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Bricklin on Tablet PCs
t482 writes "Dan Bricklin gives his first impressions of the Tablet PC.
'The most important thing to know about the Tablet PC, as far as I'm concerned so far, is that Microsoft did a great job...of naming it.' and then goes on to give a fascinating history of pen computing."
I always wanted on of these things, but I know if I am luck enough to get it, I won't use it. Oh the pains of being responsible :)
Where exactly is the market demand for these?
But did he trademark 'Tablet' the way he trademarked 'bookshelf' ?
We all know the answer to that one...
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
The problem with tablet PCs right now is the battery life. The whole advantage of a tablet PC is it lets you use it on the go, but if you have to plug in every two hours to recharge the batteries, that defeats the purpose.
I think there are some applications for tablet PCs now, hospitals, etc., but in order for them to reach mainstream-acceptance, they need to tackle the power/battery issue.While the idea of a keyless computer doesn't appeal to me, it would be nice to have a cordless web browser I could use anywhere, say searching recipies on the fly in the kitchen, or browsing the TV listings/reviews in bed, or catching up on the news in the bathroom.
Tablet PC isn't a new idea is it? Didn't Moses have the first tablet PC? The only application it ran was TenCommandments(R)
i want one i and multiboot, windows ce, linux and palm os5.
sig: 76bc21fdab6a25b2f80e71298abc5b47
Dan Bricklin! I'm gonna run right out and buy one now, because Dan Bricklin reviewed it!!
That's why the media loves them. And that's why I think I would love it. I don't like my PDA because the screen is too small. I don't like to surf the net on my phone because the screen is too small. I want something that is about the size of a piece of paper. Microsoft did not invent it... but they will get the word out (the bastards).
Sex - Find It
My new tablet computer (I got it 2 weeks ago) is so perfect it made me forget it is running XP and I simply haven't had time to try and get Linux running on it.
It suits my way of working so well that I can't think how I managed before. I don't do my main development on it, I still prefer typing to writing for that. But it allows me to do my email and do lots of design (both development and UI usability) while commuting to work on the train each day [yeah, I know I'll be criticised for being conned into working during personal time, but I'm not stupid - my productivity is higher so I go home early!].
Back to the internals
Giant pad of paper reviewed. More at 11...
Put on some powerful magnets on the back of one of these, and you got yourself a cheap internet fridge (why you'd want one is beyond me).
:D
Heck this might be the coolest fridge magnet yet!
R4NT.com - A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
the idea of buying a tablet PC during the now-dead Internet Appliance boom. I finally realised the offerings at the time weren't worth the money. A company, Qubit Incorporated (dead link, given for posterity) based out of Denver, Colorado had some very attractive offerings and made a very large splash at Comdex 2000. It would appear Qubit is now defunct. There seems to be very little actual demand for Tablet PCs, and demant will probably remain very low until they become *very* cheap.
The worst thing about MS Tablet PC is I don't make a dime off of them. All I get is people asking me for my opinon. Anyone want to buy some old copies of my demo software. HEY do any of you even know I created the spreadsheet!
Can you say Visicalc???
I'm a legend dam it!!!
Must... Resist... The... Urge... To... Make... Jokes...
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
as far as I'm concerned so far, is that Microsoft did a great job...of naming it.
Ahhh yes they stayed up all night, but it was worth it.
You mean you haven't case-modded your toilet yet? Hmmm, and you call yourself a slashdotter :-)
Tablet PCs really don't have that big of a problem with battery life. Decent Tablets can run anywhere from 4 to 8 hours before recharging. Not exactly great, but better than most laptops on the market today.
I actually wasted (I mean 'took') the time to go to a TabletPC launch in Atlanta, and it wasn't half bad. The product concept is in the beginning stages, everyone knows that - even Microsoft. And to those who think they tried to totally steal the idea from the work of others, you need to get a clue. The Microsoft presentation included a fairly detailed history (basically a respectful look back) at the previous products in the genre. They didn't in any way act as if they came up with the idea. Hell, they even gave some props to the Apple product. :)
Basically, don't be so quick to jump on the 'let's bash MS' bandwagon; it's a bit tired. There are actually some very cool things going on with the TabletPC - it's just that the price and the batterly life are too prohibitive to be taken seriously with this generation (for me and most people I have talked to anyway...).
