What Features Do You Want To See In A Tablet?

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August 3rd, 2009 by K. T. Bradford  

Comments (7 Responses) 

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Tags: Apple iPad, CrunchPad, touchscreen tablet, Apple, Dell, Intel, tablet pcs, tablet pcs

7 Responses to “What Features Do You Want To See In A Tablet?”

1. Fanfoot Says:
   August 5th, 2009 at 12:08 am

   I want an internet browser obviously. Something that does at least as good a job as the iPhone at rendering.

   I’d really prefer if it supported flash, so I can watch Youtube and Hulu and such, as well as flash games and such. Suspect it won’t if its an Apple device. May not be a deal killer.

   It must have decent battery life, at least a few hours. Trade that off against the screen size as well as thickness, weight and cost. If it costs too much, or is too heavy, or too expensive, forget it. Its a secondary computer, meant to be used in bed or on the couch over wifi. Too expensive and it’ll be dead before it has a chance.

   Watching video of course. Both internet video (ABC.com, TV.com, Hulu, Youtube, Comedy Central, G4), podcasts, and stuff I have on my home computer. Would be best if it supported LOTS of video formats, but I could probably live with it if it only worked with mp4/h.264 or something. Better if it supported Xvid, DivX, mkv, etc too though. There should also be a store where I can buy/rent episodes of recent TV shows, movies just out on DVD, etc.

   There should be games available for purchase. And an app store. Simple stuff just like on the iPhone would be perfectly acceptable. Doesn’t need to handle hard-core games. Not what its for. A game of solitaire or wordl though…

   Books should be available. Newspapers and magazines too. With subscriptions at discounted prices from the paper versions. NYTimes etc should be offered both with constant subscriptions and the ability to buy an occasional issue just like in the real world. And I want ALL my tech magazines (PC World, Laptop Mag, etc) available digitally.

   The screen MUST support multitouch. And it MUST be as responsive as the iPhone to touch–scrolling, zooming, etc.

   Photo browsing, including functioning as a digital photo viewer/frame when docked/charging.

   It should support widgets so I can configure it to display various bits of information while it is not being used actively.

   The usual rotation sensors.

   A motion sensor might be nice too for the photoframe/widget use. Let it mostly power down when there’s nobody around.

   You can hang it over the back of a car seat to play videos for the kids.

   IR and RF out so you can use it as a large touchscreen remote for you AV setup. Apple TV too. Bring on one of the multifunction remote makers with an app like All For One or something.

   Two headphone jacks.

   Presumably a camera and mic for skype video usage.

   Bluetooth for headphones as well. Including stereo etc for music listening.

   Wireless synching with iTunes or whatever running on the main computer.

2. Weet Says:
   August 5th, 2009 at 3:55 am

   The two things that matter most to me are battery life and good software for taking notes, annotating, drawing etc with a stylus. Video, music, games, etc are all secondary concerns.

   Current tablets running Windows are functional but the standard Windows (or OS X) interface is absolutely not optimized for touch or stylus control. A device with an interface designed for these two input methods would be a godsend. Current implementations are just so poor.

   If we stop and think about it, what are the best uses for a tablet form factor with no physical keyboard? Touch input, handwriting, and drawing. If this device fails to include the latter two it will neglect a huge market. Not many people need a huge iPod but more than a few of us could use a device for taking notes and sketching along with all the standard iPod functionality.

3. Chase Mann Says:
   August 5th, 2009 at 1:05 pm

   I’m a graphic & web design, marketing and small business consultant.

   I want to be able to do all of my sketching (mock-ups) on a tablet instead of paper and scanner.

   I also want the ease of meeting with a client and showing them mock-ups while being able to annotate them right then and there with the client. This would make my meetings much more interactive and efficient.

   I read a LOT and use Evernote religiously … so having a larger screen for reading downloaded books and being able to readily access and edit all my Evernote notes would be wonderful.

   I love, love, LOVE my Apple iPod Touch, but I really want the same (plus expanded) functionality with a bigger screen.

   I could do all of this with a pc tablet, but they still don’t have the grace and elegance a designer craves.

   I will be very happy if a Mac Tablet fills these simple requirements in true Apple style.

