HP Announces DreamScreen: Beats Apple for the World’s 1st Tablet-like Computer.

Hewlett Packard announces its DreamScreen products that would represent a new class of wireless connected screens knocking out Apple in coming up with a beautiful tablet-like computer.


The screens are hybrids of digital photo displays and slate computers. Though they’re not multi-touch screen-enabled, however these could be made possible as soon as manufacturing costs come down. You can control the panels through the touch-enabled controls located on the border of the screen.

DreamScreens are not full-fledged computers that run regular Microsoft Windows operating systems, however you can utilize them to keep up with Facebook friends, share Snapfish personal photos, listen to Pandora Internet radio, view photos as they’re updated in real-time, and enjoy music and photo collections that are stored on other networked computers. It’s a type of computer that is appropriate for casual use by broader, mainstream audiences who might use it while browsing TV.

Consequently, Apple is now rumored to be working on a very similar project however it’s expected to be announced next year. Considering the technology of the iPhone, Apple is expected to also do a multi-touch screen as well as the full Mac OS X operating system integrated. Nevertheless, the price of this technology would definitely be higher than HP’s product.

DreamScreen screens really look attractive and beautiful plus the user interface is far easier and convenient than a typical computer. You’ll almost feel like you’re using an iPhone, except on a much larger display but only with side controls instead of the multi-touch screen. The 10.2-inch DreamScreen 100 costs around $249 and is most suited for a bedroom nightstand or dresser. The 13.3-inch DreamScreen 130 costs around $299 and is most suitable for use on coffee tables or a kitchen counter.


It’s no longer necessary to boot your computer just to take care of mundane tasks such as viewing a calendar or to see what your friends are up to. The DreamScreen screens come with 2 gigabytes of built-in memory for storing music, photos, and home movies directly on the machine. DreamScreens also have a USB and flash memory card connectors so that you can easily load digital content from a USB drive or digital camera. Wireless capability is also available (via 802.11 b/g wireless networking) or you can just drag and drop content from a networked computer to the screen using your finger.

You can conveniently use the touchscreen to look for (non-iTunes) songs, searching via album, artist or genre. The screens also will fetch album cover art plus they have good speakers as well as connections for headphones or external speakers. You can listen to Pandora songs as well as assign them the thumbs up so that DreamScreen can recognize your favorites.

HP also included their newly dubbed service called the HP SmartRadio that collates streams of live Internet broadcasts from over 10,000 radio stations around the globe. Users can have the ability to listen to their favorite radio stations on the Internet by location or genre in any place. Moreover, DreamScreen can also let you check the time, date, and weather.


Setting up DreamScreen is easy. You can use the remote control that ‘s placed nearly invisible atop the screen. Touch controls become visible only when you touch the border of the screen. The DreamScreen 100 is now available online at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, and HPDirect.com. The DreamScreen 130 will be available by this fall.