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
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We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I saw that too. It was labeled Part I.
I can't wait for Part II to come out, so I can see what happens to me.
... but I think I'd really rather have a pocketpc style device with a larger screen to accomplish the same thing if it'd be cheaper. I'd end up spending an awful lot of money for something that I'd just use as a web browser/e-mail checker.
Because I know what an elipse is for.
And I know that pen based computing has been around for a long long time.
Put the two together and you realize... The only thing interesting Microsoft has done is trademark the name.
Other people have been marketing tablet PC's before Microsoft. They just didn't think to trademark something so obvious.
You can configure the Menu's for Left Handed, or Right Handed use. That'll get alot better as more applications build in TabletPC Support.
I've never used these devices, but won't the screen turn really oily/dirty since your hand/palm rests on it while writing stuff? Also, the normal lcd display has distortion when you press it hard. Isn't this a problem with the tablet PCs?
The law of excluded middle : Either I'm foo or I'm foobar
It is called paper. You should look into is sometime. It is great for taking notes!
It does all the stuff the tablet pc does, but it is an addon-doodad for the Palm Pilot for a couple C notes.
Or don't you know about it?
What the hell do people want with these overpriced machines? The most of their usefulness to my understand would be as a coffee table computer. You sit in front of the TV and doodle during commercials.
I'm not a buyer. Perhaps if the price falls down to, say, $500.
I really think the tablet PCs would have to be thin clients to conserve battery life. I also don't think that a M$ OS is the way to go. The bloat in OS would just use up so much memory and processor cycles, that the battery life would suffer. A thin client, with just a web browser(intranet, limited internet) and maybe a few small apps, such as a calculator, or life support monitor, etc etc. This is assuming that a sales person or a medical professional is using the device.
/**You forgot my processor, you insensetive clod!*/, the new processors get HOT. Would you really hold a system like this, if it was reaching 150 degrees F? I wouldn't
Anything goes if someone is watching DVDs and running SETI@Home in the background while downloading the latest Harry Potter. I wouldnt expect the battery to last that long at all. Then again, the same goes for normal protables.
Another factor to consider is heat. If the WinXP OS is running all sorts of junk in the background, the system will heat up considerably. Much like thier desktop brothers, the new pentiums and athlons
But then again, this is nothing new. I think I've seen people with devices like this before. Usually, its all proprietary programs. They seem to work well, since its just a thin client with connections to a server somewhere.
What, me Tweet?
Tablet PC are just another miserable attempt to squize money from a stagnating market. It's the classical geek toy that after a week will land inside a drawer with 1" of dust over it.
He goes on about how there has been no innovation, and even if this is true, there has certainly been progress. He's comparing Tablet PCs to desktop attachments and PDA-style devices. This is the first time we're seeing this quality of hardware at this kind of price with a world-standard OS. Many of these Tablet PCs can even convert back and forth between laptops. Comparing them to an 8088 unit from decades passed or an LCD graphics tablet is a poor comparison.
I question the concept of a tablet or hand-held or similar type of computer, especially with a pen involved. A pen is for writing - I do not want a computer to write on. Why would I "write" on my computer?
When I receive a bill, I think, "Ah, I need to Pay that bill." The computer should do it.
When I envisage a new program, I think, "Ahh, yes that would be nice." The computer should make it for me.
Why do I always have to do things for the computer - He never does anything for me!!
The computer in a diferent clothes is not a different computer.
For about $1200, you can get an iBook with a 12" screen, max out its RAM (with 3rd party RAM, not Apple's) and an AirPort card.
I use mine everywhere in my house, including patio, bed, kitchen and crapper (don't laugh, I do my best thinking in there!)
The frst thing I thought of when I saw the headline was this.
It does everything a Laptop does, plus all the TabletPC Features.
What you want is a "Mira", which is essentially a WiFi enabled, LCD Touch Screen. It runs Windows CE and uses Remote Desktop to run everything on your desktop computer.
