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Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
WallsRSolid writes "Microsoft just finished a week-long series of lectures and demos at my university, and the product that really stole the show was the Tablet PC. I was in a room with probably 150 hardcore linux users, and it seemed to me that the demonstration just floored them (the entire lecture hall CHEERED a Microsoft product). I believe that Microsoft's own online hype literature is insufficient in describing just how powerful their Tablet concept is. A July preview, Acer's propaganda, a press release about their initial success, and a behind-the-scenes account (good article) of the enabling technology. Oh, and the input stylus is electromagnetic, not pressure-sensing, ANY document (not just MS) can be annotated, and the journal software is AMAZING in its power and flexibility."
I doubt they cheered because it was Microsoft, but because it was a tablet PC. As the article says, people have been trying to make an effective tablet PC for years. Maybe Microsoft will *&@% it up, but at least now we know that it CAN be done, and maybe other companies will figure out how to do it as well. I hope
I hate Microsoft not because of any moral high ground, but because of their shoddy products and suspect business practices.
;)
If they fairly produce a product that is useful and works well -- standing on it's own merits, then I say good luck to them.
I must say though, I'll believe a good Microsoft product when I actually see it for myself.
"Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
I don't know why people think a keyboard is such a bad thing. I can type much better than I can write, and I expect that goes for most PC users under the age of 50.
My laptop gives me amazing mobility. I can even use it without having a desk by putting it on my lap (hence the name LAPtop).
I just don't understand what is so revolutionary about the Tablet PC. Can someone please enlighten me?
Exactly how are these features beneficial?
I learned typing so that I didn't need to use such a painfully slow method as handwriting anymore. Why is everyone so delighted that your WPM is going down?
As far as speaking, I don't know about the rest of you, but voice processing is useless for me practically everywhere I use a computer: On the train, in meetings, and at my desk. Everytime I've heard someone use a Dragon speech product I almost immediately hear someone else asking them to turn it off because it's annoying.
Just look at XBox: Big, loud, fragile, power-consuming, sold at 150$ loss - and still behind Gamecube and Playstation.
Now the same with Tablet-PC: Isn't it just an oversized PDA? The way I see it, it combines the disadvantages from PDA and Laptop: It's too heavy and big to casually carry it around in a pocket, battery lifetime is measured in hours like with a Laptop. - But it lacks a keyboard, many interfaces and connectors.
Why should anybody choose it over a Laptop? or a PDA?
A few years ago, the miniaturization and processing power just weren't there, let alone the LCD capabilities. You need the miniaturization because you need smaller components to run cooler; a proc that's running at 120 directly behind an lcd screen will probably do more bad than good. You'll need the processing power because good handwriting recognition/speech recognition requires a relatively good amount of it, not to mention very good algorithims and a lot of RAM to store the reference characters in. And to make LCD screens that large with LCD screen drivers that small is an accomplishment in and of itself. Sometimes the public isn't ready because the product isn't ready.
We now have confirmed reports from an informed Orange County minister that Ethel is still an active communist.
First Microsoft reinvented computing by giving us Windows 95 and now the tablet PC a little over eight years later in 2003. Brilliance.
First Apple reinvented computing by giving us the Macintosh in 1984 and now the Newton a little over eight years yater in 1993. Brilliance.
I guess the real question is when did PARC come up with all of this. 1978?
Today is a gift. Save the receipt.
This is super exciting! Just a few questions!
Microsoft just finished a week-long series of lectures and demos at my university
What university?
the product that really stole the show was the Tablet PC. I was in a room with probably 150 hardcore linux users, and it seemed to me that the demonstration just floored them (the entire lecture hall CHEERED a Microsoft product).
What did they cheer for, other than nebulous "amazement?"
I believe that Microsoft's own online hype literature is insufficient in describing just how powerful their Tablet concept is.
What hype are you refering to, and exactly how is their "hype literature" insufficient?
Oh, and the input stylus is electromagnetic, not pressure-sensing
How is that better? Is an electromagnetic stylus a requirement of the Microsoft technology?
ANY document (not just MS) can be annotated
Can I annotate OpenOffice documents?
the journal software is AMAZING in its power and flexibility.
What exactly does it do that's powerful and flexible?
More details please! I don't feel the amazement yet - perhaps you could tell us all why we should be amazed! Then we'll love you!
Seriously, the parent is not a troll. People have been trying to make a tablet PC for years and it simply doesn't sell. After all, it's just a laptop without a keyboard, which makes it unusable for any serious work and still too heavy to use as a home appliance.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
Then add lots of pointy haired bosses with a similar attitude.
That said, I still don't think they will be successful long-term. Because it's Microsoft and it's "revolutionary", no matter how old the idea really is, so I see many morons buying it in the next months.
