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Getting Touchy-Feely With Tablet PCs

Posted by CmdrTaco on 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?"

2 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. I wouldn't mind a tablet PC, but... by Rhinobird · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
    1. Re:I wouldn't mind a tablet PC, but... by donnacha · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.