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HP Shows Off Android 'Printer' Tablet
angry tapir writes "Hewlett-Packard showed off a tablet computer that serves as a control panel for its new printer. The tablet browses the Web and can be used as an e-reader. It has a 7-inch screen and can be easily connected to HP's PhotoSmart eStation all-in-one printer. The tablet can be used to move and print documents and images from multiple media devices and can also be used to exchange content between the devices. The display is a larger version of the 3.5-inch control panel screens on HP's earlier Web-connected printers. The device is focused on providing access to content that can be printed, such as photos, articles, e-mail, recipes or e-books."
make all the cool shit?
From TFA:
"The company did not specify the operating system used on the tablet."
Where did the editor take that it runs Android? I got shocked when i read that, since HP bought Palm to use WebOS on pretty much these kind of devices.
Title says it all.
This reminds me of those atrocious oscilloscopes that run Windows.
Or one of the many software projects that have inexplicable dependencies or balloon way past their original purpose. (Emacs, I'm looking at you!)
Keep it simple. Or as Einstein more precisely put it, as simple as possible but no simpler.
I think it's fairly obvious that one of the places where a tablet can shine is specifically for device controller UI applications. It's compact and all one has to do to make it control a device is to stick a mini-webserver on it, after which your UI can be simple static webpages plus hardware control/monitor scripts. That's why I bought one (MID-006) directly from China a couple of months ago, to enable me to experiment in this area. Other places where it makes sense is as an e-reader and casual websurfing.
That said, I prefer a netbook for multimedia on the basis that one doesn't have to hold it to view it in place to view it and it has a lot more CPU and GPU horsepower than one can stuff into a tablet with acceptable battery life and size.
People and companies are still trying to figure out where tablets make the most sense, the idea that it will magically replace every other form of computer in the next few years is a non-starter no matter how many IT pundits tell us that It Must Happen.
Tech Public Policy stuff
...I should buy an HP tablet so that I can use a printer?
But, I do see it driving the direction of general tablet development. Instead of having to buy a specialized tablet for "printing stuff" others will simply have to "do that too". What is special about this tablet that cannot simply exist on others with software? Couldn't the iPad do this with an APP? Why would one need the HP tablet to obtain the functionality?
I suppose that HP is still largely a printer company. Even though people are printing less as the days go by, it's good to see them pushing forward.
What's really interesting about your link is the title of the article: HP's New Printer Tablet Stays Away From Android Market Why has Google still not taken on the iPad directly, given the iPad's huge success for Apple? HP is a huge presence, they could market the Android-based tablet + printer without the need for the carriers, but they're still denied the goodness of the Android Market... why?
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is likely to be more than the tablet..
It's a tablet that wants me to print out things that I would have bought the tablet for to read them on?
Really, what's with HP and it's need to push printers in directions no one wants or sees a need for? Why not make a palm phone that is nothing more then a printer remote? That seems equally useless.
but they're still denied the goodness of the Android Market... why?
Speculation has it that an Android device must have cell network connectivity in order to be approved to use the Android Market.
Also Google has said they are worried some of the 80k apps on the Android Market will not run properly on a tablet, but that doesn't explain how the Samsung tablet gets Market...
I agree it doesn't make any sense. But never mind the iPad, there's also nothing really like the Touch!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So, it's a tablet with printer drivers and some of HPs bloatware installed on it? Like, the same thing I could do with say, a laptop, or a desktop?
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
This just shows how enormously profitable printing is (for ink makers). HP is giving away a tablet with their printer to make it easier to customers to find things to print. Nevermind the fact that for everyone else, tablets and e-readers are seen as an alternative to printed material. If there's even a chance that this increases the amount of printing that people do, HP will come out ahead.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
Ed Wuncler(voiced by Charlie Murphy): No
Gin Rummy: Wanna know why?
Ed Wuncler: Why?
Gin Rummy: 'Cause niggas never have nothin' to print.
- The Boondocks
and before you call me racist, an earlier quote from the same exchange "...and dont start trippin callin me a racist and shit because I mean nigga as a general term for ignorant mothafuckas."
Basically, this is a tablet that has a printer queue running ? Impressive. *cough*
What a depressingly stupid machine.
Canon have a different approach to the same end - they have a print driver for Android that prints photos to their pixma printers. Another way to encourage ink usage.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
according to your source, HP has other tablets in the pipeline. Including webOs based and Window 7-based for the business world (well, obviously). No comments about the webos tablet, but the current android tablet is really only a printer companion. So that is also probably why it is not on the android market : it's not targeted as a multipurpose tablet, and only gets a few yaho apps. It less like the ipad and is more to printer what the logitech tablets are to media players (= remote controllers on steroids). For app market capable tablets we'll probably have to wait the next crop of hp tablets.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I guess HP was at the apple conference when steve jobs announced "printing on iOS devices" and everybody was clapping like crazy (while IMHO the feature should have been here since v1).
