HP’s DreamScreen is almost an Apple Tablet and available sooner (Video)

Want a hint at how the much-anticipated Apple Tablet might be shaping up? Take a look at the HP DreamScreen.

With a great looking interface that appears more than a little Apple-like, this certainly looks like what we’re expecting from the Apple Tablet.

You can listen to music and browse photos (either stored-on device or streamed over wifi) and connect to a number of internet-enabled apps including Facebook, Pandora, weather and an online radio browser.

There’s no doubt the DreamScreen looks great but it’s no contender when compared to the forthcoming CrunchPad or what we expect from an Apple Tablet. It’s not a touch screen device, for a start – you have a remote control and on-device buttons to choose from but touching the screen itself will just give it fingerprint marks.

There’s no browser either. This means there’s no point looking here for your on-sofa web access needs. The Facebook and Pandora apps won’t even let you set up an account on-device. You’ll need to do that on your computer first, making them very much aimed at a casual market rather than power users.

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Out this autumn and priced at $249 for a 10.2″ model and $299 for the 13.3″ version, the DreamScreen is certainly in line to be a Christmas hit. Given its spec, unless you’re looking for what amounts to a really advanced digital photo frame you’re best holding out for something more advanced to arrive next year. There’s no word on a release for the DreamScreen outside the USA yet.

If you want to get to grips with how the device works, HP has published a bunch of ‘How-to’ videos at its YouTube tutorials page PC Help. For an overview, take a look at the video from Notebooks.com’s Youtube account.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E3CQuJrSOM[/youtube]