HP touchscreen brings Facebook to your mantelpiece
Most tech users have three different types of screen in their home: television, computer and cellphone. Hewlett Packard believes it’s going to change that by adding a fourth: the DreamScreen.
The device is effectively a supercharged version of the digital photo frame. As well as displaying pictures and video, and playing music (from USB sticks, memory cards, 2GB of on-board memory, and wireless streaming to a PC).
By hooking up to a wireless network, the screen can pick up several internet services including Facebook, streaming music site Pandora, and a directory of internet radio stations. However, it’s not a web browser.
The DreamScreen will initially be available with a 10.2 inch screen for $249, with a 13 inch edition to be released later at $299.
The big problem with the concept is that it doesn’t offer any genuinely new features and is simply a case of one device doing more than one thing. While that can be a winning formula (imagine a phone that played music and had web access!), it only really appeals to people who need most or all of those features and don’t already have a better or more convenient way of carrying out the same tasks.
That doesn’t seem to be the case here. If you want to stream or watch downloaded video, you’re going to want to do it on a full-size TV, not a 13 inch screen; otherwise you might as well stick to your monitor or laptop. If you really, really want to use Facebook without sitting at your computer, chances are you’ve already figured out a solution involving a laptop or a smartphone.
The only audience which would really seem to benefit from a DreamScreen would be people who don’t have an internet-connected computer – but without that, the device becomes largely pointless.
Frankly this seems a device best aimed at people with little tech savvy who fall for the “it does everything all in one box” style of marketing. But while such people certainly exist – just check out catalogs in magazines for the retired, or home shopping broadcasts — $249 seems a high price for that audience.
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