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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready, Are you hey there, Tex Stuff listeners. This

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Speaker 1: is Jonathan Strickland and I have got a request for

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Speaker 1: all of you. Now. Chris and I have decided that

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Speaker 1: we're going to try and experiment. We're doing our first

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Speaker 1: crowdsourced episode of tech Stuff and we want to know

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Speaker 1: what your pick is for the worst video game of

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Speaker 1: all time. Now, nominations you can. You can make one nomination.

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Speaker 1: You nominate one game, and you need to tell us

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Speaker 1: the name of the game and the platform it was on.

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Speaker 1: And it could be any platform. It could be an

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Speaker 1: arcade game, it could be a PC, Mac, Xbox, PS three,

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Speaker 1: Nintendo handheld console. It can be web based if you like.

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Speaker 1: But just you let us know what the platform is

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Speaker 1: so we can make sure we count that as the votes.

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Speaker 1: So you can nominate your game either through email, which

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Speaker 1: is text stuff at how stuff works dot com, or

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Speaker 1: you can nominate through Twitter or Facebook. And we're gonna

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Speaker 1: put a cut off date on this. I want to

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Speaker 1: have the episode go up by the end of September

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Speaker 1: of even so let's say you need to get your

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Speaker 1: nominations in by September eleven, So if you get those

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Speaker 1: nominations into us, we will make sure we include those

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Speaker 1: in the process and we will have an episode where

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Speaker 1: we give you the worst video games of all time

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Speaker 1: based upon the votes of our listeners. Thanks a lot.

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Speaker 1: You can't wait to hear from you. Get in touch

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Speaker 1: with technology with tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Hello again, everyone, Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is

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Speaker 1: Chris Poulett. I am an editor at how stuff Works

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Speaker 1: dot com. And sitting down across from me because he

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Speaker 1: just doesn't want to stand, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes when we touch, the honesty's too much and I

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Speaker 1: have to close my eyes and hide. That typically has

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Speaker 1: nothing to do with the electronics and computer industry, but

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Speaker 1: today we're talking about a very weird situation, the the

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Speaker 1: HP touch pad and its fate and uh and reaction

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Speaker 1: to that fate and what that reaction to that fate

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Speaker 1: might actually mean and how it could change the fate.

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Speaker 1: And I got a headache. Yeah. So a few podcasts ago,

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Speaker 1: and I don't even remember which one it was on

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Speaker 1: because I didn't think about it until just now to

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Speaker 1: look it up. Um, we talked about web OS and

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Speaker 1: in terms of and it was a tablet And I said,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I actually have finally had the chance

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Speaker 1: to mess around with an HP touch pad. Um And

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Speaker 1: it was the first time I had ever actually encountered

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Speaker 1: the web os in the wild. Um, I think there

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Speaker 1: was an elephant standing nearby. It was a little scary,

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Speaker 1: an elephant in my pajamas. How I got on my

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Speaker 1: touch pad I'll never know, but uh, but yeah, it

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Speaker 1: was the first time I had actually ever had the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to tried. I never actually seen a Palm pre

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Speaker 1: or anything, you know, anything else that ran it. And

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Speaker 1: I really liked the OS and I didn't spend hours

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Speaker 1: with it. I spent about five minutes with it, but

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Speaker 1: I thought, hey, you know what this is. This is

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Speaker 1: pretty nice. And I used Android on my phone and

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Speaker 1: I use you know iOS, I've got an iPad. I thought, well,

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Speaker 1: this this is a pretty nice o S. I really

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Speaker 1: like it. I would like to mess with it some more.

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Speaker 1: And I thought, maybe HP has got something with this thing.

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Speaker 1: Except HP didn't think so. Um. Well, before we before

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Speaker 1: we jumped too much into the actual story, we probably

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Speaker 1: should revisit. We did an episode on Palm which is

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Speaker 1: where you were thinking of the web os. We did

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Speaker 1: an episode on on the the rise and fall of

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Speaker 1: Palm and kind of it's a pathway and uh. And

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Speaker 1: in a way, what we're talking about now is almost

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Speaker 1: the death of Palm, although there's a glimmer there's a

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Speaker 1: glimmer of life left in what Palm created. Yeah, in

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Speaker 1: a in a nutshell, Palm, of course was h personal

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Speaker 1: digital assistant company. They made the hardware for UH, for

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Speaker 1: this device, which in the was wildly popular with business people. Um.

