My TouchPad Today: Pennant - Looks Like a Winner

Last night I downloaded Pennant from the HP App Catalog ($4.99) and took it for a brief test spin... I really liked what I saw!

What is Pennant?

Pennant is a database of all MLB games since the early 50's that's served up in a unique data visualization format that will probably blow you away at first glance, but will ultimately pull you back in for more and more.

Check it out at http://www.pennant.cc/index.php

BTW, the first game I checked out was from August 1963 between the Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians... my first visit to Fenway Park!





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My TouchPad Today: Quickoffice HD - PreCentral Gets One Right

The boys over at PreCentral got one right in their "mixed" review of Quickoffice HD.

Check it out here.



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My TouchPad Today: Exploring Some Apps

Over the last few days I've been busy with some things -- gasp -- not related to the HP TouchPad! Nevertheless I have snuck in a little app exploration...

My TouchPad

• WiFi Media Synch - Now, a select set of files on my laptop are wirelessly synched to both my Pre2 and TP.
• Video Flood - A lot of the content duplicates what is already available to me via my Windows 7 laptop and my Roku HD box... wirelessly! Video quality I've seen thus far is excellent.
• PDFMyWebPro - Not a perfect app, but will be handy for me... when it works. (I've been using the full version of Adobe Acrobat on desktops and laptops for 10+ years.) This app fills an important gap in the tablet computing experience for me.
• Gemini File Manager "Remote"- Don't know how much use this will get in my every day computing. I'm more likely to use box.net, et al, to access copies of files on my TP.

My Wife's TouchPad

I've now added a few more files to my wife's TP, in anticipation of the day when she actually starts to use it...

• HP Play (downloaded to laptop and then used it to synch her music to her TP)
• Video Flood 
• Audiophile HD

Now, off to more exploration and -- gasp -- things not related to the TouchPad!



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My TouchPad Today: The Firesale TouchPad

The firesale TouchPad I ordered on Sunday morning from Best Buy arrived yesterday.

Between last night and this morning, I set it up for my wife by downloading the webOS OTA update and adding some apps from the HP catalog...

• Gemini File Manager
• DigiCamera Lite
• Audubon Birds

I also went into the phone app and minimized logging as per James Kendrick's recent ZDNet Mobile News blog post about how to speed up the TouchPad.

The only difficulty I ran into was that it took NUMEROUS attempts to download and install the OTA update, DigiCamera and Audubon Birds. HP's servers must be swamped with all of the download requests from the firesale brigade of new users.


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My TouchPad Today: My TP at Fenway Park

I'm heading to Fenway Park in Boston with my TouchPad for the annual Futures at Fenway minor league double header.

Pictures from my two TP camera apps later...

(The Red Sox are away on the road in Kansas City.)

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Up first, a picture taken with a Pre2 (with some minor fixing in Paint Shop Pro) of my TP at Fenway Park.

Up next, a series of pictures taken with the DigiCamera Lite app on my TP. 

(Only some minor rotation/alignment fixes in Paint Shop Pro... No other post-processing used.)

Photo detail is decent for a 1.3 MP camera.  Color, however, is lackluster/muted on what was a mostly sunny day with vibrant color.

Now, a final shot taken on the TP using the Camera app for the TouchPad.

This photo has the same lackluster/muted color as the shots taken with the DigiCamera Lite app.  The TP camera and/or the app also had a some difficulty with handling the difference between the shade of the grandstand and the bright sun on the playing field.

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My TouchPad Today: KalemSoft Media Player - Money for Nothing?

Great title for a post, but wholly inaccurate and misleading on a couple of counts...

• The KalemSoft Media Player app does work, but, in a bit, I'll relate my bumpy first experience with it.
• No money was directly involved in getting it from the HP app catalog... Used part of my $50 early adopter credit from HP.

