A day ago, I urged Hewlett-Packard to provide more details on their upcoming Slate tablet to the tech community, or risk being lost in the iPad hype. Unfortunately, someone apparently heard me – and leaked them to Engadget.
In any event, the document purports to be an HP in-house comparison of the Slate tablet and the Apple iPad, with certain elements identified as advantages for Hewlett-Packard, and others characterized as areas of concern. One of the latter is the price: $549-$599, well under the $829 Apple charges for the 64-Gbyte, 3G iPad. But the $549 price is also a bit higher than Apple sells its base 16-Gbyte, Wi-Fi only model for, at $499.
Basically, here’s what we know about the Slate: it uses a 1,024-by-600 capacitative touch panel, hiding an accelerometer and a light sensor. Inside is an Intel 1.6-GHz Intel “Menlow” Atom processor, with a 1 Gbyte of RAM and either 32- or 64Gbytes of flash memory to be used as memory and storage, respectively. There is a USB expansion slot, an advantage for the Slate.
Connectivity options include 802.11g, Bluetooth, a SIM card tray, and HDMI out. A pair of cameras (one VGA, the other a 3-Mpixel camera) provide the camera options the iPad lacks.
From a weight perspective, both tablets are virtually identical.
The troubling bit is the battery life: just 5 hours, according to the document, up to about 10 hours for the iPad.
Of course, there’s one other critical detail left out of the HP document: the shipping date. If HP plans to launch this tomorrow, these details become relevant. If HP delays the introduction of the Slate until a year from now, they won’t be.
Bored to death of uncreative iPhone accessories, I’ve been praying to God for something different. But perhaps I’ve been praying to the wrong god. Information Appliance Associates, the company best known for its PocketMac synching software, is today announcing the iTiki, a charming little Hawaiian pocket god that will protect your 3G or 3GS iPhone from nicks and scratches.
