Doesn't apply to me, but I agree we need an OS geared for the form factor. I've been most vocal about this with UMPCs, which have a hard limit on screen size, but even in tablets, adding tablet functionality as another layer (with additional overhead) isn't enough.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Microsoft is in a position to do anything about it. Windows 7 will probably still employ an inflexible desktop-based interface. Meanwhile, Apple has a scalable OS that they run on everything from servers to handhelds. Not only is it possible Apple can "rescue" the form factor, but they're the only ones with the software in place to do it.

While I still use and love my x60 tablet, they really are going to need a fully tablet compliant GUI, such as bump top, to become truly useful. Fighting with the WIMP interface just doesn't work. I personally think the ideal would be a gesture based menu system and heavily simplified (or hidden) system controls outside the essentials (like vol. control, brightness, etc). This would allow for a more transparent experience where you fight the interface less and work more. Inkseine & onenote are the closest to this at the moment but they are a long way from perfect.

I am pretty much in the same position as CPChickie . . . although not a doctor, I just don't pull out my pen that much anymore.

I've actually found quite the opposite. As a family physician, the tablet seems much more "patient friendly," similar to holding a paper chart. The interaction when using a desktop computer seems sterile by comparison, and I found patients were distracted by the constant turning away to look at the keyboard and monitor. In fairness, most physicians I've spoken with tend to use the standard desktop setup with their electronic medical records, but I've become something of a tablet evangelist with my own experiences.

I often wonder about those who have had bad experiences with Tablet PC's, especially first time users if it at all relates to their choice of Tablet PC. Sure, better software can make for a better overall experience, but hardware in my experience has a direct effect as to how I use my Tablet.

My pen's out all day with Vista on a UMPC and XP Tablet on a 12.1" active digitizing tablet PC.

I don't have reboot problems any more than on my desktop, or the ones hardwired in my classrooms (all XP).

Vista's tablet functions are better, but I have to poke and tap and jab all day. My daughter's ipod touch has touch brilliantly integrated, but it has no handwriting recognition. My handwriting is terrible, but the recognition is excellent, not as fast as typing, and much better in numerous situations--and is searchable.

Touch will have to be considered a different UI given that Apple has outstanding touch, and MS outstanding handwriting recognition. Keyboard, mouse, touch, touchpad, pen and voice will all have to be as easy as the other.

The targets I aim for with pen and finger will have to be larger, even as screen real estate will have to be more efficient. Anybody ever drive with MS Streets and Maps? With someone next to me holding the computer, she couldn't hit the necessary buttons. Compare to Garmen.

And definitely the game of finding the TABTIP defeats the whole idea that tablet is integrated into the operating system.

I think the Tablet PC has a great future. Laptops suffer some of the same problems as tablets. Yesterday, one of my co-workers complained how hot her laptop gets. Getting people to leave their keyboards is the biggest cultural problem. Vista is a mixed blessing. I will never go back to XP Tablet PC edition, yet I cannot ask my co-workers to move over to Vista because of compatibility issues! Microsoft, what were you thinking? The end result is that I'm still the only Tablet PC user at work. I love working in OneNote, Office Communicator, MindManager, and to a lesser extent Outlook with my pen. If they could only make Excel a better pen enabled software application. One last comment, I love drawing on my tablet as well.

Every opportunity I get to upgrade to the latest, best technology in the Tablet PC form factor I take it. And yet, I am always disapointed by the compromises, that I believe lead to many of the complaints that people have expressed. I beleive the Tablet PC needs to be recognized as a seprate market. Separate from laptops certainly. Trying to make a better laptop-tablet a.k.a. convertible, to appease IT buyers lookngto maintain the simple life, leads to weak machines.
The Motion peopple are the last best hope of the tablet as a new form, distinct from compromises.

I don't disagree--tablet envy-- that inking on your Tablet while talking with a patient is more friendly then typing on a keyboard, but when I have to keep looking down to see if my handwriting (yes, classically poor for a doctor) was even remotely recognized correctly, I might as well be typing, which I can do at 40-50 wpm). I think patients/parents would prefer I stay on time--something having to futz with my Tablet for input did not help--than be friendly but bumbling with a Tablet.

Another thing I didn't mention was kids (I am a pediatrician) are drawn to a Tablet PC like bees to honey. It was extremely difficult to find a safe place to put my Tablet that wasn't at least 5-6 feet off the ground so little hands couldn't touch it (try doing that all day and not having nightmares about dropping your Tablet as you take it off a high shelf). I have literally caught my Tablet going off an exam table several times this last year because a child had managed to grab it. Now you could say "buy a ruggedized Tablet", but then my screen gets smaller and it gets heavier and I never saw one that looked like it would fit my style (not that it's easy to know for sure since you almost alway have to buy a Tablet PC sight unseen with the one exception being John Hill's prgram at AllTP). The small form factor desktops I now have are securely bolted to my cabinets at a safe height and the LCD monitors are on swing arms that let me put them out of reach, too. It is a hassle having to lock (Windows-L) the desktop computer when I step out of the room (yes, I've already caught one parent trying to surf on one of the exam room PCs since their install) and I do miss always having a computer with me (as the Tablet always was) to look up the next patient out in the hallway, but it's still much quicker not dealing with 802.11 g wirelesss speeds, which are too slow for the amount of patient data my EMR program has to send from server to workstation and back again.

The trigger for my decision to go back to desktop machines when I brought another physician on board and realized this doctor was having an even harder time adapting to the Tablet PC style than I did. It's one thing to be in solo practice and be an uber geek, but it is altogether another if you can't get the other physicians to go along with the technology. This physician is very happy using the touch screen LCD to do patient charting in the room (rather than having to stay late afterwards as happened with the Tablet)

I now very easily have a small printer in each exam room locally attached to each destop PC, something I couldn't do with a Tablet. I tried figuring out how to put a wireless printer in each room, but there were majore HIPAA privacy concerns if I spooled the presciption to the wrong patient room. Also, with the printer in the room, I don't have to step out of the room every time I print a prescription or information sheet for the patient, which was a huge timewaster in the past with the Tablet PC. I can also more easily show parents the child's growth chart on the 19" LCD than I could on a 12-13" Tablet screen. I'm also planning on using the desktop PC to drive a second larger wall-mounted LCD monitor in each room to show educational material spooled from my server. I haven't been ablet to figure out how to do this with my Tablets, and if I was going to put a thin client in each room, will I might as well just put a desktop PC there instead.

Don't get me wrong, I still think my Tablets are the coolest computers around. I take one with me when I meet with my lawyer and accountant (and have almost sold them on the platform). I also have had older patients go to college and get a Tablet PC for classes because I showed them how easy it is to take notes with one using Journal or One Note. I just couldn't figure how to make them an effective tool for helping me see and treat pediatric patients. But I'm hoping someone, somewhere will, in the future make it possible.