Pacebook Tablet PC 79
IAmBlakeM writes "Looks like a new PC design has been released by the guys at PaceBlade. Reviewed at Anandtech, the new PaceBlade, touted as a 3in1 PC, features a Transmeta Crusoe TM5600 CPU at 600Mhz, up to 256MB of RAM, a 12.1" XGA LCD that can do 1024x768, and an "any key". Always nice to see some new designs and technology throwing curves at the norms."
this is it (Score:2)
Re:this is it (Score:1)
Re:this is it (Score:2)
The fact that many PDA users want keyboards for data entry, it seems the large touch screen section itself may have only niche usefulness. You have to admit that they pack a ton in a nicely designed package.
I loved the Any-Button description: When you get a Windows blue screen telling you to hit any-key to continue, just push the Any-Key..... If they are buying their MS Windows XP license from Microsoft, that line will be gone very soon....To bad there's no Linux option listed.
LoB
Not a PDA, (Score:1)
The PaceBook is a full blown computer, use it either as a tablet, a notebook or a desktop!
We don't see it as a "geek-toy", we see it as the next generation of computers, something that will make computers more portable, easier to use and more robust than current tablets and notebooks (we don't call desktops for portables yet).
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
new PC design has been released. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:new PC design has been released. (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, I was watching them forever, too. They actually just started selling here (US), after months and months of "Coming Soon". Since the original specs called for a processor at 1GHz, I think they got trapped in that whole TMTA-TSMC debacle of last year.
To be honest, it took them so long that my enthusiasm for the product waned quite a lot. It's released at the price they said 1.5 years ago and the specs have actually gone down since then (at least the processor). That just doesn't seem right in the computer industry.
What I'd like to see now is a standard ultralight notebook with the two-hinge design replaced by a single central hinge that can rotate 180 degrees. Flip it over, it's a webpad, flip it back it's a notebook. You could carry it on your rounds as a webpad and sit down and type whereever you want -- no extra keyboard piece to carry around and walk off without it. Plus, at least on early models, the Paceblade's wireless keyboard was prone to crosstalk if several were in the same room, and who needs that.
Now I jut have to wait for someone to make it. Apple? Dell? Anyone?
Re:new PC design has been released. (Score:1)
What I'd like to see now is a standard ultralight notebook with the two-hinge design replaced by a single central hinge that can rotate 180 degrees. Flip it over, it's a webpad, flip it back it's a notebook.
It runs Windows CE, but sounds like you're describing a Clio. Loses on the "standard ultralight notebook" count, I guess. :p
Re:new PC design has been released. (Score:1)
Re:new PC design has been released. (Score:2)
From the FAQ (Score:3, Funny)
All Windows OS' are supported including Windows Me, 2000 and XP. We will emphasize Windows XP since the functionality is much more suitable for the PaceBook than Windows Me and 2000. Also, we read Jerry Kaplan's book [amazon.com] and didn't want to make the same mistake of pissing off Bill so he'd dust off Pen Windows and crush us under his boot heel like GO Corp-- so no proprietary, better-suited, pen-based OSes here. Just the same old bloat you've come to love from Microsoft.
Okay, those last two sentences aren't really in there...
~Philly
A drawback (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A drawback (Score:1)
Aside from the general coolness factor, it's main point is flexibility. From the article..
"Almost everyone who saw the PaceBook while we had it commented "cool" upon first glance. The problem is that being cool does not sell a notebook, tablet, or desktop; being useful does. Although a good concept, PaceBook is a bit before its time"
Re:A drawback (Score:1)
Yes, but later on, page 7 (don't you hate wading through all these pages?):
Re:A drawback (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:A drawback (Score:1)
A solution in the works (Score:1)
By the time we shipped the unit to Anandtech our own handwritig recognition software was not yet ready, however we are pleased to inform that we are now Beta testing it to our customers. We will release an end-user beta by the end of this month and expect final code in early June.
We would love to bundle Office XP since it's handwriting is excellent, however the OEM bundle from MS doesn't include PowerPoint, which we think is vital for office productivity. Also if you buy the OEM version you cannot upgrade to PowerPoint, meaning that you need to pay for Office twice!!!
We made the tough decision not to bundle Office XP for this reason, however the user manual is very detailed and shows how to enable the handwriting etc.
