HP’s $99 Tablet Fiasco

[@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

[@DaXande135]

@@tjnucnuc Cyanogen or better LineageOS is still a cool thing today! I still use a Galaxy S5 as a second backup phone and for watching KZbin and Netflix on that 1080p OLED screen togehter with LineageOS which brings Android 10 or even 11 on such old phones. Otherwise this thing would have been stuck to Android 6.

[@ChakkyCharizard]

Good memories. My dad did that to both of ours, and I have fond memories of watching the little blue guy on boot up.

[@guesswho2337]

I'm glad basically every mobile OS has since ripped off the webOS multitasking UI because it was so much better than any of the competition back in 2009-2011.

[@mystermont2019]

the creator of webOS Matias Duarte later went to work on android OS which is why the multitasking carried over.

[@BeniRoseMusic]

@@mystermont2019 Dude is an OG from the Hiptop days! I'd kill for a 10th of his career!

[@tjm_tk]

i had one of the first palm pre phones with webos and i loved it, i always thought it was a shame they got cut off so early.

[@begcoins]

Ahead of its time for sure.

[@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

[@ChakkyCharizard]

Oh it runs KitKat like a dream. Mine struggle with Lollipop tho.

[@ChakkyCharizard]

​@@vetrixfx9264People got OREO running on it, last time I checked.

[@gatto1013]

Wow webOS has aged really well. It's polished and runs smoothly while using an early design language that reminds me a lot of what later IOS versions and GNOME would have.

[@photoniccannon2117]

Yea it definitely does bear some resemblance to Gnome.

[@TroubledTrooper]

This guy talkin about GNOME, I see ya Linux user.

[@andrew66862]

WebOS on Palm was the best mobile os I've ever used, to this day

[@dustojnikhummer]

This looks a lot smoother than Android 3.

[@Sonic6293]

It was.

[@ayuchanayuko]

Honeycomb was crap lol. It looked nice and was created to support the tablet form factor. It was like Vista requirements for devices though. ICS was more polished. Jellybean was smooth. Lollipop again restarted the high requirements but started the modern android stuff that ended to Nougat. Android 8 Oreo started the arm64 polish and started modularizing and optimizing Android again up till Android 9/10 where 11/12 started the higher spec stuff again -- with 12 starting the newer UI.

[@OneWingedVic]

Even much smoother than budgets Android tablet nowadays lol

[@IvyTheLeafeon470YT]

Lol

[@IvyTheLeafeon470YT]

​@@ayuchanayuko I had a Galaxy Tab A6 (2016) with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop! Great Nostalgia.

[@EdgyShooter]

That is ridiculously smooth for the era, not just compared to the Android tablets of the time, but even to the iPad!

[@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!

[@terminustau]

@@MandrakeDCR whats the joke though, ion understand

[@hdwblade]

I can't stand that WebOS died, forced into a TV only OS. LOOK HOW INCREDIBLY SMOOTH IT IS!!!!! This is what, 10+ year old hardware and it's faster than budget Android phones. It blows my mind and pains me that they didn't try selling the OS to other companies before killing it. If the phones weren't the size of a tamagotchi, WebOS would rule the smartphone world!

[@contytub]

my parents have a webos tv ... it works flawlessly until you need stuff that's only available on android . like flexibility, and library

[@clblanchard08]

It’s crazy. WebOS was incredible! If they had been picked up by any other company besides HP we might still have a 3 way phone war.

[@sangieredwolf]

They did sell it... to LG.

[@kevingil1760]

My first Smartphone Was a Palm Pre Plus that ran WebOS AND LET ME TELL YOU this thing was way ahead of it’s time. They were good phones that had amazing software especially for the time. They had multitasking before Apple had figured it out and when they did it was nowhere near as good as WebOS. It’s a shame that they got overshadowed by android because when HP acquired the software they just teased at some amazing things that no one else was doing and finally when it came down to it and they launched a new iteration of the Palm phones and then they just quit supporting it almost immediately. RIP

[@hdwblade]

@@kevingil1760 their mistake was blaming the OS when it was the hardware that was the problem!

[@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.

[@alcoholguy6941]

Plot twist: Michael is actually Sean from Action Retro, but his voice has been edited.

