cindihoward wrote:AAAAGGGHHH! I really need this and I have to pay my taxes so no money! I have two HP Touch keyboards, two cases, two charger stands and I missed the fire sale and keep missing the woots when they are posted. Now I am in time for the Woot! and I don't have the loot. Shoot!

I know exactly what you mean. I thought for sure I'd see one or two of these during the woot-offs. I don't have all the accessories you do though. I'm still wondering how much use I'd get out of a bluetooth keyboard with this.

kingaroonie wrote:Finally. I sat through two woot-off waiting for one of these puppies to pop up and they never showed. Once you get a touchstone in your hands, head over to webOSnations and put preware on it.There's a ton of info over there.

Yep, webOSnation can be helpful for HP WebOS TouchPad users. Let's make it a bit quicker to get there when needed below.

http://www.webosnation.com/

http://forums.webosnation.com/

http://forums.webosnation.com/hp-touchpad/

I actually liked WebOS so much that I purchased HP Veer to play with until I am eligible for upgrade on my ATT contract. It was about 100 dollars on Amazon.com. So I retired my iPhone 4. The little thing has a free tether in preware app, allowing me to connect up to 5 devices on it, my iPhone is just an iPod Touch now.

I have owned an HP Touchpad 16gb for about a year. I have the following observations:

1) limited app library
2) many available apps display mini pda size on the screen
3) touch screen frequently misses taps, poor responsiveness
4) lots of misc bugs that cause crashing or app launch failure
5) web browser has issues on 70% of the sites I visit
6) unintuitive UI
7) cut, copy, paste works ok 3% of the time
8) even small pictures take time to load when flipping through the picture library
9) does no work optimally without 3rd party preware
10) it's not an iPad

Conclusion: It makes a great digital web comic book when you're taking a dump....not good for much else.

drowsykitten wrote:I have owned an HP Touchpad 16gb for about a year. I have the following observations:

1) limited app library
2) many available apps display mini pda size on the screen
3) touch screen frequently misses taps, poor responsiveness
4) lots of misc bugs that cause crashing or app launch failure
5) web browser has issues on 70% of the sites I visit
6) unintuitive UI
7) cut, copy, paste works ok 3% of the time
8) even small pictures take time to load when flipping through the picture library
9) does no work optimally without 3rd party preware
10) it's not an iPad

Conclusion: It makes a great digital web comic book when you're taking a dump....not good for much else.

2) Try the "TouchPad" selection on the catalog to view the apps that are built for tablet.
3) Hit Settings->Help->Live Chat, arrange for repair
4) Have never once seen a webOS app crash when I wasn't actively developing it
5) uh.. what sites? my experience is really the other way around
6) unintuitive? my 10 year old figured out how to operate everything on it within a few minutes, same with my 75 year old father, neither of whom are particularly familiar with modern technology. The 10 year old will not use my iOS or Android tabs, because they are so much more difficult.
7) work same as they do in iOS and Android
8) again, same as in iOS and Android and everything else.
9) nothing ever works "optimally" without adjustment.
10) multitasking. iOS and Android don't do it.

I have one of these from the fire sale i like the webOS allot. Plan on trying out ICS now that it seams stable.

I do love my 16GB TouchPad I picked up at firesale price of $99, I really do.

webOS has, IMHO, the best UI for a tablet, it was just not polished enough and rushed. Really looking forward to what Open webOS can do for that.

As for now, Android works very nicely on it. I use CM9 Unofficial Nightly personally, and pretty much everything except the camera and the mic works perfectly. I can watch YouTube, play all sorts of video files with MXPlayer, I've got access to pretty solid Browser and also Chrome Beta, and I stream my music from Google Play Music since it won't fit on 16GB storage.

I would like to point out that tablet app selection is still quite lacking on both webOS and Android, so don't expect much in that regards. Android is slightly better in number of apps, but lots of apps are just stretched out phone apps and many games need different tweaks and hacks to make them run properly.

There is one glaring issue that I feel the need to point out and will dedicate my next post for it.

