Tablet PCs
Microsoft UMPC, notebooks and tablets: Making sense of portable computing
A Tablet PC is another option consumers have to fill their mobile computing needs. The Tablet is sometimes called a Notebook because it fills a niche that is close to the notebook PC. In today's product lines, a Tablet is drifting further from the Notebook (Laptop) category and closer to the Pocket PC. Where a notebook is a full computer with a keyboard fitting into its form factor, this isn't necessarily the case with a Tablet. The defining feature of the Tablet PC is its interface. The Tablet PC uses a touch screen controlled with a stylus. Notebooks are identified by the attached keyboard that folds under the screen. Some Tablet PCs, particularly older models, are about the size of a Notebook and some even feature a keyboard. Tablet PCs with a full QWERTY keyboard will still retain the touch screen, but usually that touch screen is on a rotating screen.
The Tablet PC has existed mainly outside the mainstream of computing devices. For the longest time it's been the niche of medical professionals and some science-lab environments. Perhaps this is because the Tablet PC is the natural extension of a clipboard with a pen attached by a length of string. The Tablet PC with stylus is just a clipboard with a limitless supply of paper.
Newer Tablet PCs have been trimmed down and are no longer the size of a standard clipboard. Ever shrinking micro-processor technologies have allowed Pocket PCs to rival their full-sized counterparts in computing power. The modern Tablet PC is slightly larger than a Pocket PC with a widescreen LCD panel taking up most of its surface area on one side of the tablet. Jumping into the miniature tablet market, Nokia made the 770 Tablet. Presently, Microsoft's UMPC seems to indicate a general consensus that the new form of the Tablet PC is going to be larger than a Palm pilot, but smaller than a notebook. It's still too early to tell what consumer's really think of the new breed of portable computers, but a variety of manufacturers are jumping into the market. The technology market is simply too competitive for manufacturers to ignore what might become the next big thing in personal computing. Therefore, in the near future, you can expect to see more of these new breed of miniature Tablet PCs.
An overwhelming majority of Tablet PCs run a Microsoft's operating system, Windows Tablet PC Edition. To date, the latest version is 2005 SP2, which includes improved handwriting recognition over previous models. The touch-screen input panel can also be used in just about every application of the new Windows Tablet PC Edition. These are two of the key features that are required in modern Tablet PC applications.
There are some Tablets that run the Linux operating system; however, Tablets that use the Linux operating system are not nearly as numerous as those that run the Microsoft operating system because of past complications. This, however, may be about to change. The newest version of the EmperorLinux has greatly improved the interface and handwriting recognition of Linux Tablets. Handwriting recognition is critical for the Tablet PC to recognize the letters your write onto its surface.
Without the development of advanced handwriting software, Tablet PC users would be required to use a script like the Palm OS's Graffiti where you have to write in a certain way so that the PDA device can recognize your handwritten letters. The sophisticated handwriting software being developed for Tablet PC's will allow you to write as normal without having to follow a particular writing style.