Hmmmm. Try a tortilla! That way you'll have a snack.
Stop posting to slashdot and type the notes into your computer!
A screen about the size of ... my Newton?
Those guys were so far ahead of their time.
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
A quick search at www.uspto.gov using the words "Microsoft" and "Tablet" reveals one match for WindowsXP TabletPC Edition but NOT the actual term "TabletPC" as a separate trademark.
My new action plan:
1. Register "TabletPC" trademark
2. File infringement suit against MS
3. Accept big cash money settlement from MS
4. Profit!
Here is the copy from uspto.gov search:
Word Mark WINDOWS XP TABLET PC EDITION
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computers, computer operating system programs and utilities, word processing programs, software for managing personal contact information, calendaring programs, calculator programs, terminal emulation programs, programs for downloading and playing audio and video, browser programs, programs for use in transmitting data between computers and other electronic devices, handwriting recognition software, speech recognition software, software programs for annotating documents; computer software, namely, interactive games playable on handheld computers, portable computers, desktop computers, personal digital assistants and digital cellular phones
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 78153878
Filing Date August 13, 2002
Filed ITU FILED AS ITU
Owner (APPLICANT) Microsoft Corporation CORPORATION WASHINGTON One Microsoft Way Redmond WASHINGTON 980526399
Attorney of Record William O. Ferron, Jr.
Prior Registrations 1872264;1875069
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
i just ordered a fujitsu, primarily for the screen and wacom stylus. maxed out the ram (768) and hard drive (40), and am ordering some software. as a mac user, i really wanted something light which i could connect a monitor and keyboard to in order to use as a desktop when necessary. i am curious what software you are running and what your experience has been speed-wise. thanks.
where the guy is ordering a car and the dude with the tablet PC is painting it on the fly? Yea, thats the one. I wonder what would happen if his tablet BSODed on him and every car he made was BOSD blue with 0x0000000A memory addresses over the car ala racing stripes.
That would be my car on Grand Turismo!
What, me Tweet?
LG Electronics, a division of Korean conglomerate LG and (IIRC) the top brand of electronics and electronic appliances worldwide, is going ape-shit for internet appliances. Their coming "Good Morning" kitchen set is all about internet connectivity, and LG is probably the largest purveyor of internet fridges as well (an idea that, if you put aside all the obvious "who the hell needs one of those?" crap, is actually kind of cool; you run out of milk, the fridge checks the local stores for the lowest price on your favorite brand of milk, and buys it for you to pick up or have delivered).
Even though we (in the US) probably have never heard of LG, if you use a Verizon or Sprint mobile phone it is most likely that you own an LG Electronics product and don't even know it. A lot of GE electronics and Sears/Kenmore appliances are also LG.
Anyway, LG plans on launching the LG Electronics brand in the US sometime next year, and you can be sure they'll be bringing all their kooky internet appliances with them.
There's no way I could swallow one of those!
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
So, if an open source project were to arise that did a better job of writing recognition, it could be a "killer app" that gets more of the mainstream PC users interested in Linux desktops.
Caveat: no, I'm not going to do it. My research area is security, not HCI.
Crispin
----
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
Available for purchase
I'm seeing a lot of questions like "Why would anyone want a tablet when you can just buy a laptop"?
The answer is simple: Because laptops SUCK for working in your lap.
Laptops are the most misnamed device ever. They are portable PCs. Useful, but difficult to use in any position other than in front of you -- like a PC.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Under OS X I sync and print from my Newt 2100 (to my Tibook) wirelessly using an old Wavelan Silver card. And believe it or not I have beta software (Everchanging Software) that allows me to sync my address book; and soon - my iCal.
So I've fully reactivated my trusty old 2100 and use it as my primary PDA again (yippee!)
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2002-11 -27
Although on the face of it this appears to be a very positive article, what strikes me is the very TEPID level of enthusiasm he exhibits.
It's hard to believe this is the wave of the future when the first kid on the block to have one can barely say more than "When I write in a way that my ink is readable (slowly and big), the recognition is surprisingly good, but not wonderful" and "[I was struck' with how little advance there had been since the last try for pen computers... the pen/tablet software and hardware aspects appear just a bit better..."
