I’ve been flitting around tech stores trying out multi-touch capable laptops searching, hoping, for the perfect Multi-Functional All-Purpose Swiss Army Tech Tool. What I’m hoping is that this tool replaces my leather Bible, works as a note-taking tool, allows me to design anything from articles to websites on the run, and has the sheer work-horse power to create and display professional presentations. I dream of a Perfected Tablet PC.

But Tablet PC’s are just not there yet. They offer all the features that you can find on your standard multi-touch smart phone, but I’m not looking for a glorified phone or a laptop transformer—I’m looking for the Future of portable computing. So here’s where I’m thinking the market needs help:

1. Soft-Keyboards. Star Trek’s projected keyboard (either light shooting down to the table or a keyboard on a tablet screen) sounds great…until it meets reality. Right now, a typist’s fingers work the keyboard unconsciously. The keys have a physical dimension: depth allowing the nerve endings to know that they’re resting in the middle of a key; a space separator so that if your finger alights between two keys, you automatically move them over; and an audible component telling you that your hand is working. Not so with soft-keyboards: there is no feel, no space and no ‘clackety-clack’. This means that you will constantly have to look at your fingers—unless it’s directly on a tablet screen in which case, half your screen (or all your screen with a ghosted image) will be your keyboard.
2. Tools. Get a crayon. Draw anything. Does it suck? Now, with a new piece of paper, dip your finger into a something colorful (ink, paint, blood) and do the same thing. Crayon drawing doesn’t look too bad now, does it? There’s a reason why humans use tools—precision that is not immediately possible by pointing. It might have to do with the wide motions of the human wrist versus the minutiae of motion available with a handled tool (ie: pen, brush, pencil, etc.) but either way, it gets to the point of why a touch-screen tablet will still need some sort of input device every now and then.
3. OS. Operating System programmers have to catch up with the idea of being used in a Multi-Touch environment. Admittedly, there are good signs: Apple’s iPhone OS, though completely focused on a smart phone mentality, has made a lot of progress in terms of Graphic User Interface (GUI); Windows Vistas OS is fully tablet pc ready with more enhancements coming in Windows 7; Linux offers kernels that make tablet-pc functionality applicable to the end-user. But the problem is that all of these OS’s still function like mouse and keyboard systems. So Vista, you click on the screen with your finger and a little mouse icon shows up that allows you to “right click”; iPhones can only properly be typed on with two fingers; linux requires tweaking. We should get more intuitive with this stuff.
4. Software. Programmers also need to think about ways of gearing their software to using either a pen, fingers, and a keyboard seamlessly. Minority Report’s computers might be able to boot up and be waved about, but it’s the software that allows Tom Cruise to do all that cool stuff.
5. Casing. Apple has done its fair share aesthetically speaking, but Always Innovating is thinking outside of the box case. With a magnetic case (so you can stick the thing on your fridge), a detachable keyboard, an internal USB port (so that you don’t have dongles hanging everywhere, but they’re placed inside the easy to remove bottom panel), and even the ability to reverse the screen so that you can display for others; Always Innovating knows the breadth of the Personal Computing role. We need that thinking applied to tablet PC’s offering an ergonomically viable, easy to carry, multi-use, pen-toting and durable casing. Consumer Tablet PC’s should evolve from only laptops or the realm of people who carry writing pads; they should be designed for usage in multiple environments: the doctor’s office to the construction site; the classroom to the bathroom; the subway to the airport; walking about inside your house to walking about in a sunny park.
6. Hardware. Currently, netbooks are running on a different processor from your standard laptop so as to maintain a decent speed with less power thus generating less heat and longer on-battery run-times. But, some tablet PC’s should also have the workhorse power your standard dual to quad processor machine. Technologically, CPU’s have to move forward maintaining crunching power and embracing Netbook lower power requirements. Sure this good for the machine (and our burning laps) but it’s also good for energy conservation.