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Portables Microsoft Hardware

Analyzing the Microsoft Tablet PC 350

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-its-still-neat dept.
An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet UK has an amusing - but accurate in my view - review of the Microsoft Tablet PC. It may not be the first, but it is the most incisive because of the way it dissects the many fundamental flaws in Microsoft's latest creation."
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Analyzing the Microsoft Tablet PC More

Analyzing the Microsoft Tablet PC

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  • This is not a Tablet PC!!! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by stevel ( 64802 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:08PM (#5738108) Homepage
    I've seen lots of posts complaining that the Slashdot editors aren't paying attention to what they post, and for the most part I just laugh and move on. But here's an egregious example - the web page referenced is indeed a review of the ViewSonic V150 AirPanel, but a Microsoft Tablet PC it is not. Rather, this is a "Mira" remote display device that requires a separate Windows XP system that actually runs the programs.

    The anonymous contributor can perhaps be forgiven for making the error, but the editors should know better. Perhaps the editors need to first count to ten (or a hundred) the next time they want to post a "Microsoft is lame" article?
    • At least there's the redeeming fact that it's not an MS tablet PC. Of course based on the review, it sounds just as bad.

      Jason
      ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

    • Awful. (Score:2)

      by juuri ( 7678 )
      The absolutely scary part is you just have to read the name to know it isn't a tablet PeeCee since they are required to have the word tablet somewhere in their product name.
    • From what i read it is a wireless monitor, am i right?

    • Re:This is not a Tablet PC!!! (Score:5, Funny)

      by macalmaclan ( 615334 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:21PM (#5738248)
      You're quite correct. This is not a Tablet PC. Read the review... It's a *suppository* PC :)
      I think ZD's reviewer may have started something with that name...

    • Re:This is not a Tablet PC!!! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by CerebusUS ( 21051 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:30PM (#5738349)
      This is horrible. Taco, edit the hell out of the original listing or just remove it all together. The review is NOT about a tablet pc.

      • Re:This is not a Tablet PC!!! (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Taco is an idiot and doesn't read the articles, let alone the posts. He'll never see this message. Don't bother trying to do a job that he can't be bothered to do.

        If you want real news, go to a real news site with *journalists*, not idiots who post whatever shows up in their email, without bothering to read the actual articles or check for dupes.

      • "most incisive" == "most anti-MS" (Score:5, Insightful)

        by GCP ( 122438 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @05:31PM (#5739338)
        Not only did he label it a review of the Tablet PC, but he certainly must have read it closely because he declared it the "most incisive" review so far.

        Of course, since it's not even a review of the Tablet PC at all, incisiveness must simply be a synonym for "critical of MS", as in "Slashdot posts are almost uniformly incisive."

    • Re:This is not a Tablet PC!!! (Score:4, Funny)

      by jeffy210 ( 214759 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @04:13PM (#5738687)
      "...seen lots of posts complaining that the Slashdot editors aren't paying attention to what they post."

      They must all be new to slashdot.
    • The article is also rather uninformed. The author complains about the need for windows pro xp, without realizing that the technology the smart displays use does not exist in any other windows os, besides nt terminal server edition and windows 2000 advanced server.

      Also, he complains about the single user problem, and while that is an ms-introduced limitation, it's been present in xp pro since day 1.

      Finally, in his conclusion, he complains about this being a rehashing of old technology. Perhaps it's sligh

    • Not a Tablet PC..but still total garbage (Score:4, Informative)

      by WebCowboy ( 196209 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @10:38PM (#5741282)
      I am also disappointed in the lack of diligence demonstrated by the /. editors--usually I'm annoyed by dupes but it is starting to show up in the form of factual inaccuracies as well. However, I digress...

      Not only isn't it a tablet PC (it's merely a wireless "intelligent display"), it is a very poorly executed implemetation of what it is.

      Firstly, it costs as much as my notebook did nearly two years ago--and it is a full computer. Not only does it not need a host PC--it can also be hooked up to a television and play DVD movies. Why would I pay the same amount for much less? If I want to surf the net untethered I'll throw a wireless PC card in my notbook, thanks.

