iPad may have cool features but its iOS — unless its creator do something about it — is no match for HP’s WebOS TouchPad tablet with its incredible ability to multitask.
When HP launched WebOS TouchPad tablet in January 2009 — alongside Veer phone and Pre 3 — it made a lasting impression on the market that while it is in competitive form already it will soon develop into something far more superior to iPad. In fact, even at this early stage WebOS can win in competion with anything in the industry whether it’s RIM’s BlackBerry, PlayBook or Android tablets.
That’s because the creators of WebOS Touchpad are fully aware of what the other devices offer. Practically all of them fall short on multitasking, which is where the main strength of Web OS Touchpad resides. Working at several tasks simultaneously was not a thing for iPad. Only until the iPhone with built-in multitasking feature came out when iPad inherited the same feature.
Designed with a card-based system, the Touchpad can switch from one application to another. All applications on Touchpad are built to perform multiple tasks at the same time. You don’t have to worry about unifinished email. You can always pick up the conversation from where you left it off. But the most incredible thing about Touchpad is that the user will not miss a thing without getting interrupted. The card-based system will keep him informed.
Compared with Touchpad, iPad requires the user to pass through a narrow space somewhere at the bottom of the screen before he gains multitasking support. And even if he did, he could not expect all applications to be running at the same time because they are not designed to be so. As for notifications, iPad needs to improve on that facility. Each notification shows up on top of every application that is currently running. It is functional at one point but most of the time it comes across as rather annoying — especially if the user is busy with Angry Birds.
The card-based system and the notification facility are just a fraction of the whole level of convenience that Touchpad offers. The facility to delete multiple email messages at one time, to set the virtual keyboard to a bigger or smaller dimension and to replay flash files on websites are a few to be excited about especially if you learn that replaying flash contents on websites is something you don’t experience on iPad.
iPad remains inferior to Touchpad when it comes to messaging. The HP masterpiece enables the user to receive and send messages without the hassle of swinging into another application. The trick is that the creators combine the functionality of messaging with another application so that the user can save time and energy. The same concept is applied in photo app, which is integrated both with Facebook and Flickr.
Touchpad is also known for its ability to make video calls with HP Pre 3. It surprises even the experts, who waited for the same performance between Apple masterpieces such iPad 2 and iPhone 4.
