<strong>There is no true innovation in these new Tablet PCs. They are just flat-panel displays with some extra circuits, a hard drive and battery, that allow pen input. There is nothing ergonomic about holding a thin, hard rectangle in your hand.
I challenge Apple to redefine what a handheld computer can be. It should NOT be a computer that happens to be small enough to hold in my hand. It SHOULD be a comfortable handheld device that happens to act like a computer.</strong><hr></blockquote>
A Tablet is practical replacement of a professionals Foliofile. Just ask Franklin, there are 10s of millions of them in use today.
We aren't talking about PDAs, we are talking about a Tablet PC. PDAs are merging with Cellphones and getting smaller and provide instant access to small amounts of data. Tablets provide a practical data interface for large amounts of data and/or graphics.
As I have said before, the iBook is perfectly suited for such a metamorphosis. It is the perfect weight and size.
Didn't Apple actually DO this 10 years ago? Newton started out as a handheld AND a tablet-sized device. They decided to concentrate on the handheld and get that to market first, IIRC. I think they had gotten so far as working prototypes of the larger model. But the market never materialized and the tablet version never saw the light of day.
rsgunther, yeah, these things are just so heavy. And compared to a notebook just so awkward to carry.
</sarcasm> When's the last time you thought, hey, I'd take this legal pad with me to the meeting, but its just too heavy.
Battery concerns people have mentioned. I don't know how long the HP/Compaq one I have mentioned above lasts. However, we all know that G3/G4 processors are much lower power consumers than at least the Pentiums. I don't know how they compare to a 1Ghz Crusoe. However, if Apple can get an iBook w/700Mhz G3 and 12.1" screen (aka, mine) to run four hours on a battery, then surely the could get a machine with a smaller screen, and less hardware (optical drive, etc) to run six+ w/a lithium polymer battery.
clonenode, you know, the iPod is no real innovation either then. Its just a hard drive with an MP3 decoder, playlists, and a solid state wheel. Its not always if you make something new, its MUCH more often a new way of making things work together.
Here is the BIG, BIG plus I see with the Tablet PC. I can't stand in a hallway chatting with someone and talking notes on my iBook, unless I have somewhere to set it. With the Tablet PC, I can. "But hey, you can do that with a Palm." Yeah, on a freaking tiny screen, forget it!
Further attacks have been made on price. Of course its expensive, it just bloody came out! If there is even moderate interest we will see sub-$1000 Tablet PC's with all the docking station accessories included.
From reading threads at Slashdot the handwriting recognition on XP Tablet is pretty good, if not better than Inkwell/Newton. GASP! I tend to believe what I read at Slashdot, as they are no friend of Microsoft, and several posters have actually used these devices or prototypes. But, this is a non-issue, I'm not asking about M$ Tablets, I'm asking about the Apple ones that should be here, and we all know their recognition will kick a$$.
Three pounds, enough said.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That one's nicer weight-wise, but it suffers from a screen with Squint-O-Matic(TM) technology - 10x7 in a 10.1" screen! - and still has to hedge with a keyboard because XP isn't an OS designed for a pen interface. And, of course, no optical drive, so if you want to use the thing as more than an accessory you end up needing to carry the thing and its accessories in a bag. At that point, why not just get a notebook? You know, the paper kind?
Apple had to roll out the 14" iBook because too many people complained that 10x7 was unreadable on a 12.1" screen - a really nice, bright, sharp 12.1" screen. Make it even smaller, and even fewer people will be interested.
[quote]<strong>Here is the BIG, BIG plus I see with the Tablet PC. I can't stand in a hallway chatting with someone and talking notes on my iBook, unless I have somewhere to set it. With the Tablet PC, I can. "But hey, you can do that with a Palm." Yeah, on a freaking tiny screen, forget it!</strong><hr></blockquote>
If you got one of the lighter ones, and if the HWR really makes it that simple, and if the interface makes it as dead easy as the Newt's did to create, store and search for your scribblings. It's a theoretical advantage.
Also, the more casually you hold it, the more likely you are to drop it. I'm waiting for something less brittle than glass-based LCDs to go mainstream before these really take off.
[quote]<strong>Further attacks have been made on price. Of course its expensive, it just bloody came out!</strong><hr></blockquote>
But all it is, mechanically, is a funny-looking notebook. Wired profiled some random designer who turned the screen around on his clamshell iBook and added touch sensitivity to make himself a tablet. This is not rocket science.
