Waitaminnit, Maybe HP’s Windows Slate is Interesting After All
By Harry McCracken | Friday, November 19, 2010 at 12:21 am
At first, HP’s Windows 7 slate was going to be a big deal. Then HP stopped talking about it and I declared it dead. Then it came back, but in a form that left me wondering if it was cursed. What a saga!
On Thursday afternoon, I saw the gadget–now known as the HP Slate 500, and aimed at business types rather than consumers–up close and in person. I tried it a bit. And while it may still turn out to be a train wreck, I’m now thinking it might at least be an interesting train wreck. Or even–just maybe–an interesting machine, period. (The 500 went on sale a few weeks ago, but is apparently a rare, back-ordered commodity.)
The slate I tried in a hotel lobby was shown to me not by HP but by Gary Baum, associate vice president of product marketing for N-Trig, an Israel-based company that makes touchscreen technology used in Tablet PCs and other devices. In the case of the Slate 500, it’s providing HP with a projective capacitive display that does both iPad-style multitouch and pressure-sensitive pen input of the sort used by Tablet PCs.
(Baum, by the way, has an impressive history in the computer business going all the way back to the original IBM PC, which he worked on as an employee of Intel.)
N-Trig’s system involves a digitizing layer that works both with fingers and pen, saving cost, weight, and battery life. The company also supplies PC manufacturers with a software layer that adds additional gestures, larger buttons, and other touch-friendly features that Microsoft hasn’t built into Windows itself.
The slate that Baum let me try was not in any shape to let me form firm conclusions about the final version of HP’s device–it was a well-traveled prototype running prerelease software, with a skimpy 1GB of RAM. (The shipping version will start at 2GB.) But it left me wondering whether devices such as HP’s Windows slate might be less iPad rivals than a second pass at making Tablet PCs that large numbers of people might actually want.
When Microsoft launched the Tablet PC a decade ago, Bill Gates made a famous, famously inaccurate prediction that they’d overtake traditional notebooks by 2005 or so. I was dubious about the platform’s prospects from the start, and kind of thought that people might be less interested in the whole idea of handwritten notes than Gates and company believe. (Lord knows that I did try to give the Tablet PC a chance: I bought one with my own dough and used it for a while.)
But perhaps handwritten input was fatally hobbled from the start by the fact that most Tablet PCs were large, heavy, and expensive. The Slate 500 has Tablet PC features like Microsoft’s handwriting-recognition engine, but it has an 8.9″ screen, weighs 1.5 pounds, and will start at a semi-reasonable $799–unlike most Tablets, it’s not a laptop in disguise. It feels more like an electronic notepad you might tote just about everywhere, which is what the Tablet PC was aiming for all along.
When I spoke to Baum, he advocated for handwriting as a superior alternative to iPad-style keyboards–one that’s more natural, more personal, and maybe even more likely to help your brain remember things as you jot notes about them. “The iPad keyboard is by far the best on-screen keyboard ever invented,” he told me, “and it sucks.”
As I’ve often said, I have crummy handwriting and therefore don’t have much interest in digital ink; the last thing I want to do with notes in my own hand is to save them for posterity. But I really liked sketching with the Slate 500’s pen. Some amazingly clever artwork has been created on the iPad using apps such as Brushes, but the N-Trig pen/touch technology could make for tablets that were far more interesting art implements than the touch-only iPad could ever be.
There are still lots of reasons to be skeptical about the Slate 500, ranging from odd design decisions (there’s no place to store the pen) to reasonable fears about its likely battery life. And while N-Trig’s extra touch features (which won’t come standard on the 500, but will be available as a download) should make for a more usable device than stock Windows 7 does, Windows isn’t going to be a truly serious tablet operating system until Microsoft puts far more effort into its touch interface and convinces third-party developers to design apps with touch in mind.
But maybe there’s more potential in Apple’s competitors trying to build tablets that are productivity-oriented Tablet PC offspring than there is in them tackling the near-impossible challenge of building a better entertainment device than the iPad. Baum told me that N-Trig’s technology should show up in machines from multiple companies–including at least one Android-powered tablet by the end of the first half of 2011.
The Slate 500 is unlikely to be a breakthrough. But if HP perseveres and Microsoft cooperates, a Slate 700, 800, or 900 could finally be the device that Bill Gates was envisioning back at the turn of the century…
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14 Comments For This Post
November 19th, 2010 at 7:13 am
where will we be able to download N-Trig’s extra touch features? will they have a link on their website?
November 19th, 2010 at 8:51 am
I’m not sure how the process will work, but impression was that it’ll be reasonably simple.
