ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

ReadWriteWeb:

Opinions? They talk about Apple's tablet, but I guess the same criticism applies to NITs too

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

BS.

I forgot my laptop on my first trip to Helsinki.

I was able to do 80% of my work on the N800, including corporate (we had an early VPN client). If I needed a keyboard I had my mini bluetooth one.

EDIT: I let 'em have it. :D

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I wish there was a speech to text for my NIT. Would make my job easier--please... forget the keyboard, that is so last decade!

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

What defines the "tech trend of the year"? Is it the product that is used more, the one that sells more, gives more profit, revenue, or the one that is going to be developed more intensely, is more different from what exists, or what is going to receive more marketing money, or what is going to receive more media attention?

That guy seems a lot concerned about working hard with his mobile 10'' tablet, and whether people are willing to carry a separate keyboard or not. Someone should tell him that being moving around is not good to work either, the best thing to do some serious hard work is to sit at your desktop in your office, and not using some notebook, netbook or whatever in some improvised place. And with a separate keyboard and monitor.

Do we agree that netbooks were the trend in 2008/2009? Even tough many of its customers were dissatisfied at the end of the day/year?...

Tablets can become the natural step after the netbook craze because by lacking a small notebook-like crappy keyboard it prevents people from analyzing it and criticize this aspect of the machine.

Being so small and looking much different from a notebook, people just can't look at it the same way, and are more willing to accept a strange looking interface and the smaller processing power. It's easier to make the users understand that they must treat it as a particular device, something different from their desktop computers.

Although that's exactly what that article's author seems to think, that just complete computers are interesting... I doubt it that he listens to music or read blogs, RSS news or electronic books, or play games...

Is he expecting that the tech trend of the year will be something like buying a quad core desktop with widescreen lcd monitor and an Internet connection? wasn't this the tech trend in 1998?

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

"Why consumers won't buy tablets" on CNET:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10...=2547-1_3-0-20

Tim

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

first the ignore, then they ridicule, then they embrace...

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

It is absurd to say that you can't get work done on a tablet. It depends on what the work is. Try sending a message saying "the eagle has landed." If that's your work, it's done. My job used to be to updating a web site. I could have done it with a tablet.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

My only computer is a N800 I use it daily for work.

Beingt that I renovate houses my requirements are different than the corporate world, but being able to sketch a floor plan (Xournal) with all the notes I want and then sending the pdf to a client would be more difficult with a standard laptop.
Also having other tools at my access can be helpful. I had a project restoring a 19 century house and being able to show the customer pages from a book about the architecture of the period via FBReader helped them decide how to replace missing bits.

Seems to me that any sort of technology can be used as a tool if you try hard enough.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Fully agreed. Way too much emphasis is put on word processing and email being "work". I think there are many areas where voice communications and image / graph -based applications that would be better suited for the work if the work culture wasn't so hooked on typewriters.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

That's how the jesus got so big.......

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

crap, seems my tablet failed me (thats what i get for using a N800's onscreen keyboard)...

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

yep, and this is why being able to develop ones own software, or know someone that can do so for you can be very important.

i guess it comes from how most of humans approach life. We try to apply existing knowhow and tools to new problems, and unless get some kind of lightbulb out of it, we dismiss it as futile.

instead one may have to go back to scratch, discard all what has come before, and build from that.

that is, rather then start with existing software and try to force it into a new box, one start with the box, and see what new software one can build into it.

and thats the problem i see when people talk about needing windows on something, as then it will slowly either fail (because the whole windows ui expects a keyboard and mouse), or morph towards existing windows based systems (netbooks becoming small laptops), rather then take on some shape of their own.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

The criticism is valid for laptop/netbook-sized tablets - if you're going to carry something of that size and weight it might as well have a keyboard. There's a reason this device class failed universally the first time around.

Our tablets are very different animals and win by default because they're there when/where you didn't anticipate the need to carry a PC with you.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

The Magic Ink had pretty interesting points related to that:

Though that paper supposes UIs and applications far smarter than what most of the stuff we use now is.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I personally find this whole argument completely stupid. I use my tablet for work quite often. In fact, I'm actually sitting in a large park/garden across the street from my office building, doing my work on my tablet as I type this out.

This is freedom.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

i find the "pocket or purse" bit somewhat interesting.

while its not stated, the gender difference is very much implied...

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I'm sometimes posting replies to blogs and forums using my n800. That's not very practical if you can access better computer, BUT let's say I can carry n800 in my pocket. This does not applies to notebooks or even most of keyboards. Hence n8x0 are sometimes the only way to go. It allows to be online even in mobile world and it can do most of job netbook can do. Of course there is convenience vs size and weight tradeoff. My fully blown desktop is most convenient with it's 3 * 1Tb HDD, 8Gb RAM and 4 CPU cores, large LCD and full-sized keyboard and mouse. But it weights too much :P. On other side my Symbian cell phone quite small. But it also lacks features as well and Symbian is quite limited and toy-like OS from my standpoint. Everything else located somewhere between and it's up to you to decide which convenience vs size and weight balance is good for you in specific scenarios.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

i have replied to the forum using everything from opera mini om a featurephone, to a desktop computer...

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

As I was saying... http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com...and-platforms/

;)

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

ah yes ;)

and that reminds me that i should look into getting that second civilian labs set, as the first one, while having potential, did not have any pockets that really fit my N800 (oops)...

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I think you read this article, didn't you?

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

makes me wonder/worry about when google wave takes hold...

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Google Wave has potential to change how document collaboration and sharing happens. However, it still is very much about text-based communications, not audiovisual.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

i am sure they will allow video and audio to be inserted.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Given the amount of stuff some women keep in their handbags, even this may be portable for them:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/...595/index.html

;-)

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Sucks that I just lost my orig reply because I had a network glitch...

