New on my wishlist - a tablet pc?

27.02.2005 - 22:12 / filled under default

We know, Cameron loves his gadget, but there are limits:

I was excited about Tablet PC when it launched and I've even MORE excited about it now that I have one. Get a Tablet and play with ArtRage and tell me that isn't the single most exciting thing to happen in PC-land in many years. Microsoft made the Tablet happen. They innovated. It's easily as exciting as XBOX. But when was the last time you saw them tell anyone about how it could change their life? Where are the TVC's showing people HANDwriting emails and IMs? Where are the ads showing people creating art in their spare minutes ON THEIR LAPTOP? Such a waste...

Handwriting emails or IM's? Uh, I don't think so.

The few times I used my palm to note something, I used the built in keyboard because I am much faster in typing than in writing by hand. Even if I have to tip the characters on a displayed keyboard. Writing longer texts? Forget it.

The reason I love typing on keyboard is speed. I am about 10 times faster in typing with the keyboard as I am by handwriting. And I can write for hours on my keyboard whereas I get exhausted just after a half hour of writing (not to mention, if I have to write 'readable', this takes even more time) .

And people love me typing, because they are able to read my typed stuff. My first teacher assured me, I had an awful handwriting from day one. My aunt, expecting hand written letters from everyone, 'ordered' me to use my computer because she could not read it. I do believe in the power of computer when it comes to recognition, but I would give voice recognition more chances.

But, all this talking about the fun of a tablet PC (the infamous trio of evangelists raving about it in my reading sphere: Scoble of course, Mick, and Cameron) got me looking into this gadget.

Actually, I still have no need for either Wlan or a laptop, but I am looking into tablet's now because of one special feature: sketching ideas in a somewhat more structured way than I do it now.

Not for longer text, but for the times where I would like to draw ideas on a sheet of paper. If I start such an idea session, I do get several pages full of ideas, topics, etc. To have this available a bit more structured way, already 'scanned' into a computer, perhaps in a kind of outliner, would be great.

I would like to use it for browsing information like in movies as Jonny Mnemonic. Fly through information structured in bubbles I can click, drill down, go back, throw away ... We don't have virtual keyboards and navigation, but a tablet is a step closer to this kind of information retrieval.

Reading my feeds is mainly clicking with the mouse - things I can do with a tablet. And I would like to read books, especially english ones - if I could click on a word and get the translation. (I hate paper dictionaries.)

As a mobile recording studio? Probably. For presentations for customers? As DVD-player for my TV? Yes, I can come up with even more excuses to buy such toy.

And as I just figured, they are not as expensive as I thought. I thought they are around 2,500€ - but as it seems there are already some Acer Travelmates and a (to me unknown) company called Averatec with tablets about 1,300€. Interesting. So I will defenetly try to get the Fritzbox!fon with Wlan when I replace my router - just for the possibilty of a Tablet PC coming ... :))