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Thank you for your patience regarding your order for the Modbook OS X Tablet Solution. This e-mail is to inform you that the product is nearly ready to ship and that new configuration options are now available. As of the latest available information from Axiotron, we anticipate being able to ship your Custom configured Modbook solution on or before January 11th, 2008. On a first in, first out basis - Modbooks are expected to begin shipping on or before January 8th, 2007.
We'll see. Axiotron sent another email last spring saying that Modbooks were "now expected to ship in very limited quantities starting in the early part of June with all orders expected to ship by the end of July," but none have reached consumers' hands yet.
Unveiled at Macworld Expo nearly a year ago, the ModBook fills a category that Apple itself has never competed in - tablet computers. The Axiotron ModBook, Designed by El Segundo and Playa del Rey, California based Axiotron’s team of German and American engineers,and exclusively marketed by Other World Computing, is actually an after-market hardware modification kit, which allows standard Apple MacBook notebook systems to be converted into high-end slate-style tablet computers with pen-based user input, and is aimed at mobile users, business professionals, artists, students, doctors and other medical personnel, and IT professionals as a solution for applications and situations where a keyboard is cumbersome or gets in the way.
ModBook has a pedigree in Apple engineering, since Axiotron's co-founder Andreas Haas was part of Apple's Newton PDA team prior to the company terminating Newton sales and development. Mr. Haas, now Axiotron's President and CEO, formerly held various management positions at Apple Computer in Europe including Apple's Portable product lines, the Newton Systems Group, and Apple Third Party Product Marketing. His last position at Apple's European Headquarters in Paris, France was Manager of the European Product Management for Professional Desktop and Server Systems heading the European Product Management teams for Desktop and Server products.
Last July, Axiotron announced that following an undisclosed equity investment from OWC in Axiotron, the two companies had formed a comprehensive strategic alliance under which OWC will serve as the exclusive North American sales and distribution aggregate for all Axiotron digital lifestyle products.
In a nutshell, he Axiotron/OWC ModBook takes a standard MacBook and adds true pen input, a new 13.3" wide screen LCD and an optional Global Positioning System in a tough, satin chrome plated Aircraft-grade magnesium top shell, while retaining all the powerful features of the MacBook base system, complete with Mac OS X and its built-in Inkwell handwriting recognition, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Apple's integrated iSight camera and a CD/DVD combo drive or optional DVD SuperDrive.
ModBook users can draw and write directly on the screen, while the Inkwell handwriting recognition built-into Mac OS X turns longhand scribbling into text input for any application, and also facilitates extended control of the system through gesture recognition.
The concept of tablet computers has long intrigued me, partly because I battle flareups of typing pain, while I find longhand writing much less aggravating to my nerves and tendons. I've experimented with OS X Inkwell using a Wacom tablet and stylus, but I find writing on the tablet with output on the computer screen clumsy and counterintuitive. I also have a scrawly hand, and often find it a challenge to decipher my own script, which is not the best for longhand inputting of computer text. My results with Inkwell have been "mixed" to say the least.
However, it seems to me that at least theoretically, writing longhand directly on the computer screen where the text will appear would be a much more satisfactory and probably more accurate mode of input - ergo: the tablet computer, and I would love to get my hands on one of these ModBooks. The downside of course is the cost. I can see businesses or professionals with a particularly compelling need for a tablet computer buying a ModBook, but the expense would be difficult to justify for an individual who would likely not want to use a tablet as their only computer.
An interesting element to the ModBook is that it is the only portable Mac solution that also features an optional built-in Global Positioning System (GPS), a somewhat esoteric capability for many computer users, but one that will have considerable appeal to those who would use their ModBooks in the field (literally) and perhaps to boaters and sailors looking for a Mac solution for computer piloting and navigation. And as the developer notes, with GPS in your ModBook, you'll never have to ask for directions again.
The Axiotron Modbook GPS Module is based on the SiRFstar III chipset which is claimed to provide faster first location fix times and improved tracking capabilities in challenging urban and outdoor environments.
The problem for Axiotron and OWC now may turn out to be the rumored Apple subnotebook which many believe will be released at MacWorld Expo in a couple of weeks. The MacBook Pro nano or whatever such a machine ends up being called will almost certainly not be a tablet computer, but it may well have a feature set that will attract buyers who otherwise would have been potential ModBook buyers, and at a price that will substantially undercut the ModBook.
For more information, visit:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Modbook/
and
http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook
Charles W. Moore
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