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Microsoft's Killer Tablet Opportunity
snydeq writes "Advice Line's Bob Lewis sees ripe opportunity for Microsoft in the tablet market: Forget about outdoing Apple's iPad and give us the features that finally improve the way we work. 'The game isn't beating Apple at its own game. The magic buzzword is to "differentiate" and show what your technology will do that Apple won't even care about, let alone beat you at. One possible answer: Help individual employees be more effective at their jobs,' Lewis writes, outlining four business features to target, not the least of which would be to provide UI variance, enabling serious tablet users to expose the OS complexity necessary to do real work."
...How large is the market for such a tablet going to be?
isn't Metro meant to be a one size fits all? And no desktop apps.
So if you come up with a world beating vertical app you have to go thru Microsoft.
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
So this bloke is saying we need a full featured tablet that will allow us to do real work with a big screen and lots of CPU cycles.
What kind of power source does he suggest for these tablets, so we can work uninterrupted for hours on end? Nuclear? Cold fusion?
Haven't we been there before?
There's a reason tablets (well, iPads) are specc'ed the way they are. If this idiot knew the secret formula, he'd be making money off it (a la Steve Jobs), not writing stupid shit.
Help individual employees be more effective at their jobs,'
Really? Gosh, Apple would never think of that! How many other vague, handwaving ideas like that can they come up with?
Didn't Microsoft spend about a decade failing to get any traction with their windows tablet PCs before Apple came along and showed them how to do it right?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
All of my corporate clients have iPads, yet even the least informed immediately realize the limitations of not being able to run any real desktop or access the company files.. While consumers could care less, businesses will adapt anything that improves productivity while conforming to security's infrastructure.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
...How large is the market for such a tablet going to be?
The mobile professionals in need for more muscular arms or faster legs - either carry the extra weight of the batteries or to put the tablet in the dock to recharge it.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
consumers could care less
No they couldn't. Consumers don't care about accessing company files.
Vmware's got an app for that: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vmware-view-for-ipad/id417993697?mt=8
On the other hand, with a move to more web based applications you can now easily access your data from a device like an ipad...
Plus since the ipad doesn't store any data locally, it's less dangerous should it go missing.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
I will say that, in my experience, the current crop of tablets aren't great at data input in the corporate environment.
I want something that I can write on with a stylus and it will, at the very least, sync to my outlook and preferably my document management system (Hummingbird DM, which to be fair is probably 10 years old now).
Reading the article I get the impression that this guy would like emacs org mode. Very similar ideas. The added bit is that he wants to embed other files in the document. And to top it all off instead of using a file as an outline, he wants to use a file system. That way you don't have to embed anything. It's just a normal file.
In spite of myself, I think it's a brilliant idea. I'm not sure why he thinks Microsoft will understand it. This is a Un*x idea through and through. Use the file as the lowest level metaphor in the system. Build tools that allow you to operate efficiently on files. I don't think it would be very difficult to implement. And I don't think it has anything to do with tablets. It's just a good idea period.
enabling serious tablet users to expose the OS complexity necessary to do real work.
Isn't the "real work" stuff like the "true Scotman" ?
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
Any tablet that allows the user to be more productive, secure, and enjoyable will win, not only Microsoft. The tablet should not be the selling point, the applications needed should be. The thing the base tablet offers is security, and platform. Too many people are "STATUS" oriented, so they pick iPad.
It is the APPS that make the system!
Whoosh!
You could say the same thing about their handset opportunity, or their MP3 player opportunity, or before that their PDA opportunity.
They have no special advantage here, they're late to market, they have a sort of half baked touch / non touch solution coming out, their software is generally badly regarded, their prices too high, second class maps, second class webmail, second class search.
Anyone of those could be a disadvantage, but to have them all in one package.
Put it this way, I wanted to track my stocks, I am normally a Visual C++ programmer, but I decided to write it in Java for android. It's just easier runs more stable for longer and the interface is better with touch. I would previously have written that for Windows, but there's too much C#, Silverlight, god knows what garbage on Windows. So Microsoft will go away soon enough.
But not yet, because it was still Eclipse on Windows that I wrote the app in, there isn't a good Android PC yet, big screen keyboard, port of eclipse. All of these would be trivial to do, but they haven't happened yet. So the end result is inevitable, it will just take time.
Advice Line's Bob Lewis needs to learn about computers. There has been windows tablets available for over 20 years. he has been able to go out and buy a Windows Tablet for years.
Hell right now even the new Fujitsu Stylistics are nearly the same price as ipads.
So what is this guy whining about? the fact he has not even bothered to look?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
TFA in other words:
It is mission critical to have a holistic integration on next generation value-added enterprise, while eating your own dogfood and leveraging the core granular competencies to bring the sustainability to the customers.
Bitch, pahhhleaz!
Amen. Plus I know a few business people who bring iPads to meetings, scroll up and and scroll down a few times and then take it back. They do nothing. If you really want a tablet for professionals and business people, make one with a responsive enough stylus with no parallax error.
"Americanizm"
Microsoft couldn't build an effective tablet to save it's life. MS can't innovate or make anything user friendly. No doubt it would just be a carbon copy of all tablets, which use apple's interface, or if they tried their own way you'd get those lovely cascading menus they are famous for. Remember windows CE? what a nightmare.
One annoying thing was having a tablet that doesn't support pens as in pressure sensitive and more accurate than drawing with a sausage like pen for iDevices. They came up with this wonderful device then severely limit it by providing few input options. Not keyboard or pen friendly. Outputting all but impossible. Expansion is impossible. Best of all no support for desktop apps. Obviously that was at least in part a processor issue. The problem with the iPad is it's limited by design. In ten years it'll be largely the same device. As processors and batteries get better desktop apps will be possible but it's doubtful they will be supported by iPad since it'd require a major design overhaul since it's largely a closed device. Their only option is to come up with a brand new device that is a cross between an iPad and an Airbook. Ultimately it makes the device a dead end since there is no room for expansion. Apple also is hesitant to expand it in any way other than processor speed. Years ago they hit the 64 gig ceiling and seem to have no intention of adding to that. It's frustrating because I could put nearly twice the films and TV episodes on a 128 gig. I just find with 64 gig I still end up dragging a lot of films on and off it I'd rather leave on it. Charge a $100 more and give us the option of another model.
Tablets have been called a niche item since the days of Tablet PCs - my killer tablet? What I have been crying for all along, a digital artist's tablet. This means a higher resolution screen (better than 1280x800 - try more like a full 1080p screen resolution so that most programs will work in portrait - and preferably in a 4:3 format), dedicated graphics (many digital art programs benefit from this), a Wacom digitizer, and a dual battery design so you can carry a couple of extra cells and swap them out without having to power down.
That is the problem most Tablet PC manufacturers made. They thought they could make a device for the business world that would replace the very low cost and versatile pen/pencil and paper. No tablet will ever be as thin as paper, so carrying a dozen tablets and spreading them out will never work (and there are many times when people want to look over several sheets at once and "100% zoom"). However, if they had focused on the artist and the art student, created a series of specialty pens that had the look and feel of traditional media (a square "charcoal/pastel stick", a fine brush, a wide brush, etc) then marketed it as "get unlimited art tools and supply for only $1500, and carry your entire studio in you bag" or "never worry about using hazardous chemicals to clean up, just click save and go" then they might have had a chance.
