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HP Announces WebOS-Based TouchPad Tablet, Pre 3 and Veer Smartphones

ten-oak-druid said:
Apple awarded limited patent on pinch-to-zoom
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That's just a sucker title. To quote that article:

"Apple doesn't have a patent on "pinch-to-zoom" generally, but rather pinching to zoom, and then pinching to zoom again within some fixed period of time."

If the code doesn't have a fixed period of time, then it's safe from the patent. Which means pretty much everyone is safe. Apple's idea was to more easily recognize the same gesture... it really has nothing to do with pinch per se.

As I said, Apple does not have a patent on pinch to zoom itself.
 
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$$$AAPL$$$ said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Nowhere close, for MANY YEARS... iTunes is continually growing, and the only real competition is NFLX. The AAPL content suite and overall ecosystem in my opinion is simply unbeatable for probably a decade.
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Netflix and itunes are complimentary services. They are not direct competitors.
 
Roessnakhan said:
1GB.


I believe it was mentioned in the presentation that the battery would last all day (I might be wrong about that one). But serious battery estimates are somewhat unreasonable to expect for a product that is still 6 months out. The Playbook doesn't have official battery specs out and that's due sometime this Spring (though its been estimated at 4-5 hours).
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Thanks for the link ;).

But serious now. Why does HP even mention battery life? There are so many configurations that can effect the battery life! Not to mention Flash (just because Apple won't allow it) battery life! Yeah, it will support Flash with all it's great content! But for how long?
Here are a few configurations
-Using the device without WiFi, like music.
-Using 3G in combination with Flash or the mail program.
-Surfing the net with WiFi. Easy to measure even now if you release a battery spec.
-How about watching a movie?
-Playing a game? Is it using OpenGLES? I think so because it seems that porting excisting iPad games only take a few hours... But no mention when you click the specs settings.

Again, why giving this kind of specs if you don't know how the product will behave? Why talk about this during presentation when you really don't have clue? What's a day (8hrs, 12hrs, 24hrs)? About your guess of estimated 4 to 5 hours, well it's a well thought guess! I mean it! But what is this estimated time when I don't know how I'm using it?

I never cought Apple, because of their secrecy and other reasons, doing this with their future iPads/iPhones/iPods.
It's just a sales trick. Not a good one in my opinion! What about all those future Touchpad users -even here on MacRumors- over the world when battery life sucks in six months? I believe users will feel disappointed...

iPad 64Gb, 256Mb Ram, 3G/WiFi, iOS 4.3 beta 3.

I guess we will have to wait. That's the only guess I'm sure of :)

BTW: Finally we are getting some competition. I welcome it with open arms!
It will be something else that will cause me to buy a new iPad (like real innovation). Thrust in :apple:
Even without official specs from Apple I'm sure it will be an evolved iPad 2... The TouchPad technology is nothing new...
 
kdarling said:
To quote that article:

"Apple doesn't have a patent on "pinch-to-zoom" generally, but rather pinching to zoom, and then pinching to zoom again within some fixed period of time."

If the code doesn't have a fixed period of time, then it's safe from the patent. Which means pretty much everyone is safe. Apple's idea was to more easily recognize the same gesture... it really has nothing to do with pinch per se.

As I said, Apple does not have a patent on pinch to zoom itself.
Click to expand...

But they were in fact awarded a patent on that. Just letting you know. It doesn't appear that you knew about that patent at all.
 
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MrWillie said:
So will it run Active or Silverlight ? So it's not quite the FULL web then is it ? Close (depending on how it handles ALL flash sites), but not FULL
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How about "more of the real internet than the iPad shows".

(It was frustrating tonight on an iPod touch, as I kept running across Flash movie reviews of the Touchpad. Which of course I could not see.)

It's better to copy success than failure. Look they are even releasing wifi first, then 3G later, unlike the Galaxy Tab failure and the soon to be Xoom failure.
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Yep, they are indeed smart to make sure a WiFi only model is immediately available. That's the first comment I made to a friend.
 
...

I truly want an awesome tablet. I've been holding out for the iPad 2, but if it doesn't deliver in features and HP can deliver this with a good price, I'm afraid I'll have to go with the HP TouchPad. Everything looks awesome, down to the accessories! iOS 5 for iPad better be a serious upgrade from iOS 4. And the hardware for iPad 2 better be just as much of an upgrade from the first gen model. Apple is at a crossroads: stop jerkin us around and do something big and bold with the iPad!!
 
ten-oak-druid said:
But they were in fact awarded a patent on that. Just letting you know. It doesn't appear that you knew about that patent at all.
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And the patent only covers a very specific way to implement that function, like every tech patent. If someone does the same function in a different way, they aren't violating.
 
