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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."
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.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)
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.
That's the ideal use for the Windows Powered Smart Displays that MS showed at Comdex. Undock your flatscreen and carry it around the house. The system stays where it is and your touch screen display talks to it over 802.11b. Info at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/smartdisplay/
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...).
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... 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.
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!
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?
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 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.
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.
You took the words out of my mouth....
I find a tablet PC as a complementary device, not primary. And I find a large chunk of the population would feel the same way. (Otherwise typewrighters would not have beaten hand writing).
When I owned a Newton it was great. The form factor was right, had enough apps and RAM to keep me happy (at the time). And the battery life was fine. Of course the cost was good too.
Do that to the Tablet PC and you have a winner....
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
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!
Most of them have keyboards. The only requirement is to be able to flip the keyboard under monitor so that notebook turns into tablet.
MSDOS: 20+ years without remote hole in the default install
You are lucky....
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
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...
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".
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.
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
They're wireless. Yeah, you doodle during commercials. You check e-mail during commercials. You pull up TV listings that are so much better than the dead tree listings or that "preview channel" that takes 3 minutes to scroll all the listings while subjecting you to a half-screen full of commercials. You check the servers at work to make sure the new night admin hasn't turned them into warez servers. You turn down the thermostat. You command your robot to get you a beer. You command the robot to get you some ice cream. You command the robot to get you your heart medication.
Hmmm... actually... you're right. TabletPC is a very bad idea.
Let's not tell them that right away though. Let's have the heart attack, sue somebody, and then tell them.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
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.
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.
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-$500 per semester on books, and keeping all their notes on dead trees.
As it happens I taught my 70 year old mother how to use a mouse just a few months ago.
"Ok, so I move the mouse and the pointer on the screen moves and when I click the button on the mouse the "logical" button on the desktop gets clicked. Cool, what's next?"
I think the entire exercise took less than a minute.
Perhaps *your* mom is a little slow?
KFG
I like my tablet PC better than either a PDA or a laptop. It fits my needs. It also runs Linux.
As far as Linux stealing from M$ 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.