Friday, August 02, 2013

From ZDNet.COM 10 Reasons Why Windows Tablets Excell

I'm writing this post as I read the article at ZDNet.COM "http://www.zdnet.com/10-advantages-windows-8-tablets-have-over-the-ipad-and-android_p2-7000018732/#photo" and just writing down my thoughts as each feature comes up as I click 'next' on the reasons.  (Note: I am a big science fiction fan and love to read about how computers and A.I. evolve in that genre)


  1. Multiple Users - The article does not say if when a tablet is used by multiple folks if ALL (and I mean every single bit) of unique user data (including login credentials) is persisted to some location NOT on the tablet and if when logging off the tablet it is COMPLETELY wiped clean of all traces of the user.  In other words can these tablets be treated as super, smart, small, animated white boards?  I call this the Star-Trek Next Gen Tablet Feature.
  2. Multiple Monitors - This is grand.  And here is my idea of the the ideal use case (which could be implemented by an app connected to the computer running a 'big-flat-touch-screen' BFTS):  The tablet connects wirelessly to a 'BFTS' in a conference room. Your gestures on your tablet are reflected on the 'BFTS'.  The 'big-flat-touch-screen' will simultaneously host multiple tablets.  I call this the NCIS-LA Multi User Vertical Touch Screen/Tablet Feature.
  3. Use Any Peripherals - Super.  And when you think of the tablet you begin to start to see it just fade into background just like pads of paper and pencils and whiteboards and dry-erase markers.  It becomes part of the environment not something you haul around with you.  Together with the BFTS and the persisting of your data and meetings to the 'cloud' means you can after some meeting go back to your desk and annotate the meeting proceeds and whatever the action items of the meeting were get implemented in way that makes it seem like everyone in the meeting has a photographic memory (with audio). I call this the Everybody Gets Smarter Using New Tech Feature.
  4. Snap View - Yep, and Android (apparently now) and the Apple (iOS 7) have/will-have similar features.
  5. Full Blown File Manager - Well this can be thought of as a limitation or a feature.  It is a feature when it allows your tablet to simulate some older tech that you want to cling to.
  6. File Encryption (Bit-Locker) - When you consider item "1." above and the fact that these devices are starting to fade into the background environment then this particular tech should be part and parcel of all such 'environmental-tablets'.  And, of course, as they fade into the background environment they certainly should be capable of being 'paired' with some physical environment.  Such as:  Near-Your-Body or, In-Your-Office/Conference-Room or, In-Your-Home or, In-Your-Car.  This way they act like cell-phones currently do (they have a built-in "GUID" that makes them useless if stolen then deactivated.)
  7.  Pen Support - I really would like to see how far down the 'pen-rabbit-hole' the Microsoft Surface Tablets have gone.  All I've done so far is to download the 'Penultimate' app for my iPad-Mini and so far I've not come up with a nice stylus yet (I would like something that is 'like' a real pen.)  As 'time-goes-by' and voice recognition undergoes a couple of 'Moores-Law-Generations'. I'm thinking keyboards/pens become historical artifacts.  When this starts to happen I call this the 'Second-Foundation Arkady Darryl Speech Writer Feature' or the beginnings of the 'Star Trek: "COMPUTER!" Feature'.
  8.  Big News App - Huh?  I do know what is being talked about here but do NOT like 'real-time-streaming' of anything into my immediate environment except for "http://theclassicalstation.org/" or "Back Porch Music" and "The Thistle and Shamrock" (on the weekends) and consider myself fortunate that I live in a community where this content is available over the airwaves.  
  9. Run Any Browser - Ok But ... I'm not sure this is even a good idea.  I've added some Google apps to my iPad-Mini and exercised other apps that will 'bring-up-web-views' and they uniformly they suck.  And if IE does NOT blow away any other browser installed on a Windows Surface Tablet then MSFT should be worrying, or celebrating that somehow or other everybody just 'got-it-right' (not likely).  But in fairness I've not messed around with any of the MSFT Surface Tablets/Phones yet.
  10. Run Powerful Software - OK fine and, I seriously doubt this.  And further if you consider the 'fade-into-the-background-environment' paradigm that I mention above that these devices will move toward then we see they only serve as super cool and fruity mechanical UIs for the big honking cpu farms running in the cloud that do all the heavy lifting.  And I think of all this tech as just another step toward the "3001-Final-Odyssey-Brain-Cap-Totally Wired-Hive-Mind-Miss-Pringle-Ultimate-AI"

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