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HP Developing Hybrid Tablet PC / Coffee Table

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the please-use-a-coaster dept.

StrongGlad writes "HP has been working on a different take on the home entertainment PC. "Misto" is a hybrid of a coffee table and a tablet PC, featuring a large, built-in touch-screen display. The idea is to allow a group to congregate around the table and share pictures, play board games, or peruse a map. Misto uses a standard desktop PC as its engine, but comes with some specialized HP software for managing the interface. Pricing, availability and style of coffee table are all undetermined, but Misto gives people some idea of how HP wants to develop products that expand on its existing businesses."

4 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"Misto"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    "Misto" is Croatian (dialect spoken in Dalmatia - coastal, Mediteranean part of Croatia) for "Place" and/or "Town". For an explanation, I guess that is more on the target, isn't it?

  2. The top of the table... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The top of the table will be a single sheet of tempered glass. Tablet PC's do not use resistive "Touch screens" like PDA's do; they use Active Wacom Digitizers, which sense the position of the pen or other pointing device over the screen.

    Actual tablet PC's don't have you writing on the mushy LCD, there's a sheet of tempered glass over the display to protect the LCD.

  3. Re:But... by Anonymous+Writer · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'd rather have a robust touch-screen coffee table display that I can connect my laptop to.

    Well, just in case you were thinking of placing your laptop on top of a coffee table display, never keep a drink on the same surface as a laptop!!! Honestly, it's a horrible accident just waiting to happen, the kind where thousands of dollars just disappear in the blink of an eye, along with all your data.

    Desktops are fine. All you replace the keyboard if you accidentally tip a drink over, maybe a mouse. But just understand that laptop keyboards also have an unintended alternative function; as a drain for liquids to thoroughly saturate and damage all the internal components of you're highly priced hardware!

  4. philips announce this last month by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Not all that different from the philips announcement last month

    http://www.research.philips.com/initiatives/entert aible/index.html