Entelligence: Why the pen isn't mightier than the keyboard
by Michael Gartenberg 
posted Jul 13th 2009 at 1:03PM
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
When it comes to futuristic concepts, few ideas have captured the imagination like pen-based computing. The idea of doing away with a cumbersome keyboard for navigating and entering information has been a Holy Grail ever since Captain Kirk signed his first digital clipboard in space, but here in our century the concept has met with little success. Most recently, Microsoft's Tablet PC operating system has failed to take the world by storm, and lots of platforms, from the Momenta PC and Pen Windows, to the Newton and the PalmPilot, have come and gone while failing to shift the masses from their keyboards. Even smart phones, led by the iPhone, have shifted from being poster children for pen-based platforms to adopting finger touch and virtual keyboards for text entry.
Several factors have slowed or doomed pen-based platforms, but perhaps they can be overcome. First, handwriting recognition has never lived up to its hype, nor can it. From the outset, the notion of pen-based systems has been linked with the concept of handwriting recognition, which hasn't served the market well. It's really not the fault of the technology, though. As I've said before, if you can't read your own handwriting, then it isn't reasonable to expect a computer to be able to. The pinnacle of the handwriting-recognition disaster came shortly after the introduction of Apple's Newton, when the device and its handwriting software were ridiculed in the comic strip Doonesbury. The concept never really recovered, although the Palm OS's Graffiti recognition software cleverly shifted the burden of error from the device to the user, a brilliant move that reset expectations.
The key to overcoming the shortcomings of handwriting recognition is to emphasize the other aspects of a pen based user interface, such as electronic ink for note taking, and to use the pen for things like consuming and basic editing of information.
Second, most hardware has been inadequate, even when the software was mostly good enough. Pen computing loses much of its powerful allure when too many trade-offs are needed in order to gain the pen-based functions. This is precisely the problem that has plagued the generations of tablet PCs.
Too often, users are forced to deal with shortcomings when it comes to weight (tablets should be light enough to use comfortably in tablet mode), battery life and keyboards. A good tablet PC would have to be portable enough to deliver a good pen experience while not compromising on screen, keyboard or battery so that it can deliver a good notebook experience as well.
Pen computing isn't totally dead, but it is becoming stagnant. Even Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform looks more and more like it's being optimized for touch and not for pen, which is a little ironic -- for small devices where browsing is more important than content creation, the pen is an ideal navigation tool. The PC is a different riff on the same story. Despite Microsoft's best efforts, tablet PCs haven't really caught on. Still, with vendors like Lenovo still creating some pretty interesting pen based hardware, perhaps we'll see a resurgence of the pen with Windows 7. There are a lot of places where the pen is mightier than the keyboard, but it seems the market is less enamored with pens than fingers.
I personally stopped using a tablet as a daily machine a while ago and switched to a lightweight laptop that gets me close to nine hours of battery life. I tried switching back to a tablet while working on a report about the technology but ultimately gave up again. Here's what I would do if I were Microsoft and trying to jump start the pen once more:
Several factors have slowed or doomed pen-based platforms, but perhaps they can be overcome. First, handwriting recognition has never lived up to its hype, nor can it. From the outset, the notion of pen-based systems has been linked with the concept of handwriting recognition, which hasn't served the market well. It's really not the fault of the technology, though. As I've said before, if you can't read your own handwriting, then it isn't reasonable to expect a computer to be able to. The pinnacle of the handwriting-recognition disaster came shortly after the introduction of Apple's Newton, when the device and its handwriting software were ridiculed in the comic strip Doonesbury. The concept never really recovered, although the Palm OS's Graffiti recognition software cleverly shifted the burden of error from the device to the user, a brilliant move that reset expectations.
"The key to overcoming the shortcomings of handwriting recognition is to emphasize the other aspects of a pen based user interface." |
Second, most hardware has been inadequate, even when the software was mostly good enough. Pen computing loses much of its powerful allure when too many trade-offs are needed in order to gain the pen-based functions. This is precisely the problem that has plagued the generations of tablet PCs.
Too often, users are forced to deal with shortcomings when it comes to weight (tablets should be light enough to use comfortably in tablet mode), battery life and keyboards. A good tablet PC would have to be portable enough to deliver a good pen experience while not compromising on screen, keyboard or battery so that it can deliver a good notebook experience as well.