As mentioned, it was a bumpy first experience with this app. I loaded a .WMV file on my TouchPad that i had recently made in Windows Live Movie Maker. It played back at four to five times slower than it does on a PC or on YouTube.

After some basic troubleshooting and pondering, it finally occurred to me that the problem could lie in the settings of the file itself, rather than the player having a problem.

That was the trick!... My original file was created using custom settings, including 59.9 fps. I went back to Movie Maker and created a new version of the file and chose the canned settings for making a file for playback on a "computer" (the frame rate setting is somewhere in vicinity of 24 - 29 fps). The new file worked like a charm.

Going forward, I'll have to be cognizant that this player/app may be more "plain vanilla" as compared to its bigger brothers in the PC world. As of now, this isn't a dealbreaker for me... I want the ability to play more video formats than which the TP can natively handle.

I haven' t tried the streaming capabilities of this app yet.  If/when I check them out, I'll post something here.



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My TouchPad Today: First Impression - A Tale of Two Cameras?

Today I had the opportunity to try out two camera apps I downloaded recently from the HP app catalog for my TouchPad...

• Camera for TouchPad -- Keen Studios, 0.3.0
• DigiCamera Lite -- DigiKat Software, 1.0.1

Here are some quick test shots, respectively from each app...

Now, each picture cropped, but otherwise un-retouched, to make them as similar as possible...

Judge for yourself -- aside from my camerawork -- the quality of the camera/app combos.

For my part, not much to report yet, other than using a tablet computer front-facing camera for something other than a quick and dirty pic "in the field" when another type of camera isn't available, doesn't seem to be the wisest choice.

That's all for now... Hoping to test these apps a bit further over the upcoming weekend and post more after that.



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My TouchPad Today: Not So Fast, HP!

Will I take advantage of HP's offer of $50 worth of free apps to early adopters of the TouchPad?... Of course, but don't expect it to make me an apologist for HP or to think I've been fully compensated for poor state of the TP as launched in July.

Just like last week's OTA update, HP has made a step in the right direction, but there's still "miles to go".

Let's take a closer look at HP's maneuver...

My first thought was that $50 in apps was good -- I'd rather get my cash back -- but it was a step in the right direction. HP, responding to a lot of bad PR, had to do something they didn't really want to do.

My second thought was maybe this was like a business deal or a baseball trade. If both sides are unhappy, maybe it was a good deal/trade.

Then, after a bit more thought I went... Hmmmm the "upside" on this is really weighted in HP's direction, not the customer's. Early adopters are still getting the "fuzzy end of the lollipop".

• HP's will get some good PR for their "generous" gesture... And maybe make some more TP sales as a result.
• HP won't lose $50 to each early adopter. I can almost guarantee you that not all eligible customers will take advantage (either full or partial) of the offer.
• App developers will make some bucks... No problem with that, but it shouldn't be leveraged toward exonerating or excusing HP for the condition of the TP as originally released.
• The early adopter customers most likely end up with $50 dollars (or less) of software and still won't have a device that has the software and functionality that HP should have baked in at the factory.

Not fair, HP.

My TouchPad Today: First Impression - Camera App

Downloaded the camera app from the HP catalog over the weekend...

First impression(s)

• Adequate. What can you really expect from a 1.x camera anyway?
• Will come in handy on those occasions when other cameras/devices with cameras are unavailable.
• Happy that developer will make some $$$... Doesn't exonerate/excuse HP for failing to include a camera app in TP originally! 

Amazon Kindle App - Day 2

In the past 24 hours I've had a chance to dive a little deeper into the Amazon Kindle app on the HP TouchPad.  Clearly no "wow" factor here... not that there actually needs to be one.  Its just a reader ap combined with the ability to download and synch books purchased from Amazon.

Animated Page Turns

I get the idea that some people feel the need to have the visual metaphor of turning a page on an e-reader -- or they just think its "cool"-- but its a loser in the present incarnation... slow, clunky and cheap-looking.

'Nuf said!