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Speaker 1: It was a predecessor to the smartphone, a company where

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Speaker 1: the the company founders left and created another company called Handspring.

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Speaker 1: They came up with the Trio, which was a very

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Speaker 1: early smartphone. It used. They licensed the Palm operating system

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Speaker 1: from Palm, and eventually Palm acquired hand Spring and started

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Speaker 1: making Trios, and they sort of, you know, gradually started

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Speaker 1: the smartphone market more or less, I would say, along

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Speaker 1: with BlackBerry. Right, BlackBerry was getting a lot of traction

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Speaker 1: in the enterprise field, so all the professionals, right, executives,

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Speaker 1: people like that, were snapping up Blackberries and getting hooked

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Speaker 1: on them. Uh. And then Palm was courting that same

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Speaker 1: customer base. Uh. Neither Palm nor BlackBerry at the time.

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Speaker 1: We're really making a huge dent in the general consumer

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Speaker 1: market that we didn't see the general consumer get interested

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Speaker 1: in smartphones really until the introduction of the iPhone in

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Speaker 1: two thousand seven. Yep. And the thing is, BlackBerry had

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Speaker 1: the enterprise market sewn up, partially because of their thorough encryption.

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Speaker 1: They have their their proprietary encryption system and network. UM

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Speaker 1: and iPhone had this brand new operating system, and all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, Palms operating system which hadn't really been

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Speaker 1: updated significantly. I mean, yeah, I've been gone through periodic updates,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't uh really new or refreshed. UM started

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Speaker 1: to really show its age. I mean BlackBerry and and

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Speaker 1: an Apple, we're really setting it behind. And it was

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Speaker 1: painfully obvious that Palm was losing ground very very quickly. Right,

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Speaker 1: So let's flash forward to two thousand nine. January two

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Speaker 1: thousand nine at C E. S. Palm unveils the Palm

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Speaker 1: pre running the brand new web OS. The press went nuts,

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Speaker 1: Oh boy, did they? Yeah? Look at that this was

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Speaker 1: a device that had more buzz around it than just

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Speaker 1: about anything else on the floor that year. There were

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Speaker 1: a couple of other items that also got some some

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Speaker 1: major buzz, but the Palm pre was was way up there,

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Speaker 1: and everyone who saw it thought it looked really snazzy.

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Speaker 1: That the web operating System or the web OS rather

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Speaker 1: was that it was very um uh snazzy. It had

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Speaker 1: a nice, uh flashy look to it. It looked like

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Speaker 1: it was very responsive. Uh, it looked like it could

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Speaker 1: really give the iPhone a run for its money as

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Speaker 1: far as design is concerned. Because really, I'm a huge

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Speaker 1: Android fan, don't get me wrong, So when I say this,

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Speaker 1: know that I'm saying it as someone who owns Android

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Speaker 1: products and loves the Android system. Android does not have

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Speaker 1: the flash or style of iOS. It doesn't. It's it's

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Speaker 1: a very useful system, and it has a lot of

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Speaker 1: flexibility and a lot of customization built into it, which

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Speaker 1: is fantastic and that's why I love it. But it

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Speaker 1: doesn't have the kind of snazzy look of iOS or

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Speaker 1: web os. So the response was, Hey, this is a

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Speaker 1: smartphone that might appeal to the same potential customer as

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Speaker 1: Apple's customers, right, not just like not just smartphone buyers,

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Speaker 1: because some smartphone buyers are like me, you know, they're

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Speaker 1: gonna be I want the Android one because it it

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Speaker 1: kind of caters to my style. Some are going to

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Speaker 1: be I like this one because it's pretty and it works.

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Speaker 1: And uh, and there's nothing wrong with either of those two.

