Gadget Lab Podcast: HP TouchPad and Android Honeycomb

This week’s Gadget Lab podcast is all about touchscreens. That’s how you know you’re really living in the post-PC era.

Special guest Duncan Geere of Wired UK joins Dylan Tweney to talk about this week’s big news from Hewlett-Packard. The hardware giant on Wednesday launched its answer to the iPad, the TouchPad, which has a 9.7-inch touchscreen, a dual-core processor, a front-facing camera for video-conferencing, stereo speakers, a gyroscope and accelerometer sensors, Bluetooth compatibility, and support for Adobe Flash.

Despite that list of compelling features, Duncan can’t imagine buying one for one reason: the lack of apps. Plus, Apple’s iPad 2 is probably right around the corner.

HP also launched two new smartphones, the Veer and the Pre 3. Both phones include a 5-megapixel camera and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and both include support for Flash. The smaller Veer has a 2.6-inch touchscreen, and the bigger Pre 3 has a 3.6-inch display.

We move on to another tablet OS: Android Honeycomb. Due for release this year, Honeycomb specializes in 3-D acceleration to drive hardcore gaming and snazzy user-interface features. Several manufacturers have already signed up to make Honeycomb-powered tablets.

Duncan closes the podcast with his experience using the iPhone in Britain. It turns out that back when the iPhone was just on one carrier, reception was terrible there, too, but it’s much better now that it’s shared on multiple networks.

Maybe that gives us hope in the United States, as the Verizon iPhone just went on sale Thursday, officially ending AT&T’s exclusive grip on Apple’s handset.

You can listen to the audio-only version of the show here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #103

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0103.mp3

Or download the OGG version of Gadget Lab podcast #103.

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