      Second, I am at a loss to figure out why it's so hefty and power hungry. It weights around 2.5kg's (that's over 5 lbs) and the battery life is also comparable to that of smaller sized but fully functional notebooks. Is this merely due to the large touchscreen? I don't get it--basically it looks like this unit is a big screen with the guts of a Pocket PC PDA in it. Why the heck does its WinCE and client software need 64M of RAM? Is the protocol so bloated that 64M is needed as cache to make the thing usable? So much for the "thin client" concept.

      All in all, I think the review was overly generous in giving out it's rating--it's a half-baked implementation and thus barely merits a 5 out of 10. The concept is cool though--right now it is about as ready as Windows 1.0 was when it was released. Perhaps 2 versions from now it will be worth considering.
  • Take two and call me in the morning.

    graspee

  • Thats a MS Smart Display not a Tablet PC (Score:4, Informative)

    by DemianJ ( 30140 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:10PM (#5738141) Homepage
    A SmartDisplay is Windows CE with Remote Desktop and a Tablet PC is Windows XP.

    See more at MS's faq [microsoft.com].
  • But I don't think I'd buy an M$ branded one. And what of the small screens? I'll wait until 15 inches become popular / cost effective.

    • Re:I think tablet PCs will be great (Score:5, Funny)

      by amembrane ( 571154 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:24PM (#5738273)
      I'll wait until 15 inches become popular / cost effective.

      Anyone with 15 inches is gonna be popular, and according to spam, is becoming increasingly cost effective.

  • The tablet is amazing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by saskboy ( 600063 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:13PM (#5738172) Homepage Journal
    They had a tablet for demonstration at the MS student tour across Canada. I was at one of the demonstrations where they showed an "informational video of a survey conducted by students at MIT, not an ad," as the presenter tried to claim as we chuckled at the attempted brainwashing.

    Despite MS evil intentions to force yet another PDA device into our lives, these looked actually useful, because of the advanced handwriting recongnition software. You can literally handwrite your notes, and either save them as plain text, small picture files, or move them to another PC. You can even do a text search through handwritten files. The angle you write at doesn't always stop the words from being found even. Truely an innovation in PDAs.
    • I thought Apple's Inkwell handwriting technology was first in this area?

      Didn't the newton have hadwriting regognition?

      • Re:The tablet is amazing (Score:5, Funny)

        by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @04:08PM (#5738653) Homepage
        I thought Apple's Inkwell handwriting technology was first in this area?

        Didn't the newton have hadwriting regognition?

        Yes it dud, mole or lease.


      • Didn't the newton have hadwriting regognition?

        maybe the problem was user error? ;-)

        I had heard that Mac OS X's Inkwell technology had evolved directly from Newton. In fact, there are recent rumors that Apple is creating their own Tablet PC: Evidence for the Mac Tablet [macrumors.com]

      • Apple's InkWell comes from the ``Rosetta'' print recognizer which Apple developed for the Newton _after_ licensing the Calligrapher cursive recognizer from the Russian firm Paragraph.

        Calligrapher, which is used in Tablet PCs and is available for WinCE has the advantage of being trainable, and handling fully connected writing.

        Rosetta is supposed to be a bit faster (not an issue these days) and is cheaper for Apple to distribute (unencumbered)

        William
    • ... we chuckled at the attempted brainwashing. Despite MS evil intentions to force yet another PDA device into our lives, these looked actually useful, because of the advanced handwriting recongnition software.

      Which is to say, the brainwashing worked? :-)

    • Some MS guys visiting our campus in the UK had a TabletPC with them (which had a keyboard and could be used like a laptop, or the screen could be rotated and closed facing outwards like a tablet. It was a pretty neat device.

      The part of the demonstration I liked best was when the MS person tried using the voice command function and then looked absolutely astonished when it actually worked.

      Having said that, I really don't like the idea of carying a computer around with me. At the moment I leave all fi

  • After reading the review, this thing sounds like a nightmare.

