This isn’t as easy a decision as you might think.  The HP TouchPad has a very useful 10 inch screen, but there’s a weight that comes with this.  The RIM Playbook is much ligahter as it’s smaller, but the 7 inch screen isn’t quite as capacious.  Then there’s the fact that the HP TouchPad has been discontinued (I picked mine up in the fire sale late last year) which does affect both the number and quality of available apps, and updates to the operating system itself.  That said, the RIM Playbook’s future is also in some doubt and the prices of these tablets are now falling too.

There some fundamental differences between the two machines.  Cameras are one good example where the TouchPad has just a 1.3MP webcam on the front while the Playbook sports both front and rear cameras, with the rear one being a healthy 5MP resolution.  The Playbook also has an HDMI output, which the touchpad lacks.  The Touchpad is a far sleeker-looking device however with an operating system that’s simplicity itself not just to use, but to completely master.  The TouchPad also has a slightly faster processor, running at 1.2Ghz when compared to the 1GHz of the Playbook and the GPS and route-planning on the tablet are lightning fast.

In short though, there are huge numbers of reasons why you might want or prefer one type of tablet over another.  For example the iPad 2 is extremely light and has a big 10 inch screen, while some Android tablets are just as light and come in a wide variety of form-factors and weights.

In short then I thought this might be a great opportunity to kick off a discussion over which of these two tablets is better, and which one you think I should keep.  WebOS is a very effective and highly polished operating system.  Currently QNX on the Playbook isn’t quite there if you don’t have a Blackberry smartphone (I use a Windows Phone) and will continue to miss out some critical apps until the next operating system update eventually arrives.  It’s due this month but has been pushed back many times since last fall.

So which tablet do you think I should keep and why?  Which is the better tablet, the best hardware, the most accessible operating system and the most expandable system?  Which works best with cloud services and has the bext software support?  It will be interesting to hear your views on these two machines.

But the technology market is different, and in the last three years we’ve seen it take on a whole new dimension where Windows is no longer the obvious operating system choice, and where comparisons are increasingly being made with IBM.  On tablets, a market that Microsoft invented back around 2003 they’re going to have a real fight on their hands, and in computing generally it’s no longer clear what devices and form factors we’ll be using in even five or ten years time.  What is obvious however is that the traditional desktop PC is well and truly on its way out.  Lastly new operating systems such as iOS, Android and WebOS have blown away the notion that people will resist a learning curve on new devices.  So what would the world be like if Microsoft stopped making Windows desktop and server products?

First of all it’s not very likely, Microsoft would probably drop Windows products last of all with their expensive research and development centres and other products such as Xbox falling by the wayside first, so there’s no need to worry in the short term.  Windows 8 is a big gamble though and if it fails then Microsoft will either have to backtrack with Windows 9, pull an immensely impressive rabbit out of their hat or face the consequences of poor decision-making.

There has already been talk that Google would like to bring Android to the desktop.  HP said the same of WebOS, which they are still developing or at least maintaining, and could put extra resources back into quickly.  Ubuntu Linux is now at least as friendly as Windows XP was, only the lack of big name software for the platform is holding it back now and Apple’s OS X is becoming more like iOS with every release.  So it’s already clear that there’s plenty of choice.

We might also expect an open-source upstart operating system to appear too and it might even be a reinvigorated WebOS.  Companies such as the Mozilla Foundation might see an opportunity as their Firefox browser begins to fade in popularity, and this is just one of several places where a new operating system might emerge.

In the business space, some of the GNU/Linux companies including Red Hat, might jump in with versions that will run Windows programs on the desktop.  This isn’t new and has already been done with operating systems such as Lindows (later renamed Linspire).  This product still exists today and could prove popular with businesses if Windows 8 and Windows 9 fail to deliver the working experience that they need.

