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Getting Touchy-Feely With Tablet PCs 103

Posted by CmdrTaco from the tommy-can-you-feel-me dept.
donnacha writes "Yahoo News are currently running a story, Tablet PCs gaining momentum, describing a renewed enthusiam among computer manufacturers for Tablet PCs, in the face of skeptics who are, apparently, abounding. The skeptics insist, between bounds, that Joe Public just won't pay the extra $150 that touch screens add. Having spent much time lusting over Wacom's $3,500 Cintiq 18sx, a combined graphics tablet / 18" LCD screen and one of the few pieces of hardware that I would consider starting a family with, I beg to differ. Combined Graphic Tablets/LCD screens are a dream come true for artists and the rise of the Tablet PC might be exactly what's needed to drag that magical match down to reasonable, commodity-level pricing. Question is, will the screens used come anywhere near the Cintiq's 512 levels of pressure sensitivity?"
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Getting Touchy-Feely With Tablet PCs More

Getting Touchy-Feely With Tablet PCs

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    • If an executive doesn't want to learn to type they hire secretaries. Then they get this gadget for the cool factor. If they are really pretentious, they get one for the secretary, too. What does that say about your status in the world, when your *secretary* doesn't even have to type.

    • As I understand it, these are being aimed at execs who dont want to learn to type, or some crap like that. In other words, handwriting recognition and quick scribbled diagrams, not artwork requiring much sensitivity. Blech.
      Hopefully the manufacturers will recognize that there are a substantial number of people out there who would be willing to pay more for the necessary level of sensitivity; artists who want the sort of functionality we're talking about currently have to pony up for the Wacom graphics tablet / LCD screen (15" for $2000, 18" for $3,500) and a separate computer to plug it into. What are we talking about in total here, minimum $4000, $5,000+ if you want to go high-end (and most artists do)?

      If you could have the same functionality/sensitivity in just one highly portable device, that would be worth considerably more to me than the $2000 they're talking about for tablet PCs. If they could get a tablet suitable for digital artists out the door for, say, $3000 I think they'd actually be looking at a far larger market than just artists. Hell, I'd bet that most executives, even the ones who will never use it for art, could be persuaded to pay extra for the "added value" of a more sensitive screen.

      As I said in the original story submission, I'm hoping that this functionality can be dragged down to commodity-level pricing so that, eventually, everyone can enjoy it.

    • since I am a lowly science student, but I would love a tablet-type box (linux only, please...).

      Trouble is, I have what is sometimes regarded as a somewhat old-fashioned style of handwriting which (although I'm somewhat proud of it) tends to defeat most OCR software, and I can't see it working for me...

  • I wouldn't mind a tablet PC, but... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Rhinobird ( 151521 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @07:54AM (#3748701) Homepage
    I'd like a tablet pc, or that groovy Wacom thing, but then again, I like to draw. For real work I still use a keyboard. Why? Because a semi trained typist is going to be able to type faster than they can write. One button per letter, versus a few strokes for a letter. Typing 25 words per minute is nothing, now write 25 words a minute. Just thinking about it makes my hand cramp. I have to side with the skeptics on this one.

    • I'd like a tablet pc, or that groovy Wacom thing, but then again, I like to draw. For real work I still use a keyboard.
      I can't find the link but quite recently, within the last month or so, some manufacturer was touting a hybrid laptop/tablet design in which an outer casing held both a screen and keyboard in conventional laptop style. Their innovation was to place the brains of the computer behind the screen rather than under the keyboard, allowing the user to detach the screen and use it as a tablet. If I remember rightly, communication between the keyboard and the docked screen was via Bluetooth, allowing full laptop functionality.

      I would suggest that this laptop/tablet format is going to predominate. I just want them to throw in the extra touch screen sensitivity that will allow the tablet to be used as professional-level graphics tablet.

      • I think it was Compaq/HP

        too lazy to look for a link, but that might give you a start.
      • back around 1994 I bought a Compaq Concerto which was like this. It had 16 shade grey touch screen monitor, the guts were behind it, the keyboard was detachable, and had a long cord, you could have the monitor sitting on tv tray or something and have the keyboard in your lap. The pen mouse that came with it worked pretty well too, I loved it. Too bad it is only a 486, I upgraded the ram to 16Megs, and it has a 240Meg harddrive.

