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Hardware

New Tablet PCs With A Linux Option 276

Posted by timothy from the chocolate-meet-peanut-butter dept.
Oliver Wendell Jones writes "InfoWorld is running an article about a new kind of inexpensive (starting under $800) tablet PC that runs your choice of Windows 2000, Windows XP or the Lindows distro of Linux. The PC is called the DocuNote and features an 8.4" touch screen with digital camera and microphone. The PCs are being created by a company called StepUp, which is formed of a lot of people from the old eMachines organization. DocuNotes are scheduled to start shipping in mid-December."
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New Tablet PCs With A Linux Option More

New Tablet PCs With A Linux Option

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  • Whooo Hoooo.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by GeneralEmergency ( 240687 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:38PM (#4663434) Journal


    They're shipping in time for Christmas!

  • Touch screen (Score:3, Funny)

    by Uhh_Duh ( 125375 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:38PM (#4663435) Homepage

    I'm glad it runs linux but has a touch screen. That will prevent me from touching 'rm -rf /'

    Seriously, linux w/ a touchscreen?? How useful is that?!

    • Re:Touch screen (Score:3, Funny)

      by Waab ( 620192 )

      When's the last time you touched finger?

    • Re:Touch screen (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )
      Seriously, linux w/ a touchscreen?? How useful is that?!

      yeah true... it's not like any of those Ipaq users or zaurus users can do anything with linux and a touchscreen.

      ok, enough of me being silly... I can give you thousands of things you can do with linux + a touchscreen.

      Internet surfing/ media tablet.
      Tabulate data from people.
      access medical records and display them along with showing the CAT or MRI animations.
      Insurance data entry..

      Basically anything you can do with a tablet pc you can do with linux+tablet pc... but faster, more secure and with greater stability.

    • Seriously, linux w/ a touchscreen?? How useful is that?!

      No less useful than Win2k or WinXP with a touchscreen, I would hope. Unless you think Linux can't do what those other OSes can?

    • Re:Touch screen (Score:4, Funny)

      by _ph1ux_ ( 216706 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:04PM (#4663686)
      try writing perl in graffiti!
    • Most OS' that end up on tablet devices have support for Virtual Keyboards that usually can be invoked or dismissed pretty easily. My iPaq has one, although prefer to use their version of Graffitty.

      It would be pretty easy to config the distribution to present a Virtual Keyboard whenever a shell was launched, and dismiss (or otherwise hide it) when the shell was no longer needed.

      Pure GUI apps wouldn't need the keyboard as frequently, and prolly could be navigated purely by screen buttons except when text entry was required.

    • Re:Touch screen (Score:5, Funny)

      by limekiller4 ( 451497 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:11PM (#4663756) Homepage
      Uhh_Duh wrote:
      "Seriously, linux w/ a touchscreen?? How useful is that?!"

      I agree. When was the last time you heard Picard say, "Data, bring up the command-line interface!"

    • Re:Touch screen (Score:4, Informative)

      by Lechter ( 205925 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:19PM (#4663830)

      On my linux tablet [mira2go.com] I use the touchscreen normally as you would a mouse. Works just fine for surfing, playing mp3's, etc.

      For many things xstroke [isi.edu] suits my needs quite well. (I've had a Palm for years so I'm used to grafiti. When I have to have a keyboard I pull up xvkbd [nifty.ne.jp] and if I really need to type I plugin in one of those "industructable" keyboards that I keep in my desk or drop into my satchel.

      So yeah, linux tablets work well, and having the power to download OSS apps, and or develop my own tools makes them excellent tools for the "power" user.

      ..next step get kdepim on it to sync with my desktop and my Palm...infomation everywhere, yeah team!

    • Re:Touch screen (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @07:31PM (#4664453)
      "Seriously, linux w/ a touchscreen?? How useful is that?!"

      You're asking the same crowd that thinks it's cool to install Linux on a watch.

  • The Article (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A GROUP OF PC industry veterans Tuesday took the cloak off a new company called StepUp Computing, and revealed its first product -- a low-cost, pen-based tablet computer that can run Windows 2000, Windows XP, and coming soon, a version of the Linux operating system from Lindows.com.

    The cofounder of budget PC maker eMachines and several former executives of that company are behind the new venture. It's goal is to offer affordable desktop and mobile computing products that serve small and mid-size business users in targeted specialty and vertical markets, it said.

    StepUp Computing's first product to market will be a tablet computer called the DocuNote, which will cost as little as $799 depending on the software it ships with, the company said. While it is being released in concert with a host of tablet devices from vendors such as Acer and Hewlett-Packard, it does not run Microsoft's new Windows XP Professional Tablet PC operating system, and lacks some of the advanced features that are available with those devices, according to Microsoft.

