Also this week: How to create a “smart” Photo Stream album in iPhoto that you can actually edit; 5 reasons a $99 HP TouchPad might not be a bargain after all; and help for those trying to decide between the 3G iPad and the Wi-Fi-only model.

Holiday Gift Guide: 7 goodies for iPhone users
Among our gift ideas: a gaming-friendly iPhone case, a gorgeous Bluetooth speaker, a Wi-Fi-enabled bathroom scale, and more. Read more…

5 reasons why the $99 HP TouchPad isn’t necessarily a bargain
The $99 TouchPad may serve as another example of getting what you pay for—no less, but certainly no more, either. Read more…

Holiday gift guide: Gadgets for grandparents
From an HD webcam to a digital photo frame that doesn’t look like one, we’ve got five can’t-miss gadgets for the grandparents on your holiday shopping list. Read more…

How to create a “smart” Photo Stream album in iPhoto that you can actually edit
Annoyed that iPhoto makes you jump through hoops to edit or share photos in your Photo Stream? Here’s a quick, easy shortcut. Read more…

Holiday Gift Guide: 5 gadgets for around the house
From a floor-sweeping robot to a blue “light therapy” device to brighten dark winter months, these handy household gadgets will make for perfect holiday gifts. Read more…

Which iPad should you give for the holidays: 3G, or Wi-Fi? 4 things to consider before buying
So, you’re giving an iPad to a special someone for the holidays. But which version should you get: the Wi-Fi-only version, or the pricier 3G-plus-Wi-Fi model? Read more…

Holiday Gift Guide: Prepaid and no-contract phones
Put a spiffy new phone under the tree without hanging a contract around the lucky recipient’s neck. Read more…

Podcast 006: Going iPad shopping—3G, or Wi-Fi?
This week, we tackle the No. 1 question I’ve been getting from gadget shoppers: Whether to get the Wi-Fi-only iPad, or the one with 3G support. Read more…

How to check the status of Xbox Live
Can’t log in to Xbox Live, the online gaming network for the Xbox 360? Here’s how to find out if Xbox Live is on the fritz, or whether your console is to blame. Read more…

Visit the here’s the thing Holiday Gift Guide on Pinterest
Check out all our holiday gift picks on Pinterest, an online “pinboard” that lets you share products, restaurants, and anything else that tickles your fancy. Read more…

How to paste your signature into a PDF using your Mac’s built-in webcam
Got “Lion”? If so, you can scan your signature using your Mac’s iSight camera, then paste it onto the dotted line of a PDF. Here’s how. Read more…

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That’s the word from TechCrunch, which claims (based on a leaked internal memo) that it’ll offer one last batch of the doomed TouchPad for $99 each, starting December 11. For its part, HP has yet to make a formal announcement.

So, ninety-nine bucks for a tablet with a 9.7-inch screen (same as the iPad), a state-of-the-art dual-core processor, a front-facing camera for video chat, and a microUSB memory-card slot—sounds like an amazing bargain, right?

Well, the $99 TouchPad may serve as another example (similar to this one, and this one) of getting what you pay for—no less, but certainly no more, either. Among the reasons…

1. It won’t run iPad or Android apps
The HP TouchPad runs on an operating system called WebOS, a lovely, intuitive, easy-to-use mobile platform, replete with snazzy features (such as its elegant, unobtrusive alerts and a flickable deck of graphical “cards” for switching between apps) that competitors like Apple and Google have gleefully copied.

But sales were slow for the original WebOS smartphone, the Palm Pre, and wary mobile application developers kept their distance from the nascent platform. As a result, the selection of several thousand WebOS apps (most of which haven’t been optimized for tablets, by the way) looks puny compared to the hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPad, and Android applications on the market.

And no, the TouchPad won’t run iPad or Android apps at all. [Update: As reader Jeff points out in the comments below, it’s possible to hack the TouchPad so it’ll run on the Android OS—provided you’re up to the challenge, that is.]

2. The reviews weren’t great
“A world of potential” thanks to the nifty WebOS interface, but “thick,” “rather hefty,” “lack of polish,” and “no match for the iPad”: that was the general consensus in early reviews of the TouchPad. Then again, those reviewers were taking into account the TouchPad’s original $499 sticker price (same as the cheapest iPad 2), not the current $99 closeout price tag.