4. Mike J Says:
   August 6th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

   I am a artist and would love to see a portable tablet that can run design software like photoshop and Illustrator. You should be able to use it as a touch screen (with a digital keypad) and with a stylus pen. It would also be great to come with a keyboard like docking station.

5. Nameless Says:
   August 16th, 2009 at 3:48 pm

   -Active digitizer pen (Wacom or N-Trig) is a REQUIREMENT. If a tablet lacks that, I’m not interested.

   For me, the whole point of the Tablet PC concept is to REPLACE pen and paper, because I’m horribly clumsy with the stuff. Can’t search paper, can’t organize it as easily, paper takes up way too much physical space for the data it holds, can’t duplicate paper quite like a digital medium…

   And what do we usually do with pen and paper? We WRITE and DRAW on it.

   If you get the chance, at least try a Tablet PC with OneNote and SketchBook Pro (perhaps even Photoshop or Corel Painter) installed. Then you will understand.

   -Keyboard, detachable or slide-out

   Let’s face it-most computer use is based around plain text, and as someone who can hit 90+ WPM, I have to have a physical keyboard a lot of the time.

   My current Tablet PC is an old HP TC1100. It looks like a typical pure slate tablet at first, only it has the most integrated detachable keyboard I’ve seen yet. You just leave it on, and when you have a place to set it down and need to type lots of plain text like this, you release a latch, pry the tablet and keyboard apart, and swivel the tablet around-instant laptop/netbook! And if you don’t need the keyboard, take it off, save some thickness, and watch the weight drop from 4 pounds to 3.1 pounds!

   Alternatively, a design like the HTC Shift, only larger and with an active pen digitizer, would suffice. Basically, imagine a slider smartphone, only much larger and with a screen that tilts up. I think this would allow a tablet to still look fairly sleek while not compromising the physical keyboard.

   Basically, the Tablet PC aspect, to me, is about making a typical laptop/netbook even more flexible by adding touch and pen input when desirable. It’s not like it has to be one or the other.

   -Long battery life

   Unfortunately, my TC1100 falls short here, but it’s also an old tablet with what is likely an aged battery. Some new Tablet PCs can last up to 8 hours on a stock battery, but they’re also the expensive variety. If we didn’t have to worry about battery life while not having to compensate with even more weight and bulk in batteries, then I could picture tablet computing really taking off.

   Then again, the old Apple Newton MessagePad 2000/2100 lasts 24 hours or more on a set of AA batteries. Perhaps someone should make a modern, affordable version of those specifically for note-taking purposes. Not much in the way of frills-just a high-resolution grayscale screen (to extend battery life; I’d suggest e-ink if it weren’t for the horribly slow refresh rates), a pen/stylus, an intuitive interface designed around said pen/stylus, and ludicrous levels of battery life.

   I feel that Apple could make a tablet computer best-the Newton MessagePad 2000/2100 is still arguably the greatest tablet computer ever made, and their hardware/software synergy is like no other. The question to me is: will they support the pen, or cast it aside entirely in favor of pure finger touch? (Given how a lot of Mac fans seem to love Photoshop and the like, I can’t imagine Apple just ignoring the potential artist appeal of such a device.)

   However, it probably won’t happen unless the full Mac OS X gets an overhaul for tablet computing use. Even Windows 7, with its heavily-upgraded Tablet PC extensions, is still largely a keyboard-and-mouse interface at the core.

6. laptop Says:
   August 19th, 2009 at 7:01 am

   However, it probably won’t happen unless the full Mac OS X gets an overhaul for tablet computing use. Even Windows 7, with its heavily-upgraded Tablet PC extensions, is still largely a keyboard-and-mouse interface at the core.

7. Byron Says:
   September 24th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

   So it just occurred to me that Apple may NOT have been working on a tablet at all until everyone else started speculating that they were. (“Oh, did you hear we’re making a touchscreen tablet? Sounds like a good idea!”) Apple doesn’t really need to feel out the market anymore, I guess, because people will eventually tell them what they want by starting rumors that they’ve already started developing it. And now come to think of it…

   Did you hear about the new Apple Money Printer? It’s….umm…free!

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