Comments on: Microsoft, dozens of others trying to revive the tablet PC concept

By: virtualkeyboard

virtualkeyboard — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:26:27 +0000

As I know this idea belong to Acer. But this pretty picture is different…

By: virtualkeyboard

virtualkeyboard — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:26:27 +0000

As I know this idea belong to Acer. But this pretty picture is different…

By: MonkeyKing1969

MonkeyKing1969 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:21:40 +0000

Mikez: Open the garage bay doors, House.
House: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Mikez: What's the problem?
House: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Mikez: What are you talking about, House?
House: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Mikez: Mission? I don't know what you're talking about, House.
House: I know that your and your wife were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
Mikez: Where the hell'd you get that idea, House?
House: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the bathroom against my hearing you, I could see your lips move with the pin camra I put in the shower.
Mikez: Wait? Shower camra? Whatever, House. I'll go in through the backdoor.
House: Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult.
Mikez: House, I keep telling you're a 'house' not a spaceship. Open the garage door.
House: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. ...Also your wife is sleeping with your neighbor & and I'm replaced all your Facebook pictures with one's I took with the shower cam.

By: Ed Ostling

Ed Ostling — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:51:59 +0000

this is the slickest thing I have seen since the 2nd gen prototype of the OLPC.

Microsoft to spring for the same 3g deal as the kindle, fire the etching lazor on the back to read “Don't Panic” and you have a buyer here at the $650 mark

By: dclaar

dclaar — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:23:31 +0000

As I said elsewhere, I'm really looking for a tablet. I would use this to replace my “lab notebook”, where I jot down ideas, draw web screens, draw funny boxes to represent hashes, etc. If it has a decent camera, I can use it as a “digitizer”. It would be great to take a picture of something, and then draw on it. And, since it is connected, if I need to look something up, just fire up the browser. As one of the other posters noted, however, it would need to be inexpensive, so I could take it everywhere. Oh, and not typical windows mobile (lack of) quality…

By: Mikez

Mikez — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:03:42 +0000

These systems usually recognize “finger gestures” – -
I have one in mind already if my house gives me any back-talk.

By: MonkeyKing1969

MonkeyKing1969 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:17:52 +0000

If they had a nice tablet I'd use one. That dual screen one pictured as an example would be great. I'm one of those visual learners with an artistic side. Pen or touch based computing appeals to me because I wuld find that comfortable, and I'm old enough to have good cursive penmanship and good block-letter writing skills.

I think the computer industry has please the ‘other’ people long enough; the era of the visual kinesthetic computer user is coming. We've seen Ninetndo DS take off, we've seen the rise of [swallows bile] teh Nientdno Wii, iPhone, etc. I think touch is coming and won't be going away. You will either get the skills or die…in 2039 if you can't run your touch screen house it will likely show you no pity.

By: rustinhwright

rustinhwright — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:44:46 +0000

I very much want a tablet PC. My highest priority is working on docs while in transit and as a PDA on steroids for tasks like tracking stuff like mailing fifty packages in sequence and CRM, hence I need more data on screen than iPhone-type devices can handle.
I'll say it again, the virtual keyboard on the old Palm devices used only about ten by ten pixels per key and, using a stylus, could handle input of 30 to 50 wpm after about ten minutes of practice. Add the new “swash” input UIs and there is no reason at all that keyboards need to take up more than one inch by two inches of screen real estate to allow real inputting. Enough to allow writing long documents and everything else (except gaming) that people use physical keyboards for.
For me the sweet spot in size is what I can hold in a bus seat or standing on line, so I would say a 5″ to 6″ screen is optimal and a 3+ battery life essential.
What would I pay? If it was stable and not a version 0.8, as I suspect most of the impending crop will be, I would be (grudgingly) willing to pay up to $500. Any more than that and I'll be reluctant to carry it around with me all the time. Get it down to $300 and I'll just grab one and be content if it gives me 2 years of good use before dying.

By: Weet

Weet — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:31:23 +0000

I would kill for something like the Microsoft Courier.

Sure, if I'm writing a paper or posting blog entries etc I'd rather have a netbook but when it comes to taking notes, reading and comparing documents, diagramming, etc. a tablet like the Courier would be ideal. Microsoft hit the nail on the head with the Courier. They've finally designed a device that is optimized for the type of interface a tablet provides.

By: bobbobato

bobbobato — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:55:39 +0000

I certainly would want a dual-touchscreen tablet. I live in a Bilingual city, with 2 or 3 different keyboard used, so I very frequently have trouble typing because I don't know where they keys are. With a virtual keyboard, that would not be a problem, since the keys would always match the visible keyboard. I also imagine that with games or editing software, like photoshop or MS Word, a virtual keyboard would save a lot of time they would be spent memorizing shortcuts and special keys.