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I don't think it's anymore accurate to say windows can't compete in tablet form because it couldn't in the past, then saying Apple can't complete in the PDA market because the newton was a failure. Or ever take a dominate place in the desktop market because it's failure for the last 20 years. Look at the fall of Palm computing.

Companys learn from thier mistakes and make improvements. Technology improves, things change. The XBOX 360 is a perfect example of this.
They are now a BIG player in the game console market. And it wasn't because they muscled SONY or Nintendo out with special deals. It was because they put out a good product at a price people were comfortable with.

Your points are reasonable, but it doesn't make Windows (even in its recent form) any more suitable as a tablet OS. It hasn't changed *that* much.

I say this as a former Tablet XP owner. Shudder.
 
Doubt it will ever get Matlab, maybe in a few generations when they have better hardware on the device.

Matlab would probably run fairly well on the iPad. When I was in college, we used a DOS version of Matlab on 386 computers. :eek: I think mine ran at a screaming 25 Mhz (which I later overclocked to a death defying 33 Mhz using one of those Evergreen CPU upgrade chips :rolleyes: ). The code base for Matlab is pretty much unchanged so yes it would run fine. Now as for Simulink or some of the newer toolboxes no those would not fare well on an iPad at all.
 
Matlab would probably run fairly well on the iPad. When I was in college, we used a DOS version of Matlab on 386 computers. :eek: I think mine ran at a screaming 25 Mhz (which I later overclocked to a death defying 33 Mhz using one of those Evergreen CPU upgrade chips :rolleyes: ). The code base for Matlab is pretty much unchanged so yes it would run fine. Now as for Simulink or some of the newer toolboxes no those would not fare well on an iPad at all.

Hmm, perhaps. Our computers at school struggles a bit when doing big simulations, and they pack more power then the iPad atleast. Well, if someone develops Matlab (or even "R") for the iPad I would love it. Then I would get one in a heartbeat.
 
The HP slate was never released so I'm not sure if it really failed. It will likely be relaunched with webOS and a new name.
 
Slate will fail mainly for being built by HP. HP computers have terrible reliability problems even with common PC.
You haven't owned one lately. HP quality has improved allot over the years. I have a four year old HP laptop that I have dropped and that thing still keeps on going. I've had to replace the HD once in all these years.
Try dropping an aluminum MBP on a cement floor and see what happens to it. :eek:

I fully planned on getting the slat over the iPad because at least the slate runs a full OS and could do allot more things than the iPad ever could.

Before I bought my first Mac in 2007, all I ever owned were HPs. I love that brand.
 
lol. Fail? Are you Serious?

hahahahaha

A mobile device that can run Protools, Reason, Soundforge, VST's, Edit Audio/Video, Play any Aud/Vid format will never fail.

Didn't you read the last paragraph of the original poster?

Slate = Crippled Notebook

iPad = Buffed up Smart Phone
 
Slashdot is reporting that the iPad will have some competition soon. Competition is good.

Don't know if I would buy one, but I think this is a vastly superior operating system for tablets than Win7. I have a Pre at the moment and really like it, but I'm not sure it would bump me from my iPad. The multi tasking will be superior in all likelihood but other than that, I'd be a tough sell, and I think WebOS rocks.
 
Don't know if I would buy one, but I think this is a vastly superior operating system for tablets than Win7. I have a Pre at the moment and really like it, but I'm not sure it would bump me from my iPad. The multi tasking will be superior in all likelihood but other than that, I'd be a tough sell, and I think WebOS rocks.

The iPad will have multi-tasking by then, or soon after.
 
Most likely better.

Better than WebOS? I'm curious why you say that.

iPhone OS 4 has what might be referred to as 'cooperative' multitasking - an application can become the "active" application but there are a limited subset of actions that it can continue doing behind the scenes - play music, for example. Other than that limited set of seven instructions, they basically stop and remember where they were. It certainly isn't true preemptive multitasking.

In WebOS on the other hand, it's true multithreading, allowing background applications to continue to execute while another app takes the foreground position.

So, IMHO WebOS has the edge here; the real question is, will it matter? Will the implementation be "good enough" in OS4 that it doesn't matter that these limitations exist?
 
I have a pre and it's laggiest battery sucking phone I have ever owned. Problem with true multitasking is it kills the battery and I will bet a Webos tablet will get half the battery life that the iPad does. More than anything I really like notifications on the pre. It's light years ahead of the iPhone and that is something apple needs to change. Other than that the Apps aren't very good on webos, so it has a long way to go before competing wih the iPad. Just my opinion.
 
