Tablet Coming From Apple?

Well, Kevin over at Lockergnome has posted an interesting blog entry about the possibility that Apple might be coming out with a Tablet PC. That could be very interesting... if Apple can make it as slick as the Inking API that Microsoft has.

On that note though... I am not sure how well the whole Tablet idea will work out. Scoble has always drank the MS Tablet Koolaid and spews a lot about it... but I can say first hand after spending a week with him, that it is unrealistic to tout the Tablet as an end all solution. Why do I say that? Because during the whole week I was with him, he didn't use his TabletPC once while I was around. Hell, it wouldn't even boot up when I tried it in his office at Microsoft. When I recommended that we blog while watching a movie (all hail Wireless Access Points!) I was politely told that he only blogs from his machine in his home office. (He has a special Thinkpad dedicated to it). When we were walking around he never carried it with him, even though I had my laptop with me always... and blogged everywhere. (Microsoft has wireless AP almost everywhere I was on campus, which was really nice) His reasonings for why he doesn't use his Tablet were sound.. in that he is never more than 30 minutes from a desktop computer, and he is more productive on those machines, especially due to screen real estate.

But you have to put that into context. He would prefer to be chained to a desktop than the freedom of the Tablet with wireless... because he is more productive on the desktop. And that makes total sense. Dual head 21 inch monitors will typically beat out a single 14 inch lcd for many people... especially when the CPU is slower than most people's regular laptops.

Now comes Apple into the mix. Alan tells me that Expose kicks total butt when it comes to Window management in OSX Panther.... which means that potentially, the workspace productivity hole may be plugged. Who knows. If Apple does come out with this in the new year, it will be interesting to see. I wonder if we would think of it as a Newton on steroids?

Here is a challenge for ANY TabletPC vendor out there that believes they have the end all solution. I write code quite a bit, as well as do security audits and forensic analysis on a regular basis. I take a lot of notes, write documents regularly, do tonnes of flow charting and code to the bone. Lend me a reasonably powerful machine that can handle the likes of Visual Studio .NET, Office XP etc... and I will use it for 1 quarter (3 months) as my primary system. I will blog about my experiences on a regular basis and show everyone an unbiased view on how productive it can be for regular technology power users like myself. It doesn't have to be the prettiest thing, and it doesn't have to be new. But it has to be what you are selling to customers like me.

Why the challenge? Because it is safe to bet no one will take me up on it. (That and I doubt any Tablet companies read my blog). If someone does, I would really like to put it through the paces... and possibly end with writing a few Inking apps that would be useful for me in my field of work. I know a few other information security professionals that have thought of using a Tablet during vulnerability assessments and site surveys... and what would be a better recommendation than from their peers?

If you want to take me up on my challenge, fire me an email. Please don't fire me emails if you are going to expect me to hail to the godliness of your TabletPC use... as I heard that already from Robert.... yet never saw him use it once. Proof is in the pudding. And I would prefer to eat my own.