HP Testing Windows 8 on TouchPads
HP may build an entirely new tablet using Microsoft's upcoming ARM-friendly OS, Windows 8.
Clayton Morris from FOX News reports that HP is currently doing "proof of concept work" testing the Preview Edition of Windows 8 on TouchPad tablets without webOS installed.
According to unnamed sources within HP, the company is having internal discussions about reviving the defunct webOS-based version after the supposed second fire sale wave takes place on an unspecified date. The company is also considering building an entirely new device instead with Windows 8 in mind.
The TouchPad was a brief glimmer on the market before HP pulled the device not two months after its debut. Yet despite the talk about selling off its PC division and putting webOS on hold, HP firmly stated that it had no plans to exit the tablet sector.
HP seemingly backed up its commitment by resurrecting the TouchPad for a brief fire sale back in August, offering the device for $99. The tablets were consumed in a matter of hours, prompting HP to promise another wave at an undetermined date.
It's quite possible that HP is testing Windows 8 on the current hardware set to see if any slight modifications are needed to the TouchPad before Microsoft reportedly launches Windows 8 in August 2012. The company could switch to Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 and add more RAM to possibly put it in the same league as the Android 4-powered Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
Morris also reports that layoff notices in the PC division have been put on hold while HP determines its outcome. On the webOS front, the company is reportedly meeting with a number of interested buyers including HTC, LG, Nikon, and Amazon.
What a crap company. You don't even know if they will still support your product in a year (or in 2 months), given their poor decision making and horrible management team. For that matter who knows if they will even be involved with electronics. They may decide that the real money is in paperclips.
This report surprises me a bit. There will undoubtedly be a lot of people interested in a Windows tablet so this might be a good move for HP.
if HP can be out the door with a win8 story, they will sell like hotcakes.
Once you use WebOS, you will realize how stupid hp is.
HP's enterprise products are actually pretty good. I work with multiple venders on a daily basis and I have no complaints about their quality or service - on the enterprise level anyway.
See the amount of faulty stuff that stacks up.
I bought a HP touch pad during the sale and I really like the webos. In terms of the UI and managing the use of multiple running programs, it easily beats android and iOS, it just takes less work to get to the programs you want and switch between them.
What made the touchpad fail was the high price, lack of a rear facing camera, horrid front facing camera, no powered USB host, no mini HDMI. The OS was sluggish and uses a lot of resources (over 400MB of memory used at startup just for the OS). The OS starts off being poorly configured, it logs everything which lags the OS further, it has annoying effects such as the ripple and other crap.
If the webOS booted as fast as android or the iOS, and had the requirements of the and memory usage of android, it would have been a real competitor.
What made the touchpad fail, was HP.
As for your WebOS experience, install preware.
the patches will fix those issues.
Yep I use preware and have it overclocked to 1.8GHz
Handles 1080p flash with no problem, and with all of the other performance tweaks, it runs extremely fast, but there are still functions that a significantly slower device will do faster. eg iOS on a significantly slower device still feels snappier
The sluggishness from webOS is not a hardware limitation but a software one where even with a ton of tweaking, cannot be overcome entirely.
I'm not sure if it's HD quality or if it's just there are so many HP lap tops out there but if you looked on eBay. It's full of HP laptops for sale. Myself, I have an alienware M17XR2. I am 60 years old and have had many laptops from all different kinds of vendors. But this is my second alienware laptop. My first one was correctly from alienware prior to Dell taking over them. It was a fantastic computer. Nothing can touch it. But it didn't cost an arm and a leg. The new one. I bought the him 17 is one that Dell has partners with alienware a whatever and you can definitely tell the difference between the quality of not only that the product but customer service also. I had just bought my M 17 and for some reason you it crashed the hard drive just lost everything. And I just could not find my backup discs that come with the laptop. It took me almost a month just to get one lousy backup disk for my computer. If you have to deal with Dell customer service you are in a world of hurt. Alienware technical support and customer service is 100% better than dealing with Dell. Sold this act by HP of introducing a new tablet and two months later, pulling it off the shelf doesn't surprise me. It's a shame, because I believe the tablet could have had a good future. I bought one during the firesale, 36 gig, and it's great. Just as it is but I searched the Internet and came up with some really good advice on how to make it even better and it's one super super nice tablet now minced really fast, easy-to-use I really like it. I believe HP made a huge mistake dropping it. If are lucky and they get their act together quickly they just might be able to get back in the race.
Dude - Win-8 is a year away from release. You're an idiot.