Axion Modbook

At Macworld, I looked at the Axion Modbook, a Macbook that incorporates a Wacom tablet into the screen, essentially making the Modbook a tablet Mac. While last year, the unveiling of the Modbook was a much publicized event, having actual demo models on the show floor was far more effective, allowing attendees a chance to actually use the product.

While I have serious reservations about their choice of using a Macbook as the donor system rather than the more powerful MacBook Pro, the Modbook's greatest benefit, as well as its greatest weakness is that which makes it a Modbook -- the tablet functionality of the screen. It feels very natural to use the stylus to do the functions you're used to with a mouse, and many of the things that are hard to do with a mouse, are suddenly very easy with a stylus (such as tracing a mask shape in Photoshop). The reverse, however is also true -- the lack of a keyboard is really what makes the Modbook a less than completely usable product.

Take for instance, something like Photoshop -- a pen is great for drawing and editing, but then what if instead of using the sliders, you actually want to input some numbers? The Modbook has a software keyboard (in the form of a dialog box-sized mini-app) that you tap with the stylus. This is actually more tedious to do than I'm making it sound, but I suppose there's always an option of using one of the USB ports to plug one in. I'm not saying that touch would be a better solution, but without a keyboard, the Modbook just doesn't feel as generally usable as the MacBook. The Modbook is definitely going for a certain niche audience, though which niche exactly, I can't really say.