The Philips iPronto is the latest in home entertainment gadgets that also crosses the information appliance boundaries.
At $1700, it is too expensive and the thing is so large, it is useless for “couch potatoes” like myself. Not being a general purpose computer, I can’t chat on it using my computer’s address book. I can’t check the mail on my computer either.
What is more interesting to me is the rumored Apple tablet that is really a remote screen for a desktop. If this is done right, I might be buying that new 970 desktop with one of these puppies.
Now I don’t know what Apple’s “tablet” will entail, but this is what I want:
1) Fast enough to not notice I am using a wireless screen 2) Docks into a DVI connector so I can sit at my desk and have the keyboard/mouse activate. This is important, because if I walk away with my tablet and someone bumps my mouse in the office, I don’t want it moving my cursor 3) Flip up screen, exposing keyboard, so it works like a normal laptop 4) Industry quality IR port (not lame computer type) so I can do pronto-like features on it 5) touch screen that supports inkwell 6) several hour battery life, with a second charger included for charging in the living room 7) 1152×768 screen
We’ll see what the future brings 🙂