But! there is not much use for it. There are not really many situations in which a tablet PC is better than a PDA or a Laptop. That's why the great "revolutionary" tablet-PC has been converted into a tablet/laptop hybrid. Tablet-PCs have lots of problems. They are heavy, they are fragile, the touch-screen gets dirty fast, and the center of gravity is in the screen, not the lower unit which will make it fall over easily in laptop-mode. I'd guess that most buyers will realize that they keep their laptop-part attached all the time anyway and will buy a slimmer, lighter, faster and cheaper laptop - or a PDA - in the next upgrade cycle.
So I expect a very short tablet-PC craze which will die down soon.
Here is my problem: my handwriting is awful, my typing skills are fairly decent. During the lecture I have to draw some charts or graphs -- sometime. I need something I can combine the typing with some minimal handwriting but fairly extensive drawing. Something not too big I can take with me in classroom. Seems like Palm/Pocket PC screen size is too small. Any recommendations?
TIA.
IMHO, Linux users/fans will cheer for any os, hardware, etc. that is, in it's own right, a good thing. Regardless of who does it. Linux is just a "bathtub full of applications" isn't it? All kinds of stuff, from everywhere. When I am surfing the web with a linux/windows box, and I find a game, etc. that might be interesting to run on my Windows 98 partition, I just download it from my linux partition, and then reboot to Windows to go explore it, etc. Why should I keep the two os's separated on two different boxes? On the other hand, the typical Windows user has no linux partition on his machine, but I'll be willing to bet that most Linux users have Windows also, especially since HDD capacity now runs well over 30 GB in many machines. Now, the tablet pc can hold a linux installation, can't it? That's the real reason why "Linux fans cheer."
Rapidweather's Linux Screenshots.
I had a Palm III for many years. I was able to pick up Grafitti in about an hour. Now I have a Zaurus. The handwriting recognition is amazing. I almost never use it. I usually use the keyboard. No matter how great handwriting recognition gets, it'll never be as fast a competent (not great, just okay) typist. It simply takes longer to write words and letters than to type them. I don't see the advantage of the tablet PC thing (except for vertical markets). As I see it, Microsoft is merely attempting to manufacture a market that doesn't exist. It's all hype, but Microsoft will get credit for it when everyone wants one (why? because it's "new" and "cool"). I say thee FEH!
Optional 802.11b wireless LAN
Optional? That seems a bit odd for a Tablet PC no?
The keys to why Microsoft will be successful:
1) Good handwriting recognition.
2) Office w/good handwriting integration.
3) Developers, developers, developers...
"And like that
Try writing fuck into it, won't work. It's not in their dictionary, you have to write one letter at a time, takes 3x as long as grafitti. I saw a PhD thesis with this level of handwriting regognition a couple years ago. It is impressive that it made it to market so quickly, but technically not very impressive.
I do want one of those tablets though. It's got one of those Wacom tablets under the LCD which makes it like a real dynabook. The first prototypes I saw were completely unusable because the screen was so thick that you got lots of parallax. But the Acer doesn't have a glass covering the screen so it's completely usable. The glass used to be there to protect the LCD, so no heavy handed drawing on the Acer. Unfortunately the Acer is very fragile in many other ways too, but I think if Apple ever makes one of these it will be great.
You don't use it as a tablet when browsing the web or writing anything significant. But if you want to draw something it is much nicer than a wacom tablet, you get feedback right under the pen. And since the screen is soft you get a better feel.* Unlike a PDA you have everything a Wacom tablet has, pressure sensitivity, pen angle, and accuracy. The handwriting recognition is fine for writing the small anotations it's intended for, just insert your words into the dictionary first.
*BTW if you've tried a Wacom tablet but didn't like it, fastening a piece of paper on top of the drawing surface gives it a much better feel. You get some of that friction you get using a pencil on paper.
There goes my theory that Apple was going to bust open the tablet PC market. They have all the pieces ready to go, including handwriting technology, Bluetooth/WiFi, and Rendezvous zero-configuration networking.
:-)
Imagine the flat-panel iMac without the connecting tube. Everybody says "the screen makes you want to touch it and adjust it" wouldn't it be cool if you could pick it up and carry it into the next office?
Personally, I've been wishing for a nice wireless tablet PC for home use for a while. So I can read slashdot while plopped on the couch, of course.
In the late 80's a concept called "Pen Computing" was the Next Big Thing. Companies like Grid were building the hardware, and companies like Go were designing software that would be appropriate to the platform.
Along comes MS with vaporware called "Pen Windows" and the whole industry collapses because everyone wants to see what the 800 lb. gorilla is going to do. Naturally, attempting to kludge up an entirely new UI on top of Windows fails miserably, but not before everyone else runs out of money and the idea dies.