And Apple added a HWR engine and interface to Jaguar without sending prices into the skies.
[quote]<strong>From reading threads at Slashdot the handwriting recognition on XP Tablet is pretty good, if not better than Inkwell/Newton.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Inkwell might be based on the same technology as the Newton's HWR, but by all accounts it's not as good as the Newton was at its height. It's one more thing that has to mature before you build an entire platform around it.
The other thing is, you need an interface designed to be used with a pen.
The Apple tablet - or whatever - will be here when Apple can offer a tablet that doesn't suck. The current Windows offerings are ho-hum or worse, and the potential of the tablet design means nothing in and of itself. Apple's been playing with tablet designs for 15 years (including a Newton variant). When the reality comes near the potential, you'll see one. In the meantime, these will continue to be useful vertical market machines in some niches.
I mean, if the best Bill Gates can do is compare his new baby to a Newton 130, it's got a long way to go.
[quote]That one's nicer weight-wise, but it suffers from a screen with Squint-O-Matic(TM) technology - 10x7 in a 10.1" screen! - and still has to hedge with a keyboard because XP isn't an OS designed for a pen interface.<hr></blockquote>
I iterate, I AM NOT CONCERNED WITH SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF THESE TABLET PC's. 10x7 is just dumb on this size screen, and HP was stupid to do it. That said, 8x6 would be just dandy. As a side, if you bitch about the 12.x" 10x7 iBooks, get glasses. My eyesight is no longer great, but my display is easily readable, and yes boys and girls I do code on it for hours at at a time. I also think the Windows XP TABLET PC EDITION is designed to work with a pen interfacem but as someone aptly pointed out, while I can type 60+ words a minute, there is no way in hell I can scribble that fast.
[quote]And, of course, no optical drive, so if you want to use the thing as more than an accessory you end up needing to carry the thing and its accessories in a bag.<hr></blockquote>
Ya know, you might just have to wait to burn that CD until you get back to your desk, instead of DURING the board meeting. Truthfully I don't use my optical drive more than a handful of times a week. Surely other people use theirs much more often, but I would wager that it is still a small fraction of the time they use their computer. Tablet PC's are NOT desktop replacements, in the sense that they provide everything you have at your desktop on the road. However, they are in that you can use them at your desk, then grab the brains and screen and use it elsewhere. THIS is cool. Passport, but the hardware kind, not the kind Crap-rosoft holds on their servers.
[quote] If you got one of the lighter ones, and if the HWR really makes it that simple, and if the interface makes it as dead easy as the Newt's did to create, store and search for your scribblings. It's a theoretical advantage. <hr></blockquote>
Remind me why I'd get a heavy one again? As to the interface, I iterate, I AM NOT CONCERNED WITH SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF THESE TABLET PC's. Clearly Apple's done it right once, why not again. 10 years ago everyone said that the Newton was ahead of its time, too far ahead. Time has caught up, go into the archives, blow off the dust, revamp it and show me what can be done with today's processors, displays, and batteries.
<strong>That said, 8x6 would be just dandy.</strong><hr></blockquote>
A bit smaller would be good, as these things need to be fairly small, like the Newton screen. I would say 6x4 (or 3.75, technically if you want to hit the 16:10 aspect ratio of the cinema displays) would be fine.
I don't understand this odd fascination with Newton. It's screen is terrible and illegible. I'd take a backlit transflective screen like those found in Clie and certain PocketPCs anyday.
<strong>I don't understand this odd fascination with Newton. It's screen is terrible and illegible. I'd take a backlit transflective screen like those found in Clie and certain PocketPCs anyday.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think it is assumed that it would get a modern day screen, not the 5 year old screen from one of the latter-day Newtons.
rsgunther, yeah, these things are just so heavy. And compared to a notebook just so awkward to carry.
</sarcasm> When's the last time you thought, hey, I'd take this legal pad with me to the meeting, but its just too heavy
[ 11-08-2002: Message edited by: The Swan ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
So where exactly do you buy your three pound legal pads? I have a large selection here, and I swear all of them are lighter than my iPod.
Three pounds is still to much to carry around without noticing. Especially since I can't clip it to a belt, or put it in a pocket--instead I just have to lug it around by hand all day.
