Nilesh's Weblog

Of old things and Tablet PC

Wired going ga ga over Tablet PC may seem silly, when one finds out that Apple already had a similar killer product out in the market long ago, to be accurate, 1993. Apple Newton Message Pad was one of the first PDAs coming out. Although it was bulky and expensive, its owners were `sentimentally' attached to it. So much that the Newton is still used today by them. And there are even WiFi/GSM/GPRS/GPS apps written by Newton hackers (1)(2)(3). Isn't that surprising? Apple's another first, down the drain only because of poor marketing. Flash forward to the Tablet PC's campaign - All glitter and glamour. And even I have fallen into the trap. A few days ago, I would have been among the few privileged in India to actually touch and use a Tablet PC. Unfortunately I wasn't in office at that time. Some say it is of the size of a Sony Viao and isn't quite interesting, for all the hype. Some say the handwriting recognition is great(It was decent enough in PocketPC 2002). I heard that at this moment there are only 2 pieces in India. And one of them is destined to go to the Ambani home.