Early Look At Acer's Iconia Dual Touchscreen Device 68
iONiUM sends in news of an early glimpse at Acer's upcoming Iconia laptop, on which they've replaced the keyboard area with a second 14" display that accepts multi-touch input. "The upright display acts as the primary display, while the display that remains parallel with the surface generally serves as a navigation panel, alternatively displaying a roomy on-screen keyboard, a touch-wheel and other on-screen touch controls, or even an extension of what's displayed on the primary display. The latter option effectively provides a dual-monitor mobile device for presentations or studying complex spreadsheets across both monitors, or viewing one document in one monitor, and another on the second monitor. The two monitors make the Iconia a hefty device — at 6.1 pounds it's unlikely to be the device you throw in your bag for your commute." Engadget has some pictures and a video of the device.
Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
Great, like the iPad but with the awkwardness of a laptop.
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Great, like the iPad but with the awkwardness of a laptop.
I see it as an awesome reader - showing two pages at once, for one thing.
Or reading text on one side with diagrams on the other.
And if they can sell it for $500, it'll sell like hotcakes.
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Which is disappointing; but may actually be a good thing. Touch responsiveness and LCD visual quality in off-axis use are two of those variables which are difficult to swiftly quantify; but where money talks, and there is a low end too low to be worth delving into. The prospect of using two LCD panels at 90 degrees off axis, with only the touch sensitive system they could afford after cramming an entire computer and two LCD
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So the "read your spreadsheet across 2 screens" scenario is pretty much DOA - you can wander into most offices and just plug a lighter laptop into a spare screen (and as more office workers switch to laptops, more are already using their old screen as a second screen, so again, just the natural hardware refresh is killing the market
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Just thought I'd help out a bit.
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And a library of software that takes advantage of it equivalent to a pre-2007 smartphone...
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Hang on. You're suggesting that access to software running on the most popular home OS ever is a bad thing?
I'll accept that the base of software supporting touch-screen input is lower, but I don't see many two-screen apps for the iPad either..
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But.. the iPad only has one screen, why would they do that?
iPad + VGA (Score:2)
the iPad only has one screen
Even if you use the VGA cable?
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lightweight construction reminiscent of the Osborne I.
Admit it, you've never even seen an Osborne 1 except in pictures.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
By sarcastically repeating the inane criticism offered in the article? How is 6.1 pounds heavy? It's lighter than a Macbook Pro 17 despite considerably more screen. It's only 1/2 pound heavier than a MBP 15 despite nearly double the screen space. 6 pounds has never been heavy for a notebook.
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6.1 pounds is 17" - 18" desktop replacement territory.
14" screens are not all that great to work with. They're SMALL, in comparison to 17" or greater. A 17.4" display has more than 50% more screen area than a 14.1". That's screen area that isn't broken up by a hinge and two bezels.
Buy a single 17" or 18" instead. For less money, you can get one with 1920x1080, 8 gigs of ram (instead of 4), 1 tb of storage (instead of 64o gigs
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not so sure... The problem with Tablets and touchscreen phones is that while you have the freedom of having a custom input (virtual keyboard, handwriting recognition, virtual gamepad...), the input interface and your hands get in the way of what's on the screen.
Most smart phones loose the best part of half the display as soon as the virtual keyboard is visible.
The twin-touchscreens allow you to have the freedom of custom input that can change to be anything you want, but even if you cover the lower screen with a full size keyboard (which might be the first virtual keyboard not to suck), you still have a completely clear upper screen to look at.
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The problem with them is also that most advanced typist type purely by touch. I never look at the keyboard when typing and having something that changes under my fingers or requires looking all the time is definitely not welcome.
There is another even more entertaining aspect - security. If the API to change the layouts is not locked down enough you can do all kinds of funky stuff compared to which XSS is a child's play.
You do not type by touch, but by position (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem with them is also that most advanced typist type purely by touch. I never look at the keyboard when typing and having something that changes under my fingers or requires looking all the time is definitely not welcome.
It does not change "all the time" The keyboard for typing would remain fixed.
The thing is that touch typing does NOT involve feeling keys. You would be seriously slowed if that were the case, with any keyboard. Pay attention to how you type next time - are you really feeling for
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I disagree about not needing to feel the keys. Why is it called "touch typing" if touch is not involved?
