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HP Back In Tablet Game With Android-Based 'Slate7'
theodp writes "You know the old adage, 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me?' Still, even if you got bit by the HP TouchPad debacle, HP's newly-announced $169 Slate7 tablet could prove hard to resist. Specs-wise, the Slate7 sports an ARM Dual Core Cortex-A9 1.6 GHz processor, 7-inch 1024x600 HFFS screen, Android 4.1 (Jellybean), three-megapixel camera on the back, front-facing VGA camera, 8GB of on-board storage, HP ePrint, Beats Audio, and a micro SD expandable card slot. It measures 197mm x 116mm x 10.7mm thick, and weighs in at 13 ounces. It will be available in the U.S. in April. Engadget has some pics and their initial hands-on take."
This represents the innovation we've come to expect from HP -- none at all.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Nexus 7 (pure Android), or Nexus 10 (pure Android, larger, loads more powerful). Don't see the point of saving a little money for some crappy customised machine. There's no problem looking at pdfs, movies etc on any Android device, so no advantage in Amazon hardware.
Yes, that was a debacle. Initially overpriced so that it couldn't sell then underpriced so that you got one only if you were lucky enough. HP was onto something with the Touchpad, but not everyone was enamored with WebOS. If they were smart they would have ported Android to it and sold it at a reasonable price, maybe $250-$325 range. Those of us smart enough to get one for the hardware specs knowing Android would soon be ported got a great tablet, I use mine all of the time. As far as their latest venture, due to their lack of market penetration up to this point, I doubt consumers will take their offerings seriously and further reviews may doom the device before it has a chance. Who knows, it does seem snappy enough for a budget priced tablet even if the aspect ratio sucks.
The only thing you can be sure about is that presenting the non-functional end of a device has absolutely nothing to do with recognizing that people buy these as fashion statements rather than functional devices.
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Indeed. The audio from my Touchpad with ICS is better than what comes out of my laptop speakers, and better than anything I've heard from another tablet of any description.
The debacle over the Touchpad / webOS was thanks to Apothekeer and the total failure to promote the damned things, or to push bugfixes out in a timely fashion. It didn't have to end that way.
Doesn't seem to be all that good it is missing a few things, it does have 1Gb of ram and bluetooth 2.1
what isn't said is GPS? Glass Screen? USB Host? HDMI? Multitouch ? confused reports of 3meg camera and 0.3 meg Camera on board.
It is not very good and not even on that price point (+ taxes?)
For a new product it has out dated Specifications The Ram onboard Should be at least 2 GB and it has lost me already with no gps or hdmi, even 1 full sized host usb port was too much to ask for the screen resolution is too low.
It's just another junky tablet, its "beats" branding and HP name is not enough to make it anything like desirable. Just another nail in the coffin for HP unfortunately.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
I dunno.
How many people returned the Nexus 7 because they thought it had Windows 7?
Part of the problem with HP is they make an entry into a market, and its not perfect and they turn and run immediately. WebOS was a case in point, overpriced, not perfect, immediately dumped. No attempt to refine it and retry.
Here Android tablets have moved on from this, they'll need to have a few stabs at this to get it right. But they won't, they'll turn and run.
Seriously. I've tried to google, and the most informative things I find are other people asking the same question. Nowhere on the HP site does it actually say what this technology is, though they do seem to insist on putting a (tm) after every use of the term. There's a lot of marketing rubbish like "With Beats Audio(tm) on board, the richest, most dynamic sound on a laptop is at your fingertips." But nothing that actually says what Beats Audio is or does. The best I've come up with is http://tunelab.com/2012/01/09/what-exactly-is-beats-audio-update-an-answer/ - which suggests that it's just a trademarked name for a few changes as trivial as changing the headphone jack surround from metal to plastic (which most have anyway) and installing common-sense things like putting the headphone amp away from any noisy digital traces.
grams per kibigram?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
...doing the same thing and expecting a different result. To the stockholders: what could possibly go wrong?
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
What I wish from that 3Mpix rear camera is that has a autofocus in it.
I own a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" and it has 3MPix rear camera what is very handy for many situations when you make notes or you want just to quickly record something and you don't need quality what you only get from DSLR or digital video cameras but it is terrible in situations where you would need to get closer than 30-40cm because missing autofocus. And that means as well you can not scan all 2D barcodes well.
Just give good 3Mpix camera with autofocus and it will be great for taking pictures to notes.
Charge it occasionally, to at least 50%
Some devices will permenantly kill their battery if actually left idle for years.
I got a Nexus 10, where's my Windows 10? :)
Burned by HP's Touchpad? Not hardly. My TouchPad dual boots WebOS and CyanogenMod 10.
It was well worth the moeny. The graphics are tremendous and the audio is soooo sweet.
I think the HP should be closer to the $99-149 range given those specs, otherwise you would be crazy not to get the Nexus. Hardware advantages aside, the software updates alone would be worth the extra money.
What does "slate" have to do with Windows 7, exactly?
I know, I know... I had the same problem when I bought a used 2007 Nissan. I totally expected it to have an in-dash Windows 7 computer.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
The problem for HP, as for RIM, is that being technically right does not help to sell what for many people is a fashion item.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The touchpad was (and still is) a pretty nice tablet. I got three at firesale prices (one for me, two for family members) and they're all still going strong. Mine dual-boots webOS and CyanogenMod 9.
The audio quality on the touchpad was the best of any tablet I've heard and it far exceeds the audio on either of my laptops. The built-in inductive charging is awesome, all new equipment should be doing that out-of-the-box.