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Microsoft Hypes XP Tablets
Dejohn writes "Just got back from the Microsoft Tablet PC launch event here in Seattle. Aside from a couple of application lock-ups during the demonstration (they claimed internet access was down at the demo center and was causing the difficulties), the new technology looks very cool.
Microsoft Claimed it 'will recognize all your handwriting unless you can't read it yourself.'" They clearly haven't seen my handwriting. I ran into one of the Motion guys at a Starbucks in Boston and I got to see one of these machines in person and it was quite pretty. No reason you can't run Linux on them from what I saw. Additionally, Dan writes "Sure, CNET's editors got a good look at them and even the mainstream (free registration required) likes this stuff, but didn't South Korea supposedly have these last year, and running Linux at that?"
I have a few questions for anyone out there with access to one of these machines...
1. How do these tablet PCs recognized input from the stylus... do they have a touch screen?
2. Is the Tablet PC handwriting recognition better than OS X's inkwell?
3. How do you 'right-click' with the stylus? Is it something like control-click on the macs? Is there anything like a scroll wheel?
Thanks for helping out my curiosity.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
Think about it like this. You get a normal laptop complete with keyboard and trackball, but you *also* get a swiveling monitor and a touch screen.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
You get it at very little extra cost over the price of a comparable laptop.
This isn't some huge technical breakthrough like screen-only tablets (I believe Sonic Blue has one of those POS), it's a logical extension of the laptop, like smaller size or better LCD. It won't revolutionize the way you work, but it may make it a lot easier in certain circumstances.
I just posted this in the poll's discussion, but it's relevant here as well:
:)
Unlike previous attempts at pen-based computing, MS has actually put work into making the pen work like a real pen, rather than just a mouse. Newtons, Palms, and graphic tablets only use them as mousing devices or rudimentary text input (because those devices lack a keyboard).
The ink on a Tablet is editable--you can insert lines, italicize it, spellcheck it, and use the other end of the pen to erase. All while leaving the ink as ink, and not converting it to plaintext first. It's much less constraining if you're taking notes, brainstorming, or authoring. After you're done doodling, then you convert it to text and publish in your favorite document format.
The ink and the really neat stuff you can do with it took a lot of work, both from MSResearch and from the product development guys. That's the innovation.
I'm a programmer, so the Tablet won't help me much with my regular day-to-day work. I do take notes, go to meetings, and produce my own personal content enough that I'd like to get one though.
I've had the opportunity to play with a Tablet PC on occasion, and they're pretty damn spiffy. I'd get one over a standard laptop like the Dell Perspiron
Whether I'm in class or at work, I take a lot of my notes by hand. This is primarily because I need to draw tables, write equations, or draw diagrams (I'm a visual learner) for my notes, or when I'm explaining a concept to someone else. One of the things I've always wanted my PDA to do is take text notes (memos) alongside drawings over multiple pages (i.e. a merging of a painting program with a memo program). I want this because I want my notes to be searchable and legible, but also be able to contain tables and hand drawings. The searchable note taking function takes care of half of this- now if only it would automatically transform my crappy handwriting to text so that it's legible. Of course, I'd rather if my PDA just did it because I don't want to lay down 2k to replace my paper note books.
I don't know a graphic artist that has like the precision of any previous TabletPC models (yes this isn't the first TabletPC, sorry microsoft), unless they dramatically improved the imput resolution (and pen weight detection) I doubt these will be hits umoung the graphic artists either.
I live in a giant bucket.
Considering Jaguire has handwriting support built into the OS (on every version), I don't think it's a large leap to figure out what the next PowerBooks are going to look like :)
I live in a giant bucket.
My vision for something like this is a small, thin unit maybe 1/2" thick that I can toss around the living room and grab when I want to do some surfing. Wireless, long battery life, etc.
To this end, I find this other product that Microsoft is developing more interesting: the Smart Display.
Microsoft hasn't been hyping it as much, presumably to avoid confusion with the Tablet PC, but in a nutshell it's a remote display that connects "PCAnywhere-style" to your desktop computer. This seems WAY closer to my vision of a "toss anywhere" remote computer.
It should be a lot cheaper, too, along with better battery life. I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing how these units shake out.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
all those places where laptops and pda's don't work well, work for a tablet.
Now granted, it's Microsoft, so it's not innovative. The Xerox PARC pads 'n Tabs was sort of the Platonic ideal. Sun's been the only folks to come out with workable computing where your session follows you (really your smart card) from screen to screen.
But getting the hardware out is a step. And yeah, wait 20 minutes for KDE, GNome, Linux and NetBSD to be running on it better than MS.
So uses? Warehouses, any place live inventory management happens. Any place a clipboard is in use. Very useful to the blue collar/labor people where a PDA is useful mostly to white collar/office people.
