Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!vsi1!ubvax!weitek!practic!vlsisj!davidc
From: davidc@vlsisj.VLSI.COM (David Chapman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Any impressions of the new GrIDPad?
Message-ID: <15448@vlsisj.VLSI.COM>
Date: 18 Jan 90 04:37:54 GMT
References: <15545@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <25B08A6E.12422@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Reply-To: davidc@vlsisj.UUCP (David Chapman)
Organization: VLSI Technology Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 30

In article <25B08A6E.12422@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> riehm@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Carl Riehm) writes:
>In article <15545@boulder.Colorado.EDU> fozzard@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Richard Fozzard) writes:
>>
>>Has anyone out there played with the new GrIDPad - the one with
>>a stylus that writes directly onto the LCD display (no keyboard,
>>just handwriting recognition). This seems like the wave of the future
>
>Are you serious in saying that this is the wave of the future?  If you are
>a hunt and peck artist at the keyboard I can understand this I suppose, but
>for the rest of us???  I think it's just a gimmick, at least for most users.

It's not intended to be a generalized computer system.  It's intended for
field usage where a keyboard is inconvenient or difficult to use.  And yes,
Grid machines are expensive - they're commercial boxes with military
durability (and prices! :-).

Wave of the future?  I can type faster than I write and get writers cramp
whenever I write more than half a page.  I'm left handed, too, which makes
matters that much worse.  With computers at work, at school, and at home, I 
almost don't need pens and pencils any more.  I can see uses for a GridPad 
that weighs less than a pound (don't remember how much it really weighs), 
but it's not for me.  Of course, if it had a keyboard and a paint program to 
go with that stylus, I would gladly give up mice.

And that could well be the (a?) wave of the future.
-- 
		David Chapman

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