For those who are using CM7/9 and can easily use Rom Manger to backup what you have now and throw something else on there for kicks, give MIUI a shot. I really dig it. I've only been playing with it for a couple of days so I can't vouch for it as a long-term solution, but it's pretty sweet so far.

How durable are these for kids? I have a 11 year old down syndrome sister I want to get a tablet for because she uses my android phone to play angry birds surprisingly well on. I see there is not an otter box for them.

Love my Touchpad. I must be lucky because my Touchpad is perfectly smooth/stable with the CM9 Nightlies, minus the mic and the camera not working. Actually CM9 works better with my home's wifi then WebOs does, as WebOs doesn't seem to have the ability to connect to hidden SSIDs on AT&T's 2Wire routers and CM9 does.
The camera not working isn't a big loss to me, because even when it's working in WebOS it takes horrible pictures/video.

I rarely boot into WebOs anymore, the app store seems incredibly empty compared to Apple/Android and I was never impressed with the OS anyway.

There is a huge design flaw with the plastic it is made of. Small hairline cracks start from openings of the device like the speakers or the micro USB port and starts spreading, sometimes even fully craking and pieces of plastic falling out.

This has been widely reported, and happens to many people who hasn't even dropped, applied pressure, subjeted it to extreme heat or cold, just regular usage, and it happens one day.

What is even worse is that the HP repair service, or whoever they outsource the repairing to, has been quite terrible with the actual "repair" part.
Many people have testified that after speaking to an HP agent and getting a repair order, they would send their device in, only to get it back unrepaired, replaced with another unit that has a different defect, and even units that won't even turn on!

Whoever's doing the QA on the refurbished devices for the repair seems like they don't really want the job.

If you want to read for yourself, here's all the threads reporting the issue:
http://forums.webosnation.com/hp-touchpad/288235-touchpad-case-cracked-speaker.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1250645
http://slickdeals.net/f/3252526-Entire-HP-touchpad-line-defective
http://forums.hpwebos.com/t5/HP-TouchPad-Software-Hardware/HP-needs-to-find-a-new-repair-contractor/td-p/369429

It was a great deal at $99. It still is probably a good deal at $200. But after seeing this kind of issue arising and the quality of their warranty service, I have to say it was a highway robberty at the original $500 price they were charging.

For me personally, at this price, I'd just go for an iPad 2 only so I won't have to deal with HP's horrendous repair service.

*edit fixed wrong link

Get a refurb Xoom. No incompatible dead OS or quirky rooting. Just really good. I love mine! I got it used and the warranty is still good till July. Has 4G capability. Was under $300 from seller on eBay.

Stank of perfume when I got it though. After a good wipe with a damp terrycloth towel and a swab down alcohol it was fine.

Don't really like the HDMI dock charger as I feel the HDMI and USB plugs are not gonna last. They clash every time I put it in the dock. Needs some sort of alignment system to make it slip into place or a custom plug in addition to the other ports.

Oh well. I wasn't consulted about the design so I guess I'll have to deal with it.

tlevash wrote:How durable are these for kids? I have a 11 year old down syndrome sister I want to get a tablet for because she uses my android phone to play angry birds surprisingly well on. I see there is not an otter box for them.

Apparently durability is pretty good,(One forum post claimed he bought 2 and gave one to his 5 year old and that it's been fine) but there is a design flaw with the device that causes it to crack regardless of the force that was applied to it.

You can refer to my post for more information.

HP sold them on clearance last year for 149. Why are these 100 more? I like the woot site and have bought many items here, but this feels like gouging. If HP and from what I read, Best Buy, sold them on clearance for $149, I don't think 249 is a deal. Does woot monitor these? An explanation would be nice.

I have a 16gb refurb bought on woot a couple of months ago. After you install android ics its most likely you wont wanna boot webos again.

Android ics is alfa and still missing microphone, camera and other software functions. For basic use its awsome and the best price you willl probably get for a 32gig . Hardware feels like the ipad 1. Battery last all day long.

