There’s plenty of chatter on the Internet regarding the iPad. Spend some time in an iPad forum and you’ll find it’s mostly negative. It’s not that the iPad is a terrible product. Most haven’t seen it in person or held it in their hands. I’d venture to say that most think the concept is a great idea, given the massive excitement prior to Wednesday’s announcement by Apple. So if there is a new market for a product that fits somewhere between smartphone and laptop, wouldn’t you think Palm would be positioned to jump in and quickly? webOS developers can easily scale their apps to fit on a mythical webOS Pad with a few easy code changes. With fallout from the iPad, you certainly wouldn’t need any focus groups to know what people want from this device. Here’s what we’d like to see if Palm were to design a webOS Pad. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section.
- Multi-tasking: That’s a no-brainer, since it’s already part of webOS smartphones
- Flash support: On a device of this size, there is no good excuse for it not being supported. Plus, we know it’s coming with 1.4, so we can safely put it on our webOS Pad.
- Productivity apps: Ok, Apple’s got their iWork suite, so Palm would have their work cut out for them here. Provide the developers who create Docs To Go the ability to create a native app, one that would allow for editing Office Docs.
- Games: webOS PDK is scheduled for a public beta in March, so we should see ramping up of games.
- eBooks: Partner with Barnes and Noble on a built-in eBooks store.
- Webcam: Video conferencing, support for Skype would certainly make for one hell of a launch. Can you see Jon Rubinstein starting up a video chat?
- Support for assorted Bluetooth accessories such as keyboards, mice, etc.
- WiFi Model, EVDO models
We could go on and on. Instead, we ask our readers to chip in and let us know how you would make the perfect webOS Pad. Who knows, maybe next year at CES we’ll get our wish. Dream big!
Not mentioned in the article, but I would be sure to include native Facebook and Twitter apps that were best in class. Not just best on the webOS, but any platform. Not an easy task, but hey we’re dreaming big with this one.
A rich media player that allows for content to be wirelessly played to an external device such as a flat screen TV or a home theater receiver/speaker setup.
Just a couple of ideas:
* Allow for applications that are not approved to be installed
* At least one slot for add-in memory
HDMI output, and a 16:9 screen format.
On-screen keyboard — a physical pull-out would be silly, and if you are going to do a lot of typing, support for bluetooth keyboards makes more sense, so an on-screen keyboard for when you just need to do something quick and dirty would be needed.
Support for mail-apps in widescreen.
Telephony, would be nice. I’d love to be able to add this thing to my existing phone/data Sprint plan for an extra $20 per month…
With a boost in processing power and screen area, it would be nice to run several cards simultaneously. IE Pandora and twitter visible while checking email or surfing the net. Or at the least some widgets…
Would be a great idea. Palm really needs to focus on stuff like this. WebOS is a great alternative to the iPhone OS
I don’t know why people are thinking so complicated! right now, the best thing to do for Palm would be to focus on simple basic necessary features. We all know how great WebOS is and absolutely love it (at least I do), and porting WebOS to a tablet would be amazing. I get excited just thinking about all the possibilities, I think for right now, Palm just needs to focus on a few basic things. This would be my wishlist
– all the functionalities of current WebOS, like gestures, wave, notifications, multitasking (which should be easy) and flash (which is coming soon anyway)
– webcam
– widescreen or close to it (definitely not 4:3)
– at least one USB port
– one slot of additional memory would be great (this way, palm can have the tablet just have 16 GB, to keep cost down, users can expand cheaply if they want to)
– 3G support would be great but there is a USB slot, that wouldn’t be absolutely necessary
– all the basic necessities like Wifi, Bluetooth
– on-screen keyboard
– Docs to go
– keep prices low sub $600
I know i’ve repeated what the article says and ideas from comments, but I just think that, this is all they need to do to have a really successful product. I think if they can pull it off within 3 months of iPad launch, then it would be 10 times better; the more they delay, the more iPad is going to gain ground. So come June, if we were to hear this announcement from Palm, I would be one the firsts to jump ship, even if it is an initial product! This could be amazing!! Sorry for long post and thanks for reading!
