Axiotron Modbook tablet Mac hands-on

Live from the heart-pounding, pulse-racing showfloor of Macworld 2008, we bring you a full frontal hands-on of Axiotron's long-awaited Modbook -- the MacBook tablet conversion. After all the waiting and wondering, we're not totally blown away by the end result, though if you're an artist or designer, this could be a real boon to your productivity. The build is sturdy, and the screen feels solid beneath your stylus (stylus only that is -- no touchscreen here), though the pressure sensitivity seemed to give out at really soft touches... of which there were many. Check the gallery and see for yourself.

Gallery: Axiotron Modbook tablet Mac hands-on

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[Simon @ Jan 15th 2008 6:37PM]

Any chance of a video?

[Ryan @ Jan 15th 2008 6:37PM]

Its a hell of a lot better than the Air.

[aaronbareford @ Jan 15th 2008 6:47PM]

My thoughts exactly :D

Seriously, whats the point in the air anyway? lol

[Nando @ Jan 15th 2008 6:50PM]

I think there's pollution in the air...

[Zak @ Jan 15th 2008 6:51PM]

It's very light and very thin? I would have thought that would be obvious. It's extremely portable. Some people want extremely portable laptops. What exactly is so difficult to understand about that?

[Kalen @ Jan 15th 2008 7:04PM]

Because, Zak, the Macbook failed in so many other ways that its 'portable-ness' does not really matter. And the thing is also not that portable. 13 Inch screen + 1.5 Inches for the sides is not very impressive. If you want to be portable, go look at the Sony TZ series.

I am totally jazzed about the modbook though. This is the type of product that Apple should have released.

[Reader @ Jan 15th 2008 7:26PM]

I like to breathe it, for one :D

[John @ Jan 15th 2008 7:42PM]

I've got a Fujitsu tablet and I've yet to be in a scenario where I thought, damn, my laptop isn't portable enough. It goes about 3.5-4 hours with Wifi on, so I guess the Air has it beat, but then again I can carry around a fairly portable spare battery too.

[David @ Jan 15th 2008 8:53PM]

I know... I though that was what the eee was for...

[Stephen @ Jan 15th 2008 6:49PM]

So how does this compare to a Cintiq?

[Sean D. @ Jan 15th 2008 7:04PM]

512 levels of pressure in the Modbook, 1024 in the Cintiq. No pentilt sensor in the Modbook digitizer and I beleive half the pen input resolution. Still, a great tool. Would be perfect for drawing animation or sketching. Not as good for painting, but will still get the job done very well... I'm interested in the 12" Cintiq myself (I want more accuracy and pressure levels, and want to use it with my existing computers), but if the price were lower, I'd certainly spring on a modbook...

[Stephen Levinson @ Jan 15th 2008 8:18PM]

There's a huge lag from the time u draw to the time it appears.. too annoying and noticeable to draw with for me.

[ethana2 @ Jan 16th 2008 3:59AM]

I'm waiting to buy either the emperor raven or perhaps the Dell XT, depending on how long it takes Dell to roll out Ubuntu for it.

I'm looking at paying ~$3000; I want one machine that does everything I want, has everything I want... and I pretty much want everything except HDD capacity. I'm good with like 8, 16, or 32 GB.

[Lukas Smith @ Jan 15th 2008 6:54PM]

Does it do all the Macbook Air gestures?

[austin @ Jan 15th 2008 8:25PM]

the macbook doesnt do air-gestures

[god @ Jan 17th 2008 11:19PM]

haha austin that was funny

[xbox 360 @ Jan 15th 2008 11:51PM]

haha austin that was funny

[xbox 360 @ Jan 15th 2008 11:51PM]

haha austin that was funny

[MarkZ @ Jan 15th 2008 6:55PM]

I just don't understand the point.

Why not get any other sort of real tablet with Vista?

[AndrewNeo @ Jan 15th 2008 7:29PM]

Because people like spending lots of money to run Photoshop on a Mac instead of Windows, for some reason.