I dont think i would buy this one for 250 now. I think there are more options that are not so expensive and wont be running alpha versions, however stilli s a pretty good dal.

rampman10 wrote:HP sold them on clearance last year for 149. Why are these 100 more? I like the woot site and have bought many items here, but this feels like gouging. If HP and from what I read, Best Buy, sold them on clearance for $149, I don't think 249 is a deal. Does woot monitor these? An explanation would be nice.

The fire sale is what I am talking about. Some others mentioned it. Why would the price go up instead of down. Not a bad deal for a tablet, but not a good deal for an obsolete tablet tha sold for 100 less last year in my opinion.

I didn't see it posted, so here are the simple steps to Android CM9 onto HP Touchpad:
http://liliputing.com/2012/01/how-to-install-android-4-0-on-the-hp-touchpad-cyanogenmod-9-alpha.html

dong1225 wrote:Apparently durability is pretty good,(One forum post claimed he bought 2 and gave one to his 5 year old and that it's been fine) but there is a design flaw with the device that causes it to crack regardless of the force that was applied to it.

You can refer to my post for more information.

Thanks

wootchawant wrote:i continue to love my touchpad! for me, webos has been great, so i haven't bothered to tweak anything. the screen and images are fantastic, the battery life is remarkable, and the device overall is now indispensable in my world. as someone who doesn't need 500 apps, the hp touchpad has turned out to have everything i wanted in a tablet.

i didn't love the original hp case, so i bought one on amazon that fits perfectly at a great price.

p.s. i'll reiterate this note from the last time this item appeared on woot: the firesale pricing is OVER, so there's no use whining about it or quibbling about "higher prices." it has been eight months now, people--let it go already. this is a great deal on a great item. i recommend that you pick one up and find that out for yourself...

How is a $100 increase on an obsolete item a good deal? How is mentioning it whining? Now I definitely won't be buying one. Thanks for letting me keep my money this time.

Um.. Sorry.. But this has to be the worst tablet I own. The apps suck.. So few compared to Android and iPad ... And not the same ones. Also, the apps that are the same are free on the other two platforms but cost on HP.. Touch accuracy well, isn't accurate.. It's slow.. And the speakers are junk. The only plus is that it plays videos without having to download a flas app. If you have 250.00 to throw away, send it my way instead of buying this crap.. It'll be out o better use

drowsykitten wrote:I have owned an HP Touchpad 16gb for about a year. I have the following observations:

1) limited app library
2) many available apps display mini pda size on the screen
3) touch screen frequently misses taps, poor responsiveness
4) lots of misc bugs that cause crashing or app launch failure
5) web browser has issues on 70% of the sites I visit
6) unintuitive UI
7) cut, copy, paste works ok 3% of the time
8) even small pictures take time to load when flipping through the picture library
9) does no work optimally without 3rd party preware
10) it's not an iPad


Totally agree...!!! Glad I got the iPad2 and my husband got th HP!! He's in the bathroom far longer then I am!! LoL ..
Conclusion: It makes a great digital web comic book when you're taking a dump....not good for much else.

At $149 I bought one and enjoy using ICS on it. Works great surfing the net, playing games, netflix, playing media from my NAS. At $250 I'm only a hondo away from a refurbished iPad2 with a one year warranty. No dice. $100 savings isn't worth the hassle of a discontinued model that I don't think will ever truly run ICS perfectly. I don't mention webOS because it's not worth mentioning.

rampman10 wrote:The fire sale is what I am talking about. Some others mentioned it. Why would the price go up instead of down. Not a bad deal for a tablet, but not a good deal for an obsolete tablet tha sold for 100 less last year in my opinion.

Because the original fire sale price was clearly too low as evidenced by the high volume of resales on those tablets purchased during the fire sale.

To all the haters and those confused by the haters' remarks:

There is no "rooting" of this device... it is wide-open for you do do anything you want. You don't need to exploit a security flaw (as in all Android or iOS devices) to "root" it. All you have to do is follow *trivial* instructions and enable developer mode.