He keeps SAYING that what's been done is just great and important and bound to be the wave of the future, but it sure doesn't sound to me as if his heart is in it.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Can we please bring the MS bashing to a reasonable level? Someone took a quote from the first paragraph of the review and slapped it into a story. If anyone bothered to read the article, they would see that he didn't have *anything* bad to say about the Microsoft part of the product. Of course, he had some suggestions about how to improve the hardware aspect of the product, but I was unable to find one instance where he critized Microsoft.
Let's be reasonable here. If Microsoft does something stupid or evil, let's post it. But if Microsoft puts out a new product, and the hardware manufacturer does a less-than-spectacular job of implementing it, don't blame Microsoft...
Or maybe you just need to go outside, take a DEEP breath of fresh air, and unplug for a while.
Sorry, but Microsoft ain't that bad. Sure, I don't like some of the things they've done, but they just don't matter that much. Or to put it another way, software don't matter that much in the great scheme of things, and Microsoft matter way less than that.
Furthermore, with the release of TabletPC, Microsoft has shown again that they simply can't innovate. Microsoft's TabletPC software is the same old stuff we had 10 years ago, only in a more bloated software incarnation. The only thing that has really gotten better is the hardware and processor speed, as well as the quality of real-time graphics those machines support.
Few if any of those patents should hold up if challenged in court, since most of the techniques had been used for quite some time by researchers before that. This is the usual case of a bunch of upstart startups not knowing what has been happening in academia and patenting like mad (Bricklin is aware of this). But that won't stop those patents from causing great harm: the threat of a lawsuit from Microsoft or Compaq/HP is sufficient to scare away investors from startups and to cause bigger players like Palm, Sony, or Apple to avoid certain features or functionality entirely.
While Compaq/HP holds some important patents, they are in bed with Microsoft. That means that Compaq/HP will willingly license their patents to Microsoft. Microsoft will use their patents to force other companies to adopt their TabletPC even if those other companies would have wanted to develop their own pen software. And for companies like Apple, who will likely develop their own software, Microsoft will use the threat of lawsuits to limit functionality and stifle their creativity: "you can only use our patents if you make this part of your software 'compatible' with ours".
- a Newton User -
I find that often I can't read MY OWN handwriting. I can't imagine a computer being able to interpret it in the near future.
imagine the next day...
Tablets, with the much bigger screens, will get tons more complaints from 10 to 20 percent of its users than PDA's do.
:/
What complaint? THE SCROLL BARS ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE! IF YOU'RE LEFT HANDED, and you're writing or drawing, it will (is) a pain to scroll because your left hand blocks the action! And how many times do you scroll? I know that PDA's have smaller screens and that I can and do use the up/down buttons, but scrolling would be fun sometimes.
GEEZUS WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE ADDRESS THIS!!!!!
Cover your eyes and click this link!
owns pen patents?
These things aren't much more expensive than the Thin & Light notebooks that I tend to buy.
Comparing them to larger laptops, which are often cheaper, isn't really appropriate, in my mind. Those larger laptops may be more capable in terms of screen size, processor power, drive bays & sometimes battery life, but they aren't anywhere near as portable and are often to big to use on a plane or bus.
As for battery life, from what I have heard, the tablets do pretty well. They may not run all day on a charge, but they should get you through lunch.
My big problem with the tablets is that they are not good enough to be your primary PC, but the software & hardware isn't quite where it needs to be to mitigate that shortcoming.
What I would like to see is either:
1) A docking solution that uses a single flexible cable & software support to provide seamless desktop extension so you can use the tablet as a tablet while making use of a full sized monitor, mouse and keyboard. (Ideally this would be wireless, but that isn't going to work well enough to give decent video performance) Either the tablets lack a docking station, or they aren't very useable as tablets when they are docked.
2) Better cooperative computing so I can use my tablet in conjunction with another system. At the very least, I want file & preference synchronization/sharing between machines to be seamless, but process migration would be even better.
Gabe talks about using a Tablet PC to produce his comics.
