Connect with us

Hardware

HP TouchPad Coming Friday. Are You Buying?

Published

on

HP TouchPadWe’re getting closer and closer to the release of the HP TouchPad. Due to hit store shelves this Friday, we’re already seeing that some Walmart and Best Buy locations may be setting out demo units a bit early. So, I’m curious. How many of you are interested in the webOS TouchPad and are thinking of buying? How many of you are interested enough to go trekking to your local Walmart of Best Buy before Friday? How many of you are planning a weekend trip to check it out? How many of you are playing wait and see? If you’re not interested tell us why?

Let us know in comments.

 

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    06/28/2011 at 2:20 pm

    I’m definitely going to go check it out, probably on Saturday.  I’ve got a Pre Plus on Verizon, and I’m a huge fan of webOS.  Really looking forward to what they’ve done with 3.0.  Probably going to pass on picking up a TouchPad for now, but my phone contract is up in September, so I’ll hopefully be picking up a Pre 3 then (all you portrait slider haters can bugger off :p ).

  2. Dale Strauss

    06/28/2011 at 2:31 pm

    Warner – just not interested. Absent a truly iPad-like Windows device (by that I mean size, weight, and battery life) I intend to stick with an iPad. I’ve now owned (and returned) an HP Slate 500, Nook Color, Galaxy Tab, and HTC Flyer, as well as “played” extensively with the Playbook, Xoom and Transformer. Nothing compares to the iPad 1, much less the iPad 2. The Flyer was closest to the Windows inking experience, but just not as robust as iPad 2.

    Although the WebOS is interesting, I have to ask myself “another OS, really?”  Maybe I am getting sucked into kool-aid drinking, but the overall experience with the iPad, and wealth of specialized apps that keep coming up in my profession, proves that the iPad is so far out in front, even a well meaning stab by HP is not going to save WebOS. HP can talk a big game about extending WebOS from the smartphone, to Touchpad to Desktop, but I don’t really see that happening, nor HP maintaining the extreme patience it would take to get there in this “iPad – tablet” environment. HP seems to be a “quitter” when it comes to continued support of their devices (iPaq anyone?) and I think they’ll end up re-trenching from WebOS by this time next year.

    • ChrisRS

      06/28/2011 at 5:34 pm

      I really liked the Asus EP 121, but battery life is no where near “iPad like”
      It would work for me, but maybe not for you.

      Perhaps Asus will come out with a 10 inch device T better battery life. (Doesn’y work for me, but may for you.)

    • Anonymous

      06/28/2011 at 9:50 pm

      I worry about HP putting the effort in as well.  Because I think it will take a bit.
      I don’t think they can just count on third party devs doign the lifting to make it popular.
      I think they need to be investing heavily in an in-house application producer to pump out strong native apps for a while.

    • FlyingShawn

      06/29/2011 at 11:56 am

      You should really check out the Fujitsu Q550. I’ve had mine for a few weeks now and have been VERY pleased with it. I don’t know your profession, so I can’t speak to the “specialized” apps you refer to, but it’s thin, light, and the battery life is phenomenal. I’m getting 6-9.5 hours out of it depending on usage (9+ was reading a PDF and light OneNote usage: brightness at a comfortable 10% in office lighting, WiFi off) and you can always swap the battery if you need more time.

      It may not be truely touch-optimized like iOS, but the ability to ink+touch is FAR more useful in my mind (especially if you don’t want to always be propping it up on something to type).

  3. Michael Anderson

    06/28/2011 at 2:38 pm

    I love WebOS in the form of the Pre Plus an Pixi I have used, but due to lacking features compared to my Android phones I could never sustain usage for all that long.  So yes I am interested, but until I see more evidence that it will gain critical apps I need I won’t grab one.  That said, if it DOES take off I would love to use a paired Pre 3 and TouchPad.

  4. ChrisRS

    06/28/2011 at 5:36 pm

    I’m interested in seeng how well it synce with MS Outlook. Has to be at least as good as blackberry. (Win Phone 7 is a major fail in this regard. Maybe Mnago?)

  5. Kurt V

    06/28/2011 at 7:24 pm

    Yes, my Touchpad is on pre-order, and I am confident it will be better than an iPad2, and much better than an Android tablet.

  6. Anonymous

    06/29/2011 at 5:45 am

    Yes I am. Rather than retyping I’ll just copy/paste from my comment.

    P.S. Trying to copy/paste this and do a minor edit was horrible (I’m on the iPad). Whether it is disqus’ fault or the iPad I don’t know, but it makes the point (to myself in any case) that my Internet experience on the iPad continues to be lackluster…
    …………………………………

    I’m a self-professed gadget geek that loves anything new & shiny. As such I may not be representative of John Q. Public, but at the same time I feel like I *normally* gravitate to popular & “good” technology.

    My phone is a Thunderbolt and I just purchase two iPad 2’s. The primary driver for the iPad’s was our twin girls who will be 3 in October. You may think that $499 (I went w/ the budget version) x 2 is an expensive “toy” for toddlers, but the truth is the iPad’s have some great learning apps for the kids. IMO totally worth it if it helps them with their colors/shapes now, other things down the road.

    I’d by lying if I said my wife & I don’t use them after the kids go to bed, but I’m just not that impressed. I love the Bing app for news, and I love Houzz app for getting ideas for future home renovations, and I’ve had fun playing Plants Vs. Zombies. Works well as a Sonos controller (sure beats spending $399 on one of theirs), and I guess I could stream Pandora from it if I wanted to. So you can see I’m deriving some benefit from the iPad, but with all that being said i’m not totally enamored with it. Many website I’ve visited haven’t loaded properly (perhaps lack of flash or java??), and navigation outside of apps feels clunky to me. I can’t put my finger on it, but I just don’t see how everybody seems to equate the iPad experience to the second coming Christ.

    So yes, I’ve preordered the Touchpad. I went w/ the 32GB HD (vs. the smaller ones on the iPads) because I truly believe this will be a more productive tool for me. Not a desktop replacement, but true multitasking, probably a few decent games, and eventually maybe some support at work (I need to look into the whole citrix VPN thing since I know we have that). I may not have 30 different fart applications to choose from, but it’s my hope that it will simply work better for me (and this purchase is about me, not the author of this article, not the iPad or Android fanbois, or anybody else that has an opinion). Whether my purchase was a smart one will remain to be seen, but I for one am looking forward to July 5th when it should be delivered

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.