First Impression: Kindle App

I saw early this morning on PreCentral that the Amazon Kindle app for the HP TouchPad had finally arrived.  As is usually the case, the comments along with the postings were a mess of conflicting "stuff", rendering the post to -- perhaps what it should be -- a note saying "Its here. Go check it out for yourself".

I did a brief spin around the app.  No "wow" factor here. Just an app that, if you are a Kindle user, is familiar and navigable enough when you take into account that the Kindle on any non-Kindle device ain't a Kindle. Don't get yourself bogged down in details like page turn animations or side-loading books.

Amazon has pretty much "got it right" with their Kindle devices.

Kindle apps for non-Kindle devices, such as this one for the TouchPad, are probably the best a reasonable person can expect. It does a reasonable job of making a book readable on a tablet device.

Last thought... If e-ink displays were at the point of being viable for a tablet like the TouchPad, then we'd have something to flap our gums about.

The Touchstone is HP's Pickle!

Strange way to title a post, huh?

Well, not really.  Hang in there and read on.

Several years ago I read a book called "Give 'em the Pickle!" when I was in the customer service training business.

If I'm remembering correctly, one of the things author Bob Farrell promotes is doing the easy things that will make loyal customers who keep coming back to you for more.

Farrell ran ice cream/sandwich shops and found that charging for the pickle on a sandwich plate made all the -- bad -- difference in the world.  He lost more by charging for the pickle (or not giving the pickle) than he "lost" by giving away the pickle. The free pickle made all the -- good -- difference in the world to his customers.

He urges people and businesses to find the "pickle" in their world and give it to customers for free.

The Touchstone charger is HP's pickle. Its one of the big things that differentiates WebOs devices from Apple's devices.

Hey, HP, give your Pre and TouchPad customers the pickle!

TouchPad WebOS Emulator

Many reviewers and bloggers have expressed disappointment with the emulator in the TouchPad for launching older WebOS apps..

I don't find myself in that camp. I'm actually ok with the emulator and find myself going down the path of "the glass is half full" thinking on this one.

Hey, it works and lets you use your older apps.

Count your blessings that Rubenstein semi, partially, somewhat delivered a bit on something... Kinda, maybe, perhaps.

There are more important things that need to be upgraded -- and fast -- on the TouchPad.

Wow!

In my post yesterday morning about the badly unexploited value of the Touchstone charger to HP Palm and how they should make an "addition by subtraction" move in the Palm ranks, I was wishing out loud for the departure of Jon Rubenstein.

Little did I know that several hours later HP would actually be making that move... Or least putting it in motion.

Great news, HP! Now keep things moving in the right direction.

The Touchstone Charger and There's an App for That...

The Touchstone charger is one of the things that clearly differentiates the TouchPad from Apple's iPad.

Is it an iPad-killer by itself?... No, but it is a big, big difference that isn't being well exploited by HP Palm.

What's not to like about dealing with one less wire every day (or whenever)?

I think it can ultimately be as valuable to HP as "there's an app for that" is to Apple.

HP Palm still seems to be stuck in a rut when it comes to both completing and promoting their WebOS devices. Both efforts have something dragging them down, holding them back.

At this point in the game, one has to wonder if HP needs to make a big "addition by subtraction" move in the Palm ranks to correct these problems.

Maybe there should be an app for that?

Office Web Apps and Sky Drive

So far, I haven't had much luck with sucessfully using the cloud-based Office Web Apps from Microsoft on my TouchPad.

I can open an Excel file I have on Sky Drive for web-based editing, but am not presented with any onscreen way to scroll either left/right or up/down in the file.

Its great to be able to see view some of the file, but it is of little use to me without a way to readily scroll around in it.

Just wondering out loud... Is anyone out there seeing/finding any logical, practical way to scroll in an Office Web document?

Just wondering out loud #2... When will HP actually make good on its promise to have document editing on the TouchPad?

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+.)