Maybe I wasn’t paying attention before, but it seems like a flood of multi-screen devices has be unleashed.
The Kno was previously announced, but this is first I’ve heard of it.
Kno Is Looking For Student Ambassadors And Are Paying In Hefty Tablet Discounts
Check the video, pretty targeted use cases for college students. Makes a ton of sense, although the form factor is awfully bulky.
I wonder how writing on the display feels, something the NEC dual-screen tablet makers designed with purpose.
Anyway, looks like the tablet is quickly replacing the laptop as the must-have college accessory.
Thoughts?
That’s pretty freaking awesome.
Agreed, but man, it’s huge.
It does look very cool. The screens are big. Surely this will cost a lot if they are similar quality to the iPad. I feel cheated by my single screen iPad. I will have to buy another and tape them together.
This quote was a little off,
“You can’t do that in a real textbook without it losing significant value”
If he buys an electronic version of the textbook he won’t be able to sell it anyway, so that is not really relevant. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Looks like $600 for one, $1,000 for the dual-screen version, so not cheap. Comparable with a Macbook though. I assume they must have some built in savings on textbooks that would contribute to the overall cost.
That was an odd quote. Maybe things have changed, but I don’t recall losing value on used books w notes in them.
Related, don’t be so sure you can’t sell an electronic version of a textbook. There are ways to rip the DRM off books, many floating around recently.
I believe multi screen (read dual screen) tablets are very practical particularly because you can close them by folding hence protecting the screen and also because it reduces the footprint and makes it easy to carry. I really liked the NEC dual-screen Android tablet. Not so much the 3 screen cell phone, the one which you can use as a vase for flowers :). Coming back to this one, I also thing it is way to big and bulky.
There was an article about Kno in Time a couple of months back, seems like Marc Andreessen (of Mosaic/Netscape fame) is an investor: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877020_1877030_2030923,00.html
Agreed, multiple screens obviously increase the viewable and touchable areas as well. I like the 3 screen cell phone bc it uses its geometry in several instances in clever ways and provides a tablet-sized screen in a cell-sized package.
I wonder how much the Kno weighs. I can’t imagine a person holding it like a book without getting tired very quickly.
Interesting, they have cheaper pricing information in that article than in the CrunchGear one, wonder if that’s a raise or a cut. Anyway, Apple marginalized the stylus, but for many applications, the finger isn’t better. This is one.
A big issue here is creating content on the Kno or the iPad for that matter. Assuming your textbook is digitized, how can you cite sections of it when writing a paper? Does the tablet have a word processor? Can you bear to tap-type several thousand words?
Incidentally, I think it’s funny that past success as a founder creates an aura of knowledge as an investor 🙂