HP’s $99 Tablet Fiasco

[@pansageyt]

2011 - whole tablet and polishing cloth with hp logo for $99 2024 - polishing cloth with apple logo for $99

[@lenowoo]

😂

[@DeathFlame500]

It’s 20?

[@MandrakeDCR]

@@DeathFlame500 **woosh**

[@courtneymertz4596]

Oh what a world of questionable pricing we live in right now!

[@KORUPTable]

I'm 100% sure Action Retro is your brother and you two make the same videos

[@_maximf]

Omg same thought

[@blodyholy_]

Ok I missed this comment when **I** commented. They always seem to post reviews around the same time. Perhaps it's a bit of algorithm manipulation between the two; which I can't fault. Edit: It sure helps to watch the entire video before commenting (me, not you) -- he addresses it.

[@virt-manager]

WebOS is still alive but only on LG Televisions today😅

[@mikuoctoling]

Yeah

[@WebOSDevelops]

Im 70% convinced LG just bought the name because Lg WebOS and HP WebOS look and act nothing alike

[@Deadguy2322forreal]

On some Sharp TVs too.

[@marioxd2204]

I have an LG H495700 smart tv, the box says it has webOS (I don't think it does, I think it has NetCast) and boy that OS is tragic. the actual screen is really nice though, especially the audio so for the last two years it has been at my mom's bedroom and she only uses it to watch the news and her soap operas (on cable, I don't think she ever connected it to wifi or even any HDMI device)

[@hardscorerockkssss]

and webos tv have that horrbile mousr remote pointer crap,what u cant u csnt turn off.ended buying universal remotr for that reason

[@Madblaster6]

I worked as an HP rep at the time. The immediately discounted it on release day and I bought 3. It was worth it because you could install cyanogen mod on it at the time.

[@123JAILBREAKME]

Yes I remember immediately people where loading cyanogen on to these😂

[@tjnucnuc]

Ahhh that brings me back. The glory days of XDA.

[@Madblaster6]

@@tjnucnuc yes. I even had the T-Mobile HD2 that started the trend

[@Bryce_the_Woomy_Boi]

That tablet was out for about 2 weeks longer than an average house fly lives for

[@cs8712]

This generic tablet lasted longer than Concord did

[@David20Craft]

And also the discontinuation was similar to the Microsoft Kin

[@erdemgundogdu6332]

Crazy how modern the webOS experience seems. It's a shame a horrible company was behind the project

[@tamassengel]

name 1 mobile os that wasnt made by a horrible company

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Palm? Because Palm developed "modern webOS" - then sold it to HP who shipped it essentially unchanged in the one generation of HP-branded devices it shipped on before discontinuing.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

@@tamassengel FirefoxO…. Crap.

[@giedmich]

Still it lasted much longer than sony biggest game ever - concord.

[@SteTechGaming]

Are you and Action Retro in a hivemind or something? You always seem to release videos on the same topics at around the same time often if late 😂

[@ytvandre]

I bet Michael is an ActionRetro subscriber. He must have been : ‘oh wait I have one of those somewhere’ Edit: He actually is a subscriber see 9:18

[@HontasFarmer80]

I owned one of these (it's still around my house somewhere. ) I thought it was fine for what it was. Apple just has better marketing. That said I did buy it for the 99 dollar sale. People lined up at Best buy for it. I still have the ringtones from it in my music library and use one as the ring tone on my phone. It's the Palm Pre ringtone.

[@FenixQubes]

This thing is much quicker/smoother than I thought. I thought this was going to be a total piece of junk. For $99 in 2011 that was quite the deal.

[@uselessDM]

I had a motorola Tablet in 2012 that went for like five or sixhundred dollars new and probably did about the same, so for 99 this would be amazing.

