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Review of Dell Inspiron Tablet/Laptop Hybrid
Barence writes "It's rare that Dell breaks new ground in terms of design, but the new Dell Inspiron Duo changes all that, according to PC Pro. First revealed at IDF earlier this year, the Dell netbook has a screen that swivels in its own lid, turning the Windows 7 device into a tablet. 'The Duo's relatively modest premium over a high-end netbook buys you the touchscreen and slick conversion to the tablet format, as well as full Windows 7 and a decent hard drive. If you were thinking about buying either a netbook or a tablet, the Duo does both, though it doesn't do the tablet bit as well as an iPad,' PC Pro's reviewer, Jack Schofield, concludes."
If you were thinking about buying either a netbook or a tablet
Then you are an idiot, because tablets are suboptimal for all kinds of use except as book/movie players.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
To all those thinking this doesn't sound new, and that we've had swivel laptop/tablets for a decade or more, you have to realise, this swivels on a different plane. A DIFFERENT PLANE.
Don't tell the TSA!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Really, they lost me at "full Windows 7". As an OS, the interface is complete crap for use on a tablet. So this is a small netbook that converts into a barely usable tablet. No thanks.
This release will probably hurt both iPad and MacBook sales drastically. Better operating system and the ability to function as both a laptop and a tablet will appeal to a large group people.
Maybe all I want is a book and movie player, so I can catchup on old entertainment in my hotel room? Or surf the net? Or stream the radio at work?
My main beef is the magazine calling this "innovative".
The laptop which converts to a tablet is nothing new.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
The tablet fad will end with small convertible laptops (or "netvertibles" as they're called now).
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Worse than the iPad? So we can expect a terrible keyboard, terrible text selection, rotation issues, and buggy input controls? Where do I sign up?
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
How is this different from an ASUS Eeepc T91 or T91 MT?
I'm dead serious about that. If it will run something I can install KDE onto, I'm sold.
Anybody want my mod points?
I know that all the "people in the know" say we all only want a 10inch and bigger tablet, but not me. Part of my daily work has me dealing with the iPad and other tablets. I can say that i just dont enjoy the larger formfactor of the iPad. Sure, it is better for web browsing, I will certainly admit that, but I just hate to carry it around.
For me, I want something about the size of the playbook from RIM. It will still fit in my suit coat pocket or nicely in a hand bag if you are a lady. It's perfect size for reading a book or even a manual. Now, pair that up with say Wi-Fi direct and Bluetooth 4.0 with advanced secure simple pairing for fast document sharing with other tablets and I think you have a good product.
It should also be able to accept stylus input. This is a MUST for me and I think most in the business word.
Imagine how much nicer it would be to sit in that meeting when you can lean back in the chair holding your hand size tablet and making notes as you would on paper.
For me though, the whole problem is the lack of easy sharing of information. I should be able to "flick" my document towards yours and that should be enough. Maybe enter in a 4 digit code, but not more. Until Documents can easily be passed from machine to machine, it will still be a no go. Let's see. It's still interesting times.
Is there a distro of Linux that is designed specifically for multi-touch tablet interfacing?
One of the greatest points of the iOS devices is that their apps are designed for multi-touch input from the ground up. It would be great to see this idea put onto Linux... multi-touch interfaces built on the same libraries as the keyboard/mouse interfacing apps.
I guess the underlying questions are are there any GUIs that are being developed for linux with multi-touch for the primary input? And are there any libraries that developers can use to port their interfaces to be primarily multi-touch?
Since you can boot Android on iOS devices, and there are alternative hardwares like this, it seems like something that would quickly gain a large following. Without something like that I fear that the open alternatives to iOS will drag on and on in half-baked form, never successfully challenging the consistent experience you get on iOS.
""It's rare that Dell breaks new ground in terms of design [...]"
Really? Despite Apple's noise around its hardware, the only truly innovative design happening in the mobile computing in the last couple of years was the Dell's Adamo. Too bad it didn't take off; I guess that everybody was holding their breath for the overrated ipad so they missed Adamo's launch.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/61320/saturday-night-live-shimmer-floor-wax
It's a (too-thick) tablet! No, it's a (too-small) laptop! IT'S BOTH, badly!
It's like someone decided to knock off the convertible tablets which have been around for ages now, but had Bloody Stupid Johnson do the hinge design!
History, know it. Other than another data point on the size-weight-features continuum, this device brings nothing new to the table.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_personal_computer#Timeline_of_tablet_PC_history
Still, sometimes when we try and straddle a fence, we end up falling and hopefully not crushing our genitals against the fence...
Trying to be two less than stellar devices might make one really shitty one. It's Windows; fail.
This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
It's a hybrid. When the battery runs down, its gas engine kicks in.
It puts the lotion on it's skin, or else it gets the hose again.
I love this struggle to become smaller, lighter, more powerful, and we argue over whether or not it will meet everyone's needs. There is no one product that will do it for everyone....yes, even the iPad.
What about those glasses that can project the monitor image onto the lens while you walk down a busy street and get run over. Would be cool someday to see a touch version of those glasses with people walking while poking themselves in the eyes.
Others hate the iPad for use outdoors while they sit at the beach reading a book (ok, that's a commercial). Still others think they are cooler than everyone else when they whip out their iPad and start flipping aimlessly through web pages that are all bookmarked.
Seriously, there are some people where this type of computer will be perfect and others that see no value in it. To each his/her own.
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
I can see this as a potential win if you really need a keyboard for some things, but would want the tablet factor for others. This might have been on my wish list last year before I purchased an acer mini-laptop (11.6" Timeline), save for the weak processor.
I'm torn, as the specks make it look pretty weak for running full Win7, and experience tells me that the touch interface with Windows is going to be a real bear. Still, the dock and ease of having a keyboard for "work" or slate for couch surfing might be nice.
