Hello, PalmPad! Well, maybe. Clayton Morris over at FoxNews just posted images of what is labeled as the PalmPad that’s set to debut at CES 2011. But I’m not so sure. I mean, sure, Clayton could have seen the PalmPad but these exclusive photos are not it. That’s the HP Slate. → Read More
The HP Slate 500 is finally finding its way to eager fans after nearly a year since it was first announced nearly a year ago at CES ’10. But no matter. Product development and fulfillment generally doesn’t happen overnight. Heatlessun over at TabletPCReview just posted what could be the first unboxing of a commercial HP Slate. Of course the first impression is all prancing unicorns under double rainbows for this user, but who am I to question his conclusions. He’s the chap with the Slate, not me. [TabletPCReview via SlashGear] → Read More
Remember the Sony Clie PDA line? Yeah, the big flip-style ones. These were the HP Slates of the first half of the decade. Let me explain.
PDAs were the hot gadget item before smartphones. They instantly earned the owner geek credibility points and models were coming from nearly every manufacturer between 2000 and 2004. HP had the Jornada, and later the iPAQ after buying Compaq. There was the Dell Axim, the Linux-powered Sharp Zaurus, and of course the top-dog Palm Pilots.
Sony picked up on the trend and outed the Clie line that went toe-to-toe with Palm. These PDAs started out pretty much as premium Palm alternatives. They were more solid, came with a rich multimedia suite built into the Palm OS, but of course commanded a higher price. Over time Sony evolved the form factor while sticking with the Palm OS, although they hid the core OS with their own skin developed to better match the natural hardware controls. → Read More
Here is our hands-on video of the HP Slate 500, HP’s new business slate. For those of you still on the fence, HP has posted all of the final specs for the device as well, including the fact that it has an active digitizer as well as an Intel Z540 Atom Processor Z540 (1.86 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB) and 2GB of memory.
You can take a gander at the product page and see if this is the slate for you, Win7 lovers.
Video after the jump. → Read More
The HP Slate is a real product — numerous mentions from HP VPs and various leaks state that — but it’s far from “official.” Somehow, though, a somewhat-thorough video review was just posted on the ol’ Interweb for the whole word to see. Remember, this product is headed for the enterprise market and you can’t even buy it, so don’t get all flame-happy when you see with your own eyes that Windows simply isn’t meant to be controlled with you fingers.
This demo is a laughable mess when it gets to the UI demonstration even though the person recording says the Slate is ”pretty responsive, pretty quick.” Yeah, alright. At least the hardware looks solid. Click through for the video and your first chuckle of the day. → Read More
Can you hear that? It’s the sound of war. Better choose your side soon, too. The tablet wars are going to get nasty. Apple’s army is prepped, already backed by over 3 million zealous iPad owners. But the Google Android horde is quickly banding together and will soon offer countless weapons from several major CE houses and dozens of smaller camps. Google is also quietly forming the stealthy Chrome OS platoon that will likely enter the battle a bit late, but shouldn’t be forgotten, ether. Then there’s the suit & tie brigade with their trusty BlackBerry holstered on their hips, ready to be tethered to the coming BlackPad. Don’t forget about the wildcard: The HP-produced, webOS-powered PalmPad no doubt has a couple of tricks, enough to put up a decent fight. Then there’s the battle-tested Windows that might still be able to fire a few direct shots. The tablet wars are coming and not everyone is going to survive. There simply isn’t enough market share to support the five or more upcoming tablet platforms. → Read More
HP has at least a couple of tablets in development; that’s a fact. There is the HP Slate 500, the Palmpad, the Android printer thing, and probably a few proper tablets not yet leaked along with the already-available convertible notebook line. So it only makes sense that the new form factor gets its own dedicated section on HP.com. Previously the convertible models were slumming with the normal laptops but are currently the only models in the new Tablet section. Chances are that’s set to change real soon. → Read More
Nothing really new besides the little tidbit of info that confirms that the HP Slate is coming soon and the Palmpad will launch in early 2011. Todd Bradley confirmed the dates — and the rumor he started — on HP’s Q3 earnings call today. Will the Palmpad get a CES 2011 announcement? I’d take that bet. [PreCentral via Engadget] → Read More
Well, look at that. A Rocketfish tablet. Can’t say we saw this coming, but Best Buy’s CTO and Geek Squad founder, Robert Stephens, just tweeted two pics of the surprisingly polished-looking tablet. We’re currently digging for more details but from what we can tell from the pics, the tablet looks remarkable similar to early HP Slate pics. Every seem and port seems to be the same right down to the (docking?) port on the bottom. Even if it’s not built on the same platform, the screen sizes look about the same, placing the Rocketfish tablet in the 9-inch range. → Read More
HP revealed most of its tablet strategy yesterday at the Fortune’s Brainstorm conference. The Windows 7 HP Slate is headed to the enterprise sector this fall while the webOS-power Palmpad will go head-to-head against the iPad later. The plan itself really isn’t that surprising as I saw this coming shortly after Palmpad was trademarked. But what I didn’t expect was the outcry from consumers who actually want a Windows 7 Slate. It’s clear HP should take a long look a limited consumer market release for the Win7 Slate.
