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."

Comments

Different than a laptop?

[Darkness404]

So why not just get a laptop? For $400 you can get a 14 inch screen, full keyboard, a real OS, can do tons of other things, etc.

If its not e-ink to reduce strain on eyes, not running a real OS (as in full Windows, Linux or OS X), no full keyboard, etc. Why buy it? Under $1,000 means nothing, if its $200, yeah, I can think about getting one. For $250, I can buy a dedicated e-ink e-reader, for $350, I can buy a low end laptop or decent network, for $500 I can buy a great laptop or an iPad and anything more than $500 would just be pointless.

Really, why would I want a giant, heavy, LCD tablet not running a real OS?

Re:Different than a laptop?

[imroy]

not running a real OS (as in full Windows, Linux or OS X)

From the first link:

It runs a browser based OS running on embedded Linux that sounds almost like Chrome OS in some ways.

Personally, I'm liking the look of the Always Innovating Touch Book. It's much more open, in both the hardware and software. On the downside, that means it's not as polished and ready for mainstream use as the other netbooks/smartbooks.

Re:Different than a laptop?

[OrangeTide]

does it come with multitouch and pen interface and two screens on that $400 laptop? No?
Dell Latitude XT2 with the same sort of touch and pen technology = $2,686.00

Re:Different than a laptop?

[spire3661]

We do not have to be forever shackled to the laptop paradigm. It is OK to develop other types of computers. A laptop is not the END ALL solution for computing. It is a great general purpose design, but there are many areas it can be improved. Not every type of personal computer in the world is going to require a full hardware keyboard to be useful, why is this so hard to understand?

Re:Different than a laptop?

[somersault]

I find it very hard to pay attention when I'm trying to take handwritten notes, because my handwriting is so incredibly feckin slow. After my first year of Uni I realised I didn't even refer to my notes once in my revision either, so I stopped taking any. Lectures actually being interesting and well presented "forces" me to pay attention a lot more than having to take notes.

I Hope They Improve The Performance

[WrongSizeGlass]

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.

Re:I Hope They Improve The Performance

[Concerned Onlooker]

True, but that really just points up that you should never, ever show something before it is ready. People--even bosses--will only see the glaring things that are wrong. They won't skip past that stuff to see the potential. I think that is one reason Apple is so successful. When they roll out a product it is really ready to go. Don't get excited, I didn't say they were perfect.

Entourage Edge

[Daetrin]

I agree completely. I'm much more interested in the Entourage Edge, or at least the general idea of something like that. One regular LCD screen and one e-ink screen.

Of course i'll be waiting to see if there's a second generation version that fixes all the problems present in the first model. In particular, it needs to have Android 2.2, complete with access to the regular app store. Both screens need to have multitouch. You need to be able to put it in laptop configuration and use the bottom screen as a virtual keyboard. And it would be nice if when you have it folded all the way backwards you could use the screen on the back to control a pointer on the front screen. (I think the Motorola Backflip does something like that?) Oh yeah, and it needs expandable memory. Now if they could get all that together in one package for a reasonable price i'd be seriously interested.

Why e-readers?

[CMontgomery]

If Kno (the company) has its way, students will be carrying around a Kno (the device) rather than a stack of textbooks

Speaking as a student I want to know why all these companies keep thinking we want e-readers and e-books instead of textbooks. I don't want my textbook to go dead 9 hours into studying, or not be able to have 3-4 books open to 3-4 different sections each. I would however, like one for pleasure reading, but not a $500/5.5 lb machine. What exactly is this for?

Re:Amazing

[mdwh2]

True, though let's face it - if this was from Apple, there'd be people here praising how revolutionary and innovative the idea was.