Touchpad connectivity less than ideal...

Aerone · 07:42 AM

I really do enjoy my new Touchpad but could not help to notice some of its shortcomings that somehow limit its usability and make it seem like a pricy toy in some regards, not like a do-it-all-PC replacement. HP misses no chance to market WebOS as a perfectly connected device but somehow this doesn't seem to be the case yet. Here are some things I found I could not do with it (yet?):

1) I would love to access my network shares with it. Why can't I stream music, pictures and video from my windows home server? HP used to build those servers and I think accessing network shares should not be too hard to implement. WebOS is build on linux and linux should be able to do the trick. I think it should work like the dropbox integration in the photo, music and video app...

2) I do love music, but I don't on cheap and tiny speakers. I have a great stereo system which is connected to my main PC. How nice it would be to be able to stream audio to the PC via bluetooth and listen to music on my Canton speakers... I asked HP about that and they told me they don't support bluetooth audio streaming. Sad.

3) I bought a pretty advanced network printer this year but was unable to connect it to the touchpad. It is the Canon MX885 Wifi network printer, 2011 model... The Touchpad won't detect it and even if I enter the IP it just says that the model is "unsupported". I really hope that the touchpad will support it after an update because limiting printing to HP printers would be just wrong! Of course I am not buying a new printer for this.

I am looking forward to the next update but somehow I believe it is unlikely that any of this issues will be adressed... Lets wait and see!

LinT · 07/29/2011, 07:49 AM

It doesnt support BT audio streaming? Thats gonna make my recent purchase a waste!! I just ordered a BT music receiver. I dont see why it wouldnt support it (it works on my palm pre.) Ive also got a motorola roadster BT speaker, I will try that tonight with the TP.

Cantaffordit · 07/29/2011, 07:53 AM

#3 is a good point. Others are possible and improving.

ggendel · 07/29/2011, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerone

1) I would love to access my network shares with it. Why can't I stream music, pictures and video from my windows home server? HP used to build those servers and I think accessing network shares should not be too hard to implement. WebOS is build on linux and linux should be able to do the trick. I think it should work like the dropbox integration in the photo, music and video app...

I believe there are apps already available to do this (bhome?).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerone

2) I do love music, but I don't on cheap and tiny speakers. I have a great stereo system which is connected to my main PC. How nice it would be to be able to stream audio to the PC via bluetooth and listen to music on my Canton speakers... I asked HP about that and they told me they don't support bluetooth audio streaming. Sad.

I find this surprising as the specs say it has bluetooth A2DP, which should fit the bill. My guess is that the computer doesn't support A2DP as a bluetooth protocol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerone

3) I bought a pretty advanced network printer this year but was unable to connect it to the touchpad. It is the Canon MX885 Wifi network printer, 2011 model... The Touchpad won't detect it and even if I enter the IP it just says that the model is "unsupported". I really hope that the touchpad will support it after an update because limiting printing to HP printers would be just wrong! Of course I am not buying a new printer for this.

+1
I was trying to get my high-end Xerox Phaser to connect without any luck. I got my server to broadcast it's existence via Cups/Avahi (multicast) without success. If anyone knows of how the HP ePrint system actually works then we could make a server to support non-eprint devices. There is an app for Mac that does this for Airprint, so this should be possible for ePrint. I have been unable to find any documentation that describes the protocol. I suppose it's possible to reverse engineer it (wireshark, etc.) but I just don't have the time.

noseph · 07/29/2011, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerone

2) I do love music, but I don't on cheap and tiny speakers. I have a great stereo system which is connected to my main PC. How nice it would be to be able to stream audio to the PC via bluetooth and listen to music on my Canton speakers... I asked HP about that and they told me they don't support bluetooth audio streaming. Sad.

I can report that the TouchPad does indeed support A2DP as I am currently listening to music over it. What is Sad is that some of the HP support is clueless about the TouchPad and webOS.

howi · 07/29/2011, 09:47 AM

Aerone,

I too can play audio in stereo via Bluetooth A2DP with a pair of Nokia music headsets. But talking of other shortcoming in connectivity, I find there are many limitations... fewer Bluetooth stacks and VPN protocols supported out of the box.