[@philtkaswahl2124]

​@@alcoholguy6941You know too much.

[@ncot_tech]

@@alcoholguy6941 That is the only logical answer. Totally normal.

[@rockrocket54]

Core memory unlocked! The dad of my best friend from middle school was high up at HP (don't wanna disclose for privacy) and had an engineering sample of one of these, except it ran Windows. He noticed I had a knack for electronics, so he loaned it to me on the condition I would never take pictures and that I was to give it back. Running Windows 7, it was very slow and lagged constantly even without any applications open. I had just started getting into Linux at the time and I managed to put whatever the current version of Ubuntu was at the time and none of the touch drivers worked. I tried to find a driver that would work but my 6th grade brain was stumped. It had a USB-A port so with a hub a mouse and keyboard could be connected. I ended up giving it back and it was interesting to explore.

[@fallingwater]

The Touchpad has a Snapdragon S3 CPU, so ARM architecture, and Windows 7 never had a build for ARM. Either it had completely different internals with an x86 CPU, and was therefore a wholly different tablet, or it was emulating a x86 environment from WebOS or Android - which would indeed make it glacially slow.

[@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 Edit: Both are WebOS but their different use cases have caused them to have little to no resemblance

[@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

[@Stratoliner]

I always thought the WebOS was a nice tablet OS. Especially in 2011. Android was still in its infancy, and iOS was lacking in certain areas. WebOS felt like the more polished product honestly. I would have loved to see what a 2024 WebOS would look like and could do.

[@treehugger3615]

Suffered the same fate as Windows Phone 8.

[@kevinmiles5770]

@@treehugger3615 Oh yeah, another iPhone killer! and who makes and sells the Windows Phone 11(8)?

[@laughyourashevilleoff2546]

Still lasted longer than Concord on PS5, lol.

[@HyperVanilo]

Kay

[@fiverZ]

And CNN+

[@kaimanthelizardwizard1248]

Lmao

[@koghs]

Jesus christ shut up already

[@BlairAir]

I love it. Reminds me of when i had an HP Journada. HP Support instructed me to do something that bricked it, then hurried off the phone when he realized what he did. I began an email campaign to Carly Fiorona's office that, after one particular 200 email blast, netted me a call, saying, "we are going to replace your Journada," to which i graciously and humbly replied "I KNOW YOU ARE. Because I will never ever go away until you do!" Good times!

[@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.

[@justayoutuber1906]

It was all cash only too - at least in the beginning. They had HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars in cash each day - it looked liked a scene out of a movie. And no security....

[@nickloss]

I waited outside best buy for hours to get my $99 touchpad

[@alexnoyle]

WebOS is the greatest mobile operating system of all time. I will never forgive HP for what they did.

[@pedrogriffin1934]

Such a horrible company, especially what they have done with their ink business forcing customers to their subscription service and putting chips in the cartridges. They’re laptops suck to as they have horrible battery. Once my stupid printer gives out, I’ll never buy another hp product again.

[@abhikdoesthings]

Windows Phone beats this

[@alexnoyle]

@@abhikdoesthings Windows phone UI/UX is horrible. There's a reason they killed windows 8

[@kevinmiles5770]

@@abhikdoesthings what's a Windows Phone?

[@fallingwater]

@@pedrogriffin1934 yeah, I used to consider HP a boring tech giant like so many others but then they got so malicious with the ink thing that I swore them off altogether.

[@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.

[@amielem]

10:23 you can revive the batery with an external power supply at 5V 2A direct to positive and negative inputs

[@tato-chip7612]

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

[@Neonflame]

oh shit thats really cool!

[@xxHANNONxx]

I wonder if it could be installed on this tablet.

[@catieclark9085]

@@xxHANNONxxyes from what I understand you can

[@SockyNoob]

Not a fork, a completely new OS based on Linux that's heavily inspired by PalmOS. It's the closest you'll get.

[@anomishfish]

@@SockyNoob It shares a lot of components with (LG's) webOS, so I wouldn't consider it truly independent, it's more like a webOS custom ROM on Linux.

[@mikeiswhite3]

0:10 49 days, that's also the amount of time Liz Truss was Prime Minister

[@bhuvstechworld9743]

And also was a huge embarrassment for the party just like the tablet

[@playc.holder6432]

Long live the King!

