I have had my Touchpad for about 4 weeks. It have spent most of this time tweaking and reading books with the Kindle App. For the last year I have been debating whether to get an iPad or Android tablet or an eReader such as a Kindle or Nook.
I have an iPhone which I really like. I like the vast array of applications. My favorite and most used iPhone apps are Echofon (twitter), Google+, Evernote, SkyGrid, AP Mobile, CNBC, YouTube, MLB.com, Zynga Poker, Yelp, Dropbox, USA Today, YouVersion Bible, and Amazon Kindle.
I primarily use my iPhone for, besides talking and texting, to keeping up with Twitter and Google+, news and stock information, reading books work related PDFs. I really enjoy the iPhone Kindle app. In the last year I have read about 10 books. The screen is small and I just get into a rhythm of turning the page every 5 seconds.
So I wanted a tablet type device specifically for reading. Being stubborn and difficult, I didn't want to forego the opportunity to surf the web. In short I wanted an eInk reader that could switch to an iPad. Well that device doesn't exist, so I kept reading on my iPhone.
Then we got a call in the office. Our company had purchased a quantity of HP Touchpads. These were made available for sale, one per employee. I did a Google search and saw the Kindle was available on the Touchpad. So I bought one.
After 4 weeks I can say I am love the Touchpad as an eReader, and I am adjusting to the new mindset of the WebOS. I love the Kindle app (enough about that). I keep thinking the WebOS is hindered by the lack of apps.
However, WebOS supports Flash. This causes a bit of a change in mind set. Many iPhone/iPad apps exist because a webpage running a Flash app isn't possible. So if a web site I frequent uses Flash, WebOS supports Flash, the Touchpad doesn't have an app for the site, and I can just go to the website and do what I want, do I care there isn't an app?
Here is a more concrete example....Sunday I was watching the NFL games and wanted to track my Yahoo Fantasy Football team. My iPhone doesn't support the flash based "stattracker" realtime interface. The iPhone Yahoo Fantasy Football app will show updated stats in a vanilla interface that reloads every minute. Basically the app is the same experience was the iPhone web page but with automatic reloads.
I pulled out the HP Touchpad, went to the web site, and launched the flash based stattracker and followed the beautiful realtime stats. Wow! The web page was great, no special app needed.
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