It will be interesting. My money is on HP.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
WebOS is already far beyond Apple in software. The hardware part shouldn't be too hard with the latest generation of SOCs hitting the market.
- They will put flash card slots on the tablet and/or an USB port.
- It will include a web cam.
That is it really.