Let’s talk about tablets.

I’ve had plenty of experience with Tablet PCs from Gateway while working on campus for tech support. We have setup and delivered several of these units to faculty members over the last year. What I would define a tablet device as is simply the device’s ability to receive input other than traditional ways, such as keyboard, mouse, or speech (even though most of us don’t use this anyway). The Gateway Tablet PCs that I’ve used suck. They are huge, heavy, have an obnoxiously large and deformed battery, the latches on the lid are horrible and it runs Windows. I think that about sums it up.

What are the aspects that I liked about the Tablets I’ve played on? Hand-written input is very appealing for certain tasks and can just plain be fun at times. I’m not sure that I would take notes like that in a class, because I can usually type faster than I write and what I’ve typed is far more legible, editable, and readable at the end. However, Tablets are pretty cool because you can use a pen to provide text-based input and do a few mouse-like actions.

Multi-Touch

The iPhone is beautiful. But before I got lost in the sheer beauty of the device, I was amazed, in love, drooling, almost panting because of the multi-touch display. I’m extremely interested in human-computer interaction ( Computer Scientist in training here ) and this is a wonderful step forward in the evolution between man and machine. The interaction looks so natural, so beautiful. The computer understands basic human actions that make sense at a very low level of our mind. Simply amazing. The double-finger pinch to zoom in and out…..Yeah, I want an iPhone just to do that. But just think what that technology would allow.

ModBook

At Macworld this week, the first Mac based Tablet solution was released, with availability promised in April and base model pricing starting at 2,279. This unit is basically what the name implies, a modded Macbook. This company has removed the screen and inserted a stylus driven screen in it’s place, complete with iSight reinstalled. I’m not sure if the screen swivels to reveal a keyboard, as the pictures online don’t show, but I would surely think so. However, I’m not 100% sure either.

So is this Modbook exciting? If I had seen this before the iPhone, I would have said yes. Inkwell, built into Mac OS X from at least Panther onward, is wonderful hand writing recognition software. I would have said the Modbook was a cool piece of hardware. After iPhone? I have to say I’m not interested in paying for a modded Macbook. I want the entire interface to be alive and waiting for me to just touch it with simple gestures to indicate actions. I want to have iPhoto or Aperture open and to reach out and pinch, flick, drag and tap to do all of my editing. It would be something just like out of a science fiction movie, or a TV show that depicts extremely advanced technology only available to the government.

Where to next?

We have a tablet Mac, although not directly from Apple. We have multi-touch, which will be used in the iPhone and most probably new iPods here shortly. That only leaves actual laptop-like devices to receive this new technology. Am I excited? You bet I am. I would buy something like I described above in a heartbeat. Of course, I would want Leopard installed as well….

What do you think? Do you believe that Apple will roll out new iPhone like iPods in the next few months with possibly a new smaller form-factor multi-touch device to follow? Or do you think that this is all a phase and we will out grow it? Some people are really against tablet-like devices, so your thoughts would be great.

More Pictures and details from Apple Insider about ModBook