PC Expo: Day 2

Author
Aron Schatz
Posted
June 26, 2002
Views
69196
Tablet PCs and Serial ATA are the topics for today

Page 1: Tablet PC

<B>Day 2</B>:
Before I start, Thank you to all who emailed me to inform me of who Eizo is. I now know Smile. <a href="http://www.eizo.com/">Here is their website</a>.

No intro is need for today. What I did today (For the 3 hours that I went) was check out the new tablet PCs due out on the 7th of November. These things use a modified version of Windows XP dubbed 'Tablet PC edition'. I'll also cover Serial ATA today as well.

<B>The Tablet PC</B>:
Microsoft does something right for a change. The Tablet PC to me is the best thing to happen since the portable computer. The concept of a Tablet PC is to have the power of a full function computer and make it so easy and seemless that you wouldn't need to know about it at all. These devices are so ahead that I was amazed (rarely happens). I also got to try it for a few minutes and boy was it easy as cake to use.

There are some differences between the pocket pcs of today and the tablets of tomorrow. First is the sheer processing power. The tablet PC is a PC, with an x86 cpu and normal ram and a hard drive. The second is input. The tablet pc has a MUCH better input schema than does the pocket pc, and I hope that all of it filters into the pocket pc system. My handwriting is terrible, but the unit missed only one letter in a whole sentence that I type just like on paper. Which brings me to the third point, ease of use. You have all the functions of your PC in your hands, and more. You physically can write on the screen and transfer the type into text. What is also equally cool is that many tablet PCs are already laptops! Let me show you.

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/june02/pcexpo2/tbclosed.jpg">
This just one of the many I saw, but this one stood out to me the most.</center>

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/june02/pcexpo2/tbside.jpg">
Here is the guy presenting it.</center>

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/june02/pcexpo2/tbdrawing1.jpg">
An example of the GUI with writing.</center>

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/june02/pcexpo2/tbdrawing2.jpg">
An example of the GUI with writing number 2.</center>

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/june02/pcexpo2/tbopen.jpg">
A laptop? Would you guess this is the same unit, just opened up and the screen flipped.</center>

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/june02/pcexpo2/tbwriting.jpg">
Here is the guy writing on it.</center>

This is the best thing to happen to a laptop in years. Now, let me inform you of something different with the pen. Instead of being just a touch based device, it is also a motion sensing device as well. The unit will know when the pen is close to the unit and will act as a mouse and won't click until you touch the screen, it follows the pen above the screen. You indeed have a mouse that means. And since it is also a normal laptop, you can use the keyboard and mouse if you like.

There will be versions of the tablet pc that is only the tablet itself, but I still like the hybrid tablet/laptop unit the best. The unit was very light in my hands and I could comfortably write on it, just as I would paper. After all, the goal of the unit is to replace paper and I think it will do a good job of doing that. This will be a great thing for someone like me in college will all the notetaking I need to do.

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/june02/pcexpo2/vstabletnew.jpg">
This is ViewSonic's tablet only PC, very small form factor and very portable.</center>

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