For an example of a sketch made on it, go here
Where was the market demand for the Apple II?
Sometimes letting its developers decide that something is cool and should be made into a product is the worst decision a company can make. Sometimes it works out, and creates a new category of product that nobody imagined before. I can't really begin to guess which one this is going to be, except maybe noting that I don't want one. I also thought Netscape Navigator 1.0 was a stupid product, and that Netscape is doomed if it thinks it can make money on it.
I can't lie. I think the tablet PC's look pretty slick, but they are also kind of tricky. I really don't need a laptop. It is too big for me to whip out in my Circuit Theory class and IM my girlfriend to come to pick me up after class. However, a palm pilot is just right. I can pull it out, do something simple, and put it away.
Some of my friends don't like the palm though, they want a laptop. These are a good bit more expensive than a normal laptop, and don't seem to be that much more functional. So my friends who want or already use laptops, still think their laptops are a better deal. I just can't see anyone buying these while they are much more expensive than a laptop.
People who need a handheld will buy a handheld, and people who need a laptop will buy a laptop. This doesn't fully meet the needs of a palm-user, and it charges the laptop user more for functionality that is arguably useless.
Please add voice & handwriting recognition and 802.11b!
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Bricklin is concentrating on application development for PenPoint, and winds up giving short shrift to the OS it's self. It really was an innovative operating system, possibly the most unique one in the last 20 years. (OK, I realize that is a bold claim, and will produce a lot of argument, but bear with me...)
PenPoint was the first commercial OS where the user didn't interface with "applications" and "files". The primary interface element was the page. The user started with a blank page, and if she started writing, it would start translating the handwriting into test, like a word processing application. But if she drew a box, it would start graphing. The user could move through pages with a "flicking" gesture; use proof-reading typographical marks to edit. Very clever.
Microsoft borrowed some of the embedding for OLE, but they didn't actually get it. Or maybe they got it too clearly. They saw that an OS that didn't follow the application-launcher paradigm meant smaller sales for their Applications division.
Anyway, I didn't own one of these, so I may have gotten some details wrong. I just remember being impressed by the ideas behind it and was pained to see Microsoft's sorry-ass "Pen Windows" appear, kill PenPoint, then disappear like a serial killer.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
"Sorry, but Microsoft ain't that bad"
That would be where we disagree. What I am curious about is what you are comparing them to when you say "that bad".
"...but they just don't matter that much..."
Okay. I disagree with that, too, and I think the future will disagree as well. I've been known to be wrong, though. Maybe Microsoft will become a corporation for the people! Hurray!
_____ "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." -- Orwell
Maybe the fact that the user-interface of Linux is completely customizable will help see Linux widely adopted on the Tablet PCs.
The problem with Windows is that you must accept their user-interface, and it is not necessarily the best one for the task. The WinXP interface wasn't coded specifically for Tablet PCs. However, in Linux we can do just that, code a fresh new interface designed specifically to take advantage of the Tablet PC's strengths and weaknesses.
For instance, who is to say that radial menus aren't better for a Tablet application? Maybe a taskbar with a fixed location isn't a natural way to have things organized on a uni-directional screen. Perhaps a more natural or unobtrusive way can be found to organize UI elements (ever tried turning a clipboard over to write on it, resting your wrist on the big sharp metal clip? Trying to write on a Tablet PC and rest your wrist on an application taskbar is kind of like that.) Why not push the taskbars and toolbars behind the application's writing area, and only bring them forward when you need them?
The point is, you can't experiment like that in Windows, because much of the UI (taskbar placement, menu and button appearances and placement, locations of elements like scrollbars, etc etc.) are hard coded. On Linux, they are not. We can try anything new.
So why doesn't someone get out there and start designing a new window manager, one that is free form and open for experimentation, and designed specifically with Tablet PCs in mind?
Heck, it could develop into another major area where Linux has a unique (and uniquely superior) way of doing things.
Mars
TabletPC - $1,000
X Box Loss - $500
Gates' bank account - $500
Anyway... I'd not give up my WACOM tablet forever! PERIOD!
