*michael parekh on IT*

ON SMALLEST, LIGHTEST TABLET PC

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR

One of my favorite Tablet PC vendors, Motion Computing announced the smallest, lightest PC with Microsoft's Windows Tablet PC 2005 yesterday (thanks Engadget).  The company's home page does a nice job of comparing this newest gizmo to their flagship LE1600 in terms of size and specs.  I have the earlier version of the flagship model, so I'm already sold on Tablet PCs.  The New York Times also had a small piece on the announcement.

I use it not so much for notes and hand-writing recognition, which I know it can do and is the main way the device is marketed.  Instead, I find it's a great thing to have around the house for casual, impromptu web-surfing and web-reading.  The latter is increasingly important as over half of what I read comes through the web.  The device allows reading documents in portrait style rather than the usual landscape mode on a laptop or a desktop.

As readers of this site may know, I've been waiting some time for a device the size of a paperback (a la the new LS800) that allows web-reading AND wireless Internet telephony on the go.  I've posted in the past on devices that go in that direction, from companies like Audiovox, Samsung, Nokia, Palm, and others.  Much of this discussion has been in the emerging category of "handtop" PCs.  Bill Gates has been a big proponent of Tablet PCs, especially in the smaller form factors.

So it was with some sense of anticipation that I read up on Motion's LS 800.  On the plus side, the device has the following going for it:

1. Size of a paperback
2. Weight around 2.2 pounds
3. 8.4" screen.
4. Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

On the negative side, the device has:

1. NO PC card slot...as a result, no possibility of running the only high-speed wireless network in the country, which is Verizon's EV-DO network.  I know battery power is probably the reason for leaving it out, but I'd lose the fingerprint reader and/or the SD card slot for a PC card slot.
2. No mention of the resolution of the screen anywhere in the specs or on Motion Computing's web-site that I could find.
3. When you finish adding up relatively necessary options like a 60GB hard drive, extra memory, dock, case, bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse, external CD-ROM/DVD drive, etc., the price jumps from the teaser price of $1800 to over $4000.  Come on guys, even bleeding-edge early adopters have their limits.
4. The "View Anywhere" screen won't be available until September!  By then there should be other options from other folks.

So until there is a hands-on review or two of the LS800 raving about its positives and utility, I'm likely staying put. 

In the meantime, if you're in the market for a tablet PC, and don't mind a convertible (built-in keyboard) rather than a slate (detached keyboard) model, take a look at the PC Magazine's review of the Thinkpad/Lenovo X41 (formerly known as the IBM Thinkpad).  TabletPCreviewSpot also has a good review on it (courtesy jkontherun).  JK also points to a lukewarm review by PC Magazine of Motion's LS800, citing the weak battery life and excessive heat as additional issues.  They like Motion's LE1600 better in the slate Tablet PC category.

Back to the drawing board, guys.

 

ON THE INEFFICACY OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA

TELL IT LIKE IT IS

Tom Evslin over at Fractals of Change has a good idea in this very timely and relevant post titled "Missing the Point" discussing a subject near and dear to my heart: the increasing shallowness in the coverage of important issues by mainstream media.  In most cases, they seem to look at only the surface, not bothering to look at the deeper, underlying issues. As Hodding Carter put it so well,

Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, leaves everything else in darkness and then is suddenly gone.

Tom's approach is to decode the simplified spin that mainstream media puts on major stories, and tell the untold, unspoken real story at its core, followed by his own rant/gripe.  This is illustrated with an effective "compare and contrast" template that illustrates the story as told by the press vs. what the story is really about.  A good example from his post:

UN Oil-for-food program

Press Take: This is a story about whether Kofi Annan’s son improperly used his influence to benefit from the program. Story is over when Volcker Commission apparently can’t find proof of this.

The Real Story: An enormous and extremely important program was mismanaged in a way which let Saddam Hussein divert billions meant to feed his people into arms and palaces (apparently more of the latter than the former) and bribes for government officials worldwide. This may be the biggest case of misdiverted resources in the history of the world. Incompetent management of this program was certainly a contributing cause to the Iraq War. The same people are still “managing” the UN and all of its could-be-important programs today.

My Rant: The issue of Annan Jr.’s venality is irrelevant compared to the issue of gross mismanagement. Somehow Annan Sr. got a hall pass for mismanaging on an historic scale because his son wasn’t caught with his hand all the way into the cookie jar. He needs to be fired for incompetence.

He has some more good examples in his piece...highly recommended.

I like this idea so much, I'm making it a category on this site called "THEY MISSED IT AGAIN", to be used whenever the opportunity arises.

I'll start with the following story:

Finger Traced to Woman who Blamed Wendy's

Press's Take:  Look how we're following up almost two months after we found out we were wrong over-exposing and maligning a major food chain on national TV because it was easy and fun to do.  Besides, you know fast food is bad for you.

Real Story:  At best, a localized story of fraud given major, nation-wide attention in all the media.  Now there'll probably be a movie made after her family finishes doing the Larry King circuit.

My Rant:  They never learn...remember the coverage around the "obesity lawsuit' against McDonald's a few years ago?

Thanks Tom, for the idea.