Better than WebOS? I'm curious why you say that.

iPhone OS 4 has what might be referred to as 'cooperative' multitasking - an application can become the "active" application but there are a limited subset of actions that it can continue doing behind the scenes - play music, for example. Other than that limited set of seven instructions, they basically stop and remember where they were. It certainly isn't true preemptive multitasking.

In WebOS on the other hand, it's true multithreading, allowing background applications to continue to execute while another app takes the foreground position.

So, IMHO WebOS has the edge here; the real question is, will it matter? Will the implementation be "good enough" in OS4 that it doesn't matter that these limitations exist?
I can understand how you see it that way but the battery life of a tablet that offers true multithreaded multitasking will be at the mercy of how the applications are written.

Poorly written applications that chew up CPU cycles will have a negative effect on battery life in such an environment.
 
I have only played with webOS a few times, but I have to say, it's really nice. The UI is nice, proper multi-tasking and a notification system (iPhone OS' notifications is crap, pop ups aren't that good. But that's another rant for another day). Also the fact that it's all built on HTML means that everything will scale automatically so they could easily do a few different size tablets with all running the exact same OS.

My only fear is that HP will come up with some crappy hardware for what is actually quite a cool OS.
 
The HP Slate running the Web OS will give Apple some real competition in the tablet market. Where Apple has the upper edge is in the Apps department. If the story is true look for HP to step it up to have at least 10,000 Web OS apps ready for launch.
 
Looking forward to a webOS tablet, if only to see how much development muscle HP put behind it. To be fair though if it DOES come in October Palm must have been working on it before the merger as I don't believe HP is scheduled to acquire them fully before... July isn't it?

Biggest problems for me are:

1) No media sync software
2) Currently weak developer support
3) Unproven OS and future support

I know point 3 is going to cause arguments but webOS hasn't had a smooth development path with some updates causing more problems than they fixed. Add in a new owner and an uncertain future and you have to say it's uncertain what the future will hold.

Still, it will be VERY interesting to see which way they go. I wonder if this could be the first tablet with a dual core ARM?
 
Better than WebOS? I'm curious why you say that.

iPhone OS 4 has what might be referred to as 'cooperative' multitasking - an application can become the "active" application but there are a limited subset of actions that it can continue doing behind the scenes - play music, for example. Other than that limited set of seven instructions, they basically stop and remember where they were. It certainly isn't true preemptive multitasking.

In WebOS on the other hand, it's true multithreading, allowing background applications to continue to execute while another app takes the foreground position.

So, IMHO WebOS has the edge here; the real question is, will it matter? Will the implementation be "good enough" in OS4 that it doesn't matter that these limitations exist?

I love it when the ignorant comment.

Multitasking and multithreading are not the same as backgrounding.

iPhone OS multi-tasks, multi-threads and is pre-emptive. It also has really cool event listeners that are a part of Obj C. These features are available to all applications sold in the app store.

In OS 3 and below, apple does not allow third parties to write apps that continue to process when the home button is pressed. Some apps and functions though, continue to run and keep their threads open. A good example are the wireless and wifi stacks, iPod app, SMS listener, notifications etc.

In iPhone OS 4, all of the multithreading is still available, but now third parties are allowed to save states more effectively and some API are allowed to run in the background, even though the core app is in a saved state. Interestingly, what you call WebOS multithreading is actually working almost identical to the system apple is using in OS 4 but with fewer restrictions and less regard for battery life.

All of what apple does is done to conserve battery. More importantly, apple design of the system is quite brilliant even though we have been waiting for this for a few years now. Like copy/paste, the wait is worth a feature being done right ghe first time.
 
I'm ready for the list of iPad killers to arrive with same result as their iPhone killer ancestors. OS4 is going to make my iPad experience much more pleasurable I think. Running pandora, good reader and safari at the same time will be a killer setup for writing light papers or notes.
 
I'm waiting for this. I have the Verizon Palm Pre with the free mobile hotspot and want a tablet that has a word processing program a bit heftier than Pages and is not locked into AT&T.

webOS is great, notwithstanding the fact that their app catalog can't touch Apple.
 
This is a bold decision on HP's part (if it actually materializes). They are abandoning the marketing advantages they'd get from using a full OS on a tablet in return for the practical advantages of a lighter OS.

Assuming they are using the same/similar hardware to what was discussed before for the Slate ... I doubt I'd sell my iPad to buy one, as the advantages are unlikely to be compelling. But if I didn't already have an iPad, I'd give the HP tablet good fair consideration if:

1 - it had at least 7 or 8 hours battery life, the more the better
2 - there was a no-contract 3g service for about the same price as AT&T's on iPad
 
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