I actually worked for a while in WordPerfect's Pen division many years ago--before the coming of Newton, even. I wish a good pen device would come out, but I sure don't think these Tablet PC's are the answer.
There is a reason why they are referred to as Tablet PCs and not Jumbo PDAs. Its because they are not scaled down featureless devices.
Tablet PCs should be just like notebooks. Some can be basic and some can be crammed full of options. The only difference is a Tablet may or may not have a keyboard.
<strong>Hasn't Apple publically said that they'll 'wait and see' in regards to the Tablet PC.
I don't think the market is ready for the tablet pc. It just seems like a PDA and Laptop blended together. I don't mind the laptops/tablet combo, but think that it'll be a few years away till the market (and the technology) is really ready for tablets.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Two years from now, tablet/notebook combos will outsell all other hardware, and companies won't even be able to sell a notebook if the screen isn't removeable/convertable into a tablet. The question is: will Apple, burned by it's Newton experience, benefit by waiting before entering the market, or wind up as a Johnny-come-lately, maginalized once again.
Ok Rhumgod, that's getting there, assuming that it's small and thin. But the non-tablet side would really be nothing more than a foldable semi-hard cover. It would accept either a paper pad, or a keyboard if required. The screen section would have an active digitizer so that even a dumb stylus (plastic stick) could operate it, but I would include one of the following:
The only knock against Anoto is that it requires special paper. Either pen could be made with ink, pencil and/or stlus so you can select the tip you need for the surface at hand. It's bluetooth, so when you have put the pad down, at least with the OTM tech, you can scribble on ANY available surface and get that info immediately digitized on your screen.
Ideally, you would flip the notebook for left or right handed use, or over it's spine to work directly on the screen, or even sideways as you've pictured it (in landscape) if that happens to be more comfortable in your given situation.
I wouldn't even go so big as B5 sizes, A5 would be fine and dandy, no bigger than the average spiral notebook, diary, agenda... Resolution doesn't have to be super high, but contrast and legibility do. More important for the OS to be appropriate for the screen (Newton, Palm, Pixo...) than a perfect OSX desktop. Could even be OSX, but it would need to be presented differently.
I type faster than I write; I write faster than I can input stupid weird sqiggles onto a 5 pound brick. Why would you give up a keyboard? Microsoft's whole idea behind this is to be more productive right? If that's true, I would rather type 70 words per minute than 20 words per minute (if even that much). I have to admit, it DOES look appealing, but I just don't know why someone wouldn't rather have a 1GHz Powerbook...
The only thing that I could think of that could be useful with the touchscreen is that it could allow you to do better detailed work in Photoshop etc...
So, unless you live in a communist country where you are forced to stand and walk around all day taking notes on your computer, just go with a laptop...
Exactly, which is why such a device could never replace a computer, merely supplement it. For that reason they have to be small, light, relatively low powered and CHEAP!
Which is why, depite all my discussion about it's ideal form, it won't be possible for another few years yet. They could do what I say using a PDA as a base, but people here seem to want a pocketable computer.
<strong>If you have trouble carrying around three pounds, you've got bigger fish to fry than which computer to buy.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hey, I don't have a problem carrying it around...I just don't know why I would have the need to figure out the company's payroll while doing the Tour de France (don't get on me for exaggerating a bit). It's a gimmick and you can't tell me different!
Here is a simply way for Apple to create a "tablet" computer.
Keep the iBook and PowerBook exactly the same (but add internal bluetooth) and build a pen that can be used to tap on the screen and control the computer. The pen would be extra so if you don't want the feature you don't have to buy it. This would create a semi-tablet PC but without all the downsides.
The pen could be used up to 35 feet away from the computer (I think this is the range of bluetooth). You could keep your iBook in a bag while you take notes in class but your writing would be stored on the iBook as a text file. (Not a pointless tiff image).
The one problem with this is that if the pen worked as a real pen, then it couldn't be used on the screen. Also Apple would have to develope extremly accurate handwriting recinition.
Apple could claim that every labtop sold is in fact "tablet PC" ready.
No, its not a gimmick. I think my iBook at 4.9 pounds is pretty light, shave off 40% of the weight and I'd call it a feather. Honestly, I have books (real ones) that I use for reference all the time (Deitel & Deitel rocks!) and DO carry them around that are 3 pounds. But I guess I just Think Different and so do you.