[@trevorhaddox6884]

"Through the magic of buying two of them..."

[@matttypes2695]

Similar to the BlackBerry Playbook which I really liked. I picked up the 64gb model for I think $199 (retailed for $699) In a software update you could side load Android apps using an Android emulator.

[@liammusgrove6334]

Oh my gosh, I remember the Blackberry playbook! It was a gift from my Grandmother. We had all sorts of cheap free games on it as well as a Minecraft knockoff called World craft. We had so much fun on that thing!!

[@ChakkyCharizard]

OMG! I have two of these. Neither work ATM after a bulging battery fiasco, but I do have them. I was quite possibly the world's only "TouchPad kid". Good memories. I have the wireless charger, too. When My dad went to Staples to buy ours, the clerk thought he made the coupon himself. LOL.

[@FatherMcKenzie66]

“The great TouchPad fire sale of 2011” sounds so fuckin legendary

[@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

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

If you think being discontinued soon is something, RCA took so long to develop their CED, it was pretty much obsolete when it launched.

[@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.

[@myleft9397]

Please do the Blackberry tablet! Similar situation. No one wanted it until it was discontinued and discounted, and then stores couldn't keep them on the shelves.

[@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

[@VirtualAxiom]

This is SO much nicer aesthetically than modern operating systems, mobile or otherwise. (Yes, it pains me to not consider the year I started college "modern" anymore...) The shift to "minimalism" and "material design" was a mistake. Computers used to have personality in their UIs, but now everything looks so corporate, and we're lucky to be getting color gradients and rounded corners back instead of the flat, ugly pastel squares everyone was obsessed with in the 2010s. You only see this kind of artistic effort in icons and UI elements for some Linux themes these days, but nothing that's shipped by default.

[@danagoyette7932]

Man, I really miss the soft touch eyefeel of WebOS. It just has this sense of cushiness or something like that. I hate the modern obsession with making everything flat. Same with old MacOS... I miss the days when it was all curved and shiny.

[@VirtualAxiom]

@@danagoyette7932 It's that soft, comfortable, but forward-looking aesthetic that says "This is a look at the future, but we're not trying too hard to make you believe it by making it *too* flashy". It's got effort and style, but it's not an assault on the eyes. I do feel like the older Aqua-style MacOS theme was a little too far in the other direction in some ways, going for flashiness over function and could be gaudy, but I'd certainly take Aqua for its creativity over Windows 10 or modern stock Android's horrid aesthetics. The current versions of MacOS have a style I'm largely ambivalent toward. It can be bland in places, but it does still look nice. If it put more effort into the icons in particular, it would actually be very similar to this old webOS look.

[@kevinmiles5770]

Before Apple introduced iOS 7, Microsoft had already embraced the flat GUI design with Windows Phone 7 and 8. When I first saw this shift to the flat look, I was appalled-it felt lifeless and uninspired, completely abandoning the rich, tactile design elements that made using a device feel personal and engaging. It seemed to sacrifice user connection in the name of minimalism and so-called "modern design" for fields like graphics, photography, movies, and music. Back in the day, computers and smartphones felt like personal tools-something designed with thought and care for the individual user experience. Thankfully, it seems Apple has started to realize this too. Recently, I've noticed subtle reintroductions of pre-iOS 7 design elements in both iOS and macOS. These changes bring back some of that warmth and personality we lost during the flat design craze, and I, for one, couldn't be happier to see this shift. While the new designs might not be the skeuomorphic design of earlier versions, the balance they strike feels like a step in the right direction.

[@boreddragons]

Yeah I really liked the original ipadOS design and the webPS design, they just look SO NICE I wish I could have ui like that

[@malevolentia28]

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

[@OOLOIBESOOSSO]

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]

@@OOLOIBESOOSSO FirefoxO…. Crap.

[@Bikeguychicago1]

It was more the a-hole CEO who was in charge of the company at the time. He nearly bankrupted it by overspending on tech that was, at best, alpha-level vaporware.

[@weegeenumberone2]

@@OOLOIBESOOSSO Android? (wasn't "made" by google btw, google just develops it.)

[@hyruleanraven81]

Geez a lot snappier than I thought. HP should have stuck it out. Compared to iPad 2, this unit looks great. These large corporations expect instant gratification and not wait for the growth.

