Livetech Zone

HP Palm has officially introduced the new TouchPad tablet running at the Think Beyond event in San Francisco, U.S. Flaunting a 9.7-inch display XGA capacitive display, the TouchPad supports the same resolution as that of the Apple iPad – 1024×768. Under the hood, HP TouchPad houses a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and offers 16GB or 32GB storage options. HP also showed off Palm’s webOS 3.0 which is now called HP webOS.

HP Palm’s Topaz tablet was already teased and much talked about by those who had crude details and rumor mongers. New HP TouchPad has 9.7-inch XGA capacitive display with 18-bit color depth is exactly the same size as in the Apple iPad. In terms of internal hardware, it houses dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor which is fast enough to make the upcoming webOS 3.0 for the tablet fly like a hummingbird.

Oddly, the TouchPad has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls and no camera on the back panel. The webOS 3.0 running tablet will have Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, microUSB port for charging and for connecting the tablet to a PC.

HP has also packed an accelerometer and gyroscope to aid developers in developing various games as well as apps. Take a look at the specifications below.

• HP webOS 3.0
• Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2-GHz processor
• 9.7-inch diagonal XGA capacitive, multitouch screen with a vibrant, 18-bit color, 1,024 x 768 resolution display
• The option of either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage
• High-performance browser with full access to the web, including support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta for access to rich, Flash-based web content
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication
• A-GPS (3G only)
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
• Multimedia options, including music, photos, video recording and playback, and a 3.5 mm headset/headphone/microphone jack
• Internal stereo speakers and Beats Audio
• Front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam for live video calling
• Email, including EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers) and personal email support (Google Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP)
• Robust messaging support
• Light sensor, accelerometer, compass (magnetometer) and gyroscope
• Rechargeable 6,300 mAh (typical) battery
• Micro-USB (Charging and PC Connect) with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
• Built-in HP Touchstone technology for easy charging (HP Touchstone for TouchPad sold separately) and HP touch-to-share to share web addresses between TouchPad and compatible webOS phones
• Dimensions: 190 mm x 242 mm x 13.7 mm (7.48 inches x 9.53 inches x 0.54 inches)
• Weight: approximately 740 g (1.6 pounds)

  

Email gets multi-pane UI that will remind you of the iOS enhancements for iPad and several system wide tweaks are made to make the best of the tablet form factor. A single control button slides up the Application Launcher or brings the "Card View" of the apps already running. With webOS 3.0, users would be able to stack apps on the tablet.
HP has added the Beats Audio sound technology (used in HP notebooks) to the TouchPad for better sound quality. HP Movie Store (wherever available) is deemed to keep consumers engrossed in movies and TV Shows streaming. New touch-to-share feature lets webOS phones share web URLs with TouchPad by simple touch. HP Synergy lets you manage your login for Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Linkedin, Exchange and Yahoo accounts.

The revised keyboard layout is quite interesting as it stacks dedicated number row on the top of on-screen QWERTY. For charging, the TouchPad supports new Touchstone technology and users webOS Exhibition feature to run Touchstone specific applications. Let’s hope the 6300mAh battery lasts long even when Wi-Fi/3G and GPS are used judiciously.

So far, I can say that HP will introduce TouchPad Wi-Fi in most regions and TouchPad Wi-Fi+3G in select regions. The third version – TouchPad Wi-Fi+LTE might be introduced a few months down the lane in U.S. regions initially. Along with TouchPad, HP also announced Touchstone technology for charging the tablet, a new case and a slim chiclet keyboard for the tablet. HP didn’t announce the pricing of this tablet and stated that it would be made available later this summer.