The combination of portability and usability is why I've been so excited about Netbooks for the past couple of years - to use one affordable device for mainstream usage and Chinese study at home, in the park and on the bus. To be able to take it out during the day and plug it in to a monitor when I get home. Of course, the trend towards larger screens (10 inch plus) doesn't help portability. The major obstacle for me to want to use Pleco on a Netbook though is the device needs to have touch, needs to be one-hand-holdable (I.e. a tablet), with a reasonable size screen plus video out port to limit the damage long study sessions on a Pocket PC have done to my eyes already and for quick lookup, a fast start (I.e. I can flick it on and off fairly quickly).
The closest product to meeting all of this and generating some excitement in its own right is the up-and-coming Asus Eee T91 (and big brother T101):
The main difference between the T91/T101, apart from screen-size, is that the T101 has a near-full-size keyboard good for sustained use, but many hands-on commentators say that the T91 is the perfect compromise for size and portability and I use a wireless keyboard at home with my PC anyway, so for me not a big issue. Year abroad language students might also be able to make good use of an optional built-in GPS (Google Earth yourself) and TV tuner. Seeing as it's built here in Taiwan, hopefully there will be a bunch of handwriting-recognition tools in there too.
Asus won't be the first to bring out cheap touch-screen netbooks but it certainly seems to be the one that is investing the most resources in it, in terms of software and their future line of Eee PCs. I'd love to see them succeed as it should result in a greater range of ways to study Chinese through IT. I'm hoping to get one anyway when they come out here in the next few weeks.
In Taipei and Tokyo, I've seen a few manufacturers pitching touch-screen netbooks and Sony and Apple might also be working on one themselves (there are growing rumours about both companies sourcing netbook-sized touch-screens from Quanta).
Mike - were touch-screens to be the new mainstream feature in netbooks, would you then see a worthy market for a Pleco Desktop?
Cheers
Ben
The closest product to meeting all of this and generating some excitement in its own right is the up-and-coming Asus Eee T91 (and big brother T101):
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvtU4xZPvQ
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4jmkora128
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsCd_ZULtPc
The main difference between the T91/T101, apart from screen-size, is that the T101 has a near-full-size keyboard good for sustained use, but many hands-on commentators say that the T91 is the perfect compromise for size and portability and I use a wireless keyboard at home with my PC anyway, so for me not a big issue. Year abroad language students might also be able to make good use of an optional built-in GPS (Google Earth yourself) and TV tuner. Seeing as it's built here in Taiwan, hopefully there will be a bunch of handwriting-recognition tools in there too.
Asus won't be the first to bring out cheap touch-screen netbooks but it certainly seems to be the one that is investing the most resources in it, in terms of software and their future line of Eee PCs. I'd love to see them succeed as it should result in a greater range of ways to study Chinese through IT. I'm hoping to get one anyway when they come out here in the next few weeks.
In Taipei and Tokyo, I've seen a few manufacturers pitching touch-screen netbooks and Sony and Apple might also be working on one themselves (there are growing rumours about both companies sourcing netbook-sized touch-screens from Quanta).
Mike - were touch-screens to be the new mainstream feature in netbooks, would you then see a worthy market for a Pleco Desktop?
Cheers
Ben