Again it’s very unlikely that Microsoft will cease development of Windows in the next twenty years at least.  If they’d have done it even five years ago there would have been almost no alternatives to choose from.  Should they do it now though businesses and consumers would probably just shrug their shoulders and quietly move on to the next big thing.

According to a report by NeoWin an unnamed HP employee has been quoted as saying “There’s a 95 (percent) chance we all get laid off between now and November, and I for one am thinking it’s for the best.”

In the last couple of months several companies have expressed an interest in buying WebOS, and as a TouchPad owner I can say it’s a remarkably capable and usable tablet OS.  So far nothing has come of it and HP haven’t given any indications that they would wish to sell it.

But could the company just kill it without selling it?  While unlikely this is a possibility and it begs the question where does this leave existing TouchPad owners?

Some people will install Android on it, and I suppose this is always the nuclear option for some.  Many people however will have no idea how to perform such an operation and will be left with a device that will no longer be supported.  In it’s simplest form this just means that the operating system won’t be refined and developed over time.  At it’s worst it means that any bugs and flaws in the system that could be exploited by others won’t be fixed.

Even if WebOS is sold it will be a very significant amount of time before the new owners can begin rolling out updates.  In short this is very bad news for TouchPad owners generally if the rumour turns out to be true.

To add weight to this, HP announced this week that they will be producing Windows 8 tablets for 2012, and we can assume they are already testing prototype hardware now.  It’s even been rumoured the TouchPad hardware might live on with Windows 8 on board, though this is unlikely.

Of equal concern is what will happen to owners of the HP smartphones that are also running WebOS.  These people will need security updates and patches more than tablet owners, because of the direct billing capabilities built into phones.  These people will need firm answers from HP, and pretty soon.

HP has previously said it was committed to WebOS, though the company has changed its mind so much in recent months that nobody would really believe them now whatever they said.  Only a couple of months ago they were talking about offloading their entire PC division, but now they’ve decided that they would really rather hang on to it.  This is company with serious decision-making issues!

For now we’ve just had another update to WebOS rolled out.  I love my TouchPad and wouldn’t want it to be the last.  WebOS is extremely capable and has huge amounts of potential.  In my view it is quite simply the finest tablet operating system available currently.

It’s such a shame then that it’s been so poorly managed.  Do you have a WebOS phone or tablet?  What do you think about this rumour?

The HP though is a quandary.  While HP announced suddenly last week that they were dropping the TouchPad completely, but still supporting WebOS, the tech world went into shock.  After all, the TouchPad had barely been released when it was canned, and many outlets hadn’t even taken delivery of their stock yet.  As a tablet with the WebOS operating system on it though it’s had a huge amount of positive press in the last year and when the fire sales began with the tablets selling from only $99 (£89) around the world the only way to get one now will be on eBay.  The entire worldwide stock of TouchPads is sold out completely.

I was one of the people who bought a TouchPad in the fire sale, for all of you obviously so that I could review it.  But what is it like to use and more importantly, have all the people who’ve bought one wasted their money?

Let’s start with the actual hardware.  It’s an iPad’esque tablet with a standard ratio 1024 x 768 resolution IPS screen (though it’s a couple of hundred grams heavier than the iPad 2).  It contains a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1Gb of memory and comes with either 16Gb or 32Gb of storage; the 64Gb version is unlikely to ever see the light of day.  On the front there’s a 1.3MP webcam, but no camera on the back.  It’s got a volume rocker and a micro-USB port for charging and connecting to a PC or Mac where it shows up as USB storage to allow you to transfer files to it.  Battery life is good at around 7.5 hours.  This might lag a long way behind the iPad but unless you were an exceptionally unlucky early-adopter, your touchpad just cost you less than a quarter of the iPad’s price.

