How many of you remember or are still using the HP Touchpad?

[ponyo]

I still have mine plugged up and use it as a clock in my kitchen. It's running dual boot WebOS and CyanogenMod 4.0.4 and hooked up to Touchstone wireless charging dock. The LCD screen on my 1st one died last year so I'm on my 2nd HP Touchpad tablet. I had a spare one in a box. Hopefully I can get another 8-10 years out of this second one.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I had to look it up to remember WTF this was. I figured it was one of those HP palm pilots things, or maybe some weird touch input thing. I had forgotten about so much of the stuff. Remember the Microsoft Kin? Or the Palm Pre?

 

[lxskllr]

I remember it, but didn't have one. It was a nice piece of kit as I remember. I think it was the high price at launch that killed it, no? I guess that, and no ecosystem to compete with android.

 

[balloonshark]

I also remember them on sale which was a big deal I missed or passed on. A search here shows they were on sale for $99 and $150 back in 2011.

 

[whm1974]

Wasn't this tablet under specced and overpriced for its time?

 

[extide]

I had one. WebOS was actually a really cool OS honestly. Shame what happened to it.

Wasn't this tablet under specced and overpriced for its time?

If I remember correctly they got discontinued and were firesaled for super cheap, I think $200 -- which was a great price for the hardware at the time.

 

[LikeLinus]

I had two of them that I got for $99. They were cheap and fun to toy with. I ened up mounting one in the garage to play music from. Not using them anymore though.

 

[whm1974]

I had two of them that I got for $99. They were cheap and fun to toy with. I ened up mounting one in the garage to play music from. Not using them anymore though.

They are kind of rather poor specced to do anything modern aren't they?

 

[Ichinisan]

The battery in mine swelled up and the screen bulged until it cracked.

 

[LikeLinus]

They are kind of rather poor specced to do anything modern aren't they?

Now, yes. Plus you can only install a very very old version of Android on it. They were good for what they were at the time. As others have mentioned, WebOS had promise and it was neat. It's too bad HP killed it the way they did.

 

[whm1974]

Now, yes. Plus you can only install a very very old version of Android on it. They were good for what they were at the time. As others have mentioned, WebOS had promise and it was neat. It's too bad HP killed it the way they did.

Wasn't WebOS opened sourced, I seem to recall that it was.

 

[SKORPI0]

I think I was able to mod up to Marshmallow 6.0. Camera didn’t work IIRC. Dropped it from a table one day and bought a replacement screen, but messed up doing the replacement. I works fine but slow compared to newer tech. I still have 2 NIB 32GB stored somewhere, paid $150. Current table is a iPad Gen 6 128GB with iPadOS 13 beta 8. Paid $120 from Comcast being a triple play member when they had a promo June 2018.

 

[sdifox]

Lost mine in a supermarket parking lot.

 

[sdifox]

Wasn't WebOS opened sourced, I seem to recall that it was.

LG bought it.

 

[ponyo]

I remember it, but didn't have one. It was a nice piece of kit as I remember. I think it was the high price at launch that killed it, no? I guess that, and no ecosystem to compete with android.

It was released around August 2011 and had specs that was pretty similar to the original iPad which came out like in May 2010. HP Touchpad had 4X more ram (1gb) than the iPad 1 (256mb) but WebOS wasn't as optimized or smooth as iOS. WebOS had nice motion gestures, true multitasking, and Adobe Flash which was missing on the iPad. HP Touchpad wasn't bad tablet and WebOS wasn't bad OS. The problem was Apple released iPad 2 in March 2011 and it was leagues better in specs, performance, and use than iPad 1. HP Touchpad was released 5 months later than iPad 2 yet its performance barely matched iPad 1.HP basically threw in the towel after less than 2 months on the market and firesale discounted the $500-$600 tablets to $99 for the 16gb and $149 for the 32gb models.

I picked up two during the firesale and fully enjoyed mine. I installed CyanogenMod along with WebOS and used it view lot of the flash stream videos that I couldn't with the iPad. And XBMC with video add-on to view Hulu without ads and other stuff before companies started cracking down. Now I use it as kitchen clock and timer.

 

[snoopy7548]

Same as most who have one - picked it up during the sale (got mine for $100) and loaded CyanogenMod. Still use it to this day hooked up to a receiver/large speakers with the ASoftMurmur app when I sleep.

It's more than adequate for browsing reddit and websites, and playing simple games. I really have no use of a tablet other than that. It's perfect for taking on vacation.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The battery in mine swelled up and the screen bulged until it cracked.

You sure turn your electronics on. Is that why you're so into NES, you like blowing them don't you?

 

[sdifox]

You sure turn your electronics on. Is that why you're so into NES, you like blowing them don't you?

He snorts them.

 

[highland145]

The battery in mine swelled up and the screen bulged until it cracked.

Just how many hours a day do you watch pron?

 

[Scarpozzi]

I picked up 2 of them during the fire sale and still have them. After HP shut down the app store they were pretty useless. I was going to throw android on there, but really liked the cards and gestures. The body was a little plasticky, but otherwise it was a solid piece of hardware and the screen was pretty good. I paid for a handful of apps before the app store went down. I wish I could let my kids use mine, but they just don't have enough games to keep them engaged...

 

[sdifox]

I picked up 2 of them during the fire sale and still have them. After HP shut down the app store they were pretty useless. I was going to throw android on there, but really liked the cards and gestures. The body was a little plasticky, but otherwise it was a solid piece of hardware and the screen was pretty good. I paid for a handful of apps before the app store went down. I wish I could let my kids use mine, but they just don't have enough games to keep them engaged...

Cyanogenmod, but then it is pretty old android 4.0.4

 

[Scarpozzi]

Cyanogenmod, but then it is pretty old android 4.0.4

I was going to install it back in the day, but was holding out for some of the bugs to get worked out...then decided to keep WebOS.

 

[sdifox]

I was going to install it back in the day, but was holding out for some of the bugs to get worked out...then decided to keep WebOS.

It's dual boot. You don't lose your webos

 

[Scarpozzi]

It's dual boot. You don't lose your webos

I may have it installed on one...I really don't recall. I just know wherever I left it, it wasn't a priority to me. We ended up getting an iPad 2 mini about 2 years after the Touchpads and we still use it.

 

[Fritzo]

I remember getting in on that lottery fire sale where they were $50

It's an old tablet that was way ahead of its time.