TouchPad Battery, HP on the scene, App idea submission and more - From the Forums 19
It's been a very TouchPad-world in our forums these last few days, with tutorials, reviews, tips and complaints popping up in all of the usual ways through thousands of threads by nearly as many community members. Here's a look at four threads from today that we think are particularly interesting for the world to know about, and we invite you to click through to take part in the discussions. Registration is completely free and open to all, so why not take a few seconds to join in the discussions over there? If you have a discussion you want to share with the rest of the world, we'd like to put it on our homepage, too. Send an email to tim@precentral.net and we'll add it in with the next "From the Forums" article later in the week.
Did you ever think you'd see the day when HP employees would openly join a conversation in our community forums to gather feedback from users? Well, NatalieFromHP is a newcomer to the list of members, but as her name says clearly, she comes to us directly from HP to talk with real consumers and read what people are saying about webOS devices. We aren't sure how long she'll be sticking around or how many discussions she'll get into, but we love the idea that HP representatives are reading through our forums to get in with the people.
If you've been concerned with the battery life of the TouchPad, several of our members have decided to help ease your mind a bit and share their experiences. From the amount of use these devices get from our users, you might expect the battery to be cold and dead by the end of the day, but as these users share, that hasn't been the case for them at all. And of course, if you're able to get a TouchStone, the issue of a dying battery should be even less of a concern. At least, that's what our experience shows.
With a few more than 300 great apps currently available in the TouchPad app catalog (and plenty more coming), there is still a lot of room for growth. App Developer dmglakewood wants to encourage that growth in his own way, and is actually asking users to submit their TouchPad app requests for him to get started on. Got an idea for an app you'd like to see built? Send them his way.
Sure, we already took a look at Beats Audio Technology as it works on the TouchPad, but as is usually the case, we want to know what our users think about the features from real-world experiences. To brdl04, Beats Audio is "legit" and impressive, even if the speakers do cause some muffling when placed on certain surfaces. If you've had a chance to try out Beats Audio for yourself on the TouchPad, you should share your experiences as well, the thread is growing quickly, and more voices are always welcomed to be heard (as clearly and noise-free as possible).
Source: PreCentral Forums
19 Comments
3:38 am EDT - PreCentral never sleeps :)
I see over 4,000 apps is the TP catalog - including the mojo apps.
And of course, that is totally not what he meant...
And if you count Classic, WebOS has more than 50,000 apps. Let's start claiming that's the case and see how that goes over.
That's the rub isn't it? The lack of apps which is being exacerbated by the fact that HP/Palm has gone through three platforms in three years and has done a piss poor job of supporting the older ones. If Classic had been supported by Palm, the lack of apps wouldn't have been a problem for the original Pre. In fact it might have encouraged old school PalmOS developers to move to Mojo instead of abandoning Palm altogether. The same thing is being repeated with the Touchpad with Mojo being poorly supported by HP and Enyo having relatively few apps.
I think there are more HP people on here, reviewing material and the forums and also making comments. I know of at least 3
Just wondering if anyone know when the real KindleReader app and HP moviestore app are going to show up instead of the placeholder that is on the touchpad right now. I thought it was supposed to work coming out of box. There are also other apps mentioned on the first issue of pivot that are either not available or not working yet. Also, shouldn't the app work before getting into the pivot article?
This Natalie is going to get a bunch of repeating questions from Pre- owners about Sprint. I will assume it will be a very unproductive discussion or eventually there will be a disclaimer that she cannot discuss future releases/carrier releases specifics.
So let me start, Nat, if I may call you that, will there be a Pre3 or future HP phone release in the imminent future for Sprint customers?
See comments below from Engadget user abgenx:
Stop focusing on the iPad and focus on what a TouchPad experience is like, without spin. I hope Natalie from HP reads this.
Seriously, some folks are clearly working too hard to bury the TouchPad, which is surprising for something that in the same breath they say is completely uncompetitive. Without mentioning any other device whatsoever, I'm going to tell you what's great and not so great about my HP TouchPad running webOS, in practical, relatable terms.
1. I have a real need for multiple Exchange accounts, 4 actually. I discovered that I could run many full Exchange profiles (calendar, contacts, address book) without any issue.
2. When my LinkedIn connections update their jobs, my Contacts update automatically. That's pretty cool, how does that happen? There is no LinkedIn app.
3. I have 2 Dropbox accounts, one for some work collaboration/research and another for my personal stuff. I can run both Dropbox accounts simultaneously on my HP TouchPad. I can't even do that on my PC. That's awesome! There is no Dropbox app.
4. Speaking of Dropbox, I love it, but I only have 4GB storage. I just found out that as a TouchPad owner, I get 50 GB of secure cloud storage from Box.net for FREE, for LIFE. That's a good deal worth at least $10 per month.
5. I switch between tasks and multi-task very smoothly; sometimes I want to listen to a 15-minute TED video (watching only the most dramatic parts) while doing an email or shopping on Amazon.com. It runs down the battery a little faster, but I'm using my tablet fully.
6. It's great that I can have 3 or 4 active email drafts going at the same time, I work like that sometimes.
7. All my individual mailboxes have their own settings and signatures. Casual for my personal and pro for my work email.
8. It took me less than 3 seconds to set up my two, 2-year old HP printers. One was wireless, the other was networked and had an IP address. I thought HP would have a print app, until I realized no app was needed.