Aerone · 07/29/2011, 02:26 PM

Thank you for all your replies!

@howi, noseph, ggendel: It's great to hear that you are able to use A2DP with the touchpad. I had already given up trying after HP support told me it won't work... So in theory I should be able to stream audio to my PC, right? I just ordered a new ASUS Bluetooth 2.1 EDR stick and will try my luck again!

I also ordered a Jabra Clipper stereo bluetooth headset and am looking forward to see how this works with the touchpad. Judging from the list of supported headsets that HP supporrt refferred to it should not be compatible, but maybe the list is outdated:

Palm Support : Bluetooth devices that are compatible with Palm Pre phones

@ggendel: Thank you! I tried bhome but it did not work, since it requires a Upnp server. Maybe it is possible to add this functionality to WHS though. I also tried Gemini File Manager but it also cannot access normal network shares (yet).

howi · 07/30/2011, 02:08 AM

Aerone,

No problem. But I have a tip for you: after you have paired with your Bluetooth headsets and unable to play audio properly, then reboot the TouchPad. I remembered I have bumped into the problem at first... No music streaming at all, it was like idling for some app... then I realize maybe I have opened the Skype / Messaging earlier. So I rebooted the TouchPad, and voila!

jhoff80 · 07/30/2011, 12:25 PM

What bothers me about the Touchpad connectivity is with the phones, personally. As in, I have my Touchpad paired with my Pre. However, if I answer a call on my Pre, it should stay on the Pre until I change it, and only answer on the Touchpad if I press the button to answer on the Touchpad. As it is now, no matter where I answer the call, it goes to the Touchpad, which means I don't even bother with having the two connected via Bluetooth anymore. It's a nice idea for a feature but the implementation is more annoying than useful.

EvilKell · 07/30/2011, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhoff80

What bothers me about the Touchpad connectivity is with the phones, personally. As in, I have my Touchpad paired with my Pre. However, if I answer a call on my Pre, it should stay on the Pre until I change it, and only answer on the Touchpad if I press the button to answer on the Touchpad. As it is now, no matter where I answer the call, it goes to the Touchpad, which means I don't even bother with having the two connected via Bluetooth anymore. It's a nice idea for a feature but the implementation is more annoying than useful.

Just tap the "Audio" icon in the lower left corner of your Pre's call window when it pops up. Select "Normal" or "Speaker" from the drop down and audio should go back to the phone. The TouchPad is working like a bluetooth headset once you pair. Implementation of call handling improvements when paired with the TouchPad probably can't be made until there is an update for the Pre/Pixi/Pre2/Veer series phones, and I think it's pretty obvious nothing is coming for the legacy devices.

jhoff80 · 07/30/2011, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvilKell

Just tap the "Audio" icon in the lower left corner of your Pre's call window when it pops up. Select "Normal" or "Speaker" from the drop down and audio should go back to the phone. The TouchPad is working like a bluetooth headset once you pair. Implementation of call handling improvements when paired with the TouchPad probably can't be made until there is an update for the Pre/Pixi/Pre2/Veer series phones, and I think it's pretty obvious nothing is coming for the legacy devices.

Yeah, I know you can do that, but it's definitely less than ideal. In all honesty, I just turn Bluetooth off on the Touchpad because it's rare that I would want to use this feature, and because the SMS forwarding doesn't work yet either.

The feature is just more annoying than it's worth at this point.