        The whole thing was about $1500 at the time, cheaper than most equivalent laptops. I can't believe compaq discontinued them, they were way ahead of their time.
    • Typing 25 words per minute is nothing, now write 25 words a minute.
      I can do 20 WPM on Fitaly for Palm [fitaly.com]. Less than half what I can do with a real keyboard (I used to do key entry for a living), but for portable applications the convenient of being able to do everything with one hand outweighs the loss of speed.

      There are so many applications that are too complicated for little pocket devices, but for which "real" computers, even laptops, are too clumsy and inconvenient. Casual reading, browsing a museum web site. I guess most of them are recreational -- when you're trying to relax, you don't want to be tied to a lot bulky hardware, and you probably don't need to do a lot of complicated interactions.

      Tablets are only a part of the solution. You also need networking that's secure, reliable, reasonably fast, and affordable. A sort of "last inches" problem.

      People will need to do some text input with their tablets, and few will be satisifed with handwriting. It's doable (despite the fuckups with early Newtons) but as you point out, it's too slow. I expect there to be a lot of work on things like virtual keyboards., special kinds of electronic shorthand, and fancy one-handed input devices. Actually a lot of these things have been worked on for years, but haven't found a market yet.

  • > Yahoo News are currently running a story, Tablet
    > PCs gaining momentum, describing a renewed
    > enthusiam among computer manufacturers for Tablet
    > PCs, in the face of skeptics who are, apparently,
    > abounding.

    Not quite. The article mentions that Fujitsu is having a go at it, and implies that they'll be using Microsoft's new "Tablet-aware" Windows XP.

    But the article doesn't claim that sales are up, or that anyone is making any money on these things. The only pundits seem to be those who are marketing product.

    • Not quite. The article mentions that Fujitsu is having a go at it, and implies that they'll be using Microsoft's new "Tablet-aware" Windows XP.

      But the article doesn't claim that sales are up, or that anyone is making any money on these things. The only pundits seem to be those who are marketing product.

      The word "momentum" suggests a gathering of force. The article [yahoo.com] also mentions designs that have been prototyped by Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Toshiba and Sony. Forget about the cost of advancing ideas to the prototype stage, making them public represents a substantial credibility wager on the part of these corporations, and credibility is everything when you're essentially selling commodity products.

      This does indicate a gathering of force behind the tablet PC concept, regardless of whether or not that concept is a worthwhile or whether it will ever find a substantial market. In submitting this story to Slashdot, I wanted to suggest that a certain niche of the market, digital artists, would actually find tablet PCs extremely attractive but only if the touch screens are as sensitive as Wacom's existing graphics tablets.

      • I'm surprised this even got posted, considering 99% of tablet PCs will be running Windows XP Tablet and not Linux.

        • I'm surprised this even got posted, considering 99% of tablet PCs will be running Windows XP Tablet and not Linux.
          If the computing world is going to swing towards the tablet form-factor, it makes sense for the Linux community to be aware of it.

          There's also the fact that Transmeta [transmeta.com] seem to be making progress [cnn.com] in this area, lending the whole tablet concept Torvalds-powered street cred.

          • Well, just cause Linus works there doesn't mean that Transmeta necessarily has anything to do with Linux.

            Realize all the work that Microsoft has been putting into XP Tablet for months behind the scenes. It needs handwriting recognition software, too, which MS claims to have "the best in the world." Also, realize that applications have to be built with the inking/tablet API. MS has received partnerships with lots of companies like Adobe and Autodesk to design applications for this.

            People dog Windows for having a graphical-only mode, but I think Linux's console-based roots combined with that crap called X Window System isn't good enough for tablet PCs. I think a Linux Consortium needs to be founded to design a new GUI (and NO I don't mean Window Manager) from the ground up.

            Hey, if little old Apple coulda done it with Aqua, don't you think all the Linux programmers could do it? Oh wait, why not just run OSX? ;)
            • You forgot another major feature that Linux is missing that is needed on these highly portable platforms. Power Management support. No I am not talking shitty APM I am talking about ACPI. Along with it you get some cool configuration ability.
            • I whole heartedly agree. The state-of-the-art in GUI or human computer interface technologies has stalled in my opinion--at least commercially.

