HP Slate vs. iPad

[diogen]

Rumored to originate from HP
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/hp-slate-to-cost-549-have-1-6ghz-atom-z530-5-hour-battery/

Pros: Camera, GPS, hidef playback, USB, HDMI, SIM card, SD Card...
Cons: Smaller screen, no 802.11n, half the battery life...

Same weight, same price...

Diogen.

 

[lparsons21]

and the same problem all the other touch devices have - no software! Well, all except Apple of course!

 

[lparsons21]

I think it will be a good touch device, HP has done a good job on the touchsmart series, IMO. I have one that I use every day for presenting sheet music.

 

[diogen]

and the same problem all the other touch devices have - no software!

Yeah...
Nothing as magical and revolutionary as a smartphone OS on a tablet...

It ain't locked! And that makes all the difference...

Diogen.

 

[lparsons21]

At least that is what everyone keeps trying to tell me. Yet the touch computers have been met with resounding thuds until yesterday.

I said I like my HP Touchsmart and I do. But it isn't because of anything other than hardware that HP provided. Touch aware software is not hard to do, almost everything will do touch. But touch software that actually benefits from touch in the consumer space has been missing for the most part.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have a Touchsmart and never use the Touch portion of it. Too weird reaching up and out to do things when the mouse is easy to reach in front of me.

 

[diogen]

Yet the touch computers have been met with resounding thuds until yesterday.

Well, I understand what you mean. Or at least I think so, but...

As a principle, I don't welcome changes - no matter how "magical and revolutionary" - that start with taking away: from external storage to programs to printing...
And what really irks me, is when this is compared to 10 Commandments by some smartass from a Genius Bar...

Diogen.

 

[lparsons21]

I have a Touchsmart and never use the Touch portion of it. Too weird reaching up and out to do things when the mouse is easy to reach in front of me.

I understand that feeling. But there are two apps that I use on it that are very touch oriented, and in them, using touch feels right.

The recipe app that HP includes and MusicReader ( musicreader.net ). I play the organ and a quick tap on the screen for a page turn beats hell out of fumbling for the page.

 

[lparsons21]

Well, I understand what you mean. Or at least I think so, but...

As a principle, I don't welcome changes - no matter how "magical and revolutionary" - that start with taking away: from external storage to programs to printing...
And what really irks me, is when this is compared to 10 Commandments by some smartass from a Genius Bar...

Diogen.

Well I won't deny that the hyperbole machine has been out in full force about the iPad. Personally I would think that anyone thinking about doing touch should be tickled that Apple is able to bring this much attention to it, and offer tons of apps that work quite well with touch.

Maybe others can do some of the same things and get enough touch benefitting apps out there to make the touch market take off. Time will tell, of course.

 

[tigerfan33]

Sounds nice. HDMI is a big plus. I wonder if this will slow like laptops and pc. Will be nice to get these on the market and compare to the iPad. The speed of the iPad will be tough to beat and to keep the speed over time.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I don't see this as the competitor to the ipad. I think the new Dell Mini or one of the other forthcoming Android-OS tablets is a much better comparison for purposes of a touch-screen tablet. The Windows OS simply is NOT designed as a tablet.

 

[TheForce]

Will be interesting to check these windows based tablets out some day. The one thing I was surprised with on the iPad is how different you work with it as compared to a laptop. It is a different mindset altogether. Being a mother tongue pc guy and hating the Mac as much as I do, this iPad just allows you to do what you want to do when it comes to getting information, or reading and having the content at your fingertips. The biggest problem is it is addictive and I just want to use it more and more.

I can see one thing the windows based tablets will have and that will be likely working MORE like a laptop than an iPad. For some people who don't want to learn a different way (I believe easier way) the windows based tablet may work for them.

Two big features the iPad doesn't have or is very awkward to do are flash and printing. I spent more time trying to figure out the process of printing a document than I will probably ever use it. As for flash, well I haven't missed it in a way that I had to jump to the PC because it was that important but I'm sure over time I will run across annoyances due to lack of flash.

The most important thing with the iPad is that it is so well integrated with the Apple system that tight control just makes everything easy and fast.

 

[harshness]

The Windows OS simply is NOT designed as a tablet.

Compared to an OS designed to run an iPod, it is much better suited to doing computerly things than the iPad. There is a big advantage to Windows in that it has long supported many input methodologies including a stylus with character recognition and a variety of other I/O devices that aren't available on the iPad (think hard about Apple's long-standing perversion for single button mice on the Macintosh). Do you expect that the iPad will support functional voice recognition? Windows does.

Such is not to say that Windows is by any means ideal. It was obviously designed by committee. I suspect that many of the same extensibility problems Windows had going from 80286 hardware to quad core hardware will also rear their heads in going from the iPod Touch to the iPad and any follow-ons.

 

[tomcrown1]

Compared to an OS designed to run an iPod, it is much better suited to doing computerly things than the iPad. There is a big advantage to Windows in that it has long supported many input methodologies including a stylus with character recognition and a variety of other I/O devices that aren't available on the iPad (think hard about Apple's long-standing perversion for single button mice on the Macintosh). Do you expect that the iPad will support functional voice recognition? Windows does.

Such is not to say that Windows is by any means ideal. It was obviously designed by committee. I suspect that many of the same extensibility problems Windows had going from 80286 hardware to quad core hardware will also rear their heads in going from the iPod Touch to the iPad and any follow-ons.

The new Iphone/I-pad due out in July will support voice recognition. Check out the dev team blog for some insight into the new IPHONE. Apple had to come out with a three step leap in smart phones and the new IPHONE is it.

 

[harshness]

The new Iphone/I-pad due out in July will support voice recognition.

This is an important improvement. Do you know if it is phone-style voice recognition ("dial Anderson") or dictation recognition?

The iPad notepad app is almost certainly going to run afoul of terms of the Geneva Convention. Cursor schmursor.

 

[lparsons21]

There are two free apps for dictation right now. Dragon and Vingo, Dragon is indicated as ready for iPad while Vingo is not.

In a usenet group there is one person that has said he is using Dragon and it is very good.

 

[TheForce]

The new Iphone/I-pad due out in July will support voice recognition. Check out the dev team blog for some insight into the new IPHONE. Apple had to come out with a three step leap in smart phones and the new IPHONE is it.

I don't understand this. Please explain what it was when a friend of mine showed me his voice recognition on the iphone last weekend. Seems iphone already has it. His phone is not hacked and all apps are from itunes store.