[freudling]

All MacNNers who own a TouchPad, or have used on extensively, post in here.

If you don't own one, or haven't used one extensively, don't bother posting.

Here we can find tips and tricks. Pre Central is a great forum to go to, but is quite overloaded with a lot of stuff right now. This thread could be a useful, clean place to post just the most salient info.

[freudling]

How to overclock your TouchPad in OS X Lion:

Man, what a mess I had figuring all this out. You need to get something called "PreWare" installed on your TouchPad. It's just like "Cydia" for iOS. 2 main ways to do it. Both ways the TP must be connected to your computer.

1. Through QuickInstaller, a java program that will enable you to install things onto your TP from your computer.
2. Through HP-Palm's SDK/PDK.

Both of these latter failed to work under OS X Lion. I found out that both of them aren't compatible with Lion. A Beta of HP-Palm's SDK/PDK is on the way.

I managed to get PreWare installed using method 1 from a few tips I picked up on Pre Central.

1. Download the QuickInstaller here.
2. Don't launch the program yet. On your TP, enter the following into the "Just Type" field: upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart. This reveals a hidden Developer App. Touch it to launch it, and just touch submit without setting any password. Do not set a password.
3. Now that you are in developer mode, plug your TP into your computer. It'll ask you if you want to mount it as a USB drive, or to cancel. Touch cancel. DO NOT touch USB drive. Touch cancel.
4. With the TP in developer mode, and connected to your OS X Lion rig, launch the QuickInstaller you downloaded in step 1.
5. Ahhh, it will probably try to install the novacom driver, or tell you that no devices are connected. Go ahead, try to let it install the novacom driver. It will likely fail. If it does, open Terminal, type in sudo, then a space, then hit up Spotlight, and search for novacomd. Drag that over top of the Terminal window and hit return. It should then do some stuff. You can close out of Terminal when its done.
6. Now the QuickInstaller should see your TP. If it still says no connected devices, close it and restart it, with the TP attached of course. Don't worry, it's in developer mode for good unless you manually take it out. Upon a restart, it should be connected.
7. In QuickInstaller, click the globe button and you'll see a list of things. In the search field, search for PreWare. Install it. Once installed, you can now launch PreWare on your TouchPad and start installing patches, overclocks, etc. I've got another set of instructions for overlocking coming in here shortly.

Some refs:

How to install Preware onto your HP TouchPad on a Mac | johnbiehler.com

How to improve the performance of your new HP TouchPad | ZDNet

Overclock:

1. Launch PreWare
2. Touch PreWare top left, then touch "Manage Feeds".
3. Scroll to bottom, then add the following 3 feeds (keep compression ticked on):

name: webos-testing-all
url: http://ipkg.preware.org/feeds/webos-...s/testing/all/

name: webos-testing-armv7
url: http://ipkg.preware.org/feeds/webos-...testing/armv7/

name: webos-kernels-testing
url: http://preware.is.awesome.com/

Now, after you have added these 3 feeds, touch PreWare in the top left, and then "Update Feeds". You may need to close out and restart PreWare...

After the feeds are updated in PreWare, touch "Available Packages" from main list, then touch "Kernel". You should see the overclock kernels in there. After testing, I'm happy with "F4 Phantom (TouchPad)". Make sure you also install, from within PreWare in the "Application" section, "Govnah". There you can see clock speeds, battery draw, heat, etc. You can also change settings. I left mine on Dynamic, blah, blah.

[imitchellg5]

So, all two other people on the 'NN who own one can post here? Cool.

[Lateralus]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

So, all two other people on the 'NN who own one can post here? Cool.

Diligence. You'll get one.

That said, I'm going to suggest this get moved to either Consumer Hardware or iPad-o-phone-a-pad. I don't know that it'll be safe in the Lounge.

[freudling]

Can't put this thing down. Not as good as the iPad but it's pretty stellar.

I wish there was more hardware acceleration within the browser and better font rendering. If these two things were implemented I wouldn't miss much about the iPad.

[ibook_steve]

I just want to know how I can get my hands on one at this point.

Steve

[freudling]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

I just want to know how I can get my hands on one at this point.

