The HP TouchPad that is. Actually, the device itself was very nice IMHO, and the software was very good as well.
So what sucked? My timing of purchasing the HP TouchPad sucked, and combining that with the fact that HP has given up the fight so much earlier than I anticipated. Well, maybe just the fact that HP gave in.
Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, was quoted as saying "We’re going to fight everybody. This is not an Apple and HP scenario" and "I'm telling you, this is not the end of the sprint (NYSE:S), but the beginning of a marathon," he said. I've taken this from http://www.crn.com/news/client-devices/229400612/hp-exec-says-tablet-battle-a-marathon-not-a-sprint.htm?itc=refresh.
Reading this just makes me fume. Some fight! Some marathon! When you hear this talk while you are deciding on which product to buy, it is inspiring and builds confidence. When you read it after the company decides to stop selling the product (that you purchased) after 2 months it is nauseating and sounds like a big fat lie!
I really liked the product as I've mentioned in my previous post. It had promise, especially for the $300 that I paid for it. With the latest updates to the OS and the Homebrew stuff it was performing well. I was watching movies on Hulu using Flash and it worked smoothly. If I was watching Flash, I couldn't have too many cards opened at the same time, but that didn't really matter.
I think it would've made more sense to come into the market a little lower in price than the iPad was selling for. With it priced the same as the iPad, and having quite a smaller repository of apps, nobody but the die hard WebOS fans were really going to purchase it, in my opinion. The initial reviews were based off of the initial operating system and I hear that was pretty slow and clunky. When I purchased the TouchPad I immediately updated the OS and it was running much smoother, but sadly the initial reviews were all based on the slow OS for the most part. That didn't help sell the tablet either.
So.. I guess I can stop my WebOS training for now and concentrate on so many things are my list (Ruby, Rails, C#, etc). The list goes on and on really, so I won't get bored. :) But I had an idea already for the TouchPad and I suppose there is no harm telling you all (my 1 or 2 followers that will read this. ;) ). So there goes that dream. ha..
I really do like the following article.. Well written, and I feel for those people that have put so much time into developing for WebOS, keeping up websites and creating the homebrew stuff. http://www.precentral.net/hp-has-neither-balls-nor-brains-1.
According to the PreCentral website the HP TouchPad 16GB will go down to $99 this weekend. Now that really hurts.. not that it is unexpected of course.
Clearly I don't know what the numbers needed to be, or what was the actual expectation. Everyone now seems to be saying that HP will align themselves to be more competitive with IBM. Maybe 10 years down the road we will all look back and see this as a turning point that led HP to greatness. Time will tell but for now, I will ponder what to do with this tablet that I have.
Oh well.. Just thought I'd do a little venting.
Showing posts with label HP Touchpad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HP Touchpad. Show all posts
Friday, August 19, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
HP TouchPad Review
First off, I am actually an employee of HP but will try to be unbiased. :)
I've only had the TouchPad for 2 days and LOVE it so far. I don't really have a good comparison though honestly. I've played with my friends' and family's iPad's and have picked up some competitors at the store, but have definitely not delved deep into the ins and outs of the device. But so far, I can't put the TouchPad down.
Right when it arrived (well, 2 days before it arrived actually) I googled 'best HP TouchPad' apps and read all of the sites that listed the top 10 most have apps. On most of the lists, the top 8 or 9 were the same (WordPress, Spaz HD (twitter), Mosaic, Glimpse, TuneIn, Box, Angry Birds, Kindle to name a few). My excitement was building. It is odd I think truthfully. I had no desire to buy the iPad or iPad 2. I'm not anti-Apple as so many seem to be. In fact, I own the iPhone 3GS. I did own the original and will most likely own the iPhone 5 when it ever comes out(though it does depend on the specs and features). But in my mind, which I admit isn't always right, the iPad seemed like a large iPhone and I just couldn't justify the purchase. In fact, it was hard for me to actually purchase the TouchPad. I mean, I use my iPhone for EVERYTHING as it is. And usually have 2 laptops within reach. So I was a bit hesitant.
