HP TouchPad formal

What will the HP TouchPad's WebOS 3.0 operating system look like and be able to do? A leaked version of the WebOS 3.0 SDK offers a sneak peek of Hewlett-Packard's long-awaited media tablet.

PreCentral got its hands on a WebOS 3.0 Beta 1 emulator courtesy of "an awesome (and anonymous) tipster" and the site's Derek Kessler on Wednesday posted a video walkthrough of the UI and several applications running on the emulator (video below).

Kessler noted that the emulator runs on more powerful hardware than it will in the TouchPad, a Wi-Fi version of which is due out this summer, to be followed by 3G and 4G products later in the year. He also had to use a mouse to operate what will be a touch interface to run the demo.

So what's new? The "basic WebOS experience has not changed much as far as the app launching experience is concerned," Kessler noted, but there are some improvements like added flexibility in arranging icons on a page.

The virtual keyboard, accessed through a bar called "Just Type," has five character rows, adding a number row to the three QWERTY keyboard rows and spacebar row found on other tablets like the Apple iPad. Kessler's written report on Just Type and the WebOS 3.0 virtual keyboard has detailed accounts of various keyboard capabilities like working with multiple text boxes and switching between English, French and German character layouts.

Meanwhile, lovers of funny AutoCorrect-generated texting gaffes will be pleased to learn that WebOS 3.0 has added a text predictor to the Text Assist correction software introduced in WebOS 2.0.

Kessler also walks through the WebOS 3.0 Web browser, calendar, contacts, maps, messaging, e-mail, memos, QuickOffice, Exhibition, music, photo and video apps.

The final verdict?

"We see a lot of cool stuff in this emulator, and even if it's a work in progress right now, it still makes us feel all warm and fuzzy about the approaching launch of the TouchPad," Kessler wrote.
