For years, the computer industry has been pushing the concept of the tablet PC, but save for a small percentage of professionals in specialized fields, the form factor has largely failed to catch on.
Hewlett-Packard is looking to change that with the Wednesday introduction of the TouchSmart TX2, the first multi-touch tablet for Windows.
HP took some interesting baby steps with touchscreens with the launch of the TouchSmart IQ816 all-in-one "kitchen" PC. Designed for family use, the PC proved its usefulness when it came to multimedia, letting users get more hands-on with things such as digital photos.
Like its predecessor in the TouchSmart line, the TX2's touch capabilities are largely focused on multimedia--flipping and expanding digital pictures and things of that nature. Some of the touch functionality extends to other apps, but it's fairly limited.
PC Magazine got some hands-on time with the computer earlier this week, and the first thing HP showed us was the ability to launch HP MediaSmart by drawing an "M" with two fingers (even this simple gesture took some getting used to, however).
HP is also being a bit generous with the multi-touch classification. While it supports more fingers, the gestures at this point are still limited to two. An HP rep suggested that there were limited functions that might require more than two fingers, but Apple's new multi-finger trackpads for the Macbook certainly make a different case.
Otherwise, the tablet is a lot like its predecessor, the Tx2000z. It features a 12-inch widescreen, a stylus, a dual-layer DVD burner, three USB ports, and a multi-card reader. Inside the tablet has a 250GB, 5400-rpm hard drive, a 2.2-GHz AMD Turion X2 ZM-82 processor, and 4GB of memory. Pricing starts at $1,149. (full Story)
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