HP TouchPad...Phoenix?

Those following the tablet market has seen a whirlwind of activity over the last few weeks. First, HP announced the end of the WebOS line of tablets and phones. Next, the HP TouchPad was dropped down to $99, a truly bargain basement price, and that set off the fire sale. The HP TouchPad appears to have leapt over the competition to become the second most popular tablet on the market. Obviously, the iPad is first.

Now, HP has a problem. They have generated incredible interest for a product they no longer make. They have generated incredible sales figures, and probably incredible profits for the retailers selling their stock of TouchPads. HP probably won't see a dollar of that though, and now they have interest, and no product. Worse still, most of the interest was generated by a price they cannot maintain without taking a huge loss.

Now, rumors are surfacing that the TouchPad may not be dead after all. Is it possible that the TouchPad, like the Phoenix could rise from the ashes of its own destruction?

So, let's be sure of our timeline. On August 18th, HP announced that it was discontinuing the TouchPad and the WebOS line of phones. On August 20th, the Fire Sale commenced when HP announced that the remaining stock of TouchPads would be sold for $99. By August 29th, all the TouchPads in Austin, Texas stores had been sold. I don't know how many that was in Austin, but it appears that as many as 500,000 Touchpads may have been sold by the end of fire sale. With most of those sold in 10 days, those numbers might even approach iPad sales for the same period.

First, tech pundits were talking about the TouchPad being cut off at the knees. Next, there were rumors of an update. Late today, HP has pretty much said that the PC unit will be spun off into a new company, and that the TouchPad might go with it. Some are acting surprised, but why?

When you put a good tablet (I'll let others debate how good) at the same price as the bargain basement tablets, is it any sort of surprise that it sells?

HP has already said that they intend to keep developing WebOS for printers. Is it really a surprise that there would be updates?

Next, consider the following factors.

1.the reports (rumors) that some HP execs didn't know that they were pulling the plug on the TouchPad.

2.the supply train built to produce the TouchPad, which cannot be turned off overnight.

3.the new installed base of devices created by the fire sale.

I see a surprise announcement, an existing supply train, and an installed base to give the device traction.

Is it really a big surprise that HP might rethink the decision and give the TouchPad a second chance?

What if the HP CEO (I can never remember how to spell his name) really did make a decision and announced it publically first, rather than run it through channels? Maybe he knew that it would mean dozens of annoying meetings while the TouchPad guys pled their case and he didn't want to listen to it. He authorizes the Fire Sale to dump the existing stock. That cannot be a huge surprise, since their were already rumors that Best Buy wanted to send them back. If you have a dud on your hands, you try to lessen the impact. If retailers send them back, then you have shipping cost that you will probably have to pay, and you still have to dispose of the excess stock, which will probably cost you money, rather than generating revenue. I am betting that HP basically said to the retailers...price them at $99 and keep it. If they don't sell, then we will take them back.

The TouchPad folks within HP have had ten days to get their arguments ready, and now those arguments are stronger with half a million units in the wild. I don't think that HP did this knowingly as a ploy to gain market share at a loss, but I do think that someone may have found the silver lining in the dark cloud of the TouchPad failure and fire sale.

And now? With the news today, it looks like the HP PC line will survive under a new name, and with the changes in the market, including the sales figures for the iPad, it could be a good way for the new company to generate revenue, with a second generation tablet based on the TouchPad, with a installed base of users whose opinion of the original TouchPad will improve, if HP can provide some good updates to the OS.

Yes, I think that the TouchPad might just survive this and come out a winner.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - so far

It has been nearly a year and half since I started The Great Austin Burger Hunt, and I have now reviewed ten burgers. At this less than momentous occasion (let's be honest), I thought I would take a look back at the burgers I have reviewed and provide a rating of the first ten. I cannot say that I have found a truly spectacular burger. Some have been surprisingly good, and several of them have been good, but nothing like the reaction that you see in the The Greatest Burger in New York episode of How I Met Your Mother.

Some may complain that I am not experiencing the burger as intended, because I do not like all the fixings, and I know many people, my wife included, who feel that I burger is naked without onions and tomatoes. Well, I think that fixings can be used to mask poor choices of beef and bun, and bad cooking. I think that the best way to experience the burger is with nothing on it, but cheese and condiments. It is an argument that won't get decided in the pages of any blog, and since I don't like tomatoes and onions, I have to remove them, or I won't like the burger.

So, here is the list, and I won't make it a Top 10 list with the best at the bottom.

