John Porcaro on how he uses his SPOT watch: “All (and I mean other than the clock part) I use it for is to see when my next meeting is. Useful to know what room it’s in without opening my tablet.”
He’s touching on something here. For Tablet users that are on the go, instant on is really needed. It’s been said before. But it’s worth repeating.
I’ve seen some prototypes with always-on clocks and contact information embedded on the “tops” of Tablets. This would be nice, however, I think that there will be too many times when I need instant access to things it doesn’t provide. For instance, if I’m travelling and want to check a map real fast, I’d still have to boot up and wait. Even waiting 15 seconds is too long for me. I want something on the order of a second or two.
Am I dreaming?
That’s what “Standby” was meant to be (and to some extent “Hibernate”). XP has made that scenario a bit better, but it’s still a little flakey.
I like the idea of a small panel in the lid of the tablet. One of the things I don’t like doing is opening the tablet, then having to either balance it in one hand, or flip the screen, and wait 15-30 seconds, just to see what room a meeting is in.
Checkout the uses of the “Quicklook” utility on the HP TC1100 posted on the buzz under the HP forum in the quicklook thread.
Linny