My TouchPad Today: Windpower North of Boston

More meanderings with my TouchPad and Pre2 in tow...

Using windpower to generate electricity is a controversial subject in Massachusetts and many other parts of the nation. But in a small group of communities just north of downtown Boston, wind turbines have established visibility, if nothing else, during the past few years.



Charlestown

Somerville view of MWRA wind turbine -- HP Pre2 photo

MWRA wind turbine as seen on Rte. 99, Charlestown -- HP Pre2 photo

On Route 99, across from a former Boston Edison electric plant, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) recently constructed a 364 foot-high -- at blade peak -- wind turbine in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston to generate power to assist with sewage processing.

Click here to learn more about the MWRA turbine.

View an HP Pre2 video clip of the turbine on YouTube. (The video was cropped and processed in Super C, Virtual Dub and Windows Live MovieMaker.)



Medford

McGlynn Elementary School wind turbine -- HP Pre2 photo

In 2009, the City of Medford erected a 131-foot wind turbine on the grounds of the McGlynn Elementary School. The 35-foot blades of the unit have been generating 10% of the school's power needs.

Click here to learn more about this turbine on the shore of the Mystic River.



Chelsea

Forbes Park wind turbine -- HP Pre2 photo

Forbes Park from Orient Heights, Revere -- HP Pre2 photo

Reconstruction of an old factory complex began in 2008 on the shore of the "Chelsea Creek". The most visible part of the Forbes Park/Forbes Lofts project is probably a 165-foot wind turbine rising out of the site.

The entire Forbes project may have been stalled by the poor economy, but the turbine is still a stunning sight to local residents and travelers on nearby routes.

Click here to learn more about the original vision for Forbes Park.



This post was drafted on my TouchPad


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My TouchPad Today: A Lost Cause? - Kodak AiO Cloud Printing with TouchPad and Pre2

I've been aware for the past year or so that cloud printing has been available from HP and Google, but never paid it much mind until last Friday evening. While troubleshooting a printing problem in Word 2010, I found that Kodak has made cloud printing options available for a number of its current and classic printers.

Two choices appear to be available...

• Google Cloud Print
• Kodak's own e-print service

I opted to go with Kodak's service as it sounded like what I've understood HP's cloud service to be -- your printer is assigned an e-mail address. As long as you have access to e-mail, you can send an attachment to your printer's address and, moments later, out prints your document. Kodak takes care of finding/determining the ip address of your printer.

Friday night, while sitting next to my printer at home, I test printed from my TouchPad and Pre2. Seemed to work fine.

While out and about on Saturday, I sent several items back to the printer from my TP and Pre combo. Arriving back at home I found that nothing printed.

This led to some to some extended futzing around with my Kodak printer, laptop, TP, and Pre2.

It seems to be that the computer attached to the Kodak printer needs to be turned on and must have a "connector" software program active and logged on... as well as being logged in on Google Cloud Print for the service(s) to work.

My bottom line: unless I'm missing something about the setup/configuration of these services to do cloud printing from your TP or Pre2 to a Kodak printer, take a pass on it until it becomes much more streamlined for users.




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TouchPad OTA Update: Why I see it as MIA for July 31

For starters, I really do want to see HP release a SIGNIFICANT OTA Update on or before July 31. Its just that, for my money, the signs point toward something later, perhaps something on the order of... "by the start of calendar year Q4, so that we can do it right for our customers".

Language

Phrases like "Shortly after... " and "... by the end of the month" are not new from the Palm gang, but HP is now getting in on that act. That's disturbing and unsettling, indicating that the HP suits don't have enough confidence in what's happening on the OTA update front to truly put a stake in the sand. I think they've left themselves some wiggle room to tap dance again when July 31 comes and goes.

Quantity & Quality

I have no doubt that they've been working on updates for months, but methinks -- going back to the language they're using -- HP knows that they don't have the quantity and quality of updates coming to offset what their customers (rightfully) perceive as the necessary updates for the TouchPad. They're in a bind and not in the mood to admit it.

