Tablet personal computer 8

* 1992

o GO Corporation shipped the PenPoint OS for general availability and IBM announced IBM 2125 pen computer (the first IBM model named "ThinkPad") in April.[47]

o Microsoft releases Windows for Pen Computing as a response to the PenPoint OS by GO Corporation.

* 1993

o Fujitsu releases the Poqet PC the first pen tablet to use an integrated wireless LAN[48]

o Apple Computer announces the Newton PDA, also known as the Apple MessagePad, which includes handwriting recognition with a stylus.

o The IBM releases the ThinkPad, IBM's first commercialized portable tablet computer product available to the consumer market, as the IBM ThinkPad 750P and 360P[49]

o AT&T introduced the EO Personal Communicator combining PenPoint with wireless communications.

o BellSouth released the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, an analog cellphone using a touch-screen and display. It did not include handwriting recognition, but did permit users to write messages and send them as faxes on the analog cellphone network, and included PDA and Email features.

 

* 1999

o The "QBE" pen computer created by Aqcess Technologies wins Comdex Best of Show.[50]

* 2000

o PaceBlade develops the first device that meets the Microsoft's Tablet PC standard[51] and received the "Best Hardware" award at VAR Vision 2000

o The "QBE Vivo" pen computer created by Aqcess Technologies ties for Comdex Best of Show.

* 2001

o Bill Gates of Microsoft demonstrates the first public prototype of a Tablet PC (defined by Microsoft as a pen-enabled computer conforming to hardware specifications devised by Microsoft and running a licensed copy of the "Windows XP Tablet PC Edition" operating system)[52] at Comdex.

Tablet personal computer 7

* Late 1960s

o Alan Kay of Xerox PARC proposed a notebook computer, optionally using pen input, called the Dynabook: however the device is never constructed or implemented with pen input.

* 1966

o In the science fiction television series Star Trek, crew members carry large, wedge-shaped electronic clipboards, operated through the use of a stylus.

* 1982

o Pencept of Waltham, Massachusetts markets a general-purpose computer terminal using a tablet and handwriting recognition instead of a keyboard and mouse.[37]

o Cadre System markets the Inforite point-of-sale terminal using handwriting recognition and a small electronic tablet and pen.[38]

* 1985

o Pencept[39] and CIC[40] both offer PC computers for the consumer market using a tablet and handwriting recognition instead of a keyboard and mouse. Operating system is MS-DOS.

* 1989

o The first commercially available tablet-type portable computer was the GRiDPad[41] from GRiD Systems, released in September. Its operating system was based on MS-DOS.

o Wang Laboratories introduces Freestyle. Freestyle was an application that would do a screen capture from an MS-DOS application, and let the user add voice and handwriting annotations. It was a sophisticated predecessor to later note-taking applications for systems like the Tablet PC.[42] The operating system was MS-DOS

o In partnership with Fujitsu, the Poqet Computer Corporation announced the arrival of the Poqet PC.

* 1991

o The Momenta Pentop was released.[43]

o GO Corporation announced a dedicated operating system, called PenPoint OS, featuring control of the operating system desktop via handwritten gesture shapes.[44][45] Gestures included "flick" gestures in different directions, check-marks, cross-outs, pig-tails, and circular shapes, among others.

o NCR released model 3125 pen computer running MS-DOS, Penpoint OS or Pen Windows.[46]

o The Apple Newton entered development; although it ultimately became a PDA, its original concept (which called for a larger screen and greater sketching capabilities) resembled the hardware of a Tablet PC.

Tablet personal computer 6

Apple iOS

iPad

Apple introduced the iPad in 2010 which re-invigorated the tablet computer market. The device is similar to the iPhone and larger, it is capable of accessing the web, viewing photos and videos, gaming, word processing and printing wirelessly, reading with iBooks and subscribing to newspapers and magazines.

Axiotron introduced the Modbook, a heavily modified Apple MacBook, Mac OS X-based tablet computer at Macworld in 2007.[27] The Modbook used Apple's Inkwell for handwriting and gesture recognition, and used digitization hardware from Wacom. To get Mac OS X to talk to the digitizer on the integrated tablet, the Modbook was supplied with a third-party driver called TabletMagic. Wacom does not provide driver support for this device.

Popular models

To compare various Tablet PCs, visit the Tablet PC comparison page.

Screen size trends

Many tablet PC makers have standardized on a 12" widescreen format, with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The Fujitsu T5010 has a larger 13.3" display, but still runs at the 1280x800 pixel resolution.[28] The Acer TravelMate C300 has a 14.1" screen at 1024x768.