Anyway, there is my take on it. You want to differentiate yourself on the market? Think who would benefit from a pen input and design the system around them. I don't want an over-bloated eReader with LCD screen. I don't want a dumbed-down laptop. I don't want a walled garden of apps that only some single company wants to restrict myself to. I don't want a giant smartphone that doesn't work as a phone. I want a portable digital art studio, and I do believe that pen input tablets are the ideal solution. A shame not one company had the foresight to create one.
Early radio phones, even early mobiles were a disaster to use. A car phone wasn't always just your mobile in your car, it was a major installation.
Early mobile phones came in a suitcase. So... where did you leave all the stuff in your normal case? Carry 2 suitcases? Not very high powered right?
But tech progressed and right now with bluetooth headsets and voice dialing we are getting damned close to the perceived convenience of Star Trek communicators.
I think tablets are a dead end. The future is retina displays and neural input. It is obvious really, holding a screen and a keyboard in whatever combinations just ain't convenient. Laptops ain't any better, we just got used to their inconvenience. If you see some people type on a phone, you can easily forget just how fucking akward it is to use... but we move on.
I think tablets are the very early ancestors of anywhere computing. Not anywhere as in anywhere I sit down but anywhere as in on the move. Not traditional computing work tasks such as writing a document or doing design, but informational and entertainment computing. Google maps has completely replaced my need for a map. I used to have several. Recently threw them out. Don't need them. Not that I use Maps all that often but that is the real convenience, when I need it, it is right there, up to date and ready to use.
Music, movies and games. We used to have to sit down to play them or bring very specialized travel sets with us. With a phone/tablet, you can play almost any game, wherever you want, when you want. Yes, they are akward and simplistic and underpowered. But that will chance. I still got an old phone that can play snakes, compared to that, modern mobile games are a million times better. NEITHER is yet anywhere as convenient and reliable as old LCD games or as rich and powerful as PC games but... getting there.
I remember the Walkman... it was all the rage for a while and then it died. It wasn't until years later that personal audio made a come back with the portable MP3 player. Why?
Walkman's just weren't convenient with their tapes, it takes a lot of work to mix a tape and then you have the same limitted tracks in the same order unless you bring bulky tapes (check tape size vs MP3 player). Only the hardcore persisted, some bought mini-disc but the majority didn't bother.
Now the MP3 player is back with a vengeance.
I see a LOT of people with iPads that barely use them, they just ain't that comfortable to use right now or all that useful but that will change. Those cheap nasty headphones of the walkman (orange foam pads) have evolved into in-ear buds and massive headphones depending on taste. Tablets will evolve too. How? If I knew that I would be to busy being filthy rich to post on slashdot.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
If they really wanted to help employees be more effective at their jobs, they should take away those damn color PCs and tablets and put back the VT terminals.
kompositfönster
A true enterprise class printing capability would do wonders for this effort.
AirPrint? Really?
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Apple makes gorgeous meticulously designed products that make people's lives easier.
To combat this, apparently Microsoft needs to produce something that will make employees more effective at their jobs.
Tablets do not represent a tool for longer term intensive use. They are for entertainment, casual computing and casual web-surfing. For that that perform very well. However, this is the only thing you can do well with a limited UI, namely no keyboard, no mouse, and limited power, but more screen-area than a smartphone. Apple already has all of these covered and in addition has the "lifestyle" factor so critical for a device you do not really need.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The majority of its relevance is on stupid corporations stuck in IE6 land and Xbox fanboys. Sure people use Windows for games but Apple kicked them hard with phones and tablets. Linux also messed up with Gnomity. I really hate to say this, but even the goatse trolls like the taste of Apple kool-aid. Windows on arm is a joke already, plus Microsoft has been messing about for years with x86 tablets only for the iPad to beat them.
.
Two kinetic sensors (back and front). That would be nice...
Plus, TS, CIFS and binary compatibility capabilities.
\m/
"Real work" is not helped by "exposing the OS complexity."
Out of all the users in my company, I can think of only 1 or 2 who even understand what a file structure is, much less make use of it. Almost everyone throws everything into the a pile in the My Documents folder. No subfolders. Most users want to be able to get to Excel, Word or any job specific app, and want it to open up to their most recent documents. iPads with keyboards would work great for 99% of them.
To do effective work you eventually need a large screen space - maybe go VR ... who knows?
While they are at it, make ergonomic devices - can't imagine the number of neck, back and wrist problems there will be after all that hunching over iPxxx devices.
How about a tablet that just runs an X server - like the old X-Terminals?
For the business user they should have plenty of access to servers to run the software on - Linux or Mac.
Users are not currently expecting to run Windows on tablets so now is the ideal opportunity to get another product out there.
consumers could care less
No they couldn't. Consumers don't care about accessing company files.
What about people in sales department? They are the worst kind of consumers. They need to show to salesmen in other companies how cool and modern they are. And (believe it or not) they need (sometimes) to access company files and to check mail every few minutes.
In love, war and slashdot discussions, everything is allowed.
You mean like accepting credit card payments and signatures with the device, right?
You want me to trust a Microsoft device with my credit card number?
Their track record! ... I! ... Ugh! ... I'm speechless! ... Ghah! Let me start over! ...
Look, I support a persons right to get high smoking marijuana if they want, but I sort of have to draw the line when they start injecting stuff into their veins.
-- Terry
iPads with keyboards would work great for 99% of them.
So actually any notebook, notepad, subnotebook,... would also work great for them...
Actually, 99% of them need only a paper notebook and a telephone.
In love, war and slashdot discussions, everything is allowed.
i'm quite certain plenty of people were killed (likely suicide) while trying to use Microsoft Tablet PC and it's ill conceived notion that a stylist and a mouse are the same.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
It's a very useful term... for filtering out the pointless rantings of myopic office workers. Guess what, "real work" guys: most work in the world is not sitting in front of a keyboard.
Now do you understand how ridiculous the above post, my little twist on it and any "real world" bullshit putdown is? People do stuff other than your own paticular job you know and that does not make them worthless.
ipad + onlive desktop = everything you need
Quick let's found a new startup! I have a name: "carify"
No? Doesn't it sound good?! No, wait a minute, don't just walk away like that... hey!
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
All of those, at some time or the other, "worked great for them", but they no longer apply because they don't convey the right image.
You don't get the promotion for being productive - you get it for showing you have the newer toys.
Microsoft already had a tablet that would make employees potentially much more productive. It was called Courier, the internet was crying out for them to make it, and they cancelled the whole project.
unless it has automated access to every single aspect of your life.
Like every iPad I have used...
-- no sig today
Could you spew out some more buzzwords and corporate-speak in that summary? I haven't got my fill yet.
I believe that using American as a synonym for illiterate is not considered politically correct these days...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Is it just me or do you feel like you are reading microsoft.com lately?
"Theze dayz"
Where do they dig up these mouth breathers?
First off, I neary tuned out when he made,a dismissive jab at the iPad calling it fashionable. Cute. Real professional.
