Presenting to presenters: Hitachi StarBoard WT-1 wireless tablet
Personally, I'm completely happy with my USB keyboard and optical mouse. But if you're a fan of alternative input devices, such as the PaperShow, you now have another choice.
Hitachi Software announced Tuesday its new StarBoard WT-1 interactive wireless tablet. Basically, it's a mouse and keyboard replacement that lets presenters in educational facilities and corporate environments interact with their audiences.
(Credit:
Hitachi)
The device has a range up to 30 feet thanks to RF wireless technology, and a battery life of up to 16 hours of continuous use. This seems nice as the PaperShow offer only a few hours of continuous usage, possibly because it uses Bluetooth.
Other than offering regular functionality as a input device, the WT-1 also includes 16 shortcut function keys, handwriting recognition, search engine integration, and a small built-in LCD indicator screen. It comes with an interactive pen with two programmable buttons that you can use to, for example, move back and forth between slides.
However, the feature I find most unique is that you can use up to seven WT-1 units to a PC. This makes the device well-suited for presentations hosted by a group of people.
The StarBoard WT-1 weighs around a pound and measures 10.9 inches by 11.1 inches by 0.8 inches with a writing resolution of 2000 lpi. It will be available sometime next month. Right now it's unclear how much it costs.
Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong. 