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Speaker 1: By the way, I'm not passing any judgment. I just

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Speaker 1: happened to fall into that one category versus the other. Now,

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Speaker 1: the webOS the Palm pre like I said, made a

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Speaker 1: huge splash, but there was a problem in that it

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Speaker 1: didn't get to market until June of two thousand nine.

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Speaker 1: So it was it was unveiled in January and then

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Speaker 1: six months passed before it hits store shelves. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: there's another problem too, and it really hit a long

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Speaker 1: time before this, and that is that Palm did not

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Speaker 1: move early enough to make this work. Not really right.

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Speaker 1: So by two thousand nine, the iPhone has been out

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Speaker 1: for two years. The Android phone has been out for

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Speaker 1: almost as long. Android launched just a few months after

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Speaker 1: the iPhone became available, and so you already had these

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Speaker 1: companies already had a jump in the smartphone market. We're

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Speaker 1: already building a customer base, and so you're starting to

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Speaker 1: lose the number of people who are interested in smartphones.

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Speaker 1: But don't already have one, and then that means that

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Speaker 1: you have to get whatever group is left, like people

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Speaker 1: who want a smartphone but haven't bought one. They've held

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Speaker 1: off that that number has gotten very small, or you

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Speaker 1: have to convince people who have bought a smartphone to switch,

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Speaker 1: which is tough because most of the time, at least

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Speaker 1: in the United States, those smartphones are coming with contracts

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Speaker 1: that last at least two years, and to get out

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Speaker 1: of that contract you have to spend more money. So

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Speaker 1: it means that the purchase price of a new smartphone,

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Speaker 1: you know that part of it, that's the base amount

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Speaker 1: of where you're gonna spend, but you're also going to

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Speaker 1: spend the money to get out of your current contract

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Speaker 1: on top of that, so it makes those smartphones even

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Speaker 1: more expensive. Or you know, if you buy a phone

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Speaker 1: that isn't connected to a plan, that adds money to

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Speaker 1: the purchase price. So anyway, uh, yeah, Palm was already

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Speaker 1: behind in the game, and then the fact that it

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Speaker 1: took six months from the unveiling to the launch meant

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Speaker 1: that that buzz that was so powerful back in January

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Speaker 1: had died down to just a murmur by June, and

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Speaker 1: so it the Palm pre did not have a hugely

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Speaker 1: successful launch. Uh. They followed it up with the Palm Pixie,

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Speaker 1: which had even worse But anyway, Palm started to suffer

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Speaker 1: and then the company began to waiver financially. And that's

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Speaker 1: when HP stepped in in two thousand ten and purchased

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Speaker 1: the company. Yeah, they had been sort of, I would say,

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Speaker 1: not so secretly looking for suitors, you know, who wants

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Speaker 1: to pick us up. We got some good stuff and

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Speaker 1: uh an HP was was the winning bidder on the

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Speaker 1: company and picked it up. And people began saying, okay,

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Speaker 1: so is HP going to get in the smartphone business? Now?

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Speaker 1: What does this mean for the web os? And HP

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Speaker 1: pretty much said definitively they were not interested in the

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Speaker 1: smartphone business. That didn't mean that they were going to

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Speaker 1: completely discontinue all that, but they they the company made

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Speaker 1: it very clear that this purchase was really for webOS

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Speaker 1: more than anything else. And and so people were saying, okay,

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Speaker 1: so if you're not going to make smartphones with it,

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Speaker 1: what are you going to do with it? And of course,

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Speaker 1: in with the launch of Apple's iPad um, it became

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Speaker 1: clear that there was a market for consumers to buy

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Speaker 1: tablet computers. So the tablet computer race is now on,

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Speaker 1: with Apple firmly in the lead. Uh and HP starts

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Speaker 1: to develop tablets as well. And tablets were not again,

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Speaker 1: not a new thing. Tablets have been around for a while.

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Speaker 1: It's just that iPad was the first one to really

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Speaker 1: become a success in the consumer market, and it was

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Speaker 1: depending up. I don't want to say it's clear that

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Windows was not a good operating system for tablets.