The back is piano-black plastic and the front is glass.  Some people have criticised the build saying it’s not up to the iPad 2′s standards.  It’s not, but in fairness it’s still excellent and one of the best built tablets I’ve yet seen.  There are stereo speaker ports on the bottom, or side edge (depending on how you hold it) which are truly excellent.  I had some trouble with the sound, ie. I didn’t have any at all and was getting worried.  A quick search online however revealed a software bug that was fixed by simply restarting the tablet.  I eventually found the shutdown and restart options rather worringly hidden behind a reset button in the OS and the speakers sprang into life.

I’m going to give a special mention to these speakers as they are simply the finest speakers I’ve ever encountered in a mobile device, and simply phenomenal for such a small device.  The range and distortion-free volume will project across a busy room giving pleasure to everyone there.  They might not be up to the quality of a good set of desktop speakers, but for a portable device they’re hard to match.

So what about the operating system?  Well I should start by saying that at times it can feel a bit laggy.  It’s slow to rotate the screen and occasionally feels a bit sluggish.  Apparently the tablet version of WebOS was developed by shoe-horning it onto an iPad 2 on which hardware it apparently performed much faster.

In general usage though WebOS on the TouchPad is very fast and extremely intuitive.  Programs and browser tabs are treated as cards which you can stack into piles and move around to form groupings.  To close an app or a browser tab you simply flick it off the top of the screen.  This interface is completely effortless, utterly intuitive and an absolute joy to use.  This simplicity extends to all aspects of the OS and while it might not allow you much control, which as a Windows user is one of the first things I miss, it’s extremely well organised and workflow becomes simple and joyous.

The on-screen keyboard is also a joy to use and even has a proper number row across the top unlike iOS and Android that includes all the standard symbols available on the shift key.  WebOS won’t let you slow it down with too many apps either.  If it detects performance will slow it will prompt you to close an app before opening a new one to keep performance speedy.

Where WebOS will be let down will be with app support.  So far there aren’t many TouchPad apps (identified by the “for TouchPad”) wording in the app store and with news that HP won’t be producing the hardware any more this will probably scare most developers away.  It’s best to assume that what we currently have so far as apps, and operating system updates too is going to be it.  The TouchPad you’ve just bought isn’t going to change much if at all during its lifetime.

To sum up the value of the HP TouchPad and whether it was worth the money for all those people who bought one it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.  It will forever be a limited device in apps and updates.  If you are the type of person who will want to do more with it in the future this will quickly drive you nuts.  If like me you’re happy to just have something that cost peanuts for a little light email and web browsing when you’re crashed out on the sofa, then it’s the bargain of the decade.

WebOS is every bit as polished a tablet operating system as iOS and indeed is far better in a great many ways, most notably the way it handles applications and multi-tasking.  The hardware is excellent all round and the IPS screen is absolutely glorious.  If you’re waiting on delivery of your shiny new TouchPad, you’re very right to be so excited.

To make matters even more confusing the company, according to Bloomberg and reported by tech blogger Paul Thurrott, plans to sell off it’s PC business, the biggest PC making business in the world that is, and move solely into servers for the future.

This is almost not funny and is really difficult to believe.  HP is the world’s biggest PC maker though they obviously now feel that the profit margins just aren’t enough for them.  To kill off such a promising mobile and tablet operating system that’s had such great reviews seems like crimes against technology.

In a press release the company today said…

…plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

The only good news here is that, presumably, the company will be looking for a buyer for WebOS.  I can’t help but wonder though what company will be interested in a mobile OS that’s already been with two owners in the last year and half when competing companies including Nokia have killed off their own mobile operating systems?

In the press release the company went on to detail all manner of financial figures that will be it’s justification for getting out of the smartphone, mobile computing and PC business for good.

The last company to make such a bold move was IBM, though for them this wasn’t unexpected.  The company also moved exclusively into servers and now has a greater annual revenue than Microsoft (again!)

This is sad news for WebOS fans however and fans of HP’s personal computers.  The company has brought out the most interesting and innovative all-in-one and touchscreen PCs for the last few years, beating rivals including Sony with award-winning hardware and great touch-interface software.  The acquisition of Palm, and with it the WebOS operating system seemed like a great fit for a company with big plans to move further into these areas and I for one have been looking forward to the launch of the first WebOS tablet for well over a year.

