What's going on with the HP Slate?
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 17th 2010 9:13PM
posted June 17th 2010 9:13PM
Harry takes this new silence to mean that the HP Slate is dead, and we're beginning to think he's right: although we haven't heard anything concrete, we definitely noticed HP's absence at tablet-heavy Computex, and at this rate, the Slate's rumored 1.6GHz Atom Z530 will be hopelessly out of date by the time it launches -- Intel's now showing off Moorestown Atom Z600 tablets and it's got the Windows-tablet focused Oak Trail Atom planned for early next year. The window's closing a little more with every passing day -- at this point, HP needs to come clean just so we can all move on to waiting for the Hurricane.
The name is so fitting since the only thing its going to be good for is a stepping stone.
I used to want one of these. But then Asus showed us the 12" C2D Culv Eee Pad at Computex which would retail for the same price as the Slate. The Eee Pad will be a much better device.
The irony is that i am reading this article on my ipad.
kinda getting sick of all the pussy-tablet-developers dipping their toes in the water and running off.
unless you build your tablet from the ground up you're just bullshitting!
You have to control your environment plane and simple. HP is going to do exactly what a lot of have figured out. they are going to dump out some webos tablet. What will come of it? IMHO not a damn thing. Apple built an awesome content client along with iwork(100% fingerable) for creating content. It is fast, light and last(here goes the commercial) all day.
Dude! That is the way you do it. Apple knows it shit from the ground up.
@pspitts Its fast at doing what?
Listen to pandora while checking your gmail?
Playing all your videos regardless of codec, in standard 16:9 format that everyone shoots in?
Watch video on Hulu, Vimeo, Cartoon Network, South Park Studios, etc?
Use peripherals?
Take a pic or shoot a vid?
Video conference?
Edit a word document?
Printing a simple document or website?
Grab or edit pictures off your camera?
Multitask?
Output video to your TV?
Working w/ your network?
Not to mention the fact that its simply a very closed ecosystem. Not that there aren't a myriad of fart apps to weed through, but I don't think you can even run a different browser if you wanted to. And enjoy your parental control features built into the device.
THAT is why some of us want a tablet with a REAL operating system, not a iPod Touch with a huge screen.
@Ducman69 Maybe someone will make something like that soon so you can finally buy something and stop waiting.
@Ducman69
>Its fast at doing what?
At booting up in a wink, for example.
>Listen to pandora while checking your gmail?
Yes, i use Backgrounder for that.
>Playing all your videos regardless of codec, in standard 16:9 format that everyone shoots in?
Not all, but it's incredible how many sites are formatting their videos to be ipad compatible.
>Use peripherals?
Depends on the peripheral: sd reader, usb connector, keyboard, monitor, speakers?
>Take a pic or shoot a vid?
Nah, i use a camera for that.
>Video conference?
What for? Chatroulette?
>Edit a word document?
Of course! Pages is great for that, and incredibly cheap. You can also natively export to .doc or pdf.
>Printing a simple document or website?
Of course! I have a wireless printer.
>Grab or edit pictures off your camera?
Yes, you can use the adapter for that. And there are great photo editors for a dollar out there.
>Multitask?
Try Backgrounder, free in the Cydia store.
>Output video to your TV?
Yes, use the video cable.
>Working w/ your network?
Of course you can.
>Not to mention the fact that its simply a very closed ecosystem. Not that there aren't a myriad of fart apps to weed through, but I don't think you can even run a different browser if you wanted to. And enjoy your parental control features built into the device.
Try Perfect Browser or Opera. And finally, yes you can watch porn in it, if that's your main concern. It looks and feels great with all the touching and prodding.
THAT is why some of us want a tablet with a REAL operating system, not a iPod Touch with a huge screen.
@DrNemmo At booting up in a wink, for example.
The iPad does NOT boot up in a wink. It takes as long to bootup from a cold start as a netbook running W7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Ud2jdFsw8
The iPad WAKES in a wink, just as a W7 netbook wakes instantly from standby.
You are saying the entire internet is changing the video codecs to be iPad compatible? Seriously guy? xD In any case, VLC plays everything, the iPad does not.