Pen computing isn't totally dead, but it is becoming stagnant. Even Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform looks more and more like it's being optimized for touch and not for pen, which is a little ironic -- for small devices where browsing is more important than content creation, the pen is an ideal navigation tool. The PC is a different riff on the same story. Despite Microsoft's best efforts, tablet PCs haven't really caught on. Still, with vendors like Lenovo still creating some pretty interesting pen based hardware, perhaps we'll see a resurgence of the pen with Windows 7. There are a lot of places where the pen is mightier than the keyboard, but it seems the market is less enamored with pens than fingers.
I personally stopped using a tablet as a daily machine a while ago and switched to a lightweight laptop that gets me close to nine hours of battery life. I tried switching back to a tablet while working on a report about the technology but ultimately gave up again. Here's what I would do if I were Microsoft and trying to jump start the pen once more:
- Raise awareness. Most consumers/end-users simply do not know this thing exists, especially when Apple's message is that pens aren't relevant.. You can't build excitement without awareness. And where there is some excitement around touch screens, it's all related to finger use and not pens. Apple has done a great job changing the conversation from pen to finger. As I've said, even Microsoft's pen-based phones are being re-tooled to optimize for fingers over stylii.
- Evangelize the easiest markets. For me that's not business but education. Students are a great market. They notes in class with pens, can record lectures with software like OneNote, and do research. In short, it's the ideal instrument for a student at a time when more students need a laptop and NEED the features of a tablet. Where's the courseware for educators? How about evangelizing the teachers and principals and getting these devices in their hands?
- Get in the channel. I used to have a few really cool pen devices here here. If you're in the area, come over and I'll show them to you, since you aren't going to see them in a store near you anytime soon. Even the few models that are actually in the retail channel are locked down with the pen removed. This might be a little hard for some folks to believe, but if you can't pick up the computer and use the pen, you might have a hard time convincing people to purchase one.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
sweet greggo @ Jul 13th 2009 1:07PM
2 words: Slideout. Keyboard.
make it happen.
dmgayle @ Jul 16th 2009 8:55AM
That makes a lot a sense...
JayVe @ Jul 13th 2009 2:31PM
Check out www.oqo.com.
They are tiny little dream machines.
roach @ Jul 13th 2009 2:52PM
Two word: HP TC1100
I been using this tablet for over 4 years and its the best form factor. The keyboard is removable if I want to just do drawing and I can leave it on if I do heavy writing. As old as it is, this design has a mass following. I don't know why HP abandon this design and followed the masses with tablets with welded keyboards, but if HP ever updates the spec, I'm buying!
I don't know what the author is talking about, "if you can't read the writing, the computer can't read your writing". Window Tablet OS is constantly learning the way you write. I am simple amaze at its capabilities, even my own writing I can't read, tablet OS is able to read. Ever since XP (Vista) to Window 7, Tablet PC improved massively. Things you see on the iPhone, Tablet OS has already owned most of its feature.
The problem with Tablet PC is not MS, but the hardware manufacturer and seller. They build them under power with lousy form factor and with exuberant pricing. And on top of that, most tablet PC are only available through special orders and the one that are displayed are displayed like normal looking laptops (screen up) with hefty pricing...distinguishable from other laptops
Joe H @ Jul 13th 2009 3:18PM
I have to agree, something new in the tc1100 form factor would be great.
I think my dream tablet would be the following:
a 9-10" slate with a detachable keyboard like the tc1100, an active digitizer/ capacitive touch like the Dell XT (if Wacom gets their version of this out ever, even better), a fingerprint scanner for logging in, and here's the controversial part- I'd love if it had an Atom CPU, a relatively low-cost SSD (more for durability than anything else), and maybe the Ion, but I'd be happy with the standard chipset as well honestly, and 6-cell battery for 7-8 hour battery life. I'd buy that in a heartbeat for $800-1000, even if that's the same price I paid for my larger XT.
I currently have a tc1100, a Dell XT, and a Dell Mini 9. Something like this probably wouldn't replace the XT as my main workhorse computer, but I see what I described as being a more portable computer specifically for notetaking and being on the go. Basically, I want a smaller secondary tablet, and I see this as something that would be a combination of the tc1100 and the Mini 9 and perfect for that purpose.