Questions now remain, not only over which company will be brave enough to take on WebOS, but which company will buy HPs enormous PC business.  Chinese firm Lenovo bought IBM’s laptop division and has flourished ever since.  It’s unlikely that one of the big PC builders currently, including Dell and ASUS, would have the cash to buy-in to this business.  It seems likely then that venture capitalists will see the opportunity to buy an established and already highly successful business.

Currently, HP holds 18 percent of the worldwide PC market with Dell coming up second on 11 percent.  In the USA, HP’s grip on the PC market is even bigger with a massive 26 percent of the country’s new computers carrying the company’s branding.

There will no doubt be continuity of support and warranties with all HP computers so anyone who is thinking of buying, or who has just bought an HP computer shouldn’t be concerned.  Recent purchasers of the new WebOS tablet and smartphones though could be facing a future where support and updates are uncertain.  We’ll bring you updates as they are announced here at gHacks.

It’s no big secret that Google has been preparing a streamlined, Chrome-esque operating system to challenge Microsoft’s double decade monopoly. They claim it will be faster, more powerful, and less expensive (read: free) than anything Microsoft has ever put out. Most interesting of all, it appears Google is prepared to fight a two front war: first, with its open source Chromium OS, downloadable by individuals for any use, and second, Chrome OS, to be shipped on-board select tablets and mobile devices.

Attacking the PC market is a serious undertaking, but Microsoft has been working very hard lately to become more competitive in the handheld realm. They are gaining ground on Apple and are holding back Android, so surely things are looking up for them, right?

That might have been true a few days ago, before HP announced its plans to expand usage of its lightweight operating system, webOS. In the past the company had limited the operating system’s applications to its own products. Soon things may be very different, in ways that don’t well suit Microsoft’s interests.

In an interview with Reuters, HP CEO Leo Apotheker let slip that “it’s not correct to believe that [webOS] should only be on HP devices.” And the company seems to believe him. Rumor has it that a fresh batch of PCs will roll off the HP assembly line with the operating system dual-booting alongside Windows.

Ok, so HP has plans to start pushing its OS against those of others, namely Microsoft. So what?

For starters, webOS is widely respected for combining the three golden words of contemporary tech: cloud, social, and mobile. While Windows may have been the gold standard of the past, it hasn’t made strong moves toward cloud computing (although we will see what happens when 8 actually comes out). The future of social media sits on the cloud, and many aspects of mobile usage rely on consumers’ love of social media.

Keep in mind that HP isn’t even the main challenger. Google owns mobile, is moving toward cloud and is getting pretty chummy with social giants like Facebook after failing to put up a challenger to face them. Apple is holding onto its piece of the pie, and tablet and netbook manufacturers are still interested in the prospects of linux-based operating systems.

So where does all this leave Microsoft and their upcoming Windows 8? Desperately trying to find its place in an evolving tech world. Things were so much more simple when they were just the great big bad guy…

UI

Concerning UI, it’s pretty clear that both Google and Palm have taken two very different approaches. In fact Google’s approach is more in line with Microsoft in allowing OEM’s to customize the UI to their needs. Palm however has taken this into their hands and pitched a ball straight at Apple and their ever so flawless OSX user interface.
Unfortunately there is no clear winner or loser here as both offer advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of Android is that it can take on any shape it wants. This allows people to pick a UI based on their needs but more so likes. The disadvantage to this is that since the navigation can change drastically from device to device, it might be a little rough for those who are used to a specific layout and decide to change from let’s say an HTC Hero to a Sony or Samsung. On the other hand Palm has decided to use one UI for its entire fleet and since they will be the only ones manufacturing phones to run on webOS (at least for the time being) it will stay that way. This however leaves the problem of monotony, something that is plaguing the iPhone at the moment. It’s very interesting that Windows Mobile can take on so many different shapes and forms based on who makes the device running it. A classic example is the Samsung Omnia, Sony Xperia and HTC Touch Pro. So I will hand it to Palm for having the sleeker and better of the graphical interface, but Android has the upper hand on customizability and scalability.

