Unclear on the concept

January 14, 2003 8:33 PM

A fine idea, horribly executed... Want a portable, light, wireless PC as a second home computer but don't want to spend a fortune on a tablet PC? No problem. Viewsonic is coming out with Smart Displays, portable monitors (no computer included) that sync wirelessly with your primary PC, so you can carry them from room to room. However, they apparently missed the boat on the pricing, starting at over $1,000 when you include tax.
posted by jonson (29 comments total)

But how well does it display parrots, kids, and balloons?
posted by holloway at 8:41 PM on January 14, 2003

Oh, never mind.
posted by holloway at 8:41 PM on January 14, 2003

It's the touch screen that adds the cost. Without it being pen-enabled, it could merely be a dumb terminal with an LCD and a battery that does Remote Desktop.
posted by machaus at 8:59 PM on January 14, 2003

See, I'm still unclear on why everyone loves the Tablet PCs so much. Its just a laptop without a keyboard that's more expensive and not as powerful. Trying to input text through a touch screen is not really that easy, especially compared to a keyboard.

Also, because you're carrying it around you're probably more likely to drop it and blow $2K in the process.
posted by bshort at 9:15 PM on January 14, 2003

I'm guessing Smart Displays and Tablet PCs are useful for people who want to read their business documents anywhere they want or for creative types who need to carry a tablet everywhere to jot down their ideas. It seems tablets would be much more useful if they just included a Blackberry-type thumb-keyboard with the tablet to facilitate text entry.
posted by gyc at 9:33 PM on January 14, 2003

I think an affordable Tablet PC would be very popular with creative types. Being able to "draw" with the pen on the screen would make working in PhotoShop more like working with traditional pencils / paints.
posted by Stuart_R at 9:36 PM on January 14, 2003

That's awesome (other than having to use XP). I'd love to be able to use my computer anywhere in the house without actually having to pack the bastard around.

But yeah, $1K to start is a bit out of my range.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:45 PM on January 14, 2003

See, I'm still unclear on why everyone loves the Tablet PCs so much. Its just a laptop without a keyboard that's more expensive and not as powerful. Trying to input text through a touch screen is not really that easy, especially compared to a keyboard.

The thing to love is what this thing will look like in 24 months. I saw these at CES last week and I agree with the criticism that they're too pricey, etc . . . but when it's in the $500 range I'll buy one in a heartbeat, not so much to enter any text (which you correctly point out is not totally easy), but to run my stereo, browse the Web, and generally make network access pervasive in my house in a way that I think will be less intrusive but more social. Friends over for dinner aren't gonna go near my laptop with wifi, but I imagine that in a couple of years they won't think anything about snatching up a terminal and changing the music or googling (during conversations of a certain type) to bolster an argument or chime in with a multimedia clip.
posted by donovan at 9:53 PM on January 14, 2003

So, when it locks up, how do you know whether it's the tablet or the PC mothership that's crashed?

What would be great would be a tablet that has a keyboard that folds up against the screen to protect it when you're not using it. That way you wouldn't need a stylus either.

I was at CES last week too, and remain completely unconvinvced by tablets.

Give me a wireless notebook. Oh!.. erm, I'm using one now...
posted by marvin at 10:03 PM on January 14, 2003

I'll buy one if it runs VNC.
posted by holloway at 10:17 PM on January 14, 2003

Crash & Donovan, that's exactly how I feel. I think it would be awesome at $300 - $500, as a second PC around the house that I could carry from room to room, leave lying around as a handy reference guide (portable dictionary, thesaurus, world encyclopedia), reading material, etc. Light, wireless, affordable. Well, light & wireless. $1,000 just kills the deal.
posted by jonson at 10:26 PM on January 14, 2003

i use my pocketpc w/802.11 as my light, wireless gizmo around the house [now with flash!]. this weekend i'm going to try and get it to talk to my audiotron so i can play the mp3s on my home network w/o the notebook.

i wonder if the viewtronic thing has a pop up keyboard applet like palm and pocketpc devices do. that would help a little when one needs to type something.

my notebook is a ultralight baby and i wouldn't give up the keyboard for anything. it is light and i can go anywhere in the house with it. i run remote deskop so i can plug into the screen of my desktop computer.
posted by birdherder at 11:09 PM on January 14, 2003

Yeah, no one's debating that it wouldn't be great to have a notebook, but a) your notebook cost a bunch more than I'd be willing to pay for what is essentially a cool fun thing (as opposed to a necessity), and b) doesn't the pocketpc have a tiny little PDA sized screen? I mean these things are full 15" and 17" screens.
posted by jonson at 11:20 PM on January 14, 2003

looks like it might be a good time to invest in the screen-wipe industry
posted by sawks at 11:50 PM on January 14, 2003

For quite a lot less than US$1000 I can buy one of these and stick an 802.11 - or GPRS, or CDMA - card in it, and install VNC, Citrix and RDesktop (Windows Term Services) clients on it and be done with it.

Hell, I even know a company that does just that. Hell, theirs run Debian!

Maybe I am just cheap?
posted by sycophant at 1:25 AM on January 15, 2003

to run my stereo, browse the Web, and generally make network access pervasive in my house


I think it would be awesome at $300 - $500, as a second PC around the house that I could carry from room to room

...or you could just get a smaller house.
posted by backOfYourMind at 3:52 AM on January 15, 2003

That linux tablet, sycophant, is listed @ $889 and weighs 8lbs. Not such a sexy thing in itself.

