MacDailyNews Take: You could count the number of “tablet enthusiasts” on one hand before Apple unveiled the iPad. Those who “want a device that’s not created by Apple” are masochists with dusty, unused, uncharged Dell DJs stuck in the back of their desk drawers.
Ganapati continues, “But a Mexican site that played with an early version of the Slate is not impressed. The OS takes too long to load, which can be ‘annoying,’ says Conecti.ca.”
“HP hasn’t demoed the Slate yet publicly but it has deliberately leaked a few highly edited videos of the device. Conecti.ca confirms most of the specs that have leaked out for the Slate, but says HP’s tablet is more of a competitor for netbooks than the Apple iPad,” Ganapati reports. “The site, which has posted a gallery of photos for the Slate, has one word for it: ‘meh.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Conecti.ca’s article has been pulled and replaced with the statement: “By a direct request of Hewlett Packard Mexico this post has-been removed. The product show in this post will be reviewed Later in the official presentation. Thank you for your understanding.”
Yes, we understand. Certain firms got wind of Apple’s iPad and trotted out a nebulous slab for an on-stage dog and pony show in order to be able to claim “first.” Then they waited for Apple’s unveiling and began to tailor their device to play up what they thought were “shortcomings” (much like iPhone also-rans trumpeted “Copy-Paste” not so long ago), loading up spec sheets with ports so they can seem to “win” on paper. Then when the actual device slips into users hands, the entire ruse is exposed for what it is – a derivative, poorly-faked version of Apple’s product that leaves the user unimpressed. Certain firms then try to quickly stuff their powerless genie back into the bottle; a move which they’ll find to be wholly unsuccessful, just like their product.
Stick to ripping people off with ink cartridges, HP. You pissed away your “invent” chops decades ago.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “jax44” for the heads up.]
The slate will be a thin formed printer, needing expensive ink cartriges
But, but, it will play Flash and have 3 usb ports and a card slot…
“the slate “feels dense and tough”. ”
Hahahahaha, kinda like an out of work sparring partner.
iPads are light and beautiful, like a ‘prima ballerina’.
Oh, I see we are at war now with HP too.
Being “first” rarely means a victory.
Endgadget ran the story on the 19th, with a bunch of pictures, and over 600 comments
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/19/hp-slate-leaks-its-way-into-the-wild-meh/
piece of s…
HP doesn’t have much choice. There isn’t a good tablet OS outside of the iPhone OS, and HP certainly can’t develop its own. So it has to try to differentiate its tablet from the iPad, and the only way it can make the tablet “better” than the iPad is to add things like USB ports.
Microsoft will never, ever be able to develop a good tablet OS because it will insist on the OS doing everything a desktop does and it will insist on using Windows, which is so bloated and slow that you need the latest, greatest desktop to make it run decently. So running it on a tablet using an Atom processor or something underpowered (for Windows) will never work well.
But the good news is that Apple can’t be accused of having a monopoly on tablet computers because there are alternatives out there (they suck, but they’re there).
As I posted before, Intel Atom + Intel GPU + Win7 = epic fail.
HP can save it by putting no more that 4 USB ports and add more blinking LED lights all over the place. That is so cool for that group of users.
So predictably a “meh!” product.
Q: Why do I want a full blown version of Windows 7 on my tablet?
A: I don’t.
just like a movie rushed through by committee instead of allowing to be refined (pixar vs dreamworks) …software and computer hardware need to be refined over time to hit the market correctly.
having 40 billion in the bank allows Apple to take their time and do it correctly.
Meh is the new Wow. Actually, I’m only commenting so that I can get my MDN creds logged into this iPad…
If anyone ever actually uses the phrase “New Busy” to me in person, I will likely punch them in the throat.
Forewarned is forearmed.
“Stick to ripping people off with ink cartridges, HP. You pissed away your “invent” chops decades ago.” Indeed. Most of HP’s profits come from the printer division and most of those come from consumables (ink and laser cartridges).
I was first exposed to HP as the maker of those leading edge calculators (I still have an HP-10C), then to their high-end instrumentation, then to their computers and workstations. Most of the best stuff was spun off into Agilent. Their RISC processors were abandoned in favor of Itanium (talk about epic fail!). Is HP/UX still around? Yeah, their computer division still brings in revenue, but margins on all but the servers are modest.
Anyone remember the HP iPod?
I am both a tablet enthusiast and HP ink enthusiast and take great offense to MDN’s smug, snotty, arrogant and uninformed “takes”. Enough is enough. HP’s innovative Slate will blow the dumpy, rushed, me-too I-Pad out of the water. Everybody knows it. The long lines, great apps and media frenzy are all the proof I need. Outlook calendar it.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Just add direct printing to the iPad and it will be fully armored for battle with those slab netbooks!
Yessirreebob! Filling your me-too product with “missing” features is a sure-fire way to knock that Apple product off its pedestal. Just look the success of all those MP3 players with FM tuners! The iPod didn’t stand a chance! And look at how the Pre and Droid’s multitasking ability totally killed the iPhone! Wait…
——RM
So if HP asks a Mexican site to pull leaked review and images of an unreleased product…
… no such luck for Apple with the jackasses at Gizmoocho
Sad thing is that there are so many chumps on the Engadget site discussing the ‘virtues’ of the HP tablet for creating content – opinions based on a review that clearly pans the device.
I want to compile a list of all such chumps who have an innate penchant for buying crap. There’s a bridge in London and I want to sell it exclusively to each and all such bozos.
I’ll be richer than annnnyyybodddy.
Huh? If the site is Mexican, why does it have a Canadian (.ca) domain name?
Guess maybe just because they thought it sounded cool ‘conectica’.
@chano,
Sorry, but Bill Gates and Balmy Steve already beat you to that business plan.
It is going to be a great, big “Meh” in its present incarnation.
The hardware is heavy and fat (but probably more powerful than what is in the lovely iPad) and with more gizmo’s as well.To differentiate on hardware alone (with an extra-shitty OS) will not work. HP 10-20 years back was a great innovation company, but not anymore. They need to pick that up again if they want to succeed, HW alone will not do the trick, neither will price alone. What really must be an itch to many HP engineers must be that they probably have a decent (but fat and sort of non-aesthetic) HW platform, but with really shitty software. I am so sorry to see the HP of today, when they were mainly an instrument company, they innovated as crazy. Now it is all non-tech people at the top of HP, just like M$….
did anyone actually think hp could make something worth using here.
The real advantage with the iPad os that it’s instant on. People don’t want or have time wait for a tablet to boot up. Think if our phones had to boot everytime before a call. Instant on is a must so a specially crafted OS is a must. It’s a new device so it needs a new OS. Otherwise you can just use a notebook.