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Jumbo Dual-Screen "Kno" Tablet Debuts At D8
itwbennett writes "The Microsoft Courier may be a dead project, but that doesn't mean you can't still have a dual-touchscreen e-reader. And a super-sized one at that, says blogger Peter Smith. The Kno, which debuted at All Things Digital's D8 conference yesterday has 'two 14.1-inch (1440 x 900) capacitive touch screens. Each screen has its own battery, giving the Kno 8-hours of battery life, but a hefty weight of 5.5 lbs. ... If Kno (the company) has its way, students will be carrying around a Kno (the device) rather than a stack of textbooks. That's the reason for the huge screens; most textbook pages can be shown 'full size' on a 14-inch screen.' Engadget, who got some hands-on time with the device, says 'the entire experience is essentially a WebKit instance.' Price is still up in the air but Ina Fried at CNET says the company is aiming for a price well under $1,000."
I wasn't impressed with the performance of it in the video. The scrolling stuttered and he had to press/click some items multiple times in order for it to register. It is an interesting device so I hope they can improve its performance. I doubt they'll get the price "well under $1000" with two 14" touch screens.
When was the last time I -wanted- to scribble notes on my laptop screen. I can type much, much, much, much, much faster than I can write and they are much readable than my handwriting. I had a tablet in college, one of those old things running Windows CE with a keyboard bottom and a touch screen pivoting top. I used the note taking app exactly twice before I realized I should have just shelled out for a fast laptop.
As much as everyone thinks that they would get a lot of use of a tablet in university. They won't. Get a fast laptop, its much better in the long run unless
A) You have the weird ability to write at superhuman speeds that is still legible
B) You have superhuman drawing abilities and enjoy drawing diagrams for everything
As for running "Linux" you have a locked down obscure distribution. Yeah, if it gets popular you might have a community developing things for it, but you aren't going to be able to apt-get everything like Debian and Ubuntu.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Sure but at least when I was taking my courses, any of my classes that really relied on diagrams would either have them printed in the book for you or the lecturer would put them on CD (or floppy!) for any student who wanted it.
I think though university has changed a lot since the days of floppy disks and handwritten notes. Most people who I've talked to in university say that nearly every single professor has their notes up on their site, most textbooks have electronic versions (though its questionable if you can use it if you buy a used textbooks) and even the local college is advertising free laptops with tuition!
When I went, technology was just budding in education and was more just added in addition to traditional courses. The way it is now, the entire university system is based on technology, especially when it comes to taking notes.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
http://www.ck12.org/