The HP Slate is out
 

Yep, here are the final specs:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/Slate_500_Tablet_Datasheet.pdf

And here are the specs:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1287777263.jpg

Mine is on order

if you gotta have windows, probably not bad. Like any other product, can't be all things to all people.

Taking a Test Ride on HP's New Slate 500 Tablet - Desktops and Notebooks from eWeek

I'm a little disappointed they aren't $100 cheaper considering they are basically netbooks like the 2Go Pad I picked up.

I can see some premium for the lighter weight, built in digitizer, and SSD, just not $250 more.

6-12 months and there should be a whole bunch of options, I'm actually impressed by what <$1000 can get either way compared to when the first Compaq slates came out.

Oh, and here is a trick for that 1024x600 screen size.

You can upscale the DPI of fonts, etc. to 125% give or take, making everything easier to hit on the touch screen, but some dialogs will then be too tall to hit OK. On the CTL device I have there is a handy OK button that serves that purpose, or you can just turn it sideways to get the extra length.

Also, IE, Outlook, and I'm sure some other things are scaleable on the fly anyhow.

That was a bit slanted.

its nice that i spent 10 minutes searching on their website and could never find it. (the link above doesnt work)

I believe there is a picture of this technique in the dictionary next to "inelegant." :)

To me this is the main difference between Apple and MS/partners. Apple gives you elegance but at the price of some features/flexibility/configurability. The Slate will give you the features and you can hack to your heart's content, but it will lack elegance. Pick your poison...

And that sentence I can make no sense out of. "magically appear out of a central location on the screen, like the iPad; they simply pop into place." huh?

I like the iPad multi-browser thing slightly better than plain old tabs in 7 simply because uses more screen space for the page that way. Once you add the tabs and start bar you just cut off a fair chunk.

Sure you can auto-hide or make some stuff smaller, but then you don't have as good of an interface left. And I've found auto-hide on the start menu to be annoying so far on the touch screen.

It is inelegant, but that's the choice to be made when the OS isn't designed for a form factor. On this front, iPad wins all the way, easily.

If these screens were 1024x768 or better yet, 1280x960 or something it wouldn't be such a problem, the 600 hampers it for sure.

The funny part is it's the same exact problem I had trying to run Win3.11 on a low res monitor for someone about 17-18 years ago, the OK/Cancel buttons were just out of reach.

I thought the Slate was pulled to retool it to run Palm OS?

hmmm.... it's a bit bigger than I was expecting. I don't mean to say it's Way too big (like the maxiPad) but it is enough bigger than the Samsung tablet, that I've been thoroughly using the last few years, that I worry about it's portability. My tablet just fits into most coat pockets.

Also, no integrated kickstand or hand-strap :-/

Well, it does have some nice clean lines, and a cool carrying case. The docking station isn't bad, but could have used a bit more refinement.

Pops right up for me.

goto HP® - Laptops, Desktop, Printers, Servers, and more and do a search for "slate"

"Genuine" Windows 7. Who gives a fack? Frankly I think I'd prefer fake Windows!

The rest of the specs look pretty good. Hopefully someone will get a real OS running on it soon (Hackintosh, Android, Linux, hell, BeOS....).

Interesting that it's only available online. Won't be at retail so no ability to test drive it.

Quick look at the specs and damn if that does not look Hackintoshable.

It comes with the docking station for the money. With the dock, it becomes a small PC. They are supposed to have a bluetooth keybord and mouse for it as well.

As far as the kick stand, I agree. But this will work:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1287779416.jpg

It has a USB port.

iPad does not.

I will be buying a Slate for nothing more than that reason...
..except the dozens of other reasons, like the fact that I can just run windows applications on it that I save to it from my jump drive rather than using an 'app store'.

The device you're talking about is great, but it is really little. In the future I'd imagine you'd have some sort of super phone as a single device once the apps get there.

I think yours is only about a 1GHz anyhow right? Somwhere in the neighborhood power/resolution wise of a Window Phone 7, Galaxy S Android phone, iPhone 4, etc. Or maybe something along the lines of a Galaxy Tab is the size you might be going for.

The problem with that is it feels in between to me, I either want to go jeans pocket size, or just carry something. I used to haul a fat PDA around and never knew what to do with it in the summertime. :)

Even the 10" screen on the tablet I'm playing with is slightly constrictive, though most of the problems are due to OS elements that should have been a little bigger, or split into multiple screens for touch purposes.

And a built in SD card port. And 2 cameras..

The lack of ports on an iPad is a little annoying.

On mine, I have two USBs, mini-VGA (and it'll work for everything unlike the cluster of a vid out for the iPad), audio in/out, an RJ45 network port just in case, SD, and only a front camera.

It also came with the case and VGA adapter, helping the price be more competitive.

I found being able to plug in a keyboard super handy for doing some quick setups of my network shortcuts, favorites, etc. vs. playing with the onscreen keyboard, which, while good, is nowhere near as fast as the real thing.