November 19th, 2010 at 7:45 am
glad to see someone is recognizing the potential AND the issues surrounding current full os slates. i enjoyed this breakdown and completely agree- the day that microsoft fully integrates touch technology into its os, that day will revolutionize computing. not only will slates begin to take over the laptop realm, but our pc monitors will become touch capable as well. perhaps our slates will become our monitors?
the technology will only evolve. past examples of tablet pcs weren't light enough and portable enough, nor did the operating systems work as well. but the future is bright, and once battery life begins to catch up (ahem, oak trail?), the sky is the limit.
November 19th, 2010 at 7:56 am
+1 Harry McCracken
November 19th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Pen AND touch on the same device – something born from the "Courier" prototype?
November 19th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
No, born from the pen+touch tablet pcs that HP (and Dell, Fujitsu, Toshiba etc.) have been making and selling for a few years now. It's all been very secret, on a need-to-know basis…
November 19th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Thank you so much for this update. You are spot on regarding the future prospects – don't take Apple head on in the entertainment space – look at what happened to the record labels. Once we get battery life up to an ordinary business day (8 hours +/-) with a good inking experience, we'll put the yellow pad out of business.
November 19th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Re Harry McCracken – Don’t sleep on the handwriting recognition capabilities of Win7. I’ve used tablets since WinXP Tablet Edition and MS has gotten this one right. They combine character recognition, word recognition, a dictionary, a word prediction function, and possibly their grammar checker into the Tablet Input Panel handwriting recognition. It’s amazing how many of my chicken scratches they can get right – it’s at least as accurate as my typing is.
Re: richfrombechtle – N-Trig and Wacom both have dual mode screens built on different active digitizer technology. As I understand it, the screen itself is a capacitive screen but there is an active digitizer layer that detects the pen when it comes close to the screen and disables the capacitive functions. Note that the pen is not just a stylus (and only specific pens will work with specific tablets) which means that the screens can detect a hovering pen and, depending on the pen, left, middle, and right clicks and even an eraser function.
November 19th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Harry, I remember fondly being next to Bill G at Aereole in Vegas when he raved about Tablet PC. I used one for 2 yrs, then got an iPad (my $). I found myself taking it into the city for mtgs and leaving the laptop at home. Now I have a co. provided Dell 5 pounder.
Unlike Baum, I don't think iPad's onscreen keyboard sucks. Younger gens don't have problems w/them like us over 40 somethings! They're raised on 'em and texting and aren't onscreen notetakers either, and they're coming into the business ranks raised on this stuff! I went tablet PC as it was easier to use on a plane. I hated pen input, used it for nav, and would have preferred my finger (I won't lose that)
But this will work. Replace the laptop w/a 10" Win 7 tablet for $599 +dock w/BT, USB, HDMI or DVI, +monitor and I'm set!. If Slate's onscreen typing is decent. Forget WebOS for corp, it's another OS to test ontop a Win 7 migration. Interesting train wreck? Yeah! The laptop form factor is so yesterday, we need to break the mold on both sides- Apple & Windows
Randy G.
@ipsosvantis
@randygiusto
November 19th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Mr. McCracken, could you please ask Mr. Baum if he could find out when (if ever) HP is going to ship the first Slate to somebody, anybody, who has ordered one about a month ago. It would be easier and quicker than an ordinary customer like me trying to get any sensible, straight answers from them.
November 24th, 2010 at 2:01 am
I remember back in mid 2007 reading a HP white paper on the future creation and development of a full fleged tablet PC compatible computer. It would be a laptop computer with a Color LCD like display, with a built in touch sensitive table you could see through. In 2009 herd of the planed Slate, 4 months before the Apple iPADD. Then of it's death as the iPADD came out. may have to wait a year until they are publicly retailed. Guess I'll add my name to my wishlist.
January 8th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
Amazing post! I initially found your blog a about a week ago, and I subscribed for the RSS feed the identical day. I have several cool ideas for a bit of upcoming posts you may possibly write. I¡¯ll send you an email shortly. Keep up the work.
January 31st, 2012 at 7:13 am
Harry, Really a great job. 🙂
glad to see someone is recognizing the potential AND the issues surrounding current full os slates. i enjoyed this breakdown and completely agree- the day that microsoft fully integrates touch technology into its os, that day will revolutionize computing. not only will slates begin to take over the laptop realm, but our pc monitors will become touch capable as well. perhaps our slates will become our monitors?
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:45 pm
This gadget looks interesting and promising. But I have to stick with iPad.