I thought I'd start a review page for the Touchpad. I got my Touchpad on Tuesday and have spent a good bit of time with it. In general, I see a lot of potential. I am disappointed that it took so long and isn't better than it is.
Now I understand most of the poor reviews that the unit has gotten. Comparing a first generation product with a 2nd or 3rd generation product doesn't is not likely to be very positive. But, most of us thought, between HP and Palm, the unit would be a lot further along. Perhaps HP is too big to be creative and responsive enough for a fast moving market like phones and tablets. However, to be fair, the things the unit does well, it does very well. And, what it doesn't do well, it generally doesn't do at all.
First, the weight. Personally, I like the feel of it. A few ounces either way really doesn't make much difference. It has a good balance and feels solid.
Second, the WebOS. I am new to it, but so far, I am impressed. The multitasking is really well done. The setup on the unit was simple and logically organized. There is a somewhat intuitive feel to the interface, even though if I knew more, it might be even better.
I setup my Exchange client with no problems and it works well. I will try to add some more accounts later for testing.
Now for the items I am disappointed with. I know it sounds like I don't like the unit, but I do, and it is so close. But, unfortunately, close only counts in horseshoes and nuclear war.
First, as far as I can tell, whoever designed this either never used an iPad or Android tablet or didn't use it much. They don't understand the first rule of the smart device market: You have to have some key working software. Okay, there is some, but in general, it is a real disappointment. There will be lots of other things needed, but everyone wants video, music, news, and a way to move data around. A lot of people will want a time manager, too. If you missed that in the design, you missed the key items.
It plays MP3s well, but without Pandora, it doesn't really matter much.
The worst thing so far is that the video player is useless. Most of the videos I see and use are AVIs and they don't work at all. And only about half of the MP4's have worked so far. One of the top priorities needs to be a movie player that isn't useless. Something like VitalPlayer for the Android.
You also need a good news reader. If you have an Android you get News360 or Pulse. Where is the comparable product?
Oh, by the way, it isn't terribly easy to find anything in the Appstore. It doesn't give enough granularity. It is hard to find the diamonds amoung the trash.
The other item that is needed is a file manager. Something like ES File Explorer on the Android. It allows you to move files from the LAN to the Local file structure and to move files inside the unit. I know the idea is that WEBOS handles it. But as far as I can tell, I have to hook up to a PC to move files. There is a paid app in the app store, but it doesn't do enough.
I have used Android up to this point. A year ago, it was pretty bad. But, today it is a great competitor. WEBOS can be there, too, but it can't take very long or there won't be a market. If HP is counting on business users only, they are probably DOA. From what I have seen, other than e-mail, business use takes a back seat to personal applications on tablets.
What do you think?
7-25-2011 It is getting better
Today, I downloaded KalemSoft Media Player and Gemini File Manger. They each fill at least part of the gap in the functionality of the Touchpad. The KamelSoft Media Player has added considerable functionality to the media play including additional codecs for AVI, etc. And, the MP4s that didn't work with the built in player seem to work with it. It is a $6.99 item but, so far, it seems to be a good investment. I had to add an app to my Android 2.2 unit to get the same capabilities, so it is makes sense that I will have to do the same for a first generation WEBOS tablet, I guess.
The Gemini File Manager is a valuable addition, because it has a nice two column, full screen, interface and has networking capablities. Currently it only works with Dropbox. But it is a step in the right direction. I had to download a file manager, ES File Manager, with this functionality for my Android also, but it was free. ES File Manager allows local network connection, which is pretty useful. This is pretty inexpensive at $2.99 though.
Last week, I downloaded SpaZ HD Beta Preview 1 to use as a Twitter client. It is worth a look. I have enjoyed learning how to use it.
I have download several news readers, but so far nothing that is as good as Pulse or News 360. NewsRoom is a start, but it is still in the phone format.
Pandora works, but it is in the phone format. And, that doesn't really matter much to the functionality.
So things are coming along. With a few more apps, it will be almost as good as my Android for my daily use. Android and iPad have a lot of apps, but how many are of any real use?
There are a few things missing. A working RDP app is essential for small businesses. A solid time management package that interfaces with Quickbooks would be useful, also.
Agreed, thanks for that review
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
Well, I am wrong about at least one thing. There is a Pandora app. It works, but it is a phone app and takes a little getting used to. But, it seems to work well.
I bought Newroom hoping it will be like Pulse. It is also a phone app and will take some work to get used to. But it might do some of what I want until a better app comes along. I also bought TapNote for Touchpad which I think will be a good tool, and Internalz, so I can get to the file structure. It is a phone app, so it will be a little strange until it is upgraded.