I guess it will come down to the software, which is where it will ultimately fail. What makes the iPad/Android Tablets so useful is the finger-centric UI. It's what I hated about the older windows phones (which were built for a stylus and very difficult to manipulate with a fat finger).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The problem is that a iDevice connector is not like a computer connector. If you hook up a laptop to an external monitor, then (barring screen resolution differences, and sometimes it has BETTER resolution), the behaviour should be the same between the device's screen and external screen. It's just a monitor, and the laptop doesn't care if you're running Powerpoint or Unreal Tournament, it'll display whatever is on your desktop.
On an iDevice, an app has to support the external screen. A lot don't, and it's been an issue for awhile. I remember getting an A/V cable for my iPod and being quite disappointed when very few apps supported it. A staff member where I work tried an external display cable for the iPad, and ran into similar issues with varying compatibility between apps, although it supposedly works better if you jailbreak the phone and install some 3rd-party addons...
You need to do more research. The connector is a measly $29. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC552ZM/A
The connector you're referring to works ONLY for keynote a small number of applications. From one of the highlighted reviews: [quote]I teach high school and thought the vga iPad dock connector would allow me to project everything I see while using the iPad, but alas there are severe limitations to which applications will show on the classroom LCD projector. I wish I had known this before purchasing the connector. The Apple Store description says the connector will display slideshows and movies, but I didn't realize that was it...[/quote] Further research (i.e. reading more reviews) indicates that it DOES NOT just redirect video output that normally gets sent to the iPad's screen. So it's actually a ripoff for $29 since it only works for a small number of applications (for now). So unless you ONLY plan to do presentations through keynote, show pictures, or movies, this isn't the device for you. If I want to include a demo of, say, Mathematica in my presentation, or maybe make use of a web page as a quick aside during my talk, tough luck.
One of the problems I often have with electronics whose parts swivel (in particular LCDs) is that over time, the electrical components that have to be wired through the point of swiveling often wears out too fast. I wonder how durable such a machine would be -- hopefully they are as sturdy as an IBM (not Lenovo) Thinkpad.
Okay, different type of screen swivel but Fujitsu Siemens have had one for ages:
http://gizmodo.com/150000/fujitsu-siemens-lifebook-tablet
Yes, wait a year for some vapourware product that will be 10x better. You could do that for everything you buy. Hell, I'm waiting for a flying car or a jetpack, but I'll have a car while I wait.
Or get something now which does what you want. Something proven and with software. After all, what use is a computer without software?
The iPad wouldn't have been a success if Apple had used a different OS to the iPhone. Keeping it similar meant loads of apps and a relatively easy recompile and tweaks to make an existing app take advantage of the iPad's extra facilities.
But that thing looks sexier than the iPad. First company to make a full sized laptop version has me sold. Bonus points if the hardware is Linux friendly.
Boredom is bliss.
As a programmer, something like this would be perfect for working on the go. However, the specs really don't seem like they will fulfill the needs I have (I do alot of work with OpenGL).
Boredom is bliss.
"It’s smoother and quicker than the only similar system I’ve tried, a Vadem Clio smart netbook from 1999." Still have one of them. But it wasn't a netbook by any stretch. It was a slammin CE tablet.
I have a convertible tablet pc and it is wonderful for replacing chalkboards. I have a wireless projector that I connect to and I run onenote. I can write on my tablet as I would on a board, only it is infinitely better that writing on a board. I have a full selection of colors and tools always ready. I can copy and paste. I can search through old notes as if they were typed. If the students are confused about something I wrote we can go back and check it (and see if I made a mistake - instead of getting into a ego battle about who's right).
/rant
If you have ever tried to work out algebra/calculus/geometry problems on a computer vs paper - you know paper is better. Not so with a tablet. It brings all the advantages of paper and none of it's drawbacks. It is great for a large section of the public. Windows 7 even has a tool that you can write down math formulas and it will interpret them as math to insert somewhere. That's miles better for many than learning latex or some markup or whatever.
I only use my tablet for working out physics and math problems. I use onenote. There is finally a computer which replaces paper. It is this. IMO - get a convertible tablet. Get one with dual digitizers. Make sure the active digitizer is pressure sensitive. Turn on pressure sensitive ink in onenote and select an ink thick enough to notice. And watch the number of problems you work out on paper go to zero and enjoy having the text of your handwritten notes searchable as if it were text. Enjoy the color. Enjoy the productivity. Enjoy it.
One last thing: Sometimes I wonder; "Is that someone's signature? Or do they type that at the end of each post?"
I can walk around the room while I write on the board....I am free from being shackled!!!
One last thing: Sometimes I wonder; "Is that someone's signature? Or do they type that at the end of each post?"
You can just use the laptop to hide your junk while going through the new scanners. Let be real, that's all that anything Dell produces is good for.
I want a PC that can run two operating systems simultaneously. No, I aint talking virtual machines. I want the ability to have my Debian system running for general use, but have the other half of the system dedicated to Windows for my games. Given that my next desktop system will have at a minimum 4 (possibly 6) cores, this isn't such an unreasonable request.
Actually, Dell also has a division for real products... I haven't yet used a Dell Precision series device I didn't like. Hell, objectively they're nearly on par with Thinkpads, and all that keeps me from buying one is personal preference...
OK, someone needs to ask this, because that's exactly the kind of netbook/tablet I've been waiting for for years, except for the fact that it runs Windows. Usually Dell products handle Linux pretty well (on my Latitude E6410 I only had to fiddle the microphone). So how well does Linux run on that thing ? In particular Ubuntu Netbook edition (or whatever it's called now)...
Non-Linux Penguins ?