Then I started to tune out when he started to drown in corporate double speak about workflows that do not represent reality.
Err. What? I want the minute of my life back.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
That was as much about the tablets themselves as it was about the tablet "experience" in the OS.
Yes, WinXP and Vista were NOT "tablet ready" in any real sense of the word. but then again, absolutely NONE of the hardware was really 'tablet ready" either.
I remember working with a "late model" tablet about 6 months before the iPad was announced. This was a top of the line demonstration model that we were testing for possible use in some specialized applications with the company I was working for at the time.
What was this tablet like? Imagine a 14 inch 4:3 resolution screen laptop from that era With the screen mounted directly to what would normally be the keyboard surface, and no keyboard. Just an ordinary laptop, sans keyboard.
It was heavy, bulky and SLOOOOOW. Prone to overheating when put in it's protective case, HOT and uncomfortable to hold when not in it's protective case and just generally difficult to use. And that's BEFORE you even start talking about working with software or the UI of Windows XP tablet edition!
The big "Sea Change" that Apple brought about was as much about the shitty hardware of existing tablets as it was about the inadequate UI. In many cases, it was MOSTLY about the hardware, as the old style win-tabs would turn people totally off before they even booted the damn things up!
In contrast, the Apple iPad was sleek, reasonably lightweight and uncomplicated. The carry-over of the touch and gesture-based interaction from the iPhone made it simple and largely intuitive to use, and it made tablets even more enjoyable to use than laptops or netbooks for surfing and casual use (which is what most consumers do with them anyway.)
So it's no surprise that the iPad did well. To be honest, even if iOS hadn't been ported to the iPad and it had used a more touch-friendly version of OSX it would have been a smashing success based purely on the hardware alone. Loading it with iOS and tying it to the App store just sealed the deal.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
This is the hardware manufacturers' bailiwick as much as Microsoft's, but if someone wants to sell tablets to the visual arts profession, a lightweight 17-inch device that can run apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Manga Studio, with a precision pressure-sensitive stylus, would make a lot of them overlook the fact that it's Windows instead of OS X or iOS. When the iPad came out, I heard artist after artist who thought it was going to be a great productivity tool, only to be disappointed that it's limited to finger painting* and smaller than a letter-size sheet of paper. A lightweight 11x14 screen that you can draw on effectively would quickly become as ubiquitous in trendy coffee shops as MacBook Airs.
*Yes, there are styluses that work with it, but they're nothing more than very pointed fingers, because they don't register pressure or angle.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
You may find this agreeable.
Sadly, as far as the topic goes: Microsoft had their chance to revolutionize the tablet market, with the Courier, and they dumped it in favour of Windows 8. That train has already left the station. It would have completely decimated iPad sales if it had been released; when it appeared, the gadget geeks fawned over it as much as consumers later obsessed over the iPhone 4. Unfortunately MS thought the market segment was too narrow, and Billy G finally dismissed it on the grounds that it didn't have fucking Exchange integration, which is both ridiculous and could have been fixed in a later software patch. It was everything the Newton was, and so much more.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
all my corp clients use SSLVPN (java RDP over https) into their workstations for work. Or logmein. They love them.
In case anybody hasn't figured it out, "could care less" is not what GGGP meant. What he actually meant is "couldn't care less," and GGP was pointing that out in a tongue-in-cheek way. What's funny is that people who don't speak English as a first language would probably catch this easily. I'm used to people butchering it so I passed right over it.
when I first saw its presentation (almost 2 years ago) I was impressed.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11156/index.html
never seen anybody using it unfortunately.
What the devil are you going on about?
I think the ARM story is less compelling. If a tablet doesn't support legacy apps then why care if its running Windows at all? There are lots of decent Android tablets to choose from as well as the iPad. Even if MS release tools to recompile apps against ARM, how many vendors are going to bother? Especially if Microsoft forces them to offer their apps through a storefront as seems fairly likely.
This seems like a useful and fairly succinct description of the problem
What many people forget is that language is defined by it's usage, if a false usage becomes common enough it enter language regardless of logic.
I.E. Steep learning curve
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/could-care-less-versus-couldnt-care-less/
"By the time you get close to matching iOS, Apple will have moved on to the next level of fashionable semi-functionality" link
..
And I stopped reading this MS puff-piece right there
iPad with external monitor and mouse
If this takes off, apple could probably beat it with just a ios app emulator for osx, and a decent remote desktop app for ios. I have a couple pads, and I just open a RDP session if I need a windows only app. Frankly the kind of heavyweight windows apps that dont run on an ipad arent going to suddenly stop consuming tons of CPU.
Its funny, thats what i'm doing now because my desktop browser is better/faster than the one built into the tablet.
I have a Asus eee slate right here.little expensive but I think it heads in the direction that will help.of course you will bash the OS, but it is still the corporate norm. This slate is an i5 core, completely wirelessand good sized keyboard, touch, includes stylus, and will run your office apps. I think is a good step in making all the right programs more portable.
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
Well, Microsoft already *has* a tablet-ready operating system that will run desktop applications. It's called Windows 7. I happen to have a Lenovo S10-3t, a netbook that converts to a tablet. The bundled apps that take over the screen work ok -- except that the device itself is too fat and heavy to use as a tablet for long. The biggest problem with Windows 7 is that provides an approach for controlling desktop apps on a touchscreen that almost works, but which is throw-the-damn-thing-against-the-wall frustrating. I think *adding* UI features to run desktop UI apps on a tablet is inherently futile. App UIs have to be redesigned from the ground up for tablets.
What Microsoft has to do to make people sit up and take notice is produce a version of Microsoft Office with an appropriately tablet oriented UI. Since an office app is at best marginal without a keyboard, someone needs to manufacture a decently thin and light tablet with a an optional wireless keyboard. That should be an affordable addition. Bluetooth keyboards for iPads are dirt cheap; I bought my wife one that snaps over her iPad2 to double as a protective case for something like $35.
A typical word processing document has more content than will fit on the screen. Handling that efficiently and effortlessly presents a challenge to tablet UIs.I'd say tablets are the clear winner for content that readily fits on a screen (e.g. movies) and just as good as desktops for content in which navigation to distant parts of the document are infrequent (e.g. ebooks). But desktop UIs have a killer feature when it comes to navigating to distant parts of a document: the humble scrollbar. Scrollbars are going out of style because they don't work well on tablet UIs. The mechanisms for scrolling through content on tablet UIs work, but they're much less precise and convenient, unless there's a way to differentiate areas by content (e.g.. the scrolling mechanism in iOS for the contact list, which works impressively well for a solution that doesn't use a keyboard).
So a tablet version of office, running on a tablet with a wireless keyboard, would still be a little awkward. I think that could be fixed by having a scroll wheel type control on the keyboard, and some kind of on-screen feedback widget that would pop up in response to show you how far you are scrolling into a document.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
And once again. Monopoly has closed others out from corporate data. And we only can wait when MS will deliver tablet that can access the data. Why can't we require MS to open the data so that we can make tablet compete?
The real killer app for any tablet would be high resolution, sharp pointed, pen resolution with the response to feel like a real pen for text and sketch input. This could even be done now for the iPad with a wireless digitizer device and app. That's more to carry though. Perhaps it already exists, I don't know, but that's what would really be useful in my opinion.