I downloaded TED, which is a source for seminars that seem to be pretty diverse. The first one I watched was great. It showed off the video pretty well.
I'm still impressed.
I prefer to buy the Touchpad than iPad. Because Touchpad is a way better than other tablets but is a bit buggy yet, but with time and devs, all can be solved.
Good luck with devs and with OTAs touch pad FAIL and webOS phones are butt ugly with a nice OS
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
I actually want to buy a touchpad....only if it doesn't become a dead system and gets reasonable support compared to android and iOS from developers
I would have to add that the font rendering is the ugliest since Windows 3.11. Seriously. The UI itself is beautiful, but reading web pages or mails hurts your eyes after a few minutes. The fonts look like they are smudged, like the screen is blurry. It is a huge fail and the biggest downside IMO. Sure, application load times are really bad, and there are no apps. But apps only need to be loaded once, and the number of apps might change. The incredibly distracting font rendering won't go away
Send an email to: Leo Apotheker, Sean Robison & Steve DeWitt. They need to hear from you.
First name.Last [email protected]
Think it's Stephen but will check. No hear back from me then it's that.
Sent from my Sapphire/dream using XDA App
Can only print to HP printers.
-1. My HP laptops can print to my Canon printer
Can't wait for Android on this thing
I bought one of the firesale units and starting playing with it. I have some questions:
1) It don't seem to support ad-hoc wireless networks. Is there any software I can add or configuration change I can make to change this? I have a Windows Mobile cell phone that can share its connection over wifi, but its ad-hoc only.
2) I put some pdfs and an m4v and flv video on the device, organized in folders. I go in acrobat reader and it seems to find the pdfs, but just puts them in a single list, rather than showing the file hierarchy. I would like to be able to browse the file hierarchy and touch a file and have it open in an appropriate player or reader. I have a lot of pdfs to put in the device and they need to be organized, not one big list.
3) Acrobat reader and Quick Office seem to be a little slow to load. I am wondering if there is an app that is quick loading that will show a file hierarchy and show or play pdf files and videos, similar to GoodReader for ipad?
4) Is there anything that will play .flv video files? The m4v video showed up in the photo viewer, but not the .flv
Thanks in advance.
guyandhisdog said:
Can only print to HP printers.
-1. My HP laptops can print to my Canon printer
Can't wait for Android on this thing
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Click to collapse
So can my Lenovo laptop.
But this isn't a HP laptop.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e
I know its not a HP laptop. Just sayin, one HP product can and one (newer) can't. That = -1
anyone else notice that this thing seems to crash/freeze alot? have to reboot quite often.
treestump said:
anyone else notice that this thing seems to crash/freeze alot? have to reboot quite often.
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have u updated the pad? i've been playing with mine for 2 days and havent had a hang up or freeze yet.. u might have a faulty model
I haven't gotten my HP Touchpad yet. Heck, still listed as "shipping soon" from Amazon/eCost.
This may be useful for improving performance until we have Android running:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/how-to-improve-the-performance-of-your-new-hp-touchpad/3866
hurrpancakes said:
So can my Lenovo laptop.
But this isn't a HP laptop.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read a review that said you can print to other printers but its a bit harder. Don't no the details sorry but at least you can. (supposedly)
starfcker69 said:
I haven't gotten my HP Touchpad yet. Heck, still listed as "shipping soon" from Amazon/eCost.
This may be useful for improving performance until we have Android running:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/how-to-improve-the-performance-of-your-new-hp-touchpad/3866
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Click to collapse
Picked mine up Saturday morning and found that article yesterday. By all means do what it says, helps a lot. The more I use my touchpad the more I like it. Great little $100 investment IMO. Really wish there was a Wordfeud or Words with Friends app for it though. Preware should be installed on every WebOS device.
starfcker69 said:
I haven't gotten my HP Touchpad yet. Heck, still listed as "shipping soon" from Amazon/eCost.
This may be useful for improving performance until we have Android running:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/how-to-improve-the-performance-of-your-new-hp-touchpad/3866
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for this link! I don't even have my touchpad yet but i look forward to being able to poke around with it and get every ounce of performance possible.