As I type this now, I am positioning my fingers by muscle memory, yes, but the nice indent on the tops of the keys help my fingers find the center of the keys. Without them I might hit between keys. Also my forefingers sit on the keyboard and feel the little nubs that mark the home keys. This way I know I'm starting from the right position. All the while I'm not needing to look at the keyboard, but t
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Back in the day they would teach typists to hold their wrists up, but even then the fingers could rest on the keys. Holding both hands off the surface except to "type" would seem to be exhausting.
I have not found it so, and it's the way I also use trackpads... if you had to elevate your whole hand, that would be tiring but your hands can naturally hover without much strain if your wrists are settled comfortably. I also have found that sometimes I rest pinky fingers on the sides of the screen which keep th
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Sigh.. the bumps are on my 'd' and 'k' keys, not 'f' and 'j'. Yeah, I know keyboard have used the latter keys for a long time, but 'd' and 'f' make more sense, since those center your hands on the home row. (I realize you can probably argue the opposite that the index finger is likely more sensitive than other fingers. It still seems more natural to center my hands over the various keys.)
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Well, that's really dopey. Of course you don't 'feel' the keys in the sense of feeling the letters, but how do you think 'typing by position' works? Once you find your home keys, the feel of the keys lets you know you're still in position. Otherwise, there's nothing to keep you from drifting out of alignment with the 'keyboard'.
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Otherwise, there's nothing to keep you from drifting out of alignment with the 'keyboard'.
Well, you could try screwing your wrists to the bezel, with the added bonus of feeling like a real saviour.
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The thing is that touch typing does NOT involve feeling keys
I learned how to touch-type in school, and I can tell when I miss a key by feel. Without that feel feedback, I would be seriously slowed down.
Part of the reason is that I allow my hands to roam over the whole keyboard - for me, that's faster than using the "correct" finger all the time to type the "right" key. I'd rather not lose the speed advantage that the extra feedback gives me, and have to debug more code because of stupid typos, or type slower because I'm forced to do it the "right way."
Also, the
I also use an alternative style (Score:2)
I have to disagree. It might work for you, but for me, and probably for many others who have developed their own style over the years, a non-tactile keyboard is going to just be another source of errors.
I started with traditional touch typing, but because that is not really great for coding (which uses a lot of special keys) I also allow my hands to roam. I don't have any problems on an iPad keyboard, I can type really quickly - because your hands are just as informed by where the edges of something are, a
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Pay attention to how you type next time - are you really feeling for keys or are your fingers hitting the exact location of the key you are trying to type?
Yes, I really am. Every time I move my hands, there is a small amount of drift, and the shape of the keys and the tactile feedback lets me subconsciously correct this. If you don't believe me, try typing with a projection keyboard (or read reviews of them if you can't get hold of one), without looking at it. You start off fine, and a few hundred keypresses in, you start to make errors, which gradually become greater until you completely reset your hand positions. There's a reason why all keyboards have
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The problem with them is also that most advanced typist type purely by touch
Haptic feedback [wikipedia.org] works well on my android phone. Maybe it could be improved beyond using a single phone vibration device.
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Are you kidding? I think this thing looks awesome. I started out on an IBM keyboard with the 90dB click, requiring 20lbs of force to depress the keys. But something changed, and I found that I really like low-feedback keyboards. This is the ultimate low-feedback keyboard. But that's just the keyboard!
As others have no doubt pointed out, this is gonna make an awesome book reader -- but the size of a magazine! Ok, if your girly arms can't take the weight, that's a valid complaint. But I'm a rock climbe
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This thing would just be a lot larger, and probably not as flexible, but it's similar.
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Tested a similar form factor yesterday in the shop (http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/libretto) and have to say its no so awkward to have additional space for displaying things if you like and or alternatively a keyboard.
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The most awesome thing is the 3 hour battery life. Under ideal conditions I'm sure.
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Mostly it is just that. I want dual touch screens with one being AMOLED and the other being eink. Both of them need to accept touch. I can live with both of them being the size of a paperback. I want it to be a phone via speaker, earbud or bluetooth.
As it is my current smartphone is more powerful than every computer I had in the 80s and 90s combined. This should be faster. :)
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Mostly it is just that. I want dual touch screens with one being AMOLED and the other being eink. Both of them need to accept touch. I can live with both of them being the size of a paperback. I want it to be a phone via speaker, earbud or bluetooth along with all the amenities, wifi, tethering etc.
