Jack Schofield
The Tablet PC was the highlight of the Comdex computer trade show in Las Vegas for the second year running and it could be another year before anyone can buy one.
Last year Microsoft chairman Bill Gates showed a “concept” version of the device. This year he showed a range of prototypes from a number of manufacturers, led by Compaq and Toshiba. Acer’s TM-100 was one of the most interesting tablets which starts off as a conventional slimline notebook PC. However, the screen rotates on a central hinge and can be folded back over the keyboard to convert it into a Tablet PC.
Success will depend on whether users like the idea of working with Microsoft’s “digital ink” system which captures handwriting on the screen, while running handwriting recognition in the background. The result is that text can be manipulate d in “ink” in the same ways as word-processed text. This is an example of what Microsoft calls “natural computing”.
According to Leland Rockoff, director of worldwide marketing and planning for the Tablet PC, this means “you don’t have to learn how to use a PC it just does what you want it to do in the most natural way possible”.
Tablet PCs could appeal to people who can’t type, but touch typists are likely to find the lack of a keyboard frustrating. That’s already happening with palmtop computers, and Senseboard Technologies has a solution: you just type as if there is a keyboard under your fingers, even though there isn’t.
It sounds crazy, and it looks bizarre, but Senseboard’s Virtual Keyboard takes a different approach to touch typing. It consists of a couple of sensors that wrap around the hands and work out which keys you would be pressing if there were any.
But the prize for the oddest looking system, if there were one, would go to the Geode Origami Portable Mobile Communicator by chip manufacturer National Semiconductor.
The Origami is described as “the industry’s first device to combine eight consumer electronics products in one flexible unit”. Running the embedded version of XP, it unfolds in various ways to work as a digital camera, video camcorder, phone, wireless video conferencing system, personal digital assistant, MP3 audio player, web browser and e-mail terminal.