Slashdot Mirror
Tablet PCs Enter Reality
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Tablet PCs are finally hitting real-world budgets. Averatec released a Tablet PC with an AMD Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor and will be at Costco and Staples for $1349. Here is a link to a photo overview where you can see how the pen snaps into the LCD area when not in use, what the touchpad looks like, and quite a few other pictures." Element Computer seems to have radically changed their business model -- I had hoped they'd succeed with their $999 VIA-based tablet.
Oh wow, I sure am glad I can spend over $1000 to buy something that offers no services over a pda that I would want to use on the go. Unless of course you're talking about laptop-type activities, in which case, the laptop is the natural choice..
Due to its Linux-based OS (sound like a Lycoris offshoot). Plus it's below $1000.
While it's true that they are getting far less expensive since when they came out, they are still out of range for me. I would LOVE to have a pen based tablet to take notes on while in class (at university), but I don't want it to be my primary computer. I'm too poor (need beer money) to spend all that money on an overpriced notebook. Anybody have any ideas?
--sig fault--
But will they see any real world use? When a pc is in the sub $1000 range and laptops are roughly the same price will there be much demand. Also is there really a demand for the home user. I can see a small percentage of business/industrial users having a reason for these, but enough to warrant selling them at costco and staples?
Other than the cost, one of my concerns was the amount of heat a tablet pc generates while in use. I was looking into them for use by nurses collecting research data. But after trying a few out about a year ago and noticing how they heat up, I didn't think the nurses would be too happy.
Still it's good to see the price come down. But I still wonder when Dell is going to get into the act.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
It seems to me that a tablet PC is really aimed at a market that is small-to-non-existant. As far as I can tell, the main selling point for tablet PCs (the ability to write on the screen like a notepad) is duplicated in PDAs. In fact, the only reasons to get one instead of a PDA are 1) it's more like a computer (HD, faster CPU, more RAM) and 2) a larger screen.
Tablet PCs, instead of becoming the indispensable laptop-and-PDA killers they were touted to be, instead combine the worst features of both laptops and PDAs. What results? Low-performance, too much weight (ie less-portable), short battery life, and high price.
There's one more reason people have both a laptop and a PDA. You can get both for less than the price of a tablet PC.
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Everytime I hear about tablet pcs on /. people post about 'using it for linux' and 'can you run linux on it' and everything. Now, I understand this is slashdot, but is it not missing the point of a tablet pc? The only reason that I see to spend more money on a tablet pc is to get the advantages of the handwriting recognition and to do interactive presentations. As far as I know, Linux either does not have the tools necessary to take advantage of this, or what is out there isn't as good as the windows counterpart. I have teachers at school that are absolutely amazing with the tablet pc and lecturing, but everything they use is ms-centric.
Is there anything out there for Linux that makes a tablet PC worthwhile? I would love to look at someone's post about Linux on tablet pc and say "yes, that would be worth it" but right now all I have to say is you're wasting your money.
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
I really don't understand the logic behind tablet PCs as they are currently being marketed. This is not to say there isn't any, but can someone very much in the market, very interested in buying, explain it?
I love my Ipaq, but I don't understand why I'd want a way bigger, way clunkier version with a desktop OS not intended for its purpose.
Largely, the main intended purpose of the Tablet PC seems to be to get WinXP (or an XP-a-like mod thereof) onto as small a form factor as possible.
So the question is, why do you want XP on a form factor the characteristics of which are inclined to diametrically oppose themselves to XP's own defining qualities? I'm not just trashing XP for its being an MS OS. PPC2003 doesn't really bother me as a handheld OS. But I am asking why an OS/GUI for a not at all comporable machine could ever be expected to function ideally as the OS for all form factors and functions no matter how different.
And why does a tablet PC need anything even remotely close to an AMD 2200+ processor? Are people intending to do high end CG renders on these things? Cinematic quality video-edits?
I guess if you wanted and absolutely would not settle for anything other than the most recent, bloated, processor-intensive desktop version of Office available under XP with all the bells and whistles turned on and for some extremely hard to discern reason wanted to use it on a tablet, you might need a 1GHz machine, but far more?
What's the rationale for this being a mass market device?
Well, how well does the handwriting recognition work(if it is even there at all, i saw no mention of it)
To me anyway, the allure of a tablet pc would be that you can write on it. MS software, from what I have read anyway, is pretty nice in recognizing handwriting.
Apple appearently has had some handwriting recognition stuff included since 10.2, but has yet to really do anything with it.
I guess they haven't seen a worthwhile market for tablet pcs yet, or are still smarting over Newton....
Usually when Apple doesn't do something, it's because they know it is a bad idea.
TabletPCs are NOT touch-sensitive. They use EM resonance based pens, so you can lean your arm on the device while you write, or hover over it. Some can even measure the tilt of the pen, or determine the difference between the tip of the pen and the eraser end.
Element Computer's "tablet", however, has a touch screen like a PDA. It's not even close to a tablet, and would not work like one even if it had the right software.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
you look at it the wrong way, its a laptop that can double as a
tablet pc.
Reasons why its good:
1. as a tablet pc you can turn it to make the screen be more
like page of paper (automatic ebook), but unlike handheld
it will have a good resolutions
2. as a tablet pc with touch sensitivity you can now paint
and see results on same 'canvas'. Handhelds are too
small, usb tablets are cumbersome
3. and then, this is a laptop.
why are people thinking: great, someone made a hand held that
is no longer a hand held. instead of thinking: great,
someone made a laptop that doubles as a tablet
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/apz, I want my c64 with the joystick based tablet
...is very practical for doing your work in bed or at beach.
There you are, staring at me again.
I'm a particle physicist and it seems to me that these tablet PCs might be suitable replacements for the traditional logbook. The idea is that it would be a community tool that can be could be carried around the detector as people fix things (think of a big industrial setting), connect to a database via wireless to log changes, recognize the handwriting for multiple users, embed eps or jpg/png/gif in the log, etc.
Has anyone used these in an industrial setting? What do you think?
Lawyers spend most of their time writing and editing. In a typical firm what happens is that an attorney will write something, print it out, edit it with a pen and then hand it either to a junior attorney or a secretary. Then the secretary or junior attorney will input the changes. It's a total waste of time, because then the typist has to go back and try to figure out what the hell the lawyer was talking about.
With good software (and I admit that XP is only getting there), an attorney could edit right on the screen. Now some of you will ask why attorneys can't do that now on screen The answer is that editing is an interactive process where often people want to scribble in the margins or otherwise engage with the document.
My prediction? When tablet PC's get good enough, you'll see the ranks of secretaries thin out at some law firms. People who understand IT (and most lawyers don't) will be able to shrink the overhead at their firm. Everyone else will be lunch.
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