The 12" form factor is optimal for the power, size and weight considerations required for portability.[citation needed] Although there is some demand for larger Tablet PC screen sizes from consumers, larger screens add significant weight and bulk to Tablet PCs. They also require more power, therefore larger, heavier batteries or shorter battery life.

For current tablet computers, (non tablet PCs) the general size is 10" (Used by the iPad) or 7" (Used by many Android tablets).

Timeline of tablet PC history

The following timeline list gives some of the highlights of this history:

* Before 1950

o 1888: U.S. Patent granted to Elisha Gray on electrical stylus device for capturing handwriting.[29]

o 1915: U.S. Patent on handwriting recognition user interface with a stylus.[30]

o 1942: U.S. Patent on touchscreen for handwriting input.[31][32]

o 1945: Vannevar Bush proposes the Memex, a data archiving device including handwriting input, in an essay As We May Think.[33]

* 1950s

o Tom Dimond demonstrates the Styalator electronic tablet with pen for computer input and software for recognition of handwritten text in real-time.[34]

* Early 1960s

o RAND Tablet invented.[35][36] The RAND Tablet is better known than the Styalator, but was invented later.

Tablet personal computer 5

Android

Google's Linux-based Android operating system has been targeted by manufacturers for the tablet space following its success on smartphones due to its open nature and support for low-cost ARM systems much like Apple's iOS. In 2010, there have been numerous announcements of such tablets.[21] However, much of Android's tablet initiative comes from manufacturers as Google primarily focuses its development on smartphones and restricts the App Market from non-phone devices.[22] There is, moreover, talk of tablet support from Google coming to its web-centric Chrome OS.[23][24] Some vendors such as Motorola are delaying deployment of their tablet computers until 2011, after Android is reworked to include more tablet features.[25][26]

MeeGo

Nokia entered the tablet space with the Nokia 770running Maemo, a Debian-based Linux distribution custom-made for their Internet Tablet line. The product line continued with the N900 which is the first to add phone capabilities. Intel, following the launch of the UMPC, started the Mobile Internet Device initiative, which took the same hardware and combined it with a Linux operating system custom-built for portable tablets. Intel co-developed the lightweight Moblin operating system following the successful launch of the Atom CPU series on netbooks.

MeeGo is a new operating system developed by Intel and Nokia supports Netbooks, Smartphones and tablet PCs. In 2010, Nokia and Intel combined the Maemo and Moblin projects to form MeeGo. The first[clarification needed] MeeGo powered tablet PC is the Neofonie WeTab. The WeTab uses an extended version of the MeeGo operating system called WeTab OS. WeTab OS adds runtimes for Android and Adobe AIR and provides a proprietary user interface optimized for the WeTab device.[citation needed]

OLPC

the OLPC organization is developing a new version of the OLPC, strongly resembling a tablet computer, called the OLPC XO-3, running its "Sugar desktop environment", on top of a Linux kernel. Some people classify the original OLPC as a "personal computer", whether this will be true for the XO-3 remains to be seen.

Tablet personal computer 4

Linux
The Nokia N800

One early implementation of a Linux tablet was the ProGear by FrontPath. The ProGear used a Transmeta chip and a resistive digitizer. The ProGear initially came with a version of Slackware Linux, but could later be bought with Windows 98. Because these computers are general purpose IBM PC compatible machines, they can run many different operating systems. However, the device is no longer for sale and FrontPath has ceased operations. It is important to note that many touch screen sub-notebook computers can run any of several Linux distributions with little customization.

X.org now supports screen rotation and tablet input through Wacom drivers, and handwriting recognition software from both the Qt-based Qtopia and GTK+-based Internet Tablet OS provide promising free and open source systems for future development.

Open source note taking software in Linux includes applications such as Xournal (which supports PDF file annotation), Gournal (a Gnome based note taking application), and the Java-based Jarnal (which supports handwriting recognition as a built-in function). Before the advent of the aforementioned software, many users had to rely on on-screen keyboards and alternative text input methods like Dasher. There is a stand alone handwriting recognition program available, CellWriter, which requires users to write letters separately in a grid.

A number of Linux based OS projects are dedicated to tablet PCs. Since all these are open source, they are freely available and can be run or ported to devices that conform to the tablet PC design. Maemo (rebranded MeeGo in 2010), a Debian Linux based graphical user environment, was developed for the Nokia Internet Tablet devices (770, N800, N810 & N900). It is currently in generation 5, and has a vast array of applications available in both official and user supported repositories. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix edition, as well as the Intel sponsored Moblin project, both have touchscreen support integrated into their user interfaces. Canonical has hinted at better supporting tablets with the Unity UI for Ubuntu 10.10.[20]

TabletKiosk currently offers a hybrid digitizer / touch device running openSUSE Linux. It is the first device with this feature to support Linux.