[@nickloss]

It was more than that. I was big in the WebOS scene when it came out. It was Palm's baby and eat not advanced than everybody else. Unfortunately Palm was going broke and sold out to HP while we all knew HP just wanted to kill competition. Lo and behold HP immediately killed palm & WebOS just like we all said! I'll never forget what that scummy company did!

[@TheInsomniaddict]

HP saw a change in leadership that decided to pivot away from the desktop market and go ham on cloud computing. This is almost exactly what Microsoft would do a few years later with their Nokia purchase.

[@bloomtom]

I worked at Staples when the firesale happened, and grabbed one aside for myself before the store opened. We only had about a dozen of the things and sold out within an hour. People came in all day, and all the next day looking for one. Once Cyanogen was available I pretty much just used that, but WebOS was pretty slick too. Just didn't have a huge developer base and well, it was unmaintained. My tablet lived doing music, podcasts, youtube and maps (through a bluetooth GPS module) for my desk and car. It was pretty damn cool having a big screen with all that on it hanging from a mount on my dash! The thing did heavy service for three years, and it felt good the whole time. It lost out when I got a OnePlus One and suddenly my phone was good enough to take 80% of what the Touchpad did away. Then lugging the big thing around just felt like a hassle. RIP TouchPad, you were well worth the $100.

[@K4ZA]

The developer mode activation must be the coolest way I've seen in a while 13:54

[@uselessDM]

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

[@richeyrich2203]

It’s the packet that showed you how to learn to use the device and all the features. Holding within it all the unlocking key to all the potential this device has. But also, it’s sarcastic, because reading the HOW TO is never the fun part. So it could be that as an intentional choice as well.

[@indyscouter]

I was working at Fry's Electronics when this happened. The crowds were wild!!! I missed out as I wasn't allowed to get one while clocked in.

[@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

[@souta95]

HP literally threw in the towel with that tablet by including the polishing cloth.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

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

[@MrWaalkman]

HP did that with their calculator in 1974. My friend got a refund of about $200. The old HP was a class act.

[@AntS1992]

Apple and AT&T did it with the original iPhone when the price lowered

[@Joe-Skynet]

Dude! Seeing that IBM OS/2 backdrop gave me so many flashbacks! Awesome to see it again!

[@tonycrabtree3416]

Employees at the time could get one for $49. 😂 HP killed Palm not long after. They blamed Leo Apotheker for this fiasco, even though he was only CEO for like 6 months. Also, they didn’t make more simply because of sales. They found it was better to pay the ODM something like $12 in labor to make more instead of simply throwing away what was left of the material.

[@TheInsomniaddict]

It definitely was a C-suite decision that ended the product. At the time HP was looking to sell off its desktop market, and WebOS was cancelled as a consequence of that decision. It's also why HP lost 40% of its valuation over a short period. It was either Apotheker or Lesjak's call.

[@electriccomics]

The batteries are quite likely new, but it's possible they are new old stock. Odds are the battery in the device was subject to parasitic drain, the only possible parasitic drain on a NOS battery would be the onboard BMS.

[@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.

[@computercatgaming02]

Was thinking the same thing 😄

[@m4t7eo]

​@@Windfarmerthis UI is pretty much a scaled up version of the Palm Pre from 2009. At the time Gnome 3 "shell" wasn't yet a thing, and gnome 2 looked more or less like Mate does now.

[@raidev_]

even down to pressing the home button (super key) twice to go to the app grid

[@NeverlandSystemZor]

I LOVE that the "konami code" was the key to get to the dev mode. That's epic!

[@darkknite2k11]

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

[@tarheels100]

5:53 You could say HP really threw in the towel with this one.

[@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.

[@Porty1119]

If you lock a miner in a windowless room with three bowling balls, he'll manage to break one, steal one, and lose one.

[@mrskye08]

Wow surprisingly it's snappier and smoother than my TabS7FE

[@d9zirable]

Blame bloated oneui

[@Nameless-c3y]

Blame Android

[@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.

[@AROAH]

webOS was an incredible bit of software. Similar to Windows Mobile, I can only imagine how different the portable device landscape would be if only the Apple marketing machine hadn't destroyed everything that wasn't Android.

