Comments on: Article ponders: Will Tablet PCs ever become mainstream?

By: TDavid

TDavid — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 05:23:29 +0000

Er, Shel, are you writing those notes in your own handwriting on your notebook? Didn’t think so. My notes are in my own handwriting. I used to use yellow pads, but not any more That’s a huge advantage for Tablet PC users and it doesn’t have the annoying chatter of typing which is disruptive in small meeting settings.

By: shel Israel

shel Israel — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 04:31:53 +0000

You mention one killer app: ” Microsoft’s OneNote isn’t flawless, but it’s extremely handy for taking notes at meetings. You can record the audio (video too) and sync to your notes. This put me over the top in my tablet purchase.” I do previsely that with OneNote on my notebook. What;s the advantage of a tab PC in that case?

By: Tablet PC Blogs

Tablet PC Blogs — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:38:23 +0000

Using a Tablet PC

TDavid is right. Another way of saying it is that there is a barrier between Tablet PC users and Non-Tablet…

By: Tablet PC Blogs

Tablet PC Blogs — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:05:50 +0000

TDavid ponders the Tablet PC Mainstream Quandry

TDavid states, “What the non-Tablet PC users care about are: how can I use this to make
computing more…

By: Al

Al — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 22:14:45 +0000

With the switch to Intel, Apple could do it right and make Tablet computing the ‘next big thing’.

I would buy one and switch my Geological Consulting business to Macs in a heartbeat.

I wouldn’t need that wonderful spell checker of yours on a Mac.

By: David H Dennis

David H Dennis — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 20:05:00 +0000

I was a tablet skeptic - I can’t read my own handwriting nowadays, preferring to type at 100wpm instead of hand writing at a painful 10wpm. I tried a tablet briefly and my best handwriting (not that this is saying much) looked like kiddie scrawls when translated to the tablet.

A friend of mine is a Chemistry professor, and he uses his tablet PC like a blackboard in class. It’s projected using a LCD projector so the class can see it. After class, he saves a capture of the lecture and students can access it. That’s a very cool use of the technology that made me really appreciate it.

Still, I’m also a vehement Microsoft hater, so I will wait on tablets until/unless Apple does one.

By: mc

mc — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 19:07:46 +0000

When talking about an Apple Tablet (which I would LOVE to see), keep in mind that the entire gesture-based OS interactions of the Newton have been moved to OS X. The Newton was brilliant at this, letting you write anywhere, translating phenomenally (with the Rosetta HWR, not the original fiasco from Paragraph that has been improved in MS Tablets these days), and letting you use gestures to do computer-typical actions. For example, when you scribbled over a word, it poofed away. You could “bind” split words together (removing the space) by putting a “V” under the space and “connecting” the words (it’s totally natural when you do it, a copy-editing gesture with results). You could tap and drag text about, drag your text to the edge of the screen to “store” it as a clipboard, and you had multiple clipboards available to you (through some freeware) from which you could drag (paste as cut) or tap-and-drag (poste as copy from the clipboard). It was simply incredible. It IS for me, since I still use mine.

Thing is, I’d drop it in a second if an OS X Tablet arrived. I have been waiting for 2 years. With the Intel chip shift, power issues resolved, etc., I continue to dream…