My mother, and others, have complained that reading a book on the iPhone or mobile phone was hard on the eyes and not a pleasant experience. I have never agreed with that and have read a couple of books on the iPhone without issue. But.. it is SO much easier reading it on the Touchpad Of course that would be the same for any tablet I'd assume. But.. definitely nice to be able to now have a portable device to read books on.
So I decided to pick up the TouchPad when HP offered $100 off their base price. I figured it was new, exciting and I could actually develop for it if I wanted to without having to purchase a Mac). And really, I've been pretty amazed.
The skype interface works well. I tested it by doing a video call with my mom. It worked well. There was a little glitch when I tried to see what would happen with the call when I multitasked. I minimized the window and switched to my mail while doing the video call. I could still hear mom but she could no longer see me. When I switched back to the call there was a box where my face used to be, but no image showed up and she couldn't see me. I could still see her though. But the sound was fairly good. It had a few glitches and of course that really is dependent on the network.
I think another positive note for the TouchPad is the Flash. I tested it with Hulu and was able to watch some shows using it. I know everyone (the Apple fan boys) say that Flash isn't a big thing and the world is going to HTML 5 anyways but.. if I am able to watch Hulu videos and iPad users aren't able to, I think I'm the winner!). :) It actually worked well. The video was smooth. If I switched to check my mail the video still ran and I could listen to the show. Was pretty cool.
Before I purchased the TouchPad I looked at my iPhone apps to see which apps I really wanted to have as a tablet app. I didn't think I really had too many "must have's" and I was pretty confident that even though I had heard of TouchPad's lack of applications I wouldn't really miss too many. And for the most part that is correct, but there are certainly some that I miss. I would love a tv guide and am surprised that I don't see any in the App Catalog. Maybe I am missing it. I also miss Evernote on the TouchPad. You can certainly launch the original WebOS Evernote, but all of the non-specific TouchPad apps are smaller and centered in the middle of the tablet. This is true for the iPad as well. So it would be nice if the Evernote app could take advantage of the big screen. And besides that, Netflix would of course be nice. I hear that is in the works though so I'm hopeful. Pandora is missing from the TouchPad as well, but again you can access the previous WebOS version so that works. QuickOffice is currently loaded but it is read only at this time, even though I had read they had promised it would be able to edit documents at go live. But QuickOffice has said they are working on a version to allow the editing of docs, so that should come at some point.
There are some great apps though. The iheartradio application is awesome for the TouchPad. TuneIn Radio is also another streaming readio app and works very well. The Spaz HD twitter client reminds me of Tweet Deck (though sadly I don't think I can access my lists strangely enough) and the Facebook app is also sweet (though I wish it had the ability to chat in it).
I really think the apps will come. Maybe not all that I want. I mean, I paid $15 to watch the Tour de France on my phone and paid $20 to watch the MLS season on my phone. I would love those apps to come to the TouchPad but am not really holding my breath. But hey, I need some reason to buy the iPhone 5 right?
One last thing for now, I'm appreciating how the notification system is working. And it does have the handy drop down to turn on bluetooth, wifi, airplane mode, etc. that I always wished that the iPhone had. Hate having to go to the home screen, settings, wifi and switch it off on the iPhone. Ridiculous how much longer it takes on the iPhone (that isn't jailbroken that is).
I've only had the TouchPad for 2 days and LOVE it so far. I don't really have a good comparison though honestly. I've played with my friends' and family's iPad's and have picked up some competitors at the store, but have definitely not delved deep into the ins and outs of the device. But so far, I can't put the TouchPad down.
