[Discuss] Future of Personal Computers

Tue Mar 13 11:07:53 EDT 2012

Everything you might want to know about my tablet is here:

http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/

One of the main values of the keyboard is the extra battery life.  It
doubles your battery.

Also, you have two choices to protect your screen:  Either buy a protective
sleeve, or use the keyboard dock and close the lid.  I prefer the latter.

Although it has a touchpad, the touchpad isn't very useful because it's
poorly impelmented.  It actually works very well when you're just using the
touchpad - it has multitouch, gestures, scrolling, tap to click, everything
you expect from a decent touchpad.  It's funny, because it's not a mouse
pointer.  When you move around the touchpad, you see a little circle the
size of your fingertip representing your finger moving around on the screen.
Unfortunately it doesn't have any way to "disable while typing," and the
official response is "You shouldn't be resting your hands on the computer
while typing, that's just bad ergonomics."  End result is that you're
constantly clicking on things while typing, accidentally.  Fortunately
there's a simple toggle button (like F3 or whatever) that enables/disables
the touchpad.  I find most of the time, I have it disabled, and just tap the
screen.  All because they can't disable touchpad while typing.  But if I'm
doing anything which requires extended mouse / touch screen pointer
operation ... Then the touchpad is more desirable than actually clicking the
screen.  I believe I would use the touchpad if I were a facebook user, for
example.  And playing certain video games etc, I prefer the touchpad.

For years, I always thought tapping the screen would be tiring and annoying,
but now that I have one, it isn't.  Provided that you're not doing it
extensively.  You're clicking something, reading a little bit, typing
something, then clicking some more.  As a percentage, the amount of time
your arm is extended toward your screen is surprisingly low for typical
usage.

How do you print from Android?  I don't know.  I never bothered.  I barely
print from computers anymore either - Almost everything is purely
electronic.

I don't know anything I would want to print from android.  Although there
are such things as document editors and email clients, there are also such
things as dropbox.  So if I were to print anything like that, I would just
print it from my PC.  Everything else ... Angry birds, Flashlight, Tasker,
Youtube, SMS messaging, Boston BusMaps, Video Recorder, Car Mode, etc...
Don't really synergize to the concept of "printing."

In fact, a lot of stuff I used to print, I don't print anymore, because I
have it in the mobile device.  Turns out, the main reason people print
things is because they want to take it away from their desk to review it
somewhere else.  Don't need to print maps or directions, because they're
being displayed on screen with me.  I suppose my wife might want to print a
recipe from the internet...  Now that I look for it ... In Dolphin Browser
Mini ... I don't even see a print button.  Maybe it's somehow hidden, or
it's a feature that's not available in Dolphin "Mini," but I really have no
idea.

If google has anything to do about it, I'm sure they have a way to enable
CloudPrint.  So far in chrome ... It's a good idea, but it doesn't work
reliably, so it's a disappointment.  I hope they'll get it right someday.

From: Chris O'Connell [mailto:omegahalo at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 10:33 AM
To: Edward Ned Harvey
Cc: markw at mohawksoft.com; blu (blu)
Subject: Re: [Discuss] Future of Personal Computers

I'm not at all familiar with the Asus Transformer.  Does the ASUS have an
actual dock that can liven a monitor or two?  How about Android printer
support?  If you bring it to the next meetup I would love to see it.  In
fact, we had a Tablet meeting not too long ago, and I think that the Tablet
field is advancing so quickly we could consider an annual "tablet" night to
talk about new uses and new software apps.

IMO the Android OS at this point does not have the ability to replace a
desktop or laptop computer.   iOS CERTAINLY doesn't have the ability to
replace a computer and has very little value to me as I don't think one can
be terribly productive with it.  I continually see my coworkers trying to
jam these tablets into a business environment and squeeze some type of
productivity out of them, which I always find humorous.

I myself have a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet.  I use it for light web browsing
and reading some digital files.  Generally I find the hokey and inconsistent
performance majorly annoying.  I'm planning a trip to Asia at the end of the
month.  I want to do some blogging while I'm gone and I just can't imagine
bringing my tablet along.  Even with an external keyboard I just think
something as simple 

For now, I agree with a previous participant in our conversation.  If you
want to actually be productive and get stuff done use a laptop/desktop.  If
you want a nice toy to read on use a tablet.  Not to say they don't have
their uses, but a tablet isn't going to replace my laptop any time in the
near future.

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Edward Ned Harvey <blu at nedharvey.com>
wrote:

> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Chris O'Connell

>
> Given that Microsoft is working so hard to ensure Windows 8 runs on
tablets
> (either ARM or Intel) I have a prediction.  I suspect that the eventual
> goal is to have this new type of Windows 8 tablet something that can be
> dropped into a dock at home.  The new tablets will eventually be powerful
> enough to replace your home desktop.
>
> Such a dockable tablet would be pretty handy.  When you head to work or on
> vacation just bring your tablet and it'll have all of your documents,
> pictures and software on it.

You mean like the Asus Transform?  This is what I use, and I absolutely love
it...  ;-)

-- 
Chris O'Connell

http://outlookoutbox.blogspot.com