07/29/2011, 07:38 AM	#1 (permalink)
Aerone Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 12 Likes Received: 1 Thanks: 6 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Touchpad connectivity less than ideal... I really do enjoy my new Touchpad but could not help to notice some of its shortcomings that somehow limit its usability and make it seem like a pricy toy in some regards, not like a do-it-all-PC replacement. HP misses no chance to market WebOS as a perfectly connected device but somehow this doesn't seem to be the case yet. Here are some things I found I could not do with it (yet?): 1) I would love to access my network shares with it. Why can't I stream music, pictures and video from my windows home server? HP used to build those servers and I think accessing network shares should not be too hard to implement. WebOS is build on linux and linux should be able to do the trick. I think it should work like the dropbox integration in the photo, music and video app... 2) I do love music, but I don't on cheap and tiny speakers. I have a great stereo system which is connected to my main PC. How nice it would be to be able to stream audio to the PC via bluetooth and listen to music on my Canton speakers... I asked HP about that and they told me they don't support bluetooth audio streaming. Sad. 3) I bought a pretty advanced network printer this year but was unable to connect it to the touchpad. It is the Canon MX885 Wifi network printer, 2011 model... The Touchpad won't detect it and even if I enter the IP it just says that the model is "unsupported". I really hope that the touchpad will support it after an update because limiting printing to HP printers would be just wrong! Of course I am not buying a new printer for this. I am looking forward to the next update but somehow I believe it is unlikely that any of this issues will be adressed... Lets wait and see! Last edited by Aerone; 07/29/2011 at 07:42 AM. Reason: typos
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07/29/2011, 07:49 AM	#2 (permalink)
LinT Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 307 Likes Received: 43 Thanks: 76 Thanked 79 Times in 30 Posts	It doesnt support BT audio streaming? Thats gonna make my recent purchase a waste!! I just ordered a BT music receiver. I dont see why it wouldnt support it (it works on my palm pre.) Ive also got a motorola roadster BT speaker, I will try that tonight with the TP.
	Liked by Thanked By: AspenWiedii

07/29/2011, 07:53 AM	#3 (permalink)
Cantaffordit Moderator Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 15,149 Likes Received: 958 Thanks: 3,804 Thanked 3,910 Times in 2,776 Posts	#3 is a good point. Others are possible and improving.
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07/29/2011, 09:47 AM	#6 (permalink)
howi Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 62 Likes Received: 9 Thanks: 26 Thanked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Aerone, I too can play audio in stereo via Bluetooth A2DP with a pair of Nokia music headsets. But talking of other shortcoming in connectivity, I find there are many limitations... fewer Bluetooth stacks and VPN protocols supported out of the box.
	Liked by

07/29/2011, 02:26 PM	#7 (permalink)
Aerone Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 12 Likes Received: 1 Thanks: 6 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thank you for all your replies! @howi, noseph, ggendel: It's great to hear that you are able to use A2DP with the touchpad. I had already given up trying after HP support told me it won't work... So in theory I should be able to stream audio to my PC, right? I just ordered a new ASUS Bluetooth 2.1 EDR stick and will try my luck again! I also ordered a Jabra Clipper stereo bluetooth headset and am looking forward to see how this works with the touchpad. Judging from the list of supported headsets that HP supporrt refferred to it should not be compatible, but maybe the list is outdated: Palm Support : Bluetooth devices that are compatible with Palm Pre phones @ggendel: Thank you! I tried bhome but it did not work, since it requires a Upnp server. Maybe it is possible to add this functionality to WHS though. I also tried Gemini File Manager but it also cannot access normal network shares (yet).
	Liked by

07/30/2011, 02:08 AM	#8 (permalink)
howi Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 62 Likes Received: 9 Thanks: 26 Thanked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Aerone, No problem. But I have a tip for you: after you have paired with your Bluetooth headsets and unable to play audio properly, then reboot the TouchPad. I remembered I have bumped into the problem at first... No music streaming at all, it was like idling for some app... then I realize maybe I have opened the Skype / Messaging earlier. So I rebooted the TouchPad, and voila!
	Liked by

07/30/2011, 12:25 PM	#9 (permalink)
jhoff80 Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Boston-area Posts: 6,973 Likes Received: 116 Thanks: 418 Thanked 1,252 Times in 710 Posts	What bothers me about the Touchpad connectivity is with the phones, personally. As in, I have my Touchpad paired with my Pre. However, if I answer a call on my Pre, it should stay on the Pre until I change it, and only answer on the Touchpad if I press the button to answer on the Touchpad. As it is now, no matter where I answer the call, it goes to the Touchpad, which means I don't even bother with having the two connected via Bluetooth anymore. It's a nice idea for a feature but the implementation is more annoying than useful.
	Liked by

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