I don't want tablets to dominate the workplace. Most people who do "real work" need a mouse and an os that can show two windows at the same time.
Beside, Microsoft hasn't made a "new" OS for 20 years,
I feel like infoworld is busy fanning the flames of "consumerization of IT" crap to generate hits, next will be an article on the "gamification of the consumerization of IT".
What many people forget is that language is defined by it's usage, if a false usage becomes common enough it enter language regardless of logic.
Only up to a point. I refuse to accept that "i luv u" is as acceptable as "I love you" in normal weiting, however common it might be in texting or emails.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Hi, I used to be a complete skeptic when it came to tablets (not just iPads). Then, recently, I saw someone with an iPad + stylus + Notes plus in a meeting, just happily jotting down his hand-written notes on the iPad. And just watching the ease with which he could do that might just have sold me a tablet.
To elaborate a little: I dislike typing for note-taking, so I stick to the pen-and-paper approach but this means my notes are scattered across a number of notebooks (depending on which were lying around when I grabbed one for wherever the next meeting was). Being able to take hand-written notes that all end up on the same device, nicely browsable and printable - yeah, that can win me over.
Apple skimmed off the cream and made a lot of money, but now tablets are a commodity with very low profit margins. I don't see Microsoft doing well in the tablet market, they're a software company and have never done well as an also ran hardware vendor. Besides, companies should be looking for the Next Big Thing, not last year's big thing.
On the other hand, with a move to more web based applications you can now easily access your data from a device like an ipad...
It's not reading data that's a problem with an iPad, so much as writing it.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
You want to get real work done? Add a keyboard. Do it Zaurus Clamshell style where it folds into a tablet or it folds into a netbook type form factor and the screen flips around so the keyboard/touch screen can fold against one another for protection when storing/carrying. Yes, it's no longer strictly a tablet. That's why it's better for getting real work done. Do keep the touch screen and keep the interface as usable as possible even with the keyboard folded under.
No, you don't have to make it big/heavy/clumsy to do this. If my phone can fit a slide-in qwerty keyboard in it then certainly a tablet can fit a much nicer one even w/o being too large.
Oh.. and a stylus would be nice too. I don't know what percentage of customers would actually use it but I'd rather see it come with the tablet than be an add-on because then the tablet will have a nice hole that the stylus slides into for keeping. I want one for drawing. Nice handwriting recognition and a good note taking app might be good with a stylus too although the last time I tried that the software wasn't really ready.
Last but not least (for me) would be the ability to pair it to a bluetooth mouse. Yes, I pretty much made it a netbook there didn't I? That's my request as a desktop application programmer. It might not be such a useful thing for many office workers. I have to use Visual Studio for my job (yuck I know). If I ever need to edit a form (lot's of dragging things around the screen) and all I have is a mouseless tablet then that really sucks. I suppose anybody who does any kind of design work might have the same request. I know that this would seem to take away a lot of the convenience of it being a tablet, having to carry a separate mouse and needing to find a surface to use it on, etc.. but I think the important thing would be that it is optional. I want the ability to pair up a mouse. I don't want the requirement to do so. It should be just as usable as any pure tablet with the keyboard folded under. I would slide out the keyboard and/or pair up the mouse only when I want to do something special where the tablet interface just doesn't cut it.
Yes, I've seen netbooks that fold this way. I suppose I could get one and put some touch oriented Linux distro on it and have exactly what I want. They are EXPENSIVE though! I think if the "look ma, it's so thin I can slice my own hand off with it" craze went away we would see more options like this available in a wider price range. I keep hoping!
Tablet purchasers are mostly individuals doing so for entertainment reasons, not companies.
Regardless of what features a tablet offers, I don't see many businesses adopting tablets. Those that do will be the few that have unconventional use-cases where tablets work better, and will probably have bought iPads already.
Hi, I used to be a complete skeptic when it came to tablets (not just iPads). Then, recently, I saw someone with an iPad + stylus + Notes plus in a meeting, just happily jotting down his hand-written notes on the iPad. And just watching the ease with which he could do that might just have sold me a tablet.
To elaborate a little: I dislike typing for note-taking, so I stick to the pen-and-paper approach but this means my notes are scattered across a number of notebooks (depending on which were lying around when I grabbed one for wherever the next meeting was). Being able to take hand-written notes that all end up on the same device, nicely browsable and printable - yeah, that can win me over.
Is there any trouble caused by the rest of the user's hand resting on the touch screen?
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
If the enterprise is embrasing SOA, then the UI shouldn't matter.
Your data and services exist in some centralized place. Your app should only be a consumer of those services. I think a slate that can be my traditional desktop while "docked" AND a tablet offering apps that make sense when mobile is a game changer. Since the UI is not coupled with the business logic, the view of the data can be anything the consumer wants it to be.
You don't get the promotion for being productive - you get it for showing you have the newer toys.
Using a company provided tablet/laptop/phone is hardly showing off that you have a new toy. Or are people so sad that they use their own iPads for work in an attempt to impress their boss?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Enabling hand writing input anywhere one could bring up a virtual keyboard would be an incredible boon to the usefulness of a tablet for me. I can't touch type on a virtual keyboard, so I'd have to LOOK for the "keys" I want as if I were a two-finger typist. It would slow me down FAR more than stylus-driven handwriting recognition would.
And for crying out loud, spend some time on a diagramming tool that can "snap" to geometric shapes if you turn that feature on (e.g. You roughly diagram a box and a proper box shows up that you can then resize and reshape to fit, rather than being left with your unevenly scrawled lines.) But don't FORCE the diagramming UI to do that -- just make it an option that is the initial default.
In short:
I still want my Alan Kay Dynabook!
Wah! :P
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
This has to be about the most clueless advice I've ever read about how to build a better tablet. First of all, just about everything the author mentions already exists and has existed for years with Windows tablet pcs. Speech and handwriting recognition, having a filesystem, and the nebulous "The filesystem is the CMS is the PIM is the email client" already existed or could have easily have been built into the existing tablet pc ecosystem. If those are the features you really care about, why not just buy a laptop or netbook?
At no point in this article does the author acknowledge the importance of the defining features of tablets, namely that they should be portable, have good battery life, have a good screen and have a responsive and well designed touch interface. I consider these to be pretty much the essential basics when it comes to any tablet that hopes to be widely successful. Yet, going on two years later, almost no other company has succeeded in integrating these features into a compelling product despite having a template to work from. iOS itself is not that ambitious an OS. It's actually not the flashiest or most eye-candy-laden OS out there -- not by a a long shot. It doesn't even have the most intuitive user interface all the time. But for core tablet functionality, it is extremely good and is perhaps still unmatched in the industry.
You have to understand how the features of a tablet all work together to support the overall use-cases that you designed the tablet for. So if it is a tablet whose defining features are: (1) not having a keyboard, (2) probably held and used while standing up or lying down, (3) may spend prolonged time outside of the home or away from an outlet, (4) will be used under varying lighting conditions, then why do we see so many tablets these days that are bulky, heavy, have poor screens, and poor keyboards? I don't get that. This is working against your own best interest. Now, there are a lots of tablets that do more than an ipad in a technical sense but since they are such poor tablets they don't differentiate themselves sufficiently from a netbook or laptop to justify the costs.
