That’s my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
The annual Consumer Electronics Show is about to start in Las Vegas. Many companies anounce their latest and greatest products at the CES. Indeed, there have already been several announcements over the last few days.
The netbook / notebook distinction continues to blur. Netbooks have sold in large numbers – mainly because of their price – but their performance was not stellar. We are now seeing new netbooks using an updated Atom processor (there is even a dual core version) that will improve performance. And we will see more thin and light notebooks using ULV (ultra low voltage) processors that will be priced just above netbooks.
This results in compact, light, portable computers running Windows 7, with long battery life, for a few hundred dollars. Even if they are not powerful enough, or have the screen size for one’s main computer – they might be perfect for a student, or for a second office computer.
Many are expecting 2010 to be the year of the tablet / e-reader. There is speculation everywhere about what Apple and others might announce either at the CES or later this year. Done right, this could be game changing. The Amazon Kindle has been a huge success. It just needs to be taken to the next level with colour and the ability to read content from various sources. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this video that shows what magazines might look like.
Coverage of the CES can be found on various tech sites such as Wired, Engadget, and CNET
Take a look at this Wired article.
That article is a few weeks old, but was referred to in this post from yesterday about Apple’s upcoming announcements.
I’ve thought for years that the touch screen tablet form factor was a winner – the problem is that the price has always been too high, and the performance never that great. The netbook phenomenon has shown that people will respond to “good enough” if the price is right. And smartphones – as great as they are ( I really like my Sony Ericsson X1) – don’t quite cut it as a computer because the screens are just too small to replace a laptop. The Amazon Kindle is intriguing – but the black & white screen, its limited use as a book reader and tethering to a phone network, not to mention the fact that it is not available in Canada – all factor against it.
I have been using Windows 7 at work for a week (which of course has touch screen capability built in) and noticed that the changes to the taskbar at the bottom are clearly designed to be touch screen friendly. And it is much faster than Vista and has features that enhance productivity.
I’ve been toying with getting a netbook for use for various members of my family (myself to read the online version of the London Free Press instead of the dead tree version, my wife to take to volunteer meetings, my son to take to class) – but with Windows 7 upcoming for netbooks, the new tablet rumours from both the Apple and Wintel camps, and the new CULV chips – it’s hard to know what to buy, or how long to wait to buy!
So here’s what I want. A touchscreen tablet running Windows 7 similar in size to a netbook. It needs some kind of keyboard for data entry – but perhaps a screen based one is good enough. Graphics performance sufficient to play video cleanly. At least 2 gig ram. Modest hard drive. Several hour battery life. DVD drive would be nice – but perhaps creates too much of a price/size/weight penalty. And priced under $300 (well, OK – maybe $400) Can.
And can I have that now please? Or at least by the October 22 Windows 7 launch?
