[Coco] What if the next CoCo is made into a Tablet?

[Bill Loguidice]

Not to turn this into a tablet debate on CoCo list, but as far as I'm
concerned, the idea that a netbook or low cost notebook are somehow suitable
replacements for a tablet is a myth. Sure, tablets have certain limitations
and restrictions, but netbooks and notebooks have their own issues. As an
iPad 2 and TouchPad owner, I can tell you that particularly with the former,
it is a viable productivity tool -- I can even touch type right on the
screen if I don't want to use my bluetooth keyboard. It's also hard to argue
with instant on, the non-intrusive form factor, superb battery life, etc.
Certainly none of the form factors is a 1:1 replacement for the other, but
they're all tools and they all have their places. Frankly, a tablet OS
should stay a tablet OS, and a desktop OS should stay on the other form
factors it was actually intended for. It would defeat much of the elegance
and utility of a good tablet if it were saddled with an OS designed for
another form factor/architecture.

In any case, it would be great if there were CoCo emulators that don't
require jailbreaking on tablets (or smartphones for that matter). In one
form or another, we have excellent and more or less official C-64, Apple II,
PDP-11, Altair, and Intellivision emulators, among others, and it would be
nice to expand on that. It would be relatively trivial to add support for
things like bluetooth keyboards and bluetooth controls like the iCade.


On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:47 AM, Steve Batson
<steve at batsonphotography.com>wrote:

>
>
> See my comments below :)
>
> > Gotta side with Bill on this one. It's probably the absolute *last* form
>
> > factor in which you'd consider producing a 'Coco4'.
>
> > A tablet is nothing more than PC hardware in fancy plastics and a snazzy
>
> > touch screen. All the engineering effort is in the ergonomics and the
> power
> > supply. They've been around for years and years, and Apple have merely
> bided
> > their time waiting for battery and touch screen technology to reach the
> > right price-point before making it sexy to own one. I'm still amazed that
>
> > Apple fanboyz don't seem to have a problem being told what they can, and
>
> > can't, run on their own PC, but I won't get into that here...
>
> I have to disagree at least in part to that statement. It depends on what
> tablet you are talking about. The iPad and the copycats are not PCs in
> tablet form. They are scaled down with lower powered processors. Granted,
> they are more powerful than PCs a few years ago, but they are NOT PCs and
> have limitations. The processors are slower and just don't decide you will
> run Windows on most of them, you need the special OS designed for them. And
> yes I know, there are some tablets hitting the market that are more like a
> laptop and there are some laptops (mostly netbooks like systems using an
> Intel Atom which is certainly not a high performance processor) that are
> convertible where you flip the screen and it looks like a tablet even if it
> is a lot bulkier than then an iPad. The iPad is nothing more than an
> oversized iPod Touch for the most part and neither are able to run the full
> Mac OS or Windows (which isn't going to happen since they are not using an
> Intel or compatible Processor) most of the iPad Copycats are also scaled
> down with slower processors that run another Tablet designed OS such as
> Android.
>
> I do agree with your comment about Apple waiting for the right time and the
> Apple Fanboy comment too :D  I have a Mac, and a number of PCs and Laptops.
> I love the Mac, but I don't just follow Apple like I'm in a
> trance....That's why I don't even own an iPad...I just don't see the need
> and I don't want the limitations. I'd rather carry around a netbook that
> can run so much more than spend more on an iPad that is much more
> restrictive in what you and do and run.
>
> > I simply don't see any reason why I'd want to carry around a Coco tablet
>
> > with primitive word processing and no internet connectivity. Much more
> > sensible is a powerful Windows/Linux-based tablet with all the modern
> > connectivity, that can run a Coco emulator if I really want to play
> Zaxxon -
> > though even then I'd question the practicality of touch-screen controls.
> And
> > writing an 'OS' for the Coco tablet would be a considerable undertaking,
> and
> > also a serious drain on cpu resources.
>
> I fully agree. In the next generation or so, their should be tablets using
> newer, faster Atom Processors that can run Windows or Linus where an
> emulator might make sense. Would be interesting to see how the touch screen
> could be handeled. If the tablet had a USB port, maybe a USB controller
> could solve the game problems with the emulator.
>
>
>
>
>
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