              What we need is soem more gesture based computing (as seen in Minority Report) along with much more intutive data storage and retrival based on context and time (maybe like the Brain).

              I find that I often recall information based on its proxmity and relationship to other information. For example, sometimes I can't recall an exact web site I visited, but I can remember what other web sites I saw around the same time I was visiting it. That information along with a history allows me to find what I was looking for.

              Also, my email repository is a great history of infomration and conversations that I often refernce. I find that I don't even like to save specific information into files any longer, but just leave it in the email to be recalled (by searching) later.

              What would be cool is if we never explicity saved anything, but everything we did was archived automatically. After some preset period of time, old stuff could be moved to offline storage or erased based on some defined attributes. Of course, you could go into the archives and mark some stream or bits of information as very important and not to be erased.

              I don't know, I guess I'm rambeling, but I do feel that much more humanistic interfaces to computers are possible, and possible today, we just have to be open to try them.

              It's like with typing, they made QWERTY to cripple people because the old typewriters couldn't handle the speed at which they typed. Well, that's not an issue anymore, but are we abandoning QWERTY? NO! Why not? We should so that we can type faster now.

              It's the same with interfaces, this whole mouse, GUI, folder file storage, helped us deal with technology that wasn't cabable of more. Now, processing, storage, and memory are so much cheaper... we could be doing much more.

              Oh well...
              • Gesture-based computing has a lot of intrigue for me, and while the stuff in Minority Report was pretty fake (gesture at a green screen, put in the rest later), it still looked like a lot of fun.

                But I would go one further. I want an extremely sensitive camera that could tell where on a screen I was looking, and use that like a mouse cursor. If they have cameras that can identify you based on your eyes from 10 feet away, certainly they can tell where your eyes are focused on a screen with a few millimeters.

                That, to me, is the ultimate in interfaces. Effective voice recognition would be great as well, but that's stalled too.

                Wonder why.
                • I want an extremely sensitive camera that could tell where on a screen I was looking, and use that like a mouse cursor.

                  So do you think it'll be cool for some kiddie to come up with a routine that tracks the movement of your eyeballs over Britney Spears' cleavage?

  • Playing Quake3 on touch screen can be classified as a voodoo magic.
  • So, how long before everything is done on wirelessly connected notepad-shaped flat touch screens?
  • Tablet PCs are usefull for artists, artists, and only artists. I use mine for automotive maintenance(OBD 2), and I tried programmming at school with it. It simply drew way too much attention, and without a real keyboard I was typing as slow as my fellow classmates would have on a real keyboard.
    • I disagree. I have two from a review I did earlier in the year and I use them for all sorts of things. They're great for controlling our MP3 server, for watching the kids via the web cam, and for friends who are over and want us to "check out this website".

      When I'm just "surfing" they're lighter and easier to handle and don't run as hot so you can sit with one in your lap on the couch and surf comfortably. (If you've got wireless, of course. But what real geek doesn't?).

      They're also used extensively in the medical field because they are portable, generally support WiFi connectivity and provide doctor's and nurses with instant access to your records and such without needing to physically find a terminal.

      I agree they aren't useful for development or anything that's keyboard intensive. It just isn't feasible - unless you want to hook up a USB keyboard, which most support, which destroys the portability of the things.

      Also note that many of the tablet PCs/Web pad style devices use a Transmeta processor regardless of whether they're running a Windows OS or Linux.

      SonicBLUE offers both Linux and Windows. And so does FICA.

      • SonicBLUE offers both Linux and Windows. And so does FICA.

        We bought a couple of win98 ones for $599 each, and I blew away the win98 partition on the one and installed Linux. The guy that works with me put win2k on the other. :-)

        It is probably the crappy slackware packages, but KDE3 was dog-slow on these things. I am going to put the latest CVS compiled with prelinking and gcc3.1 to see if I can't get the startup times down and maybe better speed through the updated code in CVS.