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
Re:A drawback - not really (Score:1)
Any Key (Score:3, Funny)
PaceBlade gave it the name "any key" because it solved the problem of having to hit a key during a blue screen. The screen, which sometimes reads "Hit any key to continue" can only be removed by hitting a key on a keyboard, which is difficult to do on a keyboard-less tablet PC. The "any key" button solves that problem.
I thought the "any key" was going to be a gimmicky conversation piece, but after reading the article it appears to simply be in anticipation of Win XP.
Finally! (Score:1, Funny)
The anykey definition from compaqs site:p (Score:2, Interesting)
Sweet! (Score:2, Funny)
Brilliant! That should cut my support calls in half!
A patent must me following... (Score:1)
Re:A patent must me following... (Score:1)
With the handwriting recognition software coming up (see my other post) the any key will serve another function of toggling the handwriting/mouse function on/off. The biggest problem we have seen so far on other tablets is that toggling handwriting on/off is always a hassle, with this key it's very easy and quick.
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
Transmeta vs. Intel? (Score:1)
It doesn't, but... (Score:2, Informative)
I have a Toshiba Libretto L3 with the Transmeta Crusoe 600MHz CPU. Performance is not blinding fast, but it is more than adequate for most tasks.
I guess my point is that this is intended to be a portable device, not a supercomputer.
Re:It doesn't, but... (Score:1)
Re:It doesn't, but... [OT, at this point] (Score:1)
That's true.
When the Libretto's working hard for a while it will issue a puff of hot plastic-smelling air from the little vent on the left side, kind of like it's breathing.
I'm hoping the smell goes away with time. Unfortunately the manual's in Japanese so I don't know if that's normal or not.
No Wi-Fi? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems they are missing the boat with some of the design decisions they made (ie, no Wi-Fi, no handwriting or voice recognition software). The product's usefulness is seriously limited without these two capabilities. Where's the advantage of having a tablet in your hand if you can't use handwriting or if you can't access your data?
I think they left these things out to make a more affordable product. It also made the product less desirable.
Re:No Wi-Fi? (Score:1)
However many of our customers will mainly use it as a Tablet, for them we bundle IBM VIA voice or Dragon (depending on the customer and his market), handwriting is either provided by us or by MS, some customers bundle PenX.
As a tablet we have two carry devices, one in leather for "normal people" and one in aluminium for vertical markets.
WiFi is not built in for the simple reason that 802.11b and 802.11a are not compatible to eachother. We see many of our customers complaining that 11b is too slow and they prefer to use 11a. Many others rather have a GSM, CDMA, PHA or other mobile card in;
By using the PC Card slot we can satisfy all the users. We see the PC Card slot as mobile communication slot, since everything else is already built-in (1394, LAN, Modem, etc) Also the DVD player doesn't occupy the PC Card slot as other tablets or thin notebooks.
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
Leaves me wanting more (Score:4, Insightful)
As a really minor last note, they talked about using this down the road as an LCD display/TV, but neglected to put either a TV tuner or video in onboard.
Go ahead and flame away. But in my defense, I was really excited and wanted to be blown away by this product, but couldn't find any reason this was better than one of those slim Viao offerings
We offer even more than that! (Score:1)
1. Handwriting is a free upgrade, available end of this month in beta and early next in production.
2. We can do up to 640MB of RAM, many of our customers use this configuration
3. We have two standard USB ports, one of them is round (but becomes standard with a dongle). This is one of the dtronger things on the PaceBook since the round USB is very easy to use, it doesn't have direction problem as the normal USB. We use this natively for 360degree cameras, FIR adapters, Bluetooth adapter. It's ideal for vertical markets that need to attach either a GPS or Barcode scanner very quickly, instead of fiddling around with the USB port.
4. VGA port is a drawback, there was simply no space for a standard VGA port, however most slim notebooks today, including Apple new iMAC all use proprietary connectors with a dongle. Sometimes space is precious.
5. SMI VGA is actually almost double the price compared to a GeForce desktop chip (so it's not cheap). It's not super-fast for 3D (which is not our aim for this version of the PaceBook (we hae others coming...) but it's got very low power consumption which is our number one concern, that with 8MB for DualView, DualApp etc.
6. Pivot and Menu works in Windows XP and 2000, it will not work in DOS, we are working on Linux drivers now, see our www.pacebook.com website for Linux support and drivers.