[@vetrixfx9264]

I wad amazed about the Android demo, I thought it will boot into some Android 2.x, 3.0 or MAYBE 4.0, but that it even runs Android 5 is pretty amazing ngl

[@xXRealXx]

@@vetrixfx9264 same, but I did not expect even Android 4.x

[@Siktah]

I managed to snag 100 units on that firesale for a mining company I was contracted to. A curse to myself as I was then modding them all to Android and then figuring out deploying our fledgling 'app' and asset security. If anyone has deployed mobile electronics into the mining industry in Australia - you are aware of how blatant the wholesale theft of anything not screwed down is.

[@kaestralblades]

Had to skip to the webOS demo as soon as it was uploaded I'm sorry - I'm a huge webOS fan and it's always a great day when someone talks about it. I know webOS lore many mortal men have never heard whispers of. I miss you

[@joemama38]

what is the lore? lol

[@anneliese187]

webos is still around. lg tvs running webos with a smart tv shell.

[@ceneblock]

I loved my Pre phones. My Pre+ was such a good phone. Then I got a Pre3 and OMG. 😍 I loved the keyboard. I had to jump to BlackBerry for my subsequent two phones.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Weird flex but OK.

[@tato-chip7612]

By the way there is a fork of WebOS for phones called LuneOS that is still active to this day!

[@uselessDM]

Telling the customer now comes the fun part when they already have taken out the device doesn't strike me as brilliant marketing.

[@dustojnikhummer]

This looks a lot smoother than Android 3.

[@TechnologyNToys]

18:24 YOU HAVE UNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[@Ozzymandius1]

They took the Palm brand and DEFILED IT WITH MORE INCOMPETENCE THAN IT ALREADY HAD. I only ever owned a Palm Centro and a Pixi. The pixi still holds a special place in my heart.

[@adityakkhullar]

Try Windows RT on it!

[@rodolfobelbo152]

Yes

[@user-skeuomorphism]

Or could you try 32 bit Windows on 64 bit UEFI.

[@Dragonfire511]

And everything goes wrong(?).

[@JacksonGaming092]

nah try windows 8.1

[@JhanoyF]

Yes

[@tuxbeatle]

Watching Michael play SMK without drifting reminds me how I played back in my childhood 😅 And I still wondered why I would never get 1st place

[@PC4USE1]

Since I enjoy both your content and Action Retro's,this is a bonus for me. You have approached the hardware from two different angles and that is great.

[@dualpapayas]

3:18 Except in Nebraska

[@demodemo5146]

Why?

[@TweeterMan287]

I was there for the great sale, what a time

[@joemama38]

Holy hell, I remember calling around stores as a kid to try to get one of these when they were $99. It served me well for the time I had it... Still have the box but not sure where the tablet itself went, lol.

[@willfultrain6779]

Me watching this on my iPad right now lol. Oh the way you clear apps is the way it is on android where you can go between apps and swipe up to get rid of / close apps

[@Thoughtlesskyle]

Its insane how well WebOS worked in thr tablet form factor even compared to Android tablets in 2024. Palm just always Zigged when the market Zagged. Over and Over again

[@sonic2000gr]

Having seen the Action Retro's video, I felt a bit of dejavu. But I enjoy videos of both of you.

[@k6kaysix675]

Blackberry Playbook was a similar disaster although the hardware and OS were actually quite good

[@David20Craft]

The Blackberry Playbook OS's multitasking is actually similar to webOS

[@matthewvista]

I was looking for this comment, I had the same exact issues with charging a Blackberry Playbook I got from a thrift store (although I did eventually get it to charge) and even played Uno on it, this video gave me some sort of deja vu

[@michalthekind]

Still a much more successful product than the recent 400 million dollar Concord game.

[@kittenzrulz2314]

Try installing a lightweight Linux distro like Armbian

[@Thoughtlesskyle]

For the blinking light the stock charger uses 3.6 volts so it's very finicky about what it likes. The stock wall block is the only one thats worked for me. Then its just leaving it a LONG time if its doing that with the stock charger and eventually it kocks on. The wireless charger also works too

[@onswiftwingsofficial]

11:33 Getting strong GNOME vibes. I would probably feel at home using this device.