• Chili’s
  12901 N IH 35
  Austin, TX 78753-1018
  512-251-2442
  


• Texadelphia
  9828 Great Hills Trail Suite 140
  Austin, TX 78759
  (512) 338-1338
  

This was as close to a tie as I can imagine. I have given the nod to Chili's because I don't ever plan to have another burger at Texadelphia. I always order a Cheesesteak, so if I am thinking burger, I doubt I will think of them, but it was very good.

• Five Guys Burgers and Fries
  3208 B Guadalupe St
  Austin, TX 78703
  (512) 452-4300
  


• Hill-Bert’s Burgers
  5340 Cameron Road
  Austin, TX
  (512) 371-3717
  

Another close pairing. Hill-Bert's was less pretentious and I liked them for that. The fries are a big draw at Hill-Bert's.

• Wingzup
  1000 E 41st St
  Austin, TX 78751
  (512) 323-2587
  

Good burger when you want to watch sports, because watching sports, not burgers is the reason to go to Wingzup.

• Posse East
  2900 Duval St
  Austin, TX 78705
  (512) 477-2111
  

The Fries are the big draw.

• BB Rovers
  12161 Jollyville Road
  Austin, TX
  (512)335-9504
  

When you want an unusual beer with your burger.

• Whataburger
  11135 N. I-35
  Austin, TX
  512-251-0528
  

Wait-a-burger, but nothing to complain about

• Terra Burger
  10611 Research Blvd.
  Austin, TX 78759
  (512) 382-5864
  

Dry

• Short Stop 12
  3811 North IH 35
  Austin, TX
  

It fills your stomach, but don't expect much more.

So, there you have it, the first ten reviewed burger places in Austin. I am still on the hunt for a really good burger, so send me your suggestions.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt

Posse East
2900 Duval St


My wife has raved about this place for years. When I first started the Great Austin Burger Hunt, she suggested it. When her boss decided to take her to lunch there, I tagged along. Posse East is on the edge of the UT campus. It has been around for 40 years and is a well-known campus watering hole. It has kind of a rustic appearance, and it sits on an inconvenient corner, which makes parking hard, but with a 40 year history, obviously they are doing something right.

I ordered my usual, a cheeseburger and fries, and of course had them leave off the pickles, onions and tomatoes. You can get a selection of cheeses and this time I chose Cheddar. That keeps it closer to the other burgers I have reviewed, though I might choose Swiss Cheese the next time. This is the sort of place where you pick up your order when they call your name, but it is small enough that isn't a problem.

The burger arrived on a seeded bun, with green leaf lettuce and mustard, with a pile of fries beside it. The burger was not the juiciest I have had....how exactly do you say that I burger was not juicy without giving the impression that it was dry? I am not sure I have a good answer, but that is what I am trying to express. From a juicy-ness standpoint it was okay, but not great. In fact, from a taste standpoint, the meat was okay, but not great. The cheese was good, but not enough to really improve the burger all that much. The bun was good, but nothing terribly special. The lettuce was okay, except that by the end of the second bite it had wilted so completely that I took it off.

I think I did it again. I have given a review that seems to say that the burger was bad. Well, it wasn't, but it didn't stand out. It was a burger. It was even a good burger. It was not a great burger. It was not memorable. It was also rather light on condiments. Next time, I will try adding a bit of mayo and a bit more mustard and see if that helps.

But, the fries more than made up for any deficiency in the burger (and there wasn't really anything to make up for). The fries were some of the best I have ever had. They almost looked like they had a light batter on them. They were incredibly crispy, with almost a little crust on them. They were perfectly salted and delicious. I cannot speak highly enough of the fries. Far and away the best fries of any of the place I have reviewed.

I will not be putting Posse East at the top of my Best Burger List, but it might go at the top of the Best Fries List and that might be enough of a reason to visit Posse East again. I certainly won't be afraid to order a burger, but it will be the fries that I will truly be looking forward to.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt

B.B. Rovers
12161 Jollyville Road
Austin, TX
(512)335-9504

B.B. Rovers is an Irish pub with a fairly nice atmosphere and a large selections of beers, so many that the beers have their own menu. Now, I'm not a drinker, so I don't really care about that, but while eating there with friends the other night, I decided to try their Burger and review it for the Great Austin Burger Hunt.

I decided on the rather plain Cheeseburger, which is offered with a choice of cheeses, Longhorn Cheddar, Swiss, Pepperjack, Provolone or Blue Cheese. I decided to try the Longhorn Cheddar this time, despite being a big fan of Swiss on burgers. When I ordered they gave me another choice, white, wheat or rye? Being intrigued by the rye, I ordered that. I was not given a choice on how I wanted my burger cooked. Now, many places don't give you that option, but it is much more common among sit down restaurants. I was a little surprised by the lack of choice, but not that much.