The fire-sale is over... yeah, $149 was a phenomenal deal on a $599 tablet, but the fire-sale is over. Again, the fire-sale is over! (it was a FIRE-SALE, google the term)
They don't make these any more, they haven't since last year... this is obviously NOS (New/Old-Stock). They won't be making any more and no-one will ever sell them new for $150 again - deal with it.

There is no other tablet on the market with specs close to this for nearly this cheap.

Facts:
1. NEW (not refurb)
2. 1GB of RAM (that's 1024MB if you don't know how to convert, double that in nearly any other tablet that costs $150 more)
3. Dual-core Snapdragon 1.2GHz CPU that is trivially overclockable to 1.7GHz (and many are running it at 1.9GHz). I don't see the need as mine is amazingly fast at the stock speed.
4. Excellent display, even in sunlight (I live in S. Florida, so anyone who says they can't see it in sunlight hasn't seen one). I run mine at 30% brightness during the day and rarely have to raise it above that. If you want to know the display quality, it's exactly the same as an iPad 1 (same part number, as a tear-down site learned).
5. LOUD *stereo* speakers. This thing is the loudest tablet I've heard, and the speakers sound phenomenal.
6. 32GB internal storage, not 2GB or 4GB like those with comparable prices.
7. Very sensitive and accurate capacitive multitouch (10-point, I believe, not 2-point like some of the cheap tablets on the market).
8. Inductive (wireless) charging... no other tablet has this. Get a Touchstone and you'll wonder What Tiny Flowers other manufacturers are thinking making you plug in a cable all the time.
9. 6300mAh battery... nearly double the capacity of the gTablet, just for example. No other tablet near this price has such an enormous battery. Mine is typically >50% at night when I charge it after watching an hour of videos (on the train on the way to work and back), playing games, reading PDFs, websurfing, etc... and that's on unoptimized ALPHA ICS installation. WebOS is *much* more efficient, I'd be at >98% battery after watching 1/2 hour of video by the time I got to work (GPU-optimized hardware-accelerated decompression in WebOS).
10. Multiple-OSes with dual-boot. I go back and forth between CN (not CM) ICS and WebOS with mine with no issues at all.

All that said, it is not without problems:
1. Fingerprints. Get the HP case that doubles as a stand - it works great and protects from scratches too (this sleeve won't do that). Currently $9.99 on Amazon.
2. Cracks near the speakers. This is a known design-flaw. Google it, you'll find tons of people with this problem. Mine has one, but you have to hold it *just right* to even be able to see it... it doesn't bother me enough to return it.
3. Not as many apps as Android or iOS on WebOS. This is true, but it also means it's much easier to find what you want without wading through enormous amounts of garbage and low-quality apps that suck up your personal info for their own use.
4. Weight. They didn't magically make the enormous battery (or integrated inductive charger) lighter than it can be with current technology... so yeah, it's heavier than an iPad 1. If you find an iPad 1 heavy, you need to work out more.
5. No SD card slot. This one is annoying to me personally... I'd really like the ability to simply swap cards as I watch a lot of videos on this thing (mostly TED talks and training videos from MIT's OCW program, and I've got a lot of 'em) and I've got an enormous amount of PDFs (mostly manuals and documentation for Solaris and Sun/Oracle hardware).


So, seriously folks, this is one amazing device... the stock OS is brilliant with real multitasking, not task suspending/switching like Android and iOS have.
It is real Linux, unlike Android. Yes, I know Android uses the Linux kernel, but anything you see or interact with is JAVA, not a native Linux application. Even the scripting in Android (via SL4A) is interpreted in Java, not native. The multitasking is therefor handled by (and limited by) Java, the Linux scheduler has nothing to do with it.

The UI is so easy to learn it's incredible. Luddites have no problem learning it. If you think it's hard to use, you haven't tried at all. I picked this up and was comfortable with it in 5 minutes. I find my wife's iPad infuriating to deal with compared to WebOS (or Maemo, on my N900, N800, and 770). Android in comparison is OK... nothing to get excited about. Took weeks to get used to Gingerbread, at least a week to get used to ICS... both pale in comparison to the ease-of-use and integration of WebOS.