Right when it arrived (well, 2 days before it arrived actually) I googled 'best HP TouchPad' apps and read all of the sites that listed the top 10 most have apps. On most of the lists, the top 8 or 9 were the same (WordPress, Spaz HD (twitter), Mosaic, Glimpse, TuneIn, Box, Angry Birds, Kindle to name a few). My excitement was building. It is odd I think truthfully. I had no desire to buy the iPad or iPad 2. I'm not anti-Apple as so many seem to be. In fact, I own the iPhone 3GS. I did own the original and will most likely own the iPhone 5 when it ever comes out(though it does depend on the specs and features). But in my mind, which I admit isn't always right, the iPad seemed like a large iPhone and I just couldn't justify the purchase. In fact, it was hard for me to actually purchase the TouchPad. I mean, I use my iPhone for EVERYTHING as it is. And usually have 2 laptops within reach. So I was a bit hesitant.
My mother, and others, have complained that reading a book on the iPhone or mobile phone was hard on the eyes and not a pleasant experience. I have never agreed with that and have read a couple of books on the iPhone without issue. But.. it is SO much easier reading it on the Touchpad Of course that would be the same for any tablet I'd assume. But.. definitely nice to be able to now have a portable device to read books on.
So I decided to pick up the TouchPad when HP offered $100 off their base price. I figured it was new, exciting and I could actually develop for it if I wanted to without having to purchase a Mac). And really, I've been pretty amazed.
The skype interface works well. I tested it by doing a video call with my mom. It worked well. There was a little glitch when I tried to see what would happen with the call when I multitasked. I minimized the window and switched to my mail while doing the video call. I could still hear mom but she could no longer see me. When I switched back to the call there was a box where my face used to be, but no image showed up and she couldn't see me. I could still see her though. But the sound was fairly good. It had a few glitches and of course that really is dependent on the network.
I think another positive note for the TouchPad is the Flash. I tested it with Hulu and was able to watch some shows using it. I know everyone (the Apple fan boys) say that Flash isn't a big thing and the world is going to HTML 5 anyways but.. if I am able to watch Hulu videos and iPad users aren't able to, I think I'm the winner!). :) It actually worked well. The video was smooth. If I switched to check my mail the video still ran and I could listen to the show. Was pretty cool.
Before I purchased the TouchPad I looked at my iPhone apps to see which apps I really wanted to have as a tablet app. I didn't think I really had too many "must have's" and I was pretty confident that even though I had heard of TouchPad's lack of applications I wouldn't really miss too many. And for the most part that is correct, but there are certainly some that I miss. I would love a tv guide and am surprised that I don't see any in the App Catalog. Maybe I am missing it. I also miss Evernote on the TouchPad. You can certainly launch the original WebOS Evernote, but all of the non-specific TouchPad apps are smaller and centered in the middle of the tablet. This is true for the iPad as well. So it would be nice if the Evernote app could take advantage of the big screen. And besides that, Netflix would of course be nice. I hear that is in the works though so I'm hopeful. Pandora is missing from the TouchPad as well, but again you can access the previous WebOS version so that works. QuickOffice is currently loaded but it is read only at this time, even though I had read they had promised it would be able to edit documents at go live. But QuickOffice has said they are working on a version to allow the editing of docs, so that should come at some point.
There are some great apps though. The iheartradio application is awesome for the TouchPad. TuneIn Radio is also another streaming readio app and works very well. The Spaz HD twitter client reminds me of Tweet Deck (though sadly I don't think I can access my lists strangely enough) and the Facebook app is also sweet (though I wish it had the ability to chat in it).
I really think the apps will come. Maybe not all that I want. I mean, I paid $15 to watch the Tour de France on my phone and paid $20 to watch the MLS season on my phone. I would love those apps to come to the TouchPad but am not really holding my breath. But hey, I need some reason to buy the iPhone 5 right?
One last thing for now, I'm appreciating how the notification system is working. And it does have the handy drop down to turn on bluetooth, wifi, airplane mode, etc. that I always wished that the iPhone had. Hate having to go to the home screen, settings, wifi and switch it off on the iPhone. Ridiculous how much longer it takes on the iPhone (that isn't jailbroken that is).
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