The HP TouchPad: Plays Games Like Nothing Else

HP often expressed it’s vision for webOS as being a platform that allows developers to build upon & enhance the connected device experience. Allowing different devices to communicate with each other; from phones, to tablets, to printers, to PC’s and beyond. Yesterday at Comic Con San Diego, HP teamed up with actor Hugh Jackman to jointly promote his new movie Real Steel, and the HP TouchPad. While doing so they also gave us a preview of how webOS & the TouchPad enhances the web based gaming experience.

The new single player game World Robot Boxing (based on the upcoming movie “Reel Steel”) will be greatly enhanced by a soon to be released TouchPad app. The game looks like a futuristic spin on the “Rock ‘em Sock ‘em” robot games, yet plays with mechanics of the classic Mike Tyson’s Punch Out game. The game is powered by Unity Engine, and gives a powerful web based gaming experience through your browser. Where things get interesting is that connecting your TouchPad to the same WiFi network will allow you to turn your TouchPad into the games controller.

You can use the app on the TouchPad to control your character’s movements and actions. Throughout the fighting, you can glance at the TouchPad to check your fight stats, and get instant feedback about your match. Check out a video of the game in action:

The TouchPad app will be made available soon, but in the mean time, if you want to get a head start in the game, you can head over to the World Robot Boxing site. Currently, you’ll only be able to start training your robot and have him workout in the gym. Then next week, you’ll be able to choose from 4 robots from the movie, as well as start a career mode to earn money, and advance your robot. So what are you waiting for?  Start training your robot!

For those that are real impatient; if you plan on going to Comic Con San Diego this weekend, look for an HP truck set up, where you can demo the game along with the TouchPad app. You’ll also be able to earn a shot at winning a free TouchPad.

Source: HP – The Next Bench

NYC webOS Developer Meetup Recap – 6/28

With about 15 or so in attendance (which included webOS developers, future developers & enthusiasts), last weeks NYC webOS developer meetup went pretty well. It kicked of with a surprise conference call from Dave Ballmer and Robert Burdick of Developer Relations for HP webOS. They took a few minutes to introduce themselves, and gave us some good news; which is that HP intends to offer it’s support to future developer meetups. However, not just our New York webOS Developers Meetup, but other webOS meetups through out the country as well.They’ll have people from HP join our meetups; whether in person, or via Skype to help us. They’re also willing to occasionally send some free swag our way, similar to how the February Developer Meetup went (where I won a Pre 2). It’s good to know that HP is very supportive of developer events; even unofficial ones from Meetup groups like ours.

Next up, we had a presentation from WebOS World on their Villo Services. Villo is a collection of services that Developers can use to add extra functionality to their mobile applications, and take advantage of Cloud based functions. Some enhancements that developers can implement into their apps (both existing apps or brand new ones) include real-time chat, gifting, user profiles, friends and more. Villo services are currently free for both developers & users. You can sign up at: http://www.villo.net/

In addition, our Meetup co-organizer webOS dealer was on hand, and installed the Villo & webOS World apps for everyone in attendance to try on our webOS phones. Overall, it was a great event and I look forward to future meetups. If you’re interested in attending NYC webOS meetup events; either social or developer focused, join the New York webOS Developers Meetup group to stay informed & to RSVP for future events.

HP’s Building Momentum for a Successful TouchPad Launch

A recent Bloomberg Businessweek interview with HP Executive Todd Bradley gives us some insight into the upcoming launch of the HP TouchPad. It would appear that HP is doing everything in it’s power to make sure that the TouchPad is a success, and moves into the #2 spot among tablets as soon as possible. Two major challenges that the TouchPad faces are: getting a healthy app catalog with developer support; and getting people to buy the TouchPad over the competition. Bradley goes into how HP will address these issues.

App Catalog & Developer Support

According to Bradley, the TouchPad will launch with 300 native (Tablet Specific) apps. Now it’s not the tens of thousands that many people would hope for, however it is an impressive number. Especially considering that the SDK to develop TouchPad apps is still in private beta, and has yet to be released to the general public. It is also a higher number of native apps than both the Blackberry Playbook, and the Motorola Xoom (Android’s 1st Honeycomb tablet) launched with. In addition, HP announced webOS Pivot; a digital magazine that is available within HP’s App Catalog and is updated monthly. It will highlight applications in the catalog, and give developers extra exposure outside of the traditional “Top App” category highlights. It will also give users new ways to discover apps. All of this sounds like good news to me, and looks like it will create some momentum for the TouchPad and the webOS App Catalog.

Getting People to Buy the TouchPad

Sales Force: HP has a global sales force of 20,000+ people. Now that’s a pretty huge sales force; and with the focus that HP has put on making the TouchPad an enterprise class device, they have a good shot at penetrating that market with 20,000+ sales reps on their team.

Distribution & Retailers: Bradley mentions training Best Buy & 600,000 other dealers. I don’t know who the other dealers are, but  600,000 really puts into perspective the reach of HP’s scale, and it’s retail distribution. HP has a lot of outlets through which they can sell the TouchPad, and get it into the hands of consumers.

Premium Shelf Space: HP will be paying retailers in order to have their own floor space in stores. They will also be sending out hundreds of their own reps to demonstrate the TouchPad in stores. Considering the flood of new Android tablets that are hitting the market, It is a smart move to showcase the TouchPad separately from other tablets and to have well informed reps demo it.

Ads & Marketing Campaign: HP is definitely not holding back in this regard. They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on their ad campaign, featuring artists like Jay-Z & other celebrities. HP’s previous ad campaigns which featured Jay-Z, and other celebrities have done well, so I see no reason to doubt that the new ad campaign will do well also.

