HP may have announced that they will discontinue support for their devices that use the WebOS operating system (the Pre phones and TouchPad tablets that rely on this OS), but there is still a lot of this hardware in the channel, and that means you can pick up these fancy gadgets for a song (while supplies last).
The 16 GB TouchPad is now being offered for $99.99 (down from $300) and the 32GB TouchPad tablet is just $149.99 (down from $499.99).
HP is selling these directly on the web site, so grab one while they last:
The HP site currently lists them both as out of stock, but we've heard that more will be released for sale this week in a final clearance sale on HP.com.
UPDATE (8/23): We've heard from a contact at HP that demand (and waiting list requests) have exceeded supply so there will be no more TouchPads available on HP's site.
Will the Touchpad have any long term value if HP decides to halt all support and development of the operating system? That remains to be seen, but we wouldn't put it past the hackers to figure out how to run Linux -- or at least Android -- on these puppies soon.
Until then the Touchpad actually makes a decent color screen tablet PC, with full web browsing capabilities, e-mail and a decent selection of Apps (including at least three flavors of "Angry Birds"). It can play movies and music -- including Pandora. And unlike the iPad, the Touchpad actually runs Adobe Flash, so you can view more video content -- and more web sites -- than you can with Apple's tablet.
Haven't you always wanted to browse the web... in your bathroom? Or maybe build a multi-media/multi-screen art installation for pennies on the dollar? Or give one to each of your kids as a "practice PC" so they can learn how computers work without fighting over the laptop or without you worrying excessively about droppage.
Looking for more uses for an HP Touchpad? Check out the suggestions on these sites:
