Toshiba's latest slim tablet
(Credit: Toshiba)Convertible tablet PCs always get a lot of attention, even if we don't know anyone who actually uses one. It's not surprising--in a world of commodity products, where one gray laptop looks much like the next, having a swiveling touch screen is at least something a bit different, even if you're not one of the handful of media professionals, note-taking students, or graphic artists who actually need the dual tablet and laptop modes of one of these systems.
Toshiba unveiled a new tablet this Monday, the company's first Tablet PC to incorporate a touch-screen LED-backlit display. The Portege M700 offers a 12.1-inch screen, both fingertip and active stylus control, and an LED backlit display (which are generally thinner and lighter than traditional laptop screens) with an anti-glare coating, suitable for outdoor use.
We were very fond of Toshiba's R400 tablet, released in January of 2007, and unlike that model, this new tablet offers a swappable drive bay, which can be used for an optical drive, extra hard drive, or nothing at all, to cut down on weight.
Toshiba's default configuration includes an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive for $1,799 (or $1,699 for a 1GB version with Windows XP). If you're itching to buy a new convertible tablet, online rumors say Dell's new tablet will also debut this week, so stay tuned.
New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan.
I myself, as implied in the above paragraph, do own a convertable tablet PC. I do grant that I don't know anyone else besides students with them, but I'm sure if the ASUS-leaked rumor of an Apple tablet are true, the graphic artists will get on board. They're all die-hard Apple fans, and suggesting to them to boot up Windows to do graphic work is as alien to them as suggesting one inhale food and eat air for a change.
I have a vision of a iPhone-like tablet: One computer helps me wherever I go. It dials my phone, finds wiki entries and deals with the Web. The bluetooth keyboard, mouse and pads are left in the office, where they and two other monitor screens are waiting for me when I have to do heavy-duty modeling, planning or drawing. Whan I go to a meeting, I can record the audio and video, and write my own comments into a unified record. On the road, speech recognition and audio control help me with quick data entry and browsing. I can read a book or see a movie on the screen, and I can pair up wireless eyewear and earpieces for an immersive experience.
I think that the manufacturers don't get what we have known for years: it's all about the software. Dell, HP and Toshiba have invested a lot of design effort in the hinges to convert a laptop with a keyboard in the conventional form to a tablet which has no keyboard, but they don't realize that the keyboard is the component we want the least! The keyboard, and therefore the hinges, serve no function, if you can use the computer without having to type. Similarly, the mouse was invented because we couldn't use a pen. It is nowhere near as direct and quick as using our hand (whether holding a stylus or pointing our finger) to select the item we want. We need good handwriting and speech recognition, coupled with an interactive screen, so the computer interacts with us in a natural way; then the keyboard, the mouse, the eraser-head and the touch pad will be irrelevant.