HP is definitely taking the TouchPad launch very seriously, and it appears they are generating some nice momentum to start things off. With the launch only a week away, we will see if all the hard work that has been put into the TouchPad will pay off; and if consumers and enterprise customers value the TouchPad enough that it gains significant market share in the tablet market.

New TouchPad Commercial, featuring Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao

Seeing how Boxing Champ Manny Pacquio started off the new webOS ad campaign with his HP Veer commercial, it’s only appropriate for the boxing icon to appear in the first HP TouchPad commercial. It seems like the days of the “Borg Queen” look alike, and “phones for mom” ads are a thing of the past, and I couldn’t be any happier. These commercials definitely didn’t properly showcase or market webOS; especially when compared to the Droid & iPhone commercials during that time. So seeing the new webOS ads have been a pleasant surprise. Check out the new ad for yourself:

Now I think this is a great ad.  Aside from showing off some features of webOS like: multitasking, reordering cards within a stack, Synergy working in the Calender app, etc;  PacMan tells a compelling story. A story about how he triumphed throughout his career, despite all the critics that said other wise, (sound familiar). Now I say this story parallels quite nicely with the webOS story, and paints a picture of a promising future for webOS. Bellow I take PacMan’s words from the above commercial, and reveal the webOS metaphor which it represents.

PacMan
They said, I couldn’t win a fight, but I did. They said I couldn’t fight above my weight class, but I did. They said I couldn’t get elected to Congess, but I did. Now I’m trying to make it in music……… Haaa Haaa, Millions of Hits!

webOS Metaphor
They said we couldn’t even win a laptop magazine poll, but we did. They said we couldn’t take on a phone that was above our speed class (4G), but we did. They said we’d never get elected best mobile OS, but we did. Now we’re trying to break into the tablet market… Haaa Haaa, Millions of Pre-orders.

OK, so maybe HP didn’t have this metaphor in mind when they made this commercial, and the TouchPad probably doesn’t have millions of pre-orders…Yet!!! However, this is what the webOS entusiast in me hears when I see this commercial, lol.

Good job with the commercial HP, keep ‘em coming.

My Current Top 3 Gadgets

For my first post, I figured why not start out by talking about my three favorite gadgets. These are the three gadgets I currently use the most and are most passionate about. Maybe we’ll have some in common, maybe not. Either way, check out my top 3 below.

Pre 2 and webOS

In this day and age, how can my smartphone not be my most used gadget. It’s usually the last thing I use before going to sleep, and one of the first things I grap when I wake up (I don’t think I’ll ever escape the Matrix). But this one is special, it’s no ordinary smartphone, it’s the Pre 2 running webOS. Though the Pre 2 & webOS are both highly underrated, I’ll go out and say that webOS is arguably the best mobile ‘OS on the market.

Back in 2009 when I was deciding which new smartphone to get, it was between the orginal Pre & HTC Hero. After playing around with both devices in Sprint stores, I went with the Pre & webOS, and never looked back.

• Hardware: Aside from the technical specs of the Pre 2, it’s portrait slider keyboard, gorilla glass screen, and overall solid feel of the hardware make it a delight to use.
• webOS:  It’s intuitive UI, simple gestures, and synergy made me choose webOS over the competition back in 2009. Being able to sync all my contacts, calenders, email accounts, etc; have them in one view & continuously update from the cloud is awesome, synergy is definitely one of my favorite features of webOS.
• Homebrew (and HP/Palm’s embrace of it): No jail breaking, or rooting of the device is necessary. Simply enter the Konami Code (or alternatively, type webos20090606) and instal an App called Preware. This will give you access to homebrew apps, patches & themes, allowing you to to overclock, and customize various functions of your device with ease.

Cr-48

A thin, lightweight, and portable laptop with great battery life. With it’s 8 second bootup time, and instant on from sleep mode, this laptop gives you instant access to the web. I was fortunate enough to get into Google’s Pilot program for the Cr-48, and experience Chrome OS on a ChromeBook before the masses. I was pleasantly surprised with it; who would have thought living in the cloud could be so practical.

It became my primary notebook for the last few months, and made me realize how much I can get done just relying on a browser and  web based applications. Two of my most used desktop applications for personal use have have been Microsoft Word and Tweet Deck. On my Cr-48, using Google Docs and the Tweet Deck web app have been more than adequate substitutes. The Tweet Deck web app is almost identical to the desktop version, and showcases the potential for web apps and their ability to replace their desktop counterparts.

X-Box 360 + Xbox Live

 

The days of Game Consoles being used only to play Video Games are long gone. The Xbox 360, along with Xbox Live and its consistent dashboard updates have created an entertainment power house. My Xbox 360 is the media hub of my house. Not only do I use my Xbox  to play games and interact with the millions of Xbox live members around the world, I use it to consume tons of media. If I’m not streaming a movie or TV show via Netflix, I’m accessing content from my PC. With my Xbox 360 & PC on the same router they easily connect via windows media center, allowing all the content and media from my PC to be accessible right on my Xbox.

Sharing pics and videos during family gatherings at my house have also become so much more convenient. Whenever someone starts reminiscing , or talking about a recent family event, everyone wants to see the photos and videos. So rather than pass my laptop around or connect it to the TV, I just turn it on and boom; all my stuff is there and accessible on my Xbox. In addition, there are lots of other content I access occasionally via Xbox Live; like Facebook, Twitter, Zune Marketplace, Hulu Plus, ESPN, LastFM and a few others. Microsoft has taken online gaming and social networking to another level with it’s Xbox Live service, which is the main reason Xbox 360 is my preferred gaming console.

Well there you have it folks. That pretty much rounds up my top three favorite gadgets. Do we have any top 3 gadgets in common? Yes, No, either way feel free to comment about your favorite gadgets below.