A500 tablet... well kinda

[ElPolloDiabl]

Okay it's an Acer tablet model A500.
Imagine if this thing was an Amiga 500, if the Amiga 500 was released today.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Iconia-Acer-Tablets-Dual-Screen-Single-Screen,11911.html

When are we going to jump on the bandwagon of these new technologies? It'd be a shame if we were stuck on desktops in ten years time.

[whabang]

We aren't. The Amiga is dead, and will remain dead unless someone magically finds a way to revitalize it.

[Tension]

The Amiga is dead

Undead.

[whabang]

I threw holy water on mine, and now it refuses to boot.

[bloodline]

Run AROS either hosted on Android or using a Native ARM port

-edit- Pavel also has an iOS version in the works that should work on the iPad too :p

[bloodline]

I threw holy water on mine, and now it refuses to boot.

I spilled hot chocolate on an A1200 years ago an it carried on fine!

[commodorejohn]

I don't really feel any need to jump on the tablet bandwagon, thanks. I still fail to see any concrete advantage to something that's either an oversized iPhone minus the phone, or an underpowered laptop minus the keyboard.

[bloodline]

I don't really feel any need to jump on the tablet bandwagon, thanks. I still fail to see any concrete advantage to something that's either an oversized iPhone minus the phone, or an underpowered laptop minus the keyboard.

Bandwagon? It's actually just a logical step for computers to take. I'm sure there were people ranting and raving that they weren't going to jump onto the "Mouse controlled graphical user interface" bandwagon in the mid 80's

I don't need a tablet computer, but I have friends with iPads and I have little doubt that I'll get an iPad within the next year or so. They are remarkably natural devices to use, and would replace my laptop for 100% of casual use.

[whabang]

Yeah, once my laptop breaks (or when I get sufficiently bored with it) I'll probably buy some kind of tablet too. As long as it has an USB port then I'm good.

[commodorejohn]

Bandwagon? It's actually just a logical step for computers to take. I'm sure there were people ranting and raving that they weren't going to jump onto the "Mouse controlled graphical user interface" bandwagon in the mid 80's

Well yeah, but the mouse provided an intuitive interface for actions the keyboard wasn't well-suited for. The touchscreen is admittedly a nice, intuitive alternative for many (but not all) mouse operations, but you still need a way to enter text, and touchscreen keyboards are mediocre at best - anything large enough to type on comfortably eats huge amounts of screen space, and having no tactical feedback just sucks.

I can see the usefulness of this in a smart phone (certainly a better approach than the Blackberry models with three dozen keys the size of micro-M&Ms, not to mention the various terrible approaches involving assigning multiple characters to the normal buttons on a phone keypad,) but when you're using a laptop-size device anyway, it makes zero sense to not have a proper keyboard.

[whabang]

Well yeah, but the mouse provided an intuitive interface for actions the keyboard wasn't well-suited for. The touchscreen is admittedly a nice, intuitive alternative for many (but not all) mouse operations, but you still need a way to enter text, and touchscreen keyboards are mediocre at best - anything large enough to type on comfortably eats huge amounts of screen space, and having no tactical feedback just sucks.

I can see the usefulness of this in a smart phone (certainly a better approach than the Blackberry models with three dozen keys the size of micro-M&Ms, not to mention the various terrible approaches involving assigning multiple characters to the normal buttons on a phone keypad,) but when you're using a laptop-size device anyway, it makes zero sense to not have a proper keyboard.

That's why the USB port comes in handy; you add a keyboard if you need one. Now we only need proper linux distros for those things!

[jj]

Like Maemo (ok abadonded by nokia now ) or meego which is looking pretty good

[commodorejohn]

That's why the USB port comes in handy; you add a  keyboard if you need one.

And then I'm lugging around a separate keyboard with the tablet instead of having one integrated, since I'm always going to need one. I'm not saying that there aren't people who do very little typing and thus can get by with a tablet and touchscreen-keyboard generally, but there are also a lot of people who do do a lot of typing (writers and programmers, for instance.) Saying that keyboard-less computing is "a logical step for computers to take" as a whole is saying that their needs aren't important, which is naive.

[jj]

Tablets seem to be on the whol about media consumption rather than creation.
 
I can seee the point for web browsing ( though not forum posting ) , videos etc.
 
But when it comes to emails, etc etc then obviously a laptop is what you need.

[the_leander]

And then I'm lugging around a separate keyboard with the tablet instead of having one integrated, since I'm always going to need one. I'm not saying that there aren't people who do very little typing and thus can get by with a tablet and touchscreen-keyboard generally, but there are also a lot of people who do do a lot of typing (writers and programmers, for instance.) Saying that keyboard-less computing is "a logical step for computers to take" as a whole is saying that their needs aren't important, which is naive.

In some circumstances it is though. Sure, some groups, such as those you cite will always need a keyboard, they are however something of a minority.

The world of big box systems as the norm are coming to an end, lifestyle PCs are were it's heading these days. Big box systems are likely in the future to be the preserve of workstations and dedicated bleeding edge performance gaming boxes.