Features

Both Palm and Google have done a good job at bringing some well needed features to the smartphone arena. Both support such basic features as copy paste, Exchange support, emailing, productivity and more. But for now we’ll have to judge at what’s out there in terms of third party programs (apps), and Google is clearly the winner here. I’m not saying that Palm isn’t saying anything, but seeing how new webOS is, we’ll have to give it at least a year before we can really compare its developer community to that of Blackberry, OSX, WinMo and of course Android.
That said, built in features, webOS does have the upper hand as it has a much better browser, music player etc, then that on the Android OS. But third party apps is its weak point and as I said before we’ll have to wait a year or so before we see what people have done with the Mojo SDK.

Devices

It’s ironic that Android has been around for quite some time now and the only company who has a phone running on the OS is HTC. Yes we know Samsung, Motorola, Sony and a whole host of others are working behind the scenes but come on. Palm has just put out their Pre and we’re already hearing plans of the release of the EOS which would be the Centro replacer.
So who would win this round? Well clearly we’re seeing such things as OLED and Flash coming to Android in the near future, and with the stellar lineup of partners it’s not surprising that Apple is looking at Google as more of an enemy then a friend at the moment.

Concerning Palm, while they have not totally put off the idea about allowing third party manufacturers to run their webOS, they’re still on their first device so we can’t fault them too much in this area. But if both companies decide to keep on their course we will give this round to Android as more OEM’s has always spelled better products. Speaking of Flash, Palm is also on that list of manufacturers who will be getting a taste of Flash mobil this fall.

Hacking

Yes you read right, I’m going to include this category because both Android and webOS run Linux on the Linux framework and so it’s only fair we compare what the hacking community has done for the systems to date. For an OS that is open source, we really have to chide Google on their lack of support in the hacking community. The Pre has been out for just over a month and already we have Bluetooth tethering hacks, PlayStation emulation hacks, web server hacks and a bunch of others that not only geeks but every day people would be interested in.

So far little to nothing has been done in the Android arena concerning major hacking. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the G1 (the first Android device) carries lower internal specs then that of the Pre. But whatever it is, Palm clearly has the upper hand. Things might change in the near future however as the devices which are making their way to Android are getting more powerful. But for now, Palm owns this scene.

Corporate Support

This is a major factor in smartphones these days. To date the dominators in this field have clearly been RIM and Microsoft. So far Apple has been making small strides into gaining corporate acceptance. That said, both Palm and Google have been courting IT departments to accept their OS as readily as they will accept a Blackberry Curve or HTC Touch Pro.

Right now it’s too early to say what will happen to both OS as there is a huge lock in this area (RIM and Microsoft) and to date, companies have been very cautious about adopting ant other operating system. As it stands Android and webOS are head to head with no apparent winner in sight. But depending on customizability and sheer support, Android just might pull out as the winner here although we cannot deny that Palm has been in the cellphone (and more so the smartphone) market before Google was born so they just might just have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Potential

Until today I would have given this round to Android, but after Google’s plans to scrape Android for netbooks, MID’s and UMPC’s I think it is a little harder to decide a winner. Clearly both systems excel at different things, but then again both are competing for the same type of customers, those who are not swayed by Apple’s iPhone but who want something different then the regular Blackberry Curve or HTC Touch Diamond.

Based on what webOS has to offer they have an advantage in online and location based apps and this is the future. But in uniqueness and lifestyle applications, Android does carry a little more weight in this area. However, it is too early to say. We’ll have to wait until both mature and of course the second version is released before we can make a final verdict on where we expect to see both of them in the next five or so years.