Wednesday, March 16, 2011

iPad or Computer On Wheels (C.O.W.)?

Would you rather have a small iPad or a computer on wheels (COW)? You can actually have both by docking an iPad into a cart that has a keyboard. The challenge right now comes with using the mouse since the current iPad (or iPad 2) doesn't support a mouse. You can easily attach a Bluetooth keyboard and type away, but the mouse function requires some "hacking" (jailbreaking). I don't see many hospital IT folks eagerly jailbreaking iPads.

Eventually, as slate tablets evolve, they probably will support pointing devices like mice. Then, the COW experience could truly be replicated by using a small slate tablet like the iPad in the clinical setting.

Today, you can use a slate PC running Windows 7 on a cart so that you can effectively have a slate tablet + COW combination. We're seeing many more slate tablet PCs running Windows 7, so maybe that will eventually become the standard in the hospital setting.
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1 comment:

  1. LawLeafMarch 16, 2011 at 4:15 PM

    I'm not questioning whether IPads will take over PC's or laptops, I just think its unrealistic to think hospitals will adopt IPad technology in the foreseeable future. The first reason is hospitals are linked into client service technology for their database needs and until they adapt cloud computing it will be a near impossibility. The second reason which is an offset of the first is security. How easy would it be for a patient to swipe an IPad? This would be very problematic.

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