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Anyone else snag a TouchPad during the fire sale?

I don't think you compete with the iPad by pricing your tablet the same as the iPad and hoping people will buy it. I think you've got to undercut them. I think if HP did the $99 and $149 sale right off the bat for just a week or two and then raised the price to $399-$499 I think it would've been a very successful product. The $399-499 price range undercuts the iPad and the big sale would've established a base attracting both consumers and developers. They'd have taken a beating in that first couple of weeks, but would've recovered IMO.
 
I also had a Galaxy tab also which I liked but would agree that Android for phones doesn't work as well for tablets. I think a fair comparison would have to be between a Honeycomb tablet and the HP TP. Unfortunately I do not have any time on a Honeycomb tablet (was in the market for one when the HP TP deal came up).

The hardware on the Touch is solid, as I said the screen is beautiful and can be seen from all different angles, it's as good as the iPad 2's. The body is sleek (actually to be honest reminds me a lot of my iPhone 3G) and feels really nice in your hand. It is not as thin as an iPad 2 (which I have some time on since my father owns one) but the size doesn't bother me at all, like I said it is very sleek.

I wanted a tablet for internet, ereader, and causal gaming. The internet experience get's my full approval. In the three day's that I have owned it (including sunday with the hurricane) it hasn't dissappointed me yet, it's fast and very fluid. I haven't tried it as an ereader since I really don't want to buy into kindle yet, I am hoping for something better to come out. Same goes for gaming, just haven't gotten the time to look into it yet. The battery has held up to major internet abuse, I put it on the charger yesterday after running it all day with 68% left on it.

For the original asking price of $500+ I would have spent the money on a Honeycomb Tablet, I just didn't have an interest in webOS. But after using it I can now say that it would have been worth the price, it's a solid unit and webOS is a nice OS. You will wish that some of the stuff in webOS was in Android. The big question on everyones mind is what is the future of developer support. If HP didn't kill this thing off, the lack of apps would have, I really hope developers support it since there are millions of them out there now.

For $149 there is nothing else out there like it, you will not find a better experience for the money. Even if all I could do was surf the internet on this thing it would be worth that price. Some of my opinions may change as I try to do other things with it but my base opinion won't change, it's worth that price by far (I know this sounds confusing).
 
If you want to test out the ereader, there are all kinds of free books on Kindle. They're old classic stuff that's in the public domain, but it'll give you an idea of the experience.
 
I ended up having my roommates pick up a couple 16gb TP's off craigslist yesterday and so far the experience has been alright. I find the resolution to be lacking a little, it seems like the galaxy is a little better. The OS is smooth but with no widgets its a little annoying doing a few things. The app store is virtually non existent. I can't wait to port these babies over to Android this week.

Overall, I can see why no one bought this tablet.
 
2strokenut said:
I ended up having my roommates pick up a couple 16gb TP's off craigslist yesterday and so far the experience has been alright. I find the resolution to be lacking a little, it seems like the galaxy is a little better. The OS is smooth but with no widgets its a little annoying doing a few things. The app store is virtually non existent. I can't wait to port these babies over to Android this week.

Overall, I can see why no one bought this tablet.
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I pulled it out of the box about 45 mins ago and have been playing with it. My first impression of it is positive. It's irritating to me to not be able to put anything on the desktop, but that may be something I just haven't figured out how to do yet.

I've not tried any of the tips/tricks in the article linked earlier so I'm using it as HP intended though I will probably follow all those steps at some point. My only disappointment at this point is the app selection.

Edit: My volume button appears to be broken on my TouchPad. The thing is stuck in muted mode. If I crank up the volume, it automatically goes down again. I'm not sure if I can actually get this fixed or not from Best Buy.
 
I ordered off Best Buy. I sent them an email about the busted volume rocker and I'm waiting to hear back from them.

After screwing with it for a while, I can see why people would not buy it at the $500-600 price range HP was wanting. If I had paid that price for it, I'd have taken it back immediately. Out of the box it's laggy as crap and the app catalog is lacking. At the $150 price tag, it's not a bad deal for what you get. The Kindle app alone is worth that price I think. It's better in a lot of ways than the Android app.

