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Firesale prices now are $99 for the 16GB and $149 for the 32GB TouchPad. Online and at retail, customers are snapping up bargains on the tablet HP killed on Thursday. When will HP similarly slash prices for its Pre and Veer webOS smartphones? Killed on Thursday, HP's webOS-based HP TouchPad tablet and Pre and Veer smartphones are history. And HP's PC business is on the block. We'll show you what HP's got. In the latest episode of BYTE Wireless Radio, hosts Fritz Nelson, Craig Johnston and Gina Smith look at the future for webOS, the TouchPad and HP in general. 

Barely two months after the HP TouchPad launched, and we’re already writing its obituary. Even RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has survived for longer than that. I can only hope that other tablet makers take a hard look at their mobile operating systems and tablets, and that they find ways to prevent these five hardware and software capabilities from dying with the HP TouchPad and WebOS.

The ability to unify contact information--and even access images stored on Facebook directly from the tablet--were nice add-ons that made the WebOS-based TouchPad feel more connected than its Android and iOS competitors do. Keeping information isolated runs counter to a connected world; the level of service integration that WebOS and the TouchPadhad was a differentiator, and it’s something that Apple and Google should, again, look at closely. On tablets, I’ve seen just two approaches to multitasking work well--and neither one is in use by the market leaders. The horizontal-scroll design is much more finger friendly than Google’s vertical-scroll “recently accessed” pop-up. 

So what did I like about WebOS on the TouchPad? Samsung’s new TouchWiz UX rework of Honeycomb, as seen on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, adds these features to Android’s quick-settings menu, but you need to scroll through them. I liked the simplicity of the menu in WebOS. Heck, I liked the clean simplicity of most menus in WebOS--something that Android can learn from (yes, Google, full disclosure is useful, and information is power, but your settings menus remain a turn-off for the average consumer).

The one thing that HP’s hardware had going for it: The TouchPad has, to date, produced the best-sounding audio I’ve heard from a 10-inch tablet. The TouchPad’s bottom-firing speakers produced well-balanced, undistorted audio that didn’t make me cringe; in fact, I enjoyed listening to music on the TouchPad, a lot. Tablet designers, take note: Whatever HP did in its TouchPad design (the tablet’s plastic backing seemed to help with the acoustics, though HP never did pinpoint what was responsible), please copy that. 

The most appealing tablet these days is by far Apple’s iPad, but HP’s TouchPad is a surprising second choice, beating out the many Google Android Honeycomb tablets and RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook. While only 10.3 percent of respondents said they might be interested in a TouchPad, the report suggests that HP’s tablet is more appealing than other non-iPad slates.

An AllThingsD report referred to HP’s tablet as the “OuchPad,” based on poor sales. This follows only 612 TouchPad sales in a one-day promotion at Woot.com earlier this month, when the tablet was discounted to $379. It’s also interesting because some have suggested — rightly, I’d add — that if a tablet can’t match the iPad in terms of user experience and apps, it must be priced lower than the iPad. Although a survey of potential tablet buyers doesn’t equate to sales, it shows promise for the TouchPad, especially considering the device only launched early last month. 

By. Android Phone Tips