Steve

Head over to Pre Central forums. They have the inside on the stock and where and when to get them. Craigslist in your area is the other choice.

[Hawkeye_a]

I wish i could have gotten one, just for the WebOS.

I've got a Pre2 on the way (which costed a lot more than $99, ill tell you).

I've downloaded and installed the WebOS SDK on the Mac.... looking forward to poking around.

Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed in what HP has decided to do.

[freudling]

Love the front facing camera. Apple's are garbage. .3 MP? Wow... Not very Apple like. The TP has a 1.3 MP camera. It's awesome. My video feed in Skype to others is clear. Apple's FaceTime ads show clear video: they should be sued for false advertising.

[mduell]

I bought a demo unit, the doctor didn't work to get the demo sw off, so I returned it.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Love the front facing camera. Apple's are garbage. .3 MP? Wow... Not very Apple like. The TP has a 1.3 MP camera. It's awesome. My video feed in Skype to others is clear. Apple's FaceTime ads show clear video: they should be sued for false advertising.

To be fair, HP's material show pretty much the same thing. Just overlays of stock footage.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Love the front facing camera. Apple's are garbage. .3 MP? Wow... Not very Apple like. The TP has a 1.3 MP camera. It's awesome. My video feed in Skype to others is clear. Apple's FaceTime ads show clear video: they should be sued for false advertising.

The video that is shown on an iPad during FaceTime comes from the OTHER end's camera — and those Macs have pretty decent cams, these days.

[cgc]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

So, all two other people on the 'NN who own one can post here? Cool.

Yeah, the rest of us who don't own a Touchpad are banned from posting here.

[freudling]

Seriously. Can't put the TP down. Love it. I did some real productivity tonight. I watched a video online and took notes at the same time. The cards were key to this.

[Big Mac]

You can type notes in one app and watch a video at the same time, or you mean you can just switch much more smoothly between the two?

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

You can type notes in one app and watch a video at the same time, or you mean you can just switch much more smoothly between the two?

At the same time. I watched an inline Flash video on Bloomberg. I was in the memo App a lot taking notes. The video was playing in the background. I'd switch to the browser quickly swiping the card to scrub the video when I needed to hear something again. This task would be a pain in the ass under iOS. The combination of cards and solid background tasks makes it much easier to do this kind of productivity compared to iOS. Switching Apps in iOS is clumsy. With Glimpse, I can also split the screen and see both the memo App and the webpage with video at the same time.

But it's the cards and stacks that really shine. It's so natural and intuitive. WebOS has iOS beat here. I wonder what Apple will do... They can't rely on clumsy App switching forever.

[Big Mac]

That is pretty cool freudling, I admit. Apple's own commercials show a user writing notes out by hand while watching a video - doesn't speak well for iOS multitasking obviously. But unless Apple lets iOS stagnate like the Mac OS stagnated for a decade after Jobs left, iOS will eventually catch up.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

That is pretty cool freudling, I admit. Apple's own commercials show a user writing notes out by hand while watching a video - doesn't speak well for iOS multitasking obviously. But unless Apple lets iOS stagnate like the Mac OS stagnated for a decade after Jobs left, iOS will eventually catch up.

Agreed. The thing I worry about is Jobs isn't there anymore. We need some solid alternatives if things stagnate. Hoping for the best but just saying... I'm hedging my bets on a plan B... and that's webOS, even if it's future is uncertain.

[Lateralus]

My TouchPad arrived this morning. I love webOS.

Now how do I over clock this thing and disable logging?

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

My TouchPad arrived this morning. I love webOS.

Now how do I over clock this thing and disable logging?

Ok, go through my post above, and hit up the link at the bottom about improving performance Zdnet. Once you've done that, post back here and I'll post the instruction set to overclock.

[Lateralus]

Preware. I has it.

Logging stuff turned off as well.

Now let's over clock!

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

Preware. I has it.

Logging stuff turned off as well.

Now let's over clock!

