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All posts tagged "touchpad"


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Touching on the TouchPad

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Laptop Thoughts News" @ 05:00 AM

"Say what you say about the boring interface, the closed ecosystem, and the limited utility of the hardware, Apple has a winner on their hands. Next up is the Honeycomb army from Android. This is where selection rules above all else and the differences across the lineup are immense. Trailing far behind is the BlackBerry from RIM, who in my opinion have been caught with their pants down. The crippled nature of the Playbook was a let down from the go, as well as only releasing a chubby 7? tablet. But RIM was smart and stole injected a lot of WebOS into their system design. Now it’s HP’s turn to bring their own platform to the party. How well does the TouchPad battle with the other tablets?"

The HP TouchPad has been out for a while, but that has not stopped people from providing their own opinion on the latest competitior to the venerable iPad. If the iPad was not the gold standard, the TouchPad might actually be regarded fairly well. The problem is that we have seen better and liked it. Maybe the TouchPad 2 will prove to be more compelling.


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Twice the Tablet, Twice the Failure

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Laptop Thoughts News" @ 04:00 PM

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/bl...-failures/17683

"Someday, not very far in the future, in business school, the tales of both the BlackBerry PlayBook and the HP TouchPad will both be told. It will be recounted that when it finally came time for both of these companies to execute in their attempts to adequately compete with Apple’s iPad and Google Android Tablets, they both failed miserably."

Two hot tablets have come to market, and both are being panned by many writers are pale comparisons to the iPad 2, Android tablets, and even the original iPad. While the PlayBook and TouchPad can hardly be considered great successes, it should be noted that they both are operating off of relatively new operating systems. The hardware buried inside these babies seems to be pretty comparable to other tablets on the market, but what they have in hardware, they seem to lack in software. They do not have the wonderful polish that Apple puts on its products, and they haven't had the experience and numerous releases that Android has gone through to adapt to the tablet. If either BlackBerry or HP are committed to the market, we might see these tablets given a chance to mature, and possibly, act as serious contenders for your tablet dollars.


Sunday, July 3, 2011

Want To Know About The HP TouchPad? Reviews Abound!

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Laptop Thoughts News" @ 03:00 PM

http://thisismynext.com/2011/06/29/...ouchpad-review/

"Palm faithful and newcomers alike, behold: the TouchPad review. For some, this has been years in the making, for others (honestly, for most) this is a new and potentially interesting blip on the tablet radar. The team that brought you webOS — for better or worse — has now graduated the platform to pad status, with the help (and cash) of HP. According to the company, the TouchPad marks the kickoff of its hard push into the hearts and minds of the slate-buying public, as well as a rebirth of sorts for Palm’s unrealized ambitions."

The HP TouchPad is out with everyone is eager to put out their own impressions of the webOS based device. Each provides their own spin, though it suffices to say that the TouchPad is aimed squarely at competing against the iPad both in capability and price point. Will it succeed? Well, webOS is a relatively new entry, and needs quite a bit of time to see if it gains any traction, though if HP is committed to webOS, there is enough financial backing to keep the concept going until it catches on. The OS market, even for tablets, is starting to get crowded, and I do not know if the market can support or should have that many different takes on the tablet. I see a shakedown coming!


Friday, April 15, 2011

HP TouchPad WebOS 3.0 Sneak Peek (Emulator)

Posted by Michael Knutson in "Other Slates & Tablets" @ 10:00 PM

http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-t...eenshots-2011-4

"Images from a WebOS 3.0 emulator just leaked, and we've got all the screenshots demonstrating the best and most essential new features."

A pretty decent collection of pics of the HP TouchPad WebOS, albeit from an emulator. As the author opines, to be successful, the TouchPad will need to "borrow and integrate" features from the most successful tablets. One of the cool features is that the on-screen keyboard can be resized (smaller) to show more content in the Memos app. Funny how the native Mail app looks very similar to the iPad's Mail app. And, the Clock app resembles the clock from HTC's Sense UI. There was also a link to a video walk-through of WebOS 3.0, but it was removed by YouTube. Oops! Overall a quite pleasing UI, but I do wonder if it's too little, too late, from HP. Can the market support another tablet and OS? Will this tablet go the way of other Palm/HP products like the Pre and Pixi?


Thursday, February 10, 2011

Best Tablet User Experience (UX)? HP TouchPad

Posted by Michael Knutson in "Laptop Thoughts Talk" @ 09:00 PM

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/0...et-ux-ive-seen/

"If you asked me last week which tablet user experience was the best, I wouldn't have had a solid answer for you. They all have good points and bad. Whether one is "best" depends greatly on the user. Well, I'm chucking some of that out the window because I have seen the light and it is the HP TouchPad."