*sigh*
Who typically carry 10-40lbs of books around campus. As more and more textbooks are available on CD, this will enable folks to carry just a sinlge 2-4lb tablet with their text CD/DVDs.
Plus the ability to digitize notes, and later then search, edit, catagorize and store the notes, well when I was a science student I would have loved to have that ability (esp. areas like science & engineering where diagrams and drawings are frequently part of the notes, not so nice to do on a laptop, not to mention 100 students writing is much less distracting than 100 students typing).
I'd say numerous smaller markets exist as well in sales, medicine, presentors, etc., basically anywhere folks now use paper notepads or folders of similar size.
It also seems to me that with a docking station adding more functionality (2nd monitor, key board, etc.) one could see many laptops replaced by dockable tablets.
I know I am going to be looking at a few of these the next time I get authorized to get more laptops at work, if they are capable enough to edit presentations/present with, I'd love one!
has been making very nice draw on monitors for a few years now, which do quite well for hi-res drawings, we have one here that gets drawn on for several hours/day, for 6 months, no sign of wearing out yet.
I think the limit is in how well the handwriting recognition software works, not in the hardware.
Despite the fact that you have to keep your notes in a binder (heaven forbid) they're easier to manage, review, and use when they're on paper.
Huh? If the handwriting rec. works, you could search, edit, digitize and store your notes! I have a closet full of notebooks full of notes from college, man I wish I had all those in digital format!
Further, I'm not sure how the M$ software works ITR, but the Wacom software we use allows one to annotate a pic or a presentation, like a PDF or Powerpoint, and save the annotations with the file! Very nice for students, esp. if their text books are also in digital format that works with the annotation SW.
What I remember from those days is that pen computing was killed by FUD spread by Microsoft and Pen Windows. In those days, like the early days of the net, people were saying how Pen Computing was going to wipe out normal desktop computing. This would have left Microsoft SOL, so the FUD machine went to work and essentially killed the market by luring the gullible with the promise of commodity (cheaper) hardware running - tada! Pen Windows.
This, as well as a bunch of well-documented problems in some of the startups (read "Startup," it's a classic) dropped pen computing into the embedded/vertical application ghetto.
Will the tablet PC bring pen computing back? Not really...or if it does, well, too bad for everyone, because it's running Win32, the poster child for inappropriate code reuse. I can hear the conversation now:
"We need a new OS for a blender/coffeemaker combo."
"Why not use some MicroCruft?"
How is this innovation? To me it's moving in the opposite direction.. my palm pilot can do most of the things a tablet can.. an IPaq can do ALL of them.. and it's SMALL (I guess that making a palm device a laptop is inovation?) Typical of MS, take the old and call it innovation. Next thing, they will want us to go to dumb terminals running apps (oops, they are already trying to do that with .NET).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - The Celtic - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
And no, I won't stop. Oh.. and I'm not bothered either.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - The Celtic - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"I tried downloading Wacom's new driver for Tablet PCs that lets you set sensitivity, etc., but I had problems getting it to calibrate correctly for some reason."
FYI
Wacom has posted a new driver (4.75-9) that fixes his offset problem.
That most of the TabletPCs (all but HP/Compaq) use Wacom digitizers? HP/Compaq uses a FinePoint component.
The technology is already fairly mature. The price just needs to come down IMO. (I'm rarely humble)
That most of the TabletPCs (all but HP/Compaq) use Wacom digitizers?
The technology is already fairly mature. The price just needs to come down IMO. (I'm rarely humble)
I'm sure a lot of you have read this already, this being Slashdot and all...but Gabe over at Penny-Arcade recently acquired one of these crazy Tablet PC contraptions and was thrilled with it. See his post about it (below Tycho's) over at http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2002-11 -27. Apparently these things are great electronic sketch books for artists (not that many artists I know can afford the damned things...)
1) a real OS
The pen-based machines of 10 years ago (including Microsoft's own Windows for Pen Computing) used either desktop operating systems, or they used operating systems with equivalent power. Furthermore, many pen computing vendors have been shipping Windows-based pen computers over the last decade.
3) A nice, color, high-resolution display
4) Real networking capability.