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Speaker 1: I'll say that a lot of engineers did not like

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Speaker 1: using Windows for tablets. They found it to not be ideal.

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Speaker 1: Plus the form factor for tablets to previous tablets the

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Speaker 1: Microsoft operating system, tablets were primarily essentially notebook computers for

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Speaker 1: which the screen would flip inside out and you could

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Speaker 1: snap it down. So it was more or less the

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Speaker 1: size and heft of a laptop computer, a smallish laptop computer,

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Speaker 1: but not the same form factor the small size of

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Speaker 1: a of an iPad. Then, yeah, so HP starts working

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Speaker 1: on on actually are they been working but they they're

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Speaker 1: developing the touch pad. That's their their tablet, and the

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Speaker 1: touch pad launched officially on July one, yep, July one,

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Speaker 1: and we're recording this, uh towards the end ish of August,

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Speaker 1: when we're sitting down in the studio. We know that

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Speaker 1: you guys are listening to this later because you're not

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Speaker 1: in here with us, right. But the thing is, UM.

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Speaker 1: In July they announced, you know, they released these and

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Speaker 1: on August I heard of a story in which Best

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Speaker 1: Buy was saying, these things aren't selling. We want HP

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Speaker 1: to take them back. Uh. It was a rumor because

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Speaker 1: you know, the companies aren't really gonna do that. But

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Speaker 1: basically what happened was they had they had purchased a

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Speaker 1: lot of inventory, and the inventory wasn't moving. They weren't

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Speaker 1: moving them. Yeah, and they were priced about the same

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Speaker 1: as an iPad, and they were around the same amount

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Speaker 1: as an iPad. And and so you're talking tablets, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about the five to eight dollar range, depending

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Speaker 1: upon the tablets. UM. So the touchpads were not really moving.

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Speaker 1: And then HP dropped a bombshell on the world, uh,

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Speaker 1: in a in a call on August nine, and that

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Speaker 1: was when HP said that the executive said that they

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Speaker 1: were no longer going to support the developing web os products.

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Speaker 1: Now the software will, according to HP, continue to be

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Speaker 1: supported in some way that wasn't really addressed in that

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Speaker 1: particular discussion. But so there's no immediate indication that webOS

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Speaker 1: itself is really going away, but the HP is no

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Speaker 1: longer going to be building products for web Os, and

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Speaker 1: that means no more smartphones or tablets running the web

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Speaker 1: Os operating system, which is you know, only a few

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Speaker 1: weeks of the tablet being out there, forty nine days

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Speaker 1: to be specific, And in fact, forty nine days means

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Speaker 1: that the HP Touchpad did out pasked one other electronic

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Speaker 1: device that was famously launched and then abandoned soon thereafter,

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Speaker 1: and that was the Kin from Microsoft sow. The Kin

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Speaker 1: was the the the follow up to the Sidekick. You know,

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Speaker 1: Microsoft purchased danger yes, and then UH decided to introduce

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Speaker 1: the Kin, which was running on on the the Dangerous servers,

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Speaker 1: and that lasted forty eight days from launch to abandonment.

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Speaker 1: So the touchpad survived a day longer than the Ken did.

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Speaker 1: These were not, by the way, just I don't want

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Speaker 1: to give the indication that both of these stories happened simultaneously.

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Speaker 1: The kN that that happened before the touchpad story. But anyway, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so this ended up making some waves in technology circles.

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Speaker 1: People were starting to talk about does this mean that

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Speaker 1: Palm is officially dead now that webbos has essentially been

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Speaker 1: abandoned uh, And then there were other people saying, no,

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Speaker 1: no, no no, let's not jump to conclusions, because, as HP

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Speaker 1: has said, they will continue to support at least the

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Speaker 1: software side of web os UH. My question is that, UH,

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Speaker 1: is there enough of an incentive for developers to continue

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Speaker 1: developing applications for web os knowing that there are no

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Speaker 1: plans for any future hardware that will run the operating system,

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Speaker 1: at least not any from HP. I mean, there's always

