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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."

11 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. destroy the system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    everything is breaking down.

  2. FIRST POSSST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    OMG! OMG! FP!

    microsoft is teh sux!11

    linux is teh sux!11

    mac is teh sux!11

    beos is teh sux!11

    bsd is teh sux!11

  3. Damnit Bill! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    We told you not to post here anymore!

  4. Break It Down Again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Break it down again
    So those are my dreams
    And these are my eyes
    Stand tall like a man
    Head a strong like a horse
    When it's all mixed up
    Better break it down
    In the world of secrets
    In the world of sound
    It's in the way you're always hiding from the light
    See for yourself you have been sitting on a time bomb
    No revolution maybe someone somewhere else
    Could show you something new about you and your inner song
    And all the love and all the love in the world
    Won't stop the rain from falling
    Waste seeping underground
    I want to break it down
    Break it down again
    So these are my schemes
    And these are my plans
    Hot tips for the boys
    Fresh news from the force
    When it's all mixed up
    Better break it down
    In the world of silence
    In the world of sound
    " No sleep for dreaming" say the architects of life
    Big bouncing babies, bread and butter can I have a slice
    They make no mention of the beauty of decay
    Blue, yellow, pink umbrella save it for a rainy day
    And all the love and all the love in the world
    Won't stop the rain from falling
    Waste seeping underground
    I want to break it down
    Horsin' around
    Pray to power
    Play to the crowd with your big hit sound
    And they won't simmer won't simmer, won't simmer down
    Play to the crowd
    Play to the crowd
    Play yeah yeah
    It's in the way you're always hiding from the light
    Fast off to heaven just like Moses on a motorbike
    No revolution maybe someone somewhere else
    Could show you something new to help you
    With the ups and downs
    I want to break it down
    Break it down again
    Break it down again
    No more sleepy dreaming
    No more building up
    It is time to dissolve
    Break it down it again
    No more sleepy dreaming

  5. hahahah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Windows 98 used to crash a lot!

    HAW HAW HAW!

    WiNd0wZ iS TEH SUXX0RZ!

    Me COOL and FUNNY SLASHDOT DOOD!

  6. damn, looks hot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    that chick in the acer product page looks hot-ssssssssssssss

  7. interview by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I have an interview with Microsoft in Redmond in 3 weeks (after passing their first round interviews that were held on campus). Anyone else gone up there for that? How was it?

  8. Re:My problem with M$... by thasmudyan · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...is their desktop OS monopoly, not than their applications. If they've done something cool, power to 'em.

    And that's exactly where the problems begin. It's just my personal opinion but most of the absolutely neat software features I see invariably come from Microsoft. It's not just that they are able to throw huge amounts of money into development (others do that too) it's that they almost always come up with definetely visionary stuff in consumer software (currently only topped by Apple). In contrast to KDE and Gnome, MS and Apple applications convey a look and feel that is fun to use.

    So where is Desktop Linux, where is Tablet Linux? (Insert my usual usablility rant here) Even if it probably is only an OS for geeks, it's quite clear that geeks love neat stuff, too. Or otherwise there wouldn't be so many Linux-to-OSX converts and there wouldn't be so many Linux zealots here on ./ who quietly use Windows to be productive. Maybe it is because hardcore programmers only care about tech specs and standards compliance (which is of course important). But if we don't start to produce VERY NEAT applications and user interfaces we will all be living in DRM Town very soon!

  9. Re:Microsoft's mission by SomeOtherGuy · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I know this is OT -- but your description of the Xbox was about the best I have heard yet. If you visit the demo centers usually the PS2's and Gamecubes are running strong, and then you have the Xbox's sitting their with the "blank screen of death". The fact that they die on demo in so many places is one feature that has reminded me not to pick one up.

    --
    (+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
  10. Re:Wondering what's a Tablet PC? by Ivan+Raikov · · Score: 2, Offtopic

    IBM just used it ala mouse-input. Microsoft is allowing people to use digital ink as a first class citizen in the computing world. It's a whole new way of looking at computing.

    I don't speak marketing weaselese, so I don't know what "digital ink" is, but IBM had a little application that let you write with the stylus in say, a text entry box, and it would convert it to text on the fly. I'm also pretty sure Apple Newton did the same thing, and before that a research group in Stanford was developing similar principles. A whole new way of looking at computing? I think not.

  11. Nooooo!!!! by arvindn · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Don't believe it! Its a big conspiracy... CmdrTaco has been bought. WallsRSolid works for Acer. Those 150 "hardcore linux users" were M$ employees with borrowed penguin T-shirts!!! I _knew_ they'd start something like this the moment Linus left for his cruise... This is MS FUD at its best!! I'd rather believe that RMS is cheering for Bitkeeper. Chant with me: "This is a Conspiracy, this is a conspiracy, this is a conspiracy ..."