    I don't get it, it costs more then a basic laptop, its much more difficult to setup, it has a very slow processor compare to a lappy, and it doesnt do nearly as much as a laptop.

    This reminds me of those portable personal DVD players. They cost about $1000 for a 7" screen and all it does is play DVDs, for the same price you could buy a notebook computer with a 14" screen that plays DVDs and does a whole lot more.

    This isnt some easy to use Internet Appliance like the i-opener, it is not priced like one, so just who is this targeted towards?

    I would love a tablet PC, I hope they get better and better and cheaper. This appears to be pretty worthless though.
    • "After reading the review, this thing sounds like a nightmare." -- It should, the user who posted the story intended it that way. It's a troll. They didn't even point out that this is NOT a TabletPC.

      "...it costs more then a basic laptop..." -- (assuming you mean TabletPC and not the device that was reviewed) It is just starting in the marketplace. The displays with this type of sensitivity are expensive. Like the thousand dollar portable DVD players you mentioned, the price goes down. It won't always

      • Re:Who is the target consumer for this P.O.S. ? (Score:5, Informative)

        by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:53PM (#5738529) Homepage Journal
        Actually, I think the grand-parent poster - er, the one who you were replying to - knew exactly what he was talking about, but got the "Table PC" mixed in there due to the incorrect use of the term in the headline.

        A Tablet PC might be more useful than this "airplanel V150", but the V150 seems to be targeted to no one. To reiterate his points:

        It's priced at £1000 (plus tax) - that's something like $1500, I think (or $1594, accoring to this page [disa.mil]). For that much, you can easily buy a cheap laptop, which alone is more than capable of acting as a remote display for a Windows XP Pro box. (Trust me, I know some people who use old Pentium laptops to connect to their Windows XP machines. Not terribly fast, but it works... Total cost was like $100 for laptops + 802.11b cards. Of course, they don't have a stylus, and it's much bulkier.) Of course, with the laptop, you can still use it without the host parent computer.

        With a laptop, you can move it anywhere and still use it. With the V150, you have about 30 meteand still use the basirs from the wireless APs until it becomes useless. You can't just take the V150 into the office and use it - it needs to be on the same network as the computer. (Or not - even still, the point probably still stands that effectively it needs to be on the same network to be useful. I'll conceed this point to anyone with real facts.)

        When you realize that the V150 is useless without a desktop PC anyway, your total cost comes to the cost of a laptop - unless you're planning on making your existing desktop more portable around the house.

        In other words, the "airpanel V150" is an expensive flatscreen monitor that is minimally useful, a pain to set up, and offers nothing better than a laptop would. A real TabletPC would be far more useful than this thing, and probably only be a little more expensive (if the desktop cost were included). I think that was the original poster's point - this thing isn't really that much more useful than a laptop.

    • First let me say that Rupert Goodwins seems to have some serious issues, particularly harboring a pretty nasty attitude against Microsoft.

      From the article :
      >Tablet is the wrong medicinal analogy: suppository more adequately describes the Smart Display experience.

      Wow - zing.

      >The stand doesn't allow you to tilt and swivel the display, which contravenes the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, which state: "The screen must swivel and tilt easily and freely to suit the needs o
    • While I agree with most of your post, saying:

      This reminds me of those portable personal DVD players. They cost about $1000 for a 7" screen and all it does is play DVDs, for the same price you could buy a notebook computer with a 14" screen that plays DVDs and does a whole lot more.

      Really doesn't make sense. It's like saying 'why buy a laptop, when a desktop PC can do so much more and costs less?' A portable DVD player costs more than a laptop because it is smaller than a laptop, not in spite of this.

    • it costs more then a basic laptop

      How does it compare with a 10" stylus sensative LCD?

      it has a very slow processor compare to a lappy

      It's a thin client, it doesn't need a fast processor.

      I agree with most of your other points, but these 2 are ludicrous. As for who it's targetted at, I have no idea. If it were a standalone machine I would be very interested, although probably not interested enough to buy one until there were comparable handwriting support for it under Linux.

  • Er (Score:3, Informative)

    by MisterFancypants ( 615129 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:13PM (#5738180)
    This isn't a tablet PC, it is a Windows dumb terminal... made particularly dumb by ViewSonic, not Microsoft.

    • Re:Er (Score:3, Informative)

      by _xeno_ ( 155264 )
      From the article:

      "Most of this is due to the failures of Microsoft's basic idea, although ViewSonic must bear some of the blame for not really trying to ease the pain."

      The review authors seem to think that most of the fundamental flaws are the way that the Microsoft software interacts with the user, not the way ViewSonic implemented it. (Except for the base-stand stupidity and the non-functional PC-card, which ViewSonic takes the blame on.)

      Most of the problems seem to lie with the way Microsoft imple

      • Re:Er (Score:3, Insightful)

        by MisterFancypants ( 615129 )
        Most of the flaws in the article don't sound like REAL flaws to me, but rather misinterpretation of what the system is supposed to do.

        This is a remote desktop for home users, not an Ellison-like "Network Computer" for the business enviornment. Sadly, the reviewer reviewed it as if that were what it was trying to be.

        • What other market does it actually have?

          Do you actually know anyone who wants to carry a terminal with them all over their house? I don't.

          If it were a stand-alone system it would have a personal use market. As it is, it's only really going to be useful, let alone desired, in a business environment.

  • Pile of crap (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nikkos ( 544004 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:15PM (#5738195)
    Has a processor, an OS, and memory, but needs a host-pc to run?

    It requests that you change your OS to a particular version?

    No, it's not really a TabletPC, but it's still something I'd never subject myself to.

    Nikkos

  • In a Parallel Universe... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tsali ( 594389 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:20PM (#5738241)
    ..., however improbable, this article was about Tablet PC's.

    Please move to universe #3.

    T.

  • despite the article.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rilister ( 316428 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:20PM (#5738245)
    Am I being Offtopic for discussing TabletPC, but that was what the headline said....?

    anyway - having seen Tablet PC, it is the most half-assed bit of design I've seen in ages. One thing struck me right off. Considering the tablet concept is intended to be used in portrait mode, why do precisely zero of the UI elements reflect this? The task menu is a tiny strip along the bottom of the screen and it's proposterously hard to hit with the stylus.

    of course, the handwriting recognition is abysmal, but that goes without saying.....

    • Re:despite the article.... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by platos_beard ( 213740 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:26PM (#5738316)
      of course, the handwriting recognition is abysmal, but that goes without saying.....

      Now I don't claim this was an extensive test, but I was blown away by the handwriting recognition. No, its not perfect, but I was writing some short phrases as fast as I could in cursive writing and having a hard time getting it to fail.

    • Re:despite the article.... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AzrealAO ( 520019 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @04:10PM (#5738665)
      You were block printing single words and short phrases to test the recognizer, weren't you? Seriously, write in cursive, and write alot. Block Printing is hard for the recognizer to work with, because it's a ton of tiny little strokes. Cursive on the other hand is a hell of a lot easier for the recognizer to work with, not to mention the fact that the recognizer combines spell check/grammar check into it's routine. Thus if you're writing long sentences that makes sense, rather than short little block printed words, the accuracy goes WAY up.

  • This is not a tablet PC (Score:5, Informative)

    by coupland ( 160334 ) <dchaseNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:22PM (#5738259) Journal
    ... as has already been pointed out. However more importantly, editors please update the headline to acknowledge the mistake. Lots of people may read the comments, see a single +5 comment pointing out this isn't a Tablet, next to dozens of Anti-MS comments and assume the +5 guy is a crackpot. He is not. This is a Windows Terminal Server device used to control your Windows desktop while walking around the house. It's isn't remotely Tablet PC.
    • Lots of people may read the comments, see a single +5 comment pointing out this isn't a Tablet, next to dozens of Anti-MS comments and assume the +5 guy is a crackpot.

      YEAH!!! Nobody on /. would ever read the article! :-)

  • This article was must have originally been posted (Score:3, Funny)

    by binaryDigit ( 557647 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:22PM (#5738260)
    ... by the Iraqi Information Minister. In the summary I was expecting it to say:

    "This is a tablet pc, any who claim that it is not is an infidel. You can see it is shaped as Allah intended, a tablet. This "AirPanel" does not even exist. It is a figment of the imagination of the dogs of the oppressors."

  • Not a Tablet PC (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jkichline ( 583818 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:23PM (#5738262)
    I think this review is VERY biased. For one, its not even a Tablet PC as defined by Microsoft. A tablet PC is a fully functional computer, period. In fact, I just got a Toshiba Portege Tablet PC and use it frequently in tablet mode (it converts to laptop mode for all the wienies that cry about using a pen). Its handwriting recognition is second to none, able to read cursive and messy hand writing. Voice recognition is really good as well, though I am sure there are better products available.

    It has builtin WiFi and Bluetooth, 1.4 Gb P3, %12 Mb RAM, and a 40 Gb hard drive. Its a computer and very well adapted to the medical and sales professions.

    In all, my experience has been very good with tablet pcs and I wonder when the open source community is going to think about developing such a product. If the open source community does not begin innovating instead of playing catchup to microsoft, it will never succeed. Here is something (the tablet pc) completely new that everyone I show asks "where do I sign to get one"? All of the features are there but the price is still a bit steep. But you have to recoop R+D.

    In my opinion these panel things are gay. Tablet PCs rock. Where are the voice recognition and handwriting recognition in the open source community? Are there any efforts? Are we going to let microsoft reinvent the pc while we sit back and simply say... ah... they'll pull it in a year. BTW, they spent millions in R+D and they are not going to simply kill it. They may thorw millions into marketing though which they haven't yet.

    Do your homework before advocating decisions for the open source community.

    • Gay? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I dont see anything gay about these devices. If they were gay they would be more stylish, have more accessories ,and know how to throw a party.

  • way to go, MS (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by theflea ( 585612 )
    Sounds like they managed to screw up the best idea they've had in a long time (although terminal services isn't new). I thought Mira might have a turned into a killer app for the home...small simple terminals in the house around a super-fast PC.

    And what's this crap about locking out the "server" from being used? Why a licensing issue, if you've paid for both copies of Windows?

    I've used LTSP, and it's simply awesome with just the smallest amount of tweaking. Definitely an area where linux wins hands down
  • It's weird and clunky, the battery lasts no longer than a notebook's, it weighs like a laptop, and forces you to jump through hoops during installation. I don't see why this would ever be considered worth buying. If you get a nice PDA for less money, the battery lasts way longer, it's more portable, and you can use whatever O/S you want on your main system.

    Just get a Sharp Zaurus. Or a Vadem Clio if you want to be flashy. I got a Mobilon Tripad for a hundred and fifty bucks or so on Ebay...

  • The worst... (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:24PM (#5738286) Homepage Journal

    The worst bit about this terrible submission is that Taco will dupe the post in about 3 hours.

  • Gads, the trouble MS has to go through (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:26PM (#5738313) Homepage Journal
    Reading the lengths to which you must go to get a remote display on your Windows machine amazes me.

    Give me the same basic hardware, but rip WinCE out and put a lightweight X server into it, and I could remote the display on my workstation without any software changes on it at all (except perhaps for adding a line to my X0.hosts file).

    AND if the table spoke SSH, I wouldn't even have to do that.

    AND the fact that I could also redirect the displays of my SGI, my other server, my service monitor [p25.com], and anything else that spoke X Windows system protocol.

    For all you naysayers who poop-poo the need for network transparency in your GUI, I say:

    BEHOLD
    • Or you could do it three to four times as fast as a X server with VNC tunneling through SSH. The network transparency of X is not required to make this work.

      I don't run remote X apps anymore. VNC is just plain faster. It's also cross platform, and free.

      • That would depend upon the nature of the app you are running - if you are running simple text apps X protocol is MUCH faster because all that gets sent across the link is "Draw this text in this font at this location", not a bunch of pixels.

        Granted, if you have some app that is doing XRender on the client side then VNC might be faster, but that is as much the app's fault as the protocol.

        Run a tcpdump (or better still use Ethereal) and watch what your favorite apps do.
    • Why bother buying new equipment? Last year I bought a couple of thinkpads off of Ebay, slapped in a new PCMCIA network cards, and installed linux. There is just enough OS to boot, load the PCMCIA drivers, X, and do an Inderect call to my Linux server.

      This year I'm going to get fancy and upgrade the kernel to 2.4 so I can use 802.11. Ah Gentoo...

  • I'm a college student in Biochemistry. I have an Acer Travelmate 100 Tablet PC. I LOVE it. I can take graphical notes in chemistry class, my entire campus is wirelessly enabled, and I can't imagine going back to my days without it. Tablet PCs aren't bad or useless. They have customers who love them and use them everyday. Get over yourselves and make a Linux Tablet PC for me to use. Secondly- This review ISN'T for a tablet PC. Check your facts, please.
  • How about anytime there's an obviously biased "review" article posted (and misinformed - MIRA is not a TABLET PC it's a remote terminal) that the poster be required to forfeit all Karma if the article is:

    1) Not what it says it is
    2) not accompanied with a comparison piece on a similar Linux product.

    We can all sit around and pick apart MS and their "innovations" all day long but unless there's something comparable or BETTER that someone else is doing then you're not going to get many converts to your point
    • not accompanied with a comparison piece on a similar Linux product.

      That would be because any Linux hacker worth his salt could do the same trick with a 486 thinkpad. Only the thinkpad would have a build in keyboard, and would probably plug into the wall because the batteries are shot by now...

      Oh wait, I have 2 of them already...

      Total Cost: $160. ($100 for the laptop (Ebay), $60 for a new network card.)

  • Er, I just wanted to say something different - it seems that every single >2 post so far simply points out that this is not a tablet - ok, we got it. It doesn't make it any more of a "not a tablet" if everybody mentions it.
  • Since when does a Unix/Linux buff not like the idea of a dumb terminal? Especially a cordless one with a touchscreen!

    Certainly the current iteration of this product has flaws, but I'd expect some support for the basic concept.
    • As a matter of fact, I do use this concept "in the field" so to speak.

      I run the database at a folk festival, and I have to set up a network that runs for one weekend a year in a hayfield. I use a k6/400 server and a pair of thinkpads that I've installed a really bare bones copy of Linux on.

      Website with photos here [etoyoc.com][etoyoc.com]

      The thinkpads have enough smarts to boot the OS, load the PCMCIA drivers, start and X server, and then pound over to the server to log in. This year I plan on upgrading the kernel

  • "It may not be the first, but it is the most incisive because of the way it disects the many fundamental flaws in Microsoft's latest creation."

    ...it's good because it bashes Microsoft.

    Just checking to make sure I'm properly in tune with the hive mind.

    • ...it's good because it bashes Microsoft.

      Just checking to make sure I'm properly in tune with the hive mind

      Keep working, young grasshopper. Soon, you'll realize that it is spelled Micro$oft.

      You will be assimilated.

  • "Tablet is the wrong medicinal analogy: suppository more adequately describes the Smart Display experience."

  • Look on the bright side (Score:5, Funny)

    by poot_rootbeer ( 188613 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:42PM (#5738452)

    At least CmdrTaco spelled "Tablet PC" correctly...
  • So we've all figured out that this isn't a Tablet PC thingy - anyone know where we can find that reviewed?

    I guess I'd like to see what (if anything) stands in the way of a Linix Tablet on that hardware.

    This is sort of confusing though - I don't see why you'd want this "Smart Display" instead of a Tablet PC? Weird. (But then I guess I don't quite understand why you'd want a Windows PC anyway... games perhaps, though PS2 and GameCube seems more than enough for anyone...)
    • just a quick reply to part of this..

      The "Smart Display" is intended to be a "take for a walk and use seperately" MONITOR for an existing computer. So you finish up your work, take the monitor over to the couch and surf the net while you watch TV.