5) a high-quality, high resolution digitizer
6) [lots of data storage]
Microsoft has merely specified what amounts to a state-of-the-art lightweight laptop. That's not any technical contribution they have made--it is due to the tireless improvements by lots of hardware vendors.
2) Real handwriting recognition that works as well as is possible given the state of the art
Microsoft's handwriting recognition is a mediocre, pretty sluggish engine. It may be the best you can get commercially, but only because Microsoft has pretty much removed the incentive for anybody else to do better. It is certainly not better than what people have developed in research labs.
You will probably see a number of replacement engines from a bunch of small companies that are equally mediocre, but most of the large players have effectively given up--if the only outlet is Microsoft platforms, what's the point of developing a better handwriting engine? The techniques also weren't developed by Microsoft--Microsoft just hired a bunch of smart people from other companies, companies that had given up on the market--and had them reimplement their work.
Basically, what it comes down to is that Microsoft is basking again in the glory of the nifty hardware that other companies have developed, and building on the results of competitors that they have driven out of the business, while they themselves have contributed essentially no innovation. That's how Microsoft and its market dominance kills innovation. And by failing to list a single technological contribution by Microsoft, even though you have tested lots of pen-based machines, you are making that point for me.
Let me add that you could get nice pen-based computers from Fujitsu and a few other vendors before the TabletPC spec. So it isn't even that Microsoft's effort catalyzed the creation of those machines. All Microsoft is really contributing is marketing dollars. And given their current software, TabletPC may well end up being a flop and damage pen computing as much as their last go at it did.
I remember the notes that I took on electrodynamics, quantum devices and other math-rich subjects... there is no way to convert them to text, ever.
Nor will you be able to for awhile, of course. Diagrams, formulae, etc. are stored as graphics. But the metadata text labels you place on those graphics can be converted, & allow you to search and catagorize those graphics.
In general, students won't benefit from the tablet PC.
O yeah right, I can't imagine any way for anyone to benefit from any technological advance. We really should go back to stamping ideograms on clay tablets, everything since then has cost much more than it has been worth.
It will be useful (because it is - these areas are already served [teklogix.com] by existing wireless terminals).
O yeah, no campus anywhere has thought of setting up a wireless network, and no one has ever released curricular materials for free... O and don't forget they can't be made to run linux while selling for less than $800.
Nope, you're right, college students will never want something like this, they like carrying around 50lb packs, spending $100-$500 per semester on books, and keeping all their notes on dead trees.
The Momenta machine had an an in house recognition layer on Windows only on the prerelase versions because there was no pen for Windows at that point. The few that were actually available through CompUSA actually used Pen for Windows which had finally been released.
Additionally, it was either PC Magazine or Byte who stated that the Momenta was the fastest (with the exception of the IBM ThinkPad tablet) at handwriting recognition.
Sorry, just reminiscing about the old days, lol.
As it happens I taught my 70 year old mother how to use a mouse just a few months ago.
"Ok, so I move the mouse and the pointer on the screen moves and when I click the button on the mouse the "logical" button on the desktop gets clicked. Cool, what's next?"
I think the entire exercise took less than a minute.
Perhaps *your* mom is a little slow?