7. Anandtech got that a little wrong... 6-pin powered Firewire can only supply 1.2A, we need 2A for the DVD and CD-RW drives. We supply a 5V 2A on the power out. We got ONE cable for firewire and power, so it's in fact the worlds first portable computer with an external DVD that can be used in mobile environments (neither PC Card nor USB supply enough power, USB is not fast enough). MS tablets cannot use DVD more than in docking station. We also use the 5V DC out for port replicator, USB hub, and recharging of mobile phones!!!
8. Anykey will be used to switch handwriting on/off. For your information MS Tablet new requirements is a Ctrl+Alt+Del button on the unit...
9. Sure, TV Tuner is coming, but defienetly not integrated due to size, cost and weight. It will be a mobile accessory (with this we mean that you can use it while being mobile and not near a wall outlet as all other TV tuners). It will supply a consumer quality picture (means no jerky USB low quality stuff). It will be available early Q4 this year.
We appreciate your comments and you are more than welcome to talk directly to us in PaceBlade, we loe to satisfy people like you.
Regards,
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
What on eath possessed them.... (Score:1)
I wish they linked the printable article (Score:1)
Signatures are a waste of bandwidth
So.... (Score:1)
Re:So.... (Score:1)
The PaceBook is a 3IN1 computer, it can be used as a notebook, Desktop and Tablet PC:
Notebooks are today too hot to put in laps, we don't call the PaceBook a laptop for this reason. And yes the current bag will be awkward to use on the lap. Look on your posture when you use a notebook on the lap! It's very bad posture, for this need we strongly recommend you to use the PaceBook as a Tablet.
Tablet PC: The version we gave to Anandtech didn't have the handwriting software yet, it's available end of this month from our website. As a tablet we also offer many carry devices for easier carrying, both leather versions and aluminium versions. These were not reviewed.
Desktop PC: Take a look on our website this coming week, we will put up our long awaited desktop stand, it will be the true solution for desktop useage. I know you will love it!
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
Options (Score:3, Informative)
The AquaPAD [fica.com] from FICA [fica.com] starts at $650.
You can get it running Midori Linux or WinCE. I've played with both and support for WiFi cards is good with either version.
The SonicBLUE [sonicblue.com] ProGear can also be ordered with Linux as the OS, but it's WAY pricey - like over $3000. And the version running Windows98 runs hot. Burn your lap off and runs sluggish. But it has a built in 802.11b card. No drivers to load for this one.
From the PaceBlade site (Score:1)
Something is wrong when a new device is produced and they have to advertize a "feature" that allows the device to be recovered when it crashes, not if it crashes.
Sure, most devices have this feature, but when you look at palm's site, do you see a big bulleted "And there is a reset button on the back to fix it when it breaks!"... No, it's listed on the site, but it isn't a big deal.
Re:From the PaceBlade site (Score:2)
Rebooting/resetting MS Windows is SOP. I thought that line about the Any-Key was funny while MS Windows users will think, "that's handy".
LoB
Re:From the PaceBlade site (Score:1)
However we cannot control all kinds of peripherals and software out there, there are for instance USB devices that never passed any of MS certifications, these devices will cause blue screens on many computers, so goes for badly written software.
We have done serious testing on tons of software, PC Cards, USB devices and so on, so far we never see any blue screen on any approved device. In fact under Windows XP I have yet to see a blue screen.
I think the reason why we wrote this is that many people are worried to buy a tablet if there are no keys on it...
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
Re:On the posting itself... And ntcompatible... (Score:1)
Where's the IR security? (Score:1)
They do not mention encryption, however. Without that, wouldn't this also mean that you could then snoop on those other channels, even without a wireless keyboard of your own? Me no like.
Re:Where's the IR security? (Score:1)
And what happens when you want to use this in an English-Lit 101 class with easily 1000+ students in a lecture room?
Sure it's encrypted! (Score:1)
To set the ID is very easy, takes a couple of seconds.
For more than 255 people in a room we will have a USB/IR keyboard coming up, simply plug in the cable and you are fine.
We have many customers that use either one PaceBook with many keyboards (conference, whiteboard applications). One keyboard, many PaceBooks (testing, MIS, teachers).
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
is it just me, or is she not wearing any pants? (Score:1, Informative)
the brunette is pantless
stunning!
Re:is it just me, or is she not wearing any pants? (Score:1)
Wonder why they didn't wait for XP Tablet edition (Score:2, Interesting)
for handwriting recognition instead of waiting another few months for the release of
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition [microsoft.com] (there's a mouthful).
