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HP slams iPad, shows Flash on slate

updated 06:00 pm EST, Mon March 8, 2010

HP promo shows AIR, Flash, small keyboard


HP has put up a new video (seen below) of its Windows 7 slate in a direct jab at the iPad. The clip shows the tablet running Adobe's Flash for sites like Hulu as well as AIR for out-of-browser apps like Pandora radio. The presenters add that Flash on the tablet is boosted by hardware and should support HD video for "hours and hours" on a battery charge.

The spot is clearly backed by Adobe and repeats the company's vocal but indirect critcisms of Apple. It notes that 85 percent of the top 100 sites on ranking site Alexa use some form of Flash, while 75 percent of video on the web uses Flash. That users don't have to load a separate app is also considered a plus.

Besides the plugin content, HP has also shown some of the first instances of customization for the interface: the slate now has a "home" area, a slightly modified web browser and large icons with clear touch areas. However, the company has also revealed that the current on-screen keyboard is virtually unchanged from Microsoft's and is much smaller than what the iPad offers.

HP still only expects its tablet to ship sometime later this year, but it isn't believed to have hardware far along enough in development to follow after the iPad's early April release.


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By Electronista Staff

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computers, gadgets, HP, Adobe, Flash, Hulu, tablet, Windows 7, AIR, Pandora, Apple, iPad

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  1. slapppy

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2008

    -5
    03/08, 06:18pm | report spam | reply

    Apple Fail

    Look at that HP and Adobe just put Apple in its place. This video just blows away the iPad!

    Oh yeah how I love my CPU ramping up to 100% watching this video.


  1. Salty

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Jul 2005

    +15
    03/08, 06:35pm | report spam | reply

    HP Slate Device

    HP Slate Device... HP Slate Device... HP Slate Device... I swear... whoever saw this in marketing and didn't kill it should be shot.


  1. slapppy

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2008

    +3
    03/08, 07:00pm | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    Killer Feature

    OMG, I can play Pandora while I surf the internet. That alone makes it worth 900 bucks!


  1. NCMacMan

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2009

    +27
    03/08, 07:16pm | report spam | reply

    Open Platform???

    What got to me was his comment that Flash is enabling developers, content providers, and hardware manufacturers the ability to create an open platform -- for what, FLASH??? Flash is not an open platform, it is proprietary. This means that those huge percentages that were quoted in the beginning of the video ties the user to a proprietary, bloated, old technology that is not open. Our internet isn't open...its owned by Adobe, Microsoft, Google, et al. We need to move to open standards like HTML5, AAC, et cetera that unchain the internet from license fees.

    The problem that isn't mentioned (but was demonstrated) is that this slate isn't multi-touch. Notice how the user continually taps here and there, but cannot pinch and zoom, swipe, or scroll by using two fingers. Flash is not multi-touch enabled. I wonder how HP plans, or if HP plans on providing this device with a multi-touch interface.

    Plus, I'm not impressed with the HP Slate Device (what a name!) as it just isn't snappy enough. Ramp up the speed baby!


  1. Foe Hammer

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2005

    +17
    03/08, 07:27pm | report spam | reply

    Please Wean Us!

    I could care less about Adopey's Flush. Says more about the lazy website designers and the companies who employ them.

    The iPad will wean the web off Flush like the iMac weaned the world off floppy drives.


  1. tuckerchristine

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2010

    +16
    03/08, 07:59pm | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    Windows 7 Touchscreen???

    Have you tried using a Windows 7 based touchscreen device yet? Not quite unusable, but certainly frustrating. Other devices coming may be give the iPad a run for its money but nothing based on Windows 7 will.


    Flash will not be the factor everybody is trying to make it out to be. I've had it uninstalled for months and have missed out on very little. Once YouTube completes its HTML5 tests/upgrade I won't miss out on anything.


    Comment buried. Show
  1. mtnrunner2

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2009

    -14
    03/08, 08:03pm | report spam | reply

    iPhone/iPad OS needs Flash

    Personally, I don't really like navigating web sites that use Flash, but so much multimedia content is in the format, that not supporting it is just plain self-destructive, and is frustrating for me as a user. Anything that rules out a popular technology on the web is a bad idea, as well as bad business.

    As for "open standards", the term is practically meaningless nowadays, and I ignore large companies when they use it, because it means they just want you to use their proprietary standard.

    What matters is the number of products that support a given standard, and that the standard has an API that's easy to use, so lots of products get developed.


  1. iphonerulez

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2008

    +14
    03/08, 08:12pm | report spam | reply

    Lack of Flash is the one thing that

    competitors can attack as a weakness of the iPad. All the competitors seem to be using that one point. God, if Steve only tricked those b******* into believing that iPad wouldn't be running Flash and then turned the tables, those suckers would just about collapse into a heap.

    I don't think Steve will do it, but it would be really funny if that was the plan. I firmly believe that Flash will not be relevant to mobile web users. Guaranteed, advertisers will demand web designers to have an alternative to Flash if they can't reach Apple mobile users with Flash. Apple mobile users will be the tail wagging the dog. If touch interfaces take over for mobile users, I don't see what the importance of Flash will be for anyone except Flash developers. All the larger sites will definitely change from Flash or offer alternatives. Advertisers need Apple mobile users more than Apple mobile users need Flash.

    I may be an exception, but since I run ClickToFlash on my iMac, I don't come into much contact with Flash except for some photography web sites and I tried to avoid those that are Flash-heavy because they just take so much time to load and are too damn fancy. I prefer seeing those grey boxes that just say "Flash" and don't load. I don't even care about what's in those boxes. They've usually just been ad banners and they're nothing I really want to see.


  1. juraiprince

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2006

    +8
    03/08, 09:01pm | report spam | reply

    No App Store...

    ...No iTunes Store...NO SALE!


  1. Fred_Mulligan

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2010

    +23
    03/08, 09:05pm | report spam | reply

    Sweeet

    Ohh yeah--anyone else catch that s*** 3-second scroll lag on the NYT website? How about the sweet visual responses on the "home screen." This is a promo video and the thing looks awful.

    I know this comment looks long, but at least read the beginning -- you'll be happy you did.

    So for everyone who doesn't get it yet, this is why Flash is stupid on touch devices:

    If you go to the first point in the video where the guy presses 'Play' on the Flash plugin to start the video on the "HP slate device," you'll notice a little popover description of that 'Play' button. Therein lies the problem. Almost all Flash based games use 'hover' functions of conventional mice -- a kind of midway between no interaction and an actual click -- to bring up a menu or a window with info.

    Guess what, there's no way to simulate a mouse hover with your finger. It's either touch or don't. So anything that uses a mouse hover to bring up content, which is a whole lot, will plain not work -- at all. On anything -- Flash-enabled or not.

    As for browser videos, they're rapidly migrating to HTML5, which is a newer, superior technology that saves battery life and uses fewer resources to bring you the same content.

    Flash is outdated. The uproar over Apple's foregoing of compatibility with it in the iPad and other iPhone OS devices is exaggerated and mostly stems from a misinformed perspective.

    There's no technological benefit that comes with Flash. The guy who mentioned "weaning" above has got it right -- its days are numbered. You don't adopt a primitive disadvantageous technology because content providers have. You work with them to make their content better using the best technology available. That's what Apple is doing. That's why there's no Flash: because Flash sucks.


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