The HP TouchPad Review: webOS on the Big Screen
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 17, 2011 11:11 PM ESTMessaging
A killer feature of the original Palm Pre was its integrated messaging client - something still not duplicated today by any first party. The idea is really nothing revolutionary, we have had unified messaging clients on the desktop for over a decade now, but that doesn't make its impact here any less special.
The TouchPad's Messaging app currently supports AIM, Google, Skype and Yahoo accounts. I would like to see HP make Messaging truly universal on the TouchPad and add support for MSN and Facebook Messenger here as well. The absence of Facebook chat here is a bit of a shame considering the high quality of the Facebook app itself and the integration of Facebook contacts into the OS.
The UI is a pretty standard two column layout - contacts on the left, conversations on the right. Like many other multi-paned UIs in webOS 3, you can make the conversation window full screen if you'd like by swiping to the left.
Messaging leverages Synergy and allows you to quickly switch between IM protocols mid conversation without losing your history.
On the Pre this was most useful for having a conversation over AIM and then continuing it over SMS if your contact left their desk and went mobile. I don't know many use cases where you'd switch between IM services in the middle of a conversation, but thankfully HP included support for sending/receiving SMSes on the TouchPad.
The feature only works with phones running webOS 2.2 or later, which already eliminates a large portion of the population. But I'm hoping that HP either opens it up to other devices or puts out more competitive smartphones so more users can begin to take advantage of this feature.
All you need to do is pair your webOS phone to the TouchPad via Bluetooth and you can use the tablet to send/receive text messages. The SMSes actually go through your phone but you'd be able to manage all of your conversations on the TouchPad. I can see this being very useful if you're working and someone is trying to have an SMS conversation with you at the same time. I find that I can either have a SMS conversation or use a computer, I can't do both. The constant switching of devices inevitably hurts productivity - the TouchPad's approach fixes this problem.
There's just one small issue: SMS functionality on the TouchPad is broken. The Veer is the only phone that'll work with the TouchPad in this capacity and it needs a software update to properly support SMS via the TouchPad. The phone will pair with the TouchPad but any SMSes you send will fail, and none will be received on the tablet:
Being able to send text messages from a tablet is a huge feature. HP clearly understands the vision that devices need to work together and in a broader sense than just getting data from the same cloud. My biggest concern here is that there is no flagship webOS phone available today that you can use alongside the TouchPad to enable this functionality. The Pre 3 needs to be here now, and to be honest, its successor probably needs to show up shortly thereafter to really convince people to buy two webOS devices.
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vision33r - Sunday, July 17, 2011 - link
I am not kidding, because I don't think these tablets today are useful at all. I've used the Asus Transformer with the KBD dock since it was out and I find the experience from counter-productive to just plain atrocious. Today's ultra portable laptops and netbooks got it all covered.Honeycomb is really a poor Tablet OS because without my keyboard dock, I felt the touchscreen UI is really lacking in this form factor. So many apps just aren't well designed for the landscape mode. Even native apps like Zinio or book reader apps perform so awfully slow on Honeycomb like they aren't optimized.
I've used the HP Touchpad just the other day and found it to be snappy and a pleasurable experience. But I'm not sold, it felt like it was missing something. Apps!
That's why I said people don't really want a tablet, they want the iPad because there are thousands of apps for everything that you need.
The OS really is not the most important feature of these OSes, it's the apps. The OS with the best and most abundant quality apps is the one people want.
Conner_36 - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
thats why people choose pc over mac more often than not.tecknurd - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - link
Not true. Gamers will be using Windows. Mac still works for everybody except gamers. Game industry is housed in Windows.FYI, Mac is a PC too. I prefer to say Mac VS Windows.
cknobman - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - link
Sure a Mac will work but the majority of people do not choose them, sorry that is a fact not an opinion.The reason for that is also in large part due to the selection of applications and compatibility.
Lask001 - Monday, August 22, 2011 - link
No, people use macs because they are easy. Windows still have better applications, they just aren't as idiot proof.anishannayya - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
The iPad is a tablet.I'm still rocking the traditional tablet: running Windows. :)
Can't go wrong with a ThinkPad X Series Tablet Computer (running Win. 7).
dookiex - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
I have one of the old school traditional tablets. It's one of the most useless things ever thought up since the touch interface is rarely used and the damn notebook is like a brick. I'll stick with my iPad thank you very much ;)thesaxophonist111 - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
Exactly. No one cares that the iPad runs iOs. What they care about is the thousands of apps it has. If another tablet comes out with that many apps, and a competitive price, Apple's in hot water. That will be hard.vol7ron - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
I'm not sure that's true.The number of useful apps is really limited, which is one of the reasons many people never complained about the initial 200 app limitation - you just delete one of the silly apps that you never really used. Those that are useful are very popular and programmers have ported them across multiple OSes.