The Newton was too small for much of that and my Zaurus certainly is. A large screen, lightweight tablet has been a missing part of the lineup for a long time. My laptop is WAY too bulky and using a keyboard when you're walking around is impossible.
Like most other people, I can type faster than I can write. However, these things would be great for taking notes in class: use the keyboard to type; use the stylus to draw. It wouldn't work with a regular laptop very well: I draw bad enough with a pen; I certainly can't do it with a mouse. Also, there is no easy & fast way to type formulas and some funky math symbols, so tablet & stylus could be a step forward -- provided that it works as advertised, of course. What are your thoughts?
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
The real answer is these "tablet PCs" probably aren't all that useful to "true geeks", as we're far too keyboard dependent.
;", it may be just what I want.
I'm a "true-enough geek" (why am I begging to be labelled with what originated as the description of the carnival freak who bit the heads off live chickens??). Well, I write code anyway.
But I don't type well at all. I do a two finger hunt and peck, and I doubt I'll ever train myself to do better.
But I can scrawl a nearly unreadable scrawl maybe just a bit faster than I can type.
If these tablets really can recognize handwriting, even words not in its dictionary, e.g, "int foo = functionReturningFoo( bar )
Or maybe I just need a Powerglove or a Twiddler or a USB jack in my left temporal lobe.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
People are using Inkwell to a degree. Many design people use Wacom tablets for everything and switching to the keyboard to enter a small amount of text can be a pain. Those people are using Inkwell now. Almost nobody else is benefiting from it now.
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The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.
Put a screen protector film thingie on the tablet PC and have an onscreen keyboard. Current PDAs (at least that I know of) don't even offer 640x480. Imagine eventually that you'd have gigs of magnetic RAM (or whatever really fast non-volatile memory takes root in time) for a hard drive and of course this storage space fits in a really small and thin area the size of a compact flash card or so. I personally want tablet PCs to take off, especially if they make it foldable horizontally and vertically so it fits in my cargo pants :)
1. Microsoft, after conducting polls consisting of them seeing if they can get the average person to call it "cool", decides to spend billions on development of cheap, portable flat panels, efficient power supplies, and come out with a $500 version of a tablet PC that stores an 8-hour charge overnight, with extra rechargeable batteries $20 a pop.
2. People decide they'd rather have a keyboard, and a non-specialized operating system, so just get laptops instead.
3. Nintendo and sony release portable gaming devices with HUGE LCD displays based off the defunct technology that they buy off all the companies that went along with the Tablet PC idea.
Or perhaps it'll just end up an extension of the X-Box in a few years. Just so long as the development of the displays gets done - otherwise, all we have are crippled laptops without keyboards, or a moderately bulked-up PDA, depending on how you look at it. I guess it's still better than the "Internet Appliance".
Ryan Fenton
I can think of quite a few situations where saving "scribbles" would be helpful. The main thing which causes people not to use word processing apps in more situations is primarily the speed hit as soon as any formatting is required. Sure, I might be able to type a lot faster than I write, but as soon as any formatting is required, the "pen-on-paper" scheme of just moving your hand to where you want the text to go is a lot faster and more elegant than the best of WP interfaces. Then there's other types of annotations - I can't really envisage taking a laptop to lectures for notetaking because as soon as the professor puts up any kind of diagram I'd have my work cut out opening a paint package, using a trackpoint to copy it down and importing it into my "notes" document before he moves to the next slide. Supporting a new type of data - for an equation or shorthand text would require plugins to be written for the word processor to support that type of information, but you can notate anything as scribbles with much less fuss.
As a graphic artist, I could see a very specialized system that would hold my attention - make it giant sized. Basically a 30" tablet to work on - designed to support someone leaning on the screen - so that I can have a digital drawing table.
Yes, it would be expensive, but artists would pay to get a nice mix of teh drawing table and the computer.
No its not. I already told my wife to hit me over the head if I decide to buy it.
Here is why:
1) It is an underrated notebook. Most have only P3's. Today I finally have desktop replacement notebooks and I get knocked back again with these devices.
2) All in one notebooks with swivel, etc are just asking to be broken. Notebooks are fragile as is, can you imagine how fragile these things are.
3) Tablets are generally complementary devices and not primary devices. Typing is faster than writing and you can type smaller than you can write. Writing requires quite a bit of real estate because you cannot write as crisp as a keyboard.
4) Cost is way too high, for what you get
5) Writing hurts the hands. Originally when Pen Windows came out 92, I talked about how a tablet would change everything. A woman who's husband was an English Professeur said not a chance. Once when he had to goto England to read old texts he had to write out everything by hand. After three hands his hands were incapable of writing. Typing is simply faster.
My point is that tablets will be nice, but as COMPLEMENTARY devices and not primary devices. A smarter move would be to make notebooks bluetooth aware and allow users to write on tablet screen's. Actually I am still dumfounded to this day why we do not buy notebook pieces that are wired together using bluetooth...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"