Microsoft Corp.’s Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005—the first major upgrade to the Tablet PC operating system—provides enough enhancements to entice some new converts. The update also will tide over current fans and developers until the release of a “Longhorn” version for Tablet PCs—or whatever Microsoft has planned for the Tablet operating system on the company’s long and often-winding product road map.
Tablet OS Makes Progress
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Huh? What do you mean?
I think he is asing when are we going to see a Linux version of it… Could be wrong, but I suppose its never too early to ask whether it will run Linux or not on anything new….
once again if you see anything good for windows next thing when will we see linux ? & blah blah
as a tablet pc is a laptop pretending to be a pda i guess that the pen and screen acts like a kind of mouse/trackpad that when pen is in contact with surface the mousebutton is pressed. the screen itself should work nicely with your avarage xfree version. the only thing im asking about is the hinge that you have on those laptops that you can fold into a tablet, do they have any kind of electronics in them to rotate the screen or something?
as for getting a program like onenote going, there is allready handwriteing recognition working on linux driven pdas like sharp zaurusso i dont realy see a problem there. in fact i think that with the right backing by the hardware makers linux should run just as well on your avarage tablet as it does on your avarage laptop (basicly most problems comes from suspend/hibernate modes)…
that im sad that they discontinued smart displays. sure i can understand the problem of the licensing but as they would most likely get it back in sales of licences for the smart displays. i think it mostly faulted on the fact that they are doing pr seat licences on servers, not pr install and that by adding smart displays they turned windows home and pro into a kind of terminal server…
either Xandros or Lycos does a tablet PC version of Linux. I think it currently lacks a major part though.
AS for the tablet in general, They are much to heavy, and hot for now. They started off good using the transmeta processors, but those aren’t fast enough, so they use pentium M’s which cause a lot of heat compared to transmeta. Also what battery life if you can get an hour out of one while surfing the web( a perfect fit for non-office work)you are lucky.
Tablet PC’s will fail this time around as well. I say they make a thrid comeback around 2010 Hopefully by then the probelms with them will be solved. The idea is great, the tech to make it happen at a worthwhile price isn’t there yet. Or if billy Gates happens to be in the mood he can just have one or two shipped to me, since hardware is free and it’s only the software that actually costs money.
I own a tabletPC (a toshiba M200) that is running Linux and has never even been booted into windows.
I get 3-3.5 hours usage for web surfing, document editing etc and even get 2 hours of heavy usage.
Tablet OS Makes Progress
Both users are reportedly delighted.
Some say the Tablet PC is already dead. I certainly hope not. I worked at a hospital not too long ago, and we could have really used affordable, wireless, and cross-platform compatible tablets in the ER… man that would have saved us monstrous amounts of time.
If the tech really isn’t there right now… then I’d say they just need to make currant PDAs triple or quadruple in screen size (but not weight ;-)) and we’d be good to go!
I never understood the value of PDAs until I played around with my Dad’s… I’ve heard government people in D.C. are hooked on “blackberry” thingamajigs…
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Current, TAblet’s are to heavey to use in the curent configurations. Also one battery charge wouldn’t last an eight hour shift, require 50% more so some could be charging whiule others were in use.
Tablets will take off when a few things are met.
1)Weight goes down to about half of current models
2)Battery life gives you 8 hours of wireless networking.
3)Improved interface setups(stop making it look like a desktop, and improved hand writing). This is being worked on.
4)make better use of wireless tech. Bluetooth the keyboards, so you can sit at a desk, press a couple of buttons, and click a couple of icons, and switch to any local keyboard.
5)Transparent network( files need to be able to be mobile in case the battery dies at the wrong time).
Some of these can be done now.
Right on,
the strange thing is the administration required us to use laptops that only had 10 hours of battery life (w/ extra battery pack) and so we had the same problem during long shifts. It was just so dumb it was unbelievable.
I suggested improving our IT in ER at almost every opportunity I could but I was ignored because billing uses ancient unix-like mainframes that were extremely difficult to get new tech to work with. I didn’t really believe them… where there is a will, there is a way. Even if initial cost of conversion is large, faster patient turnaround = $$$, but try convincing any management types of that…it’s like watching a bunch of sissies complain about a problem and do nothing to fix it. Behold, a Sigma-Six antichrist!
I think the demand is there, the tech is almost there, it’s just the product simply hasn’t materialized yet. I’d give it a year or two 😉
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