Slashdot Mirror
HP Drops Price Again For Its WebOS-Based iPad Challenger
oxide7 writes with this selection from IBT: "Hewlett Packard reduced the price of its TouchPad tablet computer again, highlighting the uphill battle manufacturers will need to overcome as they go head-to-head against the dominant Apple iPad line of tablets. Much of a tablet's success is based on the ecosystem of apps that is available to the end-user. HP is far behind Apple or even the No.2 tablet platform, Google's Android."
It depends on what you do. I'll admit I got my iPad (v1, after the 2 came out so I could save ~$300) because I knew it had certain apps in the store that would be good (I have an iPhone, which won out over the Nexus 1 about 20 months ago).
There are some apps that work regardless - web surfing, netflix, local streaming, email, text input. Then there are productivity apps, like the software for the remote storage service (aka cloud) I use, PDF reading and annotation, calendaring/journaling, structural steel design and property apps (I'm a struct engr) etc. And, of course, stuff that's just fun - like a good piano app, games that my 9 yo likes, flipboard, and a host of others.
I actually use it for a pretty wide variety of tasks. It's the cheapest way (at $15/mo) to get cellular data so I can pull up calculations, cut sheets, specs, and drawings from my office server when I'm in the field or in a project meeting. I can also store and synchronize my entire sheet music library for my chorus, quartet, and special event groups on it so I can review/practice music wherever I am. When my daughter went on a vacation this summer with my wife and in-laws, we loaded up a couple of books and about 2 dozen movies for the trip. She watched about 4-5 movies and read something close to 1000 pages, while my wife got directions and planned side trips on it, all in a form factor that fit easily into her mini-backpack.
Mine is actually quite useful, and I prefer the form factor for reading, sharing, and consuming information. It sucks rocks at creating, and I still have a small notebook for when I'm going to go somewhere and have to do work (reports, drawings). It fills a niche, and does it very well - but it would be useless, or at least cumbersome, without a wide variety of purpose-built software.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
My dad recently got an ASUS TF101. The things are dirt cheep and first class Android tablets (Nvidia Tegra 2, 10" screen, latest Android, micro SD, HDMI out). All the apps are there, and the games are amazing. I'm still curious about the Touchpad, but it kind of seems pointless now.