Commitment

I saw some blog/forum posts yesterday that put forward the idea -- and I agree -- that maybe HP lacks real commitment to the TouchPad, the Pre/Veer smartphones and webOS. They (HP) are huge and the Palm acquisition was something relatively small for them. Maybe success or failure with webOS isn't a big deal for them... small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

Let's watch the calendar and see what happens.

First Impressions: Gemini File Manager

My recent "hit list" posting of the five things I needed to make the HP TouchPad a useful tool to me, moving it beyond just being a large format web browser, had one big, fat omission... a  File Manager.

How did I miss putting something like a File Manager on my list? I'm not sure, but I'll hang my hat on the fact that I've been working for so long without one on my webOS devices that I guess I've resigned myself to working "blind" on my Pre smartphones and carried that over to the TouchPad.

(Before you start... Yes, I am aware that I could have installed a File Manager to my phones via Preware, but that's a topic for a post/rant at another time.)

Getting back to the case at hand...

Well, lo and behold, the Gemini File Manager for the TouchPad has arrived on the scene to fill my void.  I've done the download and taken a quick spin around the app.

First impressions

• Intuitive enough for even the casual user
• Functions as advertised
• Worth the price of $2.99 (putting aside for the moment that HP should already have a File Manager on the device)

Now, if we can get some document editing in Quickoffice...

The Aha! - Saving (Moving) E-Mail Messages...

I've had a bit of an aha moment in the past day regarding the ability to save/move e-mail messages on the HP TouchPad tablet.

Yesterday, I was grousing that it took more steps to save an e-mail message (move it to a folder). While that still appears to be true for saving an individual message -- as compared to saving a message on a Pre smartphone -- it doesn't hold water for saving multiple messages on the Touchpad. There's a bit of an improvement baked into the TouchPad.

On a Pre, messages must be saved/moved one by one. On the TouchPad, the new mail interface allows multiple messages to be selected and then saved to a designated folder... certainly not a bad thing.

Now that I've weasled my way around saying outright that I was wrong... I have to run. I have a mailbox to cleanup.

Saving (Moving) E-Mail Messages

Is it just me, or is the process for saving messages (move to a folder) a lot clunkier on the HP TouchPad than on the HP and Palm Pre WebOS smartphones?

On the Pre, its just a matter of choosing "move to folder" from a dropdown menu and then selecting the desired folder. Fairly straightforward and to the point.

For the TouchPad, more steps are required to do the same thing, clearly a drag on personal productivity.

Am I missing something obvious here or has HP gummed up something that was simple in the world before WebOS3?

E-Mail Access Problem at Local Burger King

The e-mail access/synching problem with my Touchpad via the new free wifi hotspot at a local Burger King still lives from last week... and is also present on my Pre2!

What seems to be happening is that I can connect and surf the web successfully, but any attempt to check my email just goes through the motions and does not actually send or receive any messages.

I haven't encountered this problem scenario -- yet -- at any other wifi hotspots.

Does anyone out there have the technical answer for what's happening here?

No pressure, but the fate of the free world does depend on this being solved.

It Can't Do No Stinkin' Editing!

My purchase and regular use of a TouchPad was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but getting my wife into the tablet computing world is another story. (Being the owner of a Pre+ and a Pre2, I pretty much knew what I was getting into.)

The unknown is what kind of a tablet -- HP, Apple iPad, or one of the Android variants -- will fit her needs and be a machine that she can effectively use.

The (current) case I can make to her for the HP TouchPad has a ginormus hole in it... It can't edit documents and spreadsheets. She, like a great number of potential purchasers/users, won't be interested in waiting for a "coming soon" (or maybe never) update. The TouchPad is dead to them... Case closed, end of story, ballgame over.

With apologies to the Treasure of Sierra Madre, "It can't do no stinkin' editing!"

Hey, HP, do what it takes, exert the right pressure, to get the editable version of QuickOffice on the TouchPad!

Soft Launch???