    It also doesn't share the same price tag. Tablet devices running Microsoft's new operating system cost as much as $2,500.

    The DocuNote weighs 2.5 pounds with its battery pack, and measures about 10 inches by 8 inches by 1-inch thick. It features an 8.4-inch touch-screen display and a built-in color digital camera and microphone that are designed for video conferencing, the company said. It features a 667MHz Crusoe TM5600 processor from Transmeta Corp., 256MB of memory and a 20GB hard drive. It also has a slot for a wireless network card.

    Unlike the new class of Tablet PCs, the device from StepUp Computing can be navigated by touching the display with any object, such as a stylus pen or your finger. It does, however, share capabilities, such as inking and handwriting recognition, with the more expensive machines.

    Young Song, president and chief executive officer at StepUp Computing, was a co-founder of eMachines. Other executives at the Fullerton, Calif.-based start-up include the former director of finance and senior director of corporate communications at eMachines.

    StepUp Computing is practicing a similar philosophy to that of eMachines with its strategy of keeping hardware costs at the low-end of the market. The devices are manufactured in Seoul by Garnet Systems, and will only be available through select VARs (value-added resellers) and systems integrators, who will be responsible for setting up and configuring the devices for customers.

    StepUp Computing is now accepting orders for the DocuNote through the channel with plans to begin shipping units in mid-December. In early 2003, the company will begin selling DocuNote devices running LindowsOS 3.0, it said.

  • hmm (Score:2, Troll)

    by gangien ( 151940 )
    I suppose anything that supports linux or any non MS OS is a step in the right direction but, why lindows?

    • Re:hmm (Score:2)

      by grub ( 11606 )

      I suppose anything that supports linux or any non MS OS is a step in the right direction but, why lindows?

      A couple of reasons I can think off the top of my head:
      a) Lindows costs them some money so they can justify not making a cheaper priced machine with another version of Linux that they download for nothing. That would hurt their Windows tablet sales.
      b)Windows users will feel more at home with a Windows-ish desktop.

    • Re:hmm (Score:3, Interesting)

      by NotAnotherReboot ( 262125 )
      Why not? Perhaps some of the features in Lindows are suitable for a tablet where other linux distributions wouldn't cut it, not to mention that Lindows is much more user friendly than the average linux distribution.
    • ...why lindows?

      More choices for potential customers?

      Sounds like they are stressing that you aren't "locked-in" to a specific platform when you buy the hardware. The more choices they offer, the better they look.

    • I've read all about Lindows and I don't see what the big deal is. I have Windows XP running on my laptop and Mandrake on my desktop machines. If I want or need to use Windows. If I wanted to use OS X, I would buy a Mac. I use Linux because I like Linux and I want it to be Linux... I don't want it to be just like Windows. BTW, the only reason my laptop is running XP is because I just got it and haven't had time to nuke the hard drive and install a real OS.

      On a different note, I don't think the tablet pc idea is going to go very far. While I do think they will exist for quite some time, and will most likely pick up some initial steam, how useful are they long term compared to laptop computers? We can all think of a few uses where they would be better but overall, which one is going to be more useful? My laptop does everything I want it to do. I can think of a few situations where I would love to have a handheld, but not enough use to warrant actually purchasing one. A tablet pc is somewhere in the middle of the two. Two large to be as portable as I would like, and not as useful as the laptop I already have.

      How many people that have laptops now are going to buy one of these? I don't think very many people will convert unless they were ready to buy a new one anyway. How many people are in the market for a laptop right now and will get one of these instead? I think most people that will buy one will get it because it's "cool". That's the main reason I bought a laptop. Sure it makes life easier and more convenient but I got by fine for years without one.

      But if I did buy one.. and yo never know, I may get one eventually, I will deffinitely run Mandrake on it as I think Lindows is only good for people who can't decide which one they want, aren't ready to take the plunge, or want to ease into useing Linux.

  • Handwriting Recognition (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MrEd ( 60684 ) <<tonedog> <at> <hailmail.net>> on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:38PM (#4663445)
    According to the article, you'll have a choice of a Microsoft operating system or Lindows.


    I wonder if Lindows handwriting recognition software will be GPL'ed. Even if it isn't, perhaps it would be usable on other flavors of Linux?


    AFAIK there is no high-powered handwriting recognition software readily available for linux. Is that so?

    • Most likely it's going to be some windows app running under wine.

