the eeeNote - it’s a serious threat to...everything

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Xandros is NOT owned by ASUS. Xandros is a separate entity, and has been around for a lot longer than the Eeepc. ASUS merely chose to work with Xandros, because Xandros is open to working with corporations.

Correction noted, and thank you.

But it doesn't change the point - ASUS already has a Linux solution they are familiar with. I don't see them suddenly shifting to Android, though I can see an incentive to do so: at this point Android has brand recognition, and the fact that a device uses it is a feature. ASUS wants to sell hardware, and might decide down the road that a device running Android would sell better because of that.
______
Dennis

[Ken Maltby]

One thing I would expect from ASUS would be that the OS would be upgradeable. If not
by ASUS directly, then by moding community. I have preferred their motherboards for a
long time now, and find them a very reliable tech company.

What I am waiting for in a tablet OS is "Honycomb" with Flash 10 support. (So far the
dual boot ViewSonic may be the only way to get close to that.)

Luck;
Ken

[jehane]

Originally Posted by lotrfan

Yeah I know about Graffiti and have used it before but that is not what I was talking about. Your second example is what I would like, a device that can read your handwritten text (within reason). Not cursive by the way. I am sure we will get their one day.

This technology has existed for some time. The tablets from a decade ago had handwriting recognition, and my phone (nokia 5800) has it as well. Graffiti tends to be more accurate because it forces users to write in a standard way, however the software on my phone has a learning ability. I'm not sure about the tablets - those were out of my price range.

[jehane]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I feel the same way, and still use my PalmOS device daily. Mostly it's my ebook viewer now, but the other functions still work fine. The biggest wish I have is a larger screen. I could no longer carry it in a pocket, but I don't do that now.

Yeah, I used to carry my palm in a cargo pocket, but I wasn't always comfortable doing so. But it's rare that I leave the house without a bag so it's not a big trade-off for me to have a bigger screen.

Unfortunately, color is a requirement here, so I'm less tempted. But I think there's a market niche for devices like this, and I expect it will do okay.

I certainly hope so, I want one! I'm not interested in colour, but I've been waiting patiently for something like this for years. I always knew my wishlist was out of the norm so it's nice that there is something so close to what I want.

Good question. Is it Bluetooth? (I got an IR model, as it appeared I could only use one BT device at a time, and I expected to want to type on a keyboard and be connected via BT to something else.)
______
Dennis

Unfortunately, I think it's an IR one. I had an m125 and I don't remember if it even had BT. It doesn't matter, if I need to buy another keyboard I can live with that - all up it will still come in under the ~AUD400 I paid back in the day for my Palm.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by pbarrette

troll.

Idiot.

[snipenekkid]

the first tablet like device I remember with HWR was released at the 1993 Comdex Las Vegas, same year as the public release of Linux (they had a small table in a side building off the main convention center and were SWAMPED, ran out of CD's on day one!!) but the device was designed around the already familiar legal sized "yellow pad". It was actually not expensive either. But it never seemed to catch on and over the years I lost track of what happened to the thing.

I have to admit I've almost bought the Livescribe setup several times. But keep holding off because I just don't want more paper to keep track of and really I WANT the digital equivalent of an Etch-a-Sketch with HWR. Color would be awesome of course.

Combine it with voice control and dictation and I am done needs wise for a computer. I would be safe knowing no matter how bad my hands get I will still be able to work if I can dictate as well as use a pen to draw or write.

Having used the very basic version of the newest generation of Dragon's NaturallySpeaking (maybe it's not called Dragon anymore but crap it's changed hands so many times over the years I forget the newest name... ) But I used it on the iPod Touch 4 and was extremely impressed with it's accuracy and speed. And that is a crippled version of NaturallySpeaking that not only has a pretty limited feature set (it actually is FINE for just taking and transcribing notes on the fly) but it NEEDS that pesky web connection or it simply refuses to work. The reason for that seems to be it offloads the transcribing to the cloud rather than on the device. Not a fan of that but given the paltry RAM on these iOS devices it makes sense, I suppose.

So give me dictation/voice control as well as HWR as my final two needs and that gets me the computer I've wanted since PC's came to exist.

[corona]

As a student, I'd say this thing is a gimmick. No matter how you work it, with pen and paper or a laptop, any lecture worth staying awake for generates at least several pages of detailed notes. And if you want a picture of the board, you can just take out your phone.

I'd like to see this thing if it handles PDFs really well, but as it's being marketed, I don't think students will find it very useful.

[snipenekkid]

oh, to be a student again and know everything better than those doing it for more decades than I was alive.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by jehane

Yeah, I used to carry my palm in a cargo pocket, but I wasn't always comfortable doing so. But it's rare that I leave the house without a bag so it's not a big trade-off for me to have a bigger screen.

