Getting Touchy-Feely With Tablet PCs

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?"

Comments

I'm a sucker for a tablet PC.

[ascii]

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

Dammit, apple

[mcc]

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 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" useless gimmick.