“H.P. has some nerve coming out with a tablet now — especially because the biggest distinguishing component is its operating system. It’s WebOS, a variation of the software that runs the Palm cellphones (the Pre, Pixi and so on) — but it’s new to tablets,” David Pogue reports for The New York Times.
“Which means, of course, that there aren’t many apps for it yet. How many is ‘not many?’ Well, 300,” Pogue reports. “(H.P. points out, however, that there are even fewer for Android tablets, even after several months: only 232.)”
MacDailyNews Take: Two wrongs do not make an iPad.
“Now, from a hardware-checklist perspective, the TouchPad doesn’t get off to a good start,” Pogue writes. “It’s the same size as the iPad, but it’s 40 percent thicker (.75 inches thick) and 20 percent heavier (1.6 pounds) — a bitter spec to swallow in a gadget you hold upright all day long.”
“It supposedly has a blazing-fast chip inside, but you wouldn’t know it,” Pogue writes. “When you rotate the screen, it takes the screen two seconds to match — an eternity in tablet time. Apps can take a long time to open; the built-in chat app, for example, takes seven seconds to appear. Animations are sometimes jerky, reactions to your finger swipes sometimes uncertain.”
Pogue reports, “WebOS also plays Flash videos on the Web, though sometimes jerkily. Android tablets can do that but, the iPad can’t. (‘We’re not afraid of the Web,’ cracks a TouchPad product manager.)”
MacDailyNews Take: You will be after you get done reading TouchPad reviews, moron.
Hey, you shoved Adobe’s antiquated Flash in there (even though your fake iPad can’t deal with it reliably), so where’s the floppy drive, Luddite?
Pogue reports, “In this 1.0 incarnation, the TouchPad doesn’t come close to being as complete or mature as the iPad or the best Android tablets; you’d be shortchanging yourself by buying one right now…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, people don’t want half-assed prototypes, they want iPads.
“In the tablet world we’re going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus.” – Eric Cador, HP Senior Vice President, Personal Systems Group – Europe, Middle East and Africa, May 23, 2011
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]