I took a little bit of time to arrive, and then the waitress tried to give me the wrong burger, but eventually I got my burger with chips on the side. I was pleasantly surprised to find my burger on a pair of slabs of nicely toasted marble rye. Unfortunately, the bread was the best part of the burger. The bread was perfectly toasted so that it had a slightly crunch to it, and the bread was very tasty.

The burger was a rather dry, a little overdone, and just not very tasty. It wasn't bad, just not very good. It came with a single leaf of leaf lettuce, which wilted before I finished the first half of my burger. I removed the lettuce from the second half. There also wasn't much evidence of condiments on the burger and I really wonder if the cheese was Longhorn and not American. It didn't add much to the taste.

In fact, the burger was nearly a patty melt, which is a burger with swiss cheese on rye bread and then the sandwich is grilled. I love patty melts. It would have been better as a patty melt.

The side order was a small pile of out-of-the-bag chips, absolutely nothing special.

It wasn't awful, but I think I will be avoiding the burgers at B.B. Rovers.

Yummy Bowl

Here in Austin, we have a strong Food Truck/Trailer thing going on and one of the newest locations is the Longhorn Food Court near the UT campus. And that is where you will find...

Yummy Bowl
610 West MLK
(512) 436-4319

I had the Shanghai Pan Fried Chicken Dumplings and Sesame Chicken. Now, that is a lot of food for one person, and technically the Dumplings are an Appetizer and should probably be shared.

First, something about the service. It isn't real fast, and when you are standing outside in 100 degree weather that can be a small problem. The food is worth the wait, so it really isn't a problem, but don't expect it to be as fast as McDonalds.

Chinese Dumplings are generally steamed, and then in the case of Pan Fried Dumplings, they are thrown into the pan for a bit of frying. Steaming dough can give it a somewhat soggy texture, and that was the one problem with these Dumplings from the Yummy Bowl. Now, it probably didn't help that I carried them back to work before eating them, but there you have it. It was not a fatal flaw and was really the only negative thing about the dumplings. They were very tasty. They include a dipping sauce with the dumplings, and watch out, it is hot. I cut the sauce with a bit of Soy Sauce, and it was excellent. I have also seen this type of dumpling called a Pot Sticker.

Now, on to the Sesame Chicken. I am a big fan of Sesame Chicken, as readers of these pages will already know, and Yummy Bowl is not going to make my favorites list. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The chicken was served on top of a layer of broccoli, which was unfortunate, as all the sauce drained off of the chicken. I don't really like broccoli and definitely not with Sesame Chicken, and this broccoli did not look at all appetizing. Even considering what drained down into the broccoli, there was not enough sauce, but the sauce was tasty enough, not spectacular, but good.

The chicken itself was chewy, and towards the bottom of the pile of chicken there was a block of chicken pieces stuck together. They were tough to separate and the areas between the pieces were not cooked very well. It was served with white rice, which was good, but nothing to write a blog about.

Looking back at this review, I see that I have said a lot of negative things, and that is unfortunate, because the meal wasn't bad. Maybe I am being too hard on them because I see a lot of potential in what they make. It was good. It could have been better with a few changes that have nothing to do with flavor.

I am definitely going to give them another chance, but maybe after things cool down...in October or so.

The Tablet Dilemma

I would like to consider myself an expert on tablets, but most would find that laughable. I own a tablet, in fact you may not believe this, but I am writing on one now.

Okay, it was a long shot. Few people will remember that old commercial.

I want to be an expert on tablets, but most of what I learn comes from Gizmodo. I don’t have the money to indulge my passion (any of them), and I don’t have a job that lets me get free models to review. I do work in IT, but in an environment where we spend more time keeping aging systems running than on integrating cutting edge systems.

But, I do think about tablets a lot…and reading about them wherever can. Gizmodo often comes across as an Applefanboy reunion. Like so many others, they want the iPad to be everything that Steve Jobs says it is, the revolutionary device that changes everything. Yes, they have drunk the Kool-Aid and come to kneel in the Fruit Church.

So, naturally you get a huge argument when you stand forth and declare the truth…

It’s nothing but an iPhone with a really big screen.

Now, I am not disputing that it is more than an iPhone, but it is more than an iPhone in one dimension only…size.

Nor, am I disputing that size matters. There are many functions on a smart phone that fall somewhere between annoying and impossible, and most of those functions will rise up the scale when your screen is 4 times larger. Difficult things become a joy and impossible things become doable.