The Ars article posted in this conversation pointed out the real issue with tablets (aka its not the tech); if people are doing things the same way, using applications designed decades ago which were clunky solutions even then, why should they change their behavior to using a different type of device, when they want to do the same behaviors.

Many of the complaints about tablets come not from the tech, but because people don't change their behaviors (easily). Folks here do, but "we" are a niche case, and therefore outlier actions should be expected.

If you want people to use more tablets, then you have to give them an incentive to change the way they look at computer-based information. The idea of using OneNote for educational needs is relevant enough that it endears the teacher and student both to see the value of tablet-like technologies. Same thing for the designer, drafter, etc. The relevancy of the tech is rooted in something that matters to them personally.

I don't know that some informational workers would feel the same way concerning tablets because their personal deposit into that kind of tech doesn't match the relevancy of their work. That said, if they were to look at how they worked, then they'd see that jumping from Outlook to browser to Word makes no sense at all. Things should be unified better for those kinds of informational needs. Who will be the first to actually do different though is another issue.

Google Wave works because it started clean sheet. Wordpy works because it looks and acts like something you'd use on a tablet. If all applications took that aspect of UI/UX into consideration, we'd not be having the conversation of whether a hardware form factor is relevant or not.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I just thought I would put in my two-cents real quick.

I'd like to think of myself as a "regular" person and I most definitely went out looking for a keyboard. I tossed around the idea for a long time about upgrading to the n810 just for that hardware keyboard. What stopped me was that any device that is small enough to carry in my pocket or not take up too much space in my bag isn't going to have a large enough keyboard to type on. I went with a bluetooth one just so that I could have a decent sized keyboard that I could carry easily with my tablet.

And on the note of work, I do plenty of work on my tablet. I have been writing lesson plans on it since I started my job here about 8 months ago. Before that I was working in a machine shop where a tablet really wasn't all that necessary. Now that I am writing lesson plans I find that I use it more than ever.

But I do suppose a lot of the criticism out there has credence. The uses of an NIT in the work place might not be the most obvious off the bat to everyone but once you have something like this in your hand the possibilities just start popping out of the clouds. I kid you not, almost everyone of my co-workers, upon seeing me use my n800, has asked me "Where can I get one of those?"

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Absolutely agreed. I have been working with these from the start and am still pleasantly surprised by some use cases that pop up.

My experience showing off the N800 was the same as yours. The ONLY thing that killed the joy for others in my circle was the video latency. I daresay if that had never been an issue in the N800 and N810, Nokia might have sold twice as many of each.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I actually, haven't experienced that in either of my devices.

Tim

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I'm capable of doing a lot on my tablet... but since what I dev isn't even up to date on the NIT, I'm SOL.

No Flex, no AS3 compiler that doesn't require me to stay in command line, no code hinting dev... yeah, I can VPN in, slowly use what's on my desktop, but my religion would be in peril.

I can admin some machines though. So... yay?

I can't open MS Office 2007 files, I can edit XML, I can't create Flash/Flex files, I can admin most of my machines, I can't use Photoshop/Adobe Creative Suite 3, I can use Skype, I can't use .NET, I can use VoIP.

Meh, using the NIT past internet, e-mail, communication becomes a tad bit tedious if you're not the kind of person that dislikes being in the terminal all damn day - and after 20 years of being in a terminal at one time or another, I'm personally friggin' tired of a black screen and green or white text looking back at me all day.

I use other items to get work done that will never be on the NIT. Which is fine. It's not a replacement to my laptop or desktop.

But the Apple Tablet... if they release it with the iPhone OS, that means no multitasking. I don't have the time to waste on that since I've been multi-tasking for 3 years on one NIT or another (770 and N810). And if it doesn't come with SketchPad Pro and the normal OS X... I'm avoiding it.

I need a tablet... for notes, sketches and other design-y stuff. Screw a terminal for admin my machines - I can do that from my iPhone now.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Resampling videos from my normal settings, I avoided video latency. But it's there.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

While I was working designing electronic devices I used my N770 a huge amount for reading the copious amounts of datasheets and info I needed. I was able to save my designs to PDF and keep them on there too so I could refer to them easily.

I'm now working in other fields but I still do some electronics design on the side and I have to say the screen on my 770 is the most clear and legible screen I've seen. I love the fact that I can keep the device in my pocket and whenever I have a moment I can pull it out and check up on some details.

I think the only flaw the 770 has is it's battery life, but then this might just be because of my quirky setup. I have to charge it every night or keep it powered off.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Lucky you. :p

I may need to specify: internet video kills every tablet I've used. Even on a very fast connection. Sometimes it's so bad I want to scream... but I've pretty much given up on it.

Local video runs very well though.

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

Ah, yes... That does make sense. Although, when I let a YouTube or Vimeo video (from the web, not a NIT app) cache, it runs pretty well.

Tim

Re: ReadWriteWeb: Tablets are Toys (Not Mainstream Machines)
 

I agree with Texrat. I was able to do my work on my NIT using OpenVPN. We had a lunch meeting with our CEO, but I had a couple of scripts to get written. I couldn't exactly bring my laptop to the meeting, but was able to use my tablet, through wireless, via VPN, to log in and get the scripts done in time.

I also found that the NIT made on call easier. I didn't have to lug my laptop around with me, I could find a handy free wireless site (Panera Bread, IHOP, etc) and do what I need to do.

I also carry a couple of hundred books on my tablet, not only for leisure reading, but PDFs of security docs (e.g. the NIST SP800 series), Unix and Linux documentation, etc...Both in pdb format for FBreader and pdf format.

I have the bluetooth keyboard, the other accessory I am considering is a USB ethernet adapter for my NIT, since there is no wireless at my current job, but we have DSL coming in.

--vr