For now though, I use my tc1100 for that... as long as I can be near an outlet within an hour.
dan @ Jul 13th 2009 3:19PM
@roach:
what are you saying? The TC1000 is a terrible tablet. i used one for work for about six months. It's big, heavy, and slow. for its original time frame, it was a slick (but by no means innovative) machine. are you running windows 7? i recently bought my wife a (cheapo) Lenovo Thinkpad X61T with the RAM maxed out. Like eight hundred bucks shipped. For our second anniversary I set it up to triple-boot Ubuntu 9.04, Mac OS X 10.5.4 and Windows 7.64 RC. She flipped when she saw the Mac OS X choice in GRUB and then the little Apple logo (she likes iPods and uses Macs at work *shudder*). Though I cannot get the tablet functions working in Mac OS X, it is remarkable: the machine is amply powerful for all the tasks she performs including fondling a little video (our daughter is nine months old; any new parent understands we produce superfluous gigabytes of insensibly-and-uselessly-high-resolution photo and video). The X61T is a great machine for the job. It's just a little heavy, like the TC1000, with a non-removable (non-cheap-feeling) keyboard but it would wallop the TC1000 in any test on Earth (especially the near-to-currency test, because TC1000s are obsolete as hell).
Joe H @ Jul 13th 2009 3:20PM
Also, I have to wonder when the last time the original author used a tablet is. Since XP Tablet Edition, great strides have been made in the recognition. I have probably the worst chickenscratch out there, and Vista (and now Windows 7 is even better) recognizes it perfectly 99% of the time.
John @ Jul 13th 2009 6:42PM
I've had a great experience with Windows 7 on my POS Fujitsu tablet. I don't write on it much, but it was miles ahead of XP's recognition. That said, I find a keyboard far easier to use for extended periods of time, though that of course is only really viable with both hands.
roach @ Jul 13th 2009 5:41PM
@dan
I carry my TC1100 almost everyday (without keyboard and external CD) like a sketch book almost everyday. Dude, this machine had 10inch monitor. Its the first netbook before there was such thing as a netbook...you some kind of a weakling man-boy?
Here's a trick with TC1100: upgrade 512 to 1 GB (mine is 2 GB) and put a 7200 rpm HD and it runs Vista and Window 7 like butta. I had mine for over 4 years and its still very useful. With Window 7, if the hardware holds out, it can last me for another 3 or more years. I know 2 other people who does CG with TC1100...one has two TC! I even done very light Maya 3D on it. And like I said if HP ever put a decent GPU, I would buy one right away.
Colonel Panic @ Jul 13th 2009 9:29PM
@JayVee Didn't OQO go out of business? Besides, they had VIA C7 chips while their competitors, like the Vaio UX, had Intel Core Solo chips.
Matthew C @ Jul 13th 2009 9:37PM
+1 for the tc1100.
I used an m405 for most of last year (until the north bridge overheated, that is.) As a student, I use the pen features about half the time - their great for math and science work, where I almost always avoid the keyboard (it takes to long to type equations). the opposite is true of of English classes, where typing is much more efficient.
But there are also times when I don't need the weight of the keyboard, such as when walking and using the tablet as an e-book reader or simple web browser.
I've currently been eying the tx2z as a replacement, but I would love to see a 10 inch, low power c2d (enough to run photo shop - not atom, but not super powerful either) tablet with mobile removable keyboard and optical drive, that would be much lighter weight.
cassio @ Jul 14th 2009 2:00AM
another +1 for tc1100...the form factor is brilliant!
the only disadvantage, or drawback, of the tc1100 in this day of age is the battery life. hell, even with win7 build7100 it's speed is acceptable (no, not fast by any means, but acceptable). i definitely won't mind a, say, tc1200, with z540/z550, and a superb battery life. the weight can be lighter, but it isn't heavy by any (of my) standards...
mikeszekely @ Jul 13th 2009 1:12PM
If they can make a netbook-sized (and priced) tablet with Windows 7, I'd buy it.
Huy @ Jul 13th 2009 1:15PM
Look at the Archos 9. As a student myself, I purchased a notebook believing I'd be able to use it to take notes in class. Instead, I soon discovered how cumbersome it was and soon went back to a notebook and pen. Next semester, however, I fully plan on taking a tablet-pc to class whether it be that Archos or a Lenovo X200t. To me, being able to digitize my notes would be invaluable considering the number of notebooks I went through last semester, 6. Searching trhough those 6 notebooks for a line of information is unwiedly, and the convergence of the pen and digital data would certainly bring forth a new way to digest and share data.
kazbaeden @ Jul 13th 2009 1:24PM
@Huy
I was in the same situation as you. I ditched my notebook for the Latitude XT and have never enjoyed taking notes more. Also, onenote indexes your handwriting without converting it to text, so all your handwriting is searchable. You'll also be able to search across all classes. I can't tell you how many times this has come in handy, especially when the professor says "Remember from last semester..."
