HP Beats Apple: DreamScreen Tablet

The much anticipated tablet that everyone has been blogging and podcasting about has not come from Apple… rather another strong force in the PC market, HP. The DreamScreen is a semi-tablet, meaning it doesn’t have a touchscreen (yet) and is more of a wireless-controlled screen versus a computer tablet. But it’s a tablet and a step in the right direction.

According to Venture Beat, “They’re not full-fledged computers that run Microsoft’s Windows software, but you can use them to keep up with Facebook friends, view photos as they’re updated in real-time, listen to Pandora Internet radio, share Snapfish personal photos and enjoy music and photo collections that are stored on other networked computers. It’s a category of computer that is suitable for casual use by broader, mainstream audiences who might use it while browsing TV.”

The main thing I find appealing about this “psuedo tablet” is its appearance. HP did it right. They’re perfect to use in the bedroom, kitchen or even living area as a “2nd TV” except you don’t have to wait to boot your tablet to get onto your favorite social networking sites.

“They come with two gigabytes of built-in memory for storing photos, music, and home movies directly on the device. And they have a universal serial bus and flash memory card connectors so that you can load digital content from a USB drive or digital camera. You can also load content wirelessly (via 802.11 b/g wireless networking) or drag and drop content from a networked computer to the screen, using your finger,” concludes Venture Beat.

They will retail for $249 for the 10.2 inch display and $299 for the 13.3 inch display.