[@itsOGbobbyG]

I was 14 when the HP TouchPad was released! I still have the original copy of PC World magazine(s) with the review(s) of the TouchPad, Motorola Xoom, and Blackberry Playbook! (all of which were released in 2011). Speaking of - you should review the Playbook or Xoom! Love your videos on “retro tech”! Makes me feel so old! Haha.

[@TweeterMan287]

I was there for the great sale, what a time

[@BradB-o3h]

I was there for the tweetermansucks flame war

[@TweeterMan287]

@@BradB-o3h now THAT'S a throwback

[@28colecj]

I was there, but I was stuck outside...never got one. Lol Finding them was crazy. Following posts like crazy trying to get one.. still a good time.

[@yethiel]

Happy I came across this channel. I love digging deep into user interfaces of old operating systems. Thanks for sharing!

[@iClone101]

I'm betting that MeTube app can only play KZbin videos in Flash Player format, which KZbin obviously stopped supporting years ago.

[@jishan6992]

Device: $99 Charging stand: $80 Yep makes perfect sense to me

[@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

[@Yeedo420]

It's a lot smoother than i thought it would be

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

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

[@6581punk]

Oh wow, this is a blast from the past. I remember all the people desperate to get one. People were even trading reservation numbers for them.

[@eveypea]

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

[@ryancastley]

Whenever I first booted it up, and after freshly out of the box, my TouchPad and my original Pre, was to install PreWare. It allowed multiple changes to the phone, OS, kernel, and more, not just applications and games. I overclocked my original Sprint Pre from a stock 500 MHz, screen on and off, to 250 MHz (screen off) to about 750 MHz when screen was off. Saved battery when the screen was off, and used a bit more battery life when it was off. Synergy was something else. Nothing has come close to its functionality since.

[@ITouchGrass673]

For a 13 year old tablet, its incredibly snappy, snappier then gingerbread for sure 🤷🏼

[@Cyber_Akuma]

Man, this brings back memories. I have a few things to add, at least, if I am remembering them right. I was a little disappointed that you didn't try the new one to see what setup would have been like, but as I recall, you also would not have been able to do anything at all even if you got the battery working and fully charged. From what I remember the first thing a new TouchPad will do is try to connect to WiFi, you cannot skip this, it will not let you continue further until you connect to WiFi (which was an issue for me at the time as I was using static IPs and you could not get into the WiFi settings to set one until after it was setup) and then the second thing it does... is download the latest version of the EULA which you must agree to. I remember I had one that I was using for years dual-booting Android and WebOS, but at one point my install got so corrupt that I was forced to completely reset it to factory settings, this was years later, and I could no longer get past that EULA screen. The server (Or at least that location on the server) is long gone, so it gets stuck attempting to download the EULA forever and will not let you agree until you see it, and without that agreement it will not let you finish setting it up so you can actually use it. I am sure there are probably ways to setup a local server to spoof it nowadays. I just simply put it back on that wireless charging dock and left it there, not realizing that despite it being off it was apparently still charging until on day I noticed the battery had bulged and tore it apart. Also that dev mode Easter Egg, I don't think it was meant to be an Easter Egg. The first versions of WebOS devices (the phones too IIRC) used that, but later updates changed it to some more generic timestamps that were updated with each OS patch, so I think it was more the developers having fun and not something that was intended for the public to find. Speaking of updates, I hated how WebOS handled them. You could only say no to the update popup, I believe it was three times, after that the no option is greyed out and you are forced to install it then and there the next time the popup comes up. Never was a fan of forced updates.

[@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.

[@nettack]

I applaud you for your nerves. I am a WebOS evangelist ever since the first Pre, but that ringtone was the first thing I changed after every flash/factory reset. And in the first days of Preware those were pretty common. 😆

[@ChakkyCharizard]

FIND IT AND CHECK IT. Mine both had bulging batteries and now no longer work :(

[@HontasFarmer80]

@@ChakkyCharizard I may have to... last time I went through my old computer bin it wasn't in there and that's where it would be. Thinking back to the day... I may have sold er off to get a first gen Surface pro. Which I unwisely gave to my little sister who broke it.

