# HP tablet



## Elizabeth (Aug 20, 2011)

I was able to snag a 16 gb HP tablet @ my local Walmart for 99$ this morning. The 32gb are 149$. Fire sale, apparently. I guess HP is done with them, or some such? Anyway, fun deal and a good bday present for my daughter.


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## jogri17 (Aug 20, 2011)

wanna grab one for me ?


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## Edward (Aug 20, 2011)

HP has already announced that they are out of the tablet business. At bit more surprisingly, they are also bailing on laptops and PCs. I think the numbers are that they are walking away from (or in some cases trying to sell) a third of their revenues. (They are also dumping the business they bought from Palm.) Looks like they want to end up primarily with the EDS end of the business. 

So a good deal at clearance shouldn't be passed up, but recognize that it is an orphan product.

_Typed on a Compaq/HP system_


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## VictorBravo (Aug 20, 2011)

So I checked out the frenzy and found they are sold out everywhere, except I managed to put one in my shopping cart from the HP business website. Free shipping even.

But I'm still trying to figure out what I would do with it. It's an off-brand and likely unsupported operating system with few apps. I already have a netbook with 3G capability for mobile web, email, and typing. Plus, I can run everything else I have too, Acrobat Pro, Dragon Naturally Speaking, Office 2007, etc.

Sure, $99 sounds great. But what do I need one for?


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## Edward (Aug 20, 2011)

Highest and best use might be for travel. Internet access on planes is usually cheaper for devices than it is for laptops. And it will be easier to throw in your carryon. And lugging two laptops can be a hassle for those who have to carry a company issued machine. 



VictorBravo said:


> Sure, $99 sounds great. But what do I need one for?


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## Andres (Aug 20, 2011)

VictorBravo said:


> Sure, $99 sounds great. But what do I need one for?



To give away to your PB friends...


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## VictorBravo (Aug 20, 2011)

Thanks, Edward--I don't fly very much these days and I've never used internet on a plane anyway. And Andrew, well--nice try.

I cancelled the process. The main thing I could see using it for would be reading pdf files. According to the few forums I found, it only has a basic pdf reader--no word search or jump to page capability.

Folks a few weeks ago seemed to be holding out for some third-party developers to work on webOS apps. I think that is fairly speculative at this point. Without a more robust way of handling pdfs, I think I'd have next to no use for it.


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## Edward (Aug 20, 2011)

There must be some way to hack it.


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## Andres (Aug 21, 2011)

perhaps  but is "jail-breaking" or hacking devices a form of stealing? Not accusing anyone, just more wondering aloud, err..., in type?


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## VictorBravo (Aug 21, 2011)

Andres said:


> perhaps  but is "jail-breaking" or hacking devices a form of stealing? Not accusing anyone, just more wondering aloud, err..., in type?



In this case, no. It's designed so that anyone can develop applications for it. The only problem is it's new, so nobody has been developing things for it.

The type of hack Edward mentioned is more along the lines of jury rigging your car's wiring instead of taking it to the shop for professional work. There's no copyright issue as long as you abide by the app developer's rules.


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## Andres (Aug 21, 2011)

Thanks. I'm not too familiar with what all jail-breaking entails so I appreciate the explanation.


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## Edward (Aug 21, 2011)

Andres said:


> is "jail-breaking" or hacking devices a form of stealing?



I put it on the same moral plane as pulling the back seat out of your car and putting in some performance plugs and wires. Although some folks may consider it more akin to pulling off the catalytic converter and putting in glass paks (do they even still have those?)


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## jfschultz (Aug 21, 2011)

There are reports that some HP software developers hacked an iPad to run WebOS. It ran twice as fast as on the HP!


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## Edward (Aug 21, 2011)

jfschultz said:


> There are reports that some HP software developers hacked an iPad to run WebOS. It ran twice as fast as on the HP!



I was thinking of going the other direction - hacking the HP to run Linux.


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## Elizabeth (Aug 22, 2011)

Picked up another this morning at B&N, to give to my other daughter(they're sold out, now). 

Oh, I am sure it is no great shakes, but it'll probably do all right for what they will use it for: email, web-browsing, that sort of thing. 

They seemed pleased. B-days taken care of, hooray.


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