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Speaker 1: the possibility that HP could license out operating system to

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Speaker 1: some other hardware manufacturer, right right, so we might see

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Speaker 1: some other branded UH device come out with the web

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Speaker 1: Os on it. Yeah. Now let's pretend, for for for

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Speaker 1: just a moment, that the story stops right here. UM,

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Speaker 1: I think the podcast would pretty much stop right here,

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Speaker 1: because I think, UH, speaking for myself anyway, I would

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Speaker 1: say it's unlikely that HP is going to do anything

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Speaker 1: with it. It's unlikely, considering the difficulty with which Palm

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Speaker 1: UH fund itself trying to be purchased, that anybody will

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Speaker 1: want to pick it up. So I would say that

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Speaker 1: this is the death of the web os. That's if

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Speaker 1: the story stops here. But weirdly enough, so it doesn't.

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Speaker 1: The touch pad became the most popular obsolete device I

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Speaker 1: have ever heard of. It's it's very strange. Now, it's well,

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Speaker 1: it's that's completely strange. But well, so we have we've

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Speaker 1: we've already uh, you know, touched on the fact that

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Speaker 1: there are tons and tons of them out there right

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Speaker 1: they're not selling. Um. Yeah, the article I had, um

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Speaker 1: I read about was Eric Hesseldahl from All Things d

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Speaker 1: who who he was going on rumors that Best Buy

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Speaker 1: had bought two hundred seventy thousand touch pads and it

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Speaker 1: only moved twenty five thousand of them. She actually mentioned, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean you talked about the discounts. There was a

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Speaker 1: discount for fifty dollars and then a hundred dollars on

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Speaker 1: on the touch pad that ended up being a permanent discount.

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Speaker 1: After they still weren't selling. They said there was a

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Speaker 1: deal on woot dot com for a hundred twenty dollars

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Speaker 1: off the sixteen gigabyte model six D twelve. People went

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Speaker 1: in for it. It's not really a lot of people

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Speaker 1: showing interest in it. Again, no one's gonna pick it up.

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Speaker 1: They've killed it off. It's not except at this point,

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Speaker 1: with all these touch pads in the marketplace, HP and

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Speaker 1: all these retailers decided to put it on a steep discount.

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Speaker 1: So there are two models, the sixteen and the thirty

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Speaker 1: two gigabyte, and they started going for as low as

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Speaker 1: ninety nine dollars. Yeah, and and include there was one

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Speaker 1: place where you could get it for forty because here's Staples, Staples, Staples,

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Speaker 1: because Staples was running a promotion, whereas fifty dollars off

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Speaker 1: a tablet for the back to school promotion. So if

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Speaker 1: you bought the nine dollar sixteen gigabyte touch pad from

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Speaker 1: stay Poles, you would get the fifty dollars back. It

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Speaker 1: was a forty nine dollar tablet. If I had seen that,

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Speaker 1: I same here. Okay, I do not own a touch pad, Chris,

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Speaker 1: you do not own a touch pad, but both of

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Speaker 1: us at a hundred dollars. That's this is This is

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Speaker 1: where the story really gets interesting because it could mean

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Speaker 1: huge changes coming up in the tablet market going forward,

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Speaker 1: because people have taken notice when HP reduced the prices

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Speaker 1: for the sixteen gigabyte down to and the thirty two

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Speaker 1: gigabyte was down to a hundred and forty nine dollars.

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Speaker 1: People started sweeping them up. People were buying them in bunches,

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Speaker 1: because you could buy five sixteen gigabyte touch bad tablets

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Speaker 1: for the same price as and iPad. Yeah, and they've

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Speaker 1: started showing up on eBay for more than that for yeah,

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Speaker 1: some in some cases more than what the retail price

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Speaker 1: was when they were in stores. But the that was

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Speaker 1: the the interesting thing was that people started jumping on

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Speaker 1: these deals, and in fact HP was soon out of stock,

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Speaker 1: although of course lots of other type pads are still

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Speaker 1: on their way back to HP. So by the time

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Speaker 1: this podcast goes live, I can't say for sure that

