HP Slate announced....

[2002cbr600f4i]

And Wired says it's a Turd!!!!

"HP has at last revealed its long-awaited Slate, an 8.9-inch tablet with capacitive multi-touch and running Windows 7. The Slate, you will remember, was proudly touted by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer as an iPad killer, back before the iPad even existed. So is this an iPad competitor? No freakin’ way.

The HP Slate 500 Tablet PC is just that, a PC. It runs on a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor, has 2GB RAM and a 64GB SSD, along with a Broadcom accelerator for 1080p video, a USB port, HDMI-out, a hardware Ctrl-Alt-Delete switch, a button to activate the on-screen keyboard and a pair of cameras, one on the back for photos and one on the front for Skyping. It also has, somewhat unbelievably, a slide-out Windows license. That’s right. Apparently any machine with Windows pre-installed needs to show the license info and HP, in order to keep the rear design clean, opted to add a slide-out plastic bar to display it. Oh, it is also Wi-Fi only: There’s no 3G radio.

There is one nice touch: the screen includes a Wacom digitizer so you can use a stylus to take notes on screen. There is nowhere to store the stylus, though, so you’ll lose it soon enough."


Think I'll stick with my iPad thanks...

 

[spinedoc77]

And Wired says it's a Turd!!!!

"HP has at last revealed its long-awaited Slate, an 8.9-inch tablet with capacitive multi-touch and running Windows 7. The Slate, you will remember, was proudly touted by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer as an iPad killer, back before the iPad even existed. So is this an iPad competitor? No freakin’ way.

The HP Slate 500 Tablet PC is just that, a PC. It runs on a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor, has 2GB RAM and a 64GB SSD, along with a Broadcom accelerator for 1080p video, a USB port, HDMI-out, a hardware Ctrl-Alt-Delete switch, a button to activate the on-screen keyboard and a pair of cameras, one on the back for photos and one on the front for Skyping. It also has, somewhat unbelievably, a slide-out Windows license. That’s right. Apparently any machine with Windows pre-installed needs to show the license info and HP, in order to keep the rear design clean, opted to add a slide-out plastic bar to display it. Oh, it is also Wi-Fi only: There’s no 3G radio.

There is one nice touch: the screen includes a Wacom digitizer so you can use a stylus to take notes on screen. There is nowhere to store the stylus, though, so you’ll lose it soon enough."


Think I'll stick with my iPad thanks...

If it was instant on and had all day battery life I think I'd sell my ipad in an instant. Unfortunately these companies are not realizing that a huge part of the usefulness of the ipad is you never have to even think twice about turning it on, or about plugging it in.

 

[2002cbr600f4i]

Did you ever try the UMPC's from a few years ago?

If not, then you probably don't realize just how BAD most Windows apps are when you have to use them through a touch/stylus interface. They just weren't designed to be used that way.

Windows on a tablet is just a pig. Too big, too slow, too resource hungry, and not designed for the usage paradigm AT ALL.

Great, so you can run Flash and Java on it... and you'll want to scream every time you have to actually run anything that wasn't designed for touch...

 

[Meever]

I stopped at atom.

It's basically a crap netbook with poor battery life and a broken trackpad....

Windows7 is a great OS but not touch friendly. It's better than Vista (ugh)

I think I might prefer Windows Mobile Tablets over Windows7 tablets.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Nah! The iPad is much more reliable.
With the iPad, you can rest assured that anytime you want to turn it on, it will turn on.

 

[BergerFan]

Once HP saw what the iPad could deliver at it's core - a great multitouch IPS screen, killer battery life, instant on, etc, they quickly relegated the Slate to 'Enterprise-only' status.

 

[Satori]

The price is extraordinary considering that this is basically a netbook without a keyboard and system that is not designed for a touch interface.

 

[leomac08]

the HP slate in other words is:

the leftovers from producing mini netbooks...

 

[Bernard SG]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

The absolutely great thing that Apple did with the iPad is that people who never owned (used?) any computer before could just make an iPad work for their needs/interests.
Once you put a full fledged Desktop OS inside a tablet, your product is DOA.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

It runs on a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor, has 2GB RAM and a 64GB SSD, along with a Broadcom accelerator for 1080p video, a USB port, HDMI-out, a hardware Ctrl-Alt-Delete switch, a button to activate the on-screen keyboard and a pair of cameras, one on the back for photos and one on the front for Skyping.

Is this to be considered a feature of Windows-based PCs?

 

[Don Kosak]

Don't count HP out yet.

A redesigned slate running a WebOS 2.x operating system with it's app card multitasking and clean touch interface could give iPad a run for it's money.

Mergers take time, and are very complicated, especially mergers of tech companies. They need some time to get their act together. Hopefully it won't be too late.

The worst thing that could happen to us is to have no competition for iPad. "Thousand pound gorilla" market leaders usually stagnate (look at Google Search, or IE 6 during the 5 years Mozilla/Firefox was trying to get restarted, etc.)

The only other rival system with a chance right now is Android, but with the foolish design decisions being made on the first generation tablets (7 inches? Ugh) I don't know if any of the companies will hang in for a second round.

 

[Meever]

Don't count HP out yet.

A redesigned slate running a WebOS 2.x operating system with it's app card multitasking and clean touch interface could give iPad a run for it's money.

Mergers take time, and are very complicated, especially mergers of tech companies. They need some time to get their act together. Hopefully it won't be too late.