HP web printing is an awful kludge. HP have to do something quick before Google Print makes printing vendor-agnostic.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Basically, this is a tablet that has a printer queue running ? Impressive. *cough*
I like your signature in this context:
What a depressingly stupid machine.
;-)
Multifunction office printers/fax machines/scanners have horrible, horrible UIs with lots and lots of buttons. And they must - because they are multifunction, and the buttons are function-specific. Hopefully, we'll start to see such machines that can be used be mere mortals and not specially trained secretaries.
Come to think of it - WHAT A HORRIBLE IDEA!
Stop the brainwash
It's reported elsewhere. HP is a big company. They don't need everything to run the same OS.
That would be fine (it being reported elsewhere), if the /. posting was about that article. However, the article quoted doesn't say it's android. The title should reflect what the article is about not what may be available information from some other source (unless that source is included in the posting).
Yes, yes--that's what I need! A tablet computer so that I can walk over to my printer and print something I'm already holding in my hands.
Why would you want to print an ebook? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?
As long as slashdot is now including information from sources outside the posted article to determine the title, maybe the title should be changed to "HP adds defunct tablet line to new printer." Because, according to this quote from CNN http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/20/hps-first-and-last-android-tablet-printer-does-apples-airprint: "Focusing on the tablet aspect, the device will likely be one of HP's last that runs Google's (GOOG) Android. " This is HP's last android table and later in the article they emphasize WebOS.
If HP allows people to print e-books on REGULAR PAPER, how will they control who gets to read them, and make them expire and self-destruct after some incredibly short amount of time?
Think of the publishers!
This is perfect! I can't tell how many hours I've spent standing waiting beside my HP printer and wished that I could do some web surfing! (waiting for my print job to start, waiting for the thing to reboot after a paper jam, waiting for the service call...)
what the $#@!$ does that mean?!?!!?
As for your other comment, your attempt to be snide fails to take into account that I did mention that this is what I found from a non-peer-reviewed, informal study. I can write this stuff in academicese if I have to, but this was an informal post on Slashdot. And, as it happens, my work is very closely involved with the printing industry and predicting trends. I am as sure as I can be that HP have done marketing studies on this and identified the characteristics of the at-home and home-business market very thoroughly, and I strongly suspect that their conclusions are close to mine - though with the numbers included. I don't have to post everything.
Anyway, Mr. Critical Facilities, isn't your nick rather a host to fortune? Because it strikes me that you are so keen to be seen to be smart that your critical facilities sometimes don't get much of a look in.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Have you lived in a cave for the past year?
There were two shared directors as of May 2009 when the DOJ mentioned they would investigate. Then Eric Schmidt quit Apple's board and Arthur Levinson quit Google's board...
Then Jobs proclaimed that Google was trying to kill the iPhone... sure, this could all be fluff, and the two companies are really being controlled by "them" or Dr. Evil, but if so, they have quite a few people fooled... especially since Apple is now increasing the fronts on which they compete with Google, and vice versa.
Clearly, this is all orchestrated.
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But never mind the iPad, there's also nothing really like the Touch!
Archos makes a few devices that could substitute for iPod touch. If they take off, watch Android Market app developers start cross-posting to Archos's preferred market, AppsLib.
I paid $105 plus shipping for my own generic tablet... which is underpowered. I think a $150 generic tablet would be about right.
Tech Public Policy stuff
The tablet is for printing web pages. You navigate to the web page, then put the tablet face down on the scanner.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Would it not make sense to make a printer compatible with a slew of SmartPhones, iPods and iPads rather then coming out with their own tablet? Do they really have to invent a tablet computer to drive a printer? Why do I want to print the weather? This seems like a device invented by a company that has completely lost focus. HP doesn't seem to understand that most people these days already have a device to access weather, stocks, news, the internet so why would they buy a printer that offers yet another interface that does this. Not every appliance needs to have its own touch screen wireless tablet.
No thanks. If I need to print something, what's wrong with hitting the "print" control within any application? HP's misguided belied that users want to enter some long-term love affair with their utilities is as misguided as Adobe's....do your job (print, show document, etc) and then get the f**k off the device's limited resources....
an Android tablet with IR support and a "learning remote" app and you can toss your individual remotes as quickly as you can load the commands from each into the remote.
Tech Public Policy stuff
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