Comments
<strong>There is no true innovation in these new Tablet PCs. They are just flat-panel displays with some extra circuits, a hard drive and battery, that allow pen input. There is nothing ergonomic about holding a thin, hard rectangle in your hand.
I challenge Apple to redefine what a handheld computer can be. It should NOT be a computer that happens to be small enough to hold in my hand. It SHOULD be a comfortable handheld device that happens to act like a computer.</strong><hr></blockquote>
A Tablet is practical replacement of a professionals Foliofile. Just ask Franklin, there are 10s of millions of them in use today.
We aren't talking about PDAs, we are talking about a Tablet PC. PDAs are merging with Cellphones and getting smaller and provide instant access to small amounts of data. Tablets provide a practical data interface for large amounts of data and/or graphics.
As I have said before, the iBook is perfectly suited for such a metamorphosis. It is the perfect weight and size.
<a href="http://www.compaq.com/products/tabletpc/"; target="_blank">http://www.compaq.com/products/tabletpc/</a>;
Three pounds, enough said.
<sarcasm>
rsgunther, yeah, these things are just so heavy. And compared to a notebook just so awkward to carry.
</sarcasm> When's the last time you thought, hey, I'd take this legal pad with me to the meeting, but its just too heavy.
Battery concerns people have mentioned. I don't know how long the HP/Compaq one I have mentioned above lasts. However, we all know that G3/G4 processors are much lower power consumers than at least the Pentiums. I don't know how they compare to a 1Ghz Crusoe. However, if Apple can get an iBook w/700Mhz G3 and 12.1" screen (aka, mine) to run four hours on a battery, then surely the could get a machine with a smaller screen, and less hardware (optical drive, etc) to run six+ w/a lithium polymer battery.
clonenode, you know, the iPod is no real innovation either then. Its just a hard drive with an MP3 decoder, playlists, and a solid state wheel. Its not always if you make something new, its MUCH more often a new way of making things work together.
Here is the BIG, BIG plus I see with the Tablet PC. I can't stand in a hallway chatting with someone and talking notes on my iBook, unless I have somewhere to set it. With the Tablet PC, I can. "But hey, you can do that with a Palm." Yeah, on a freaking tiny screen, forget it!
Further attacks have been made on price. Of course its expensive, it just bloody came out! If there is even moderate interest we will see sub-$1000 Tablet PC's with all the docking station accessories included.
From reading threads at Slashdot the handwriting recognition on XP Tablet is pretty good, if not better than Inkwell/Newton. GASP! I tend to believe what I read at Slashdot, as they are no friend of Microsoft, and several posters have actually used these devices or prototypes. But, this is a non-issue, I'm not asking about M$ Tablets, I'm asking about the Apple ones that should be here, and we all know their recognition will kick a$$.
[ 11-08-2002: Message edited by: The Swan ]</p>
<strong>Firstly, where do people get this silly idea that the TabletPC's are heavy?
<a href="http://www.compaq.com/products/tabletpc/"; target="_blank">http://www.compaq.com/products/tabletpc/</a>;
Three pounds, enough said.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That one's nicer weight-wise, but it suffers from a screen with Squint-O-Matic(TM) technology - 10x7 in a 10.1" screen! - and still has to hedge with a keyboard because XP isn't an OS designed for a pen interface. And, of course, no optical drive, so if you want to use the thing as more than an accessory you end up needing to carry the thing and its accessories in a bag. At that point, why not just get a notebook? You know, the paper kind?
Apple had to roll out the 14" iBook because too many people complained that 10x7 was unreadable on a 12.1" screen - a really nice, bright, sharp 12.1" screen. Make it even smaller, and even fewer people will be interested.
[quote]<strong>Here is the BIG, BIG plus I see with the Tablet PC. I can't stand in a hallway chatting with someone and talking notes on my iBook, unless I have somewhere to set it. With the Tablet PC, I can. "But hey, you can do that with a Palm." Yeah, on a freaking tiny screen, forget it!</strong><hr></blockquote>
If you got one of the lighter ones, and if the HWR really makes it that simple, and if the interface makes it as dead easy as the Newt's did to create, store and search for your scribblings. It's a theoretical advantage.