        Not bad little machines. 1024x768, 5G HDD, 128M RAM, 400MHz Crusoe processor. The graphics chipset is a Silicon Motion Lynx3M which is totally supported with XF410. The wireless network card is an OEM Orinico with a funky antenna arrangement: there are two jacks on the card "I" and "II"; I goes to a long coax cable to the other end of the unit, and II goes to a very short run of coax to a similar aluminum-plate antenna but which slides over the PCMCIA card itself, which leads me to believe it's not a dual antenna PCMCIA card. At any rate the only thing I can't get working is the gay scroll joystick, which isn't a big loss.

        I've been half-heartedly porting the qtopia popup keyboard to qt/x11 so that I can get away from plugging the USB keyboard in. :-)

        • It is probably the crappy slackware packages, but KDE3 was dog-slow on these things

          I'm not trying to start a flame war here, but I am curious as to why slackware packages are crappy. Perhaps you wouldn't mind explaining...

          • I'm not trying to start a flame war here, but I am curious as to why slackware packages are crappy. Perhaps you wouldn't mind explaining...

            I was being flip, but I belive that the slackware packages are not compiled --with-objprelink which *really* helps reduce startup time. The other thing I had mentioned was using KDE CVS code, which I run on my notebook. We're talking 400MHz Crusoe compred to 1G P3m, but I am fairly certain that the KDE CVS code has numerous speed increases (including a prelinked Qt library too).

            I'm a diehard Slack fan but for things like GUIs and web servers I compile my own instead of relying on a package. I'd like to see if GCC can optimize for Crusoe as well... -mcrusoe? :-)

  • I think a tablet would be great for sales people. Instead of having everyone stare at a lap top screen, rotating it back and forth, a tablet makes much more sense.

    A tablet does not put up a "wall" between the client and the sales person like a laptop screen does. A tablet would be very nice for me to take to normal meetings. A Tablet could not replace by Laptop for a few reasons, and it doesn't make sense to have two machines like that, so I guess the tablet is out for me.

    -Pete

    • Re:Tablet's Good Uses (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Several of the mfr's of Tablet PC's are combining them with the standard laptop (keyboard inclusive) The Acer models spring readily to mind. Their most intruiging design looks like a normal laptop, but the screen can be swiveled 180 degrees to sit face-up on top of the keyboard, transforming the the device in to a tablet.

      This truly is a best-of-both-worlds solution
  • I work for a company that makes low cost military flight simulators for prototyping of new equipment. Often we will use touch screen monitors to mock up instrument displays.

    In terms of rapid prototyping, it is quite easy to modify a display, and the touch screens allow for interaction with the various knobs and dials.

    It is mostly appropriate for displays that do not normally allow for that much interaction, as the pilot is missing the tactile cues that are present with a physical knob, and so the touch screen requires more attention and is more difficult to use than a physical knob.

    One problem with working with touch screens is that after a while you tend to expect all LCDs to be touch screens and end up poking them inappropriately.
  • Would be in the lounge/sitting room. It wouldn't clutter, or look out of place like a desktop or laptop.

    You could use it to surf the web, or to control your Autiotron MP3 player. I want one!
  • It's good to know this tablet can measure pressure -- but it would be nice if touch screens recognized multiple SIMULTANEOUS points of contact. All the touchscreens I've 'touched' only function as a type of mouse (i.e. use a single contact point to define single pointer location). If screens could measure touch points across the entire screen simultaneously, they could be used to select text quickly (think of a 'pick' action), recognize gestures ('twisting' an on-screen knob), or even recognize the *shape* of your hand (the coolest yet most insecure biometric authentication ever! :-). Seriously though, the age of the mouse seems to passing and touch screens should provide more than just a single 'mouse-point' reading.

    PS: From what I gather, resistive touch screens look more promising than capacitive ones... This page explains why [go.com]

  • I'm a sucker for a tablet PC. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ascii ( 70907 ) <ascii@@@microcore...dk> on Saturday June 22, 2002 @10:02AM (#3748867) Homepage

    No a tablet is not good for people who use the keyboard all the time (ie. coders) and no a tablet might not be very useful for artists and yes, some things might be done different (ie. slower) than how its done as we speak.

    But by golly I'm a sucker for a TabletPC. Of all the uses I've found for my computer very few of them make me appreciate that I can't take my computing into the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, the couch, my friends places, a café or whereever I may please. The TabletPC will offer a !much! more casual way of computing.

