« The Personality of Computers | Main | Windows 7 & Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” – Dual Boot Install »
Tablets Revisited
By sparky | October 2, 2009
At the start of this year, I was introduced to a podcast called “TWiT” – This Week in Tech. It’s run by a famous American radio host Leo Laporte, and it involves him inviting various tech-celebs (people renowned in the tech industry) to talk about issues and news from the last week to do with technology.
One of the common panelists is John C Dvorak – and I generally like what he writes, he makes sense, and often is right – admittedly I relate to his cynical undertones.
However, recently he wrote an article on what would make the perfect tablet. I’m not too sure I agree.
My main reason is it all depends on what you want the tablet to do, or achieve.
John’s ‘list’ follows:
1. The machine should be about the thickness and size of a standard clipboard. It’s a size we are used to and a device this size would fit wherever a clipboard fits.
2. It should weigh about a pound. The weight of today’s Kindle e-book reader should be the same weight.
Agreed. The device does have to be relatively thinner than a notebook, and perhaps not as bulky. But until they find a better power source to batteries, I think this will remain a slight pipe dream. The truth is most notebooks are quite light – even with the battery inserted.
3. It should have a digital ink or MEMS display-technology screen. There are many versions of this so-called digital ink technology and there must be one that would be ideal for this application. This low-power technology does not have to be powered up to display. The image is permanent until it is powered up and erased. Most e-book readers will use this sort of technology since it has a high contrast ratio, thus increasing readability.
This one makes sense. You want a technology that is vivid and crisp enough to replicate print on paper, whilst ensuring longevity in battery life.
4. Multitouch screen. I do not think I have to explain why this is necessary. I’m sure Apple will feature this for sure.
I’m not entirely sure how this would be useful – maybe for that gimmicky ‘zoom in / zoom out’ trick with four fingers. Though, you don’t realistically need ‘multi-touch’.
Perhaps in some primary school applications, or medical fields it could be useful – but you can’t enforce this as a ‘standard’. So, back to my key argument: Depends on the application for which the tablet is being designed.
5. Massive I/O. As a PC user I like my machines to have a lot of I/O and connectivity options. This means Wi-Fi, WiMAX as well as all sorts of USB connectivity. If the machine is to be thin it may have to be done with a dongle, although I can see the device having a lip on one side with room for connectors. I hate losing dongles.
This one is a big wrong in my books. Excessive I/O may seem ‘cool’ and ‘handy’ – but how many people realistically need to have firewire, usb, audio in/out, external video, etc. on a device that has limited applications?
It makes designing a case complex, and makes designing the board even more complex- along with the additional cost factor for components to make the I/O work.
An alternative would be to have a narrow connector at one side of the device which ‘docks’ into a docking station. This docking station would allow for:
Charging, Connectivity (USB, FireWire, E-Sata,etc), External Video (HDMI, VGA / DVI), Gigabit LAN.
Though, that said, you might be able to get away with a mini-HDMI connector on the unit itself for presentations, or even an SDHC slot for storage of files.
Besides, with the way things are going, we may end up having a wireless ‘charging station’.
The unit itself could have Wireless Networking (N-Standard should be more than enough for most people), as well as BlueTooth connectivity.
6. Built-in GPS so the whole thing can be used as a car navigation system.
Interesting thought: but maybe not. A 12 or 15 inch display is hard to mount adequately for using as a guidance system. Stick to the 3 or 5 inch navigators.
7. Built-in Apple TV and full screen video-processing capability. It could be used as a small hi-def television in the kitchen, perhaps.
That’s just silly. At some point we’re forgetting the purpose of tablets.
A tablet, I see, should be used much the same way as the ‘Data-Pads’ in Star Trek. Replacing pen & paper with a digital, more re-usable form.
Modern tablet computers are wasted on gimmicky solutions. Let’s start thinking of real useful applications where these devices can be used – such as hospital’s to replace patients charts, where the records are being stored on a local server, rather than fragile paper.
Topics: Hardware, Hype, Public Perception | 1 Comment »
October 5th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
First thing to point out: you and John have different ideas of what “perfect” is. It sounds like he is talking perfect as in “can do absolutely everything I desire”… where as your definition of perfection is more “has reasonable bang for buck”… you make this rather clear when you start bringing in board complexity and design complexity as issues. John’s definition of perfection is ignoring these as implementation issues.
So, excusing that definition discrepancy… the next thing to be a little careful of is some of your generalizations sounds disctinctly similar in nature to Bill’s (alleged) statement that 640K is enough ram for everyone. The multitouch and video comments seem… well… a little short sighted
.
How many multitouch interfaces are in existence at the moment? In every day use for me… the answer is about 0. So until we see some examples of these, it is a bit premature to rule out the whole area of interface design as “gimmicky”. I suspect the mouse was originally though of as gimmicky until Windows 3.1 showed how it eased navigation and reduced the barriers for entry into the computer realm…
I definitely agree though that we do need more thought on where tablets can be effectively used. I suspect the lack of adoption up to now is still related to high purchasing cost, high power costs, and still very clunky technology. Thinner, lighter and cheaper will be what is required for these devices to start replacing paper in any form.