[@Windfarmer]

i was thinking that too, as soon as i saw the interface i started wondering if one inspired the other

[@negirno]

Yes, it's like modern GNOME, but with a Frutiger Aero feel.

[@HayesTech]

I got one of those when they went on sale, to flash custom operating systems on it. That was actually right in the beginning of my tech channel.. how time flies...lol.. and I was successful, eventually, but the tablet was underwhelming to say the least. But with custom operating systems it did wake it up a lot.

[@Hans-gb4mv]

I used to own one, together with the Pre3, I loved those devices. The combination of the both was just powerful. You could just move what you are doing from one device to the other by tapping them together. I had some issues buying mine as I'm in Europe and it never sold here, so I had to work with a forwarding service to purchase one from those major big retailers in the US. And I might try a battery swap on mine as it also does not want to boot anymore.

[@KacWie]

18:40 That UNO sounds and looks like version that was available for PSP, so maybe there's more version of it

[@LanHikari90]

Honestly? That looks pretty awesome. WebOS.

[@greatguyinskulk]

8 seconds ago wow

[@toyotaae86trueno]

im conviced that michael and action retro live in the same city now

[@sbeck9200]

Another Easter egg is to turn it in landscape mode, and instead of swiping the cards up, pull it down hold and release. Need to have sound up though. If it doesn't work, flip it 180 degrees and try the other side.

[@David20Craft]

The easter is the angry birds reference

[@intelinsidecomputer]

This thing was an iPad killer for sure

[@ericwilson9457]

You and action retro working together lol

[@shoktrupz3219]

I still have one, unopened..

[@David20Craft]

Any plans to unbox the touchpad?

[@shoktrupz3219]

@@David20Craft Sure I'm open to that. It was part of a batch I had purchased during that fire sale. But yeah, I guess I might as well.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Imagine getting a refund for the price difference after it was put on sale. That's wild!

[@TheOriginalGabberjaw]

Also, HP manufacturers make bigger boo-boos than just shipping out with android and forgetting to flash to webos :D Like 15 years ago we got a huge shipment of HP laptops, all with original tapes, exact same weight as a real laptop. Directly from a huge distributor. IT ALL CONTAINED CAREFULLY CUT TO SHAPE WOOD. WOOD. DUDE. WOOD. A WHOLE PALLET.

[@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim]

1:23 thanks for the big clarification in *Flashing Yellow* otherwise i wouldn't have believed you lol

[@Damaniel3]

I'm a huge sucker for discounted electronics, and I bought one of these during the $99 firesale back in the day. I probably still have it stored away somewhere (probably wherever I have my original eeePC). WebOS wasn't even really that bad (and the TouchPad ended up getting some decent app support for a while due to all the hobbyists scooping these up) but I, like most people, ended up putting Android on it after a while.

[@СтоянКръстев-м3ф]

Ok, now try Windows "latest and greatest that this tablet can run on" (You can basically sing this entire quote)! Also, the HP (Palm)Pre 3 launched the Day Before the Shutdown of WebOS! That sucks, that's how bad HP was at this moment. Thank goodness for the changeup of the President (CEO).

[@7vadim]

I wonder if that tablet maybe can run Linux or windows on it since it was dual booted with android I'm assuming it could handle windows or Linux as well... Hopefully he makes a continuation of this video

[@ciach0_]

It definitely couldn't run windows, this thing isn't x86

[@thatoneglitchpokemon]

@@ciach0_ Emulation: *exists*

[@gianni_schicchi]

@@thatoneglitchpokemon Good luck emulating X86 on this thing lol.