Also, the more casually you hold it, the more likely you are to drop it. I'm waiting for something less brittle than glass-based LCDs to go mainstream before these really take off.
[quote]<strong>Further attacks have been made on price. Of course its expensive, it just bloody came out!</strong><hr></blockquote>
But all it is, mechanically, is a funny-looking notebook. Wired profiled some random designer who turned the screen around on his clamshell iBook and added touch sensitivity to make himself a tablet. This is not rocket science.
And Apple added a HWR engine and interface to Jaguar without sending prices into the skies.
[quote]<strong>From reading threads at Slashdot the handwriting recognition on XP Tablet is pretty good, if not better than Inkwell/Newton.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Inkwell might be based on the same technology as the Newton's HWR, but by all accounts it's not as good as the Newton was at its height. It's one more thing that has to mature before you build an entire platform around it.
The other thing is, you need an interface designed to be used with a pen.
The Apple tablet - or whatever - will be here when Apple can offer a tablet that doesn't suck. The current Windows offerings are ho-hum or worse, and the potential of the tablet design means nothing in and of itself. Apple's been playing with tablet designs for 15 years (including a Newton variant). When the reality comes near the potential, you'll see one. In the meantime, these will continue to be useful vertical market machines in some niches.
I mean, if the best Bill Gates can do is compare his new baby to a Newton 130, it's got a long way to go.
[ 11-08-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
<strong>tablet to one side, paper to the other</strong><hr></blockquote>
It took me a little time, but here ya go:
Like this?
I iterate, I AM NOT CONCERNED WITH SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF THESE TABLET PC's. 10x7 is just dumb on this size screen, and HP was stupid to do it. That said, 8x6 would be just dandy. As a side, if you bitch about the 12.x" 10x7 iBooks, get glasses. My eyesight is no longer great, but my display is easily readable, and yes boys and girls I do code on it for hours at at a time. I also think the Windows XP TABLET PC EDITION is designed to work with a pen interfacem but as someone aptly pointed out, while I can type 60+ words a minute, there is no way in hell I can scribble that fast.
[quote]And, of course, no optical drive, so if you want to use the thing as more than an accessory you end up needing to carry the thing and its accessories in a bag.<hr></blockquote>
Ya know, you might just have to wait to burn that CD until you get back to your desk, instead of DURING the board meeting. Truthfully I don't use my optical drive more than a handful of times a week. Surely other people use theirs much more often, but I would wager that it is still a small fraction of the time they use their computer. Tablet PC's are NOT desktop replacements, in the sense that they provide everything you have at your desktop on the road. However, they are in that you can use them at your desk, then grab the brains and screen and use it elsewhere. THIS is cool. Passport, but the hardware kind, not the kind Crap-rosoft holds on their servers.
[quote] If you got one of the lighter ones, and if the HWR really makes it that simple, and if the interface makes it as dead easy as the Newt's did to create, store and search for your scribblings. It's a theoretical advantage. <hr></blockquote>
Remind me why I'd get a heavy one again? As to the interface, I iterate, I AM NOT CONCERNED WITH SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF THESE TABLET PC's. Clearly Apple's done it right once, why not again. 10 years ago everyone said that the Newton was ahead of its time, too far ahead. Time has caught up, go into the archives, blow off the dust, revamp it and show me what can be done with today's processors, displays, and batteries.
<strong>That said, 8x6 would be just dandy.</strong><hr></blockquote>
A bit smaller would be good, as these things need to be fairly small, like the Newton screen. I would say 6x4 (or 3.75, technically if you want to hit the 16:10 aspect ratio of the cinema displays) would be fine.
<strong>I don't understand this odd fascination with Newton. It's screen is terrible and illegible. I'd take a backlit transflective screen like those found in Clie and certain PocketPCs anyday.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think it is assumed that it would get a modern day screen, not the 5 year old screen from one of the latter-day Newtons.
<strong>Firstly, where do people get this silly idea that the TabletPC's are heavy?
<a href="http://www.compaq.com/products/tabletpc/"; target="_blank">http://www.compaq.com/products/tabletpc/</a>;
Three pounds, enough said.
<sarcasm>
rsgunther, yeah, these things are just so heavy. And compared to a notebook just so awkward to carry.