Advice:
If you buy one, update the OS 1st. Unlike other OSes, this won't add "security features" that lock you out from doing other things.
Next install Pre-ware. Again, no "rooting" involved, this is not a locked down OS... you'll open up access to a lot of really cool applications.
There are many tweaking guides out there, webosnation is your friend.
The stock OS is the most stable I've used in a mobile device.
That said, if you want to dual-boot Android, check out XDA Developers... many are happy with CM9, I'm very happy with ClassicNerd. Both are in Alpha, but they're amazingly stable.

I installed Android as I'm a very curious person and figured I'd try it before buying a PDF reader for WebOS - Adobe Reader (on WebOS and Android) could not suck more (try it on a 1200 page PDF some time and you'll never use it again). I found ezPDF (free on Android) and absolutely love it.

Should I buy a third one?

widmer69 wrote:You know how log it takes to put ICS on this? 15-20 mins tops. And it NEVER crashes. Multi-tasking is no problem. Stock browser, Chrome and Dolphin HD are great web browser choices. There are also plenty of email clients available.

Never crashes? No need to exaggerate.

I snuck in on the last hour and managed to get one in the fire sale from HP. WebOS is great, but honestly I use it with Cyanogenmod 9 ICS most of the time. It is very stable even though they call it 'alpha 2' because, as others have mentioned, the camera and a few other things don't work in ICS. It does Netflix, Angry Birds (all flavors), K9 Mail, and all my main Android apps just fine. I'd highly recommend the touchstone charger for it.

I dunno. If these were at the fire sale price of $149 I would be interested. I might even bite at $199. This price? Not so much. For $249 I'm still leaning toward the Archos 80 G9 Turbo with a twin 1.5 gHz CPU and ICS pre-installed and ready to go out of the box. The only difference is the G9 has a slightly smaller screen and half the RAM, but I think I can live with that. Am I missing anything else?

pupyluvr wrote:Drop another hundred smackers on the fire sale and you've got yourself A refurb iPad Deuce with a 1 year apple warranty.

Not anymore, you don't. Go check out the selection of refurb'd iPads at Apple's online store sometime soon. The 16gb + wifi base models for the first and second generation are gone, making the cheapest one at the moment (1st gen 32gb +wifi) only............... $399. This kinda sucks for me, since my grandma was so enamored with my iPad 3 that I was going to get her a first gen to replace her desktop. Oh well.

drowsykitten wrote:I have owned an HP Touchpad 16gb for about a year. I have the following observations:

1) limited app library
2) many available apps display mini pda size on the screen
3) touch screen frequently misses taps, poor responsiveness
4) lots of misc bugs that cause crashing or app launch failure
5) web browser has issues on 70% of the sites I visit
6) unintuitive UI
7) cut, copy, paste works ok 3% of the time
8) even small pictures take time to load when flipping through the picture library
9) does no work optimally without 3rd party preware
10) it's not an iPad

Conclusion: It makes a great digital web comic book when you're taking a dump....not good for much else.

The price isn't that of an iPAD so don't expect one.

Hey, did you know that pc connection
Express has these for $219 right now?


Moderator: That is refurbished. The one sold here is NEW with a full one-year warranty.

mrtoast98 wrote:I dunno. If these were at the fire sale price of $149 I would be interested. I might even bite at $199. This price? Not so much. For $249 I'm still leaning toward the Archos 80 G9 Turbo with a twin 1.5 gHz CPU and ICS pre-installed and ready to go out of the box. The only difference is the G9 has a slightly smaller screen and half the RAM, but I think I can live with that. Am I missing anything else?

You seem to have it memorized. I doubt you missed a thing. Go get your Archos but what's for sale is the HP Touch Pad.

I have the Xoom, it's great, another fam member has an iPad2, they say it's great, another has a Toshiba Thrive, they say it's fine. How come no one is complaining here with 3 different brands? Is it because we don't have HP? I paid $100 more on here for the Motorola Xoom, refurb but a 1 year warranty. I don't regret it.

