Hewlett Packard is almost ready to unleash their Touchpad tablet on the world. It looks to be a serious contender with the iPad and comes with a quick rebate for those who buy early.
Saving $50 dollars these days on electronics is a rare event, but the Hewlett Packard Touchpad is doing just that. This tablet has been cooking for many months now and is nearing its release date on July First. The people at Hewlett Packard are hoping that their purchase of the WebOS mobile operating system will give them an edge over other tablet makers. WebOS was created by the Palm company for their Palm Pre, Palm Pixi and other models. It was a beloved operating system for its users, but unfortunately the company was having economic troubles. Hewlett Packard came along and acquired them with one of the results being the Touchpad tablet.
The plan for Hewlett Packard is to make this tablet a “hit”, a success in the already burgeoning world of the tablet PC. One of the methods they are using is to make their own Facebook app ( application ) for it. As it turns out, they will be beating Apple to the digital punch, since no iPads have a Facebook app yet. Facebook now has 700,000 members and to be first in line is to get the lion’s share. The upcoming app will contain the typical elements; messages, newsfeed, events, places, photos and freinds. It is laid out on the screen so as to use space wisely. The left sidebar contains “places” and “photos”. Maps open up when places is clicked to show activity nearby and give the ability to check in. A tiled album view is shown or a streamed view is shown, depending on the user’s choice. The tiling feature makes better use of the images and matrix. It is possible to toggle between a freind’s wall and their information or photos.
When July comes, the Hewlett Packard tablet will be sporting a dual core processor running at 1.2 gigahertz. It is not made by Intel or AMD, but by Qualcomm. This is a new tack by HP and shows they are committed to the mobile revolution. They are still lacking in apps for their WebOS system, and Apple is bristling with them. But the Touchpad has a feature that iPads may never have; the ability to take a call from a nearby Palm device on the Touchpad. Users will be able to use Skype to make a call over 3G or the carrier. The same app does both jobs on the Touchpad. The people at Hewlett Packard will not have a “free for all” approach to apps like Google Android. It will be more like the Apple setup. The price of the Touchpad will start at $500 dollars.