Of course, there were other issues, CPU performance, LCD cost, etc. but the technology was relegated to the Newton (and the subsequent PDA industry) where it has languished for 15 years.
I had that. Really fun figuring out what the problem was.
Incidentally, for the record, the amount of rabid, anti-MS garbage on this thread is quite staggering. As is the amount of moderation points that have been spent on making "I bet it crashes! LOL" posts +5 Funny.
- Chris
Depends on MS's purpose in hiring them. It may be that as long as MS can keep the best talent from working for somebody else, it doesn't matter whether they actually produce anything at all.
What?
If a corporation spends a sufficient ammount of money for someone, they're certainly going to put them to work. If they don't produce anything, they probably get fired--and if they produce something that can make MS $, they probably get some sort of bonus.
"Buy to sit on" makes sense for patents, copyrights, and trademarks--but not for people.
Sure Linux let's you use the pen as a mouse, big deal. There is no inking handwriting recognition software (from what I hear, it took MS a long time to perfect it).
Quite frankly, though we all have differing opinions, I am gettign pretty sick of the blanket M$ bashing.
It is surprising that such intelligent persons can have such small minded ways and a lack of rational discussion.
Actually, I place the blame on moderators modding up so many stupid comments as funny, insightful and interesting. It seems that most of you do not realize that without M$, the internet and daily computing would be nothing like it is now.
Bill Gates rolls out the "Tablet PC" concept every few years at his CES presentations, and it's always been a minor reinvention of the Apple Newton presented as if Microsoft had thought of it on their own. Reflowable "ink text" could be used almost everywhere on the Newton that you could use printed text. There are a few fun new features in Tablet PC but nothing I've seen justifies the "whole new way of looking at computing" rhetoric. However, even if the core ideas aren't original, they are still important. I'm glad somebody with deep pockets is reinventing the Newton Notepad concept because it was a really great way to take notes and Apple seems to have abandoned the technology.
Oh, and about that electromagnetic sensor: Early researchers in pen computing noticed that when peaple write on a large pad of paper they tend to rest the heel of their hand on it. This interferes with accurate touch-screen input and is why the AT&T Eo and the tablet-sized prototype Newton called "Bic" and other early attempts at large-screen recognition used electromagnetic input.
I play Nerd-Folk!
and XRnR... make X capable of "recognizing" vectors scratched at any angle on *any screen* the server can communicate with.
....
SVG is the killer secret computing technology. 10 years in the making in W3C labs, perfected by Gnome, built in to Mozilla and waiting to be bundled into X and
BLOW EVERYTHING OUT OF THE WATER!
I wonder about the future of these things. When I was in high school only girls took typing (to prepare them to be secretaries.) My typing is horrendous. I wish I had taken typing.
Today, keyboarding is taught in jr. high to every student. Twelve year olds type better than me.
I would love a tablet pc with good handwriting recognition, but in ten years will that be the same? I wonder if the tablet pc came about because some exec is from a past generation and lacks good typing skills. If so, what will happen when the next generation comes along and can type well (or type better with just their thumbs) and has less of a need for a tablet.
OK . Microsoft gets points for putting handwriting recognition into a small device? No, we had the Newton and many other handwriting recognition devices before this. So is the fact that the 0S has suddenly integrated the handwriting recognition a big deal? They sure make it SOUND good, but do we really care? Now the clincher. I am writing this entirely on a tablet . But not a Tablet PC. No, I'm using my Wacom via Mac OS X Jaguar;s "Ink" technology. It's not perfect, but its pretty damn close. Handwriting recognition really isn't that big of a deal. [resumes normal typing] OK, my allowed edits were to correct extra spaces and to fix ONE letter per word maximum. And you know what? Once I turned the "spacing" sensitivity down, it stopped putting in extra spaces, PLUS I only had to change six letters in the entire portion above. It works. The problem is, it's SO much faster to type. So before you start making a big deal over the fact that Windows has handwriting recognition, realize that not only does the Mac OS have it already, (as usual) but that Apple doesn't even bother making a big deal of it, even though their handwriting recognition is GOOD, because guess what? It's NOT A BIG DEAL. Does anyone really think that I can write faster than my 96 wpm average? I think not. But you CAN do this already if you want to. The fact that Microsoft bundles their proprietary OS with a bunch of extra recognition stuff isn't a revolutionary concept. The fact that it works--and relatively well, too--isn't even a revolutionary concept. Jaguar's Ink tech, brought from the Newton era, still does its job. The fact that Microsoft can match it seven years later is really not worth making a fuss over. So I ask again-- what advantage, besides the obvious larger screen, does this have over my carrying around a Visor Prism with a keyboard? And don't tell me that the keyboard is hard to set up-- it takes three seconds max. Why would anyone want a Tablet PC? Really?
4) Marketing.