Red Falcon
[H]ard DCOTM December 2023
- Joined
- May 7, 2007
- Messages
- 12,452
heatlesssun
Um...
Great point. The term tablet is fairly meaningless these days as it has had a lot of different meanings to different people over the years, from form factor to input method to iPads, etc. I think it is starting to become more aligned with form factor classification but many people refer to mobile OS devices still though Tablet PCs actually predate these devices.
Indeed what's so fascinating about Windows 8 and devices like the Surface are that are indeed Tablet PC 2.0. Everything in Tablet PCs from 2002 is there in many Windows 8 tablet and hybrid devices. Digital pens having a big presence in Windows still almost shocks me. I'm a huge proponent of pens with tablets as they are such a natural way to do natural things on tablet devices like writing and drawing and these forms of input are always going to be with us, they are the cornerstones of human expression.
But inking always seemed to face a lot of resistance, particularly from certain technical crowds that believed in the inherent superiority of keyboard and mouse input, though pens were really never meant to replace keyboards and mice.
I guess one reason why I never thought that Windows 8 was that big of a deal in some ways because I've seen a lot of it before in the original Tablet PC. In the back of my mind, if Windows 8 doesn't prove to be successful, I would tend to think that it would have something to do with being derived directly from the Tablet PC concept that was technically a failure, though for some reason never died even having failed.
I rest my case.