ErixClix

For some number of years now one PC maker or another has made an attempt, if not many attempts, at developing what they believed was the ‘ideal’ tablet PC.  Usually smaller than a notebook computer, a little slimmer and lighter, most incorporating some type of touch sensitive display and utilizing a stylus or pen for input.

More creative tablet PC’s were simply sub-notebooks with a flip-around screen that would fold over the keyboard and lay flat.  Still they were bulky, lacked in power and features and the displays and battery life left much to be desired.  Ultimately these were impractical, over-priced gadgets at best.

Recently, at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, there was much speculation that Apple has been working on, and would possibly announce a new tablet computing product.  Since then, the conference and the much hyped keynote address have come and gone.  We saw a new iPhone 3GS announced, the release of the new iPhone OS 3.0 and more details on the upcoming Snow Leopard Mac OS release.  Unfortunately, still no tablet from Apple.

Why bother with engineering ‘yet another tablet PC?’

Because most of the reasons tablet PCs were impractical in the past, most of the technical challenges that were unaddressable before can now be overcome…  Tablet PCs need to be ultra-light to be carried around easily, ultra-thin for portability, ultra-powerful so more visual applications can be used, super-bright so the device can be carried and used outdoors and super-high screen resolutions to simulate the ease of use of working with and reading print. This coincides with better graphics/visual computing power since a tablet PC is mostly useful as an interactive piece of paper.  A Tablet PC must also have extensive battery life, just like any notebook computer on the market today.  Finally, they need superior wireless capabilities and must have storage capacity as close to a notebook or desktop computer as possible.

With all of these technical requirements, and engineers having already tried to address these issues, in what ways has technology improved in even just the last 12 months to make a difference over current ‘best attempts’ that are already on the market?

Technology has improved in nearly every way that pertains to portable computing, and may finally be ready for primetime

Let’s start with ultra-powerful.  Intel is releasing ‘ultra-mobile’ and ‘lower power’ quad-core processors in August.  These processors are much faster yet draw less power than previous less capable processors.  So in a tight space you’re getting near desktop processing capabilities in a portable device.

Extensive battery life.  Most cutting edge portable devices are only recently taking advantage of ultra-efficient Lithium-Ion battery technology whose full potential has not been realized yet.  Apple’s new iPhone 3GS is a more cutting edge example.  Same size battery, however faster processing capabilities and yet even extended battery life in almost every category from the previous generation iPhone.

Durable and Sturdy.  Solid-state hard drives.  I can’t believe tablets have even been taken seriously thus far considering most of them have very fragile, sensitive parts in them.  How can you carry something around a work environment that’s so fragile?  The most sensitive part may be the hard drive.  Nothing too important, only the place where you store all of your documents, applications, the operating system and all of your settings.  If you drop that thing at just the wrong time, it’s all for naught. Do we have an effective replacement for this?

In just the past year, a solid-state form of non-volatile RAM (Memory or file storage that remains even when the power to the computer is off) has finally come to maturity.  It’s now fast enough, big enough and affordable enough to put in specialized devices like a tablet PC.  And also solves the durability problem with portable devices.  This kind of storage has been around for years but only recently has the combination of the higher speeds and available sizes (e.g. 120GB that a typical modern laptop requires) that finally make it a practical, even preferred option to a traditional hard drive.

Thinner with a brighter, high-resolution display.  These improvements can be achieved with a single innovation and this one is my favorite as it ranks highest on the coolness scale. In the last couple years, OLED (Organic Light-emitting Diode) display technology has  matured dramatically. Perhaps its greatest single benefit, OLED displays do not need a backlight as traditional LCD displays require.  With OLED technology, the pixels themselves provide not only the color, but also the light for the pixel.  In traditional LCD displays power requirements are extensive because of the separate backlight draining precious battery life.  This ’self-lit pixel’ method not only saves power but also provides perfectly even lighting throughout the entire display as well as a much brighter picture.

Multiple benefits. OLED displays also have another significant benefit, thickness.  OLED panels are a fraction of the thickness of LCD panels simply because of how they work. OLED displays typically have smaller pixels.  If you can squeeze more pixels into the same space you have a sharper, higher-resolution display.  Some of the best LCD panels have 90 ppi (pixels per inch) resolution.  The iPhone display already sports an amazing 163 ppi.  Ideally, we could get 200 ppi or better with OLED to simulate print like the Amazon Kindle e-Ink technology, but that’s yet to come on a device like this.  And if those benefits aren’t enough, OLED displays use less toxic components in their manufacturing so they’re even better for the environment!

So where’s my ultra-thin, bright, fast, green, cheap tablet PC?

Well…Apple hasn’t made it yet.  Or at least, they haven’t announced it yet.  I say Apple, as opposed to HP or Fujitsu or other existing tablet PC makers because Apple is the only PC maker that has consistently shown it has the innovative spirit, knowhow, marketing and raw guts to try and release a super cool computing device like this.  Initial versions may not be ‘cheap’ but most cutting edge technology isn’t.  More importantly, it will be usable, sturdy, powerful and practical.

Hopefully, more to come on this topic!

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