    • that's not a big problem (Score:5, Informative)

      by g4dget ( 579145 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:49PM (#4663557)
      I don't see why not. There is already handwriting recognition for Linux handhelds (see handhelds.org [handhelds.org]). Squeak [squeak.org] is an open source Smalltalk environment that runs on Linux and is intended to be usable with pen input. The most high-performance handwriting input engines are the ones that define a special alphabet, and those are also easier to implement than unconstrained handwriting. And on-screen tappable keyboards are actually pretty efficient as well. Even if you try to implement mostly unconstrained handwriting recognition, in practice, handwriting recognition is generally simpler than speech recognition, and there are open source speech recognizers (you can even adapt a speech recognizer to handwriting recognition--a lot of the software is very similar). And X11 already has support for different kinds of input methods, so the software architecture is in place as well.

      And many functions of pen computers don't require handwriting recognition at all (ink notes, browsing, e-books, etc.)--just getting rid of that bulky keyboard alone when it's not needed would be worth the pen computer.

    • http://www.handhelds.org/projects/xscribble.html

  • Macintosh? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MacAndrew ( 463832 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:43PM (#4663491) Homepage
    I hate to reveal my Mac OS affiliation here in Linux heaven -- but does anyone know of any Apple plans on this front? Tablets have interested me for a really long time, so what if laptops are probably better for most things? ;-)

    This is a disadvantage of a single-source hardware platform. Or not: oddly enough Apple has been an innovator there many times over -- SCSI, USB, Firewire, flat-panel iMac, dropping-the-floppy, Newton (oops), Superdrive and so on (please don't bother to correct the ones I got wrong) -- not to say these were all earthshaking, but you'd expect the innovation to come from the huge Wintel market (or not I now have learned, given the slender margins, 3rd-party hardware headaches, and pressure for cloning over novelty).
    • Said it before; say it again:

      Apple will not get into Tablets until its a proven game. Remember, Apple would be on the hook for both hardware and software costs, unlike MS who are making HW partners take on that risk. Remember, if the Tablet is a bust MS is only out its SW development costs. HP, et al would eat HW development costs along with inventory. Apple has to contend with both. I don't expect anything from Apple until the tablet concept has firmly taken hold in the consumer space.
      • Actually their not really out those costs either since they can use that research on other products. I can imagine that their OCR software just got a huge boost by the hand writing recognition research done...

        Imagine an NT login where you sign your name to login in...

        Lots of things can be used with the techonology...

      • Re:Macintosh? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by GlassHeart ( 579618 )
        Apple will not get into Tablets until its a proven game.

        Correct. Apple has always been a conservative company, which is why it was slow to introduce the GUI, the mouse, the handheld, and stayed for so long with typical beige boxes. There's no way they're going to abandon their aging Mac OS kernel with a powerful Unix-based one, for example.

        Note I didn't say they invented these things, but Apple as a company did not survive this long by waiting to see if it can play catchup.

        • I think the original point of the poster was that it would not make financial sense to Apple today to risk so much money on a project. Sure, they did years ago with the Newton and many other projects that didn't even see the light of day, but with today's computer market and general market conditions they can't afford huge losses to that kind of crap.

          The bottom line is that their current revenue stream wouldn't support it and they've (Jobs) already made it plain that they need to focus on their core market which is the Mac -- not warm-and-fuzzy crap like the Newton/Palm devices. And don't bring up the iPod as an example of their risk-taking -- the iPod isn't even close to the same league as a tablet PC/Mac. There's a HELLUVA lot more development that would go into a tablet PC/Mac... (note the huge financial sinkhole that once was the Newton division as an partial example of the complexities of developing something like a tablet computer)

    • Re:Macintosh? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by BlueGecko ( 109058 )
      Given that Jobs killed the Newton essentially because he hated Scully (for a detailed discussion, I strongly recommend either "The Mac Bathroom Reader" or "Apple Confidential"), I don't see Apple releasing a handheld soon unless it's so radically different from everything else that Jobs can claim with a clear conscience that it takes no inspiration from the Newton. That Ink made it in to OS X at all I find absolutely incredible.
    • With Apple's skill at note books, and the embeded nature of the PowerPC, a Macintosh tablet makes perfect sense. Apple could probaby live off notebooks, tablets, and light weight PCs(iMac), they don't even need to worry about making the top of the line powerful computers and servers.

    • Jaguar (OS X 10.2) has Inkwell [apple.com] handwriting technology built in (for tablets et. al.). So they have a good foundation.

