The return of the digitizer (UPDATED)

UPDATE: I had to add a lot more devices to the list because this was written before a lot of the devices were put on display in trade shows.  

    When people think of a stylus most think of a resistive screen tablet or a really old smart phone. Most think that the capacitive stylus is a good equal to the active digitizer or the N-trig system. It is very hard to explain the accuracy of the digitizer system. There are two major ones that power different variations of tablets and "phablets." In the tablet section the first digitized tablet was the HTC Flyer with the Scribe pen. It was all around a great tablet, but not marketed very good. The scribe pen was based on a N-Trig system which is a lot better that the capacitive for sure, but is slower than the WACOM system. The next major device that was not a WACOM made tablet like the boogie board (these are tabs without real OSes) was the Samsung Series 7 slate which was the official Windows 8 DP tablet that was huge and featured a WACOM active digitizer and horrible battery life and a overall forgettable experience. Combined with a really bad rear 3.2 mp camera and a huge unwieldy 1366x768 it was nothing to write home about. Of course do you think that artists want to carry a 12.1 inch tablet (Samsung Series 7 or Asus Ep/Bp 121) with paltry screen resolution and bad rear cameras which force them to use a dSLR or comparable mega zoom which makes them carry a lot of stuff. Or do you think with new advancements in active digitizer design's since then will they go for a 10.6 inch or even a large but super thin 11.6 inch design that offers better rear camera's and Super IPS + displays with full HD displays that also cost less?  Some trade offs are power in some like the Asus tablet 810 others are size like the Asus transformer book. The best solution is another Windows 8 official tablet the Surface Pro. Even though it is coming out a full 3 months later than the Surface RT it will be powered by an Intel core i5 Ivy Bridge and will start with a 64GB SSD. It will be a pretty svelte device at only 13.6mm which is a tad bit thicker than the MBA, but consider having a 10 finger multi touch screen and an active digitizer layer that features some pretty nice stuff like an eraser, or when you are writing and you put your finger on the screen it will stop writing and move the page or zoom in and out with your finger. Now we know a lot of the answers about the Surface pro because it is available. With a starting price of $999 it is not very cheap but packing an intel core i5 ivy bridge throttled CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 5 hours of battery life it makes up for the price.


      Another potential in the high powered, large, WACOM packing tablet sector is the Asus Transformer book series. This one is very diverse in options with a 11.6, 13, and 14 inch variations all with 4GB RAM and a front 2MP Full HD webcam and a rear 5MP camera which is good for taking concept pictures, but with a 14 inch it might be a bit hard to steady it. These unlike the Surface Pro like the Android Transformer series have a detachable keyboard, but unknown to us if it adds extra battery life or not. What is very unique in an ultrabook is the 14 inch will come with an optical drive for making DVDs and Cd's or just watching a movie. The thin factor is hard to beat and intel core innards (some report all three ivy bridge 3,5,7 will be available) is very powerful for Photoshop, Autodesk, and other tasks. Also a Full HD screen is a big plus with a Super IPS + panel too it makes for some stiff competition. 

     Another Asus make is the middle of the road priced Asus tablet 810 from the Eee PC family. There are a couple of things that make it a budget tablet that still feels like a premium device. The first is the Intel Atom processor. Even though they have come very far in producing an overall better product it is still a budget processor. The tablet runs on a Clover field chip 1.86 GHz dual core CPU with 4 hyper threads. It does come with a Super IPS + panel to help with glare issues, but that budget price makes it a 1366x768 lack luster screen resolution. After that the budget seams stop and the beauty of a premium product shows. An 8.7 mm thin design is thinner than the Ipad 2 or 3 and it still manages to fit in a mini HDMI port, headphone, and docking ports in the tablet itself. Like it's more expensive brothers and sisters it has a removable docking station that boosts the battery life from 8 hours to 16+ hours. Also a separate charging port and 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports abide in the rear of the dock. The WACOM digitizer and docking station come included which really makes this a steal if it is $599  but sadly they priced it at a whopping $799 without the dock.