I just heard that HP called the botched July 1 launch of the TouchPad a "soft launch" and announced that the real launch will be on July 17... Hhhmmm.

We -- the customers -- apparently never knew that Ruby had us on "double-secret probation". We are customers... We couldn't be trusted.

And now that Ruby has been pushed to the side of the road, it sounds like HP is trying to fix the mess... kinda.

Suggestions to Leo and the rest of the gang at HP:

Step 1 - Fess up in a straightforward, honest manner.
Step 2 - Really "make it right". The $50 offer/gambit you recently made to the owners of older Pre models is really nothing. Forcing previously abused customers to buy the more expensive TouchPad model in order to get the abuse "made right" is adding insult to injury. Let your abused customers experience the TouchPad at the level of their choice (16GB or 32GB). That's much closer to "making it right".

Hey, HP you're better than this! (... or at least you used to be.)

E-Mail Account Synching

The past couple of mornings at my breakfast hangout, I've experienced some problems with my e-mail synching correctly between my Pre2, TouchPad and GMail. Then, later in the day at various other locales, all is well... Hhhmmm.

A little bit of playing around with my devices is leading me to point a finger more at the new, free wifi service at my local Burger King than at the TouchPad. It appears that the hotspot isn't fully "acknowledging' the acceptance of their TOS screen, then not letting the mail app do a "proper" synch with GMail. It "goes through the motions", but no synch actually takes place.

Let's see what happens with this in the longer term...

Onscreen Keyboard and Memo Apps

The TouchPad reviewer at PreCentral was not happy with the current state of the keyboard and memo apps for any serious writing. Thus far, I would have to disagree with my brother blogger and put forward that any problems I've had are more related to my poor typing skills rather than the limitations of the apps.

Sure, autocorrect isn't quite where it needs to be, but what about getting better vis a vis our typing and spelling skills in the first place?

One nit to pick... Manually placing the cursor in text to make an edit is more of a chore than it should be. Hey, HP, why did you let something like this get by? (Oops, I retract the question... I just remembered how bad the physical keyboard was on the Pre+.)

Why?...

As a veteran of the Pre+ and the Pre2, and now the owner of a TouchPad, I guess I'm as qualified as anyone out there to write a bit about the state of the nation that encompassses HP/Palm and WebOS.

Right up front, I'm pullin' for HP/Palm and the TouchPad, but they don't make it easy for a fella!

Potential.

This is the word we've heard a ton of over the past two years in connection with the Pre, Pixi and Veer devices... and now again with the TouchPad.  This is the time to deliver, but the device reeks of potential, and continues not to fully deliver on it. They tease us again with the promise of updates -- which should have originally been on the device -- "coming soon".

Incomplete.

That's what I'd have to call the TouchPad at this point, which seriously raises the question as to why would a non-fan lay their money down on it at this point in time.  And how do you get the world's attention again when you finally have the device upgraded to where it should have been in the first place?

Hey, HP, what have you been doing for the past year? It seems as if you've been doing something else other than concentrating on the TouchPad.

I'm not one of those who is troubled by the thickness or weight of the device. I'm not one of those who cares about how many dozens/hundreds/thousands of apps you have in your store catalog. I don't want an Apple iPad killer. I want a machine that comes from the factory in a state that allows me to be really productive right out of the box.

The TouchPad does not meet that standard -- really productive right out of the box -- for me. Why isn't there a built-in Task/To Do app? You've had one in the past WebOS devices. Where is the document/spreadsheet editing capabilities you promised for the launch? I could go on...

Flash is fine. The mail program is ok. But I wish you had done a little better for the launch.

I'm sure that the time needed to get the launch apps completed, approved, and into the hands of the vendor for the manufacturing process played a role in this sad affair.

Just wondering out loud here... Since the launch was July 1, how far in advance did Palm actually have to have everything ready so that units could be built overseas, shipped, and in the hands of vendors (in sufficient quantities) for the event?

For me, this timing issue is only part of why the TouchPad is "incomplete".

So, can anyone out there give a credible answer to the other part of why we're still stuck talking about "potential"?