    • Re:Macintosh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by flabbergast ( 620919 )
      I'll agree that SCCI, USB, Firewire, dropping the floppy, Newton etc.. were all advances, but if my understanding is correct, by including the iMac, specifically stating its a flat panel, implies that Apple was the first to do this, which is not the case. Gateway was the first to market (albeit, it was a pretty poor attempt) with a flat panel display built into a computer. Unless I too am mistaken (either in the company, or my assumption about your statement)

  • Tablet software? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ektor ( 113899 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:43PM (#4663492)
    A tablet form factor does not a Tablet PC make. The Tablet PC is cool because of all the software that handles inputing with an stylus and integrating that with the rest of applications. That software has been in development for a couple of years and is far from trivial.

    At this stage Linux doesn't have anything even close to that. Of course it would be fun to hack a Tablet PC but not much productivity could be expected.

    And here an article about Tablet PC software. [infoworld.com]

    • not a big deal (Score:3, Informative)

      by g4dget ( 579145 )
      The Tablet PC is cool because of all the software that handles inputing with an stylus and integrating that with the rest of applications.

      There is plenty of Linux software designed to run with pen input--after all, Linux has been used on handhelds for a number of years.

      Most mouse based applications work naturally with a pen anyway. Web browsing, e-book reading, marking up text, drawing, and things like that work like a charm with standard Linux applications on a Linux-based tablet. And even with no handwriting recognition, an on-screen keyboard makes entering text and data quite easy and quick and, again, requires no application changes (given the modular X11 architecture). And fully integrated handwriting and gesture recognition also already exists for X11.

      Maybe it was a lot of work to integrate pen input into Windows, but Linux and X11 are modular and mature enough that this is not an issue.

  • Lindows good for Linux? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by EggplantMan ( 549708 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:44PM (#4663497) Homepage
    Personally I think Lindows is a terrible representative for Linux. Emulating Windows seems more like an admission that Linux is inferior. To get my gist, when you are selling a computer with Lindows on it, how are you supposed to explain to customer what Lindows is? You have to say:

    'It's basically a cheap imitation of Windows.' at which point the customer says:

    'No thanks, I'll go with the genuine thing.' As I said, Lindows does nothing for Linux and in fact probably strengthens Microsoft's ability to sell its OS.

    • Would this truth also apply to those that purchase non-Kleenex brand tissues and non-Xerox brand copiers?
    • 'No thanks, I'll go with the genuine thing.'

      I assume you mean a command-line only interface? Because frankly, neither KDE nor Gnome have strongly distinguished themselves from the Win95-style interface. A non-Linux user's first reaction at laying eyes on either one would be: "Oh, um, this must be my Start Menu here in the lower left corner."

      C'mon, power users don't buy eMachines. If you're selling Linux to Joe Consumer then you either have to make it highly Windows-like or uniquely easy to use on its own. Apple does the latter. Almost everyone else does the former.

  • Are they the emachine people from the: (Score:5, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:45PM (#4663517) Journal
    Marketing Dept - Fill the hardrive with Bonzi Buddy and other BundleCrap(TM).
    Quality Control - Easy to strip screws included at no additional cost!
    or Purchasing - "These Fujistu hard drives are a great deal!"

  • What's up with all the Lindows? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nystul555 ( 579614 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:46PM (#4663527)

    Ok, this may be slightly off-topic, and it may be a stupid question, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is wondering -

    What's with Lindows everywhere? First they get distribution with Wal-Mart PCs, and now these tablet PCs which look to me like they could be a serious competitor to the $2500 alternatives. Does anyone know anything about the company? Are they a "good" company as far as their open-source work? Are they looking to make any sort of corporate push? And on the technical side, I've never messed with Lindows myself. Is it similar to RedHat, or Debian, or what? Is it stable? Could anyone with experience with Lindows share their opinions and thoughts?

    Thanks
    • The only thing I know about them is that they claimed to be releasing an "AOL PC" which wouldn't actually run AOL. Now, I'm not much of a fan of AOL, but the only people really hurt by this deceptive marketing are regular users who are led to believe that the computer they're purchasing does something that it doesn't actually do. (article here [sys-con.com])

      Also, they did at some point claim that Lindows ran most windows applications well, when in fact it just runs a few of them badly. (article here [newsforge.com])

      Honestly, they sound like a bunch of unscrupulous business people who have been making inroads at retail chains largely by making ridicoulous claims to management types who don't know the difference. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, and I certainly wouldn't give them any of my money. In fact, I'd really like to know why Slashdot gets so excited every time they do something--people like this aren't good for the Linux community.

    • Re:What's up with all the Lindows? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I know it was founded by the former founder/president/ceo of mp3.com, and that it is not opensource. They are a for-profit organization which looks to take on microsoft by, um, emulating their every move.

