I was at the computer shop and they had a number of notebook computers whose screen pivot around to make a table computer. Cool.
So what do you do with it? What software is available? Does it work like a big PDA or what?
I think it would be a great way to play Civ 3 for example, but how many programs support touch screens?
I don’t think the software needs to support touch screens. You jab it with a stylus and it registers as a mouse click.
friedo is right, the touch screen input just works like mouse movements and clicks.
We have a Toshiba Portege Tablet PC and use it for on-site CAD work. The guys can hold it as they wander around, checking dimensions and entering data. It is like a large PDA, but with some advantages and disadvantages. As it runs what is essentially Windows XP you can run all your usual applications on it for instance, but it does get heavy after prolonged use.
Would it work really well as an e-book reader?
Can’t give you a factual answer to that, as I haven’t tried it and don’t have any experience with e-book reading.
My opinion though is that yes it might. It is lighter and more compact than the average notebook for instance.
It’s big advantages are in the area of touch screen mobility of course: being able to draw notes, text and diagrams directly on the screen whilst moving about. Outside of this though, my experience with them would make me cautious about buying one for myself. I think a notebook would be a better buy in many cases, not least on a price to performance ratio basis.
Does Word support a touch screen and handwriting? That would be neat, I like using Graffiti.
I don’t believe it is supported directly, ie Word doesn’t interpret the pen strokes itself. What you can do is use the built in functionality of TabletXP to do it for you and to convert the writing to type as a real-time ‘translation’. From the experimenting I have done it seems to work quite well, rather similar to using a PDA with PocketPC. I have to say though, that after the novelty wore off, I found myself switching back to notebook mode and using the keyboard, YMMV.
You can also use the Journal and Notes programs to store the handwritten items as they appear on screen (rather than converted to type).
Sounds like this thing is not ready for prime time.
My friend has one that he loves. The ability to write on it in your own hand is pretty cool. His screen looks like a legal pad and has a little box of options for him to use. So in class he is writing his notes, drawing the graphs and equations, clicking on the “highlighter” function and a fat yellow line covers the important points, yada yada yada…It thens saves as a pdf or doc and he can convert what he writes to text with a high accuracy.
A professor we had loves it for teaching. The PowerPoint slides can now be drawn on while in a presentation easily, then that can be saved. So he has his set presentation, draws extra equations and graphs and notes as he talks, then saves this to the intranet for students to access later. I see advantages in this for presentation value alone. Think of being asked a question in the middle of your speech and effectively having an overhead projector right there to use to illustrate your point. And then email that to the guy.
The size is nice too. I can fit my friends into my zippable leather attache case, so when I am big and important after this MBA program, I can carry one thing with me that is half the size and weight of a briefcase.
There are probably other applications that are too specific for us to consider. But I like writing by hand, so that makes the difference for me. YMMV.
-Tcat
Paul, if you want to use anything as an e-book reader, I’d recommend just getting a PDA. I have an Ipaq, and any one of my 4,000 e-books works just fine. I have the complete works of Heinlien on there now, along with some George R.R. Martin.
Plus, you can get 1GB memory cards for under $100 CAD. That’s a lot of books!!!
I have often thought of getting one. I thought it would be handy for meetings and stuff. Attached to a projecter, it could be used instead of a white board and all of our scribblings could be recorded. But I would like to see one before I lay out that kind of cash.
For twice the fun you could buy one of these
They are well suited for mobile Geographic Information System (GIS) work. Large screen for viewing maps, yet very portable. Trying to work a GIS application like ArcPad on a PDA is frustrating because of the small screen size, and a laptop is basically useless for carrying in the field because you need two hands to hold it. A tablet can be held in one hand while you enter data with the other. It is also very helpful to be able to scale up data entry forms to a larger screen size to make data entry easier when you are in the field (wearing gloves, walking through rough terrain, etc.) With the faster processors and larger harddrives you can actually run most your desktop programs, which cannot be done with a PDA.
There are a few special ruggedized tablets which are very expensive, but most can be customized with some kind of neoprene case that adds a lot of durability.
For these reasons, tablets are also very popular with home inspectors and other jobs where it is necessary to be able to walk around and enter data very quickly. On the other hand I have no idea why they are so expensive relative to laptops.
One word: Photoshop.
With the pressure-sensitive touch screen, you can draw on the screen and have it go straight into the program, like drawing onto a piece of paper. And there are also all the video and graphics capabilities of a standard computer, in the same shape as a standard sketchbook.
I waaant one. But they’re going to have to come down in price a lot, or I get a lot more spare cash.
Well, my dad uses a tablet to conduct home inspections. He’s got some report-generation software, and being able to insert notes on various features while still in the house is certainly preferable to transferring notes from paper afterwards. Then, after the inspection, he uses the tablet as a standard laptop to finalize the reports at home.
I’ll second the Photoshop comment. That program is incredibly easier to use on a tablet.
So what programs do I need to use a tablet to take my handwriting into Word?
(Be gentle, I am Mac user.)
I’m not sure, but I think it is either part of the OS or a utility that comes with it. In other words, the software should already be installed when you buy the Tablet PC.
Would a Xplore iX104 work? It looks like it is even bulletproof:
You could just buy a WACOM pad. Sony tried creating a predecessor to the tablet PC specifically for photoshop use, but the thing fell flat on its face (and it was a desktop). I imagine that the tablets have the same problems as a laptop re: upgrading being difficult or impossible.
I’ve not used a Wacom pad, but I can’t imagine it being quite as easy to use. With the pad, you’re moving the stylus over one surface while looking at another. With the tablet, you’re actually moving the stylus across the image you’re working on, as though you were drawing on paper. For a professional or someone artistically inclined, this may be less of an issue, but I think that the tablet gives me a bit more accuracy.
Of course, I wouldn’t buy a tablet just to play with Photoshop, but it’s a nice bonus.
My company is currently looking at introducting tablet PCs for property managers to use as they perform property inspections. They would be able to write on the tablet much like a clipboard, and the information would be uploaded real-time into our databases on the server.
I personally would not want one, but that’s because I type several times faster than I write.