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Speaker 1: there will be more sales because I don't know the numbers,

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Speaker 1: but I do know that between the time we're recording

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Speaker 1: and then there probably will be another sale on HP,

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Speaker 1: and and that HP even invited people to sign up

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Speaker 1: for notifications when it would go on sale again. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And and the thing is to HP has said we're

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Speaker 1: temporarily out of stock, we will be getting more of them, right,

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Speaker 1: and and there are all the other places that we're

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Speaker 1: selling them for the nine dollars. Very quickly sold out,

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Speaker 1: and there were websites dedicated just to tracking these deals

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Speaker 1: and letting people know when the deals were active and

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Speaker 1: then when the deals had had expired, like when all

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Speaker 1: the inventory was sold out. And I was watching these

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Speaker 1: for a while because I was thinking, you know what,

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Speaker 1: maybe I'll pick one up because a hundred dollars, that's

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Speaker 1: that's tempting. Um. And even though knowing that the web

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Speaker 1: os operating system may be obsolete, you know, there may

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Speaker 1: not be that much more developed before that operates istem

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Speaker 1: just because again, if you're a developer and you're going

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Speaker 1: to spend the time, money, and effort to build something,

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Speaker 1: you want to hit. Uh. You want to build an

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Speaker 1: application it's going to as many people as possible, and

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Speaker 1: you don't do it for an operating system that's obsolete, right,

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Speaker 1: one would guess. But because these sales have gone so

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Speaker 1: crazy all over the place, now there's a renewed interest,

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Speaker 1: at least in the journalism sphere, of where could webbos

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Speaker 1: go after this, because it's shown that people are willing

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Speaker 1: to buy this product at this price. Uh, Now it

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Speaker 1: may not go anywhere for webOS. Well, it is important

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Speaker 1: to note, um. I read in the Christian Science Monitor

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Speaker 1: an article by Chris Gaylord who pointed out that apparently

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Speaker 1: the parts cost for a touch pad. Actually he quoted

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Speaker 1: I supply, um, the parts inside a touch pad cost

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Speaker 1: about three six dollars. So if you're wondering if HP

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Speaker 1: is gonna go, huh, well, we can sell these, but

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Speaker 1: we're gonna have to deeply discount them. They're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to if they want to make a profit on it.

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Speaker 1: And they would make a profit on the hardware, not

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Speaker 1: on the software. You know, other other companies can do that,

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Speaker 1: you know, people like Sony with the PlayStation. They're gonna

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Speaker 1: make some money on the games. HP is not really

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Speaker 1: going to make money on the software side, so they

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Speaker 1: would have to price it above three d seven dollars.

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Speaker 1: I'm sounding like the prices right one dollar? Um, so yeah,

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Speaker 1: a hundred dollars. They're not going to make any money

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Speaker 1: on it. But the thing is now there is an

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Speaker 1: entrenched base of users sort of. I mean there there

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Speaker 1: weren't people before. Now there is an incentive to develop

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Speaker 1: software for the web os because there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of people now, not not as many as with the

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Speaker 1: iPad or with the Android tablets. But there are people

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Speaker 1: using the web os. The question is is it worth

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Speaker 1: catering to that audience or is it worth just exploring

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Speaker 1: options of catering to the Apple and Android audiences, which are,

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Speaker 1: like you said, much larger. Um, I think and and not.

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Speaker 1: And to complicate that a little more, I know that

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Speaker 1: there are people furiously working on ways to uh to

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Speaker 1: essentially white webOS off the tablet and replace it with Android. Um,

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Speaker 1: I've I've seen, I know, I've seen reports about early

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Speaker 1: Gingerbread builds, Gingerbread being that the in the smart No, no,

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Speaker 1: that's Honeycomb. Gingerbread is the old smart Point. There's the

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Speaker 1: smartphone operating system. Yeah, and there's plans of incorporating the

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Speaker 1: Honeycomb operating system, assuming that you know, the hardware can

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Speaker 1: can run it properly and all this kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: By the time, by the time this podcast goes live,

