I've been thinking about a Windows-based tablet (not the old-style convertible, which I already use, but a real tablet). I think for voicerecognition users especially, a windows-based tablet may be a complete replacement for a laptop.

The problem with iPads and Android tablets is that they don't have a full set of business apps, notably Office and specialty productivity software such as voicerecognition. But Windows-based tablets do not suffer this problem.  The biggest argument that even windows-based tablets are not a replacement for a laptop is the fact that the tablet does not have a full-scale keyboard.  With faster CPUs, other concerns like a tablet computer doesn't have enough computing power is increasingly becoming less significant. But less reliance on a full-scale keyboard is precisely what voicerecognition does.

So I'm imagining myself using a windows-based tablet in the future and I like what I see. I already use keyboard so little that I see absolutely no problem of relying on a softpad keyboard for occasional operation. So it does seem like windows-based tablet is the best way to go for anyone who uses voicerecognition regularly.

By the way, I believe Microsoft is doing an incredibly bad job in explaining why iPads and Android tablets do not have the same level of functionality as Windows tablets. In fact, some people at Microsoft were genuinely surprised that the recent Windows 7 tablets actually sold well and captured 5% of the market. If I were Microsoft, I would be very excited about Windows tablets and would start to position it differently. For example, I would start to look at the Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) very seriously and start to develop and promote it as a killer application for Windows-based tablets. This is something that they are far ahead of iPad or Android.

To me, Windows-based tablets is the way to go, and the problem I have with the Windows 7 tablets is actually not its lack of smooth touch-based operations, but the lack of any wholehearted offering with full specs. Instead of competing against iPads on the low end by making lots of compromises, they need tablets that have a high quality and high resolution screen, long battery life, always-on network, fast startup, larger SSD (beyond 128G). I'm hoping such tablets will start to show up in the next year.

Any thoughts?

There's no reason why you can't use NaturallySpeaking on a Windows 7 tablet computer and you already own the product. Some of the newer 4 Gb tablet computers work very well NaturallySpeaking; far more efficiently than WSR.

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Yes, of course Lunis, I can and I will use NaturallySpeaking on Windows tablet if I do get one. The focus of my previous post wasn't about whether I can use NaturallySpeaking on a Windows tablet or not, but was to share my thought on the Windows tablet being an ideal laptop replacement for those who use voice recognition. There has been a great marketing debate on the competition between traditional laptops and the new tablets and the future of these two types of products. It just occurred to me that for voice recognition users, arguably the tablet is the laptop and there is no need to get another mobile computer at all. But for those who don't use voice recognition, I can see a need to get both.

Just to play devil's advocate: why would you buy a Windows tablet when a netbook or Ultrabook can offer a similar operating experience, a similar form factor, and superior expandability at a better price? I've got an iPad and an Android phone; I understand the utility of mobile computing devices. iOS and Android, however, offer unique operating experiences. So do Windows Phone 7 and, from what information is available, Windows 8. If you're going to run Windows 7, why not do it on a netbook? I suspect that whatever performance you can wring out of DNS and your speech-recognition enhancements of choice on a Windows tablet, you can do it on a Netbook or 11 inch, leightweight, Ultrabook.

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Eric Wright At work: DNS 12 Pro. At home: DNS 11.5 Pro,  KnowBrainer 2011, and Utter Command by RedStart Systems; Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac

 

Appetite for Dictation - My Blog

GDS,

Netbooks, and the newest UltraBooks,  belong to a different regime.  From a user interface point of view,  with or without a touchscreen puts a device into an entirely different category. It's not primarily the form factor and the weight, but the touchscreen, that makes tablets a unique user device category.

