wireless flatscreens by......Microsoft :-(
Microsoft Corp said on Monday it had lined up four Japanese manufacturers to begin selling personal computers using its Mira technology that can turn flat-panel displays into portable touch-screen tablets
Mira, instead of working like a laptop or tablet PC, uses a wireless network standard called 802.11 to let users detach their monitor and use a stylus pen to access the Internet, e-mail and digital content via their desktop PCs
Mira, instead of working like a laptop or tablet PC, uses a wireless network standard called 802.11 to let users detach their monitor and use a stylus pen to access the Internet, e-mail and digital content via their desktop PCs
Comments
Dave
Microsoft is notorious for coming to the party too late. In established markets, like game consoles, it can get away with this just because of its enormous balance sheet (the X-box is "expected" to write down close to a billion dollars in the first year). But as far as 'new' technologies? When has MS ever been a pioneer?
You're right that Apple has traditionally been the leader in innovation, but I think lately they are innovating in more 'practical' ways. Maybe it's still smarting from the Cube thing or maybe it's just the market right now. Or maybe Jobs is just getting older, but I'm kinda glad that Apple isn't constantly swinging for the stands. I'll be happy with a string of base hits (at least for a while anyway).
My $0.02
1) These LCDs will have to be battery powered also.
2) Surfing the internet with a stylus or trackball vs mouse. You decide if that's ideal.
3) I don't think these LCDs are going to be as light as a book. Even if these things are only 2 pounds, that's a lot to be holding.
We'll have to wait and see how innovative and useful this is.
If I had a tablet for browsing the internet, I could use it while on the couch, or get up, and use it while on the crapper (Hey, don't knock it, it beats having to go hunt for the latest Smarthome.com catalog ;-)).
But I think what it eventually gets back to is that it's such a terribly niche market even once we have acknowledged these intended uses. I have an airport enabled laptop, and have no problems using it anywhere in the apartment. Admittedly, I haven't tried using the PowerBook while on the toilet...
-j4
What's going to happen...They'd have to make it stand on its own like a picture frame, or with an easel.
If it requires being plugged in to work, what's the point of being wireless?
Regardless, it sounds interesting!
I don't believe the world is really ready for these. Keyboards are still very necessary. Especially for email (maybe with ViaVoice?).
Add a keyboard to that thing and it might sell better. But then, I'd like the cheaper version which had a regular, non-touch (non-pen) screen. Of course, that would just be a laptop with Airport. Oops.
Sell the iMac base for $1,000, and then one of these wireless monitors for another couple thousand. Not a low-end product, but maybe a special edition iMac.
If it were no more expensive than a currnet display, had hours of battery life, and was light as a feather, then people certainly wouldn't turn it down. But it isn't, won't be for a long time, and it's fragile to boot. It won't suceed. But mostly it won't succeed because the concept isn't as good as we imagine. People want big displays, if displays get bigger, they get harder to transport. 15" is already BIG for a laptop, and you use that sitting at a table or resting on your lap. You gonna hold a 15" panel in one hand and write on it with the other? Even just peck at menus and such? Not for hours, or even minutes, I imagine.
eBook sized/'lab coat' pocket sized PDA's with paper quality display resolutions will eventually fill some notebook type duties, and have the durability, platform maturity, and battery life to make them more than just expensive agendas in the best cases, and electronic liabilities in the worst. But that time isn't untill some much better technologies are in place. Still, that concept would be a 'supplement' to current displays. Another computer (a small one) on your network, talking to you personal network with greater ease and integration than exists right now, but still a seperate computer.
A detachable wireless display is so nearly useless that it can only be described as technology for technology's sake, and expense for stupidity's sake.
I can make you a better deal very easy: Take one iBook, strip it from cd-rom, battery and 2,5 inch HD. Put in Airport card, 1,8 inch 10 GB drive and battery a la iPod (more flexible). Reduce weight and size and sell it for $3000*.
[*=including VGA display adapter, modem cable, power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, and lithium-ion battery; Mac OS X v10.1, Mac OS 9.2, QuickTime, iMovie 2, iTunes 2, AppleWorks, Mac OS X Mail, Microsoft Internet Explorer, EarthLink, AOL, World Book Mac OS X Edition, Otto Matic, PCalc, Acrobat Reader, and FAXstf 10.0 Preview; Apple Hardware Test CD; complete setup, learning, and reference documentation; limited warranty; and one iMac Superdrive model]
<strong>... WinCE ...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Every time I see that, it makes me giggle. How in the world did that product name escape from the Redmond campus?
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Every time I see that, it makes me giggle. How in the world did that product name escape from the Redmond campus?</strong><hr></blockquote>
At least it's not AppleScript Studio.
I agree, the MS tablet will be an expensive curiosity at best. The technology simply isn't there yet. Even when it is, it always takes Microsoft at least three iterations to get something right (and three more to really hose it, but that's something else).
Whether one is talking about a wireless monitor or a tablet device, people, forget about long-term typing or input. Let face it, a computer is only for input or output. So, consequently, a smart user is going to use a wireless montior or tablet device to retrieve information. So when I some of you posters worried that you want to attach keyboards to a wireless monitor or tablet, you're missing the point. And forget about pens/stylus' the finger is the most available and advanced input device there is, not the trackpad. And there are on-screen keyboards available for minimal character input. So one is only going to input information about 5-10% of the time, the other 90% will be accessing information. Just my 2¢.
IF it is a tablet (with CPU) it will be very expensive and heavy for what it does. You might as well give it all the trimmings that makes it a full portable.
Its not like there is no marked for it but it will be very small the price considered