      The "Tablet PC" is a complete computer, basically a laptop that you can write on the screen. Unfortunately the specs on current Tablet PCs are appalling, but I don't think microsoft's spec actually says "please use 4 year old hardware" so I'll blame the vendors

  • James T. Kirk? (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @03:48PM (#5738487) Journal
    From the article:

    Perhaps it was the sight of Captain James T Kirk scribbling away on his executive starship tablet...

    I remember we actually got a look at that tablet in one of the episodes. About 20% of the space on one side was dedicated to a light labeled 'System Failure' (which was not on at the time). That's right, about 10% of the total potential screen space was dedicated to a light telling you it was broken, implying that this is a 'feature' that is required often. Looking back, I wonder if this is what MS used as a prototype...

  • This isn't a tablet - it's some ... obtuse bastard child of a network computer and a tablet.

    if you're going to make light of someones tech aspirations, make light of ViewSonic, the silly tarts. MS only sold them the rope by which they're trying to hange themselves.

    calling this thing a tablet is like calling my graphing calculator a palm.
  • is if they'd come up with an 802.11 X11 over SSH with public keys version of this. Of course, it wouldn't need much processor at all, just some display ability and networking. It should be inexpensive, no?

  • Hold the Phone! (Score:5, Funny)

    by telstar ( 236404 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @04:00PM (#5738580)
    "It may not be the first, but it is the most incisive because of the way it dissects the many fundamental flaws in Microsoft's latest creation."
    • I thought that was Slashdot's job...
  • HuuHuuHuuuu! SLOTH LOVES CHUNK! This isn't a Tablet PC, YOU GUYS! SLOTH LOVES CHUNK! HEY YOU GUYS! Point taken. Let's just ignore the M$ bashing article now, 'kay? Kay.
  • Yes yes, it's not a tablet PC... You'd think after people post about a hojillion comments saying that people would stop mentioning that fact! How come nobody took the opportunity to point out this little gem?

    The V150 comes with a USB wireless hub for the host PC, in case you don't already have 802.11b wireless networking. This is a bad idea: one of the biggest headaches for network security people is the proliferation of 'rogue' wireless access points, and there's nothing in the Smart Display specificatio

  • You Infidels ! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Goody ( 23843 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @05:02PM (#5739097) Journal
    Stop giving CmdrTaco hell. This article passed the stringent Slashdot tests for posting:

    1. It busts on Microsoft.

    2. It busts on Microsoft.

    3. errr...uhhh...

  • Hasty (Score:4, Insightful)

    by reelbk ( 213809 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @05:04PM (#5739119)
    In their haste to bash Microsoft, both the anonymous submitter and the slashdot editor failed to notice that the article doesn't even review a tablet pc. This is what slashdot has come to...
  • This brings a whole new meaning to "assraped by Microsoft"!

  • Now on PROFESSIONAL news sites... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TrollBridge ( 550878 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @05:07PM (#5739142) Homepage Journal
    ...corrections/retractions are posted when the information given is inaccurate, no matter the source.

    I'd have a lot more respect for the editors if they'd just come out and admit their mistakes (dupes, inaccuracies).

  • Tablet PC vs Smart Display (Score:3, Informative)

    by jbischof ( 139557 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @05:17PM (#5739230) Journal
    This is a review of a Smart Display, not a Tablet PC.

    It isn't that hard to tell the difference. Smart Displays are essentially wireless monitors while Tablet PCs are just laptops.

    From what I have seen noone uses Smart Displays and Tablet PCs are being received quite well.

  • 6.6 = zero (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gordguide ( 307383 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2003 @05:28PM (#5739323)
    Anyone notice how ZDNetUK absolutely hated the wireless display the topic links to, but gave it a score of 6.6 out of 10?
    A big 7 for "features"?
    Only a 6 for a product that mostly doesn't work and may require the installation of a new OS to mostly not work?

    Seems to me I could get an easy 5.0 from these guys by duct-taping a non-functional USB cable to a lead pencil, and sending it in for review.

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