May I suggest that we refer to such a device as a Web OS Tablet rather than using Apple’s disastrous “Pad” moniker?
at least 2 usb 3.0 ports
Graffiti o similar!! No virtual keyboard!!
100% agree with Tim. Palm can’t afford to name something after a feminine hygiene product. Palm Slate, Palm Captain (play off of Pilot), Palm Reader, Palm Tablet, all better names than Palm Pad… I know there are several other and possibly better names in the forums.
I think WebOS as it will be in 1.4 on Apples current hardware would be amazing. Front facing camera would be one of things I would want added.
i would kill for a front facing camera that worked for all im clients.
I think webOS Tablet would kill iPAD if released. Time is of the essence though. Give apple too much of a head start and you will suffer.
Front facing camera and GPS would be the only thing needed. WIMAX with 3G fallback would make it even better. With a 9.7″ size I think all battery issues would be taken care of.
With all the features that are not included on the iPad but whishing on a Palm webos Tablet and what you all already mentioned , but with and Intel Atom dual core processor and a Amazon Kindle webos app for e books, would be a great hit for Palm
Believe it or not, I’d want it smaller than the iPad. Think DVD case sized. Anything larger and I can’t reach to type by my thumbs even in portrait mode. The only way to type two handed anyway is to put this thing in your lap on on a table, which is either unstable or an awkward angle or both. Besides, why not at least have a chance at carrying this thing somewhere?
WebOS Tablet? Great idea! What features would I want?
*All the same functionality we have now with WebOS,
*at least 1 USB port,
*widescreen display
*Wifi, Bluetooth
*Flash (which is coming I know)
*on screen keyboard with universal spell check across all apps.
*Better copy and paste (similar to the iPhones)
*a kick stand, so this thing can stand on its own.
*Ability to sync PC content ie. music, wirelessly. Using a plugin or something with something like songbird or any other music app would be great.
*touchstone style upright docking station, with tuchstone support right out of the box on the tabled. I want to be able to charge and use the tablet as a digital picture frame or clock.
* Ability to connect to my palm pre and use my EXISTING data plan, not pay a separate price.. lets face it, my phone is on me all the time anyway.
* Documents folder where I can save files, mp3’s, word, whatever.. and access it from my PC via Wifi? or something? I want the webos to ultimately not require me to use my PC for anything.
*Lets make this thing international too, no more U.S. only paid apps, if we really want this WebOS world to grow the developers need to know that they can appeal to more than just the U.S. and make money. This includes a music store, app store, and possibly support for existing ebooks or a bookstore.
I’m pretty comfortable with the capacities (and will be even more so after 1.4 and probably 2.0 are released) of the current WebOS. If plam wants to venture down this path I’d prefer to see a device that mimics the outside of the current palm pre plus, however slightly larger (but to scale) with the ability to flip up an internal screen on the inside much like a laptop. Obviously the opposite of the inside screen would be either another screen with a virtual keyboard or a traditional palm style keyboard. Touch screens all around of course!
Someday!
I would like to have a webospad with not much more features than the ipad.
If it would be waterproofed I even wouldn’t need USB-connection or Power-connection. Just BT, WiFi,GPs compass and Touchstone! WebOs software and here we go.
Similiar touchbars on the bottom like in pre.
A keyboard only as addon: Just mounting like on an easel
No HDMI or stuff too.
No need for extra memory.
no need for battery change if the service is good and if it is possible to change it in emergergency cases
Plz keep it simple…
Extras OK, but don’t make it complicate. It is no Windows!!
Lukeda
Must include a large enough screen size to natively support PDF files. People who are interested in tablets or ereaders have a giant collection of PDF books, docs, etc. already. USB or method to transfer files to WebOS tablet( not Pad).
An active wacom digitizer in the screen allowing for the pad to also be a device for the creation of artwork and perhaps to accept handwriting would be a must in order for me to buy it.
3-4 day battery with regular use – which I can see as feasible, although most likely not going to happen.
OLED Screen – better for eyes, thinner, no backlight (less power consumption.)
WebOS is based on linux. Why would you use docs to go when you already have OpenOffice. Much better program and it’s free. Just saying. Also the fact that the Pad would ultimately be running on a linux kernal is going to make it very powerful for us linux guys out there. All kinds of free stuff to port over from the start.