    What I think is important to recognize is that the TabletPC is not a computercentric device - that is, its applications and usage is an entirely different framework than that of coding, digital imagery and the likes. It's main aplicability are topics beyond the computer itself. Things that has to do with the world we live in and the things we do every day - not things that has to do with keeping a computer running. We use other computers for that - ones that are tailered more specifically to this application.

    Further, I've seen hybrids of desktop / Tablet PC's that make the best of both worlds: dock the tablet and you've got a full fledged destop pc. Pick up the display and you've got a Tablet PC.

    My two mere cents anyhoo


    • I'm totally in agreement. It'll be nice to have a tablet PC which will replace my laptop I'm working on now.

      Here's the classic situation: I spend all day programming and then I start studying a new technology, browsing the web or reading an e-book (which I'm doing a lot lately since almost all technical documentation is now online-only and sites like safari.oreilly.com have all their books available) and I think, man I'd like to get out of this chair and stretch out on the bed (or the couch or the john or where ever).

      Doing that now is possible with my notebook, but not particulary comfortable. 1) It's a bit heavy and awkward to use on the bed/couch. 2) If it's on my lap, it heats up pretty quick. 3) Typing on the bed requires that I be sitting up with my lap flat - I might as well be in a chair.

      If my PC was a tablet PC with say bluetooth mouse and keyboard and WiFi networking, I could just grab the computer - which was just propped up in front of me sideways on my desk - and go wherever I wanted to. I could read it like a magazine on the couch or in bed or I could read it in the john. And if I needed to enter some quick data (say a google search) I could use the pen.

      I'm crazy about the idea. I think the billions that M$ is spending on R&D has paid off with this one.

      -Russ

  • Dammit, apple (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Saturday June 22, 2002 @11:10AM (#3749016) Homepage
    Apple has had good, working handwriting recognition technology ever since the Newton 130 or 2000 or so in 1996.
    (Yes, the first newtons had laughable handwriting recognition at first. But by the time that the newton was at the end of its life cycle, it was actually a good, worthwhile, usable product, one that technology is only just now catching up with. People don't remember that the year Windows 95 came out, NewtonOS v2.0 won the "Best New Operating System" award at comdex.. the problem was that Apple released the Newton prematurely, and then hyped it endlessly. Then a few years later, in *1996*, when the thing was actually FIXED, they did absolutely nothing to promote it. So the general public, unless they read "MacWorld" cover to cover, didn't know the Newton then worked-- they just remembered the beginning of the Newton's cycle, when Apple released it in a blitz of hype, and every journalist in the world picked it up, tried it out, and reported, hey, guess what, this thing doesn't WORK.)

    Apple will be putting handwriting recognition back into the OS [apple.com] with mac os 10.2. But it is too late-- by the time that 10.2 is released, MS will have their handwriting-recognition-enabled WinXP Tablet Edition *preinstalled on tablet PCs being shipped in stores*. Before 10.2 is released, WinXP Tablet Beta will be in the hands of consumers. Although Apple has had a great handwriting recognition tech for years, MS will actually be releasing the tech first-- and when they do, it will be in a much cooler form, namely tablet laptops. Something apple currently has no analogue for at all. (iWalk? What's that? Is that like the segway?)

    Just think what apple could have done: they didn't have the funds or resources to continue developing the Newton in 1997. However, they could have sold/licensed some of that technology to Wacom, and worked with them on getting some kind of simple, early version of this Cintiq thing (which, by the way, is absolutely the coolest tech toy i've seen in ages) created-- then put the newton handwriting recognition stuff into the Mac OS. They would have had an advantage for *quite* awhile in that you would have something absolutely unique for the Mac OS-- Wacom would surely release windows drivers for their tablet/monitor, but 1) it would take a really long time for MS to play catch-up and get some kind of workable handwriting recognition feature, not counting Graffiti (handwriting recognition not being a useful feature, but definitely an eye-catching one to consumers), and 2) this was back when the Mac OS had multiple monitor support, and Windows didn't to speak of. (Mac OS has had seamless multiple monitor support for a long time; Windows didn't in any functional form until Windows 98, and even for awhile after that, it was buggy).