9. I loaded all my contacts, calendars from Google, Exchange, Yahoo, AIM, Skype and LinkedIn, but for some reason although I'm able to add my MoblileMe folders, I can't add my contacts and calendars. Still investigating.
10. I can mount my HP TouchPad as a USB drive on any computer using a pretty standard USB/microUSB cable. Sometimes, you need to move a whole folder of stuff. Glad to know there's a quick and dirty way to do it.
11. I have my music in iTunes, I still have to figure out how to get it onto the TouchPad with all my playlists intact. I've seen that there's a beta solution, but I'll hold off on it for a little bit. Still investigating.
12. My HP TouchPad doesn't have a rear camera, it bothers me, but only a little. But it has amazing stereo sound from the speakers and a very good front-facing camera for Skype video conferencing. I hope HP opens up the camera API to other conferencing services too.
13. I don't like the shiny finish, because it feels slippery, but I'm going to get a sleeve for it today.
14. Is it a little slower when opening apps? Yes, but I understand the difference between compiled apps and non-compiled apps. I know some hardware acceleration and QuickOffice editing is coming in an OTA update.
15. There are some glitches in the way some web pages render and stream, and it's a little difficult to scrub in a video that's not playing in full screen mode. Some things don't scale to full screen properly, like Amazon movies. As we give feedback to HP, we expect improvements will come. Nobody can prioritize everything.
The apps I miss the most are: Netflix, The Economist, Dictionary.com, Textfree, FT for Tablet, FlightTrack, Google Voice, E*TRADE, Evernote, Audible, Google Maps, and NPR.
I know this wasn't originally yours, but thanks for sharing. I understand that there is an NPR app, but maybe I'm delirious.
I, too, would like the Economist, FT and Evernote. However, Evernote should work in the Browser (will try later tonight when I receive my TouchPad). Evernote is one of my killer apps (from way back in beta days), so a native app would be fantastic.
Great Feedback. :)
My experience is very similar to your own, it's SIMPLY AMAZING everything it does with multiple accounts everywhere! HP Synergy, to me, is the #1 feature.
"11. I have my music in iTunes, I still have to figure out how to get it onto the TouchPad with all my playlists intact. I've seen that there's a beta solution, but I'll hold off on it for a little bit. Still investigating. "
You can keep your itunes intact if you use doubletwist. It syncs with your itunes playlist when you open the program, and it can use it to sync playlist or songs to your webos device. I use it for my pre-.
Here's a very positive article on the touchpad!
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/blackberry-playbook-vs-hp-touchpad-a-ta...
Get ready for discounted touchpads! I'll get mine at $299!
Well, I must say I was disappointed with my Touchpad purchased on July 1@ BestBuy, and returned July 4th to Bestbuy.
After 3 days of loading testing and being disappointed with BETA and place holder apps, it was just too reminiscent of my PRE-.. Where I am 2years later waiting on Flash, Doc editing etc.
I just did not want to go the same route with another Palm/HP Device.
That said I did like the ease of setup with my existing profile. Contacts, emails, calendars loaded perfectly. ITunes ported over to HP PLAY and onto the Touchpad. Pretty much able to do most of what I do on my Netbook, except Doc editing, Kindle reader, etc.
So I will watch a bit and see if OTAs happen and they deliver on the committment/announcments HP made for the TouchPad!
LEO where are you! And your word?
As much as I want TouchPad and webOS to succeed, HP's feet really need to be held to the fire to deliver a meaningful update within 20 days. If not, people will return their devices en masse to Best Buy and other retailers.
Most people who bought TouchPads aren't bothered by its hardware shortcomings: shiny plastic back, size, lack of camera, no video-out, or even lack of apps, they want the glitches fixed asap. If HP would start streaming out updates to fix stuff every other day, that would even be better. Right now the things that bother me the most are:
- Can't open some PDFs in websites (get the error Could not open MIME file..)
-Glitchy playback of flash and poor rendering of some websites, some things can't go full screen without black boxes, etc.,
-Cursor placement - this is a huge annoying issue when you have to guess just to place your finger on the right place to edit stuff.
-Document viewing for PowerPoint files and basic editing soon.
-HP PLAY for me was a disaster, and I don't know how to move video files over and how they would be accessed.
Fix some of these things and people will keep their TouchPads while waiting for faster apps. If you take a month and a half to fix it, it's going to be too late. Nobody should be on vacation in Sunnyvale this Summer.
I'm hoping many others will follow in your footsteps and return their touchpads. Hopefully this will send HP the message that they should not have released the tablets at the same price as the ipad2 because they are not ready to go toe to toe with the ipad2 just yet.
I'm hoping the touchpad is about to follow in the same failed launch path of the veer and prices will drop within a month. But then again even with the price drops the veer didn't do well. However, I have a feeling if the prices drop with the touchpads it will do well.
Another one of my friends just left webos to go with Android. I'm the last one standing and at the rate my pre minus is literally falling apart and still with no webos devices on sprint, I'm pretty much also soon forced to go with Android.
This just keeps getting worse every week :(
I haven't bought the touchpad because i honestly can't justify paying $500 for it when the ipad2 is thinner, outperforms and has more apps for the same price.
but the touchpad can multitask!
Where do the recent webOS converts who think they can troll others and quash criticism and negative comments come from? They must have been sucked in by the vacuum that was created in the void from all the people leaving. The comments are overwhelmingly negative for a reason...get over it and stop spewing hate on people.