I think people are more likely to get the OS that also meshes with existing devices, mainly because they're app-locked. If you spent $300 on apps for your phone, you probably don't want to switch OSes and spend another $300 for your tablet. Plus, your existing apps will sync between devices (notes, email, budget apps). Having everything Apple (notebook, phone, tablet, TV, Air) makes things easier for some people.
People might not care about the OS so much as efficiency and performance (battery life and run speed).
dookiex - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Actually, it is true. Let's forget the total number of apps available and instead focus on the number of USEFUL apps. iOS and the App Store still has that in spades. For the casual consumer, the App Store is filled with quality casual games and misc. entertainment apps. For the productivity-minded user, iOS and the App Store is STILL the go to place for productivity apps. Just take a look at professional apps that are available to business users (most if not all DM vendors have their own apps that will hook you into your enterprise DM, there's also CRM apps that hooks into the big CRM enterprise apps, same goes for RM, Gotomeeting and Webex first appeared on iOS outside of their desktop counterparts, etc. Heck, there's been actual court trials where the counsel brought in the iPad to show all their exhibits because out of all the different means of presenting exhibits, the iPad was the best fit for the purpose).The reality is that the BULK of the iPad customers purchased it because of what was promised in the commercial and news articles. Namely something that is easy to use and serves basic computing needs well (browsing the internet, watching videos, listening to music, and of course, apps). They've also heard about how the iPad has been utilized in many different professional capacities (education, medical, etc.). THAT'S what is moving the iPad off the shelves as soon as it arrives on aforementioned shelves.
For all intent and purpose, the majority of iPad owners bought it not because they wanted a tablet. The reality is that they may not even know that there's a class of computers called tablets. All they know is that Apple makes this product called the iPad and that the iPad does pretty much everything they think a computer can do and it's like carrying around a magazine. Luckily the iPad fits into the minds of most consumers as to what a computer is and should do. We of course know better and know that a full computer is MUCH more capable than any iPad but then again, we're not just some Joe Shmoe, we're at the minimum, power users. We're not the core iPad customers but luckily, the iPad has been sufficient even for folks like us.
So, ultimately how does something like webOS, Windows Phone 7, and android fit into the equation? Well, they basically don't because they really haven't been able to promise the "does almost everything your computer can do" as well as Apple has. The reason for this is due to 3rd party app support. Face it, the core audience is not going to give a hoot if something like whatever the iOS game of the week is will eventually hit android. They just want whatever device will play whatever app that is buzzing around with hype now. For the enterprise, the enterprise is not going to go for a device which currently isn't supported currently by their DM vendor (you can tell that I work in IT and deal a lot with content management systems). They need the support now, not later. Developers and vendors alike develop for iOS first and android they often will or will not develop for but there is a big delay before it hits platforms other than iOS. Now you might argue that android outsells iOS but think about this. The devices that are flying off the shelves for android are phones. If you go into a mobile phone shop or a big box retailer, the bulk of the phones they sell are android devices. Even for a person who just wants a simple phone to make calls and text on, there's a VERY high possibility that they will walk out with a android device. Do they necessarily care or even know about android? No, they just wanted a phone and it was probably on sale or free so they walked out of the store with it. It can be pretty safe to say that a HUGE chunk of android users didn't intentionally go out to buy a android device, they just needed a phone and that was the one that was probably pushed on them at the store. Let's face it, if dad or mom who just needs a phone to replace their broken dumb phone and they walk into Verizon and the sales rep goes "Oh, you want something economical? Here's a great phone, it's $50 with contract AND it's JUST LIKE AN IPHONE!" guess what, they are probably going to leave the store with that phone because #1 it's cheap and practically free #2 they don't really know what android or iOS is but when someone says that "it's just like an iphone" it sounds like a good thing.
To summarize, the majority of users DO NOT CARE. As long as the thing does what they expected it to do. In this regard, Apple keeps winning because out of everything else out on the market today, their products requires the LEAST amount of learning to use (admittedly there are quite a number of confusing settings and features for most users in Apple products but the key take away is that even without knowing about those features and settings, one can be pretty sure that the product will still work up to the customer's expectations because the core features are pretty straight forward and anywhere that Apple could cut down on direct user intervention, they do, think of it like a toaster, you really don't need instructions to operate a toaster, Apple is basically making things as close to brain dead operations to a toaster as possible).