      All in all the active digitizer market is not dead it is still alive among professional people like photographers and artists. I think the digitizer is a great addition to the Windows Journal since digitizers have palm rejection built in. The Android tablet space does have some N-trig friends from Samsung like the Galaxy Note "phablet" and the Galaxy Note 10.1 inch tablet that both feature the S-Pen.

The Surface as I see it

     The Microsoft Surface is a very unique being that was launched a few weeks back and it took the entire tech world by storm. There were many questions left answered and unanswered and everyone had mixed views when leaving MILK studios. The Surface has two variants: 1 Surface RT which is launched at the same time as Windows 8. Most likely we will see the Surface and Windows 8 at some kind of event with Windows Phone 8 and probably have some other ground breaking news like Windows 8 will launch with 100,000 apps (for WP8 and Windows 8/RT). 2 Is the Surface Pro which will be launched three months after the Windows 8 launch with (speculating) the new Xbox 720/8 machine. The Surface machines have their own dedicated website surface.com with some specs and a gallery of photos. So far we have only seen two "accessories" that look like they will come with the devices depending on which one you buy. The Surface RT looks like it will get the touch cover that comes in five different colors that works like a big tablet with a slightly raised surface that the keys you touch with no tactile feedback. Then the Surface Pro looks to come with their innovative type cover that is a little thicker and comes with keys that provide a tactile feedback and only in black. Also the Surface Pro will come with a Wacom active digitizer that looks buttery smooth in action. So if you really want the full Windows 8/7 side with an intel core i5 processor and unknown amount of RAM the Windows 8 Pro running Surface Pro is really the best out there. There is no flex from the magnesium made casing and they are both super slim considering they both sport USB ports. Also the MagSafe connector can (as per a patent) not only charge the device but transfer files. The Surface is a halo device. 

     The Surface is made to force other OEMs to make better devices than what is currently out there to beat Apple at their own game. The Surface is the epitome of quality and beauty in a slim and functional shell. The surface is very impressive and the specs are very good. The one thing is price. Everyone has their own quote and since it is a premium product it will be at a premium price. I think the RT version will go for $499 for the 32GB version to try and undercut the Ipad. The RT 64GB will roll at $599. The Pro 64GB will be $699 also beating the Ipad competition and the 128GB model will go for $799. The touch covers will come with the RT versions and the type cover will come with the Pro models. Of course this is all speculation, but isn't that what everyone else is doing?

Our Precious Ecosystems

     Many people think that the recently revealed Surface and the just released Nexus 7 are nothing more than Halo generating products that are aimed for pushing OEM's to make better products not necessarily market share is a farce. The Nexus 7 and the Surface are poised to take two different markets. They both feature the luxury of full compatibly with their respective app markets and a high quality build and a relatively low price for their markets. Recently revealed is that the Android army consists of 400 million Android devices + compared to 350 million IOS devices and a small number of Blackberry devices and  Symbian and relatively few Windows Phones. I foresee the Blackberry market losing business share to Windows Phone/Windows 8 and the IOS kingdom under attack from the Android advance. Even if Windows 8 fails sadly Linux will not rise to the top even though Android is Linux at her core. Today at the Google I/O conference they announced 600 million apps in the Google Play store and a new magazine and movie store with movie rentals and tv series which will defiantly rival that of the 550 million app packing Itunes store which also features newsstand for magazines, and sells movies like the Google Play market. Microsoft will integrate the Zune software into Windows 8 and currently features movies, music, podcasts, but no book store (possible B&N integration but that is speculative) and no magazine store. The biggest seller to the general public is an ecosystem which Google looks like it has it all wrapped up. The Nexus 7 which will be up for pre-order soon and features a kindle fire like look with a 1280x800 IPS display and a tegra 3 core and most important Android 4.1 jelly bean. This device will be the one to beat in the current 7 inch market recently dominated by the Kindle fire in price and the Galaxy tab 7.7 tab in quality and I think the Surface will knock the Ipad off of its pedestal where whenever you have a review people will say it is better than the Ipad, but I think in quality and design will compare their devices to the Surface even though it is a tough act to follow. The IOS ecosystem is expanding at a quick rate and the Google Play ecosystem is at an even faster rate and the Blackberry system is dwindling and the Microsoft system is emerging into a viable contender.