      Great, we get rid of one inferior company which steals from competitors only to have it be replaced by an equally inferior and shady company.

      Yay for Lindows! Personally, something is wrong with an OS when it's main selling point is emulation.


    • The technical merits are not relevant.

      Michael Robertson of MP3.com fame is the guy behind this Lindows emergence.

      See http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/10/25/lindow s.com.idg/ [cnn.com] for more info.

    • It is based on Debian, and works fine with apt-get from what I hear.

      I've never been able to try it as it costs $99, and I'm not about to shell out that amount for something I'm not even sure I'm going to like.

      Basically it is a stripped down and purely KDE-driven Debian desktop. Seems like a reasonable thingie, which I'm pretty sure I wouldn't stick with myself, mainly because I do not like KDE all that much.

  • Quality? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Phroggy ( 441 ) <slashdot3@@@phroggy...com> on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:46PM (#4663532) Homepage
    Will these tablets be similar to eMachines in quality? In other words, none whatsoever?

  • StepUp Computing - website (Score:4, Informative)

    by levendis ( 67993 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:47PM (#4663537) Homepage
    Here's the site of the company that's making this thing:

    http://www.stepupcomputing.com/

    Wonder if they'll sell an OS-less version, so we don't have to pay the Windows tax?

  • What's the deal with these tablets (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jki ( 624756 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:49PM (#4663554) Homepage
    Who is going to buy them? Why is everyone suddenly manufacturing them? What has changed in the world during one year? Is it only the fact that flat/touch screens are cheaper now? Where should I place one? I already had a VT220 terminal in my toilet 5 or so years ago, but it did not work out that well.

    I mean really - why does everyone just suddenly believe these things have a future? I don't mean they would not, but why now?

  • Company website with pictures... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Thag ( 8436 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:49PM (#4663555) Homepage
    Is at http://www.docunote.com/ [docunote.com].

    It looks pretty nice, even has a d-pad/mouse, but alas no thumbboard.

    Jon Acheson

  • Amongst the cries of "YAY it runs LINUX!!"... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cscx ( 541332 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:49PM (#4663559) Homepage
    A few things of note:

    1. You CAN run Linux on a MS Tablet PC. No one's stopping you. Woo hoo.

    2. These have TOUCH SCREENS. MS Tablets have electomagnetic pens, kinda like a Wacom tablet. NOT pressure sensitive like a touch screen.

    3. MS Tablets have XP Tablet Edition, with the handwriting recognition/Ink software. Linux doesn't, and seeing the state Linux fonts are currently in ("Linux fonts are fine!! Just copy the TrueType fonts from Windblo... um, nevermind"), I don't think handwriting recognition software is on its way anytime soon (and before anyone brings it up, SourceForge projects below stage 3 or 4 DON'T COUNT).

    So what we have here is a glorified Palm running linux or WinXP. Glue a touchscreen LCD onto a brick PC and you're done. Wahoo. I can go back to sleep now, because this in no way offers competition to the MS-based tablets. HAND.

    • So what we have here is a glorified Palm running linux or WinXP.

      A glorified Palm with an 800x600 screen... which is actually practical for web browsing. I've wanted for a long-ass time a small, cheap portable I could toss around the living room ready for instant web browsing when needed. The MS Tablet PCs are cool, but way overkill/overpriced for a "throw around" tablet.

      • Exactly, the StepUp machine will be a much more afordable $800, and they will web surf like crazy. Heck, if the Linux version of the StepUp machine is anything like a Zaurus (only bigger) it could actually be very cool.

        All I know is that I am done spending $2K for a computer. No matter how cool Microsoft's tablet is I am not interested.

        • > All I know is that I am done spending $2K for a computer.

          Exactly, except I'm done even spending $1000 on a computer, except maybe a laptop. Even $800 is way too much for a toss-around-the-living-room device that the kids could trip over. Once they hit $300-$400 we're talking. Which is not an impossible price point at all, assuming an 800x600 display, a slower processor (maybe 500 MHz Mobile PII or Transmeta), WiFi and no rotating storage. If they sold it as a PC companion-type device, it could even boot off another PC and map a drive there for storage. Given that the main use I see for such a device is communications (browsing, email, maybe VoIP), this would be an entirely adequate and lightweight platform for that purpose. Make it run off some common brand of camcorder batteries, and you'd have a really cheap device.
    • this in no way offers competition to the MS-based tablets.

      Look at the simple fact that I can actually afford to buy one of these and tell me again it offers no competition to the MS tablet.

