Slashdot Mirror
Cisco's Tablet Act Like a Desktop
holy_calamity writes "Cisco's Cius tablet, due next month, is bulkier than the iPad 2 and has a smaller screen but it also
brings tricks other tablets don't have. It can be connected to a keyboard, monitor and mouse to act like a desktop. Using an app to connect to a virtual desktop replicates a full PC experience, Cisco claims. The Cius also encrypts all data and is easily controlled by IT managers, who can control access to apps and other features."
The iPad will happily use a bluetooth or usb keyboard and can mirror its display via VGA or HDMI, and in a few months, it can mirror its display wirelessly via an appleTV.
My $99 dealextreme android tablet was happy to respond when I connected usb keyboard and mouse to it.
It also has vnc and remote desktop apps to connect to othe devices.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
If IT locks out the app store, it won't be successful.
Like the iPad, it's too big to carry thoughtlessly like a phone. You have to have a reason to carry it. If Sally in accounting can't put Angry Birds on it, or the Kindle app, she won't want to carry it around. Those are the real reasons she carries her iPad everywhere, despite her claims of using it for calendar or email.
Good luck Cisco, but making it IT friendly is the opposite of making it user friendly.
John
Yes.
Nothing to see here. Move along..
It says it hooks into the Cisco deskphones and can lets you get work calls everywhere. Oh, and your IT department controls it.
I certainly look forward to running Eclipse on a tablet and taking work calls at all hours on a machine I can't administer. Thanks Cisco!
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
The post doesn't really describe the features properly, read the full article. Other than that it actually seems like a really good idea and definitely has the enterprise environment in mind. Its not really useful to the average person and it seems like some of the features would still work fine, and solve some IT headaches when it comes to tablets even if the place doesn't have all the cisco equipment to take advantage of all the features. And somehow it doesn't have the normal cisco price tag.
other tablets don't have hdmi out and usb devices? yea right. what does it do when it's NOT connected to monitor, keyboard and a mouse?
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Grug act like caveman when Grug talk!
I won't say for iPad because I've never tried such a thing with it, but with any Honeycomb tablet, you can connect mouse & keyboard (via Bluetooth for all of them, and via USB for those which have the ports, like Asus Transformer). Connecting an external monitor is, obviously, not new at all. And then there are plenty apps available for VNC and RDP for "full desktop experience".
And this is better or different than the Asus EEE transformer?
So it's a lot like an iPad, but heavier, bulkier, and with a smaller screen, for more money. And your IT manager can stop you from putting apps on it. Sounds like a winner!
on routers and switches, the things it knows about, and stop wasting money on useless projects. No wonder the stock halved in a year...
I've done more deployments than I care to count using XenDesktop and View to give iPad and Android based devices this functionality for months. Cisco, why would you say something to silly?
it's actually a 1.6ghz atom netbook without a kb running custom android(the site was loading slow).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
The iPad also has a keyboard, encryption and remote IT/enterprise access controls and most Android tablets do as well. The thing is I don't want a tablet to be a computer - a tablet is simply not powerful enough since it is (or should be) optimized for battery operation. I don't want a computer acting as a tablet either since it's not optimized for battery operation or touchscreen controls.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
My Asus Transformer (Android) does basically the same thing. It has a keyboard/trackpad attachment, and I use the wireless network to connect to my Windows PC. I can do pretty much anything except gaming. (Video is a bit slow on framerate, too.) And of course, all the normal Android stuff is available, too.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
If IT locks out the app store, it won't be successful.
Define "success"? Users won't like it or companies won't buy it? There's a difference, and the latter wins. It's the same reason companies don't buy office workers Alienware PCs.
If IT blocks internal programs, VPN and corporate websites from Sally's iPad, how's she going to have a choice. In the corporate environment, everyone takes the company phone. Most company phones suck, but the minutes and data are paid for. So, which tablet device are you going to use for streaming? The new one that nobody offers unlimited plans for, or the company one that pays for whatever you use?
Like every other device that companies provide, you'll still take it because the company, not you, buys it. And companies buy Cisco. Companies trust Cisco. Cisco is not seen as a toy gadget company. And most IT will never condone devices without control. They may put up with it, but given the choice, they'll get something they can control.
IT frankly doesn't care what Sally likes better for Angry Birds, or Sally at all for that matter. She's the same idiot downloading WeatherBug on every PC she touches. And if IT says encrypted devices only, they/we will by Cthulu will have it! Until the fired boss from Sony or Groupon or the Social Security Administration replaces our boss, and tells us to unencrypt everything, because nobody would ever, EVER, leave an iPad or iPhone just laying in a bar.
I8-D
It do, do it? Me not knows that.
Actually, this sounds like a good move on Cisco's part. Why?
1. Apple makes devices for the consumer market. They have never had good support for the enterprise, where an IT department needs to have the ability to lock down any and all devices on their network.
2. Cisco, however, has very strong ties to the enterprise market. This will give them a definite advantage in both marketing and knowing what features potential (corporate IT) clients will require.