I assume you are referring to jailbreaking your ipad to achieve some basic functionality, but even then you still don't have the processing power nor memory (256mb) to multitask the way you can on a netbook/nettablet with 1-2GB of memory and superior CPU power (note the A4 is a feature stripped Cortex A8):
"Atom vs ARM - anandtech benchmarking June 1 2010:
Languishing across all of the JavaScript benchmarks, the ARM Cortex-A8 was only one-third to one-half as fast as the x86 competition. More troubling is the unacceptably poor double-precision floating-point throughput of the ARM Cortex-A8.
The ARM Cortex-A8 sample that we tested in the form of the Freescale i.MX515 lived in an ecosystem that was not competitive with the x86 rivals in this comparison. The video subsystem is very limited. Memory support is a very slow 32-bit, DDR2-200MHz.
However, new ARM-based products like the NVIDIA Tegra 2 address many of the performance deficiencies of the Freescale i.MX515."
@Ducman69
OK, so you don't like the iPad. That's fine. It's not mandatory. However, you may also have to accept that a lot of people do like it for the things that it does do and does well. The iPad is not a netbook and, personally, I give thanks for that.
HP could have just let the Slate out with both OS. Rather than talking and talking but nothing substantial coming out.
It's so easy to make a tablet now. Just look at Computex. A Slate with Win7, another with webOS. What is so difficult for company like HP?
That seems odd that one of HP's CEOs to recently confirm that it was still on with a Win7 version coming in October and a WebOS version shortly after if it's dead.
I was just thinking today how I fondly miss all of the talk of the Microsoft Courier. RIP. I really want a pen-based tablet for note taking.
All Windows OEM should stop producing Windows 7 Tablet as it is just not workable for a Tablet. Look at the HP Slate screen shot, alot of the UI is for mouse click and thumb touch.
Windows Phone 7 will be a much better OS for Windows Tablet.
@plwh888
Just remember. True Windows fanboys wanted a FULL DESKTOP OS on a tablet because of all the things it can do. The iPad OS was ridiculed as being not complex enough to do any "real" computing. Do you actually think they'll be happy with using Windows Phone 7 v1.0 with no multitasking or cut and paste? I don't think so, either. For them it's either full Windows 7 desktop or nothing at all and that's exactly what they're getting.
@MosesusedaniPad I would be fine with that, if it were smaller and fit in my pocket, and preferably could also make calls similar to the Dell Streak.
HP has also talked about the Hurricane, which would be such a smaller device, running WebOS.
There is no excuse for a device the size of an iPad not to be able to run a full OS though.
Its really a simple distinction: small and portable to fit in a jacket or pants pocket (smartphone/smart-tablet), or big enough I have to carry it in a separate bag (tablet-pc).
@Ducman69
I think it all depends on your definition of a "full OS". As long as the device enables me to do what I want to do then I honestly don't care what OS it is running, "full" or otherwise. I suspect that what some people want is familiarity.
OCTOBER
Lets face it everything except the iPad is vapourware now. But the funny thing is ihaters still do not recognize that iPad is the only normal tablet on the market.
All the promises and NOBODY delivered a tablet so far. Keep waiting for your vapourware haters
Good thing I waited for my Courier. I hate vaporware FUD tacticts.
ExoPC out-specs the HP Slate anyway.
I see no physical need to ever need a tablet lacking a full operating system, I already own a smart phone.
"What's going on with the HP Slate?"
A better question is "who cares?" There's enough tablets coming down the pipe that one less isn't going to make much difference and it's not as if the Slate was even that interesting to begin with.
@Kelmon Amen and amen.
Balmer is driving MS into the ground. They are rapidly becoming another IBM and HP who cannot get out of their own way. Balmer shows this thing and then it becomes vapor. What an idiot. Then, the moron kills the only folding tablet concept out there.
I'm personally looking forward to it. Love HP. Have 6 HP laptops 2 desktops and they actually speak English. Good prices too.
If you are looking for coupons for HP, here's where I get them.
http://www.hpcoupon.com
hth
ey ducmanXX - its hard to bear idiots like you, so please stfu.
tablets are stoopid. I tried my 3rd tablet, the iPad. It was great fun to play with as a neat toy, but in the end, I either need my laptop for stuff the tablet can't do, or can't do as well, or my phone is enough. There is a 3rd type of device, Steve, but it's genre is "Useless". There's 3 types of mobile computers: Notebooks, Handhelds, and Useless. A rake falls in the useless as a mobile device category. As does an elephant or a rotten tomato. While some of these things can actually be moved around, all of them are pretty much useless as computing devices, just like a tablet.