The worst thing that could happen to us is to have no competition for iPad. "Thousand pound gorilla" market leaders usually stagnate (look at Google Search, or IE 6 during the 5 years Mozilla/Firefox was trying to get restarted, etc.)

The only other rival system with a chance right now is Android, but with the foolish design decisions being made on the first generation tablets (7 inches? Ugh) I don't know if any of the companies will hang in for a second round.

Google has been amazing. They've been ahead of everyone by miles and they're still constantly trying new things. Better integration, instant search, etc, etc.

Honestly, Android has great potential as a platform. It's just that most companies are adding stupid arbitrary tweaks and skins that slows down the OS substantially. And google stated that Android 2.x is NOT tablet friendly and yet companies are still cramming it into their tablets....once Android 3.x built for tablets come out I bet iPad will get some decent competitors.

 

[lilo777]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

The absolutely great thing that Apple did with the iPad is that people who never owned (used?) any computer before could just make an iPad work for their needs/interests.
Once you put a full fledged Desktop OS inside a tablet, your product is DOA.

Then of course it is very hard to find any people these days who never used a computer before And those are very unlikely ot have means for buying these pricey toys.

 

[Bernard SG]

Then of course it is very hard to find any people these days who never used a computer before And those are very unlikely ot have means for buying these pricey toys.

Haven't you read all the articles about elderly people that were totally computer-illiterate who've been offered an iPad and got instantly sucked in?
Kids as well.

 

[chrono1081]

Did you ever try the UMPC's from a few years ago?

If not, then you probably don't realize just how BAD most Windows apps are when you have to use them through a touch/stylus interface. They just weren't designed to be used that way.

Windows on a tablet is just a pig. Too big, too slow, too resource hungry, and not designed for the usage paradigm AT ALL.

Great, so you can run Flash and Java on it... and you'll want to scream every time you have to actually run anything that wasn't designed for touch...

+1 years ago Circuit City sold gatways and I think toshibas that were laptops that you could swivel the screen and they became tablets. These never ever sold. (Actually some would sell but they would come right back). Windows (or any desktop OS) that is running on a touch device is nothing more then a gimick. Its too difficult and cumbersome for most people to touch tiny menus with a stylus or finger.

Try using only a wacom tablet to run your desktop. Thats a pain in the ass (hence why my mouse is always beside my wacom).

I figured windows would do this and it would fail. I'm not sure why they don't take their windows phone OS and put it on a tablet. I think it would have a much better chance. HP seems to be just piling on features and hoping features will sell the device. They forget that usability is more important than features.

 

[chrono1081]

Honestly, Android has great potential as a platform. It's just that most companies are adding stupid arbitrary tweaks and skins that slows down the OS substantially.

When Android came out I was impressed, I'm still impressed when its straight from Google, but sadly its getting killed by greedy cell phone companies who reskin it, lock out features, etc. When I saw this happening I decided not to develop for Android.

Its nice that its open, but like all open platforms it will end up (and already has) with severe fragmentation which is a nightmare for developers.

 

[Nausicaa]

Don't count HP out yet.

A redesigned slate running a WebOS 2.x operating system with it's app card multitasking and clean touch interface could give iPad a run for it's money.

Mergers take time, and are very complicated, especially mergers of tech companies. They need some time to get their act together. Hopefully it won't be too late.

The worst thing that could happen to us is to have no competition for iPad. "Thousand pound gorilla" market leaders usually stagnate (look at Google Search, or IE 6 during the 5 years Mozilla/Firefox was trying to get restarted, etc.)

The only other rival system with a chance right now is Android, but with the foolish design decisions being made on the first generation tablets (7 inches? Ugh) I don't know if any of the companies will hang in for a second round.

WebOS originally failed to take off and ultimately resulted in an HP buyout of Palm. Why would it be anymore successful this time? By the time such a thing is even released (at least a year out), iPad will be approaching its third revision - at which point it will no doubt be the best, most refined tablet out there as no one else has even seriously stepped up to the plate yet.

I wouldn't worry, Apple will develop and innovate this product just fine on their own.

 

[vant]

WebOS originally failed to take off and ultimately resulted in an HP buyout of Palm. Why would it be anymore successful this time? By the time such a thing is even released (at least a year out), iPad will be approaching its third revision - at which point it will no doubt be the best, most refined tablet out there as no one else has even seriously stepped up to the plate yet.

I wouldn't worry, Apple will develop and innovate this product just fine on their own.

The tablet market is pretty much already sealed shut for Android and iOS.

There is definitely no room for Win7 Mobile or WebOS. This is because of the large user base and apps of Apple and Google.

Windows 7 Tablets will come, but will fail to sell because the user experience would fall behind both. Windows 7 was designed with a mouse in mind from the ground up, not a finger. This is why they have CTRL+ALT+DELETE which is not accessible by normal means on a tablet.

Another case of designing something based on competitors instead of user experience.

 

[MRU]

Any computer that comes with a dedicated ctrl+alt+delete button is doomed. It's like waving a big flag saying this OS is so unsuited to this device, we have had to create a get me out of the s*it button.

 

[rdowns]

Any computer that comes with a dedicated ctrl+alt+delete button is doomed. It's like waving a big flag saying this OS is so unsuited to this device, we have had to create a get me out of the s*it button.

Not only that, but a button to bring up the keyboard. This thing is going to suck.

 

[err404]

There is one nice touch: the screen includes a Wacom digitizer so you can use a stylus to take notes on screen.

^ this is a feature that I would love to have on the iPad.