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Speaker 1: there may very well be a Honeycomb build specifically geared

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Speaker 1: so that you know, you can replace your webOS with

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Speaker 1: Honeycomb if you wanted to. So there's that problem, because

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Speaker 1: you know, there might be developers saying, yeah, they're all

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Speaker 1: these there are all these tablets that are out there,

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Speaker 1: but there's a certain percentage of tablet owners who don't

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Speaker 1: even want that web os in the first place, So

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Speaker 1: why would I develop for it? Then? But beyond that,

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Speaker 1: this shows that there is a demand for tablets. Uh.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of people who want a tablet,

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Speaker 1: but who are not willing to pay the prices that

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Speaker 1: you find on your your average tablet on the marketplace.

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Speaker 1: And they want a tablet that's of a certain quality,

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Speaker 1: meaning better than some of the low end tablets that

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Speaker 1: you find on the market uh, but they don't want

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Speaker 1: to pay the premium price for it. And when I

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Speaker 1: say premium price, I'm talking about from their perspective, the

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Speaker 1: consumer perspective, not necessarily the manufacturer perspective, which, depending upon

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Speaker 1: the manufacturer may have spent quite a bit of money.

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Speaker 1: There may be a very low margin on some of

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Speaker 1: those tablets. Um. So it could mean that perhaps tablet

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Speaker 1: manufacturers say, why don't we look at a way to

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Speaker 1: build a tablet that's going to cost less to for

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Speaker 1: the consumer but still deliver a satisfying experience so that

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Speaker 1: people don't feel like they've bought an inferior product. Um.

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Speaker 1: And I think I think that's you know, the scramble

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Speaker 1: where you just see this incredible passion for a product

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Speaker 1: that is pretty much obsolete right now. UM. That that

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Speaker 1: does that that raises some eyebrows, That that gets attention.

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Speaker 1: You know, they're going to be some companies out there

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Speaker 1: that are gonna say, you know, if this is the

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Speaker 1: kind of excitement we see, we need to find the

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Speaker 1: best price point for a tablet and then figure out

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Speaker 1: the most economical way to produce a tablet for that

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Speaker 1: price point where we can make a profit. Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: think that's going to be the larger question. I don't

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Speaker 1: think HP will get in back into the tablet business

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Speaker 1: and turn it around and go, oh, you know what,

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Speaker 1: people really do want this. Um. I. I wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: surprised though, to see web os come back in some form,

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Speaker 1: And by that I don't necessarily mean that HP will

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Speaker 1: do it. UM. I wouldn't be surprised to find that

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00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 1: somebody else wants at least the technology for use in

431
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:09,679
Speaker 1: their products. UM. But I also, you know, I was

432
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 1: on a website, one of the tech websites that I

433
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:16,639
Speaker 1: sadly I can't remember, had a poll about what we

434
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 1: thought should happen, and most people who answered that poll,

435
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 1: non scientific, thought that it should be open sourced. So

436
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,400
Speaker 1: you know, there there could be a lot of things

437
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:30,399
Speaker 1: that happened to the operating system, and it could end

438
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 1: up in other locations. But I wouldn't be surprised two

439
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 1: sometime down the road, I don't think this is these

440
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 1: questions about HP and the web os specifically are going

441
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 1: to be coming in the next few weeks. I think

442
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:46,639
Speaker 1: this is going to be one of those things that

443
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:48,959
Speaker 1: plays out over some time. But I think it does

444
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:52,359
Speaker 1: show some interest in the possibility of of using the

445
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 1: web os. I think it's it's absolutely a viable product.