GeekPI @ Jul 13th 2009 1:52PM
I agree, onenote is an amazing program, especially for students. In my last year of college, I lived in a house with a couple of other guys who were in the same program of study. We each took notes via onenote and combined them in a shared folder. If you had to miss a day of class, it didn't matter since you had everything said and written of the class. You can write down notes, simultaneously record the audio from the lecture (which is time synced to when you write a note) and take & insert digital pictures taken of the teachers notes on the whiteboard. Have you even taken a math class and attempted to make notes via a laptop? It is impossible. A tablet makes that much easier.
It's a good idea to first tell the instructor why you're taking pictures every 15 minutes, but once they see how the whole thing makes for amazing notes, they won't mind. You can be very discreet too in taking the pictures, by setting the camera on the desk and making sure the sound is off.
Also, tablets are invaluable in my workplace, as they allow for us to make site-inspections of buildings much easier. Before we had to take a load of paper notes, photos, and then fly back to the office to go over the details with an engineer/architect. Now we shoot the images digitally, make notations/measurements on the photos with onenote, email those to the engineer, and have an answer to the client in 15 minutes vs. 2-3 days.
It's all in how you find ways to leverage the tool. Pen based tablets have unmatched utility in certain situations, but it's all dependent on the application and software.
WindowsFTW @ Jul 13th 2009 2:48PM
Agreed, and kudos to Microsoft for the creation of Tablet PC's and OneNote.
The combination has proven itself to be entirely invaluable to me as well.
normaldotcom @ Jul 13th 2009 2:52PM
Just picked up a Dell XT from the outlet store for under a grand. With onenote, it's amazing!
Ray @ Jul 13th 2009 3:05PM
I prefer typing out my notes because i already write extremely sloppy
I would like a tablet for drawing though... more so coloring. I have a lot of pictures that are inked that need a good splash of roy g biv
mikeszekely @ Jul 13th 2009 3:48PM
Yeah, I get that TabletPCs are great for students. But I think they'd be handier in netbooks that full-sized notebooks, and if they're going to make tablet netbooks, they need to bring the prices down. It's hard to get excited about TabletPCs "under a grand" when I just bought my mom a 15" notebook with an Athlon X2, 3GB of RAM, and middling Radeon graphics for $450.
WindowsFTW @ Jul 13th 2009 9:42PM
Mike,
With that $450 laptop in mind, then I guess it's altogether IMPOSSIBLE to get excited about any Apple product.
loosely_coupled @ Jul 14th 2009 2:20AM
Then pen is dead.. long live capacitive touch
neofolklore @ Jul 13th 2009 1:12PM
Go Wacom or Go Home. Pens are for a niche market
dagwud @ Jul 13th 2009 1:44PM
But my tablet PC came with both a Wacom screen AND a pen! Whatever should I do?
Matthew C @ Jul 13th 2009 9:40PM
what? so far as I remember, Wacom is the market's primary digizer-screen manufacturer. digitizer = pen input. therefore your comment makes no sense.
Joe K @ Jul 13th 2009 1:14PM
I bought a X60 tablet a while ago and sold it after about 6 months. A pen and notepad worked easier.
ron @ Jul 13th 2009 1:15PM
Why not combine voice with touch. Dragon Naturally Speaking or software like, while it requires a learning curve, appears to be much better than the handwriting learning curve. Then you create notes, emails, posts, tweets, etc. via voice.
kazbaeden @ Jul 13th 2009 1:22PM
I combine voice with pen and touch using the built in windows speech recognition engine in windows 7. It's really only practical when I'm alone though, both for technical reasons and reasons of personal dignity.
thatrotierkid @ Jul 13th 2009 1:30PM
Good in theory, but could you imagine being in a crowded lecture hall with 200 students parroting every word the instructor says into their pc. Also, many students, myself included, learn simply by writing their notes. I rarely look back on my notes after I take them and when I do, its just to double check an equation. While there are certainly instances where voice recognition would be fantastic, I just dont see it having the wide-spread attraction that tablets need to get back in the game.
I think the biggest issue with pens is not to do with handwriting recognition, but rather the pain of having to keep track of specialized pens and stylii. Lets face it, no one takes notes with a touch sensitive screen, it would be aggravating and most just ditch the technology for a good old fashion keyboard. I think in the end, pens can never get a good market share simply because typing will always be faster. People are just too used to typing at 60+ WPM to deal with handwriting recognition. Its the same reason that improved keyboard layouts like dvorak have never taken off, people dont want to change. Pens will always have their place with graphic designers and anyone else who needs something more than just plain text, but for most applications, I think the keyboard will always be king, even if its not the most efficient means.
kazbaeden @ Jul 13th 2009 1:40PM
"pens can never get a good market share simply because typing will always be faster. People are just too used to typing at 60+ WPM to deal with handwriting recognition."
