Tablet PC's?

[Butuz]

Anyone got one? Just got one here in work and they are so much better and more usable than a laptop. My handwriting is crappo most humans cant understand it but this baby picks up everything i scrawl and dumps it on the screen. Awesome! I am getting totally used to entering data with no keyboard. Its a step forward IMHO.

It is an RM 12.1" Teacher Tablet PC.



12.1" Screen @ 1024x768 native. Intel Pentium M 1000Mhz, 512MB DDR, 60GB 5400RPM HDD, Biometric fingerprint reader, 801.11A/B/G wireless, 10/100 LAN, 56K Modem, USB and Firewire. Win XP Tablet PC Edition.

Its thinner than a laptop, lighter and still its pretty well built and robust.

The way forward - star trek style? I think so.

Butuz

[Shorty]

I have had one for a year.. an ACER combo

Love it. I think once the newer version of Windows tablet appears, it will make more people interested in picking one up. I use mine all the time, especially since Im working in more than one place.

[Jiff Lemon]

Also toying with idea of getting one - been offered one cheap. I love the pure Tablet PC's - not a laptop with revolving touch screen.

SP2 apparently gives lots of additional functionality to it. Just can't help feeling it's an overgrown PDA....

[headbrace]

I really want to play with one, they look pretty swish. Whats the battery life like on them?

[[GSV]Trig]

I've had a play with the Compaq unit, was nice but 2 slow, was one of them Transmeta CPU's tho so no shock there, ahve also played with an Acer fliptop, useful but not as portable as a true tablet...

[Butuz]

Yes the true tablets are the way to go -the handwriting recognition is frankly astoundingly accurate - i am writing this on the tablet by Scribbling on the screen. It needs no training it just works for whoever uses it left handed or right.

It also has voice recognition built in but i have not tried that yet.

Battery life is Pretty good I have been using this all morning with wi fi on and it is at 65 % Still - it should last a whole school day.

this is far more than a glorified PDA and win XP tablet edition is as powerfull as XP Pro

woot

Butuz

[[GSV]Trig]

Tablet Edition is Pro with the Tablet bits bolted on, maybe thats why

[turkster]

That looks lovely .
I think they are a pretty cool concept but thought that they were not very usable . Obviously this is not the case with yours although how easy are they if you run complicated prgrams like AutoCad and Photoshop etc where keyboard shortcuts are very important?

Saying that I dont think I will be able to afford one in the near future .

[Butuz]

Yup, just trying to highlight the difference between Pocket PC 2003 and XP Tablet edition, i.e ones a proper O/S and ones a toy O/S

Butuz

[Butuz]

Well - i don't think they are designed really for doing stuff like that - how often are you gonna need to do some cad or 3d design whilst being portable? Most people sit at a desk to do it. The pc itself is powerful enough but the screen is small and lack of keyboard and mouse would hamper advanced stuff like that.

You wouldnt be able to buy this RM one as its only for educational customers, but I think there are a couple of other tablets out there that are similar to the RM Tablet.

Butuz

[turkster]

Well - i don't think they are designed really for doing stuff like that - how often are you gonna need to do some cad or 3d design whilst being portable? Most people sit at a desk to do it. The pc itself is powerful enough but the screen is small and lack of keyboard and mouse would hamper advanced stuff like that.

Well I dont know. Being an archaeologist the benifit of such a device would be to enable portable graphical data input etc. Like drawing plans etc on site. It would be better than a laptop precisely because you wouldnt necessarily need sit at a desk to do it. I know pda's have been used for inputting textual information on site but a tablet would enable more complex data input such as graphical sketchs and plans.
For instance I am doing a fairly large scale survey job for my theses and the benefit of a laptop etc on site would be huge. (not that I have anything of the sort ) It is a large site and a good distance from my main computer. Apart from text input drawing and CAD would be very useful things to be able to do on site.

[Jonny M]

They are nice, but I type so much faster than I write, so handwriting recognition doesn't offer me much.

Will be interesting to see what happens after a couple of revisions, I know MS are keen to push the idea of the Tablet PC.