On Jul 19, 2010, at 1:51 PM, Thomas A. Schmitz wrote:
this is slightly OT, but maybe someone here has a helpful suggestion: since the announcement of Apple's iPad, tablets have become the rage. I am somewhat underwhelmed by this type of computer, but I see one area where it might be interesting to have one of those babies, and that's presentations. What I'm dreaming about: a tablet that would be able to show my manuscript (of course, a pdf produced with ConTeXt) on it's own screen and drive a presentation (again, pdf) on an external screen/digital projector. That way, I would need only one technical device, no paper etc. for my presentations. I even called Apple, but they said there is no app yet for doing this on an iPad. Do any of you have any insights: is there anything on the market yet that would make this possible? Is it at all feasible? Does it sound like a reasonable idea?
I wrote up my TUG 2003 presentation on a Fujitsu pen computer (unfortunately Fujitsu has discontinued their slate lineup). Available systems include: http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook and http://www.motioncomputing.com/ Tradeoffs in comparison to an iPad are cost (higher) and battery life (lower) --- I get quite good battery life on my Fujitsu Stylistic ST4121 using a pair of extended cell batteries (unfortunately, it's a couple of years old and the bridge battery which should allow hot-swapping when suspended no longer functions). A notable advantage is my 4121 has a transflective, indoor/outdoor viewable display, so works quite well as mapreader when travelling. I have a full TeX suite on it (w32tex since I'm running on a 4GB SSD), as well as traditional graphic design programs like FreeHand and FontLab. Handwriting recognition works well and allows me to not carry the added weight of a keyboard. Using a stylus works well for me and is very expressive (I'll often make .pdfs enabled for commenting on my Mac at work, then mark them up on my Tablet PC). William -- William Adams senior graphic designer Fry Communications Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.