Why I’m Not Typing This On A TouchPad

I love HP’s WebOS. I love the smooth multitasking, the great apps, the PIM solutions, the card metaphor, and pretty much  everything else. It’s easy for me to talk for hours about how great the platform is and how it deserves wider attention. I can pontificate about having actual access to my filesystem and being able to load apps however I like. You can expect to find me waxing lyrical about HP embracing the Homebrew community. People complaining that the tablet is “heavy” are quibbling. I can even talk about how the fact that there are less apps means there’s a lower signal-to-noise ratio. What I cannot do, however, is use one. The problem is not the lack of apps, but the way HP has chosen to handle apps released for non WebOS 3 devices.

You see, WebOS apps used to be coded using Mojo. For WebOS 3.0, HP is switching to something called Enyo.  WebOS 3 can run Mojo apps, but frustratingly does so in an emulation window of a Pre. Yes, you get the gesture area that’s lacking on the Touchpad, but you also get a ton of blank, wasted space.

Photo from and property of PreCentral.net. Love them.

Most of the apps I use on my Pre would be impacted by this. Indeed, the key reason I want a tablet – to run my other site What Were They Thinking?! off of – would be next to impossible. Yes, there’s a lovely app for Enyo to handle my site’s backend, but there isn’t an Enyo app for actually reading the comic files. The existing reader is getting an HD upgrade “soon“, but “soon” is rarely soon enough for the average user. That’s pretty evident in the fact that Palm’s Touchpad, which would have been a great challenger to the revision a iPad, is now stuck being compared to the revision 2 version (and to the Samsung Tab 10, which they were smart enough to retool once they saw the iPad2).

In fiction, there’s a concept called suspension of disbelief. This concept means viewers can lose themselves in something that they know is fiction, even if it’s fantastical, as long as it doesn’t go too far astray into the fantasy world. Some things break that suspension (ie, “why can’t anyone tell that Clark Kent is Superman?”). HP’s decision to not scale up the Enyo apps (seriously guys, not even a smidge?) is like that for me. I’m having the hardest time getting past it.

I already practically squint to do most multimedia stuff on my phone. Why in the world would I, or anyone, put up with that on a tablet with a lovely 10″ screen?

I want the Touchpad. I want to love the Touchpad.

HP, why won’t you let me love the Touchpad?