Tablet Competition

[tubbymac]

Saw this interesting new Dell Lattitude XT2 tablet on engadget. Yeah get your laughs out of the way first and stop reading if you hate Dell or Windows.

This isn't the Mac Tablet we've been waiting for, but what got my attention was the two finger multitouch swipe to scroll and the 11.5 hour battery life. Video of it for various use scenarios is here.

http://www.tagstory.com/video/video_post.aspx?media_id=V000284871

I can imagine just putting it into tablet mode, rotating the screen 90 degrees vertically, and then browsing around using just one finger click, two finger scroll, and two finger pinch like a big iPhone.

Original story and specs can be found here:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/10/dell-latitude-xt2-multi-touch-tablet-with-11-hour-battery-now-of/

 

[mhnajjar]

Dell has been producing some impressive looking machines lately and this machine has some new touches to the PC line.

I wish Apple learns that they have to do something regarding the tablet since many people would love to have a MacTablet, but I do not understand what is holding Apple from doing so.

I would love to get a MacTablet with a removable keyboard.

 

[fteoath64]

Would it not be cool if Apple actually licensed OSX to certain Dell Tablet models ?. That will give Micheal Dell a real big grin. Those confounded HP laptops that people hated so much yet enterprises buy them like they are part of office stationery!

 

[tubbymac]

I think it's better if Apple makes their own tablet instead of licensing out OSX which they would never do (see Apple versus Psystar case for proof of that).

They've already had experience making the Newton before and a 3rd party company already provides a service that converts a Macbook or Pro into a tablet (see Axiotron Modbook) so the proof of concept is already there.

I don't know why we haven't seen a Mac Tablet yet when even Dell of all companies is doing it now. Couldn't Apple just take the Macbook Air, throw out the keyboard and trackpad, stick in a touch screen like the iPhone but bigger and put it in a sexy slim unibody case? Throw a nice UI and virtual keyboard over that which they could just tweak from the iPhone UI and that thing would sell like hotcakes to everybody.

Something along the lines of the OLPC X-O2 just with Apple style thrown in would be perfect I think.

 

[Turmoil]

What's this got to do with Macs or the Air. There must be a Dell forum for winblows fans to posts, eh?

 

[chewietobbacca]

What's this got to do with Macs or the Air. There must be a Dell forum for winblows fans to posts, eh?

It's about competition to the Mac and Air. This isn't a restricted-to-Mac-praise-only conversation forum either

 

[justit]

What's this got to do with Macs or the Air. There must be a Dell forum for winblows fans to posts, eh?

It's about how close others are creeping up to the MBA.

As far as a tablet-only is concerned, has anyone actually tried to get work done on one? We had a Win Tablet, though it was slow we only used it to demo our work, nothing more. It's a nice novelty "ooh look what I can do" factor but it gets old when you quickly want to get things done.

So a tablet-only would end up being a large ipod.

The Dell swivel makes more sense as you end up using the physical keyboard 99.9% of the time.

Now if the MBA could pivot ...

 

[Consultant]

It's about how close others are creeping up to the MBA.

As far as a tablet-only is concerned, has anyone actually tried to get work done on one? We had a Win Tablet, though it was slow we only used it to demo our work, nothing more. It's a nice novelty "ooh look what I can do" factor but it gets old when you quickly want to get things done.

So a tablet-only would end up being a large ipod.

The Dell swivel makes more sense as you end up using the physical keyboard 99.9% of the time.

Exactly. I see lots of tablets in businesses. However,
people NEVER use them as tablets. They just like to claim it as a feature,
but don't use them because they don't work that well.

 

[mhnajjar]

I have seen lots of students and professors using tablets, so yes they do work.

It depends on what kind of work you are trying to get from a tablet.

 

[mac jones]

I'll tell you why this is relevant to Apple forums.

MultiTouch.


But i've dug around and apparently this thing is WAY overpriced and doesn't even work right (according to those with experience with the previous version (or similar versions)

Really Apple should make a larger Iphone with improved battery life. It would kill the Kindle totally.

Sort of pisses me off a bit. (i'm terribly spoiled )

 

[tubbymac]

What's this got to do with Macs or the Air. There must be a Dell forum for winblows fans to posts, eh?

I'm certain if we were to replace every single one of your posts with the words "i am a donkey" nobody would notice the difference and nothing of value would be lost.

But i've dug around and apparently this thing is WAY overpriced and doesn't even work right (according to those with experience with the previous version (or similar versions)

Really Apple should make a larger Iphone with improved battery life. It would kill the Kindle totally.

To be clear I like the idea behind the Dell - which is multitouch gestures on a tablet, but I hate the sloppy execution behind the XT series. I saw the hands on video here and cringed when they finally got to the two finger scroll. It's horrid and I wouldn't ever buy one of these as they look pretty frustrating to use in practice:

http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-the-dell-latitude-xt2

Apple could and should do this idea better. I know a lot of people are waiting for an Apple tablet. It would indeed kill the Kindle if it were released now. What's taking them so long?