Tablet .NOT

3 min read

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meI pretty much concur with Jeff's opinion on the Tablet PCs, and I spent most of yesterday actually playing with them.

What we're talking about is PIII-M at 800Mhz performance, which is apparently the best low voltage processor Intel currently produces. HP is actually using a Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 which roughly yields similar performances.

All of the Tablet PCs I've tried were quite slow, noticeably so.

The OS is a superset of Windows XP Professional, theoretically able to run all of your current applications. But most apps will not support direct pen input, at least not for while.

Contrary to what you may think, a special stylus is required. No touch-screens, like Palms or Pocket PCs. The digital pen (as they call it) is electromagnetic and does not need to be in contact with the screen to control the pointer, which is extremely awkward when actually writing on the tablet. The minute you lift your hand, the cursor goes flying. I've seen it happen to everybody, even the experts on stage.

I can see how being able to use digital ink improves productivity over paper, but whatever gain is made is lost the minute you try to navigate around the OS with a pen. Simple tasks such as launching an application or saving a document become laborious.

My grade: D+

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