Last week, we highlighted the availability of inexpensive notebook computers. This week, we’re spotlighting a unique version of notebook computing, the Tablet PC. If you aren’t familiar with the TabletPC, the biggest difference between conventional notebooks and tablets are that you can use a stylus to input information directly on the screen (similarly to a Palm or PocketPC just a lot bigger and more powerful) without the use of a keyboard and mouse. Some “convertible” TabletPC’s also use a keyboard and pointing device as well, but this adds to the weight and the price. To illustrate the benefits of tablet computing, we’ll use a real-world application. Students at Virginia Commonwealth University have created what is virtually an electronic or computer “clipboard” for a group of teachers and care-givers for the autistic. The burden of paperwork was significantly cutting into the time that these professionals had to care for their patients. With a wireless connection to a centralized database, the record-keeping software was written to make it so easy that people with no computer experience can enter the information into easy to understand forms. This information is then used to create reports, which took an hour to generate by hand, in just a few seconds. The learning curve was reduced substantially since the users can just use the pen-like stylus to write the information into the clipboard-like TabletPC.
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