So tell me, how fast can you type a diagram, or a chart, or an equation with various symbols and greek letters? The keyboad has its place with very structured, straight forward input. However, I've found the class notes are almost never straight forward and structured unless your prof is teaching from a power point (in which case I annotated the power point with pen).
Tarun @ Jul 13th 2009 2:21PM
@kazbaeden : Most of those problems can be negated if you type notes in LaTeX (assuming you are good enough with TeX)
Marin @ Jul 13th 2009 1:18PM
Nice article and I agree with most of it. Still, have to be editing Nazi:
"I stopped personally stopped using a tablet as a daily machine a while ago and switched to a lightweight laptop that gets me close to nine hours of battery life."
Samboini @ Jul 13th 2009 2:09PM
an* editing Nazi.
MeanSpyvie @ Jul 13th 2009 2:20PM
No, it’s implied the he is THE editing Nazi.
John Stracke @ Jul 13th 2009 3:13PM
No, he's saying he's editing a Nazi. Implanting a brain, maybe.
Nicholas @ Jul 13th 2009 1:18PM
I started out with a Fujitsu tablet when they first became available, and for a Mac user to switch over, that says something. Sadly, while I have returned to the Mac, nothing is available from Apple. I would say, that combined pen and touch is critical. I would also say that the interaction model needs to be tight. Windows Tablet was good, but there is a reason the iPhone is successful.
I suspect that at the rumored $800, that the upcoming Apple tablet will be a MacBook replacement. Minus various components, this is feasible. I cannot wait!
10minutehobo @ Jul 13th 2009 1:18PM
Needs more friction.
Shunnabunich @ Jul 13th 2009 2:52PM
That's what sh...never mind.
luzzio @ Jul 14th 2009 12:19AM
agreed. needs more friction, to simulate the feel of pen and paper.
DaLeech @ Jul 13th 2009 1:19PM
In my opinion the biggest problem with tablet PCs is that they just cannot convey the same texture feelign as pencil/pen on paper. It always feels too slippery making my bad handwriting even worse.
o0congee0o @ Jul 13th 2009 2:02PM
You can buy felt tips for the pen. It'll decrease the slipperiness and its very close to the feel of pencil against paper. They sell them on Wacom's site, pretty inexpensive.
kazbaeden @ Jul 13th 2009 1:20PM
As someone who uses handwriting recognition in Windows 7 daily, I don't find any shortcomings. After training the engine and allowing it to adapt to my handwriting style, I can count on one hand the amount of recognition errors I come across.
However, I find more and more I'm using the pen without resorting to the TIP, which falls in line with your notion of emphasizing the pen without recognition. Instead, for text input I find myself using the multitouch keyboard included with Windows 7.
I use my computer mostly for school, so I take notes in onenote, which never get converted to text. These notes cover courses from physics to engineering to philosophy to business; where the pen is versitile enough to handle these subjects, the keyboard can only cover business, and maybe philosophy as long as we're not talking about logic. With the pen I can draw equations, charts, graphs, diagrams, and special characters. With the keyboard I fumble as the class moves along.
I also do all of my homework on my tablet. I find it useful to have a saved copy, forever with me, rather than a piece of paper in a drawer at my apartment.
So I think education is the greatest market for tablet computers, and not suprisingly that's where I see them the most. I'd say about 20% of the computers out during lectures are tablet PCs, although sadly not everyone is using them as one.
Scarhawk @ Jul 13th 2009 9:03PM
Can you take notes as fast on screen as you could on paper? The biggest problems with pen computers in the 90's were:
1) Typing is way faster than writing on paper. Writing on paper is faster than writing on screen. Thus, pen computing is too much of a slowdown to be useful, unless you're drawing (sketches, equations etc. as you mention).
2) People lose the pen, and resent having to pay for extras. If you don't carry multiple pens along with the computer, you're bound to find the device useless sooner or later.
3) Pen computers tend to have much lower screen resolution and much higher price than a plain notebook with comparable specs such as CPU, RAM, hard drive. You're not just adding pen-screen capability that you don't have to use, you're taking away a lot of other functionality, and paying hundreds of dollars extra for the privilege.