[@Isabel369]

webOS is faster than android it looks more modern than android plus you can multitask on it. I wished that webOS was a success back then👀

[@snapdragonzoroark]

Yeah seriously this looks super nice and smooth What happened?

[@TheKitbasher]

It was easier to use at the time, but the app developers did not support it.

[@giedmich]

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

[@zarktyark7312]

LMAO

[@musicrecordingslabel]

2 weeks is mad tho

[@musicrecordingslabel]

can you explain why it was so bad? i have xbox so...

[@tails20342]

ye

[@Darkest_matter]

@@musicrecordingslabel game that no one wanted, no hype, no interest, and it just looks like those full-price f2p 'hero' mmorpg shooters like overwatch and paladins.

[@TheDGeneration]

I was working in retail at the time, we received 2 units at launch (plus a display unit running locked demo software that wasn’t sellable) and on D-Day I opened my store to find 2 online pickup orders. I filled the 2 orders without looking at any details, and on the final pickup paperwork I saw the $99 price. At 8AM the calls started and they didn’t stop all freaking day. I had my front end folks start answering calls by saying “we do not have any HP touchpads how can I help you”. We had zero advance notice of the discontinuation. People coming in were freaking animals too, some were absolutely enraged that we didn’t have any stock of a “sale item” on the first day of the sale. It was a rough day On the plus side I was able to snag one from a different retailer, and it was a great web browsing tablet until it got soaked in water and died a few years later.

[@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.

[@preposterousi]

That UI looks really good and smooth. Specially looks very comfy to multitask on.

[@SomeRandomPersonOnTheNet]

I met one of the Devs on the HP tablet… he was a friend of the family… he was very finicky of people who would spy on his project and was kind of a jerk about it… he brought it with him to share with his non-techy family but when he found out the I “worked with computers” he wouldn’t show me anything…

[@smartinez281]

I remember asking my dad to take to Best Buy the day the firesale started. That line was INSANE!! I used that Touchpad for a long time (was around during the Android modding scene into it) until the battery started to swell up. The TP ended up being regulated to a wall clock in my room (I hanged up to my wall via velcro) and it was WONDERFUL alarm. Nice loud speakers

[@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.

[@TechGently]

We were brought into the training room, HP presented this Touch Pad and we ripped it apart explaining all the reasons why our clients (IT Managers, CTO's), were not going to go for these devices. Management sent us an email later stating we could have been nicer to them. But we were right.

[@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

[@Lila_UrarakaYT]

“This tablet was an embarrassment for HP” Dude, HP is an embarrassment as a whole

[@elkellenhabla]

Uhh… not everyone can be Apple. But HP obviously had some success in the past.

[@sugz_OSC]

@@elkellenhablawhat does it have to do with apple?

[@elkellenhabla]

@@sugz_OSC Apple dominates the market at this point.

[@spadnighthawk10]

HP quetly makes most of the laptop and printers the world uses today.

[@TheInsomniaddict]

HP was an embarrassment for this tablet. The hardware and OS were both quality. I remember considering it at the time and deciding against it because there'd be no store. I wasn't considering it could run Android at the time.

[@lennontism]

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

[@justin6581]

In his defense, drifting in super Mario kart feels too loose compared to the later games

[@mikes78]

I have one of these that I got over seven years ago and the battery had the a dancing button light problem that MJD had. I was able to get it running again by taking the back panel off and directly connecting a 1S charger directly to the connectors for the battery. I got it working again and somehow the battery was still working well enough to be able to take a full charge and actually have a normal battery life. And just like this tablet, I set up my webpad to dualboot to Android. It's clunky and chunky, but still works extremely well, not that I use it terribly frequently.

[@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

[@hrr597]

Algorithm manipulation

[@xeroniris]

Love webOS. My HP Pre 3 was my daily driver phone right up to 2017.

[@justayoutuber1906]

So you had no apps?

[@xeroniris]

@@justayoutuber1906 I had enough apps for my needs, pretty much

[@isaacsorensen8377]

I used to have two. Both died of spicy pillow disease. And they also wouldn't charge without a specific charger

[@EastsideBodega_]

I miss this time period. There was such a rapid advance in consumer tech.. man what a time

[@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.

[@Deebofreebo]

I was driving back to college when the fire sale happened and I was so mad when I missed it. WebOS is a great experience.