Either buy it or don't. You can't haggle price with Woot. It's a great price, if you don't want it go talk to an Archos forum about the specs of it.

I bought a 16GB model at a local pawn shop for less than $150 and put ICS 4.0.4 on it. Love it and have never regreted my purchase!

I have the HP Touchpad 32 gig unit from the firesale at the firesale price.

Observations

Things I didn't like
1) Web OS is just ok, it is slow, but it is intuitive to use
2) Web Os is effectively dead, and the developer exodus and lack of updates for programs and Webos reflect this despite it going open source after summer
3) the Marketplace is very very sparse, and any apps are expensive compared to their Itunes equivalent
4) no hdmi to hook into TV
5) takes as long as a conventional computer to boot in WebOS
6) Heavy, I am a big guy, and holding the Touchpad up with one hand for any length of time is very uncomfortable
7) The web browser is painfully slow sometimes

Things I like
1) Easy to unlock or install preware
2) Fast processor and decent GPU allows you to watch 1080p hi profile video no problem with Kalemsoft player
3) Can install Android, which shows the true potential of the tablet. Android on Hp Touchpad is very fast, and app selection is only second to Apple Appstore
4) decent battery life, just slightly less than a standard Ipad

With that said, I been following Android Cyranomod development very closely and the Ice Cream Sandwich HP touchpad port is still not ready in my opinion for everyday consumption b/c there are some show stopping bugs. There is also the issue that installing Cyranomod isn't for everyone b/c of the potential technical issues and complexity.

As is, this price is 100 or more dollars too much. Google is going to release a Tegra 3 quad core tablet soon for 200-250 dollars soon. There is absolutely no reason to spend money on Hp Touchpad.

ShakeyBobWillis wrote:Never crashes? No need to exaggerate.

Mine hasn't crashed yet - going back all the way to December when I first put CM7 on it.

While I like webOS (nifty multitasking), the browser and app selection are beyond awful. Once I got ICS on there I can't remember the last time I booted up webOS.

Bingo. I like the hatdware but can't see buying one for 100 over the clearance price.

You are able to load ICS on this touchpad??Where do you get it?

ja2038 wrote:I am really enjoying mine, I picked it up at Best Buy 2 weeks ago on the returns/overstock table for $129.

Put ICS / CM 9 Alpha 2 on it, and it works great as a netflix device.

But in CM 9, the camera does not yet work, nor does the microphone, and well, I think it's terrific for $129, but overpriced at $249.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also got one from Best Buy a couple of weeks ago when people started seeing some resurface in inventory - brand new for $150. It is nice for $150, not a great deal at this price though!

I picked up the slip case on ebay for $7.75 shipped. It's nothing special at all, but will do.
I bought a Skinomi carbon fiber skin for $12.71 shipped (skinomi.com with coupon code skinomi25) Didn't open the touchpad until the skin arrived to avoid getting any marks on the shiny touchpad case. The Skinomi skin is really nice.
Got a touchstone at Office Depot for $16.04 out the door.

I'm not thrilled with webOS and will be adding the android mod when I get a chance. Other than that, the touchpad is a quality piece of hardware. Still, very overpriced here on woot though.

rampman10 wrote:How is a $100 increase on an obsolete item a good deal? How is mentioning it whining? Now I definitely won't be buying one. Thanks for letting me keep my money this time.

I'm not an expert but I think it works this way. Woot sells an item based on what they had to pay for it, not on what HP was asking when they said they wanted to get out of that part of the business. If you know of a source to buy these at $149, grab them up and you'll make a very nice profit.

telepathboy wrote:I bought a refurb 16 last time they were around. ICS works great. Slightly more work in getting it running than say rooting your phone, but totally worth it.

I'm one of the users that have some of the wifi glitchyness... but after updating to the latest nightly build, it seems to be golden. Wifi has been strong all day.

I had issues too. Any chance you were using an AirPort?