Group items tagged

After playing with a prototype of Intel's Convertible Classmate, it more or less confirmed what I had suspected: there are some neat ideas at play, but there's a reason why it's aimed at schools.

it will have a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, a 60 GB hard drive, and Windows XP. The clearest improvements have been made to the 8.9-inch screen's touch interface. We complained last time that: Because the Windows XP Home OS is not meant for tablet use, we had to install a few of our own freeware programs to take full advantage of the touchscreen. Turns out Intel had some pretty interesting plans up their sleeve and now the notebook is preloaded with lots of software that takes advantage of the touchscreen including a program called Vision Objects Pen Input, which turns handwriting into editable text and contains a virtual keyboard. And that is just the start of it. Intel plans to team up with software vendors to preload the laptops with a stack of touch-focused applications.They are also teaming up with content providers, such as McGraw Hill, to package the laptops with learning tools. Beyond the software additions, the accelerometer has really been fine-tuned. Turning the netbook vertically adjusted the screen orientation in under 2 seconds. So sure the Convertible Classmate is meant for children and isn't a netbook that adults will want to carry around, but its implementation of touch technology on a netbook is what we hope to see from the mainstream netbook vendors that plan to bring touch to the smaller screen. A simplified home screen menu (so you don't have to dig through XPs menus), preloading touch-optimized software and a speedy accelerometer are some of the Classmate's solid features that we want to see in adult touch-enabled netbooks.