If I had paid $150 for this when it came out and didn't already have an Android tablet, I may not have bought one.
 
colchiro said:
Have you tweaked it yet (turned off the logging) or overclocked it?
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I've not overclocked it, but I did turn off logging and some other speed tweaks. It's definitely more responsive. I'm reluctant to do much with it as I may get it replaced by HP due to the busted volume rocker.

My main problem I'm having with it is it does not like to be forcefully ejected from the computer. You have to be nice to it and remove it safely or it'll corrupt your files. It's happened to me at least twice now.
 
Guys, worry no more! ;) Whoever wanted to get hands on the TouchPad but didn't make it on time, there's another chance for you, HP announced they'll put one last run of the TouchPad on the production!
Read the story on android focus or on HP's page.
 
Interesting. I signed up for the alert as well, but got nothing. I've got one already, but wanted one to give as a gift for Christmas.

I'm with MH on no need to overclock. Turn off the logging in the background and some of the other patches and it works beautifully. My only real gripe about it is the lack of apps, but I paid all of $149 for it so I can't complain all that much. If I paid $599 for this as it was originally priced I would be raising holy heck. Not even close to being worth that.
 
I paid $480 for one of each (plus one case and screen protector), but still would like to get a cheap one for once. :D
 
colchiro said:
I got an email from HP with the same message. They don't say they'll be the same, low price tho. :D
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"
Q: How does HP plan to address disappointed customers?
All those who requested notification have received a one-time exclusive offer along with their email as our thanks for their patience and loyalty throughout this situation."


So, what was the "one-time exclusive offer?" :)
 
I'm on my touchpad now, its patched and overclocking to 1.7, it is really nice, the biggest complaint after about a week of use is the lack of apps. If you subscribe to Time, People, or Sports Illustrated, get those apps because they really highlight the display capabilities of the touchpad.
 
NowVoyager said:
"
Q: How does HP plan to address disappointed customers?
All those who requested notification have received a one-time exclusive offer along with their email as our thanks for their patience and loyalty throughout this situation."


So, what was the "one-time exclusive offer?" :)
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25% coupon from the HP Direct store.
 
A.Nonymous said:
I've not overclocked it, but I did turn off logging and some other speed tweaks. It's definitely more responsive. I'm reluctant to do much with it as I may get it replaced by HP due to the busted volume rocker.

My main problem I'm having with it is it does not like to be forcefully ejected from the computer. You have to be nice to it and remove it safely or it'll corrupt your files. It's happened to me at least twice now.
Click to expand...

have you noticed it says "ouch that hurt" when you unplug it wrong? Lol
 
Randino said:
25% coupon from the HP Direct store.
Click to expand...

Will you get to use that on the either of the Tablet deals? I mean, it was a "thank you for being patient" gift so, it should be good for what you've been waiting for, yes? That would really be a tremendous deal. Congrats!
 
How much do you want to bet the price will be raised and that 25% coupon just helps numb the pain OR the coupon is for accessories only?

I've got all my accessories already... touchstone, case, screen protectors.
 
There is some language in there which makes me wonder if they'll just fulfill the requests for all the people who have emails in and then end it?
 
The coupon is bogus. If you look at it it says, "You'll save 25% off all printers, ink, HP accessories, and PCs starting at or above $599." You have to spend $599 just to start getting the 25% off. Completely bogus.
 
Language...it's a beautiful thing! smh

So, if (like the Tablets) they have a Fire Sale on PC's you get zilch because the price has to be above $599. And, if you're in the market for a new PC right now, you might be skittish about buying one of theirs knowing that they *could* be drastically marked down at any moment AND also being armed with that tidbit of info that there will be NO SUPPORT for it going forward - you bypass.

Result? There is no gift, LOL
 
If I was in the market for a PC, I might be tempted, but honestly, how many people are there that really wanted a Touchpad just because it was cheap AND are in the market for a PC?
 
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