Scoble's right. Derrick Story misses the point about Tablet PCs. But it's easy to do. Tablet PCs are new and we're all still learning what Tablet PCs are and should be.
Scoble and Chris Coulter (in a posted comment) do an excellent job of describing how they look at Tablet PCs. I hope Derrick reads them.
Concerning Derrick's frustrations with using a PDA for jotting down quick notes: I agree. I've done the same thing. The PDA is fine for very brief note taking. But after 5 minutes or so it becomes cumbersome. The Tablet PC is much better for taking notes in a classroom setting as Derrick describes. A couple advantages a PDA has over a Tablet PC is its size and instant on capability though.
I find Derrick's PDA quick-note usage scenario interesting, because I was talking with an engineer I met at a party this weekend that uses a PDA to sketch out fixes/ideas/etc when he's on the factory floor. He finds it a tremendous timesaver because he can sketch out an idea while it's fresh in his mind and instantly and wirelessly email it to the proper person without going back to his desk. It's a pretty good solution for him: small, lightweight, and easy to use. He'd looked at a Tablet PC at Fry's, but wasn't impressed. For the price he couldn't see the value. So I showed him how the pen's digitization speed is faster than that on a PDA and how he doesn't have to uncomfortably hold his hand away from the screen while using the Tablet PC--both which would enable him to draw better. He hadn't realized this from looking at the Fry's demo unit. Then I showed him an application that would let him draw out a figure and it cleaned it up to something more professional looking. Now his mind was cooking. He was very interested in something that could make his notes/drawings look better. After our discussion, he wasn't ready to jump out and buy a Tablet PC, but he began to see the possibilities. Later I overheard him tell others how interesting the Tablet PC was and how it might be the future of notebooks. It's a step. Too bad Derrick wasn't there.
Posted by Loren at September 30, 2003 11:23 AM