446
00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 1: Question is who's willing, you know, whether HP is willing

447
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 1: to let it go or sell somebody else or make

448
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:03,639
Speaker 1: a contribution to the open source community and say you

449
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: know what, guys, here it is go to it. Yeah,

450
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: I mean it's gonna this is gonna be one of

451
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: those wait and see situations really on multiple fronts. What's

452
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:15,960
Speaker 1: the future of webbs was what is the future of

453
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 1: low end tablets? Uh? Like, what does this say about

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00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: the market in general? Um? But I didn't think we'd

455
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 1: even be having this conversation. No, No No, it was just

456
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 1: it was August. Normally, for those of you who are

457
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 1: unfamiliar with tech news, you normally it's a very slow month,

458
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 1: and it started out slow this year, but some things,

459
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:39,200
Speaker 1: some things have shaken things up. Um, the HP touchpad

460
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:41,000
Speaker 1: was one of the first big stories that really shook

461
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 1: things up. There was an earthquake on the East Coast

462
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: and then the response to that through various social networks.

463
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,120
Speaker 1: That was a big story. And that was even that

464
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:51,919
Speaker 1: an earthquake on the East Coast where it was felt

465
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: from Virginia all the way up to New York City.

466
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 1: That would you would think that would be the biggest

467
00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 1: story of the week. But then there was a story

468
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,679
Speaker 1: that broke that was even large than that. And depending

469
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: on when this podcast goes live, you may or may

470
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:05,480
Speaker 1: not have already heard our podcast about that. And of

471
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 1: course we're referring to Steve Jobs resigning from Apple and

472
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 1: we're going to do a podcast on that, or maybe

473
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 1: we've already done a podcast on that. I don't know,

474
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:15,239
Speaker 1: because I don't know what the schedule will be. On

475
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: the other hand, we you didn't mention Google and motoral mobility.

476
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,160
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, another huge story Google. Yeah, it's a very

477
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,520
Speaker 1: odd August. I think maybe they figured everyone was on

478
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: vacation and we should make our big moves now. Um yeah,

479
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 1: that that's and we'll have to do a story about

480
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 1: that too. So anyway, guys, that that's the kind of

481
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,880
Speaker 1: our our take on the touchpad situation and what happened

482
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 1: and what might happen. Uh, It's it's really all up

483
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: in the air, and it's kind of an interesting if

484
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: any of you guys rushed out and bought a touch

485
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: pad and took advantage of one of those deals. Just

486
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,440
Speaker 1: let us know what you think. Let's know about Well,

487
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:52,280
Speaker 1: let first of all, let's know about how what the

488
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,320
Speaker 1: experience was like purchasing it, and then let us know

489
00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:57,680
Speaker 1: what you think about the actual tablet. Are you going

490
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 1: to keep the web os? Do you like it? What

491
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: do you what do you think is the best part,

492
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,919
Speaker 1: What do you think needs more work? Or do you

493
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 1: plan on actually using the tablet and replacing the operating

494
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:12,040
Speaker 1: system at some point? I want to know all those things. Yeah,

495
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 1: some people did report problems trying to get their hands

496
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: on one because some outlets uh went back on the deal.

497
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,360
Speaker 1: They said, oh sorry, we don't have a supply these

498
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: after all. Sorry, after they had already made a purchase,

499
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 1: so they got emails, named went to social media and

500
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 1: complained bitterly out loud to the to the planet. I

501
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,240
Speaker 1: think that was really a case of lots of people

502
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: flooding the system so quickly that it couldn't keep pace

503
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: with the inventory. So, in other words, in other words,

504
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: that it's not that the company was doing this in

505
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,960
Speaker 1: bad faith, it's just that literally the demand outstripped the

506
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 1: supply and the capacity to to monitor how many units

507
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 1: were being sold at any given time. And of course,

508
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, a lot of those places

509
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 1: shipped their units back to HP, which we do expect

510
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 1: to sell uh the rest at a hopefully at the

511
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 1: same price, although that remains to be seen as of

512
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,240
Speaker 1: the recording of this podcast. But anyway, if you guys

513
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 1: have bought one less no tell us what you think

514
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 1: and you can email us. Our address is tech stuffs

515
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 1: at how stuff Works dot com, or let us know

516
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 1: on Facebook and Twitter. You'll find us there as text

517
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: Stuff H s W and Chris and I will talk

518
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Keep in touch. Be sure

519
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.

520
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 1: Join How Stuff Work staff as we explore the most

521
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works

522
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes, Brought

523
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

524
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 1: are you