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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?
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!
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.
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).
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!
The pictures I saw made it look like it was a laptop that you could fold so that the keyboard wasn't showing (ie. you could use it as a laptop most of the time, but you could also use it in tablet form when convenient). The key is making the whole thing light enough that carrying around the keyboard when you're using it as a tablet isn't a pain.