HP has introduced an upgrade to the 2730p Elitebook aptly named the 2740p and featuring Multi-Touch.
The 2740p retains exactly the same form as the 2710p and the 2730p with the welcome addition of a multi-touch capacitive screen and the new Intel i7 processor.
Some prospective iPad users have made the comment that you can get a stylus for capacitive touch screens, and that’s true. You can. The experience however appears a bit underwhelming – like drawing with a crayon.
Take a look at the following video from a long time Tablet PC user in Malaysia who compares the resistive touch screen on the Fujitsu UH900 to the capacitive touch screen on the Lenovo S10. During the video he shows:
Writing with a stylus pen on the resistive touch screen – good experience on the fast and small UH900, although not quite as good as active digitizer
Writing with finger on the the capacitive touch screen – no leverage, very hard to sustain for longer than a few seconds
Writing with a pogo stick on a capacitive touch screen – like using a crayon.
Fast forward to about 6:30 to see the pogo stick (crayon) in action.
From this video you will see that a capacitive touch screen is fairly useless for pen-like or fine input – think sketching, drawing, note taking and handwriting. To resolve that problem, Windows Tablet PC manufacturers include an active digitizer on their capacitive touch screen Tablets.
The upcoming HP Tm2 Tablet replaces the long running Tx series, and it is certainly a massive improvement.
There are several major improvements for the TouchSmart Tm2:
Wacom digitiser pen – better pen experience in general
Capacitive multi-touch screen
Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage – Cooler, quieter, better battery life
Sleek new design – no optical drive cuts down size and weight
Much better build quality – in line with the HP Envy series
Dedicated ATI graphics – one of the only Tablets with this feature.
The Tm2 is still sports a glossy screen and is very much aimed at the consumer, but the move to Intel processors and Wacom Digitizers brings the Tm2 closer to the business market.
MobileTechReview.com HP Tm2 Video Reviews – 3 Parts
We’ll let you know as soon as it becomes available.
Engadget gave the new Fujitsu T4310 a great review, not for its looks, but for its great multi-touch tablet experience with Windows 7.
The key feature for really useful and functional touch Tablet PCs is the inclusion of both the Wacom Active Digitizer Pen and the capacitive touch screen. The T4310 is one of the many new Windows Tablet PCs that include both!
A touch screen on its own makes for a very limited Tablet PC experience.
Navigating web pages and opening programs is a dream with touch under Windows 7. On the other hand handwriting recognition, sketching and note taking are completely impractical with touch.
So the inclusion of the pen gives you both the convenience of touch and the note taking and sketching functionality of the accurate digitizer pen.
Take a look at the Fujitsu Lifebook T4310 in this video below:
Australia woke up to news this morning that the much anticipated Apple Tablet has been launched. Overturning all expectations, the Apple Tablet – for years known in some circles as a unicorn – is called the iPad and not the iSlate.
In form, the iPad is very much what Tablet users have been wanting for a long time. It is ultra-thin at just 1.3 cm thick, and weighs around 700 grams – about the same as the weight as the Viliv X70 UMPC.
iPad is based on the iPhone OS which will give the device the benefit of simplicity. Imagine the iPad like a large iPod touch with 3G options. There are no voice call capabilities, and there is no webcam. We wonder wether Google talk – famously banned from the iPhone app store for blurring the lines of the Apple / AT&T contract in the US – will be allowed on the iPad.
As long time iPhone users we know that the iPad will lack serious field input capabilities like digitiser driven handwriting recognition – which is now at least twice as fast as virtual keyboard input. That tells us that the device is squarely aimed at content consumption rather than creation.
Essentially, the iPad will make a great colour eBook reader, basic web browser (minus flash content) and email viewer. As we have experienced for many years now with UMPCs and Tablets, these features are hard to live without once you have experienced them.
From early news, some of the groundbreaking features of the iPad are:
Long battery life – up to 10 hours claimed
Access to iPhone Apps – Apparently all 140,000 of them
Simple, sleek, thin and light weight design.
Crystal clear wide viewing screen – allows up to 178 degree viewing angles – important for a good Tablet reading experience
Apples usual smooth multi-touch functionality
Great line of accessories including an attachable physical keyboard and protective portfolio case.
On early details, there is still some work to be done to bring this device to the masses:
On screen keyboard – Great auto correction, but frustrating to navigate to symbols and features that you would find on a normal keyboard. It appears that apple have stuck very closely to the iPhone Virtual Keyboard design Microsoft do this well in the Tablet Input Panel with quick access to localised common typing commands like .com and .au.