I think I'd echo donovon's comments above about where this is headed. I think these will be nice. Has anyone noticed Ozzy's remote control on the Osbournes? It seem to provide some of the media control functions, but not the computing functions. They installed one in a house on Hometime once, and it was pretty expensive.

Finally, birdherder, these things just provide a remote window to your WindowsXP^TM PC, so anything on the PC is on the tablet. XP includes an onscreen keyboard you can use even with a physical one attached.
posted by putzface_dickman at 4:34 AM on January 15, 2003

Oh. And, this is what Lindows thinks they'll do in the tablet market:
posted by putzface_dickman at 4:38 AM on January 15, 2003

I'm not sure what all you guys are talking about with this "i would love a tablet pc but it has no keyboard" stuff - Sure, these viewsonic things don't have a keyboard, but the microsoft-based tablet pcs they're trying to compete against are just laptops with screens that swivel around so you don't have to use the keyboard if you don't want to. see one here. I never thought I'd be interested in one, and I'm still not sure I would be, but I saw one of those acers in the store a while back, and it was cooler than I expected. It'd almost be worth it to have a wacom-style tablet where you can see what you're drawing under the stylus.
posted by chrisege at 6:25 AM on January 15, 2003

Lindows - I thought all Linux stuff had to be open source. Can you not get it without buying it?
posted by twine42 at 6:31 AM on January 15, 2003

Not to bring the discussion down any, but didn't anyone read this link and say "Hey, I can surf the web on the toilet now!"

Or was it only me?
posted by VulcanMike at 7:21 AM on January 15, 2003

I can already browse the web on the toilet with my laptop... or should I not say that lest the resale value of my laptop... go down the tubes?
posted by gyc at 7:48 AM on January 15, 2003

twine42:

re: Lindows (and Xandros, etc.) they just have to:
a) give source code along with binaries
b) not restrict purchasers copying/giving of the software

you can read more on the gnu.org site
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 8:13 AM on January 15, 2003

I have to agree with the five year plan here, with the exception that in five years we may have some much better voice recognition software. Who needs a keyboard if you can talk at the thing and use a stylus and palm type handwriting recognition when necessary. Plus the voice recognition software (which i've always heard was memmory and processor intensive) would be done on your home pc (and not on a weaker laptop or specialized machine).

What i'm hopeing for is that in a few years they'll get the lcd's on flexible mats and then you could make a table cover that links to your computer...of course, now i'm really dreaming.
posted by NGnerd at 9:22 AM on January 15, 2003

Maybe I missed the boat on this one - but why would this thing have to run ANY software?
It's a wireless head, isnt' it?


I mean, I assume it has small controller parts for the wireless card, etc - but you don't really run software on it - you run it on your desktop in the other room . . .

Your monior doesnt need to support Photoshop, Excel, IE - it's just a monitor.

This is just a fancy one with a touchscreen.

I think it's pretty brilliant . . . but

It is missing one Very Big Thing . . .

Apple's Inkwell
posted by cinderful at 10:33 AM on January 15, 2003

What i'm hopeing for is that in a few years they'll get the lcd's on flexible mats and then you could make a table cover that links to your computer...of course, now i'm really dreaming.

Actually, not dreaming that badly. They've been working on getting flexible displays. They're still a ways from being something you're going to see on the market, but here's an article on the work going on.
posted by piper28 at 12:33 PM on January 15, 2003

That linux tablet, sycophant, is listed @ $889 and weighs 8lbs. Not such a sexy thing in itself.

Well, maybe that one's not the best. Although I am sure they can be had cheaper than $889 - I thought I could find them locally for around NZ$700, which is like US$320.

Anyway, the point being, there are cheaper and more versitile ways to do the same thing, and they are already tried, tested and available.

That doesn't mean, of course, that I don't want a Viewsonic thingy, but I would like to be able to play with more than my XP system. Getting at my Mac as well would be neat :)
posted by sycophant at 3:00 PM on January 15, 2003

Maybe I am just off my rocker, but I actually want something with less power sometimes. And portables and tablets are the perfect example of this.

My ideal tablet would be a 12" to 14" LCD, touchable of course, running Linux operating system. (or MacOSX would be awesome too if Apple made it). It doesn't need a 2.5 GHz processor because of what I am going to do with it, which is read e-mails, surf the web, and such. It can be equipped with VNC software which will allow you to connect to any machine in the house via your wireless connection. An 802.11b connection should work initially in it, since it will be compatible with the new 802.11g hardware. Maybe a few games, low intensity type things like card games.

On the portable side, again, low impact machine. The primary use of my laptop is writing, and I want to go small and light. I've been shopping around lately and all I can find is big and heavy Windows, or a G3 iBook. (I'd drool over a G4 Powerbook with 12" screen but its $1800.) Think larger PDA with a keyboard built in.

Once again, technology companies are solving problems that (1) don't exist, or (2) overkilling in the solution.
posted by benjh at 5:27 PM on January 15, 2003

On the portable side, again, low impact machine. The primary use of my laptop is writing, and I want to go small and light. I've been shopping around lately and all I can find is big and heavy Windows, or a G3 iBook. (I'd drool over a G4 Powerbook with 12" screen but its $1800.) Think larger PDA with a keyboard built in.

Benjh, you should take a look at Crusoe powered "sub-notebooks". Including the new incarnations of the very sleek Toshiba Libretto and the Fujitsu P-Series Lifebooks (with built in DVD/CD-RW drives). There's also several other subnotebooks (Crusoe powered and otherwise) available at dynamism.com.

They're priced ... well, lets just say if you shop around, there are places which can import them from Japan at pretty reasonable rates...
posted by aki at 10:34 PM on January 15, 2003