HP’s Slate Device | Hacker News Reader

HP’s Slate Device

h20435.www2.hp.com

35 pointsjacquesm39 comments

They do a nice job of showing everything the iPad is missing in 30 seconds. USB port, memory expansion slot, two cameras, video output to an HDTV...

Everything? You forgot serial port, CDROM, spade, bookshelf, engine, pharmacy and a trillion other things.

Your list isn't an objective "everything it's missing", it's a subjective "what you wish the ipad to have".

Question is, do you wish that unreservedly, or only if it could be done without 'ruining it'?

By definition, 'what you wish the iPad to have that it does not have' equals 'what the iPad is missing'.

If I expected it to operate as a razor and it could not while other similar devices did have that feature, then yes, I would say shaving capability was missing. That doesn't mean every irrelevant concept I can come up with would be called missing, though. 'Missing' is based on what one would expect, desire and can get elsewhere.

Cool. Now we have a choice: for those who spent most time interacting with UI when browsing, reading and playing some games there is iPad, and for those who spent most of the time plugging stuff into USB ports, expanding memory, running around taking pictures with slate in hand there is HP slate. My guess is that people will never stop judging quality of cameras by Mpx count and devices by features list. Sadly, both metrics are mostly useless.

Configurability, not having to kiss the godfather's ring to get a piece of software running on it, not assuming I'm an idiot that can't possibly grasp the concept of a file or (God forbid) want to connect with another device..... Yes, sign me up.

they should have shown hulu desktop.

The device has potential for "industrial" applications, assuming developers have better control over the OS (or MS allows SteadyState to run). For those of us that write applications for single-use devices (medical use, for example), the Apple offerings look really awesome, but the lack of control of the device itself is problematic. If MS and HP treat this device as a PC (rather than a media consumption device), I am very interested.

I want one as a point of sale terminal for an independent retail outlet. Basically, all I need is a cheap, compact touchscreen PC.

Agreed, this sort of adaptable use would be good for me right now as well. I could use this for a project I'm working on right now that requires access control, where this would operate as a sophisticated keypad with included video camera for additional security. That would be pretty sweet.

Where is the "blackberry" of tablets? ie- business focused. It may very well be the iPad itself, but just throwing that out there.

Although you're making an analogy - I think these would sell really well if RIM rebadged them and put an emphasis on email and notetaking/organization + calendar software.

Or GOOG. Obviously with software that works well.

My prediction is that the hardware will be pretty spot on, but the software execution will kill this.

The software is where (most of) iPad's superioriy lies.

I think that 'superiority' requires a comparison between equally aimed devices, and I don't think this is the case here.

The one is a universal tablet format computer the other is a media consumption device.

Agreed. Their tc1100 is still slick and usable after all this time. (tc1000 came out in 2001!) But little details in the execution of the pen tablet software are infuriating. Example: I can't count all the times while posting on HN when I wrote a line and pressed insert, only to have it disappear into nowhere. But physically, that hardware still holds it's own. You can hot swap the battery. There are very well thought out buttons. No accelerometer, but you can switch orientation easily. Someone at HP is working on a par with Apple in terms of industrial design.

Steve got it wrong, BTW. Having a SDHC slot on the device is more minimal than having to attach a dongle.

The iPad has only given me a few annoyances so far. I miss resizable textareas.

Resizable text areas would be great! Safari on the desktop has them, where it's a "nice to have" but they'd be far more useful on MobileSafari... on the desktop, I almost always resize textareas UP whereas on mobile devices I'm always wanting to resize them down to make them fit the screen better.

Unless Microsoft has some secret tricks, the software execution is going to be the as any Windows software. So unless they really get ISVs onboard and making touch-optimized apps, you're back to pecking away trying to use a UI not designed for touchscreens.

That's because people expect non-Apple products to be much more compatible with Windows than they expect Apple products to be compatible with anything (independent of if Apple's stuff is actually compatible, which it often is). Apple is more often able to completely ignore expectations when their goal is to make something better. Everyone else makes non-Apple stuff, which 90% of the time means Windows compatible. "A non-Apple tablet where I can't run Quickbooks, Minesweeper and Notepad?! Blasphemous! I mean, this thing has an (HP|Dell|Lenovo) logo, that means Windows, so where's the fricken Start Menu?" This is why people complain that their PC running Linux doesn't run <insert random Windows software>, but few complain that their Mac running OSX doesn't. This is why Microsoft's Courier tablet concept seems so odd when you watch the video.