</sarcasm> When's the last time you thought, hey, I'd take this legal pad with me to the meeting, but its just too heavy
[ 11-08-2002: Message edited by: The Swan ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
So where exactly do you buy your three pound legal pads? I have a large selection here, and I swear all of them are lighter than my iPod.
Three pounds is still to much to carry around without noticing. Especially since I can't clip it to a belt, or put it in a pocket--instead I just have to lug it around by hand all day.
I actually worked for a while in WordPerfect's Pen division many years ago--before the coming of Newton, even. I wish a good pen device would come out, but I sure don't think these Tablet PC's are the answer.
Which is why I owned the eMate.
There is a reason why they are referred to as Tablet PCs and not Jumbo PDAs. Its because they are not scaled down featureless devices.
Tablet PCs should be just like notebooks. Some can be basic and some can be crammed full of options. The only difference is a Tablet may or may not have a keyboard.
<strong>Hasn't Apple publically said that they'll 'wait and see' in regards to the Tablet PC.
I don't think the market is ready for the tablet pc. It just seems like a PDA and Laptop blended together. I don't mind the laptops/tablet combo, but think that it'll be a few years away till the market (and the technology) is really ready for tablets.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Two years from now, tablet/notebook combos will outsell all other hardware, and companies won't even be able to sell a notebook if the screen isn't removeable/convertable into a tablet. The question is: will Apple, burned by it's Newton experience, benefit by waiting before entering the market, or wind up as a Johnny-come-lately, maginalized once again.
<a href="http://www.otmtech.com/news.asp"; target="_blank">http://www.otmtech.com/news.asp</A>;
or
<a href="http://www.anoto.com"; target="_blank">www.anoto.com</a>
The only knock against Anoto is that it requires special paper. Either pen could be made with ink, pencil and/or stlus so you can select the tip you need for the surface at hand. It's bluetooth, so when you have put the pad down, at least with the OTM tech, you can scribble on ANY available surface and get that info immediately digitized on your screen.
Ideally, you would flip the notebook for left or right handed use, or over it's spine to work directly on the screen, or even sideways as you've pictured it (in landscape) if that happens to be more comfortable in your given situation.
I wouldn't even go so big as B5 sizes, A5 would be fine and dandy, no bigger than the average spiral notebook, diary, agenda... Resolution doesn't have to be super high, but contrast and legibility do. More important for the OS to be appropriate for the screen (Newton, Palm, Pixo...) than a perfect OSX desktop. Could even be OSX, but it would need to be presented differently.
I type faster than I write; I write faster than I can input stupid weird sqiggles onto a 5 pound brick. Why would you give up a keyboard? Microsoft's whole idea behind this is to be more productive right? If that's true, I would rather type 70 words per minute than 20 words per minute (if even that much). I have to admit, it DOES look appealing, but I just don't know why someone wouldn't rather have a 1GHz Powerbook...
The only thing that I could think of that could be useful with the touchscreen is that it could allow you to do better detailed work in Photoshop etc...
So, unless you live in a communist country where you are forced to stand and walk around all day taking notes on your computer, just go with a laptop...
[ 11-08-2002: Message edited by: Bioflavonoid ]</p>
Which is why, depite all my discussion about it's ideal form, it won't be possible for another few years yet. They could do what I say using a PDA as a base, but people here seem to want a pocketable computer.
<strong>If you have trouble carrying around three pounds, you've got bigger fish to fry than which computer to buy.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hey, I don't have a problem carrying it around...I just don't know why I would have the need to figure out the company's payroll while doing the Tour de France (don't get on me for exaggerating a bit). It's a gimmick and you can't tell me different!
[ 11-08-2002: Message edited by: Bioflavonoid ]</p>
Keep the iBook and PowerBook exactly the same (but add internal bluetooth) and build a pen that can be used to tap on the screen and control the computer. The pen would be extra so if you don't want the feature you don't have to buy it. This would create a semi-tablet PC but without all the downsides.
The pen could be used up to 35 feet away from the computer (I think this is the range of bluetooth). You could keep your iBook in a bag while you take notes in class but your writing would be stored on the iBook as a text file. (Not a pointless tiff image).
The one problem with this is that if the pen worked as a real pen, then it couldn't be used on the screen. Also Apple would have to develope extremly accurate handwriting recinition.
Apple could claim that every labtop sold is in fact "tablet PC" ready.
[ 11-08-2002: Message edited by: jante99 ]</p>