I attended a presentation on the Microsoft TabletPC's a few months back and the handwriting
recognition in the OS was by far the most accurate I had seen to date on CE or Palm devices.
On top of that, with the WinXP TPCE, the handwriting recognition support is exposed via a set
of APIs and could be bolted onto any existing app. Not sure what the pricing for new OS will be,
but it seems like a much better way to go than taking dependency on Office and after $400 still not
being able to use pen input in other apps.
Re:Wonder why they didn't wait for XP Tablet editi (Score:1)
Simple reason (Score:1)
Our product was ready and we had customers worldwide screaming for it, why should we let them wait another 6 months???
I think that Office XP handwriting is as good as the Tablet XP handwriting, I've tested both and get about 99% accuracy on both of them.
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
any key? (Score:1)
Apple... (Score:1)
(No, Apple hasn't publicly anounced a tablet yet.)
Re:Apple... (Score:2)
design is not so new (Score:1)
No under-screen tablet? No thank you. (Score:1)
Re:No under-screen tablet? No thank you. (Score:2)
Re:No under-screen tablet? No thank you. (Score:1)
If you loose that pen you need to buy a new one, and you need to buy from the same company you bought the tablet from, there are currently 2-3 makers of these electromagnetic touchscreens and their pens cannot be used on competitors products...
Bill Gates used the PaceBook back in February when he made a
The PaceBook can use any kind of stylus or a finger for touch, don't worry to loose the PaceBook stylus, your Palm stylus works just as good.
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
Wohoo! (Score:1)
Where's the any key? I see alt, esk, citarol, but I don't see any any key! Ooo, a tab!
From the product's website: (Score:3, Funny)
Hardly the first, and a long way to go... (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been writing software for a year now for an in-house psych/neuropsych testing package and have had to evaluate many tablets for this project. Most are used for specific applications like data entry in the field or map/contextual content. None are overly better then others but we ended up choosing the all but defunct QBE tablet because of the most mitigating factor: cost. new tablets are over $2500 and QBE's can be picked up for $800. Since they can double as a PC when not being used as an idiot proof data collection tool, they have great value for a small office/lab setting. But not when they cost $2500 a pop.
having lived with a tablet as a dev-platform and using it as notepad for meetings, I now understand why tablets haven't caught the public's attention. they suck for getting work done. I love lying in bed surfing with my finger
After a week of testing we changed our program's UI to use a minimum of 80x80 pixel widgets just to avoid incorrect input. On a 1024x768 screen, this really limits what you can fit on the screen. Suddenly all fonts must be over 24 pt if you plan on selecting text. Radio buttons have to be replaced with "SONY My First Button" like nobs, and handwriting with a styles consumes the entire screen just to write a few words...then you wait for the coversion to text, correct
And let's not even get into using voice recog for input..it's just not going to happen for a few more years. A 90% recognition rate means a lot of mistakes that have to be corrected, and this only becomes efficient when you are streaming your words like dictation, most people speak in fragments
...a notebook that doubles as a tablet, ala the pivoting reversible screen is a good start, allowing scribbles when you want to jot down diagrams and simple notes and a normal keyboard when you want to really get work done
All windows apps rely on fitting large amounts of GUI items on the screen. Developers will first need to take on the Palm GUI theme to provide public access...just a few items for reduced chance of incorrect input and apps that accomplish a specific task.
Go pick one up and try it. you'll return it in a week and get your money back. unless you only surf.
Agree, (Score:1)
The Qbe was too heavy, too slow, too short battery life and it was a tablet only.
We designed the PaceBook to be used as whatever you want whereever you are:
Use it as a notebook on a train, a desktop in the office and a tablet when you are in meeting or walk around.
It's impossible for any tablet to take these three functions, that's why we created our concept with the 3IN1.
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
if only. (Score:1)
Re:if only. (Score:1)
We have a BBS for the Linux users out there, please go to www.pacebook.com and join the crowd!
At this moment we are working on the Menu application to work under Linux, most other stuff are ok already.
Per Lyngemark
VP R&D PaceBlade
PaceBlade Pivot(tm) by Portrait Displays (Score:1)
Nice... (Score:1)
Academic in my case, I know the exchequer won't stand for one of these anytime soon (sigh...)