The Tablet Computer -- Is It the Future of Portable Computers?Many people have been saying that the tablet computer is the future of portable computing. Multiple models from many different makers are in production. There is also a wide range of processors in what manufacturers call tablet PCs. Right now, the quintessential tablet PC is the Apple iPad.The ipad measures about 9.5 X 7.5 X 0.5 inches and weighs about 1.5 pounds. There is 256 MB of Ram and a 16, 32, or 64GB flash (solid state) drive, depending on the model. No optical drive (CD or DVD) is included. There is a wi-fi card and a 3G broadband card in some models. There is a docking port like on an iPod, but no USB ports or web cam. An Apple A4 processor powers the machine. Apple is trying to keep secrets about this processor. It apparently is an ARM Cortex-A8 1GHz. processor, not a really great base, but may have enhancements from Intrinsity, a company Apple acquired, that improve performance and has the advantage of being designed to run only one device. There is speculation that blocks other ARM processors need to power multiple products aren't included and this speeds up performance and reduces power consumption. The iPad is a touch screen device. There is no keyboard or touch pad, You do things by touching the screen including typing on a virtual keyboard. An external keyboard is available. Every other laptop maker is chasing Apple right now. They are coming after them from a lot of different angles. Dell has the Inspiron Duo, a 10 inch netbook which has a screen that will rotate in the top to convert to a touch screen tablet computer. It is about 11.25 X 7.7 X 1.25 inches and weighs about 3.5 lbs, It has 2 GB. ram and a 320 GB hard drive. It is powered by a dual core Intel Atom processor. It has a 10 inch screen, a web cam and usb ports. There still isn't any internal optical drive though. Should be faster than an iPad if it is actually doing some thing, but there might not be much difference web surfing. Dell also sells the Streak which they call a "pocket tablet". Its really a smart phone though. H P has the Slate, an Intel Atom powered 8.9 inch screen touch screen pc. It is aimed at business users. Allegedly the processor is faster, the graphics are better. it has webcams, it has Usb ports and HDMI out. There is no mobile broadband option. HP also has a 12.1 inch AMD powered convertable touch screen laptop. Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo, and Toshiba all have convertable tablets featuring Intel processors. Acer, MSI and Toshiba as well as the less known makers Viewsonic and Archos have have tablets running Googlec's Android operating system powered by Nvidia Tegra processors. Most of these (other than Viewsonic and Archos are announced but not yet available. Samsung has the Galaxy Tab which is similar to the Dell Streak, "a smart phone on steroids". Hard to tell whether the tablet computer as we currently know it is a real player in the computer field or an entertainment device.
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