

HP Slate Officially Launches for $799 - jrwoodruff
http://mashable.com/2010/10/22/hp-slate-official/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

======
cryptoz
Fantastic. A touch-screen with small buttons, stock Windows 7. Ships with IE8.
$200-$300 more than an iPad: you could buy a netbook _and_ an iPad for the
same price.

WTF? Total shit. Who wants Windows 7 on a tablet?

~~~
yequalsx
I'm a heavy user of Captivate and Camtasia and I teach math. I need digital
ink for my classes. It allows me to markup graphs and all other documents. I
would be a user of this tablet. I think the greatest shortcoming of the iPad
is the lack of digital ink and native pen support. Also, screen recording
apps.

From the promo videos it seems that this device is targeting vertical markets.

~~~
chollida1
> I would be a user of this tablet. I think the greatest shortcoming of the
> iPad is the lack of digital ink and native pen support.

My wife agree's. She's also a teacher of math and physics and she was excited
to get an iPad until she found out she couldn't use a stylus to mark with.

if this tablet fulfills that need then this may be the tablet for her.

~~~
glhaynes
There are some very nice feeling styluses (and some that aren't nice feeling
at all, too) that work on iPad - this one from Griffin is by far my favorite
from the ones I've tried. <http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/stylus>

~~~
chollida1
I didn't know this, thank you:)

The use case my wife has is she wants to mark math homework, similarly to how
you would mark it on paper, ie arbitrary pen input anywhere.

Does the iPad allow for this? or is there any app that does this?

------
kyleslattery
You gotta love the slide out licensing tab:
<http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494156>

------
SandB0x
Can't see this doing well:

\- Uncompetitive price.

\- No 3G.

\- Odd quilted effect on rear. Nobody's going to buy it _because_ of that, and
it will only look tacky in the long run.

\- Distracting HP logo at the edge of the screen, looks bad when held
vertically.

From the video linked to by BigZaphod, a lot of it is a guy working on a
spreadsheet or presentation everywhere he goes. It's not exactly an inspiring
scenario - there have even been cases of people choosing holiday locations for
their lack of BlackBerry reception.

[http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_wrestle_with_...](http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_wrestle_with_the_constant_pull_of_24_7_technology/)

------
patrickgzill
I can predict the market response: "meh".

EDIT: I figured I should add that I have looked at the large touchscreen PCs
as sold in Best Buy, etc. and while the concept looks very intriguing, playing
around with them for even a few minutes shows why they would be frustrating in
practice.

The UI requires too much precision - for instance, to close an application you
have to stab precisely on the X in the upper right corner - there should be a
modification that is either more forgiving or the X should be larger, etc.

Further, higher resolution (which should be nicer) is just as bad if not worse
- as the need for precision increases.

Lastly, the focus by the big manufacturers still seems to be "stack em deep
and sell em cheap" - leaving little $$$ or motivation to improve the UI to a
level as good as an iPad.

I think that NotionInk.com is on to something, though when shipping product
will arrive, I don't know.

------
acabal
I remember some time ago seeing a Youtube video of a leaked testing version of
the Slate. The reviewer flipped it over and pointed out the hardware
ctrl+alt+del button on the side. Everybody thought the video and device were
fakes or a prank, because who in their right mind would include a hardware
ctrl+alt+del button? But now I see according to this Wired article that it is
indeed for real: [http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/hp-slate-
official-800...](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/hp-slate-
official-800-business-netbook-without-keyboard/)

The article mentions the button though I can't see the button myself in the
pics. Way to go, HP!

~~~
ahi
I think it's the button to the left of the home button in this :
<http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494151>

------
BigZaphod
Here's one of their promo videos:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX-B2wG1e4&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX-B2wG1e4&feature=player_embedded)

~~~
cryptoz
That video makes it look even worse. Don't they realize that people can type
faster than they can write with a pen? It took that guy a long time to pull
out the pen, write "Rear Light" and put the pen back. Should have been <2
seconds with a touch keyboard.

~~~
larsberg
Evidently you've never tried to write something like "Rear Light" one-handed
on the iPad keyboard. Or, you don't have ogre fingers like I do.

More seriously, the pen is pretty fantastic for things like reviewing papers.
Having used tablet PCs for years and now having used an iPad for a while, I
can say it takes significantly longer to annotate PDFs via iAnnotate or
goodreader and either my finger or the iPad keyboard than it did with Acrobat
and the pen+tablet pc input panel.

~~~
BigZaphod
I just tried typing "Rear light" on my iPad with one finger of my right hand
while holding the pad itself with my left hand. It took about 2 seconds. On my
iPhone, with only my left hand holding it and using my left thumb to type
leaving my right hand doing nothing, I can bang that phrase out in about... 2
seconds. In the promo video, it took the guy just about 5 seconds with the
pen.

Not that this matters a whole lot - just adding my own data points to the
discussion. :)

------
fragmede
Cool, so it's got a 1.8 gigahertz processor, and 2 gigs of ram and... and....
What's the battery life?

Unless HP is aiming for people to run Solidworks on this, a nominal amount of
processing power is a given these days. The truly important question is
battery life, _more_ so for a 'business tablet' than an iPad 'toy'.

( _I_ don't think the iPad is a toy, but HP's position that theirs is for
business; they're saying that the iPad's a toy)

------
narkee
With the Galaxy Tab and now the HP Slate priced the same or higher than the
iPad, I wonder if the "Apple tax" meme will give way to a "non-Apple tablet
tax".

~~~
dgabriel
If history is any indicator, it's only a matter of time before the pc tablet
prices drop below the cost of the iPad.

~~~
babeKnuth
ummm, what history of pc tablet prices dropping below ipad prices is this?

the history i'm aware of is when mac products start out fairly expensive then
slowly drop in price over new generation releases.

------
angstrom
One thing going for it: They almost resisted putting intel/windows stickers
all over it. <http://goo.gl/vXKi>

~~~
sorbus
Please don't use URL shorteners here. Space isn't a constraint, and lots of
people like knowing where a link goes to (in this case, it's just an image of
the tablet, so it's safe, but it could lead anywhere).

------
pyeek
I don't understand why it is priced so high. If you look at a similarly spec'd
netbook for $400-$500, plus a touch screen (say +$100), you should still be
under $799. Does Windows 7 really cost that much more? What on earth makes it
that much more expensive when it doesn't even have 3G?

------
coreyrecvlohe
Windows 7? HP, come on, you're better than that.

------
IgorPartola
Great. When can I get Android on it?

------
thedeuce
wow what fail..