NT1440 said:
And the patent only covers a very specific way to implement that function, like every tech patent. If someone does the same function in a different way, they aren't violating.
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The person I responded to emphatically stated that Apple was not awarded a patent on that. I corrected him on that is all. The details of the patent and how much it covers are another issue. But a patent was issued. The original post I responded to made it sound as though n o patent was awarded and I believe if you go back and look at the context of the conversation, he was responding to someone who was implying the patent was of little use anyway when he kdarling, said no patent existed.
 
ten-oak-druid said:
But they were in fact awarded a patent on that. Just letting you know. It doesn't appear that you knew about that patent at all.
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I did know about that patent, but had never heard it called a "patent on pinch-to-zoom" before. That was a pretty creative title they chose for the story.

So I appreciate you pointing out that article. As I'm sure you intended, that'll help us all figure out a reference to it more quickly if/when it's brought up again.

Cheers!
 
IMO, webOS is leaps and bounds ahead of any other mobile OS out there today. Price this thing right, and I may just dump everything but my eMac and snag me one of these.

EDIT:Wait, webOS on PC's too? Never mind, I see an OS change in the future for my HP Mini. :p
 
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MrWillie said:
Nope, we sure don't. And like the entire cell phone market, the tablet market will only have one winner, Apple
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Who is this "we" you speak of? I like choices.

And what is this "only one winner" crap. When does this fictitious competition end?
It's childish thinking to say so-and-so has the coolest toy... THEY WIN!

Apple has the hottest toy out for the moment.
As with everything, they will be bumped by the next biggest thing.

It's narrow minded to assume Apple will forever be #1 at (insert latest fad device).
Motorola ruled the cell phone market with the RAZR for several years before the next gadget came along and bumped them off the top spot.
Same thing will happen to Apple and the company that follows them.
 
Statik said:
Ummm, you haven't used Web OS even a tiny bit have you? I've been an Apple fanboy for the last 10 years, and still only use Macs at home, but WebOS convinced me to switch from my old iPhone last year. If I had to make the decision again I'd do the exact same thing. Definitely no regrets.

It handles cut & paste wonderfully. You can even use ^c and ^v if you like.

Folders aren't needed as if you have more than 16 apps on a page you can scroll down.

Battery life, well, we will wait and see on that one.

You didn't mention multitasking or notifications, so I will fill you in on that. They are amazingly well done. Best in industry in fact. I usually have a dozen apps open at a given time on my phone and rely on notifications for twitter, SMS, calendar, e-mail and RSS feeds, all without them interfering with my work flow. Beautiful implementation.
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I haven't used webos and have no plans to. I'm fine with my iPad and haven't seen anything on the horizon yet that amounts to much more than "me too" features - at best. It's usually far worse. It's shaping up to be the iPod all over again. It's simply not enough anymore to equal the iPad. A serious competitor will have to come with something better, the next big thing, and in a big obvious way. And the problem there is that Apple constantly iterates its products. The iPad, like the iPod before it, will be, in all likelihood, a constantly moving target.

Glad to hear it has cut copy paste, though. I based that on HP's press release, HP's web page for the tablet, and engadget's coverage - none of which mentioned cut copy paste or how it's implemented. Odd that with the introduction of the brand new tablet, the first time it's seen by the world, and it didn't even merit a mention, much less a demo, especially if it's "wonderful."

It seems to me the iPad's implementation of folders is more useful as an organizational tool as opposed to scrolling through icons to the bottom of a page. The idea is easy, intuitive organization of apps based on however you choose to categorize them, not how many apps you can manage to cram in a given page
 
I'm very impressed, webOS looks very polished and has some awesome features. I sure hope iPad 2 will be in the same league.

Finally some choice in the tablet market, competition is good
 
Looks nice, kinda like an iPhone 3G. I actually like it but WebOS just looks boring to me. I pick up an iPad and just can't put it down! The OS is more important than the outercase. Sorry HP I'm sticking to Apple for now.
 
ObsidianIce said:
I'll save him a little reading

"Update: Samsung has admitted that its "sales" figures for Galaxy Tab are actually inventory channel stuffing and do not represent real sales to consumers."

Like the iPad or hate it, no one tablet is selling anywhere near what ipad is. IT stands to reason that Apple marketshare overall will drop. Lots of companies are jumping into the market now that they have a concrete product and market to copy/work in. And yes every company is copying, where were they before iPad?
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Thanks. I just remember hearing those figures a couple weeks ago and reached for a source. Sorry about that. :eek:
 
I have an iPad, and even though I don't like HP I must say: the TouchPad "looks" better than the iPad in every single task!, except from the apps store which has the most vast tablet variety in the world, I would like to know how much RAM memory does it have.
 
VanNess said:
Glad to hear it has cut copy paste, though. I based that on HP's press release, HP's web page for the tablet, and engadget's coverage - none of which mentioned cut copy paste or how it's implemented. Odd that with the introduction of the brand new tablet, the first time it's seen by the world, and it didn't even merit a mention, much less a demo, especially if it's "wonderful."
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This has been implemented on webOS a long time ago, hence why mention an existing feature again?
 
notromeel said:
Thanks. I just remember hearing those figures a couple weeks ago and reached for a source. Sorry about that. :eek:
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Careful. Market share may drop but sales will increase. There are millions of potential customers who've not bought any form of tablet computer. The market will get bigger, the share may decrease but the sales will go up.
 
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