Comments on: HP DreamScreen tablets are no iPods for e-books, but if you buy one, here’s how you can probably read ‘em

By: Paul Biba

Paul Biba — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:14:58 +0000

I just saw these at a press event in New York. They only run off AC power, no batteries. They use a special HP designed OS, well the marketing guys say it isn’t even as complicated as a real OS, that is Linux based, but, they told me, not even remotely like Linux. It will be made open source so someone could do an ereader, but any reader could never be ported to another platform, or from another platform, because of the odd OS. This is not something that HP ever considered, they told me.

By: Dave Robinson

Dave Robinson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:23:10 +0000

It might be bad for books – but a relatively large screen tablet (especially one that supports portrait mode) could be very good for comics and manga.

By: Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:07:13 +0000

Yeah… the text-to-image thing is, IMO, like using your screwdriver handle as a hammer… it is a bass-ackwards solution to a problem, and really shouldn’t even be encouraged.

Not to say the device isn’t fine for watching videos and checking facebook… but I wouldn’t waste time trying to set it up as a text reader.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:24:11 +0000

Hi, Steve. The text-to-image software for the Juicebox might do the trick–I’ve updated the original post. Still, it isn’t the most elegant solution. I’d definitely recommend that people NOT buy the DreamScreen with text in mind as the main app.

Thanks,
David

By: Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:18:56 +0000

This device gives me the impression of one that HP would necessarily keep simple and limited. I wouldn’t expect extensive apps added to it. Heck, it doesn’t even have a web browser! And if it was going into the kitchen, I would have at least made sure it could read text (like menus and recipes) in some kind of way. Pass!