The HP TouchPad Review: webOS on the Big Screen
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 17, 2011 11:11 PM ESTHP App Catalog
Like all modern mobile devices there's an app store on the TouchPad. The HP App Catalog has all of the basic features of any other app store. Reviews, ratings, categories, search, etc... are all there. There are a couple of things here that are worth mentioning. The first is how easy HP makes it to switch between positive and negative reviews, as well as the graphics used to show overall ratings on an app.
The second is just how many TouchPad apps there are in the catalog. Obviously iOS is still in the lead in terms of app quantity but I'm not a big fan of playing the numbers game when it comes to app stores. I personally believe that what matters are whether the dozen or so apps that you regularly use are on the platform you care about. For me the TouchPad's catalog is complete enough given my tablet usage model (mostly email, web browsing, Facebook, videos, music and photos). One absence that I know will impact a lot of users is Netflix, unfortunately I haven't seen any estimate for if/when a Netflix app will appear on the TouchPad.
Next year HP is expected to begin shipping webOS on its PCs as well. As one of the largest PC vendors in the world, this could seriously increase the install base for webOS and make it even more attractive for developers. I wouldn't count HP out of the app game at this point, not by a long shot.
webOS Smartphone Apps on the TouchPad
You can run non-TouchPad specific webOS apps on the tablet as well, they just appear in a smaller 320 x 480 window. The biggest issue with non-tablet webOS apps is that they all run in portrait mode, even if you rotate your TouchPad:
This seems like an oversight on HP's part but it's an annoying one nonetheless. There's also no way to scale up the size of these apps, they remain confined to a 320 x 480 space on the screen.
Placeholder Apps
There's a YouTube icon in the apps list, tapping it will bring up what looks like a YouTube card. After a couple of seconds however it'll just load a web browser that takes you to youtube.com:
I suspect there's a YouTube app coming, but it's just not ready yet. Note that RIM did a lot of this type of thing on the PlayBook as well (e.g. with its Gmail and Facebook icons).
It does get worse on the TouchPad unfortunately. In the HP app catalog there are a number of apps that you can download that are just placeholders for apps to come. For example, you can download the Kindle app but launching it will give you this:
A screen telling you that the Kindle app is coming. Admittedly HP doesn't try to hide this from you, in the description on the App Catalog HP tells you that this is just a placeholder. On the bright side when the Kindle app is available you don't have to search for it to download it, you'll just have to update the app you already downloaded.
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Conner_36 - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
to put it simply on the ipad there are apps for thatHrel - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
When did this become CellTech.com? Seriously at first I appreciated the coverage, but really when the OS and hardware is all basically the same you don't need to review EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT RELEASED!!!! Give us bench marks sure, so we can compare specs. Write maybe a page about your impressions on customizations and screen and what not; but that should be it. Why all the articles on this mostly the same crap? Why can't you be this devoted to laptops? There are still TONS of interesting laptops out there you haven't even talked about. I'm not just talking keyboards and screens here, but significant amounts of hardware you simply DO NOT have benchmarked.I almost feel like you need to move all this tablet/smartphone/blah blah blah crap to it's own site. I'm sick of seeing it. It's stupid and most people simply do not need it. It's not that interesting and you are focusing WAY too much on it.
Hrel - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
P.S. WHY would I buy a 500 dollar tablet when I can get a pretty good laptop for that same price?Seriously these things need to drop down to 200 bucks or less without a 8000 dollar contract; this shit is insane. Only handheld I care about at all are PSP Vita and everything made my Archos and you guys haven't touched on any of that AT ALL!!!!!!
Honestly, FUCK anything and everything that requires a contract!!!!
jebo - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
I disagree, I'm really enjoying Anand's looks at the mobile industry.Re: a $200 tablet, there's always the Nook Color.
Speaking of which, I would like to see the Nook Color mentioned more in these reviews. IMHO, it's still one of the top 3 choices for prospective Tablet buyers due to its cost and the screen quality. I would love to know how it more directly compares with the newer tablets.
kmmatney - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
I bought a Nook for $189 on E-bay - direct from Barnes and Noble. It has flash enabled, but is a it under-powered. It works OK for my purposes - browsing on the couch, and entertainment while traveling. Other than that, it doesn't get used a whole lot, which is why I didn't want to spend more than $200.dookiex - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
I don't understand the logic to this. You don't want to spend more than $200 so you ended up with a underpowered and under-supported nook and thus basing off your expectations of tablet devices off of your nook experience. Illogical.Mumrik - Monday, August 22, 2011 - link
And that's why so many of us just picked up HP Touchpads for 99 or 149 bucks.Impulses - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
First off, your rant is way off base... Every single tablet can be bought sans contract. Are they overpriced? IMO, yes, but for millions of people who don't need a laptop (or who have a heavy/big laptop) these tablets are a prefect complement... And AT puts out the best tablet/smartphone reviews on the web, bar none. I really hope they don't slow down anytime soon, even though I'm not even in the market for a tablet right more.My next upgrade will probably be an ultraportable to replace my netbook (as you said, a better way to spend $500-700), but there's other places on the web doing competent laptop reviews. Smartphone reviews in particular are awful almost anywhere else, completely devoid of facts or any empirical testing. I do agree that maybe they don't need to review as many mid-range models tho, the three different reviews of single core LTE VZW phones didn't really tell us anything different... But then again, those phones ARE VZW's high end models right now so others would disagree about the reviews' priority.
sledge333 - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
I totally agree! Sick of all these so wanabee products! Give me a laptop any day. Give me a normal phone any day! Boys and their toys! More suitable for women who carry handbags, but for men, huh! Get a tailored made pair of jeans with a crunch proof pocket to protect it!Add the cost whilst sitting outside some fancy coffee shop playing with your toy , because some bastard runs past and nicks it!
And anyone that wants to watch a movie on a piddley little screen or play games - save up your money for the opticians, you're gonna need it!
P.S I signed up today just because of the boring reviews on crap I will never use! Get back to computers not bloody toys!
SongEmu - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
Personally, I appreciate his attention to the rapidly changing scene of mobile technology... Granted, I'd love some PC hardware bench's... but what he's doing isn't a bad thing.