The true lesson of the iPad is simple.

Most people don’t need all that computing power.

Of course, actually the iPad only accelerated our acceptance of this lesson. Netbooks had already shown us that most of the time we don’t need all the power of a modern PC. The iPad has destroyed the Netbooks market on one factor…simplicity. Simplicity will always trump complexity, especially when it bears the holy symbol of the Fruit Church.

But, to get back to the dilemma, is it enough?

Is it enough that a Tablet does the same things as your phone, and very little more? It obviously wasn’t enough for tablets to put the power of a PC into a more portable form factor. In case you haven’t noticed, UMPCs (Windows Tablets) never sold very well. The iPad has sold more units in its short life than all models of Windows Tablets combined, and that goes back quite a few years.

Now it should be remembered the iPad, as well as Android tablets have some advantages over Windows Tablets, like boot up time and battery life. Those give these new tablets an advantage that the old Windows Tablets cannot overcome with added versatility and power.

I think that a tablet should be more than a really big phone. App Developers are working hard at making the iPad and Android tablets more than big phones, but is that enough?

I don’t think so. I think that the OEMs need to consider the middle ground, the spot between the ultimate portability of the smart phone and the ultimate computing power of the PC. The modern portable PC is the first step down, providing most of the computing power in a mostly portable form factor. I say mostly portable because some of the desktop replacement models can give you a hernia, but the ultra portables, like the MacBook Air or the Dell Latitude E4200, make portability a priority and sacrifice power.

The tablet seems to fit right in between, but so far they are all glorified smartphones or handicapped PCs. Maybe someone can find the true middle ground.

A Picky Gourmand

So, do any of you know what it means? Yes, it does have a relationship to the word gourmet, and a point to Gryffindor.

Gourmand does mean someone who likes to eat, just like gourmet, but it is what and how much that separates the gourmand from the gourmet. The gourmet wants perfectly prepared dishes, sometime with delicate and subtle flavors. Small portions are not a problem, because you are supposed to savor the flavors.

There is nothing delicate or subtle about what the gourmand wants.

The gourmet wants the perfect filet mignon. The gourmand wants a big greasy delicious burger. The gourmet wants a delicate boulognese over hand made pasta. The gourmand wants a big pizza.

It isn't that the gourmand is willing to put up with less taste in order to fill his belly, oh no. The gourmand may have a bit of the glutton in him, and at times gourmand has been translated to glutton, but it isn't just about over indulging. Let me say that again. Gourmand isn't JUST about over indulging. It may certainly include it, but that is not all it is.

The gourmand likes to eat. The gourmet likes fine food. The gourmand likes simple food, and lots of it. The gourmand does not like bad food though. The gourmand does not find his favorite meal at McDonalds. The gourmand might however start a quest to find the best burger in his home town.

Yes, that was a shameless plug for The Great Austin Burger Hunt, as seen on these pages.

I spent some time in France, a very long time ago. I enjoyed the food there, and then came back to the land of McDonalds and Taco Bell. I brought back with me a love of good bread and good cheese. I watch lots of cooking shows where they prepare meals I probably wouldn't eat. Why? Because I am a picky eater. The list of things I don't like has grown a little shorter over the years, but it is still long.

Onions
Mushrooms
Most Fish
Any Seafood that isn't fish
Cauliflower
Zuchini

That is only the start of the list. It took me years to find something on a Chinese menu that I liked (Sesame Chicken), because it seemed like everything had broccoli, or tofu, or something else I didn't like.

I am a gourmand. I cannot afford fancy restaurants and high priced wines. Well, to be honest, I don't even like wine. I love pizza, but not just anything will do. Oh, I'll eat it, but it isn't what I would choose all other things being equal. I like a good crusty French bread, and I hate Wonder bread...well, except occasionally for toast. I love good cheese, and I won't touch Kraft singles. I love a good pizza, or a burger, or a big plate of Sesame Chicken. A mirepoix (celery, onions and carrots) seems like a waste of carrots (cooked celery is on the list too).

I can be opinionated about food, and I like to cook, but my way. I spend time redacting recipes to see how things taste with onion powder, instead of real onions (it's a texture thing). I will pay a little more for good cheese, or a good bread, but you cannot give me plastic cheese...anything that has to have the word "Food" after the word "Cheese" and I do not want to see the word "Processed" before it. Pasturized Processed Cheese Food is an offense against nature, and if Dante was writing today, there would be a special place in Hell for those who created it.

I think it is time for me to find a good strong cheese, a crusty loaf of bread, and maybe some real salami, preferably dry...but I will still wash it down with a Coke Zero.