A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Okay... the N800 is perfect for me- on the go. That niche has been filled. I have a computer for my lap, for my office, for my pocket. Now here's what I want next. A "Stay At Home" internet tablet. Maybe the size of a standard legal pad. I want all the functionality of my N800, plus any hardware that needs to be installed for television remote control. I want it to remotely access all my music- and play it through my stereo via bluetooth. I want to be able to hand it to friends who can page through a virtual photo album. I want to be able to read my morning paper on it- comfortably.

I want to be able to use it in the kitchen as a secondary television, video phone, internet browser, security camera viewer.

Someone needs to start thinking about a device for the home- rather than something for the pocket. This market- it would seem to me- would be great for the aging tekkie population.

I don't know if Nokia's the right company to make that leap... but I have a feeling that Archos, Apple, Microsoft (with the surface), and others could make a fortune. Thoughts?

is there something like this (sub $1000) that's available?

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Maybe one of the Samsung UMPCs, or perhaps an Eee?

The whole UMPC/tablet-laptop market is pretty saturated.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Pepper Pad was pretty close to that, though expensive.

http://www.hanbitamerica.com/

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

IRiver is working on a pretty nifty little, er, contraption, called the Unit2. Sounds like just what you want! No idea when / if it will ever come to be, though.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/11/v...it-2-hands-on/

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

That Iriver Unit2 is slick... that's exactly what I want. The pepper pad is also nice... but I'd prefer something that's just one big touch screen. I envision it being like a coffee table book... something that just sits there, is instantly ready to be picked up and handled- even by completely computer illiterate folks.

I could see it default to an app like Canola, big buttons, simple interface.

Thanks guys.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Yeah, I've been waiting for something like you're talking about for about 6 years now...

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Why does everybody keep wanting a Newton?

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Newton wasn't big enough, etc, for what I'm wanting. Letter (or A4) sized would be ideal. Heck, it could just be a portable client touch-tablet that wirelessly controls my desktop...

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

The HTC Magnum?

Couldn't resist...

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Cut the Magnum (if it were an actual product) in half... and it's the right form-factor.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

for handheld devices, they should stop doing screens in inches, and start making them in iso 216 sizes (yep, thats the standard for those A* sizes, also includes B and C sizes)...

but then i would love for all screens to be made that way, and with a standardized PPI (or whatever its called) level to.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Why does it matter? Resolution-independence means things will display right on whatever pitch, and ISO or ANSI size pages can be zoomed to fit. Even if you did have, say, an A6 tablet, and wanted to display an A4 document on it, you'd have no room for toolbar, page-selection scrollbar, etc.

I don't really see any gains to that sort of hardware standard switching; whatever resources would be expended in agitating for such change might be better applied agitating for resolution-independence, or better, fixing non-resolution independent (free/open) software.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Not only was Newton not big enough, it's multimedia and Internet capabilities are definitely nineties and it's almost exactly the opposite of a "connected tablet". Still, the OS could scale to practically any hardware you could throw at it and the UI is perfect for dummies.

As to portable clients: Yeah, ain't gonna happen anymore, not after Larry Ellison got burnt on that. People don't want wireless thin clients; they want a tablet they can use at home, throw in their bag and use in the bush as well.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

It seems we desperately need DisplayPostScript again as well...

Wait... wait...

A tablet NeXT!!! That's what we all need!!! Should be easy too; I'm guessing you could cut at least ten Slates out of one Cube. :D:D:D:D:D

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Hey, don't post stuff like that while I'm drinking Dr. Pepper; I almost had to clean my keyboard!

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

That is sort of how I use my N810 right now. Sitting watching hockey or something and have an urge to check a stat for the hockey pool I grab it and look some guy up.

Or during comercial breaks check my email or surf something.

An N800 the size of a regular pad of paper that did all the N800 could do plus java would be great. Just add some remote control software to control your PC playing music as well.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

That is exactly what I want. But really thin, I don't want a heavy thick device.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Ok, so there's a market for about 6 so far (7 if we can get Karel drunk enough to overcome his cynicism :p). How far until critical mass? :D

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

I already have two stay-at-home tablets: My Pepper Pad 3 and my Fujitsu Stylistic PC tablet.

there's no need to get me drunk, just give me something like the Fujitsu, at half the weight, double the battery life, "normal" Linux inside and perfect HWR.