[@Zephyrus-ZX]

You should totally do a battery replacement video! Maybe look through some old boxes to see if you have other devices that need battery replacements, and do some sort of Battery Repair Bonanza video 😅 I was surprised to find out how well WebOS works, though. Not something I’ve ever used myself, but it visually looks great (though, very dated by contemporary standards I suppose) and it seems to perform very well. I had some cheap Acer tablet ($200?) in early 2012 and that thing was truly awful comparatively. It’s made me kind of nostalgic for the early smart device days, warts and all…

[@Skandha_]

8:29 My friend gave me a TouchPad a few years ago and warned me about this. He said he had to revive all his TouchPads by removing the screen and charging the battery directly with a bench power supply. I never want to open this thing, so I pull it out of the drawer and check the charge every year…

[@djwxyz]

Slickdeals thread on the fire sale was epic. I did receive 6 of them (didn't want 6, but their servers were hammered which resulted in some duplicate orders). Endup keeping them, givving as gifts etc. WebOS was way ahead of it's time and awesome actualy. My next favorite was BlackBerry 10 os (still my favorite of all time) which has borrowed some from WebOS.

[@theshadowdirector]

I remember trying to get a pre-order on one of these after they went on fire sale, I got one but it turned out out Amazon had overs sold them so cancelled it without telling me! And now years later, I have an LG smart TV using WebOS. it’s a funny old world, I really wish the TV interface was snappier! Though same could be said of any smart TV interface.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

LOL. I had been on the lookout for a Touchpad for a while, and one finally showed up on eBay for a reasonable price "sealed new in box" so I snapped it up - right as Action Retro's video came out. The seller sent me one that not only wasn't "sealed new in box" - it had a _return slip_ in the box showing *_the same seller_* had sold it to someone else who returned it as broken. Needless to say, I complained to the seller. They apologized, said the wrong one was grabbed off the shelf, and sent me a replacement.

[@totalgaara]

I miss those UI design app, gradient made, they were beaufitul and for me, still look very modern (if not more than all the flat-look we have now)

[@eveypea]

The WebOs main interface is giving me massive Gnome 3 desktop vibes. The release date of Gnome 3 was also 2011

[@O.V.]

I love how you and Action Retro keep making similar videos lol Seeing both of your views is fantastic

[@bunnykitty69]

i got one of these for christmas after it got discounted. i put android on it- it was awesome!! i used it non stop. pretty much only switched to webOS for skype coz the camera function wasnt added into the android install yet... i finally put it to rest after the battery had that same issue charging.... sometimes if you left it plugged in long enough (over a day even..) it would miraculously power on and you had to be careful to not let it die again lolll

[@MyComputerStudios_]

Next up: Installing Android on the HP TouchPad but everything goes wrong

[@thorongil9]

I work at a small repair shop. We have run into older tablets that refuse to charge when the battery is too low. A lot of times you can remove the battery and connect it directly to a bench power supply and charge it enough to reinstall it and get the tablet running. It's a pretty useful trick, and you can find decent ones for less than $100.

[@bigalexg]

got 1 at the $100 sale price from Walmart at 6 am or whenever the store opened. There were about 5 available. I got the last 1. A week later I left it on my car hood and drove off, cracking the screen badly, but it still works.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

5:56 - Was totally expecting "HP… definitely throwing in…" to be followed by "the towel."

[@RadicalRegice]

oh my god, I wanted one of these so bad in 2011. For no real reason other than the fact that I was a kid, and the only other option was the iPad. I asked my dad if we could get one when they were being sold for $99 but they were all pretty much gone by that point

[@thcriticalthinker4025]

There's a chance it will run without the battery .. also if you feel like it and the BMS hasn't e-fused you could try replacing the cells themself all my Lenovo devices bricked the battery side bms

[@rpst39]

I wonder if you can jumpstart the old battery like you can on first gen ipads. I had one ipad that was bootlooping and charged the cell directly with a 5v 1amp charger and it just came back to life. Maybe it could also work for that dead battery.

[@JulianSauco]

You have to jumpstart the battery. Strip a usb cable and connect the + and - directly to the battery amd let it charge for a few hours, then it will start charging normally.

[@hclnet]

My Dad got one for $99 because he didn't want to spend money on an ipad. He used it for a few months and then got annoyed with webos, broke down, and got the ipad. He gave it to me and I installed Android on it and used it for a few years. Eventually I ran into similar battery issues so I retired it. It was a great android tablet while it was working though.