      Like comparing a Hyundai with a BMW. Sure, I would rather have a BMW, but I can actually afford a Hyundai.
  • This cheap version doesn't have handwriting recognition, the supposed killer-app of tablet PCs.

  • Inexpensive... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MosesJones ( 55544 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:49PM (#4663570) Homepage
    So its about the same as a laptop, but has less power, is way more expensive than a PDA but doesn't fit in your pocket.

    How is this inexpensive ? What next "Inexpensive Ferrari" ?

    • Re:Inexpensive... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Docrates ( 148350 )
      It's very inexpensive compared to the REALLY expensive, up to $2,500 options from Microsoft and the usual high profile H/W vendors.

      Would I buy one if it has the right form factor and usability? hell yeah! I'm a consultant and go to meetings all day carrying a similar size and weight leather portfolio for note taking, PLUS a Sony Clie and stowaway keyboard (on a combined cleather case) for my electronic needs (more extensive note taking during longer meetings, PIM stuff). With one of these tablets I'd probably end up with one, more powerful item where I can take all kinds of notes and have all my apps instead of their lighter sucky versions found on PDA's. Besides, have you ever been able to organize legal pad notes? I haven't.

      And this is just one applciation for a tablet PC. I'm sure there would be plenty in all kinds of jobs, like civil engineering, construction, etc.
    • $800 dollars really isn't too bad considering the $600+ price tag for Pocket PC machines today.

      No it doesn't fit in your pocket, but that's not the market I think they're going for.

      This is the webpad for the home. A convenient way to surf the web, keep contacts, check email etc. from anywhere in your home, and not have to worry about lugging a 7lbs+ laptop, or being tethered to a specific spot by network cable or power cables.

      I like it.

      But, can I convince the wife she'll like it?

  • wtf?!?!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ab0mb88 ( 541388 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:50PM (#4663573)
    A keyboardless computer, that is running Lindows, that is designed by the people who brought us the e-machine. There are so many problems with that idea I don't know where to start.

    • Re:wtf?!?!! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Dr_LHA ( 30754 )
      A keyboardless computer, that is running Lindows, that is designed by the people who brought us the e-machine. There are so many problems with that idea I don't know where to start.

      Well at least you won't have to worry about the crappy handling of keyboard shortcuts in KDE/Gnome/whatever with this machine!

  • Tablet PC's (Score:5, Funny)

    by SomeOtherGuy ( 179082 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:55PM (#4663621) Journal

    Tablet PC's: "If a PDA can't cut it, you have enough money for a laptop but can't stand keyboards -- this is the platform for you."
  • The real question here is do you want an $800 tablet computer? Forget about the OS.

    If enough hobbiests want them, then you know Linux (any flavor) will be available sooner or later.
  • Did I just miss it in the article? I can't find any link to the company, nor any reference to the company or product anywhere else on the web. Does anybody know more? $800 really is a good deal on a pen-based computer, and this thing should have lots of applications, if not in the consumer area, then in vertical markets.
  • You just have to love this article. Describes a somewhat-interesting new tech (I'm actually interested in it primarily because of the price - I don't give two shits about "Tablet PC" gimmicks, but having a wireless web browser in this form is a great idea), but THEY DON'T GIVE A BLOODY URL.

    The company is actually taking orders - you would guess they just _might_ have a web site, given who they're targetting this at. If they do, then these article writers should be SHOT for not including the URL. God damnit.
  • Pictures [docunote.com] and more information is there.
  • I wonder if they'll release the handwriting recognition
    under the GPL. That would certainly be cool, though
    I doubt it'd happen.

    I'd still buy one even if that portion of it is
    proprietary.
  • 1. It'll run fine until you plug anything into it, then the power supply will burn out because it's spec'ed to the 1/2 watt of the average load on the tablet..

    2. The insides will be all held together with bubble gum and twine...

    3. It'll randomly turn itself on and off and when youc all tech support they'll tell you "That's a feature, ain't it cool!"

    4. You'll be convinced they installed the "Gir" version of windows on the machine... "I like taco's"

  • Linux pen software (Score:3, Informative)

    by WillAdams ( 45638 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:17PM (#4663810) Homepage
    Here're a couple of links which may help with this sort of thing:

    - http://www.linuxslate.org
    (drivers &c. for Fujitsu and other pen slates, also XScribble (graffiti-like handwriting recogntion)

    Various Berkeley Java based Pen / gestural UI things (w/ source):
    starting at:
    http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/

    NotePals - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/notepals/
    (c ollaboration w/ PDAs)

    Quill and GDT - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/quill/
    (gest ural UI design)

    SATIN - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/satin/
    (sket ch and ink-based toolkit)

    DENIM and SILK - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/
    (info rmal tools for GUI and web design)

    Someone else already mentioned Squeak, a SmallTalk implementation suitable for use w/ pens www.squeak.org, as well as www.handhelds.org, (which should be obvious)

    www.mira2go.com had Linux pen systems pretty recently (and was even advertising here on Slashdot).

