@doogald:

Tablets are fine for filling forms, but anything else they’re just not as efficient for me. And making a convertible just means that you are adding extra weight, etc., to a notebook that I rarely need.

I've never really used a tablet, but I think they'd be useful for much more than filling out forms. I think they'd be good for Web browing (where you don't have to do a lot of typing), E-book reading and following RSS feeds. Notice that all of those are basically read-only and don't rely on writing at all. The ability to hold a tablet like a book instead of a laptop seems useful.

Also, how much weight does a convertible really add? Compared to a true tablet, probably a lot. However, if you compare it to a notebook, I suspect not much at all.

@Zealot:

Such machines are now the betamax of PCs….interesting tech, complete failure.

As Frank said, I see them advertised regularly in the newspaper. They aren't as popular as notebooks, but they are there.

If you want to see a truly failed technology, look at the UMPC. :D

@Jake_Speed:

But, batteries haven’t changed much. I still think you need more than 4 hours to stay away from the cord.

No, they haven't changed much, although fuel cells have been rumored to be around the corner for a while.

However, as Frank pointed out, this isn't a problem that's unique to tablets. If you want a tablet significantly smaller or lighter than a laptop, you'll probably get a smaller battery, too, but you can always carry a spare or buy an extended battery.

Of course, you can easily get 8 or more hours of battery life on any electronic device -- providing you're willing to put up with a large enough battery. :D Imagine how much life your phone could get with a laptop battery....

Steve

writing recognition? most people i know are gradually loosing the ability to actually write as we are 'keyboarding' instead.

heck, some schools don't even teach handwriting to little kids anymore.

so, i don't think writing is the killer app for tablets. i suggest the iphone offers a much better vision of what a tablet can offer. gesture based interface, sip, always on internet connectivity, add a voip phone and bluetooth and drop the price to less than $500 while retaining all the features of a typical $600 laptop today, and you have a winner platform. so, 18 months from now this is going to be a very interesting choice that will compete with the netbooks of tomorrow.

Well, My P1610 gets around 4 hours. So that number is not longer an impossible one. 8 hours is another story.

I was a little sarcastic about the OS and microsoft handwriting recognition in my first post, they have come a long way, I guess, I'm sarcastic because they usually don't fix things completely before moving on to another experiment/project.

But, batteries haven't changed much. I still think you need more than 4 hours to stay away from the cord.

I have been using a Fujitsu tablet for over a year now. I have 2 batteries in it, and with some serious use at times am able to get 4-5 hours at least, with WiFi on, outlook running through VPN, spreadsheets & presentations,and all the while Firefox on for when I get the chance to read blogs, etc. I would never go back to a laptop if I can help it. And everywhere I go, internal or to my customers, they all say that they could use a tablet, but can't get purchasing to move forward. Its hard to get a hard ROI on these things.

I use it for all my meeting notes in OneNote. ON is my file folder system, along with Outlook. I keep a file for each project and/or customer, and everything goes in there. I comment on and provide feedback for docs and presentations in handwriting. I would think that tablets could make in-roads in corporate if we could solve the cost problem, and the underlying fear that screens will be broken more once you start writing on it, and carrying it screen side open. Most corporate America does not need an 8 hour battery, evidenced by the fact that the lions share are using Dell/Lennova/HP. IMHO

I bought a UMPC about a year ago because I wanted to experience a tablet PC without spending a whole lot of money on it - at the time I wasn't sure I would use the tablet enough to make it a good purchase and I found a really great deal on an ASUS R2h.

I love the ASUS and the next notebook I get will be a tablet. I don't use Onenote and I don't rely on handwriting recognition...if I'm going to enter a lot of data or write a paper, I'm going to use a keyboard. But as a teacher, the tablet helps me grade student papers (students submit their Word documents to me and I write my comments on the paper and email it back to them). When I meet with students, I can make quick notes about my student meetings (I use Phatpad on the tablet).

It took me a while before I was comfortable using the tablet, but now I am a believer.

I agree, ctitanic. Once you go Tablet, you never want to go back. I used a tablet when I was Director of QA at RHD Interactive. I love OneNote and digital ink. I am all about OneNote with a Tablet. This seems like the best solution for meeting notes, diagrams, etc.

I would have bought one for myself by now if they weren't so bloody expensive, though!

Wow Zealot, check HP, Dell, etc. They are making Tablet PCs and they are even adding now touch and multitouch to them. In fact, what I seen in the close future is that all laptops will become convertible tablet pcs with multitouch!

I think a convertible tablet is good for specific uses and for the fact that, if the notebook/netbook is light enough, it becomes a laptop/MID combo.

However, I would never look to one to be my main work machine, and I don't think they will ever become one. They are niche or novelty products. I think MS lost a lot of credibility throwing their weight and lots of money behind Tablet PCs and pen computing. Such machines are now the betamax of PCs....interesting tech, complete failure.

Z

doogald, that's a very old video that I found. Like I said before, you can train Vista and W7 up to the point that the recognition is almost perfect.

This is an old video, is it not? XP? Transmeta and Crusoe?

My main thing with a tablet is that I am far faster typing than I am writing, and I am a terrible typist. In fact, way back I was using Calligrapher in PocketPC but when I learned about Fitaly I was far, far faster (and more accurate).

Tablets are fine for filling forms, but anything else they're just not as efficient for me. And making a convertible just means that you are adding extra weight, etc., to a notebook that I rarely need.

Well, you can't compare the handwriting recognition of Vista or W7 with what we have even 3 years ago. The second point about battery life applies to everything currently in the market including laptops and these still popular and they are currently selling even more than desktops PC since last year.

I not going to be too sarcastic here, but I think everyone should be working on battery technology, because if you don't get at least 8 hours of time on one of these, you've got junk hardware.

They are talking about tablets as something that is a new evolution, I had a "GRID" tablet twenty years ago that operated on windows, it was painfully slow, the OS was barely developed and the battery lasted just over two hours.

Tablets will only become popular if they are extremely fast at handwriting recognition and graphics, have a long battery life and are durable.

These guys really have to get there stuff together, I haven't tried one recently, but I don't know a single person who owns one!