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IBM Tablet Announced
Ahkorishaan writes "We heard from an earlier report here on Slashdot that IBM(Lenovo) had filed a patent on a TabletPC, and now they have officially announced the product. Our friends at Laptop Logic have a short review."
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I know for sure(can't say how) but this will never be officially supported under linux(or *bsd) don't waste your time on something that isn't worth it
But TabletPC's exist already!
I recall seeing their tablet in their online store a week ago.
I didn't look into details, so it may have been a simple laptop with weird rotating screen.
The hip way to get your IP. No ads, ever.
Uh, /.ed already.
Mirrordot here.
As an artist I've been waiting for the right tablet to come along. I just wonder if it has the same "laggy" feeling of other tablets I've tried. I don't understand why a tablet would be, since mice aren't laggy at all.
That's not a review, it's a summary of the press release and it's two weeks old. I'm used to commenters not RTFA, but it's getting a bit much when the posters can't be bothered either. You can find the only real review of the X41 Tablet I'm aware of here:
s p
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1823715,00.a
Well, it looks like IBM will continue to have business relations with Apple, just not what they intended!
The Crimson Dragon
Wildstrom at BusinessWeek likes the X41 a lot!
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
Lycoris (I know, *grown*) has a Linux release for a tablet pc. Though this press release is dated 2003.... hmmm...
An excellent little 'first look' gallery of pictures:
s ID=264
http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/default.asp?new
I currently own an X40 and I'd have to say it's the best laptop I've ever used - superb keyboard, light weight and battery life combined with the legendary IBM build quality. The 1.8" hard drive isn't the fastest out there (actually, I'd be suprised if there were any slower) but I'd say that's an acceptable compromise given the pros. I love the tablet concept so we'll see how long I'll be able to resist the X41T. My provisional justifcations include "But think how much tider my desk will look without all those notepads!" and "Think of the environmental benefits!"
Lenovo has been manufacturing IBM's laptops for quite some time. The only difference is that they bought the division from IBM. They even kept the IBM employees. This was actually something they specifically had to have in the deal. They wanted everything to remain the same, only with a new owner.
Douglas P. Price
i love how IBM's thinkpads still look nearly the same as they did 15 years ago and they still look cool.
There's really two notable things here. It's IBM and it's small.
I've played with an X41 non tablet a few months ago. It wasn't the most powerful thing out there, but the small size of it made it really attractable. It weighed almost nothing, and the keyboard had a great feel for a laptop that was it's size. If the tablet has anything close to the feel of the X41 then it's definitely got potential here.
As for the IBM name, you pay a premium for it but there is nothing outside of a tougbook that can touch IBM when it comes to reliability and overall toughness of their laptops. I've seen IBM R51's (it's the laptops we give to students on campus) affected by drinks, candle wax, a flood, cigarette burns, run over by a car, and
even dropped from three stories and they still would turn on under those conditions. I can't imagine a latitude or an armada take that much abuse and still be functional. This isn't even getting into the IBM support side when it comes to fixing these problems. We do all the IBM support on campus and their RMA system is hard to beat.
If this tablet PC has any of these qualities, it's going to be pretty attractive to Execs and IT departments looking for their new computer replacement.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
TFA isn't a review -- it's just a rehash of the IBM announcement. Plus it's on a site with zero Slashdot compatibility. Wny not link the IBM/Lenovo page directly? Probably because the submitter wanted to promote his site.
I thought IBM sold off their PC and laptop business??
---- Booth was a patriot ----
actually, when I got to use a tablet PC (via my ex-employer), I really liked just sitting down at the couch with it and reading e.g. *cough* slashdot during, say, commercials between programs (or even with the TV off :-). I definitely don't do graphic design (I can't draw :-).
:-)
... wrong when it's not a physical-pressure-touchscreen and one of those RF-sensing types.
it's not just useful when you're going to *input* info, but also when you're just referring to stuff without any need to type anything in response.
it's much easier to wield when there's no keyboard in the way - nice to just have a "video slate" where you can drag-drop links onto firefox tabs
One thing, though - I've tried quite a lot of tablet PCs, but I find that the *only* one's i've really liked were those with actual touchscreens, and not the wacom-tablet-like RF-sensing screens. And in my experience that means only Panasonic tablet PCs. I don't know about screen longetivity where you actually have to press the stylus onto it etc., but the *feel* is just
In case you want to read the article, here it is...
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I hope IBM will make Tablet PCs useful for college students, for the education market and for artists.
Current Tablets are not very attractive because of
- short battery life (if you're going to use your tablet for classes, you need more than 2 hours--anything over 4 hours would be best)
- high price tags
Tablets are currently targeted at executives, but there are surely a lot of students, graphics freelancers etc. around who would possibly buy a Tablet if it were useful and affordable.where's all that Karma?
