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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."
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.
Students, people attending any form of lectures, people who want to check their e-mail on the couch, people who want to cruise the web on a coffee shop (so basically the same people who want laptops).
It's also really, really spiffy. Or maybe I'm just gullible...
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Score 3? For what? Being wrong, at length? - smirkleton
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
For those of us whose employers do business in the retail sector, one application for these is a spiffy "clipboard" for the sales personnel, so that they can quickly bring up information about products and whatnot without dashing to a PC somewhere, or digging out a catalog, etc. If they are set up right, they can be a sort of instant catalog for the sales floor, especially since the weight of said systems is low enough to allow them to be carried all over the sales floor. Add in wireless connectivity, and you have a very convenient way to look up inventory data.
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
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
STUDENTS?!
Are you an idiot?
The thing costs $2,000!
What student would buy this instead of a PowerBook G4?
You know, you Slashdot people really do miss out. It's like, here you are bashing Microsoft for stupid reasons. "Oh, it's just a fad." "Oh, it's going to blue screen!" "Oh, where's the market for this?" And unsurprisingly as all fuckall, your points are completely wrong but what's worse is that you miss the biggest, most obvious target -- the tablet PC is $2,000 more than anybody would ever pay for it.
Oh well. Have fun bitching about M$ and blue screens that anybody with half a brain never has a problem with and crap while the company walks all over you as you miss the primary opportunity to attain victory because you're too busy being morons to notice.
... 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.
If they work really well, huge. If they only sorta work, almost none.
It is exactly the sort of situation where Microsoft has been able to clean up by making a previously obscure technology mainstream.
Case in point was powerpoint. I used electronic slides back in the early days when you printed them out onto acetate one a $9000 printer. After Microsoft bundled Powerpoint into Office manufacturers started to make decent LCD projector displays (not the tatty things you stuck on to of an overhead projector).
The idea of tablet PC is not new, but until now nobody has been able to make it mainstream.
I strongly suspect that the problems of tablet resolution will be quickly sorted out. They may also be the catalyst for higher resolution displays - resolution as in dots per inch, not dots per screen. There are very few screens with 100dpi resolution, to make handwriting look good you need about 200dpi minimum.
I suspect that the killer app for these PCs is to have something you can surf the web on while watching tv. After that, taking notes in a meeting.
I have also seen them used in a presentation, they are pretty impressive used this way, you can draw on the slides to direct attention to one part or another.
It should not take that much to get Linux up on one of the devices, but making the result work well is likely to be a lot of work.
Another issue that is somewhat odd is that there does not appear to be an IBM tablet PC yet. Somewhat odd when you consider that IBM has been plugging this idea as assiduously as Gates.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Also, check out Penny Arcade for their view of how TabletPCs make sketching the comic easier.
Vote for global prefs bug
If you saw my notes you'd see. I draw arrows to related stuff, to reorganize, etc.; draw pictures and stuff like mathematical symbols (let's see you type an integral or parital derivative faster than I can write one) and the like.
o_O
What's that mean ? You prefer 32 bit ?
You know that's just 24bits with 8bits padded on to speed up processing, right ? There's not even any alpha channel to deal with when displaying (unless Your monitor goes transparent), before anybody brings that up.
Or do You work on 48-bit Matrox/ATI displays ? So then Your target audience must be Matrox/ATI users ? Because whilst You're working on 16bit/channel graphics, most of the world is still running 8bit/channel. And that's for display - good luck finding a benefit of this in printing (other than colorspace conversions which are entirely marginal.)
This isn't a flame - honestly just curious as to what You're referring to.
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!
Electrovaya is best known for making extended batteries for notebooks (check out the PowerPad), however, they have a new Tablet PC that is supposed to have up to 16 hours batter life, see http://www.electrovaya.com/