    Think about all that could have done for Apple-- even though the monitor might have been prohibhitively hyperexpensive outside of its designated "niche market", given the LCD tech of the day, Apple could have been publicly seen as doing something truly revolutionary and new at a time they were troubled. Instead, Apple just gave off the impression that year of falling apart at the seams. An image problem which of course didn't help sales. Instead, though, MS is going to be the one to first take advantage of this technology, and Apple will be playing catch-up in a field they pioneered.

    Typical-- the entire computing world, including apple, is just now catching up with where Apple was six years ago. Once again, Apple is far ahead of Microsoft in terms of getting something working & usable, and far, far behind microsoft in terms of actually getting their technology into the hands of consumers. I'm tired of this being the way the computing world works.

    Now i can't wait to see what happens when the Windows world discovers the "voice command" [bott.org] useless gimmick.
    • Apple has some kick-ass handwriting technology, no doubt. The Newton 2000, for example, was a tremendous machine. Recognition worked well, the interface was extremely intuitive, and there were some great vertical market apps for the Newton.

      But as Apple found out, demand is the key. The Palm OS succeeded for a variety of reasons, but my feeling is that it triumphed over the Newton primarily due to two things:

      1) Newton's early, much-huballooed release that didn't live up to expectations

      and

      2) The form factor of the original Palm Pilot. The Palm devices were and are smaller. They fit in a pocket or a purse or an attache. They fit the paradigm people were used to. The Newton's bulk simply looked and felt clunky and awkward to many people.

      Now Microsoft is going to ship their tablet technology soon, but aside from geeks on Slashdot, there just is no hue and cry for handwriting recognition technology. The Tablet PC is a cool technology in search of a real-world application.

      For example, look at the size of a Tablet PC. Sure, it might be spiffy for surfing the Web while you're sitting on your couch, but honestly, will most people replace their laptops with Tablets just so they can do this? With laptops getting so thin and light, there isn't much discernable difference between a Tablet PC and a laptop in terms of bulk and size.

      As has been mentioned before by others, typing is inherently faster and less of a strain than writing by hand. It's simply a more efficient means of turning thoughts into data. With speech recognition coming into its own on laptops, I don't see how the Tablet PC's handwriting recognition will seem in any way superior to consumers.

      The gap in time between XP's handwriting recognition and OS X 10.2's release will be minimal, but even so, I doubt there will be a groundswell of consumer excitement about the technology.

      Apple learned its lesson the first time around - whatever they do with handwriting recognition, my guess is they have some real-world applications in mind for specifically-defined markets.

      Just because Apple has been slow to market with their handwriting recognition products doesn't mean they have been foolish all these years. In business you have to pick and choose your battles, and I think Apple has been smart not to take up the cause of handwriting recognition until the time is right.

    • On the other hand, Microsoft has made a good living letting other companies enter new fields and then jumping in after them to take it over. They get to avoid the mistakes made by the pioneers (while making their own in their inimitable Microsofty fashion) while benefiting the work done to explain the new technology to the masses.

      I'm willing to bet that Apple will come in with an easier-to use product. Let them do it about 3 or 4 months after reviewers have actually HAD Microsoft's product in their hands long enough to become disenchanted. Much, much better press for Apple this way!

    • I don't agree with your assumption that it is too late at all.

      I think of it more like the MP3 market - Apple simply will wait until they can release a usable, well-thought out tablet. Even though I personally would have been happy to see a tablet iMac, I realize that appeals to a very small number of people in reality right now. A $400 tablet with a well thought out interface will simply destroy whatever weak version 1.0 (2.0, 3.0) tablet Microsoft might have by that point (at least on technical merits, who knows after the marketing factor is applied). And because it's based on OS X will be more appealing to the technical user as well!

      Do you want the sucky tablet that keeps crashing and trying to talk to Microsoft every day, or would you prefer the tablet that has a real unix shell and can edit movies via iMovie and the firewire connection (Talk about a killer app, portable video editing platform!!).

      My ideal tablet - an Apple tablet with 15" touch screen, handwriting/optional voice recognition, firewire, USB, Airport card, and a 40GB ram disk onboard.
  • "...one of the few pieces of hardware that I would consider starting a family with..."