I think if Microsoft or any company wants to beat Apple at making a better tablet then they need to acknowledge the unique constraints and opportunities of the form factor they are working with. Add features that truly leverage the benefits of a portable device. Aim for a battery life of 15+ hours. This is more than a whole workday because it gives you leeway in case you forget to recharge the device overnight from the previous 'whole day' of work. Find a good balance for security that sits somewhere between the locked down iTunes Appstore and the Android Market. Apps need not be rejected on silly grounds like conformance to a style guide or ease of use but they damn well better not be obvious malware or trojans. With the resources that these companies have it their disposal, how hard can it be to run each app in a sandbox with a monkey-like testing environment and monitor for anomalous outgoing connections to China or some place?
Every one of the major competitors to Apple have lots of cash on hand, well into the billions. If one is serious about tablets, why not buy up or seriously invest in every company that is trying to build reflective screen technology? There are whole classes of use-cases related to the outdoors that are poorly served by any tablet today. Shit, at a minimum, whoever gets this right can crash the ebook market which is a pretty significant market in itself.
Perhaps, I am a fool and this is not as easy as I think, but I never said it was easy anyway. And yet, the problem can't be money since Apple did not have the billions upon billions of revenue that it has now when it was designing the ipad. They just had a very clear idea of the device they were working on and what its purposes were. To this point, Amazon with its
Just read a similar article, but by someone in healthcare who has been implementing tablets for 7 years: "iPad Fatigue: Choose Your Mobile Strategy Wisely"
Found here: http://histalk2.com/2012/02/15/readers-write-21512/
Honestly I think the best criticism of the iPad is that it is a terrible device to write on (since it doesn't support a REAL stylus, those 3rd party crayon ones don't count) which kind of makes no sense for a TABLET.
What many people forget is that language is defined by it's usage, if a false usage becomes common enough it enter language regardless of logic.
100 times NO.
Just because stupid people use an expression incorrectly doesn't make it mean something different.
AccountKiller
"Consumers could care less" could very well be what GGGGP meant, if he meant there is no limit to how little consumers care, so that they could always care less. Right?
Only to an extent. Incorrect usage is never correct. No matter how many times TV journalists say "begs the question" instead of "raises the question", they're still wrong.
Watch out for the US abuse now 'debuting': to 'reach out' to someone, when what they mean is merely to 'make contact'. It's spreading like the plague, you'll hear it tomorrow.
It should instead bring the PC to the tablet and the phone.
We like PCs. That's why we bought them in the first place.
Give us all the power we have at the desktop at our fingertips. And make RDP better... so it can truly bring everything at the desktop to a less powerful item.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Unless you need to send some files over bluetooth. Then you're screwed.
Funny thing is, Gates was gunning for just that in 2001. But the VP of Office or something basically stonewalled pen input integration, so on launch people had to do handwriting inside a small popup window rather than across the whole Word page. And the one program they had that could really show off pen input, Onenote, was not integrated with the typical Office workflow.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
Having never seen a touch screen-based note-taking app being used, I was thinking the same thing. Having to write while your hand floats above the surface doesn't seem to be very natural nor comfortable.
Any insights? Not worth the googling effort at this point.
You don't get the promotion for being productive - you get it for showing you have the newer toys.
And that sums up all that is wrong with the modern work day.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I happened to be on a MS campus in 2001, when Microsoft announced the tablet PCs. They presented both the convertible and the slate type tablet pcs (the latter of which we would now just call tablets) and said that the price premium would be about 10% because of the digitizer pen.
So far so good, except in reality, it was more like a 90% price premium, so understandably only very few people wanted to pay that much. It didn't really get cheaper afterwards, so it was doomed.
If there existed an AFFORDABLE tablet with a digitizer pen (even with a battery in the pen, i don't care), current software, the possibility to install your own system, then me and everyone around would buy some immediately.
2 people
The magic buzzword is to "differentiate" and show what your technology will do that Apple won't even care about, let alone beat you at.
Microsoft needs to Think Different.
That in part is what a scroll bar is. The one on the side of my firefox window right now shows i am about 1/4 down the page while writing this. I never understood this drive towards removing scroll bars from tablets. On phones they may eat up too much space, but on tablets? And now Apple appears to have stripped them out of OSX as well, so we can be damn sure that Gnome, Unity and Windows will follow suit.
Still, the latest ribbon idea from Microsoft seems to be to hide by default. With that, and perhaps setting a Word to fit the whole page on screen (much like a ebook or PDF) one could then use whole screen swipes to go back and forth (with some for paging interfaces that could come into view). Sometimes i wonder why they got the whole "ream of paper" idea from (tho the office toilet may be a good guess).
Still, i think MS is doing it this way to make the transition as painless as possible in terms of relearning. This is something they seem to always consider. Win8 may be the first time since Win95 that MS tries to do a whole new UI, and even with Win95 one could revert back to the Win3.x "desktop" if one wanted (it was hiding in the wings, iirc).
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I prefer "I lerve you!" myself...
I said no... but I missed and it came out yes.
Who says you can't access the company documents....sounds like someone doesn't know what they are doing....
Many of the better note-taking apps have a palm-rest/palm-detection mode for writing with a stylus.
"terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
give it to me now
let me have it on the phone i keep in my pocket and interface with a slick bluetooth ear/eyepiece
i want to have a name and stats displayed for every person i see, my speedometer and the current speed limit displayed whenever im driving, I want a translucent appropriate wikipedia displayed at the edge of my field of vision whenever the system hears "what is ", I want a "quest marker" arrow, compass, and minimap to appear whenever i'm going to a new place, I want the names of the owner of every building i look at to be displayed, I want to speak the 10 items i want to buy and have the computer check the prices of the local stores and calculate the more efficient cost/time ratio to obtaining them and plot a route for me
I already can have most of this information when I'm sitting at a computer. Give it to me when I'm in real life, give me a customizable, skinnable UI for my life and I will know I'm in the future
Sorry, but despite dreams and wishes of the shareholders and shills, MS is not the company to use opportunities. They had a lucky break once and that was it.
The MS approach is to wait until they're sure a market exists, then enter it with a plan to outspend the competitors until they go broke. Seriously, I've been watching these jokers for almost 20 years, and I've never seen them employ any other strategy.
It'll be a very cool day in hell when MS takes on a market with actual innovation.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Oh yes. Please help me make my employees more efficient. I have to hire way too many people as it is. They're costing way too much and making it difficult to justify my 8 figure salary.
I have recently worked on a project that was about developing a tablet version of existing software. Target system was a x86 tablet under Windows 7.
Lessons learned:
1) Using the standard Windows GUI elements with fingers on a touch screen is difficult, because the accuracy is much worse. A stylus is better, but still inferior to a mouse. We (that is, our GUI designer) had to duplicate most GUI elements in double or triple size. After that, our application was reasonably user friendly.
2) Even when the application is tablet-friendly, you still need to manage your Windows settings occasionally. Which brings you back to the above accuracy problem, and right-clicking is slow and awkward compared to the mouse. There goes much of the usefulness of the context menus in the Windows 7 GUI. In short, it sucks. "Throw-the-damn-thing-against-the-wall frustrating" describes it well.