Are there any other good resources for WebOS tweaks or mods? Ultimately i'll probably put android on this thing (once the devs do all the hard work) but in the meantime, i'd like to see just how usable the device is as-is.
my gripes:
browser - not as good as Android's. some pages had minor render issues, some menus didn't work right. some flash videos would not play.
browser - only way to go "back" is the back arrow at the top left corner so you have to keep your thumb near it.. awkward to hold. why no left swipe or something?
lists, any - no scroll bars! i added like 100 bookmarks then it's a pain in the ass to get from top to bottom. have to swipe down like 10 times
camera - no app is included to use it other than skype.
video player - videos files are shown as group of big icons, no way to change that to a list view, and the space allocated for the name does not have enough characters
no way to change the icons on the taskbar?
serious lack of good apps that are designed for touchpad .. maybe a dozen that i ended up keeping.
no included rss reader, calc, notes, etc.
i don't believe the Bing navi app has 3D mapping or live rerouting (for use with tether) and i didn't see any in the market.
no voice to text function ?
doesn't support mkv or avi out of the box (same for Android, iOS) .. have to reencode videos from usenet. there is a (1) paid app that can play these apparently, haven't tried it yet
no video out, rear camera, back / search / menu buttons, low-res screen, heavy... but you know that going in.
App Store - no sorting options (ie, #downloads, #reviews)
.....
things i like:
hardware is solid, battery life is impressive, viewing angles excellent, and the GUI looks polished. OS is reasonably responsive and stable (after ota update). basic functions (wifi, web, email, IM, a/v playback) work as expected.
good deal for $100.
I like my 32GB Touchpad so far, I applied the improvements and it does seem better, I have to try the overclock. It's good for the price I paid, but not for it's starting one. I'd still like to see Android on it and I hope there's more development both on webOS and Android for it.
For your news reading needs you could try the Mosaic app, it's similar to Pulse with its own twist.
os10 said:
my gripes:
no way to change the icons on the taskbar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can by going into the Launcher and touching an app for a few seconds so you can move them around.
I was surprised by how little apps were available for Android Tablets.
I know Honeycomb hasn't been out long, but it is somewhat disappointed to see that few newspapers and other video streaming gigs haven't really taken advantage of the larger screen. The Android market is not doing a good job either at pointing out the best for Tablet. There is just a little section in the Homepage.
My personal list of requests for the Tablet S:
-Netflix
-HBO GO (choppy on dolphin broswer with flash)
-The Economist for Tablets
-whathappened to the stock Weather/News Widget?
Need to be improved in resolution/layout
-Watch ESPN
-NY Times App is far too simple
Please share.
Have a look here http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/honeycomb/15096-optimized-honeycomb-apps-list.html
Nice, thanks.
I'm still hoping for a few big names.
Its silly that Netflix worked on my 10.1 but not my Tablet S, obviously one is Android 3.1 and the other 3.2. I really miss using it though.
The only reason to get an iOS device. I want to get a Honeycomb tablet
Im sure this has come up before but here goes... Logitech has a Harmony LInk which is, for lack of a better description, pretty bad-ass... The software for the Android Phones (2.2x+) is mediocre at best. Also the Link does not support 3.0+ for Tablets yet...
Since the technology is THERE can we write custom app software to interface w/ this thing instead of waiting for Logitech to come out with something??
Just reviving this as I'm interested as well. I can develop the app, but I was wondering if anyone is working on it. I'm not a wiz at the embedded OS stuff so if there's a reverse engineered os for the Harmony Link or a way to iptables forward myharmony.com to a local custom server that improves it I'm all for it.
Personally I'm fine with the app functions. I'd just want to rewrite it so that A) it remembers my link so that it's not having to reconnect all the time and B) Holoizing it.
Seriously, the wife asks me to mute the tv and it takes a good 15 seconds for the app to connect. I'd like to turn it into a service that always stays connected with an exit button.
Logitech Harmony Link Mods
I received my Harmony Link Thursday and downloaded the app, I think it's 1.6.5 now.
It works fine on Kit Kat and 4.0. I'm running it on two tablets and my Nexus 4.
I wasn't happy with the GUI so I decompiled it and I've been improving it. My main issue is the small number of icons on each page. The favorite channel page is three across by four down. Mine now shoes five across, six is a bit crowded and who has more than 24 favorites anyway.
I'm trying to increase the button count on the remote page since it's also 3x4, NOT enough buttons for me. I haven't figure out where the program stores this layout yet, but I'm working on it.
I can share the apk file if anyone needs it, send me a PM.
So I've watched the ICS Motorola Webtop Beta 3.0 video and it may be me but it looks very similar to the Evo Desktop PC in concept and function. Considering that ICS wasn't even available this time last year this would have been the logical progression of the project. I'm not asking for Moto to send me a check but I'm waiting to see how the credits roll out. If the Sun here on Mars has baked my brain then feel free to say so.
Lokifish Marz said:
I'm not asking for Moto to send me a check but I'm waiting to see how the credits roll out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow
The check is in the mail.
CCallahan said:
The check is in the mail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So are you going to send it on their behalf?