So true...I used to spec IBM laptops for our company, but I won't use Lenovo, so now I'm stuck looking for a replacement laptop vendor. I have no idea who to use and am tempted to just make people use what they have for the next 2 years and then buy dual boot intel Apple laptops, if they exist yet...
Ocean is land, covered with water.
I've had a Toshiba M200 for almost a year. Its a very popular tablet. It weighs a bit more than this new Lenovo, but has a higher screen res (1400x1050) and a faster CPU and probably hard disk (mine is a 60GB 7200 RPM drive). It also has a tilt sensing accelerometer, but I'm not aware of any cool applications for that. :)
Just to swipe at a few fallacies:
1. As a tablet, its a decently powerful machine. Pentium M @1600 mhz is a nice chip, and it supports up to 2 GB RAM. I used to disdain notebooks and always go for custom built desktops, but its been my full time workstation since I got it.
2. It was more expensive, but not much more than a comparable good quality notebook. Certainly not cheap though.
3. Battery life is up to four hours.
4. Getting Linux to run on it is a pain, but that has more to do with laptop power management functions and other non Tablet details. Several people (who have more dedication/knowledge than me) have gotten theirs running fully, including pen input.
For my *nix needs, I currently use CoLinux; I can run a CoLinux instance (which is running X, Gnome, and server stuff like Apache and Mysql), Eclipse on the Windows side, a bunch of Firefox browsers on both sides (which use the most memory), VNC @ 1400x1050x16 into the Linux side, and assorted shells and its still comfortably usable for dev with 1 GB of RAM.
5. I almost never use the pen for text input, but the convertible form factor is very handy (for example, when on a train/plane or reading on the couch) and using the pen is a nice alternative to the mouse/trackpad (I do wish it had a trackpoint).
6. All the Journal/Onenote stuff seems interesting, but I haven't really checked it out since it doesn't have much to do with my main work and I don't feel particularly inclined to commit to anything from one vendor.
The speech integration is cool, and after MS did an update I notice it responds to some words especially well (it favours pronounciation of "United Nations").
7. It has a dedicated button to take you to Windows Task Manager (where you view and kill processes). The button icon represents a toilet plunger. Very apropos. This is probably to cover for the fact that there has been a memory leak problem with the MS tablet software 'tcserver' for some time that MS has refused to fix. After a week or so of operation it gobbles up a bunch of RAM. Go Microsoft.
Note I'm talking about a convertible, not a true tablet, which don't have an attached keyboard and are lighter. If any of the above sounds good to you or you just like trying new stuff, you might want to consider a similar device.
My personal annoyance about the "tablet PC" market is that latter part... the "PC". When they first started the craze way back in 2000 or so, I thought, it would be a cool idea. Meaning just a tablet Something with a nice, readable screen (digital paper was all the buzz as well) that I could use to read normal 8.5x11 documentation on. Maybe take notes, but that's it You know, like a tablet of paper. Simple, thin, low power. Kind of an over grown PDA. I don't want the PC part, I have a nice desktop for when I'm at my desk and a pretty swell laptop that I do work on in a more mobile fasion (read coffee shop hacking). The missing piece is the tablet. Something to take with when I walk away from both. Something I can read on the bus, or curl up in a chair with.
Yes I have a stack of PDA's in my junk drawer. I read quite a bit on a Palm III and I'm up to watching vids on the bus on my PalmOne LiveDrive. It's not the same. I can't sit outside and read (can't see the screen in direct light) and I still end up carrying a notebook and killing trees to print RFC's (laser double-sided, 2-up... I don't need back problems as well as getting stoned by tree huggers)
Is it a plot by the paper companies? (Or ink/toner sellers?) This is what's keeping paper alive. It's all these reviewers that complain that this tablet is a little wimpy on the processor or that tablet won't replace a laptop. Duh! Not the point. Charging $2k plus ain't going to help either. Let's take a big step back, and work on good old hirez, black and white text folks, you know, like in every best selling book, manual and most all newspapers. Then we can go WiFi and bluetooth keyboards and the mess.
Am I alone here?
It still has the lousy 1024x768 XGA display resolution, like all X series ThinkPads. At 12.1" they could pack much more than that at the same DPI as other ThinkPad models (e.g., 1400x1050 in 14.1" and 1600x1200 in 15" for the T series).
My primary potential use for a convertible in tablet mode is as an e-book reader, for reading and annotating those lengthy PDF documents. A width of 768 pixels is just not enough to produce sharp text when viewing a PDF document preformatted for paper, especially if you want the page to fit vertically too.