3. Apple has proven that there is a (consumer) market sector for these types of devices. There is a chance that market will fall over to the corporate sector.
The fact is that some of the very features which would make this unattractive to the consumer market are requirements for the corporate/enterprise sector. Such as the ability to lock down the app-store, and place other restrictions and controls on the device's usage. The corporate sector is long accustomed to paying more for less, so the price isn't as big an issue as many here are making it.
At this point, I guess we will just have to see if a tablet is of any real use in the enterprise.
My suspicion is that, right now, that answer is mostly "no". Time will tell.
/dev/random
Got to see of these very recently. The execs at my company are always wanting the latest and greatest and we are a Cisco shop with a slew of 79XX IP phones.
We finally went with the Cisco/Tandberg TelePresence EX desktop units. 24 inch monitor that replaces the desktop monitor, integrated video conferencing, and a cool little "mini-me" control pad/handset peripheral.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps7060/ps11303/ps11308/ps11327/images/data_sheet_c78-627494-1.jpg
Hardly portable, and no computing power, but every one of the big office folks has an iPad2 with WebEx, Facetime, etc. on it, so they're happy.
We got Citrix to work very well for application needs that don't run native on iOS, have centralized management of the iDevices in house, so the Cisco tablet made no sense whatsoever.
Still, I imagine some shops will slurp some Cisco Kool-Aid and snap these puppies up. RTFA, Cisco IS hedging their bets with iOS and Android apps for collaboration.
I am my own gestalt.
Except that with the USB anything, VGA anything, and HDMI anything, you have to pay a price premium of at least $30 just for the adapter cable. For the wireless mirroring, that's another $100 price premium. LOL
Like others have mentioned, the Eee Pad Transformer does the same stuff, but will cost less, is not as bulky, is faster, and has better video and connectivity.
Not sure why anyone would use the Cisco when tablets like the Transformer are flooding the Market and Windows 8 will be able to leverage them to provide the same functionality at a fraction of the cost. (and I frakking HATE Microsoft...so for me to say that...well I feel a bit dirty)
I currently use mine to do damn near everything a my work PC can do. (They also make a transformer with a phone in it for normal calls or video calling)
It already works with files from MS Word, MS Excel, and MS Power Point, I can access my email with OWA, I can VPN into the network from home, I use a mouse (although I already have the Dock that has a nice touch pad included)
I RD to my desktops to do a myriad of different tasks. I use it in our conference room to run Webinars and slide presentations. Hell it even controls my home TV and streams video to/from my home network.
To me, (just MHO) the new crop of tablets are the one item that's made the biggest impact since the Cell Phone.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
It has vastly more processing power than a typical desktop from about ten years back.
Does your knowledge of computers stretch back almost a whole year?
they are presenting an option for business customers ( where angry birds would not be installed )
If they were clever they'd build in a 'personal sandbox' where the user could swap between corporate and personal personalities on the device. The corporate VPN would be safe from Angry Birds, and the users would clamor to get them.
Use the @gmail account for the personal side, the @corp.com account on the business side. Really, IT doesn't hate users, they just have a mandate to protect the business, and the technology is usually lacking to allow both camps to be happy.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Forgive me if I missed something, after all I don't own a tablet, but did tablets surpass laptops in speed and capability? I mean these magic devices called laptops have been doing exactly this for years and they have never matched a desktop in raw power. Suddenly tablets, which are smaller than most laptops, are so much further ahead than laptops that this article chooses to compare them with desktops instead of laptops? I find it hard to believe to be sure.
ah, they have made the tablet fit for the enterprise and followed a simple recipe:
- make it great for the system administrator
- put outdated heavily modified software on it that likely will not be updated with a newer version
- put in the option to limit it severely, which the administrator likes, but the end user will hate
- make it extra bulky with a small screen
- make it more expensive
- add a particularly ugly docking station
So, make something less convenient to use for more money, and it'll sell very well in the enterprise world.
can it handle in-band wireless Cisco NAC? (which means you either have to have a cisco NAC agent loaded, or a browser that supports the web login process.)
The ipad cannot. Did cisco learn from this?
Cisco's Tablet Act Like a Desktop
It do?
Who writes the headlines and can we send him back to kindergarten?
Isn't the "full" desktop experience getting the most bang for my buck in terms of hardware, upgradability and a screen no smaller than 22 inches?
Not sure what part of that you get from this tablet, but it seems the answer is "none" rather than "full".
The HP Slate 500 has been around for about a year, its a tablet PC replacement with windows 7 pro, Asus, Acer all make windows tablets like this one. What does that mean? VPN, Office, vSphere, SSMS, SSIS all working flawlessly on a tablet with a 10"-"12" diameter. I won't bother listing the vast array of other features these have for a tablets. If I want a desktop replacement I fire up VPN > RDP > my work computer and boom, i7 proc on my tablet. The Cisco tablet is just a well advertised edition to the lesser known tablets market. Cisco may pretend like it's the newest and greatest, but it won't even be the best on the market a year later.