3. The WebOS platform may be doomed
If you do decide to snap up a $99 TouchPad, you should do so with the knowledge that it may soon be an orphan. HP has yet to definitively announce its plans for the WebOS platform (a decision is expected soon), but let’s face it: pulling the flagship TouchPad off the market after less than a month isn’t a good sign. Meanwhile, no other manufacturers have stepped up to the WebOS plate—or at least, not so far.

Update (12/9/11): HP just announced that it will offer up WebOS to the “open-source” community, in the hopes that third-party developers and/or manufacturers take the WebOS ball and run with it. Meanwhile, CEO Meg Whitman told TechCrunch that another WebOS tablet from HP could be in the offing … but likely not until 2013. So while WebOS is still around for now, its future remains as murky as ever.

4. You (probably) won’t be able to return it
According to the leaked memo that TechCrunch got its hands on, all sales of the $99 TouchPad will be final—in other words, no returns, or at least not unless the TouchPad lands on your doorstep with a cracked screen or wires sticking out of its shell. Also, don’t count on anything more than a 90-day warranty.

5. The last TouchPads might not be brand-new
One more thing from the TechCrunch report: it’s looking like the final batch of TouchPads are “refurbished”—read, used—rather than fresh off the conveyor belt.

That doesn’t mean you’d get a TouchPad with the former owner’s fingerprints on it, mind you. Most gadget manufacturers have strict quality-control measures in place for their refurbed products; for example, you can expect a new battery, and maybe even a new shell. Still, it’s something to consider before cracking open your wallet.

So, yay or nay: would you pay $99 for a TouchPad?

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Barely a month and a half after launching the TouchPad tablet, HP shocked the tech world Thursday by abruptly announcing (as reported by All Things Digital) that it will discontinue its iPad competitor—and not only that, it will also stop making any and all devices running on the once-promising WebOS mobile platform.

This is jaw-dropping news for those of us who’ve been covering the saga of WebOS, the impressive touchscreen operating system that powered devices ranging from the Palm Pre to the TouchPad.

The much-hyped TouchPad tablet only landed in stores (with a thud, according to some reports) a little more than a month ago.

The once-$499, then $399 TouchPad was greeted with mixed reviews, with the tablet winning praise for its “attractive and different interface” while also getting slammed for its “rather hefty” shell, “lack of polish,” and poor battery life.

So, what was the big deal about WebOS? Here’s how I described it back in June:

First introduced back in 2009 on the Palm Pre smartphone, WebOS is a truly beautiful, intuitive, and rather powerful touchscreen platform that boasts features like email and text alerts that bubble up unobtrusively from the bottom of the screen, the ability to seamlessly pull contact information for your social-networking friends into your Address Book, and application windows organized like a deck of cards that you can swipe back and forth, or flick up when you’re ready to quit.

Sounds nifty, right? But the Palm Pre never took off with consumers, and the financially-crippled Palm (which, let’s not forget, was behind the legendary Treo smartphone from the late 2000s) was finally snapped up by HP last year.

Die-hard WebOS fans hoped that the innovative platform could get a second lease on life with the resources of HP behind it. But with today’s news, it’s clear that HP has decided to cut its losses and move on.

The move would appear to strand just about anyone who did buy the TouchPad, not to mention newer WebOS handsets like the Pre3 and the Veer. Hopefully, we’ll get more news on how HP plans to handle customer service for its remaining WebOS customers.

For its part, HP says it will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of WebOS software going forward.” Personally, though, I wouldn’t take any comfort in that pronouncement.

So, anyone out there with a HP TouchPad they’d like to trade in?

Note: I haven’t even mentioned the other mind-bending announcement from HP today—that it’s looking to unload its PC business. Yes, that’s HP … no longer selling PCs. Mind blown.

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Meanwhile, it’s still not even clear whether the number of tablet apps in the Android Market has hit four figures yet (Fortune has the number pegged at about 1,300, while GigaOm says it’s a mere 170), while the HP TouchPad (which runs on another mobile software platform, dubbed WebOS) will have only 300 or so tablet-optimized apps available for its Friday launch.

here’s the thing: 100,000 apps versus a few hundred—the numbers pretty much speak for themselves.

Source: MacStories

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On the one hand, reviewers seem enamored of the TouchPad’s WebOS software, which “works beautifully” when it comes to switching between apps, notifying you of incoming emails and impending events, and pulling contact info from your various social networks into the tablet’s addess book.

Then, there’s the bad news: the TouchPad’s “thick,” “rather hefty” shell, the bugs and overall “lack of polish,” the single, front-facing camera that’s only for video chat (no stills), and HP’s woefully sparce app store (just 300 tablet apps, versus about 90,000 for the iPad).