KFG
Some things that I haven't seen covered here: First of all, I question the value of a review written by anyone after one day of using a new product. The only reason I can think of to do this is that it allows you to say glowing things about the product and still be "objective". Perfect for anyone being rewarded (directly or indirectly) by the vendor. What a potential buyer of any new device really needs is a review written after a few weeks of usage, that would be in this case: After the thing has been treated like a pad of paper for a while: Dropped a few times, been stacked with other materials including stapled paper and paper clipped paper and so forth, carried under ones arm for a while, tossed into the passenger seat of your car, thrown from that seat onto the floor when you slam on brakes thanks to that stupid driver in front of you. It needs to be evaluated after its run out of batteries a few times when you really needed it to keep working. One needs to know what a good "fall-back" plan is for the device (like always carry a real pad of paper with it, or a spare set of batteries, etc). Does the screen get scratched with use? That would be the case if like Palm devices it has a semi flexible plastic screen. Or is the screen hard like glass, scratch-proof, but easily broken in a fall? Do you HAVE to us a special pen with these? Won't a regular palmtop stylus do? or a fingernail in a pinch? I sometimes find in meeting that I take TOO many notes. When I get to a PC I can often summarize these notes with a sentence or two. How will this compare to loading all your notes, scribbles and all onto your PC for permanent review. Will I treasure or loath these added use of my disk space after a year or so? I think there is a future for these devices. Lord knows, the industry has shown a willingness to keep trying no matter how many times they get it wrong. The question is: Is this the time they finally get it right? Finally, after reading all the praise and contempt for Microsoft I haven't seen anyone else point out that there is very little risk for Microsoft here. They are only responsible for the operating system, and from what I can see its mostly a derivative of their other products. If it fails, no big deal for them. The hardware guys are taking all the $$ risk. They'll scratch and claw at one another until only one or two companies are making them at a profit. The worst thing that can happen for Microsoft is that price pressure will bring the average price for these things down to about $200 where they belong, at which point it won't be viable to run an expensive operating system on them. In the mean time MS will rake in the licensing fees. They'll do well in the medium term. I have no problem with a Microsoft that is forced (mostly against its will) to continue innovating, even if that innovation is largely just variations on a theme. The existence of open source alternatives is going to keep Microsoft honest from here on out. It will eventually transform them into a different company than they are now. Smaller, less critical to our infrastructure. If HP and a few others have to pay the price for Microsoft's continued success in the mean time, so be it, they did so quite willingly. There is already a non-MS box out there at a much lower price (made by a non-US company of course) and there will soon be more. I can wait.
Um, no. The parent was replying that they couldn't see any use for a Tablet PC apart from use as a "Coffee table computer" or for doodling during commercials. If that's what this person wants, then "Mira" is what he's looking for. That's the Niche Mira is designed to fill. My reply was strictly addressing the comment of the parent, in the "only" scenario he could see a Tablet PC being useful. TabletPC IS overkill for that scenario. And similarily, Mira is NOT a Laptop replacement, it's stricly for home/office use. Let's you essentially pick up your computer and use it from anywhere in the house. It is NOT for carting around the city, or across the country.
I like my tablet PC better than either a PDA or a laptop. It fits my needs. It also runs Linux.
As far as Linux stealing from M$ you're right in part.. but M$ steals from opensource dweebs too.. and other companies.. and then someone else steals the idea back. It's the way software evolves and is why software patents are bad. Also most Linux programs can be ported directly to Windows with ease, it's a lot more work to clone those Windows app to Linux because there is seldom source and when it does exist it's usually badly licensed and written so poorly as to be nearly worthless to port. Most Windows programmers just don't worry about portability the way opensource geeks do.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
educate yourselves.
the coolness of the idea of a TabletPC has NOTHING TO DUE with translating hand written text into type.
it is about keeping it handwritten and using it as if it was type. word searches and such.
if you want to convert it to type, you can. or not.
$2000 is not a lot of money.
Plus, they start at $1699.00
This looks to be great for school. I'm currently attending UNLV and on any given day I'm probably lugging around something like 40-50 pounds of books and notebooks. Imagine being able to have all of your class notes in one little laptop, and then if they put the books on it too, like through Adobe's e-book reader or something, that'd be great. I'd love to do that instead of carrying around 1 and sometimes 2 bags.
Not only that, but you can just email your notes to your friends if they were um... hungover^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsick. I'd love this. I'm going to wait until at least the second generation of these devices, but I can tell you now that the next pc that I buy will be a tablet (most likely one styled after Toshiba's, I still want to be able to have a keyboard for the essentials, like Q3 or Unreal).
Geek looks up from his PC after being shown the article:
"Handwriting? What's handwriting?"
As an aside, I've seen these at the CompUSA, and I've drooled on them already. Taking the "lap" requirement out of "laptop".
And suddenly the old Star Trek episodes, where the Captain signs on a Yeoman's clipboard feel sooo 60's.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Important letters which contain no errors will develop errors in the mail.
Corresponding errors will show up in the duplicate while the Boss is reading
it. Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by spontaneously moving
from where you left them to where you can't find them.
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