Dell Inspiron Duo coming next week?

[Aimless]

http://www.google.com/search?q=dell%...N&hl=en&tab=wv





I wonder what the target audience is... it might be me but it's bulkier than an ipad and probably bulkier than many modern netbooks, comes with windows 7 which may not be particularly well suited to that hardware, probably going to be pricier than most iPad clones AND average netbooks... hmm.

[Dreadnaught]

Seems like a bad combination of hardware and software. They should focus on Android tablets, but with optional mounting stands with external keyboards. That would give them the portability of a tablet, with the actual typing and word processing ability afforded by a real physical keyboard.

Separately, do you think the advent of on-screen keyboards will encourage people to try Dvorak or other new types of keyboards given that there is no physical keyboard and people can switch between them?

[Kazuha Vinland]

I wonder how they go around thinking that an OS operated by mouse and keyboard, somehow automatically transcribes into a touch based OS by adding a few icons on the desktop.

[Ominous Gamer]

Windows 7's multi-touch capabilites are supposed to be really good, same is said about the Microsoft Surface.

Not sure I'd go for this specific design, but you have to admit there is a huge low end computer market that is currently having a hard time deciding between tablet and netbook. I would love a crunchpad type device (without the company drama), something that allowed me do everything that my desktop allows. Multiple app stores and switching between OSes simply because of the size of my computer is not something I'm a fan of.

What you're describing Dread, a piecemeal type design, thats what Palm did, and the market rejected it as clumbersome and tacky; and notebook docks have never been big either.

[Dreadnaught]

Indeed. Though I think it makes a difference that the software and hardware has changed so much; as the devices get smaller and more powerful anything like this is probably worth another go.

I was recently going through some old stuff at my parent's and found my old Handspring PDA with the folding full-size plug-in keyboard I got for it. I wrote a chunk of a paper on it while on a train from Montreal back then. I loved/hated the experience because of the limited amount of text I could enter, the lack of a web connection to confirm some facts and the screen resolution. But it was also thrilling, and much easier than hand-writing and then transcribing via keyboard.

Given the modern capabilities and communications of this new generation of smartphones or tablets, I think it's definitely worth trying these kinds of extensions as long as they keep the ports standardized. I could do some fairly serious work with a medium-sized tablet like the Samsung Galaxy and an accessory mount with a reasonably full sized keyboard.

[Ominous Gamer]

Not saying the options won't exist. Bluetooth has been filling the gap for a while now. I've got a wireless keyboard that works on all my computers and my PS3, but considering the rock bottom market that netbooks and tablets are going to be battling over, extension peripherals are going to be on the way way back burner.

[Kazuha Vinland]

It's funny how the use of these devices can sometimes be decided by petty things such as the angle you hold it in. When I went to a training camp, my friends and I grouped around an iPad for 80% of the time at the airport. It is entirely content based, and the interface is made as simple as possible for accessing apps on a fly. That and the combination of the App Store made it a really killer device, really. The Inspiron Due on the other hand clearly is too bulky, inaccurate & slow and contentless. There is simply no offered reason to get one.

Do you ever feel like a product is so superior and has established such a market, that there is just no room for new competitors? While I feel that with the iPad, you can say that the case was the same with iPhone versus the rest before Android came along. Now truthfully Android doesn't got jack in terms of interesting apps compared to the iPhone, but even so. For now I'll put my two cents on all tablets in the next year(s) besides the iPad flopping completely. The iPad just seems to have got its priorities down perfectly, has a good base design and a huge market. When the opposition don't even got the basic priorities down...

[Aimless]

Silly me, I didn't realise that the Duo will come with Dell's own touch UI layer