Tablet personal computer 3

Windows applications

Applications developed for the tablet PC cater to the form factor and functionality available on the platform. Many forms of applications incorporate a pen-friendly user interface and/or the ability to hand write directly in the document or interface.

A brief description of the applications included follows:
Experience Pack

* Ink Desktop: an Active Desktop control designed to run in the background and allow the user to write directly on the desktop.
* Snipping Tool: a screen capture application which allows the tablet pen to be used to select a portion of the screen and then annotate it and save as a file or send in an email.
* Ink Art: a painting application developed by Ambient Design originally as ArtRage, licensed to Microsoft for release to Tablet PC users.
* Ink Crossword: a crossword application developed to mirror the experience of a paper crossword puzzle on a tablet PC.
* Media Transfer: a synchronization utility designed to download music, pictures, and videos from computers in the same network.

Education Pack

* Ink Flash Cards: an application designed to assist memorization by using a flash card approach, enabling the user to hand write their own flash cards and display them back in a slide show.
* Equation Writer: a recognition tool specializing in converting handwritten mathematical equations to a computer-generated image for pasting into other documents.
* GoBinder Lite: an organization and note-taking application developed by Agilix Labs.
* Hexic Deluxe: a game with a tablet PC specific gesture enabled for easier use with the tablet and better.

Tablet personal computer 2

With the succession of Windows Vista, the Tablet PC functionality no longer required a separate edition. Tablet PC support is built into all editions of Windows Vista with the exception of Home Basic and Starter editions. This extends the handwriting recognition, ink collection,[15] and additional input methods to any computer running Vista even if the input device is an external digitizer, a touch screen, or even a regular mouse. Vista also supports multi-touch functions and gestures (originally developed for the Microsoft Surface version of Vista) and is now usable by the public with the release of multi-touch tablets. Windows Vista also significantly improved handwriting recognition functionality with the introduction a handwriting recognition personalization tool as well as an automatic handwriting learning tool.

Tablet functionality is available in all editions of Windows 7 except the Starter edition. It introduces a new Math Input Panel that recognizes handwritten math expressions and formulas, and integrates with other programs. Windows 7 also significantly improved pen input and handwriting recognition by becoming faster, more accurate, and supportive of more languages, including East Asian writing systems. Personalized custom dictionaries help with the recognition of specialized vocabulary (like medical and technical terms), and text prediction speeds up the input process to make note-taking faster. Multi-touch technology is also available on some tablet PCs, enabling more advanced interaction using touch gestures with your fingers the same way a mouse is used.[16] Despite such advances, problems may arise with tablet functions of the OS, when, for instance, touch screen drivers are recognized as PS/2 mouse input rather than a touch input device. In such instances tablet functions may be unavailable or severely restricted in functionality.

Windows 7 touch capability is built with Microsoft Surface technologies. This is a gesture and touch-centric UI enhancement that works with most current touch computers. Among the first tablet PCs launched in 2010 based on the Windows 7 operating system are bModo12 from bModo[17] and Samsung Galaxy. Windows has a history of tablet technology including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.[18][19] Tablet PC Edition is a superset of Windows XP Professional, the difference being tablet functionality, including alternate text input (Tablet PC Input Panel) and basic drivers for support of tablet PC specific hardware. Requirements to install Tablet PC Edition include a tablet digitizer or touchscreen device, and hardware control buttons including a Ctrl-Alt-Delete shortcut button, scrolling buttons, and at least one user-configurable application button.

Tablet personal computer 1

A tablet personal computer (tablet PC) is a portable personal computer equipped with a touchscreen as a primary input device[1] and designed to be operated and owned by an individual.[2] The term was made popular as a concept presented by Microsoft in 2001,[3] but tablet PCs now refer to any tablet-sized personal computer, regardless of the operating system.[4] Tablets may use virtual keyboards and handwriting recognition for text input through the touchscreen.