As it is my current smartphone is more powerful than every computer I had in the 80s and 90s combined. This should be faster. :)
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Great for *viewing* things... (Score:1)
Btw - how's that flexible 'dual' screen laptop coming? You know, where you flip it open 180 degrees, to have a single screen surface.
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If they changed up the software on this to make it work like the Microsoft Courier, and advertised for those use cases, they'd have a winner.
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Printers? usb and wireless (I saw a wireless COLOR LASER on sale for $99.99 Huh???? $99.99? Amazing).
Networking? You already have wireless if you have a laptop, and you probably have either a 100mpbs or a 1gbps ethernet port too.
External displays? vga, svga, hdmi - you probably have at least two of those 3 options.
External keyboard and mouse? Plug them into your external monitor's usb hub, along with any other usb devices
They've instantly alienated two groups... (Score:1)
Two groups of people that will definitely overlook this one; Unix admins, and coders.
Re:They've instantly alienated two groups... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yup. Smartphone and Ipad users are being trained to type on touch screens so this will naturally be aimed at them. Can't stand typing anything on touchscreens myself, I needs me some tactile feedback, but there's another generation of kids who never watched Star Trek TNG that are going to be able to actually use smooth glass panels for input.
I almost envy them.
Almost.
Re:They've instantly alienated two groups... (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, Star Trek had an awesome user interface. It's called "plot". You push whatever you feel like, and the computer automatically does whatever the script says should happen next. Sadly I don't think even Apple has quite that level of control over its users' lives yet. ;)
+1 Funny (Score:2)
Wish I had mod points
So, if the iPad is an giant iPhone... (Score:2)
The Acer Iconia is an giant Nintendo DS?
pretty good (Score:2)
Besides:
1) The price
2) The OS / Software
3) The Weight
4) The Reputation of the Manufacturer
I'd say it is a pretty good product.
keyboard bumps on the touchscreen (Score:4, Insightful)
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It seems to me that the better way to go is just have the software put home row wherever the user sets his hands down.
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That sounds like a great user interface. I'm sure nobody would have any problem figuring out how to type on a device that didn't display a keyboard until they started typing.
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It seems to me that the better way to go is just have the software put home row wherever the user sets his hands down.
As an extension of this, the virtual keyboard could be split in half, and each half of the keyboard can orient according to how the user puts his fingers down. That way, people can type whichever way is most comfortable for them.
Now all this pipe dream needs is some sort of dynamic bump map that can be raised according to on-screen texture.
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Tactile+Plus image [imagehyper.com]
Reapplicable versions of these stickers that can serve as bumps for the F and J keys. They can also be sold with the computers themselves and let users customize the position of the bumps themselves should they want to use non-standard
Two handed touch screen input. (Score:2)
It's about time someone tried this. The idea of using an onscreen keyboard is dumb though. Now that they have a touch screen big enough for both hands to spread out on they should of come up with a better way to do touch text input. I bet the end result will at least get within shooting distance of keyboard speed. For those times when you just have to sit down and type out some code there is always the USB port.
Dynamic bumps on a flexible display (Score:2)
is there a flexible display technology capable of providing a small bump per key dynamically when a virtual keyboard is loaded onto the screen. Perhaps a small physical keyboard hidden beneath the screen that gets raised mechanically when the keyboard is displayed, and for bonus points allows depression when the key is pressed.
This all sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. (Score:1)
First of all, you can only find them on barren planets in the Neutral Zone - that alone will stir up a possible confrontation with the Romulan Star Empire. Second, every time you put another piece of technology near one, it'll zap the second gadget with a transmitter-probe that'll screw up the second gadget's OS.
I just hope that Acer has the good sense to allow manual closing of the probe launch bay doors. If there's no way to trigger a reactor explosion with backwash from the rockets, we're all doomed.
Best tablet in 10 years, but must cut nails (Score:1)
depends on how much typing you do (Score:2)
However, this might have interesting uses for non-typing intensive applications. Imagine this as a substitute for a conventional control panel with the controls where the keyboard used to be and the system schematic on the top display.
Use vertically (Score:1)
Even the designer fail to use it correctly.