Connect with us

Hardware

Toward a Better Tablet OS Article Leaves Me Wanting

Published

on

slatenogoodDevin Coldewey has penned a two part series on what he thinks would make a better Tablet OS. His first part was written before the iPad was revealed and part two looks at his recommendations post iPad announcement. The entire epistle would have been better titled towards a better touch OS than Tablet.  Coldeway has some excellent points to make about touch on these devices and how it needs to be implemented within the OS. That said, we’ve heard what I’m about to say many times before. Coldeway forgets that sooner or later humans need to input data into the device. He’s not sold on the iPad from his perspective, and he takes apart the HP Slate (that no one has ever really seen yet) as well.

My point in posting this is a simple one. Come late summer or early fall I’m predicting that we’ll start to see posts and articles appearing that begin to focus on the lack of input methods on the supposed slew of Tablets we are going to see.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Ray

    02/11/2010 at 10:54 am

    It would seem that the people that most hate the iPad are the ones that should be praying for it to succeed. If it does, there will be buckets of tablets, all with all the bells and whistles lacking in the iPad. Like the MP3 player market exploded after the iPod, but they all came with FM radios, ogg support, no DRM, etc. If you want a geeky tablet it seems that the best way there is for the iPad to be a hit. Then we will get the inking support, handwriting recognition, multitasking, cameras, and the rest of the things that we are all hoping to see.

  2. Peter Norman

    02/11/2010 at 12:07 pm

    iPad is targeted at consumers for consuming video, photos, the web, eBooks and apps from the App Store – a pen and keyboard are unnecessary for those applications.

    I want a device that’s targeted at collecting, processing and consuming data in much the same way that I use OneNote, InkSeine, a word processor, email software and a web browser on a pen-enabled TabletPC.

    The Microsoft Courier – as conveyed in the CGI concept video that made the rounds last fall – transcends current TabletPC devices by apparently using a new slim operating system that could provide instant-on along with multitouch and pen-based input with handwriting recognition.

    How does my imaginary device differ from a TabletPC? I don’t think a full-blown install of Microsoft Windows is necessary – in the same way that the iPhone and iPad use Mac OS X’s kernel but do not use a full-blown install of MacOS X.

    A built-in physical keyboard is not necessary given the soft keyboard found in Windows 7 but the ability to attach one via USB or Bluetooth is necessary.

    Related Links – Microsoft Courier
    https://tinyurl.com/microsoftcourier
    https://tinyurl.com/microsoftcodex
    https://tinyurl.com/courierreview

  3. bluespapa

    02/11/2010 at 6:54 pm

    With the costs of memory falling, RAM and micro SDs, there’s no reason one couldn’t have a full operating system that’s instant on, though it should be trimmed and made touch happy.

    I don’t hope the iPad fails if I fail to get one. I’m just frustrated watching Microsoft drop the ball so utterly on what a tablet should be after they spent all that time developing decent products that include pen and handwriting recognition. I would think that the iPad would be just the book reader for my mother, a big clear screen that looks book-like. She couldn’t get too lost in the UI or crash the operating system hitting the wrong thing. But I couldn’t work with it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.