I promised HP I would be a thorn in their side when they completely screwed me over with two different laptops. The first laptop broke a lot and every time HP claimed to not know about my 3 year warranty. Therefore I had to fax in a printout of my receipt (lucky I still had it) in order to get anything done. This usually took 4 months for them to process.

I swore I would never buy HP again but was given a second HP laptop. It was the TX 1000, which you may have heard of. It over heats and there are thousands of customers whose laptops just die when the connections in the machine melt from the heat. My laptop averages 113 Celsius. Of course, HP will not do a recall.

In short: do not buy an HP due to terrible hardware and unimaginably poor customer service.

China recently had a mass crack down of HP customer service and product quality. Especially their Presario V3000

heh. china cracking down? on a positive note, millions of people with smaller budgets (and I mean way smaller than people are used to in this country) have access to a computer thanks to the price wars by non-apple manufacturers.

You're really showing them.

I have a dv7 that overheated and died often. Upon advice of a friend of mine, I opened it up (looked up for a service manual online), got to the fan and blowed the dust and stuff off it and around it. It works like a charm now. Apparently, that's a common issue with HP laptops (maybe other manufacturers also).

I'm not thrilled with HP either. If Dell made a consumer tablet, I'd have no need of HP.

I bought a tx2000z for my daughter - convertible tablet with touchscreen and pen. Works alright, but wow does that thing get hot! The fans are constantly on, and its painful to touch.

In talking to HP people, I've found out some of their international support (say, Latam) is nearly non-existent. Dell, OTOH, has done next day replacement on disks and screens even when I'm travelling.

Any suggestions on non-HP tablets?

Remind me to stay on your good side :)

HP has been hit-and-miss for me, some devices literally work forever and are great, others are defective by design. It's weird.

Sad, you don't see any real ui interaction. Also remembering the N97 promotion videos and reality, let's wait and see.

Check here: http://www.youtube.com/user/hpcomputers#p/a/u/1/-p-RZAwQq0E

At 1:40, you can see him use a website. It looks like a standard Windows 7 touchscreen (notice a tooltip comes up over the play button after he's clicked -- the "cursor" stayed there I guess).

For me, Windows 7 touchscreens mean the number one issue is targeting UI elements and entering input. Closing a browser tab with a 16x16 pixel target isn't too hard with a mouse. But on Windows 7 touchscreen it can be frustrating.

Because of this, I like having a convertible tablet, so I can quickly use the mouse and keyboard when needed.

Thickness, weight, price, boot time, battery life.

Aside from the UI alone, this would have to answer each of these in order for it to compete with the iPad.

I liked the Apple-like USB cable at about 0:13 in.

From this very short video I get the impression that its quite a bit thicker than ipad. At the end of the day, you can have the most power slate device int he world but its the user experience that will make all the difference IMO. Android seems to be the best UI for this kind of device.

Between this and the envy it seems like HP's strategy at the moment involves looking like (but not being) Apple products... I wonder if they will raise the same kind of ire from Steve Jobs that resulted in the Apple-HTC patent lawsuit?

I had to do a little research on this as I thought that the HP Slate had been announced first:

Engadget showed images of a HP Slate on 2010-01-06, http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/the-hp-slate/

Whilst Engadget were still publishing rumours about an Apple Tablet, http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/20/apple-rumor-roundup-summe..., 2 weeks later. Apple announced their tablet 3 weeks after HP at http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/live-from-the-apple-table....

Not conclusive proof but to say that HP were waiting to see Apples spec is wrong; unless you're considering industrial espionage.

I was refering to the visual styling. HP Slate might not be based on the iPad, but surely it draws on the iPhone/iPod and/or MBP, just as the HP Envy does. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, just that it seems to be a theme in HP's latest products.

Based on their video, it looks to be a camcorder with a really big screen.

.. and an iPhone is a small rubbish camera with a phone function?

Plus iPod.

Plus email, maps, web browser, apps and games.

I love the shameless ripoff of coverflow.

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