    I don't think I am nearly geeky enough for /. any more. Touch-screen/graphics tablets just don't arouse those sort of feelings for me.

    • I don't think I am nearly geeky enough for /. any more. Touch-screen/graphics tablets just don't arouse those sort of feelings for me.
      But, man, just take a look at this beauty [wacom.com].

      I'm a normal, red-blooded male but when I look at that it just makes me ... uh... uh... huuuuu!!

      Oh, crap.

      • " I don't think I am nearly geeky enough for /. any more. Touch-screen/graphics tablets just don't arouse those sort of feelings for me. But, man, just take a look at this beauty [wacom.com].

        I'm a normal, red-blooded male but when I look at that it just makes me ... uh... uh... huuuuu!!

        Oh, crap."

        My suspicions are confirmed :-)
  • I want a tablet PC simply to "passively" consume information. No need for fast/complex input.

    To watch videos, listen to music, look at pictures, read comics/manga, read texts, surf the net.

    The wireless lan would be perfect to simple phone home to my stationary PC fuctioning as a large server for the information i want, or fill the tablet PC hard drive up if I am going out of range of the wireless.

    A tablet PC would be perfect to combine the versatility of a PC with basically the portability of a book (I want mine slightly smaller than most tablet pcs i seen), but a book with images and video too, unlike the very limited ebook readers out on the market now.

    They do need to work on that battery life though.
  • Tablet PCs make good near-wearable computers (i.e. see this webcam [ebay.com]).

    Not having to deal with the weight and required protection of a keyboard is a big win. You can wrap them up in neoprene with a see-through thin plastic window and use a stylus to interact with the screen.
  • I have yet to fathom why all of the computer manufcaturers seem insistent that tablet PC's are the way of the future. A company I worked for had a bunch of table PC's that were supposed to be sold as part of wireless Internet services, and they were horrible? I mean technologically, they were sort of impressive, but the actual usability of the beasts was just awful compared to a laptop. Furthermore, the price of one of these beasts was roughly double the price of a midrange laptop.

    It's sort of funny how blind they are to the reality of this market. Think about this for just a moment. Look at the market for hand held PDA devices. A couple years ago did any of them have keyboards? Nope. Now, suddenly all of them are getting keyboards because, simply, it's much easier to enter information on a keyboard. They all seem to be convinced that entering data using handwriting is so natural and easy but I'm sure I'm not the only one who. after years of incessant typing, can barely write in cursive anymore without serious concentration.

    The only real advantage that there is to the table design is that you can carry it around and use it without needing to sit down. That's somewhat useful in some places and it is only a necessary feature in very limited areas (medical use is about the only thing I can think of off the top of my head). If somebody could get a hybrid design together for only slightly more than a full blow laptop, then maybe it could work.
    • The major kill I guess for the tablet PCs is their price. Trying to jam all the processing, storage, memory etc. into a supposedly lightweight device is the problem. That's why I think Mira [microsoft.com] is going to have its advantage over this. It's a stripped version and should be expected to sell for $400, IIRC.

      As for the hybrid design issue that you mentioned, here's the answer [microsoft.com] that Microsoft (with other vendors) have.

      However, with Mira, it's not surprising that Microsoft still has that layer in the device that ties it to Windows (I think the device is supposed to run Windows CE.) Why can't it be completely dummy? Just an I/O display (that receives RGB or VGA signal) with touch screen, optional trackball and slim keyboard. That will make it cheaper and platform independent.

  • CTS and other uses (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This good be a great tool for people with severe CTS, or who would like to take an occasional break from typing and mousing so much.

    I'd imagine it could also has other accesibility uses as well.

    I'd also think that it could help improve productivity in certain situations. When I'm using a laptop, I usually try to use an external mouse. Personally I hate trackpads, and the eraser heads rub my fingers raw after awhile. For confined spaces (e.g., airplanes), being able to use a stylus or my finger instead of a mouse would be pretty useful.