    The critical issue to my mind is getting some sort of natural ink handling w/ nicely integrated gesture support as well as document annotation.

    William
  • Here's their website: http://www.docunote.com/ [docunote.com]
  • Why?

    Because keyboards are by-far the most efficient way to get information into a computer, so who would want a computer that doesn't have one?

    This may seem simplistic, but often the smartest people can miss the simplest flaws.



  • Ricoh G1200-S Tablet. touch-sensitive 16-bit color LCD screen, Does Win98, Linux... Costs less than $100 on Ebay.

    So whats the big deal?

    Cheers,

  • eMachines? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by fox8118 ( 538985 )
    Made from the former people of eMachines? If they are trying to scare me from buying a tablet PC they are doing a very good job. I have never had more problems with a single brand of PC and yet now they are going to start producing tablet PCs and expect them to work?

  • A passive touchscreen is GOOD... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by clacour ( 621903 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:46PM (#4664078)
    I saw at least one post that lamented the lack of an active pen, and several that asked "What are you going to about command line?".

    The typing issue is trivial. I'm nearly certain you can plug in a standard keyboard (it's basically still a laptop, after all), and for those occasions when you can't, a simple app could put a keyboard on the screen and you can type on that.

    Also, there's a neat gadget ( http://www.time.com/time/2002/inventions/rob_keybo ard.html ) that could be incorporated pretty easily, although I'm sure it's not in the machine under discussion. (Sorry if the URL is broken in half -- I couldn't figure out how to fix it.)

    That's just one reason I consider a passive touchscreen (anything which can depress it can activate it) to an active one (has a special pen that is the only thing that will activate it.)

    Here's a few others:

    * Losing your stylus doesn't require a $15-$20 (at least) replacement, and render your machine completely dysfunctional until you get it.

    * It allows software to become much more intuitive. The original concept of a mouse was to simulate being able to touch the objects on the "desktop" and move them around. The objects will still be a simulation, but the touching will be reality.

    This has one medium serious drawback, of course. It means Apple was right to stick with a one-button mouse all this time...

    * It opens up a whole bunch of new interface interaction possibilities. For example, to address the one-button,two-button,three-button issue, you could tap with one, two, or three fingers. (Some of the stuff that's been done with right-clicking I actually like. I'd rather not give it up.)

    Even more, it makes possible interactions that could not possibly be done with a mouse, such as moving a window around with one hand and resizing it with the other at the same time (or resizing with two fingers on the same hand); or moving two windows (maybe even three or four if you've got big hands and coordination) at once.

    How'd you like to design a web page layout by literal "hands-on" design? Eye-hand coordination is built into the species. Remote control devices like mice, trackballs, graphics tablets, etc all make it more difficult to use your mind for the creative, aesthetic side of the work. (Geeks, who usually don't have any aesthetic sense worth speaking of, and who use mice and keyboards more often than any other object, will not get as big a boost in productivity. Sorry.)

    Add to that any other activities that involve multiple fingers (musical keyboards, 10-key pads, phone number pads and so on), and I consider a passive touchscreen a much better option than One Pen to Rul... Sorry, started to get carried away.

  • * It'll run Lindows.
    * Company founded by a co-founder of e-machines.
    * Crusoe processor.

    Geez, this thing is just FULL of quality, ain't it?

    I honestly can't think of any use for a tablet PC, other than warehousing. I'm sure there are some, but I'd still prefer a normal ol' laptop.

  • using tablet to post this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rufusdufus ( 450462 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @07:04PM (#4664222)
    I am using a tablet pc in compusa right now. cool wireless internet access not compelling enough to compensate for nightmareish pen input interface. Getting this text entered correctly has taken more than 5 minutes...finally had to swith to soft keyboard.which sux to.
    novelty at best

    • Re:using tablet to post this (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I waited 10 minutes to play with the Acer tablet PC. I stood beside a salesman and a guy and neither could figure out how to use the damn thing and I kept giving them suggestions. Finally I got to play with it. I dunno. The active pen drove me nuts... the stupid arrow cursor flying around before I got the pen tip to the screen. Maybe they calibrated it wrong, but I had a hard time making menu selections. And replacement pens are CDN$24 each I think. I tried to enter text into the thing using the input panel but gave up after a half dozen tries. Everything just felt too awkward and too delicate and I never managed to get any text in.

