Memes sometimes make me laugh. But this one was post worthy because I like Little Mermaid. And Ariel as a hipster is funny

Zombie tablet of course refers to the hp TouchPad, the tablet that won’t die! Ever since I was unable to get my hands on one during the first fire sale, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for a good deal. I didn’t want to deal with another hp laptop/pc with the Best Buy deal, and I’m glad I didn’t hold out for the refurb fire sale from last night since chances of snagging one might’ve been slim (they sold out in 15 min). From what I’ve read, a lot of people seemed to be pretty happy with the tablet and at that price point who could complain. I’ve been checking Craigslist off and on to see what deals I could get. Most people are selling to make a ridiculous profit but I was looking to get as close to breaking even as possible. Luckily I found one last week and I picked up a deal for a 32gb TouchPad with a case and Touchstone charging dock (love this thing) leaving the seller without much of a profit (but it’s ok, he didn’t seem like he needed more money anyway haha). From the few days I’ve had with it so far, here’s what I love about it:

- True web browsing experience: no formatted for mobile webpages here. Almost everything works and shows as it should, including Flash. But the big sites that I was hoping for, Hulu and Netflix, don’t work since Hulu got wind of it and Netflix just isn’t supported by the webOS browser yet. But it’s ok, I found an awesome workaround which works beautifully (Splashtop).

- True multi-tasking: Waiting for something to load? Let it load in the background while you do something else… and it will.

- “Synergy” lets you add an account in one place (like Gmail, Facebook, Skype, etc) and then links whatever appropriate apps to them. Mail gets your Gmail, Calendar accesses your Google Calendar, Photos will pull your Facebook albums, QuickOffice can see your Google Docs, etc.

- Transferring files to the TouchPad is as easy as transferring to an external hard drive. No need for iTunes-like software so transferring is a breeze. I’ve transferred eBooks (in pdf format) and videos so far. And for those curious, video files need to be mp4 format (I think like iTunes?)

- Exhibition mode: This kind of also goes for the Touchstone charging dock which allows for wireless charging for the Touchpad. I just plop that puppy on there and it starts charging and while it charges it goes into ‘exhibition mode’ where it shows me the time, my agenda, the weather, etc, whichever exhibition-capable app I choose to view.

- Mail app is very similar to iOS’s mail, but has collapsible columns. View all accounts with inbox and email, or just inbox and email, or just the email. I can’t remember if the iPad can do this. Maybe it does.

- Angry Birds Sound Easter Egg: This is more a just-for-fun thing. To get rid of “cards” you can flick them up or pull it down like a slingshot and watch it fling upwards. Do this in landscape mode with the main button on your left hand side and hear the Angry Birds slingshot sound and then “wee!” when letting go. My 16 month old daughter loves to say “wee!” with the Touchpad after hearing the slingshot getting pulled back, haha.

- Dual boot with Android: Ok, so I haven’t done this yet but I heard that it could be done. It’s on my to-do list, and I’m excited to see if it would double the awesomeness.

Things I don’t like:

- Lack of apps: Understandably this could be a deal breaker for anyone. After the swirl of not continuing support to supporting and back, I don’t expect the app store to grow much more. But webOS lives on and the faithful homebrew community continues to develop. Installing preware is fairly easy yet I haven’t taken advantage of any of the available homebrew apps. And with all the Touchpads out there now, the number of users is hopefully strong enough to warrant more apps, and from what I read porting apps from the other platforms is not all that hard… so I’m crossing my fingers for more apps!

Overall, I think this is a great laptop alternative in a tablet form factor… with a great price point!