If I were just to get a mobile computer for running applications, many of the current choices are already very satisfying.  My ThinkPad X200, although fairly old, does almost everything I need.   It is portable, extremely well-made, and fast enough, even runs DNS 11.5 smoothly and accurately.  So that is not the point of my original post.   My point was, and still is,  for people who don't know how to effectively use speech recognition, I doubt that a tablet computer will ever truly replace the laptops for them.  They will either need to buy both, or settle on one category missing out the benefits of the other.  But for those who use speech recognition, it seems that the future for mobile computing can comfortably do away with the traditional laptops, because a speech-enabled tablet is potentially capable to do everything that a laptop could do if you can use speech recognition.   I think when it comes to tablets,  the speech recognition ability makes that much of a difference due to the inherent keyboard limitation. 

Incidentally, I believe Microsoft is making a very dumb mistake for not realizing and further developing the speech capability of Windows operating system and promoted as an important differentiator.   Not only was there nothing for the Windows 7 tablets, there is zero mentioning in the publicity of coming Windows 8 operating system for tablets.  15 years of research and development in speech recognition WSR by Microsoft has made close to nonexistent marketing impact in the past on desktops and laptops.  When you think of it, the WSR is really meant for the tablets, but they don't realize that.  I'm not saying that I will switch from DNS to WSR.  I'm just saying that Microsoft could make WSR really shine on the tablets for the mass market if they realize how important this would be to differentiate Windows based tablets from the iPads and androids.  Put it simply,  speech recognition is only an add-on on desktop and laptop computers  (which all have a keyboard), but it may be one of the deciding factors to make a tablet a laptop replacement.

Anyway,  I looked around and found the current Windows 7 based tablets to be without exception half-cooked.  Hope they will improve it significantly with the coming Windows 8.

Answer: a tablet superior to a laptop if you happen to be a quadriplegic who can't open the laptop!

I'm currently looking at buying a tablet with a USB port to experiment with use as a hands-free VOIP phone and home automation remote control. I hadn't even thought about DNS. 

Can anyone recommend a tablet suitable for DNS? (As long as it doesn't have a capacitive touchscreen like an iPad. This requires a special capacitivesticks/stylus which is a  pain for a quad to use.)

Thanks very much,

Allan H

"Some of the newer 4 Gb tablet computers work very well NaturallySpeaking; far more efficiently than WSR."

Do you have any specific recommendations (e.g., make & model) of a Windows based tablet that would work well with DNS?

Thanks! 

 

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DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

techlaw, I read your post with much interest. Recently, when my laptop was stolen, I spent a considerable amount of time evaluating the possibility of purchasing a Windows-based tablet, as I very rarely use a keyboard when dictating. However, I decided against purchasing a Windows-based tablet primarily I was not happy with the available amount of processing power and RAM, which I now require to run a very intensive program, which I utilise. That being said, if I was not utilising this particular problem, I think it is most likely that I would have purchased a Windows-based tablet, and would have been more than happy with the performance from it with respect to: browsing the internet; reading and responding to e-mail, along with my normal everyday dictation with DNS. Like you, I do not see any problem utilising a softpad keyboard for occasional operation. I imagine over the course of the next 18 months, we will see a new range of Windows-based tablets coming to market perhaps evening running the new Sandy Bridge range of processors with 8 GB of RAM. If I happen to be in the market for a tablet then, I could most definitely see myself purchasing one of these tablets, and I would be certain it would satisfy all my needs.

Also, I would agree that the next generation of Windows-based tablets must have a high quality resolution screen, a long battery life, an always on network, a faster bootup time, a reasonable amount of storage capacity, and clearly differentiate itself from the marketing strategy being adopted by the iPad/Android brigade. I would imagine that all these improvements, particularly the hardware upgrades, will most probably increase the costs of the tablet, and I would imagine there probably will be very little difference between purchasing a laptop with an extremely high specification, and a Windows-based tablet with a modest specification. Hopefully, Moore's Law will ensure that the next generation of Windows-based tablets are considerably cheaper, and will offer a much improved specification/user interface/performance in 18 months or so!



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DNS 12.0 Professional, Windows 7, Intel Core i7 2630QM, 16GB of RAM. Second-Generation SpeechWare 6-in-1.