All tablet personal computers have a wireless adapter for Internet and local network connection. Software applications for tablet PCs include office suites,[5] web browsers,[6] games and a variety of applications. However, since portable computer hardware components are low powered, demanding PC applications may not provide an ideal experience to the user.[7]

Develop for iOS (Apple) 6

Digital rights management

The closed and proprietary nature of iOS has garnered criticism, particularly by digital rights advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, computer engineer and activist Brewster Kahle, Internet-law specialist Jonathan Zittrain, and the Free Software Foundation who protested the iPad's introductory event and have targeted the iPad with their "Defective by Design" campaign.[35][36][37][38] Competitor Microsoft, via a PR spokesman, has also criticized Apple's control over its platform.[39]

At issue are restrictions imposed by the design of iOS, namely DRM intended to lock purchased media to Apple's platform, the development model (requiring a yearly subscription to distribute apps developed for the iOS), the centralized approval process for apps, as well as Apple's general control and lockdown of the platform itself. Particularly at issue is the ability for Apple to remotely disable or delete apps at will.

Develop for iOS (Apple) 5

Game Center

Game Center is an online multiplayer "social gaming network"[24] released by Apple.[25] It allows users to "invite friends to play a game, start a multiplayer game through matchmaking, track their achievements, and compare their high scores on a leader board."[24]

Game Center was announced during an iOS 4 preview event hosted by Apple on April 8, 2010. A preview was released to registered Apple developers in August.[24] It was released on September 8, 2010 with iOS 4.1 on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 2nd generation through 4th generation. Game Center made it's public debut on the iPad with iOS 4.2.1.[26] There will be no support for the iPhone 3G and original iPhone. However, Game Center is unofficially available on the iPhone 3G via a hack.[27]

Development

The applications must be written and compiled specifically for iOS and the ARM architecture. The Safari web browser supports web applications as with other web browsers. Authorized third-party native applications are available for devices running iOS 2.0 and later through Apple's App Store. 

Develop for iOS (Apple) 4

All of the utilities, such as voice memos, clock, calculator, and compass are in one folder called "Utilities" in 4.0.[20][21] Many of the included applications are designed to share data (e.g., a phone number can be selected from an email and saved as a contact or dialed for a phone call).

The iPod Touch retains the same applications that are present by default on the iPhone, with the exception of the Phone, Messages, Compass and Camera apps. The "iPod" App present on the iPhone is split into two apps on the iPod Touch: Music, and Videos. The bottom row of applications is also used to delineate the iPod Touch's main purposes: Music, Videos, Safari, and App Store (Dock Layout was changed in 3.1 Update). For the 4th Generation iPod touch, it includes FaceTime and Camera, and the dock layout had changed to Music, Mail, Safari, Video.

Develop for iOS (Apple) 3

iOS 4.2 was released to developers on November 8, 2010. It was never released to the public as a WiFi bug was found during the limited release. Apple then issued two more golden master releases. Finally, Apple released iOS 4.2.1 to the public.

iOS 4.2.1 was released on November 22 with support for all Apple A4 devices, 3rd-, and 2nd-generation devices, with the exclusion of the Apple TV. It brings initial support of iOS 4.x to iPad, plus AirPlay and AirPrint to all compatible devices. It also contains minor changes to the YouTube app and alters the multitasking animation. On iPad, the screen rotation lock button's functionality changes to mute, the same as it was originally planned. As a known major bug, this version seems to hinder the usage of the Camera Connection Kit on the iPad. 

Develop for iOS (Apple) 2

iOS version history

Version 4, announced in April 2010, introduced multitasking, threaded email, and several business-oriented features.[13] At the WWDC 2010 keynote on June 7, 2010, Apple announced that iPhone OS had been renamed iOS.[14] Apple licenses the trademark for "iOS" from Cisco Systems (which owns IOS), the same company with which Apple had earlier settled a dispute over the "iPhone" trademark.[15]

Apple released iOS 4 on June 21, 2010, three days before the iPhone 4,[16] in an effort to reduce the strain on Apple's servers. iOS 4 is the first version of the OS to be a free upgrade on the iPod touch; Apple had charged $9.99 for earlier upgrades. Apple previously announced that iPad users with 3.x software would receive a free upgrade to the next major (4.x) release.[17]

Develop for iOS (Apple) 1

iOS (Apple)

iOS (known as iPhone OS prior to June 2010) is Apple's mobile operating system. Developed originally for the iPhone, it has since been used on the iPod Touch, iPad and Apple TV as well. Apple does not permit the OS to run on third-party hardware. As of October 20, 2010 (2010 -10-20), Apple's App Store contains more than 300,000 iOS applications,[1] which have collectively been downloaded more than 7.5 billion times. As of May 2010, it had a 15.4% share of the smartphone operating system market in terms of units sold, third behind Symbian and RIM's Blackberry,[2] but accounted for 59% of mobile web consumption (not including the iPad) in North America.[3]

The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. The response to user input is immediate and provides a fluid interface. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching from portrait to landscape mode).