[SoloSalsa @ Jan 15th 2008 8:02PM]

I would like 'another tablet with Vista'. Can you find me one? The fact is, there are very few slates. The only ones considerable are the Fujitsu Lifebook, the Axiotron Modbook, and the TabletKiosk Sahara i440D. The other two have a sucky XGA resolution, this one is much better (XGA). This one also has the best CPU. And, although the digitizer is not as good as a Cintiq, it is FAR better than those other two computers. Seriously, there just are not many slates around, and of the ones available, this really is the best! And you could just put Vista on here...

[SoloSalsa @ Jan 15th 2008 8:03PM]

I meant to say that the Modbook has WXGA, not XGA.

[daliminator2000 @ Jan 15th 2008 8:42PM]

What about the ASUS R1H, HP tx2000 series, Gateway C140, etc.?

[SoloSalsa @ Jan 15th 2008 10:06PM]

@daliminator2000:
What about them? There have always been plenty of convertable tablets, but I'm talking about slates. Slates are tablets that are a single slab: no keyboard and no hinge. And really, slates are not common. The only options I can find are Fujitsu Stylistic, TabletKiosk Sahara, and Axiotron Modbook. Of these three, the Modbook happens to be the most affordable, AND the most powerful. As far as SLATES go, this Modbook is pretty much the best thing available.
Oh crap: I noticed another mistake in my first post: I meant to say Fujitsu Stylistic. The Lifebook is just another notebook.

[ethana2 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:09AM]

because Ubuntu w/ compiz fusion kicks vista's at-dollar-dollar ;)

Yes, that was lame. Really though, it does; and having to worry about viruses and stuff? You Mac users tell him; how do you like your BSD/mach derivative? Yeah, I like my OS even more, and it doesn't even function as a status symbol. Sure, it used to... you know, I don't even care. I like it better this way. When they killed xorg.conf I didn't shed a tear.

[jsk @ Jan 15th 2008 7:01PM]

If we need a pen why do we need a fake screen keyboard ? Is it like having a wife and still looking to porno movies ? I don't know, I don't have a wife... I have a mac !

[ajwalker @ Jan 15th 2008 7:37PM]

@jsk

You've obviously never been married.

Every married man knows you don't get rid of the porn, just keep it out of sight until needed. And if you were married, you'd realize you need it more than you think since women get notoriously stingy after the "I Do."

[Matthew Nelson @ Jan 15th 2008 9:45PM]

Your married the wrong woman. My wife's a sex maniac!

[ethana2 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:02AM]

Good for you, I agree. :)

[dcbCreative @ Jan 15th 2008 7:19PM]

As a professional artist and a financially intrenched Mac user I'm thrilled to see that somebody has developed a Mac tablet form factor solution.

Finally I can work on the computer as I work in one of my sketchbooks.

Hand and eye as one on the go.

My estimated time of purchase of the Axiotron Modbook is June.

[kyle @ Jan 15th 2008 8:31PM]

If only the Air wasn't so much money, they could use the parts from that! It'd be sweet thin tablet

[Sanford Poon @ Jan 15th 2008 8:34PM]

And then they will need to go back and produce a Modbook Air...

[SoloSalsa @ Jan 15th 2008 10:10PM]

I would rather have a Modbook Pro than Air: that would be the biggest baddest tablet computer ever, I think...

[Dale @ Jan 16th 2008 2:00AM]

The official announcement of a Modbook Pro would cause me to need some alone time.

[Dale @ Jan 16th 2008 2:00AM]

The official announcement of a Modbook Pro would cause me to need some alone time.

[carlwf @ Jan 15th 2008 8:44PM]

So...I asked the guys that sell the ModBook this question, and they couldn't answer it:

On a Tablet PC, the 'ink' is integrated with Office such that I can mark up PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, etc., and save them with the annotations.

With the ModBook, will the 'ink' work this way with Office?

thanks!