So I think Microsoft needs to re-design both the OS and the applications before Windows and tablets will be an attractive combination. Windows re-design is under way with Windows 8, but I'm not aware of a similar project for Office.
C - the footgun of programming languages
It was a disaster waiting to happen. While it was certainly cool in the eye-candy department, it relied heavily on handwriting recognition which is still pretty bad. Until you can OCR 99% of the handwriting out there, this is way too cumbersome to have to fix mistakes every few words.
Secondly, the journal is cool and all - but how do you index all that information? An interface that uses handwriting naturally penalizes the tagging of that information. Secondly,there didn't seem to be a way to organize journals into folders and books - I don't want random friends going through my creative thought stream or notes about my bank loan. A bit of common sense security would have gone a long way.
Lastly, Courier relied heavily on free-form design and data management. This appeals greatly to artist and visual type folks, but the other 50% of people out there want to have forms, tables and structure. Adding the ability to build structure would have greatly enhanced the experience.
I said no... but I missed and it came out yes.
businesses will adapt anything that improves productivity while conforming to security's infrastructure.
ROFL
You've never been in a large corporation, have you? Politics and whatever the decision makers believe in plays a much bigger role than productivity, even if you manage to measure it.
The last company I worked for introduced the iPad into the company as an "information device for the top 50 managers".
Top 50 wasn't selected by who actually had the most immediate need to have an information device with them, it was by selected who the top 50 people in the corporate hierarchy were.
In other words, they handed out shiny toys to themselves. You could literally smell the ego-boost for weeks when you entered their offices and they were reading their e-mail on the iPad instead of the desktop PC that was an arm's length away.
That is how corporations select what to adapt. Playing golf with the CTO has ten times the chances of landing you the deal that presenting excellent performance measures does.
Yes, I have a low opinion of most managers. I've worked closely with too many of them. There are exceptions, as everywhere. The average manager could be exchanged with a 9 year old and aside from the redecorated office, nobody would notice.
And yes, there were studies about decision quality of so called top managers against random selection and kids. In almost all of them, either the kids or random chance wins.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The app lets you define where your hand rests and ignores touch input from there. It looks like a hand rest that you draw up from the bottom of the screen. So, no no trouble. See the demo video at 2:20. I suppose at this point I should also add the standard disclaimer that I'm not affiliated in any way whatsoever with any of this. I just think it's a cool app. Especially when combined with a stylus (the video just shows them writing with fingers).
Hi, I used to be a complete skeptic when it came to tablets (not just iPads). Then, recently, I saw someone with an iPad + stylus + Notes plus in a meeting, just happily jotting down his hand-written notes on the iPad. And just watching the ease with which he could do that might just have sold me a tablet.
If you want another encouragement, about a year ago I switched to a tablet, because I was carrying a stack of documents about 3 inches thick to a weekly meeting -- often with a pair of them changing between the meetings each week, as the requirements for our system changed, requiring me to print out new ones. After I switched, I only took my tablet. Plus, as a bonus, I could take a bunch of other documents I occasionally wanted reference to in the meetings at no additional cost, even though previously it would have doubled the size of the document stack.
Every once in a while, it did feel a little limiting due to not being able to look at multiple documents at the same time, but overall it was a big help. Plus, the PDFs I loaded in had a linked table of contents one touch away, so I was often able to jump around in the document better than those who had paper copies.
I wasn't the first in those meetings to have a tablet; I was the second. By the time the meetings wrapped up a few months ago, there are 5 tablets being used when we met, and only a couple of holdouts on paper.
where you are posting from.
And therefore, the round hole will be smacked about a bit until it fits, even if the "hammer" is battered to uselessness in the attempt.
or any other "free" cloud services in which you are storing your companies files because you are not able to easily store files locally.
There are a number of drawing tools which offer the snap to geometric shape after drawing as an option:
- Corel's Grafigo (v1 can still be freely downloaded from www.archive.org --- http://www.corel.com/6763/downloads/grafigo/CorelGrafigo.exe )
- FutureWave SmartSketch / Macromedia Flash --- SmartSketch is even configurable in how loose / tight the recognition is
- SketchRight (this one seems to've vanished, but was quite good for architectural use)
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Says you. Fortunately there's no English language authority, only groups who document usage and meaning (ie dictionary folks).
The language evolves, sometimes quite rapidly. A great example of radical change over a relatively long time span is the word "nice". An example of change in a short time span is "gay".
In the end, the correct usage depends on the context, which includes the forum and audience. The TV journalist is probably ok with their usage of "begs the question" because they will be understood by their audience. A student in a philosophy class wouldn't get away with it.
Sounds like the first time I used OneNote on a Latitude XT. I immediately thought "Wow! This is amazing! If only I could get a slate tablet for this.
And yet irregardless of your personal feelings, it is absolutely true. ;)
Sure, not in every situation where one would use such a term, but who is the stupider person, the one who is using a word/phrase "incorrectly", or the one who is incapable of differentiating between situations where it means different things?
Depending on the application. Some will try some palm rejection techniques, but the ones I've used weren't the best and you'd still get some phantom marks. Others allow you to define an area where you will put your hand, but this is very restrictive and feels unnatural. But even if these techniques were perfect, writing on the iPad still suffers from its capacitive screen, in that the stylus must be large and chunky with no extra features. You end up zooming in very close to your text and writing very large to compensate. With a digitizer, the stylus looks and feels just like a pen. It writes with the same accuracy and offers features like pressure sensitivity. Further you can have extra buttons on the stylus for erase mode or alternate pen modes. None of this is possible on the iPad.
"Google maps has completely replaced my need for a map. I used to have several. Recently threw them out."
You may want to re-think that approach. Here's what happened to one man and his family when he depended on Google Maps on a snowy winter evening: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1028_3-6141498.html
The obvious niche for Microsoft is the "Business Tablet". It's clear there's a market, but it's not clear how to do it. A few ideas:
I agree with your first point, but the second and third are a little silly. It's true that neither of those features were shown in the video, but it doesn't seem far-fetched to add those back in through apps or updates. Tagging could be as simple as writing in a special 'title' field, or tapping and holding on a word in the document, then selecting 'make this a tag' from the pop-up menu. With theoretically sufficient OCR, you could even search through the whole thing. Similarly, creating forms and organizing into folders are pretty minor tasks. Given that the only material ever presented was a couple of concept mockups, it's not surprising that they focused on the unique highlights rather than pragmatic details.
