Random mobile tech thoughts while running
I just got back from a seven mile run to break up the day and had some random thoughts come to mind. Don’t worry, I’ve already showered, so the post is sanitary.
- The Asus Eee PC looks like a nice little lappy and many folks seem excited about it. Is it really that different from the Palm "please don’t remember my name" Foleo? Are they miles apart or actually relatively similar in terms of use cases?
- Some versions of Vista include all of the Tablet PC bits, so there was much talk last year of Vista helping the Tablet PC market. Is it me or have we seen no more or no less new Tablet PCs introduced than in the last few years prior to Vista?
- Speaking of Tablet PCs, why does inking get such a bad rap? All of the folks in the keyboard camp: have you truly given inking a several week trial or did you give up in under a week? (Note: if you tried and it doesn’t work for you, I respect your choice.)
- Related: as nice as it is to have an indicator of textual input speed percentages across multiple input types, i.e.: keyboards of various sizes, speech, ink, etc… when did it become vogue to benchmark humans?
- Did UMPCs fail the concept of a "companion device" or did we fail to grasp the concept when we (myself included) attempted to use them as full time mobile devices?
- Will the fact that Apple is releasing an SDK for third party iPhone apps add further momentum for consumers to buy the device or did Steve have you at "Hello"?
- Related: what are the odds that Apple finds a way to sell the iPhone apps solely through iTunes so they can make a cut off every title?
- Why is it in my Commonwealth that we buy our liquor in a State Store and still try to state our case for Liquor Stores? OK, that’s not mobile tech related, but those archaic laws have been in place since Prohibition and I want to know why. ;)
While I sit back, drink a protein shake and read RSS feeds, talk amongst yourselves in the comments.
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Interesting thoughts, James. I don’ think the Eee PC really is that different, aside from battery life and being Intel-based… I was under the impression it used a version of Linux that had an X-windows server (basically can run normal Linux GUI programs, like Firefox and so on) but I don’t know why. I hope it does.
Sorry, I’m in the keyboard camp… I really have tried to ink, on Pocket PC and XP and briefly Vista. My handwriting is awful, though; I don’t blame the poor software.
I think UMPCs would work better as companion devices if syncing were easier. It’s possible, but it’s hardly easy or built in. Then again… I think we’d miss the point anyway. :)
Wow how do you manage to remember all that when running?
I’ll chime in though.
* The Asus Eee PC: From the specs, seems more of a UMPC with less parts to lower costs and a form factor people are used to. I put this device in the OLPC-clone/cheapass subnotebook category.
* Tablet PC’s bad rep: Haven’t they always had a bad rep? Isn’t that why the most popular Tablet PC’s are convertibles?
* Benchmarking typing: I think it’s great. I think Jenn of pocketables made it cool.
* UMPC’s as a companion device: I think software was a big problem. Which apps were built for UMPC’s? Origami Experience and iGuidance? Onenote works well but not necessarily built for the small screen and touch interface..
Kevin,
I think the EEpc and the Foleo are/were to different animals. I don’t believe the EEPC is supposed to be a companion device. But it sure has the potential to be a great companion device. The Foleo was to be an interface to a smartphone. If the foleo had been priced at $150.00 I would have leaped on it.
I use a pure slate everyday. I ink with it all day long. I have really bad hand writing so I seldom convert to text. My M1400 works great as a note taker, movie player, ereader, rss reader etc. My only problem is battery life. 2.3 hours with wireless connectivity turned off. About 1.7 hours with wireless turned on. Then again, I am using the original battery which is about 4 years old. Tablets PC’s work great for me.
I’m just starting to play with a UMPC. so far, so good. I think I’ll be using it for multimedia and PowerPoint presentations. Maybe GPS Navigation when I get around to buying a bluetooth gps unit.
I still consider my Q1 and my M1400 companion devices. My 2.8 GHZ Dual Core HP does the heavy duty, processor intensive computing needs. (Video and Photo Editing)
I just need a reliable way to sync files between all of my devices. My Treo has spoiled me. Foldershare is not working so well for me.
TateJ: Give MS Office Groove a try! I think Groov is the most underappreciated application which is perfectly suited for keeping multiple devices in sync.
>Will the fact that Apple is releasing an SDK for third party iPhone apps add further momentum for consumers to buy the device or did Steve have you at “Hello”?
Yes and yes; though with an sdk for iTouch …
>Related: what are the odds that Apple finds a way to sell the iPhone apps solely through iTunes so they can make a cut off every title?
1:1
Do you complain about Nokia selling MP3s and getting a cut? Or their games for the new NGage service? But somehow Apple selling apps via iTunes is a Bad Thing? Pleeze. Turn in your iPhone! (To me! Steve said so!)
Inking is worse than typing, unless you are on the go or talking with someone and then it is better not to use a keyboard.
UMPCs are a bit too small. The ideal would be the size of a Motion LS800, but thinner, and a device that is not dockable is suitable only for inking.
I also fall in the bad handwriting camp. Inking would have been useful in my calculus classes, but for every other class using Word and it’s outline formatting was infinitely more convenient than inking would have been. My job now involves lots of odd part and order numbers so it’s doubtful the OCR would do me much good now, either.
To me inking and handwriting recognition in general has always been an interesting novelty, but nothing I could see as actually better than typing for anything outside of no-desk-needed or something-in-other-hand convenience.
Oh Kevin. Its so tempting to answer! I must resist…ahhh. No….here goes.
[Flame suit on]
I still stand by my prediction that inking will become less important to pc manufacturers as time goes on and the T9 kids come through, the most natural input mechanism will be qwerty or T9. Its still more difficult to balance the device in one hand, pull out the pen, ink, check, correct, accept and stow the pen than many other methods. In addition to that, for me, inking hurts my wrist. Its not natural for my muscles any more.
The niches will remain of course so tablets will always be around but I don’t think they will become more widespread.
Ref keyboard typing tests. Its best to keep these results relative and not based on any actual CPM speeds. That gives a more general result that other people can relate to. Maybe you can give us some inking test results? The quick brown fox… 5 times. Both on keyboard and ink and then work out percentage speed. It will be interesting to see what sort of speeds one can expect after a few years inking.
Cheers.
Steve.
P.S. Any way to subscribe to a comment thread? I keep forgetting to check back for responses.
Steve, no flame suit needed here. Just promoting discussion so we can share thoughts that might be beneficial to all. :)