[Macit @ Jan 15th 2008 10:57PM]

If you're running Windows inside of paralles or bootcamp or vmware you can use all the functions of a regular tablet - onenote, and inking in msoffice. I know this seems obvious but I think it's the only solace that will save the Modbook. Microsoft has spent over 18 years on the inking platform. Axiotron is living in a Disneyland if they think they can compete with PC tablets and all the apps built on the .Net platform for Windows XP Table PC Edition and now Vista.

[f_Sharp @ Jan 15th 2008 10:00PM]

Sure beats the hell out of the new "iFolio"!

[Macit @ Jan 16th 2008 12:03AM]

Actually Dell came out with a tablet pc this year that has all the hand gestures like an iPhone ACCEPT contrary to the Air you use the gestures directly on the 12" screen not the touch pad. It's pretty cool and expensive.

[Uncle Fungal @ Jan 16th 2008 1:30AM]

Except. If you're going to stress a word in all caps at least use the right one.

[ethana2 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:16AM]

Multi touch/cursor gestures and hand gestures are not the same thing. Hand gestures are when I give my webcam the live-long-and-prosper and it hibernates the machine.
(TBI)

...and for logging back in:
http://groups.google.com/group/linux-biometrics/browse_thread/thread/55dd4428f1ddf80b

[pheer6224 @ Jan 16th 2008 1:34AM]

It's really too bad this will be a success in the smarmy web designer category. They should all use GIMP on a pc with a separate touchscreen. And who the hell wants to spend upwards of 3000 dollars on something they will inevitably dish out to a good beating? Nobody realizes the fact that they don't. One can just run photoshop and OSX on a toughbook or some such device, if they feel the need. Of course, they could also go with a bricked toughbook tablet for half the price, load it with Ubuntu and use GIMP instead, for a grand total of 600 dollars. Sometimes I think apple needs to be taught a lesson about honesty.

[ethana2 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:18AM]

...or DMCA abuse with their TPM's.

Dell, spoof the TPM and smack them with a class action if they come at you for it.

[Jake @ Jan 16th 2008 2:38AM]

Yeah, I'm hoping to order one of these bad boys next fall. Just in time to roll it into my college loans for art school. I was really hoping that apple would finally release a tablet today but all we got was a lot of hot-'air.' It's funny to me that jobs was talking about how they missed the mark with the first apple tv, and that it wasn't what consumers wanted and then they go and release air. I think they should have just given the macbook and macbook pro lines some kind of a new-styled 'iMac' refresh or released that dock we saw the patent filings for; or you know... a tablet. Granted it'd be a niche market- but I for one would order it in a heart-beat. And from the clamoring I've seen online a lot of other people would too. Anyway- I'll give this Axitron thing a very expensive shot.

[Tony @ Jan 16th 2008 3:24AM]

Have a look at the Motion 1700 if you want the best Vista slate.

[Macit @ Jan 16th 2008 2:43PM]

Ethana2 - I was talking about hand gestures. I know the difference. Do some research or just look at the video of N-Trig who has developed software for Dell's HAND GESTURE tablet pc.

Uncle Fungal - That post came in at 1:30 AM which means you're either an international tech in search of grammatical errors the world wide, or an anal American with no sex life in search of grammatical error... Peace love and getalife.

[MJB @ Jan 16th 2008 3:32PM]

How about a Modbook Air, using the Macbook Air as a donor computer, as the current model uses the Macbook. Instead of using the Wacom digitizer, I would've gone with an N-Trig capacitive digitizer which would allow for pen, finger, and multi-touch input. (Read about them here: http://www.n-trig.com/Default.aspx ) It also weighs far less than a normal digitizer which should keep final weight under 4lbs. You HAVE to look at this multi-touch demo using this technology here: http://www.n-trig.com/Usa/Content.aspx?Page=PressVideo Even if the demo is running on Vista, it clearly shows the potential of this digitizer. I'd still toss in the GPS, but I'd also add an accelerometer to allow auto screen rotation a-la iPhone. What do you think?

MJB

[tnkgrl @ Jan 17th 2008 12:47AM]

Here are some pictures I took of the ModBook: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/category/modbook/