I had a device or two fail the Drop Test, so I got cured of carrying mine in a pocket. But like you, I normally have a bag of some sort, so a bigger device wouldn't be a problem.

I certainly hope so, I want one! I'm not interested in colour, but I've been waiting patiently for something like this for years. I always knew my wishlist was out of the norm so it's nice that there is something so close to what I want.

To much of what I do wants color, even in ebooks. For example, Project Gutenberg has a growing collection of children's books illustrated by people like Caldecott, Rackham, and Wyeth. There is no way I will settle for 16 shade grey scale on material like that.

Unfortunately, I think it's an IR one. I had an m125 and I don't remember if it even had BT. It doesn't matter, if I need to buy another keyboard I can live with that - all up it will still come in under the ~AUD400 I paid back in the day for my Palm.

Bluetooth didn't appear until the ARM based units using Palm OS 5, so it's IR.

Lots of BT keyboards about, if there's a BT stack in the ASUS and a driver available for it.
______
Dennis

[BoldlyDubious]

Asus seems to be marketing the Eee Note EA800 (to give it its full name) as a student's tool. When I was a university student, I produced lots of notes, so this device would not have been competitive with pen and paper (although I would certainly have liked to be able to read books on the bus, and browse the web, and have all of my university books and notes in my bag at any time!).

However, times have changed. Nowadays many professors use projected presentations for their lessons, and usually these are available to students in advance as pdf files. So I suppose that being able to jot notes on the very same pdf presentation page that the professor is talking about, and then having both the presentation and one's own notes in digital form -and perfectly synchronized- without further work, would be a huge bonus.

Finally, as an engineer I find such a device extremely interesting. To be able to sketch something at any time and have the sketch immediately available in digital form, as well as to create a library of my ideas in sketch form, is an attractive proposition. I am much less interested in OCR capabilities, instead.

As I wrote before in this thread, if only the battery life of the EA800 had been longer, I would happily have bought one instead of the ebook reader that I just purchased (I was mainly looking for a book-reading device for my free time).
Waiting for next generation, then :-)

[lotrfan]

Originally Posted by corona

As a student, I'd say this thing is a gimmick. No matter how you work it, with pen and paper or a laptop, any lecture worth staying awake for generates at least several pages of detailed notes. And if you want a picture of the board, you can just take out your phone.

I'd like to see this thing if it handles PDFs really well, but as it's being marketed, I don't think students will find it very useful.

But why would you rather have several pages of notes that can get lost (depending on your organization skills) instead of one device to hold them all? (any similarity to LOTR is coincidential).

Still the lack of OCR limits its usefulness too because you can't search your notes so it may be a lot eaisier to just scan through paper notes than through a digital device.

[5thWiggle]

(since the eeeNote is not android...)
Those looking for handwriting recognition might check out http://www.phatware.com/index.php?q=...epadforandroid

I use the iOS version on my Ipod and it's quite good (it gets better the more you use it), although it's just a notepad replacement. The android version looks even better as it's a keyboard replacement available to all apps needing text input.

I have a hard time typing on a capative screen due to fat, calused thumbs that don't always register on the screen, so if I'm gonna use a stylus anyway...

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by corona

any lecture worth staying awake for generates at least several pages of detailed notes. And if you want a picture of the board, you can just take out your phone.

why do you think you cant take pages of notes on this device? how quickly can you get the pic from your phone into your paper notebook and write notes on it?

Originally Posted by lotrfan

Still the lack of OCR limits its usefulness too because you can't search your notes so it may be a lot eaisier to just scan through paper notes than through a digital device.

It has handwriting recognition and a soft keyboard as well. everything can be tagged and that makes it all searchable.

Originally Posted by pbarrette

Each note can be tagged via the virtual keyboard with keywords that are searchable throughout the EeeNote. This also applies to pages within eBooks and various other items in the supplied apps.

All of these entries are stored in a sqlite database, which means that user created applications could also take advantage of this feature.

pb

[lotrfan]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

It has handwriting recognition and a soft keyboard as well. everything can be tagged and that makes it all searchable.

I know but you can't search specific words in your handwritten notes (not graffiti type). I am not too fond of the graffiti type hand recognition though it was better for me than trying to type with the virtual keyboard so I guess it would be a happy medium for me.

[Hellmark]

For me, writing the notes down helps me remember better. I've used tablets and laptops in class for years. When I actually write the notes down, I remember better, even compared to when I type them, and far better than if I simply read the notes (my teachers do project on screen and allow us to get copies of the powerpoint presentation).