The HP TouchPad isn’t without its fans—Ed Baig of USA Today, for one, says it has a “world of potential”—but so far, I’m not seeing anyone who’s recommending the TouchPad over Apple’s towering iPad 2.

A few opinions…

Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal:

…despite its attractive and different user interface, this first version is simply no match for the iPad. It suffers from poor battery life, a paucity of apps and other deficits.

Tim Stevens, Engadget:

We all wanted the TouchPad to really compete, to give us a compelling third party to join the iOS and Android boxes on the ballot. But, alas, this isn’t quite it.

David Pogue, The New York Times:

In this 1.0 incarnation, the TouchPad doesn’t come close to being as complete or mature as the iPad or the best Android tablets; you’d be shortchanging yourself by buying one right now, unless you’re some kind of rabid A.B.A. nut (Anything but Apple) … but there are signs of greatness here. H.P. is coming to this battle very late, but it says it intends to stay the course. True, it’s tilting at windmills — but at least it’s riding an impressive steed.

Joshua Topolsky, This is My Next:

Still, the bottom line here is that the stability and smoothness of the user experience is not up to par with the iPad or something like the Galaxy Tab 10.1, even if many of the underlying ideas are actually a lot better and more intuitive than what the competition offers. That, coupled with the minuscule number of quality apps available at launch make this a bit of a hard sell right now.

Ed Baig, USA Today:

Even as a fan of the iPad it’s good to see robust competition among tablets. And there’s an awful lot to like about the first webOS tablet. But before HP can even hope to challenge Apple, it will need to need to supply more apps and exterminate a few bugs.

here’s the thing: Based on the early TouchPad reviews, it looks like the iPad 2 still rules the roost as far as tablets are concerned.

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Well, Palm is no more—it got gobbled up by Hewlett-Packard last April—but its sleek, easy-to-use WebOS mobile platform lives on in the 9.7-inch TouchPad tablet, which (we just learned) will arrive in stores July 1.

The TouchPad tablet itself (which I’ve yet to see in person, by the way) boasts most of the features you’ll find on the latest cutting-edge tablets, including a state-of-the-art, dual-core processor (“dual-core” basically means two processor on a single chip, resulting in speedier, more efficient performance), a camera lens in front for video chat, and a 9.7-inch, 1024-by-768-pixel touchscreen—the same size and resolution as the iPad 2.

The new HP tablet ($599 for the 32GB version, or $499 for the 16GB model—again, equivalent to the iPad’s pricing) will also come with a microUSB port (meaning you’ll be able to plug in a USB-enabled memory card or device), and a nifty wireless docking station, dubbled “Touchstone.”

Most importantly, though, the TouchPad will run on Palm’s—or now, HP’s—WebOS software.

What’s so special about WebOS? First introduced back in 2009 on the Palm Pre smartphone, WebOS is a truly beautiful, intuitive, and rather powerful touchscreen platform that boasts features like email and text alerts that bubble up unobtrusively from the bottom of the screen, the ability to seamlessly pull contact information for your social-networking friends into your Address Book, and application windows organized like a deck of cards that you can swipe back and forth, or flick up when you’re ready to quit.

Of course, the iPhone and Android smartphones support “multitasking” applications, too, but Palm’s WebOS platform was the first to do it in an elegant, visually pleasing way.

And indeed, WebOS’s subtle notification system is still superior to the iPhone’s jarring pop-up windows—or at least, they will be until this fall, when Apple rolls out its new and improved notifications in the iOS 5 software update. (It’s probably no coincidence that Apple poached from Palm the man responsible for WebOS’s splendid notifications about a year ago.)

Nice, but there’s just one problem: Palm’s WebOS smartphones never sold all that well, and consequently, the number of apps in the WebOS app store is puny—about 6,000 or so, compared to more than 250,000 for Google’s Android Market and a whopping 500,000 in the Apple App Store. The good news is that many of the most popular iPhone and Android apps are present and accounted for the in the WebOS app catalog, including Facebook, Evernote (an handy app that syncs notes with your desktop PC), the New York Times reader, Yelp, and yes…even Angry Birds.

In any case, those with a soft spot for Palm or the old Treo should certainly give the new TouchPad a look—and even if you’ve don’t know a Treo from a Droid, the TouchPad might make for a friendly, easy-to-use alternative to the iPad or the latest Android tablets.

Got any questions about the TouchPad—or WebOS, or Palm, for that matter? Let me know.

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