But that being said, targeting artists and visually creative people was a very big point of why Courier was so brilliant. Instead of trying to target a completely different audience from Apple, the Courier would have slipped in and stolen Apple's primary target market away from them, leaving them with a restrictive, crappy consumer device as their flagship portable computer. In politics such an incredibly perfect opportunity to steal mindshare and audience away from your competitor rarely happens. Instead MS has gone after Apple's current direct target with a consumer-oriented device, and is trying to break into a market already dominated by a well-supported product, the exact thing that's protected Windows on the PC from being displaced by competitors. It's suicide; they've been trying to market tablet PCs running Windows "for the other 50% of the people out there" for twelve years now, and no one wants them.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
tbh 4 all intensive purposes ur rite sum ppl dunno wen 2 let go uv dat old skool grammer dis b 2012 only looser's wanna hate their dum and i don't want nuthin 2 do wit dem
I've seen others be successful using these applications for note taking with relative success, but besides the ability to print multiple copies, I don't see how this differs much from a piece of paper and pen (and even then you can always copy/scan your paper notes). Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with using either of these methods, but when I'm in a meeting I'd much rather use something where the information is stored in a searchable format (currently use OneNote). Unless I remember which meeting we happened to discuss a particular topic, I'm going to have real trouble finding what was said without reviewing a ton of information. Just my $0.02.
That sounds like an ugly hack. From what I've heard, Lenovo solved that problem with its Thinkpad Tablet by using digitizer for its stylus rather than it imitating touch - so it can actually distinguish between stylus and your hand, and ignore the latter when stylus is active. It sounds like a better engineering solution to me.
What Microsoft has to do to make people sit up and take notice is produce a version of Microsoft Office with an appropriately tablet oriented UI. Since an office app is at best marginal without a keyboard, someone needs to manufacture a decently thin and light tablet with a an optional wireless keyboard. That should be an affordable addition. Bluetooth keyboards for iPads are dirt cheap; I bought my wife one that snaps over her iPad2 to double as a protective case for something like $35.
The moment you add a keyboard, it really becomes a laptop rather than tablet, so a full-fledged Office with tablet-oriented (read: touch) UI is not particularly meaningful. What's needed is tablet UI for tasks that are more common in touch mode - reading documents, selecting & marking text, simple adjustments - that kind of thing. But keep it the way it is for use with keyboard.
Also, I don't see the point in having a wireless keyboard that snaps to case. It's much better to have a connector on the tablet which docks into the keyboard - that way, they share the batteries, too, and you don't need to fudge around with turning the keyboard on and off, just dock it and it's ready to go (and the tablet can adjust UI when so docked).
So a tablet version of office, running on a tablet with a wireless keyboard, would still be a little awkward. I think that could be fixed by having a scroll wheel type control on the keyboard, and some kind of on-screen feedback widget that would pop up in response to show you how far you are scrolling into a document.
The trick is to add a regular laptop trackpad to the keyboard, and enable the OS to use it. It's more convenient than touch when you're using a separate keyboard, anyway, because your hands need to travel less than they do with touch only, and you don't get "gorilla arm" from using it a lot. It also gives you more precision in selecting text etc, something which still remains rather tedious on today's tablets.
To sum it up, what's needed is Asus Transformer, running Windows 8 with Office 15.
Why can't we require MS to open the data
You mean, like this?
Zero and here is why: Geeks think like geeks and NOT the public and sure as hell nothing like consumers. For those that may have missed it let me give you the opportunity to see through the eyes of the consumer:
A Phone is NOT a computer but "A screen i poke that makes calls, plays angry birds and lets me Google and comes with my contract" which is why they don't care how locked down it is, they toss when they get a new contract and figure since phone A is different than phone B nothing will work from one to the other but the SIM card.
A tablet is NOT a computer but "A big phone I can't call on that I poke that surfs and lets me watch movies" so they will have NO desire to run Windows on it, because windows runs on computers and that is NOT a computer.
Finally the reason Linux and ARM are failwhales on the netbook space is because there is no such thing as a netbook it is instead a "baby laptop and babies can do everything a big computer can do only slower, because babies are smaller than big people" got it?
So MSFT can shoot themselves in the face with Windows 8, aka "Ballmer wants to be Apple so damned bad he's gonna fuck the desktop trying to build a WinPad" all they want, it just won't matter. to the public MSFT makes ONE thing, and that is "The thing that lets me run my programs and has a keyboard and is called Windows" and frankly they don't have a fricking clue if its XP or 7, its just Windows. MSFT has been trying to sell tablets for a decade now and gotten nowhere because people are hostile if you break their perceptions. i have allowed over 200 customers to play with Win 8 here at the shop and down to a man THEY ALL HATE IT because "That's not Windows its a cell phone!" and therefor isn't what they expect nor want. Pads and cell phones are supposed to act like phones and NOT like Windows, and when they hear the word "Windows" they want a desktop or a laptop/"baby laptop" and THAT IS IT.
So all the Linux guys can quit freaking about "ZOMFG they are locking down Win 8 so I can't hack it" because this thing is gonna make MSFT Bob look like a good idea. the quicker MSFT just accepts they are the new IBM, with a well paying niche they are gonna be in forever, the better. because if people want an iShiny they'll buy an iShiny and if they want Windows they damned well better get a keyboard and mouse/trackpad with the thing along with a desktop and start button or they WILL be pissed.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Personally I'd rather have that than "I Wuv U sweetie weetie snookums" any damned day of the week, thanks ever so.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Like a zeno's paradox of caring?
God don't ever go down to the southern delta bottoms then bud, your head would asplode! There a sentence like "I'ma fixing ta get right on that, probably tamarrah" would be perfectly acceptable. What many have labeled "ebonics" is simply MS delta bottom speech which if you don't know how "is and be" replace about a dozen words depending on context you'll probably need a translator. Hell I've lived in the south all my life and even i need a translator once I get around Yazoo MS.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I believe that using American as a synonym for illiterate is not considered politically correct these days...
Judging by this little exchange however, quite accurate.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Clever. Only one problem. "Misusing" a word/phrase is not the same thing as bad spelling/grammar.
But.. perhaps what I said could extend to bad/different spelling/grammar. Are the British "wrong" to spell certain words differently from Americans? Are Americans wrong? Why is color/colour acceptable, but love/luv isn't?
Consumers might care about accessing their own files.
Even some of the dumber ones can come up with "creative" use cases that may surprise you. The locked-down-appliance model might not be as great as it's cracked up to be.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
They will be more interested in how cool they look. They won't care that they aren't doing their job as well as they could be. They will choose the inferior product that makes them look better. Looking better has no relationship to job performance.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
take a photo of it. place it in your note. from inputexpert.com
Very specifically, base them on x64 based CPUs, such as Medfield and Fusion. For a tablet, Metro interface is fine, but it still does have to run whatever equivalent Windows applications can run on a PC w/o needing a keyboard or mouse. Or, for Windows 8 tablets, the other thing they can do is provide the same sort of standard USB slots that one finds on a PC or laptop, so that one can connect a USB hub, and then to it, different peripherals as needed - keyboard, mouse, Wireless modem, USB drive, et al.
This is where a resistive touch screen would be better for note-taking. You get more precision than a capacitive screen, and your hand resting on the display will cause fewer problems.
RIM has a patent on a hybrid resistive/capacitive touchscreen which, with the right software, would be great for taking notes. Let's hope that they do something with that patent.
Required reading for internet skeptics
I work for a company big enough that my CEO could get the ear of Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs told him that he did not care about our corporate purchases. That was nearly 2 years ago. The market and the strategy have proved him correct.
Businesses of almost any decent size always seem to think that their "buying power" entitles them to discounts. As Apple has proven, if you make a product that everyone wants, it will find its way into the corporate world. Not only did Apple not give any discounts, they charge a premium for their products and got one of the largest corporate quarterly profits in history as a result. Kudos.