Actually I've been in contact with Moto since the videos surfaced and am getting the "hot potato" treatment. All I'm looking for is to have a civil dialog with them about it. All I'm getting is being told I need to contact Department A by Department B after just being directly referred to Department B by Department A. I have even gone so far as to include the direct referral and names in my communications. You probably have a good idea as to how well that's working.
The odd thing is that with 200+ views nobody has said I should have my head checked. Is everybody on XDA being nice?
Interesting question, locki. Definitely a fair one. If I understand correctly, from watching the video (I had the volume down - A cold and a headache coming down so I'm trying to minimize the noises). In any case, your version looks to me like phone mirroring with a keyboard and a mouse. Not sure how it's set up (you probably said it in the video). But I don't think the ICS demo is a complete demo. This looks like he just reviewed the phone mirroring version, but didn't do a complete webtop review. Also, webtop on the current system is also pretty limited. From that video, I don't see much difference between the ICS and what we have on our phone, except that this is a proof of concept. In any case, you could say the same thing about a comparable presentation from the webtop experience on the mopho if you only show the the phone window usage. could also say the same thing about your ubuntop if you only show a limited version of the capabilities. I guess my point is I don't think you have a fair comparison at this point. But my head is stuffy and I am on my way to an early bedtime, so maybe I'm missing something...
I replaced the video of webtop 3.0 with one that shows webtop3.0 in use. I also have a copy of the ICS RAZR leak and osh (or anything related to that partition) is nowhere to be found. Neflix is obviously Netflix for tablets. The desktop look of Chrome appears to be a ui switch for the mobile chrome browser. If the ICS leak is anywhere near what the official release is, then the tech/android reports are correct that the new webtop is nothing more than modified tablet mode mirroring.
I'm not saying it's not good work. Had HCL Launcher, Chrome mobile browser and Netflix for tablets been out when I released Evo Desktop you would be hard pressed to tell the difference.
My other concern is if the leak I have and the videos are correct this does not bode well for Webtop becoming a true desktop with ICS like many had hoped.
So If I am understanding things correctly, the new webtop is just tweaked phone mirroring, as opposed to now where there are 2 operating systems running side by side. I guess ubuntop won't work on that system then. very disappointing.
As nice as Evo Desktop was there were tons of drawbacks. So I can tell you from experience that this is going to be a serious step backwards for "Webtop". Open up a mobile browser and visit a page that has flash based chat embedded. You cannot leave that page (view another page in another tab) because as soon as you leave the chat page tab everything gets suspended. When you go back to the chat page tab you have to log back in and start over.
Document editing will also be an issue as you have to use cloud based editors like Google Docs because to my knowledge none of the current office apps have that tablet switch needed change how the ui is rendered. When you combine this with the browser tabs issue and that Google Docs puts a fairly heavy load on the browser, you can say goodbye to any real doc editing.
What it comes down to is that many app devs are going to have to add the needed ui switch and changes to keep the new webtop from being trash. This will not be easy. I fought for months to just get a browser with a "desktop ui" look with no success. Even with thousands of users on the Evo project nobody would touch it. I ended up having to modify an existing browser to give my users a desktop look. Multiply that by how many commonly used apps that would need a ui switch and Moto is just asking for failure.
My other concern is what happens to the, now wasted, 1.3GB osh partition? The leak has no mention of it in the install script. It looks like it will still present but only accessible via vnc which has it's own issues and drawbacks.
I read Game Informer digitally on my iPad 3. It's a very cool app with quite a bit of interactive material in addition to the static material from the print magazine. It's also available for "10 inch Android tablets", so I installed it onto the Nook HD+ with CM10.1 installed since the screen size is close and the resolution is better than pretty much anything short of the Nexus 10 right now.
While technically, it does *work*, that's being kind! The magazine doesn't expand to fill the entire screen, leaving significant borders on either size, and it's really flaky, often not showing the correct page when performing explicit page selection, and eventually it just FCs.
Does anyone have any experience with this (or similar) apps on the HD+? Is there a way to make them work properly, or is it just a lost cause. This one of the only apps that I use heavily on my iPad that I can't get working well on the Nook HD+ so far (the other notable one being Marvel Unlimited, but it has the same behavior as on my Galaxy S4 so I think that's an app issue, not a device issue).
Thoughts?
Ditto for most Android efforts for magazines. Half hearted in comparison to iPad.
Hey SCWells72,
Ive seen Game Informer in the Play Magazine section. GI now lets you get the issues right from Play Magazines with your digital subscription. If i remember right: go find GI in Play Magazines and in the subscriptions options you should be able to chose existing customer, or what ever its called. From there you will have to login with you GI Digital ID created when you switched from physical to digital subs. this should let you just download the new issues from Play.
Cam