1. Launch PreWare
2. Touch PreWare top left, then touch "Manage Feeds".
3. Scroll to bottom, then add the following 3 feeds (keep compression ticked on):

name: webos-testing-all
url: http://ipkg.preware.org/feeds/webos-...s/testing/all/

name: webos-testing-armv7
url: http://ipkg.preware.org/feeds/webos-...testing/armv7/

name: webos-kernels-testing
url: http://preware.is.awesome.com/

Now, after you have added these 3 feeds, touch PreWare in the top left, and then "Update Feeds". You may need to close out and restart PreWare...

After the feeds are updated in PreWare, touch "Available Packages" from main list, then touch "Kernel". You should see the overclock kernels in there. After testing, I'm happy with "F4 Phantom (TouchPad)". Make sure you also install, from within PreWare in the "Application" section, "Govnah". There you can see clock speeds, battery draw, heat, etc. You can also change settings. I left mine on Dynamic, blah, blah.

[Lateralus]

Also, have you tried UberKernel?

[freudling]

Patches I have installed, and make sure you've set background logging, etc. to minimal as outlined in that Zdnet article I linked to above.

faster card animations hyper version
increase touch sensitivity and smoothness 10 (This is a -must- have patch)
muffle system logging
remove dropped packet logging
unset cfq io scheduler
unthrottle download manager (Speeds up downloads massively!)
private browsing

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

Also, have you tried UberKernel?

Yes. But I went with F4. It's faster, and stable so far.

[Lateralus]

I already ****ed up while inputing the name of one of the feeds; how can I edit it?

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

I already ****ed up while inputing the name of one of the feeds; how can I edit it?

Go back into "Manage Feeds", then swipe to the right on the feed you want to delete. The red delete button will show, just like swiping to the right, deleting an Email under iOS. Then, add the feed again with the proper URL.

[freudling]

I also PM'd you...

[Lateralus]

Okay, in spite of a reboot I now get an error log when I launch Preware. I can hit OK to get past it, but still...

Did you see something similar?

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

Okay, in spite of a reboot I now get an error log when I launch Preware. I can hit OK to get past it, but still...

Did you see something similar?

Um, I think I did because I screwed up the URL as well when I input them in. Make sure you have all three feeds added correctly. You shouldn't get an error if you do. And make sure you are running webOS 3.0.2! Go into Settings/Software Manager and System Updates to update everything.

[freudling]

If we can link up by IM this will be better...

[Lateralus]

Sorry, got distracted. And I don't have Skype. Cheers though.

Anyways, the funky Preware error log went away after another reboot and I'm now running smoothly at 1.728xxxxxxx.xxGHz.

After having installed all of these enabling/disabling tweaks, I am shocked at how fast this little tablet is. Ridiculous. Too bad there isn't a SETI client for it.

Also, this platform needs a video player desperately. TouchPlayer is absolutely worthless.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

Sorry, got distracted. And I don't have Skype. Cheers though.

Anyways, the funky Preware error log went away after another reboot and I'm now running smoothly at 1.728xxxxxxx.xxGHz.

After having installed all of these enabling/disabling tweaks, I am shocked at how fast this little tablet is. Ridiculous. Too bad there isn't a SETI client for it.

Also, this platform needs a video player desperately. TouchPlayer is absolutely worthless.

There's one called Kalem or something in the App Store. webOS: 600 engineers strong! Updates coming.

[Lateralus]

Kalem apparently sucks too according to the app store reviews.

I hope somebody at VLC is listening...

[Lateralus]

Anybody seen a proper deal on the HP-branded case?

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

Anybody seen a proper deal on the HP-branded case?

Go to BestBuy, whatever. They'll price match the listed prices on HP - United States | Laptop Computers, Desktops, Printers, Servers and more.

[Lateralus]

Played Robotek yet? Awesome game, great looking too.

I may even shell out the $10 for Need For Speed as well - it looks like a nice piece of demo material.

[Mrjinglesusa]

Got mine yesterday (32 GB). Updated WebOS to 3.0.2, installed PreWare, and applied all the recommended patches. Everything running great. Overclocked Uberkernel to 1.5 GHz using Govnah.

Installed Ubuntu using the disk image method but considering making a permanent partition for it. Got my custom WebOS Doctor .jar file made I just need to decide if I want to apply it and set everything up again.