There...

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

OK, to get this straight, by "give" I mean: "Sell to me at a decent price", although for those specs I'm prepared to go over the 1,000 euro mark.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Karel, if you pay now in advance you'll be the first customer :D

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

The Amazon Kindle form factor would be nice for a "coffee table" style device.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

funny I was just thinking today if they could give is a device about 2.5x - 3x the size of the N8x0 display they can easily increase the battery size = life...it would not need much more in terms of internal hardware...ARM3 would be nice enough.

Of course an Electrowetting full color display is a given since we are building the , ahem, 'perfect one size fits all' device. ;) It would be best if one could origami the display to fit into your pocket...

FYI you can keep your Linsux for yourself...hehehehe...JUST KIDDING!!! I am actually spending the next year learning Linux for fun after all these decades...still nothing like re-inventing the wheel everytime you want to issue a command with something a quaint as a typing on a keyboard for anything beyond data input on a pocket device.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Bring the cost down on the Wacom Cintiq, make it thinner, add the requisite wireless connectivity options, and there you have it.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

zoomed to unreadability more like it...

as for interface, i prefer hardware keys over touch screen.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

I want a stay-at-home tablet too. I have been reluctantly realizing that I really don't need a device that fits in my pocket that much. I use the N800 at home, in my car, and on the train, and occasionally in some wireless cafe, which I go to by car.

Though I do carry it in my pocket, I don't need to. When I go on a cruise ship, it's in my luggage.

If I was taking the subway daily, as I did in Manhattan and Moscow and Barcelona, the N800 would be ideal. I wouldn't want an ostentatious big tablet that advertised to my fellow travelers that I would be a good victim to rob. But if I'm traveling with a briefcase or luggage or a car, why do I need to restrict the space of my tablet that much?

To me, the eee-PC sounds right. I want it to be cheap and to start quickly, and to have inexpensive apps and be open. You know, Linux!

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

How about a Motion Computing M1400 Tablet? Available for under $400 on ebay.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Hm. Could probably get that functionality out of the Modbook (customized Macbook, made into a tablet). But that assumes you're either Mac oriented (as opposed to Linux oriented), or that you're fine with migrating back and forth between Mac and Linux.


An 8"-9" modbook, with virtual translucent split-thumb keyboard (like the Samsung Q1 model that doesn't have a physical split-thumb keyboard), and whose price was a bit lower, would be attractive to me. Someone tried to make something similar to that out of a Mac-mini. Looks kinda blocky though.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

In otherwords, a Modbook :-)

(since OS X is Nextstep 6.0, and Quartz is DisplayPDF which evolved from DisplayPS)

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Don't mock it; I've been thinking seriously about a Modbook. I'd have to sell my soul to get one, but it just might be worth it...

Then again, Tex will probably argue that I don't have that item to sell anymore. :D

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

If you can sufficiently convince me that you can get me Newton-style HWR on a Linux tablet, I'll gladly pay you in advance. I'm not joking here...

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

I'm not mocking. I've thought seriously about buying one. (and, I was a NeXT user, back in the day, as well)

I just wish they offered one in a smaller form factor.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

There are touchscreens available that will connect to a laptop or desktop. I've used them as electronic flight bags, connected to a Panasonic Toughbook stowed away, and they work great for use in flight in a helicopter. We use it for doing weight and balance calculations, keeping track of flight manifests and trips, and it connects through a satellite link to send the flight plans and messages. At the end of the day it does all the paperwork. It's just a remote touchscreen, about 8" diagonal or so ( I haven't actually measured it, and don't have one available right now), uses the same radio as a wireless mouse, I think, and comes with its own stylus. I've used it to surf and check email while connected to the base network.

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

Coincidentally, I think I saw your soul just last week. It was hanging around a Greyhound bus station, chain-smoking Camels and cursing at panhandlers. Looks like you pulled one over on the Devil, eh? :D

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

That magnum looks like a tablet PC with the screen turned out...

Re: A Stay At Home Tablet...
 

It's an HP monitor.