HP Slate Offers Camera Features iPad Lacks
HP has been borrowing a page from the Apple marketing manual by putting out just enough information about its slate PC to generate interest in the potential customer base, and so the actual features of the device are about as well known as the features of the Apple iPad were a week ago.
However, in the video released on Monday, some of the more prominent features are becoming evident.
The HP slate device appears to be about 6 inches tall and 9 inches wide, with a border between the edge of the device and the touch-sensitive display of about 1 inch all around. The iPad has a 9.7-inch diagonal screen.
The back of the device appears to be textured with a series of hexagon and triangle shapes. There is a video camera built into the back of the device, and the display screen shows the video feed from the camera in real time. The camera also has a button on the front which enables it to take still digital photos as well.
There also appears to be a second video camera on the display side of the HP slate device. In the video teaser, the user is using Skype to do a teleconference, with the main screen showing the other party talking while a video of the supposed user of the device shows as a picture-in-picture on the display.
Videos and other user-created content can be moved from the screen directly to online publishing sites by dragging them across the screen to the appropriate folder. The teaser shows Flickr, HP Snapfish, and Facebook as potential destinations for such content.
The iPad does not have a built-in camera, although Apple is making a camera kit available to give it video features.
The HP slate device also has connectors for USB and SD storage cards, and an external stand with adjustable height. The Apple iPad does not have any external connectors, and operates more like an iPhone than a computing device.
Previous teasers from HP showed its tablet device to include the ability to work with Adobe flash, a technology used by many popular Websites for displaying rich multimedia content, but which Apple decided to not support with its iPad.
Ed Moltzen contributed to this article.