Interesting that many tech writers suddenly seem to have a new top challenger to the iPad's dominance: HP's new TouchPad. The author opines that HP's User Experience (UX) is best: the card metaphor (anyone remember Apple's hypercard?); interoperability between the tablet and its siblings in the phone world; portrait or landscape doesn't matter; WebOS, lean and mean, and not like a desktop OS. That being said, some of its best features require a companion WebOS phone, and it lacks the ecosystem that iOS and Android tablets have (or will have). The conclusion is that this will be a tablet for average users, and not for power users. And it has that undeniable Wow factor. But, again we see a lack of a support ecosystem - show me the apps!


Touching the HP TouchPad

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Laptop Thoughts News" @ 03:00 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/09/...he-hp-touchpad/

"It tips the scales at 1.6 pounds and measures 13.7mm thick, which is somewhat of a downer for those already put off by the heft found in Apple's slate. As we'd heard last month, HP's shipping this one with its own Beats audio engine, Touch-to-Share (a feature that lets users easily transfer a website, document, song, text or call from the phone to the tablet -- or vice versa -- simply by tapping the two devices together) and a huge reliance on the cloud."

It is taking some time, but efforts to challenge the iOS empire is shaping up. While there are more Android tablets out there than Justin Beiber fans, few have seen any traction. Enter HP's first real attempt at the slate tablet, powered by webOS. The claims made by HP make it sound like it might just be able to replace your computer, desktop, notebook or otherwise, for all your regular day to day consumerish needs. It even has a few features like support for some office applications for can probably do some work if one is so inclined. The video looks delightfuly yummy as well. All I can say is that it is nice to see some competition and decent alternatives come about. It should help encourage even better stuff down the road.


Wednesday, February 9, 2011

HP TouchPad Lives ... This Summer

Posted by Michael Knutson in "Other Slates & Tablets" @ 04:00 PM

http://www.palm.com/us/products/pad...dmh=dm13.269146

"HP webOS goes big. Our breakthrough interface features a spacious workspace and activity cards that provide an easy way to visualize and organize what you're working on. Easily move back and forth between cards.1 And group related cards in stacks-or have them stacked automatically."

Just announced by HP, with planned availability for summer of 2010. Specs include: HP WebOS; 9.7-inch 1024x768 capacitive multi-touch screen; Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2GHz; Microsoft Exchange support with Direct Push Technology; GPS in 3G models; Front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera; 802.11 b/g/n with WPA; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; 16/32GB; 6300 mAh battery; 3.5mm stereo headset/headphone/microphone jack; dimensions 240mm x 190mm x 13.7mm (9.45 x 7.48 x .54 inches) and a weight of 740g (1.6 pounds). Details on 3G were not available, and pricing was not listed. Pretty impressive, but pretty late to the party.

( UPDATE: After a little digging around, it appears that the initial version will be wi-fi only, with 3G/4G to follow. )


Monday, August 30, 2010

Laptop Touchpads: Why Do They Often Suck so Much?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 11:00 AM

http://blog.laptopmag.com/terrible-...-you-the-finger

"When you think about how much laptops have evolved over the past couple of years, it's staggering. You can now get screaming-fast quad-core power inside a machine that weighs less than 4 pounds. Many notebooks can switch between integrated and discrete graphics on the fly. You'll even find some models with 3D displays or tech that lets you stream video wirelessly to your HDTV. Yet even with all of these advancements, notebooks have taken serious steps back in some ways. The "evolution" of the touchpad seems to have moved from a utilitarian pointing device to a mere decoration."

Mark Spoonauer over at Laptop Magazine has a point: touchpads are still a real hit or miss affair on laptops. I reviewed the dm3 just like Spoonauer did, and both of us had the same conclusion: how could HP release something so shockingly awful? What were the designers thinking, and more so, how did such an obviously awful implementation make it into a shipping product? I've seen some truly awful touchpads, but I've also seen some really great ones. I don't think it's a matter of personal opinion: a touchpad should be responsive, easy to use, not interfere with you when you're typing (even if you brush the touchpad surface), and have buttons that are easily clickable.

I part ways with Spoonauer when it comes to his praising of pointing sticks - I've always found them to be more of a hassle than anything else. Where do you stand on touchpad versus pointing stick? And what's the worse, or best, touchpad you've had on a laptop? I thought that the touchpad on my Dell XPS M1330 was perfect - I had zero complaints with it.


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