So, it seems like it'd be better to use an electronic pen peripheral as an adjunct to an ordinary notebook. Such as: http://www.iogear.com/product/GPEN200N/ Anybody got experience with an "electronic pen" that writes on paper and uploads images to the computer?
MicroF_ckingSoft @ Jul 13th 2009 1:21PM
Ultraportable, pen-based computing is great for note-taking. Note-taking only really works if you have all-day battery life and instant-on capability. Not 20 second bootup time. Not even 5 second bootup time. Instant as in, "Oh, the professor just said something I need to write down right now before he moves onto another topic." Or, "I'm at the airport and I need my record locator to check in."
That's why Windows Mobile is still my platform of choice. If I were to purchase a tablet, I'd want an OS that's as lightweight and quick-to-power.
kazbaeden @ Jul 13th 2009 1:26PM
As far as I'm concerned, my tablet is always in sleep mode, so it is instant on. I can go from sleep, to on, scribble a note, to sleep again in 10 seconds.
mike @ Jul 13th 2009 1:21PM
As a tablet user, I have to say pens are awesome.
They hold one clear advantage over the keyboard for note-taking in my experience...
..and that is, that all thoughts and ideas are not conveyed with words.
As I look through a lot of my notes I see a lot of pictures, tables, small graphs,etc...
I also see a near limitless possiblity of emphasis.
I am not locked into bold or caps alone....
Or some hackneyed star or marker system which causes me to break typing stride to implement.
Instead my notes are filled with circled words or dates or underlines or oversized words or triple underlined oversized words with big stars next to them or whatever.
I have read so many of these articles about why the tablet/pen failed or didn't work or whatever.
But I will make this observation...
The early clio the author references was a long time ago in tech years.
My own tablet is a few years old now.
I see plans for tablets to be released later this year - new models as it were.
They are getting better all the time... and while windows tablet edition isn't around any more - the new version of windows (7) has all that stuff built right into it.
I expect when I go to buy my next tablet in a year or two I will be able to fire it up, quickly find some articles on why it is dead as a type, do some quick editing and draw some laughs on those articles and then mail them to some friends in similar boats.
- mike
DavidMNoriega @ Jul 13th 2009 1:23PM
I've always have been a fan of pen based input since as a math student its made taking my note so much easier. Then also being able to go back through my notes with things like search are just wonderful. Though lately my tablet pc has become much of a clunker and I plan on getting something like a studio xps and a small wacom tablet. I cant give up onenote.
Zmokin @ Jul 13th 2009 1:24PM
It needs to have a combo of touch/pen so that you aren't dead in the water if you don't have the pen handy.
The pen for more detailed functions (drawing), but for navigating and moving things around, it's just more convenient to use your fingers instead of having to hold an object.
Besides, for two-finger typists like me, it's not a big deal and actually quite 'handy' to use fingers on a touchscreen that can offer suggested words and help move me along faster.
The main thing that has held me back is the cost, with specs a close second followed by bulkiness.
Scott McB @ Jul 13th 2009 1:25PM
I've had an Acer Travelmate Tablet PC for nearly 5 years now, and I love it. When its on my desk, I use mostly the keyboard and touchpad, but when its time for a meeting or presentation (which happens practically every day when you are a software engineer), out comes the pen. I can get fairly easily about 4 to 5 hours of battery time out of it, bumped up the ram to 2gb, hard drive to 250 gb, and even put in a slightly faster cpu, and put on Windows Vista. My old Acer still beats the new laptops my company is buying in the way of features. And the Acer has held up to much abuse, which is more than I can say for any other laptop around here.
Willis @ Jul 13th 2009 1:26PM
I agree. The probelem with pen computing is that it will never match the text entry speed of a keyboard. With a keyboard, I can type as fast as I can think. Where it falls short is that it is limited to text only. Your formatting options consist of the Shift, Enter, and tab keys. If you want to make a quick graphic (vital to note taking) your pretty much SOL. I'd love to be able to take a tablet PC spreadsheet to my boss for him to mark-up rather than printing one out for him to mark-up and then having to walk it downstairs and have it sit on my desk until I get around to making the edits.
I'd actually like to see tablet PC's as powerful as a lap-top that work effectively with blue-tooth keyboards. I leave the keyboard at my desk with a full size mouse. I take the tablet with me when I need it on the go. When I'm mobile, pen \ touch based input is fine. When I'm creating comment, I'd like to choose between Keyboard \ Mouse \ Pen \ Finger
That's just me though.