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

For whatever reason the iPad 2 seemed like the most popular iPad. iPad 1,3,4 don’t seem nearly as common and everyone I know got the iPad 2. So going up against that would have been difficult.

[@TheInsomniaddict]

iPad 2 came out with the iPhone 4? IIRC which was when the iPhone was starting to take on a more polished look and (also IIRC) finally had some form of multitasking. It was the en vogue thing at the time that'd set the standard for chocolate bar-styled phones for the next decade. In contrast, the iPad was released fighting against the old guard of tablet makers (convertibles like IBM, specialized like those targeted at healthcare or police) and still didn't have much of a consumer market. I remember a lot of tech articles at the time asking why you would want a fat iPhone? For the later iPads, android became a major contender and you could find something reasonable for half the price easily enough.

[@wings8005]

I did try to pick one up at the firesale but that went nowhere. Later on HP built a final batch and sold them as optional add-on with their laptops. I was in the market for a laptop anyway and that's how I got mine. I installed android on it. Never actually used it but bought it just for curiosity. I still charge mine every few months to keep the battery in shape.

[@Pupp3tCl0wn]

Yes, Cameron Sino is making new batteries for a lot of old tech, like Sony PSP or early gen iPods. They are so popular for tech nerds actually, that even some people make knock-offs of their products by printing their logo on a old batteries lol

[@lazer8776]

That’s a god send

[@ToriH-jb2bm]

I grew up with one of these! I didn't know that anyone else remembered it!! It honestly worked pretty well. I think we got it during the Great Fire Sale, though.

[@EnvAdam]

8:00 - Battery voltage is too low for the PMIC/Battery, it thinks its faulty which might be true, basically a sketchy fix would be to take out the battery and very gently apply low current voltage at their nominal voltage.

[@martinseal1987]

You can charge it using a pc, while connected it sips a small amount of charge, once you get past this obviously it will charge almost normally

[@hergilici9184]

I am blowed away by this. I wasnt expecting to follow this video with my full attention. This WebOs was amazing and had a very professional feel in my opinion. I actually have WebOs on my Lg tv currently. Interesting

[@picclejar]

The WebOS UNO is definitely based off of the PSP version. I used to play the hell out of that when I was a kid.

[@harharstar]

I remember the soundtrack from the dsi version of UNO!

[@picclejar]

@@harharstar I didn't know there was a DSi version! Is it a normal DS game or is it DSiWare?

[@harharstar]

@@picclejar dsiware! I think there’s a version of uno on the ds but i played the dsi version.

[@keithwhisman]

The problem with WebOS was the limited content in the App Store and there was a whole lot of apps available in the Android and Apple app stores in comparison.

[@gcolombelli]

7:21 what a surprise, duraleaks...

[@dolanD2]

holy shit, this OS looks and runs so much better than an old android equivalent

[@sonic2000gr]

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

[@LoganTanner]

I bought one of these brand new in 2011 for $99. It was an amazing tablet. Great feel in hand. Gorgeous screen. Smooth operation and OS. I was so sad it died.

[@ayuchanayuko]

Funny how win8 and webos gestures eventually got integrated to recent mobile OSes when those gestures were... Abhored back then.

[@toastercoaster5]

If you ever get to touching the other tablet, something you should try doing (if you get the battery to work of course) is demonstrating the process of setting up dual booting Android.

[@prestonnewcomb5991]

This is too painful to watch. I remember that time very well. WebOS was so much better. I still own a Pre3.

[@sergiodeoliveira5358]

The TouchPad came with something Apple still has not added to iPad after 14 years - haptic motor for haptic feedback! I picked one up for $99 in the summer of 2011. WebOS was cool, but I probably had Android running on it with a month.

[@IbanezPlayer124]

Oh wow, I owned something similar from HP called the Stream 7. Had Windows 7 on it with an Intel Atom processor. Played TF2 and Gmod really well lol

[@SadnessAndOreos]

Wow, this brings back some memories. I got one of these in High School back in 2011 as a Christmas present. We couldn’t afford much, so it was an awesome gift to be able to get a tablet. I also remember installing Android and trying to keep it into date to fix the bugs that kept popping up lol. I noticed the case had the same issue that I had where the rubber near the charge port is all warped lol