Glossy screen – Judging by the video the screen is very reflective and glossy which makes viewing difficult, particularly in common business environments like fluoro lighting and outdoors.
Oddly in a world awash with widescreen, the iPad has a standard aspect 4:3 screen with 1024×768 resolution.
No webcam.
No stylus, note taking or handwriting input – A pressure sensitive digitiser is more accurate and handwriting is about twice as fast as virtual keyboard input. Note taking is what makes a Tablet most useful and this is missing on the iPad.
No ruggedness ratings – One thing we know for sure is that even Tablets used purely at home take much more of beating over time than a laptop does. We have seen countless broken screens and peripherals. Although the device does include solid state storage, a serious field Tablet needs to be rugged to last.
Limited storage – storage is from 16Gb – 64Gb depending on model selected. Great for basics, but more storage is often needed.
No freedom – one of the biggest drawbacks of the iPhone OS is the restriction on accessing your own content like video and audio files directly. Everything must be funnelled through iTunes or the App Store, meaning that you can not just plug in your files and go like you can with a windows based Tablet.
Apple Australia’s website carries no mention of the iPad leading us to expect a long delay before we see the device in Australia. Once it does arrive though, well be sure to get one and bring you a hands on review.
It seems like the Netbook category has come full circle with the current generation of touch screen Netbooks. After all, the current netbook as we know it is based on an Intel Atom processor that came out of the original UMPC project.
One of the better convertible netbooks is the Gigabyte M1028 TouchNote. We’ve been using the Gigabyte M1028 around the office for a few months now and here are some of the key reasons that we like it:
Good size keyboard (92% full size) with Function keys and good key placement
High res 10” indoor touch screen (1366 x 768 pixels)
Easy access to upgrade and expand – Standard 2.5” SATA hard drives can be upgraded easily
2 USB ports, Express Card Slot, SDHC Card Reader and more!
Multi-touch track pad mouse
Nice sturdy swivel hinge convertible design
Options include:
3G / Next G Mobile Broadband
GPS
2Gb RAM
Standard 160Gb or 250Gb Hard Drives
6 Cell battery option for 5-6 hour operating time.
The Gigabyte M1028 also makes a great eBook reader. So, if you are looking for a netbook, why not get one with a touch screen too?
For many consumers, tomorrow’s launch of an Apple Tablet represents the birth of a new category of computing. But, what we known today as the Tablet PC has been making waves for a long time now.
Microsoft loyalists may think of the 2001 launch of Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition as the beginning of the Tablet PC while many apple fans will point to the “before its time” Apple Newton of the early ‘90s.
But in his recent article in Information Week, Dr Conrad Blickenstorfer of RuggedPCReview.com points out that Tablet PCs have been around much longer than you think and gives us a lesson in Tablet PC history.
…current coverage has been in creating the impression that Microsoft invented tablet computers in 2001, rewriting history in the process. Fact is, slate and tablet computers have been around for a good 20 years, and in 1991, there was as much hype about slates as we have today.
As it turns out, pen computing has been around for a long time and this isn’t the first time it’s hit the news either. But with the runaway success of the iPhone, tomorrow (our time) could be the birth of a Tablet PC for the masses – courtesy of Apple.
It would be hard to believe that there has ever been a more anticipated computer product release… We’ll wait and see exactly what Apple will have for us, and we’ll be especially relieved if it is actually a Tablet PC! Whatever it is we hope that Apple release the product in Australia within a reasonable timeframe.
We’ve had a great time playing with the new multi-touch Fujitsu T4310 over the summer. The combination of windows 7, Office 2010 (currently in beta) and multi-touch just rocks!
The first Fujitsu tablet to come out with multi-touch was the T4310, and it has now been followed up by the T900, the replacement for the beefy T5010 Tablet PC. Fujitsu continue to innovate with pen and touch computing and are one of the clear leaders in the Tablet PC field.
The following user give a good demonstration of the T4310. Although this user points out a couple of the shortfalls of the product, he still gives it a big thumbs up… And so do we.
Part 2 in particular shows how the capacitive touch screen works with OneNote 2010. It makes navigating your workspace super easy!
You won’t find a better demonstration of the combination of digitiser pen and touch. As you will see in this video, touch nicely augments the functionality of the pen.
Touch does not eliminate the need for the pen however, and as you’ll see a digitizer pen is pretty essential for serious Windows based tablets.
TabletPC.com.au offers the full range of Tablet PC, MCA and UMPC hardware and software solutions.
Our specialist knowledge will help you to choose the best Tablet PC for your specific needs, so call us on 03 9012 6602 or email info@tabletpc.com.au.