I’ve said it over and over and over. Windows 7 is horrible via a touch interface. It’s simply not meant to be used with your fingers. However, the HP Slate is said to come with a stylus and if said stylus is an active digitizer like Wacom tablets, it could be awesome and what’s been missing from Windows tablets for so long. I still believe webOS has a better chance to catch on as Windows tablets have been around longer than Apple has been making the iPod and have yet to sell well, but why not have both options available and let the market decide? At least our readers want it. → Read More
Great news, Internet. The Windows 7 HP Slate isn’t dead. According to HP’s site, the Slate is very much alive — all 8 variations of it — and it seems like HP will indeed put it head-to-head against the Palmpad like I thought.
Don’t too excited just yet. These models are anything but official as they were simply found on some random HP product listing. However, the brief description — embedded below — should make some people’s day. It seems like the original HP Slate complete with Windows 7, 8.9-inch screen, dual cameras, and — this is new — some sort of stylus/pen input. → Read More
Palmpad, eh? That sounds nice and could signal a sort-of departure from the normal slate business model. HP might be prepping more than one tablet product line. Perhaps the Windows 7 Slate project isn’t dead after all. We all know the story. HP bought Palm for a billion dollars, partly for the webOS mobile phone platform. Said operating system will soon be found in other HP devices, including printers and tablet computers. However, HP is unlikely to rest its tablet’s future on someone else’s defunct brand name. There will be more than one tablet model from HP right from the beginning. → Read More
HP was apparently working on an Android tablet along with a Windows 7 and webOS model. Yeah, all three at the same time. The Android flavor was even scheduled for a late-2010 release. But the project was reportable canned just like the Windows 7 edition.
That’s probably for the best, really. It’s not that surprising to hear that HP had three different versions of the Slate in development all at the same time. The goal was likely to determine which one was best suited for the market and not to release three tablets each on a different platform. It seems, however, the best option won and HP is going with the webOS over Windows 7 or Android. → Read More
The iPad is the king of tablets and might hold that title for years to come. However, there are a ton of alternatives that we’ve featured over the last few months, mostly in these two posts (1 & 2) detailing the top 14. But since I ran those posts, a lot has changed and while some managed to make it to the market, others were delayed or scrapped entirely.
It’s sad, really. While the iPad caters to the masses with the Luddite-approved iOS, others crave much more usability and none of the tablets announced that claim to fulfills these needs have been released yet. Click through to see what I mean. → Read More
The HP webOS Slate is one-step closer to the market now that HP officially owns Palm. It has a real chance to be the iPad-alternative of choice when it launches later this year. Hopefully HP engineers and designers have been taking notes about the iPad from the beginning because even though the iPad is selling like Girl Scout cookies, it’s far from perfect. The Apple branding alone is part of the successful launch, but HP is, well, HP and a major player in the consumer market with deeper distribution channels than even Apple. If any one company can stand up to Apple in the tablet space, it’s HP — but only if they take advantage of learning from Apple’s mistakes and success. → Read More
The ExoPC is shaping up to be a major contender in the tablet PC space with the iPad’s good looks and an affair of ExoPC UI-Layer on top of Windows 7. And if these leaked capabilities are in fact coming, the HP Slate better look out. This guy will steal some of its thunder. → Read More
The HP Slate kicks the innards out of the iPad in so many ways. It has a faster CPU, a full OS, SD card slot, and a whole bunch more. But the Slate can’t be double as a bookend. So there. → Read More
The HP Slate has been showing up in all sorts of places since it’s CES 2010 debut. But we really never knew much about it. We didn’t know what CPU or GPU it was running, along with if it had 3G, GPS, webcams. But a Spanish site seemingly has all the answers and we like what we hear. → Read More
Apple isn’t the only company with tablets. HP and Dell showed off its slate concepts at CES ’10, but their demo’s left us with so many questions. HP’s CTO Phil McKinney at least reveals a bit more about his company’s offering. But hopefully he’s out of the loop a bit and HP actually has more planned for the device. Otherwise, the HP Slate will be about as successful as the HP TouchSmart iMac clones.
Phil gives the background about the Slate’s development at HP. He explains that the company has been working on the unit for about five years and it started out as an ereadering device. But then as many things do, it evolved into what he’s showing off in the video.
But this slate is plagued by the same fundamental flaw as the vast majority of the current tablets: Windows. Phil states that the device will run plain-jane Windows 7. That’s a problem because even Windows 7 with its added touchscreen capabilities is not suited for extended tablet use without a stylus and Apple/Palm/RIM/HTC has proven to the world that we don’t need styluses. (stylii?) → Read More
San Francisco, CA
