So today the iSlate…no…iTablet…err…iPad! was announced. The world held its breath as Steve descended down from the mountain to give his followers their next “must have” gadget. A few minutes later the world breathed out a giant “meh”.
All kidding aside, today was an important day in the gadget world because we got our marching orders. Whatever you may think about the iPad, it will single-handedly create a new genre of computers…the Slate, or I guess, Pad computer. By the end of the year every manufacturer will have something to compete in this new world. However, throughout the entire liveblog (thanks Engadget!), I kept thinking…man wouldn’t it be cool if Palm made one of these?
Click to get a better view
So, here is my dream device. It isn’t the best mockup in the world, but I believe it gets the point across. Here is what the iPad, in my opinion, is missing, and how a webOS device would fill in the gaps.
- Multi-tasking: With all the demos shown on stage today, it seemed apparent that the new devices is about as multi-tasking friendly as the iPhone. It seems worse with the big screen because the apps look so lonely. For instance, wouldn’t it be cool if the facebook app could just run in the top right hand corner of the device? With a webOS tablet, you know that having several apps open at once will not be a problem (just look at the 50+ apps of the Pre Plus!!).
- Notifications: Now I know this new genre of device isn’t supposed to be a phone, but why oh why, does the iPad not tell me I have a new email or calendar event unobtrusively? No where in the demos did they show a notification panel. Why not? Its not like they don’t have the room. The mythical webOS tablet would continue in the way that the Pre and Pixi work. An subtle bar shows up and tells you that you have an email. Don’t care? Just swipe it way.
- Flash: Yup…you knew it was coming. Apple and Adobe definitely have a love/hate relationship. During the demos this was made painfully aware when the “no flash” lego popped up on the NYT’s site. For a device meant for consuming content, this is simply unacceptable. By the way…webOS 1.4 will have flash. Just sayin’.
- Camera: With video recording coming in the next version of webOS, I believe that my fictional tablet would be perfect for Skyping and video conferencing. A device with this kind of size and speed deserves no less.
So there you have it…the mythical webOS tablet. So is it possible? Sad to say it is probably only a dream. Palm is a small company by gadget maker standards, so they can’t afford to go off and develop 50 different products. They have to focus on a select few and go.
I hope I am wrong. I would simply LOVE to see a device like this, and I would be standing in line to get it too. Here’s hopin’.
Yup, that’s pretty much what I’ve wanted since I first got my Pre.
So.. here’s what I’m thinking… take one of those apple maxi iPads and get VirtualBox running on it. Then use the SDK to get a virtual webOS running on it…
…and you’re done!
how about two rows of cards instead of just one for faster multi-tasking and to take advantage of the increased screen real estate. top row you could your email-IM-twitter cards and the bottom row you could keep your browser cards/games/etc.
@ajadoniz: I think that would depend on the hardware inside of the machine. If you have a beast like the A4, then this may be doable (however, I wonder what that would be like in practice…might be confusing).
I think ideally, a device like this would incorporate a homepage of sorts where you could throw an app (like facebook) on it so that it would be up all the time. Again, this would require a strong proc for this to work.
David
One missing feature: GESTURE BAR!!! With all the multi-tasking power this device would have, it would be great.
Also, would love to see the “card view” be made into a rolling card-grid so that more apps are visible when switching.
Mac user here, so nothing against Apple. But it’s unbelievable that the iPad does not come with multi-tasking. Maybe that was done on purpose so that people would get the must-have iPad2 next year?
Well I love the pre… but this kind of “comparison is futile” as it is exactly what differentiates the iphone from the palm pre… and palm pre sells residually.
“simple people” don’t give a damn about multitasking…as long as they can do it the apple way… listen to music and browse the net… that’s enough for me… and for notifications my android phone already tracks that down.
Flash is the real deal breaker to a “internet” device that supposedly wants to make the web a private experience.
To have a thing like this and not be able to take it to the toilet to watch p0rn for lack of flash support… :P… that’s personal :)
My point is… I have an android phone and I vouch for it… but I keep looking for the beauty and integration that I could get with an iphone… and forget it… No beautiffull itunes remote? no beautiffull apps, no nada. Just a bunch of loosely integrated apps, very well written by coders usually with no sense of visual beauty.
It isn’t what I would like, but for that price pointapple might have hit another hit… So don’t ask for an 4th generation iphone with a 4 times screen size for half the price.
And have fun… for what I know, tablet form factor comes out in every Sci Fi movie around… that have loads of people orking in futurology and ergonomics… so it must be a good way to go.
my long two cents.
:)
@João Carvalhinho: I think you are right…if you ask the average Joe if they want multitasking on a device they are going to get confused and say no.
However, if you ask Joe if he wants to be able to chat with his friend while surfing the web, or have his facebook app and twitter app running at the same time, he will probably say yes.
There is something very cool with a webOS device that makes this kind of question just fade away. It doesn’t need to be asked…I think a 10 – 12″ Palm device would take that to a whole different level.
David
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Bring back Foleo or Folio or whatever that things was called but this time running webOs.
Just like the pre with a slide out keyboard. Like sony’s little hand held laptop.
I’d love a webos tablet. I’d like to see a curved physical keyboard with hinges and a kickstand so you could have the device upright and stand alone and be able to type for emails, social networks etc. or have it flat like a regular tablet.
blogroll links?
Do you know what could really make this fly? If they got some major investment in it from a BIG company.
2 Words. “KINDLE APP”. Amazon is seeing control of E-books slip away from them even before the iPad hits the market. Now if there were a Kindle app for webos (or WebOSPad) and other devices, this could really push things in the right direction.
I would love, love, love a webOS tablet.
Time to launch a Palm webOS tablet:
http://forums.palm.com/t5/webOS-Hardware/Palm-T...
Time to launch a Palm webOS tablet:
http://forums.palm.com/t5/webOS-Hardware/Palm-T...