New PB Innovation idea from Gateway?

Convertable tablets are HARDLY a Gateway innovation. They're all over the place (my room mate has a Toshiba convertable he's had since August and has wanted for a few months before that minimum).
I think that a real big change to the PowerBook's would be neat. The "PowerTablet" with an attachable keyboard to make it a notebook *or* (seperate purchase) have a box with its own chips, videocard, maybe RAM. You plug it in and get a desktop machine that fully interfaces with the laptop's harddrive, optical drive, maybe (with a lot of good design) even interfaces the processors (you'd have to have all G4s or all G5s though, crossing architecture in SMP isn't doable; only AMP can do that). I'd love that because I want a portable system but need the power of a desktop; so I carry around my Inspiron8200 desktop replacement. I don't mind the weight; but I know that Apple (and a large part of their customer base) do. I think it'd be pretty cool

encro said:

I meant to say that the idea would work well implemented as a PowerBook.

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yes, if the price stays the same.

no, if the tablet feature is considered extra and increases the price.

tablet is still without a killer app and remains at best, a niche market technology. it's neat, but not really all that useful for most people, esp. at an increased price.

jxyama said:

it's neat, but not really all that useful for most people, esp. at an increased price.

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Anymore money is less of an issue, its more about being able to buy what I want. If I could buy a powertablet and run around with it all day, use it for notes, if it had say a g3 altivec in it, not too powerfull but fast enough to throw around programs like inkwell.. and at the end of the day, I could plug it in to recharge, and thru bluetooth or APX it'd sync and update with my dual 3GHz g5 desktop... all the handwritten notes and formulas being transformed into flawless times new roman, in a beautiful sharing of knowledge and enlightenment, welcome to the future, way..

That'd be so ****ing great.

This is the age of wireless... get with it already.

cr2sh said:

Anymore money is less of an issue, its more about being able to buy what I want.

...

This is the age of wireless... get with it already.

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right, and what you want defines the market?

what does wireless have anything to do with tablet? i have wireless with my PB. it's not a tablet. and i'm doing pretty well...

Ever used Inkwell? I've never found it that accurate. I doubt Handwriting could be transferred to TNR that well. When Tablet PCs came out I laughed because I still use the virtual keyboard on my Palm rather than using graphitti. Tablet PCs in my mind are like the Segway. Eveyone wants one, but noone needs it.

7on said:

Ever used Inkwell? I've never found it that accurate. I doubt Handwriting could be transferred to TNR that well. When Tablet PCs came out I laughed because I still use the virtual keyboard on my Palm rather than using graphitti. Tablet PCs in my mind are like the Segway. Eveyone wants one, but noone needs it.

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Graphitti isn't that good; its not natural. PocketPCs have transcriber which works well; really well if you're willing to turn up the 'crunch time' it spends with the processor. And thats on a tiny little PocketPC. So if InkWell isn't accurate -- Apple needs to spend more time on it; because the technology is there. Character Recognition is getting VERY good, it's even better with training, and when you have it spell check its results you normally get nigh perfect accuracy.

I dont know if this is innovative or not but I noticed at the alienware site the notebooks have removable video cards. we have only one machine in Macs world that can do that and thats powermac. Do other notebooks allow that?

Dont Hurt Me said:

I dont know if this is innovative or not but I noticed at the alienware site the notebooks have removable video cards. we have only one machine in Macs world that can do that and thats powermac. Do other notebooks allow that?

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I think some VooDoo models have that as well, but that's all that comes to mind.

Dont Hurt Me said:

I dont know if this is innovative or not but I noticed at the alienware site the notebooks have removable video cards. we have only one machine in Macs world that can do that and thats powermac. Do other notebooks allow that?

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AFAIK it's a fairly new thing. The downside is they add to the size and weight of the laptop as well as limits the hardware layout. I think they are more suited for big desktop replacement laptops that are not moved very often. Which is basically the exact opposite of the philsophy behind Apple's laptops.


Lethal

jxyama said:

tablet is still without a killer app and remains at best, a niche market technology. it's neat, but not really all that useful for most people, esp. at an increased price.

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My thoughts EXACTLY