      I was able to write in ink but woop-de-doo, I can do that on my Pocket PC in the notes function.

      At CDN$4000 after taxes, it's way too expensive and way too delicate. I'd like to see something rugged with a tough screen I can work with. I had hoped to have something to display my novels on so I could read them and mark them up with ink and invite other people to do so as well and then have all the comments together.
  • Transmeta offers a specialized Linux OS based on Redhat 7.1 that is optimized for it's chips. Here is the link: http://midori.transmeta.com/

    I would think this would be the optimal OS to run on this tablet. Not to mention its GPLed and is a Sourceforge project.
  • Unlike the new class of Tablet PCs, the device from StepUp Computing can be navigated by touching the display with any object, such as a stylus pen or your finger. [emphasis added]

    One of the nice things about the new M$ tablets and their fancy wacom-style pen is that, since they only respond to the pen, you can rest your hand on the screen and write naturally. go ahead, try it. grab anything and write on it. notice how your whole hand is laying down? now try to write with nothing except the writing instrument's tip touching. not quite the same, eh? writing complicated shapes like a lowercase 'S' is pretty hard when your hand isn't fixed. start writing the letter S smaller and smaller with and without your hand touching and compare the results as the size decreases.
  • I like the features, price, and look of this device. If it can use other flavors of Linux besides Lindows and dual boot Linux and XP this might be a real winner for me. It's larger than a PDA.. which are to small for my tastes but not as bulky or expensive as a laptop.

    For everyone whining about it not being either a PDA or a laptop they are missing the point.. some of us want something that is neither a PDA or a laptop and tablet PC's fit that need well. For me at least though I don't want to pay a laptop price for a tablet. $500-$800 hits the sweet spot for me.

  • Lindows is for real (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dh003i ( 203189 ) <dh003i@gmail. c o m> on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @08:57PM (#4664987) Homepage Journal
    This article and many others convince me that Lindows is just what we need to bring GNU/Linux to the masses.

    They're engaging in very aggressive, very smart business.

    Firstly, naming it Lindows. Sounds like Windows, but doesn't violate the trademark, as a US Court found; partially because, to the dismay of the fuckwits at MS, they don't have rights over everything that sounds like Windows; partially because, as the court also found, Windows is a generic name. This move makes it more likely that Windows users will convert over.

    Secondly, making their website look like Apple's Web site, and making their default desktop setup looking like a mix between WinXP and OSX. This helps to bring over Mac and Windows users.

    Thirdly, aggressively pursuing OEMs and third parties to sell PC's with Lindows pre-installed. The partnership with Walmart is particularly brilliant. Millions of people shop at Walmart to get a value, and Lindows can capitalize on that by allowing people to get tons of software and a good OS on a $500 dollar PC with the monitor included. Most people already have printers, so it isn't necessary to include the cost of a printer.

    Fourthly, by implying this relationship with AOL. Yes, its sneaky, but the only way a company can beat MS and Apple is to play by their game. It doesn't matter that they use sly tactics; what matters is that they're our natural allies.

    Fifthly, by basing their distribution around Debian GNU/Linux. Couldn't have picked a more solid distro to base it off of. Also, being true to the GNU ideal will please the faithful.

    Sixthly, for, while obeying the GPL, not offering the source code for download over the web free of charge, nor offering their binaries for download free of charge. The GNU GPL does not require that you give away the source for free, it only requires that you mail people the source if requested at no more than what it costs you to mail it to them. GNU GPL also doesn't require that you offer binaries for download over the web. Lindows is taking advantage of that, and employing a real business model. As dot.bomb taught us, its not a viable business model to plan your business around giving something away for free but hoping people will pay for it anyways.

    Yes, Lindows is a serious business. Yes, they're aggressive. Yes, they're SOB's. But because their software is based off of the GPL'ed Debian, they're our SOB's. Lindows is a GNU/Linux distribution that will appeal to the masses by offering easy setup and configuration at a very cheap price. PC's sold with Lindows are definately much cheaper than the equivalent PC's sold with Windows. I see it gaining ground. I'd even suggest investing in Lindows as a stockholder.

  • pr0n (Score:3, Funny)

    by whereiswaldo ( 459052 ) on Thursday November 14, 2002 @01:31AM (#4666211) Journal
    the device from StepUp Computing can be navigated by touching the display with any object

    This is going to revolutionalize porn..

    (sorry, had to be said ;)

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