Everyone wants their iGadgets to be usable in the corporate world. But allowing corporate data onto those devices is a nightmare in the making. Because they are owned by the individual, not the company, pushing policy to them is not acceptable. Allowing unfettered, unencrypted access to the corporate network is just not possible. How many unencrypted lost devices with GBs of customer data have to be lost/stolen before everyone accepts that as fact?!
Along comes portable device virtualization. This is coming soon for Android devices. I don't know about iOS. When robust enough, users can opt to allow a virtual corporate "machine" to be created on their own device. That virtual device within the physical device is then given the necessary access. Pushing policy (like forced encryption, 30-second screen-lock timeouts, etc.) can be done. If the device is lost, then that virtual portion can be remotely wiped. No harm.
That's the future of personal portable devices. I don't want corporate control over my personal devices, so I have both a company phone and a personal phone. Clunky because I carry them both around. Once I can go corporate-virtual, I will ditch the company physical device and be that much happier. Consumers will be that much happier too since they can get a new personal device whenever they want, rather than being limited by company policy (or politics) as to when they can upgrade.
So MS (and any other company) will be forced to compete with Apple at the same level. There is no providing the functionality that Apple doesn't. The market does NOT want another device. They want ONE device - And one device only - that gives me corporate and personal capabilities, but also keeps them separate. And companies want to know that their data is secure.
blue tooth and a single micro USB port should be fine... a micro HDMI would also be advisable.
MS Just needs to make a version of windows that will run on these limited devices while still being windows.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
All of my corporate clients have iPads, yet even the least informed immediately realize the limitations of not being able to run any real desktop or access the company files.. While consumers could care less, businesses will adapt anything that improves productivity while conforming to security's infrastructure.
Which is why every corporate client I've seen so far has everything on RDC or Citrix clients that they can access and do everything on their iPads while not actually putting any corporate (or Healthcare) data on the remote device. They all realize that the portability of the iPad wins over a laptop unless they need an actual portable workstation, in which case, no software is going to make a slate tablet function how they desire.
The "Courier" was a concept, no prototypes, no code written, it was just a video animation.
Almost everyone throws everything into the a pile in the My Documents folder.
You're lucky. Most I know just store everything on their desktop.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Actually, 99% of them need only a paper notebook and a telephone.
The pads just work in a way that is more intuitive for most people. I can't count the times I've gone to someone and they've touched the screen and said I want to do this with this file. You're now halfway there.
Even with my better half, who I've gotten fairly adept with a laptop, I've just had her try solitaire with my Touchpad. It's so easy to operate that while she didn't say much, I fear I've lost my Touchpad. It'll work great for just about everything she does.
That's the thing with Pads. People like 'em. They work the way they think. And most everyone I know is fed up to the gills with Microsoft. They look at MS as monthly patches that hose something on the device, and that will need an army of IT people to support it. Microsoft is getting into the modern tablet market way too late, and people still have fond memories of Vista's debacle that they're not in a hurry to trust any products or OS offerings from Redmond.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
What did "nice" used to mean?
Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
For anyone else who's curious, from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=nice&searchmode=none:
nice:
late 13c., "foolish, stupid, senseless," from O.Fr. nice "silly, foolish," from L. nescius "ignorant," lit. "not-knowing," from ne- "not" (see un-) + stem of scire "to know." "The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj." [Weekley] -- from "timid" (pre-1300); to "fussy, fastidious" (late 14c.); to "dainty, delicate" (c.1400); to "precise, careful" (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to "agreeable, delightful" (1769); to "kind, thoughtful" (1830). In 16c.-17c. it is often difficult to determine exactly what is meant when a writer uses this word. By 1926, it was pronounced "too great a favorite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness." [Fowler]
"I am sure," cried Catherine, "I did not mean to say anything wrong; but it is a nice book, and why should I not call it so?" "Very true," said Henry, "and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk; and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word indeed! It does for everything." [Jane Austen, "Northanger Abbey"]
Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
The meaning of 'could' and 'couldn't' haven't changed recently in any other context, so it's useless to argue that this isn't just bad grammar.
one who is incapable of differentiating between situations where it means different things?
The ability to recognize incorrect usage does not imply that one cannot decipher the original intent. Take this present case for example: We were all well aware of what he meant even though we were also aware of his incorrect usage.
AccountKiller
For those who are smartly using thin client and devlivered applications in their workplace, the ipad is just another screen. They can work at there desk or on any device they choose, and as soon as that cats out of the bag, people will realize they want devices they can work and play on, and that means the focues moves to size, battery life, and connectivity.
Don't get me wrong - I love the idea of a wide-open creative environment. But I'm also a software developer who has worked in science, journalism and various businesses - and when you're marketing a message to business you have to understand the mentality and value of productivity.
You can't market a product as a creative environment to general business period. They will buy two for their marketing and graphics departments. That's it. Apple labored for years to move the Mac from a creative product to a consumer product. Same thing with Commodore Amiga, and thousands of other great products.
Most businesses operate essentially as habitual processes - they do something over and over again and make money. The lasting businesses out there have learned to adapt and change these habits, but it's incremental and slow.
If you want to sell into a business, you need to have a base of functionality that supports those habitual processes. I'm not sure how that would be for the Courier, but hopefully you can see my point.
I said no... but I missed and it came out yes.
Selling directly to business at first wouldn't have been necessary. Home adoption has been shown to drive business adoption when it comes to portable devices. We've seen that now very obviously with the messy IT shifts around people bringing their mobiles and iPads in to work; if this dynamic were not so, the Blackberry would still dominate. If the Courier had been released when it was ready, even if it didn't launch with super-strong business oriented features, it would have been positioned well to be part of that flow. Instead of one or two company-bought Couriers in the graphics/marketing departments, everyone in those departments who could afford one would have one out of their own pockets, just like graphics designers insisted on bringing their Macs to work even before OS X had good enterprise network support.
Your reasoning recapitulates the mistake Gates made: expecting everything to be done on day one. Considering that it's not as if Microsoft doesn't have experience, staff, or willpower to make a product work in a business setting, the Courier could have been very low-risk: launch the product so that the bleeding-edge adopters get their chance at it (in a low-volume production run), make sure the product's core formula is strong enough to survive in the creative market, then release a major OS update that adds whatever the enterprise wants. They would've had the product out the door fast enough to siphon away a substantial number of iPad buyers (who really wanted the features of the Courier more and just didn't know it) and, after the patches, Apple's flagship tablet product would have been left behind as a portable television for drooling infants.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Enough of this mindless twaddle. If you really believe this mindless tripe about "cool" outweighing usefulness you simply don't work with real people. If you do work with real people, it's practically guaranteed you are the insufferable tech snob of whatever group you belong to...
Fiat Homos et Pereat Theos
...of these insipid "real work" claims about the requirement for a file browser to do said "work" is sounding more and more like the tech boors who pretended DOS was more efficient than the GUI, and that GUIs made computers "toys". It was ridiculous then, it's new counterpart is ridiculous now. Even moreso in the next few years.
Fiat Homos et Pereat Theos