[@dummptyhummpty]

Oh man, I remember trying to get one of these for $99. I was one of the people who ordered one through B&N but had my order canceled. I did finally get one and it was cool to use for a while. I found it recently but it would no longer power on. I also had the charging dock, case and keyboard.

[@doyouwantsli9680]

It was good when people hacked a better OS on it. It was a nearly free tablet with $300 performance

[@TheVoyger1234]

As a kid growing up in the early 2010s, this was pretty much THE tablet I had that I shared with my brother, of course before we eventually moved to using an iPad for everything instead. This may be my autism speaking but I still remember my time with it pretty clearly (unlike most people) and want to revisit it again even though I don't own an original one anymore and the one that one of my uncles had (back when he was working at Palm) was modded to run android instead.

[@bhasitl]

1:12 Love the vista beta background!!! Even tho it doesn't match 2011😅

[@aegonthedragon7303]

I had (and still have) one of these, worked pretty well for KZbin videos but otherwise it was just kind of unremarkable

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

Another client recently had problems with parsing the KZbin interface, so I'm not surprised that an older client has problems.

[@swolfington]

I bought one of these when they firesale'd them. The HP web store was getting hit so hard by everyone that i spent hours hitting f5 or whatever till i managed to get an order in. It was a pretty cool tablet all things considered, and for 99 bucks it was a crazy good deal.

[@YSBunny573]

wait this thing can Android 5.1.1? you can probably install Half-Life on this!

[@PoonSlayer69420]

I would say battery replacement on the first one and some surprise os to install?🤔

[@sprosenax]

even some tablet from 2011 can run android 5 and not the tab 4 from 2014 can't just wow.

[@alejandroatencio8661]

Try luneOS (moderm web OS with full compatibility)

[@chrisquaglio5265]

Are you and action retro talking in advance about you’re videos you’re making?

[@nlaumeyer]

absolutely fascinating history. thanks MJD.

[@PurpKing4377]

what a trip down memory lane i imported one from the US to the UK back in the price drop havent seen one in years

[@azn1011]

people, if you're planning on storing something for a long period of time, make sure the batteries are removed!

[@HarrysDogmalaysia]

Hope you do a follow-up video installing android on the touchpad and getting"went wrong"

[@Stev417]

Future: Hello everybody and welcome back to another video, today we are installing windows xp on this tablet

[@cardinalwhale]

Neat device, I hope you'll do a video about using Android on this thing!

[@mr2craftymusic]

I mean if it's not going to be used for anything else then an e-reader it might be ok. Maybe able to flash an Android ROM on it for sure. May use the same hardware.

[@DragonManMike]

I miss my touchbad so much. Had the base model but hacked Cyanogen mod into it and used it until 2017 when the screen crapped out on me

[@michaelsullivan1262]

I’ve always wondered if you at least try to update a device’s OS.

[@darkknite2k11]

WebOS is snappier on that tablet than the current iteration is on my TV.

[@KyleDavis328]

This looks like the same version of Uno that was on the early iOS appstore.

[@OzricVanderheart]

This is so crazy! You and action retro posting about this tablet so close to each other

[@ashleybreadgirls1228]

Ah the ti99/4a strategy. Famously flawless strategy

[@ДенисСычев-у6д]

MAN, this OS looks almost identical to GNOME DE!

[@masny_dzik4759]

Action Retro tablet and DankPods music in one video 😮

[@iikittyplayz841]

The HP tablet lasted longer then Liz Truss 🤣

[@Solkre82]

Congrats for HP's tablet lasting longer than Concord.

[@bs_blackscout]

I havent seen you get to Android yet but seeing how snappy WebOS is i bet Android on that device is sloooooow as shlt.

[@saiyantwan]

I remember this and the fire sale that shortly followed.

[@austinriddick6414]

Thats the same Uno version that's on PSP so you might have heard it from there

[@QuillAlpha]

everyone making videos from this and i have it from 2022 :D

[@hopium999]

what a wasted potential , even the "touchpad" name line is so catchy

[@brulsmurf]

These tablets are 9 bucks pre-owned in my area.