    At the very least, I could hand the stylus to people who come over to my laptop to collaborate. That way, they can point at things with the stylus instead of putting their grubby fingerprints all over my LCD.
  • whats really interesting about this tablet is the statement: "Textured surface for natural pen-on-paper feel"

    Thats really cool - because you know anytime you try to sign your name on those little lcd's that UPS and some cash registers have - you can never make an acurate signature due to the fat that the plastic on plastic slides all overthe place and you dont get the friction of pen on paper which gives you enough feedback for you to be able to acurately control the path of the tip of the pen.

  • http://store.sonicblue.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry17c? SP=10007&PN=5&CID=56450&SID=25971&PID=315568&DSP=& CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=564500000056451 [sonicblue.com]

    sonicblue seems to be dumping them cheap ($599 from the original price ~$3000). I picked one up, it's running Midori linux on a transmeta 400 mhz chip, has 128 megs of ram, a 5 gig disk, orinoco 802.11, USB, and IR.

    You'll need a USB keyboard to do anything major on it, but it's a slick little device

    • Hmmm. I just checked out this link and while it does show the $599 price, when I add it to a shopping cart the price changes to $2799. Is there some kind of special coupon code you need to input or is the $599 price from an old promotional that is over? It does look like a good deal for the $599 price.
  • I would love a Tablet PC for surfing the web and reading some things while I'm sitting at a table at my local Starbucks or other cafe. The other day, I printed out the main page of /. just as a printer test at work, and brought it with me on my lunch break at Starbucks yesterday, along with my newspaper, and the "Version Fatigue" story, which I printed elsewhere as a test (rather practical things, than a stupid Windows Test Page). I enjoyed my printouts over a latte, and wished that I could have read other sections, and so on. I would not want to try to type on a tablet PC, but if it was light, and could be held in one hand easily, like I did my printouts, I would be quite pleased. I have a Zaurus, but the screen is still a bit too small for comfortable reading of a large page.
  • Tablet PCs are the natural evolution of the Ultraportable laptop, IMO.

    I'm all for being able reach in my bag, resume from suspend-to-disk, load up mapquest and find that "pizza place in the neighborhood". The combination of wireless broadband and "slate-type" devices is part of my recurring "Geektopia Paradise" fantasies that I seen to be having all the time.

    I, for one, have used my VAIO SuperSlim notebook(armed with our friend, 802.11b) to do everthing from "WarWalking [bawug.org]" (scanning for wild 802's on foot) to ordering chinese food (all of this, without giving any money to Starbuck's).

    Given the popularity of PDAs and Laptop PCs in our culture, I think that the tablet concept will be well-recieved by a pretty large cross-section of consumers, ranging from soccer moms (read a novel, order dinner, eMail the hubby...all on the sideline's of Junior's scrimmage match), to the hardest of the hardcore geek (dude, have you checked out my go-everywhere Linux tablet with built in camera and GPS module that updates my webcam AND coordinates?).

    Just my .02
  • Tablet PCs have a tremendous potential for use in business situations where people have to be mobile, need access to a lot of information, and don't need to do a lot of textual data entry. The clearest example of such a situation is medicine. Combined with a good electronic medical records system, Tablet PCs can be very useful in medical environments, particularly hospitals. Doctors and nurses could easily access a patient's record via WiFi on their rounds while they're in the room with the patient without all the inherent problems of shuffling around papers, x-ray films, etc.

    Many of the data entry tasks that nurses do can be done with well-designed checkboxes and pull down menus that are easily performed on a Tablet PC. The few bits of text they do enter are in a sort of shorthand that they can enter just as quickly via handwriting as they could by going to find the nearest terminal with a keyboard. Doctors don't type anyway, they dictate. So all they'd need would be a built-in, or conveniently attachable microphone. All of these things can potentially result in a higher standard of care for the patient and savings for the care provider.

    • DROOL!

      I am a traditional animator, and I would LOVE to tote around a copy of flash on my TABLET PC, that has a real wacom tablet built in.

      This will be the ultimate artist's computer, true!

      Microsoft: send me one to demo.. I'll do an animated commercial, done entirely on tabletpc.

      Hey, ya gotta dream..
      Looking forward to animating and computing everywhere I go..

      CE
  • Frontpath Progear LX

    Linux version of the tablets. Back in stock

    http://p01.com/u.d?mkQcV1_Ia1na2Iu=80

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