Liking the TB so far. Takes some getting used to having only used an iPad before but it's pretty sweet. Can't wait for them to port Android to it though. That will be AWESOME.

[Lateralus]

Not liking webOS?

[Mrjinglesusa]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

Not liking webOS?

I like it, but this tablet will be AWESOME running Honeycomb.

Went ahead and used WebOS Doctor to reinstall with a Linux partition. Got it up and running again and currently installing apps in Ubuntu. Woot!

[Lateralus]

Funny. I bought this thing hoping not to wind up needing to install Honeycomb.

[imitchellg5]

Why will it be awesome running Honeycomb? Trust me, the Honeycomb experience is just as bad, or worse than webOS. Still no apps or anything, and the UI is crap.

[freudling]

IMO, after some time with it, Honeycomb is a piece of shit. Android is simply a cheap Chinese knock off of iOS. webOS is great on a tablet. It's unique. It's innovative. It's not just a copy of iOS. Overclocked, the TP is the second best tablet in the world.

Android is just a geeky version of iOS. I simply don't understand why anyone would want to use it over iOS. They're essentially the same OSes. Ya, ya, customization and widgets. Those were cool for about a week, until you realize the sluggish performance and crap Apps on Android.

It's a grid of icons just like iOS. webOS manages multi-tasking and multiple accounts in its own way, and it really works well.

I just finished spending time with Samsung's latest Galaxy Tab 10.1. What a plastic piece of trash. I just laughed after using it. Why would anyone spend $500 for this plastic hunk of shit when they can buy an iPad for the same price? The iPad is hands down way better. It's so much faster, nicer, better... everything. More Apps. Why would you buy a cheap knock off for the same damn price?

I'll tell you why. It's because people can. And those people are geeks. I don't see Android getting sustained penetration in the tablet space against the iPad. When the Android tablet prices come down to $299 range, they'll get a bit of traction, but the iPad is going to rein supreme.

My quick and dirty review of the Galaxy Tab 10.1

My overclocked TouchPad is faster! Really, it is! The Galaxy Tab is simply sluggish compared to the iPad. I stress tested the eBook Reader App. The Web. Switching in between applications. YouTube. Maps. Pinching and zooming...

I also tested every other Android tablet on the rack, like the Acer Iconia, Gateway's latest, and others too numerous to mention. I will say the Galaxy Tab out-performed them all... most fluid pinch and zoom of the bunch. But that's not saying much. It was slow to open webpages. The orientation switch was sluggish. So was flipping pages in the eBook App. Maps weren't that fluid either. And Android on a tablet... Honeycomb... is kinda a mess now. It's gone downhill. Too much crap going on. webOS got it right.

And the build of the Galaxy Tab. It's plastic. Yes, thin plastic. Feels like a piece of trash. I can't recommend this device to anyone.

I am so happy the TouchPad is in my life. I really love it.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

Why will it be awesome running Honeycomb? Trust me, the Honeycomb experience is just as bad, or worse than webOS. Still no apps or anything, and the UI is crap.

Stay with webOS, this is the best thing going next to iOS. Forget Android.

[Lateralus]

Or 'pocket Linux', as I call it.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by freudling 

IMO, after some time with it, Honeycomb is a piece of shit. Android is simply a cheap Chinese knock off of iOS. webOS is great on a tablet. It's unique. It's innovative. It's not just a copy of iOS. Overclocked, the TP is the second best tablet in the world.

I actually quite like the Galaxy Tab hardware (and find typing on a 16:9 screen way easier than a 4:3 screen), but Honeycomb is terrible. Which is odd, considering Honeycomb was designed by Matias Duarte, the same guy who designed webOS.

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

Or 'pocket Linux', as I call it.

Well, both Android 3.x and webOS are built upon the exact same kernel of Linux.

[Lateralus]

Linux is worse than a simple kernel. Linux is an experience.

[imitchellg5]

I understand what you are saying now.

[Lateralus]

Here's a negative; Hulu sucks on the TouchPad, even at 480p.

[imitchellg5]

Hulu sucks on my MacBook Pro.