Video: HP Slate Promises a Webcam, Memory Card Slot, USB Port, Everything the iPad Doesn’t

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the Apple iPad went on sale this weekend, surpassing sales expectations and garnering winning reviews. But iPad news can only mean one thing: HP will soon follow up with more details about its own tablet, the Slate.

Today, HP promptly released a 30-second video of the Slate in action. The clip, which none-too-subtly highlights everything the iPad is missing, gives us a further (albeit, brief) peek at the tablet’s interface.

In the video, HP emphasizes the Slate’s hardware just as much, if not more than, the software. HP’s mission is clear: to remind users that although they can buy the iPad now, the Slate will offer everything the Jesus tablet doesn’t, including a webcam (cue closeups of a Skype app), memory card slot (did you catch the SD card pulsing onscreen for a full two seconds?), and a USB port (the hand model in the video is plugging in an iPod or iPhone cable of all things). In a previous video, HP pointedly revealed that the Slate will support Flash, something the iPad notably doesn’t.

As for the software, we already know it will run Windows 7, which isn’t surprising since Steve Ballmer himself introduced the Slate at CES. However, the OS has an interface layered on top, just as HP’s TouchSmart PCs have a proprietary UI built on top of Windows. The Slate’s UI appears to steal a few pages from Apple’s playbook, including a Cover Flow-style way of swiping through albums. More importantly, the Slate promises to deliver the same comprehensive multimedia experience as the iPad, highlighting apps from heavy hitters such as Skype and Flickr.

For now, we don’t know anything else about the Slate’s specs, how much it will cost, nor when it will be available. In the meantime, check out the latest video below: