Axiotron, together with distribution partner Other World Computing, is drawing huge crowds at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this week, as attendees flock to take its new Mac OS X-based ‘ModBook’ tablet computer for a test run. Unveiled on Tuesday, the USD 2279 device is an after-market hardware modification to Apple’s MacBook notebook line. The companies claim it’s the ‘first ever Mac OS X tablet computer solution’. Each ModBook starts off as a MacBook Core 2 Duo but undergoes a surgical operation where its original display and keyboard are severed, then replaced with a new 13.3-inch Wacom pen enabled widescreen display set in a chrome-plated magnesium top shell. The device runs the current version of Mac OS X and utilizes that software’s built-in Inkwell handwriting recognition.
I want…
i want one. lol. though i wouldn’t be able to afford one.
I’ve never used the word ‘sexy’ to describe computer hardware before, but.. wow.
I hope they cash in on this thing while they can because as soon as Apple clues in to the fact that users want this, Apple will make their own version.
I don’t want one! I prefer a real keyboard.
But I can see the “cool” factor I guess.
I do like a real keyboard as well but I could live with a laser keyboard with clicker feedback.
Or maybe Apple is aware that tablets aren’t as useful as they seem cool… I’m curious to know how many tablets sold last year, including the “hybrids” laptop/tablets.
Come to think of it, they already have a tablet. It’s called the iPhone (tm Cisco Systems), it fits in your pocket and its batteries last longer.
Frankly though, what’s the point of a $2000 laptop-sized PDA? Unless maybe if you like to draw…
Edited 2007-01-12 02:03
Let me ask you, do you use paper currently for anything at all? If so, you could benefit from a tablet. Tablets are nice in a lot of areas. For example, you can sign stuff on the screen without having to print it out, if you’re in school, you can use it to take notes when its difficult to type up the notes (math classes). When your drawing diagrams or flow charts when designing specs, its extremely useful. Of course, I personally want the hybrid as it does seem like a bad idea to not have a keyboard at all (although they do have those rollup ones that are great to use with tablets, but as I program, I want it to be a bit more solid)
Tables have been released for windows years ago. Where are they now. Most are on the brink of obscurity. I don’t think it is because of lack of innovation or the missing Apple Extra. It is just they are not as useful as they seem. Laptops are just as portable. Keyboards are far more efficient for entering a lot of data fast. Missing stylist, Bad Hand Writing recognition (OS X version is no better) It just just far more hassle then what they are worth. They look cool and a company that uses them looks like they are really hight tech. But in reality they are not worth it yet.
the problem with all the tablets I have seen so far is that they are far to heavy. To be useful have a weight of something like 200-300g or less. If they are heavier than that people that use them on the run, e.g. doing stock inventory in a warehouse, or filling out patient journals in a hospital will get too much strain on their muscles, and walk home with sore shoulders.
If you need to put the computer down to use it, due to its weight, you could just as well use an ordinary keyboard in most cases.
If we ever is going to see tablets that actually works for tasks like the ones I described above, they will probably need to be based on electronic paper techniques that is far less power consuming, as it requires power only to change the image on the paper, and requires no back lighting of the screen. Less power consumption will mean lighter batteries. Imagine running for months on a CR2032 lithium button battery.
no offense, but if you need to put down a tablet or laptop or whatever because it is to heavy well……… you have serious physical deficiencies and you need to go to the gym or do something besides sit behind a monitor all day. I can hold one all day and not only not have a problem with it, but at the end of the day not (physically) know that i was using it.
bottom line, stop being a little wuss and learn to use a couple pounds for a few hours, tradesmen have held 100 lbs+ for extended periods for years……… is 3 lbs that bad………… if it is for you…..well, ….. stop being a little baby and remember what the guys that built your office had to do.
No, 3 lbs, as you put it, isn’t that much. However there are people getting injuries from a lot less. E.g. there are cases of people getting problems just sorting letters at a post office.
It’s not only the weight, it is also a matter how you handle it. To to keep it steady while writing on it will create a different load on your muscles than just lifting it.
No employer is going risk law suits from their employees over things like this.
…who use a Wacom graphics tablet a lot will love it. I would, but my tablet use wouldn’t (sadly) justify the cost.
And it’s sexy and gorgeous.
I was wondering– does Mac OS X allow for pivoting the screen? Seems like to me a tablet PC is much easier to handle in portrait mode than in landscape mode.
Let me assure you, I’ll throw the entirety of ONSews into the game to get a review sample of this thing.
Edited 2007-01-12 09:44
“I was wondering– does Mac OS X allow for pivoting the screen? Seems like to me a tablet PC is much easier to handle in portrait mode than in landscape mode.”
Yup…. just open the “displays” in “system prefs” and find the rotate menu!
its trival!
Thom,
Yes, Mac OS X does support pivoting the screen.
I’ve got an external screen attached to my iMac, and when I go to the Displays system preference there’s a menu option there to rotate the external screen. This option isn’t available for the built-in iMac screen though.
There’s even an application for MacBooks that works with the sudden motion sensor that will automatically rotate the screen:
http://www.osxbook.com/software/sms/smsrotated/
As a developer with two years and a half of experience for Tablet PC (WindowsXP TPC that is) I can tell that a lot of customers use them, but not everybody exploits the full potential of these devices. I’ve been inside Microsoft offices in Spain (Madrid) and they really use ’em a lot, to the point where you just start saying “ok, that wasn’t neccesary!”
However in the Real World(tm) people are drawn back from the TPCs first because they feel “safer” by having a keyboard and secondly because the hybrids (Notebooks that can rotate the screen and become “full TPCs”) are more expensive. Those who leap ahead and purchase the TPcs end up using it as a regular notebook with some exceptions.
OUr application makes extensive use of Ink capabilities (when present), however users tend to prefer mouse/keyboard combination.
In my humble opinion, for a TPC to be more succesfull, it needs to have way more battery life and be less fragile. In the end these are PCs modded or tweaked to be TPcs, but that means that battery is the same, fragility is the same. Medics (Dentists in my case) are clumsy when operating these devices (not all of ’em but non-tech people really don’t care much about tech devices and treat them like mobile phones).
So all in all, TPCs market is a niche and it’s not an easy market to target.
If there’s something that would be interesting, is the “multi-touch” technology, applied to one of these, instead of a pen, use your fingers to move around OS X.
My .2c.
Edited 2007-01-12 11:25
You’re all thinking about Microsoft’s “Tablet PC” initiative, but you forget that tablets have been selling in vertical markets for many years (long before “Windows XP Tablet PC Edition” was released), and presumably will continue to do so. Gryzor touched upon it with the medics, but companies like Fujitsu has been selling tablet devices to a lot more industries than just the medical industry. Just look at Fujitsu’s Stylistic and Point lines- they’ve been around since they ran 486’s (a 486 DX2-50, to be exact)! Or look at Microsoft- they’ve been developing Tablet software since Pen Services for Windows, back in the bad old Windows 95 days. So if there isn’t a markey, you could’ve fooled me…
Here’s some examples of “Tablet PC” history:
http://pencomputing.com/old_pcm_website/PCM_5/review_telxon_ptc_113…
http://www.pencomputing.com/developer/pen_services.html
etc…
I’ve been developing tablet based software, and the biggest problem is that standard PC hardware and operating systems do not lend themselves well to processing data like digital ink and voice. On the hardware side, you need a good DSP processor like nVidia’s G80 series or IBM’s Cell. Without such, you’re VERY limited in what you can actually do with all that digital ink. And most operating systems rely on the ‘press’ metaphor where the physical feedback comes from the click of a button. But touch and pen interfaces work far better under the ‘drag’ metaphor where the physical feedback comes from the kinesthetics of the movement itself.
Unless you have a pen that physically clicks (Hmm, there a thought), you should never have to ‘press’ on something in a tablet based interface to activate it.
Once we get there though we’ll be able to search for songs by humming a few bars and images by drawing a rough sketch, among many other things tablets are uniquely suited for.