Archive for the ‘Tablet PC’ Category

I keep getting asked about iPhone style multi-touch features on Tablet PCs. I personally love the idea of multi-touch. I think that after 27 years of the PC mouse, it’s high time that we graduated from a single point interface.

Current Tablet PC hardware does not support multi-touch in the iPhone sense. There are a number of Tablet PCs that support both Pen and Touch input, but only via one point at a time.

Does multi-touch make you think of scene in the Minority Report with Tom Cruise? An interface like that would have all sorts of un-dreamed of practical applications. Most technically inclined folks are aware of the experiments of the Microsoft Surface team. They have been demonstrating prototypes of this Minority Report style interface for a while now, so we know that this will ultimately become a reality.

The good news is that multi-point/multi-touch will probably reach the Tablet PC before it hits your desktop (or window, or wall for that matter). In fact the video below by a company called JazzMutant is a Tablet PC hardware demonstration on Windows XP that was posted to Youtube last year.

The demonstration uses both Pen and touch input, and it’s quite smart about giving the pen precedence over touch. That will make for an awesome input system.

I would hope that we will see hardware like this on the next generation of Tablet PCs in 12-18 months.

You may remember that we wrote about the HP Tx2000 / Tx2500 “entertainment” Tablet PC earlier in the year. It included a couple of really great features like:

• AMD 64 bit processor
• Inbuilt DVD Burner
• Active digitiser pen.

HP Tx1000, the original model in this series left a lot to be desired. It was a touch screen only model. That was unfortunate because I’ve met dozens of people who bought the Tx1000 because they always wanted to try a Tablet PC and the Tx1000 was cheap.

Many of them were put off the Tablet PC experience altogether because of the touch screen.

With a touch screen it is very easy to accidentally confuse the PC. For example, when you’re writing it is natural to lean your wrist on the writing surface. A touch screen sees that as multiple points of contact and it get’s confused.

So a touch screen is not ideal for writing tasks, particularly when there is twelve inches of screen to connect with. People who bought the Tx1000 were very generally disappointed because of this.

Fortunately, HP listened and included an active digitiser in the Tx2000 and Tx2500 (They’ve been doing that a bit lately, listening). Tx2500 is a good improvement on the Tx1000 series and it is also still a cheap way to get into a Tablet PC.

That said, the Tx2500 “Entertainment Notebook” fits into the home notebook range. It’s not really ideal for full on business use and it’s certainly not rugged.

We’ve finally added the HP Pavilion Tx2500 to our online shop here.

Now whatever you do folks, don’t try this with your Tablet PC at home!

But… here’s what happens when you drop the Semi-Rugged Motion F5.

Most Tablet PC models are designed with shock absorbent bumpers to withstand a simple bump or a drop. For the average Tablet PC, you’re going to see some superficial damage, but the contents (the expensive bits) will remain intact.

In this case, as you can see, the F5 withstands a corner impact from over 1 metre. With it’s semi rugged design, the F5 will take more of a knocking than the average Tablet PC before it breaks.

As noted in the video though, there is no warranty that is going to cover you against dropping your Tablet PC, even with the Motion F5. So seriously, don’t try this at home.

Making the decision to switch to a Tablet PC is not easy for some people. Will you really use the tablet and pen features? It’s hard to know until you really get to use one for a decent period of time. It’s a leap of faith…

If you decide that a digital pen is not for you, then you could be left with an expensive machine that you don’t use to the full. For the same money you could have bought an awesome laptop.

Fortunately, Toshiba have produced a Tablet PC for people with commitment issues!

It’s the M700 convertible Tablet PC with a built in DVD burner. It’s really built to be a small portable notebook, and the Tablet PC features are an added bonus.

So with the M700, even if you never use the Tablet features, you will be left with a powerful and capable laptop.

The Toshiba M700 is definitely not as sexy as the R400, but it is a little more practical. For instance, the M700 does away with the R400s glossy screen. This screen has a matte finish to reduce glare.

It’s a little bit chunkier than the R400 due to the inclusion of the DVD drive. But it is remarkably light considering its size.

So if you’re looking to make the jump to a Tablet, but you’re not quite sure, this may be the Tablet PC to get you over the line.

Cheek out our video demonstration below:

Visit our online shop for more information on the Toshiba Portege M700 Tablet PC.

The HP TC1100 was the carrot that got us into Tablet PCs. In fact, the first Tablet PC that we had was the woeful HP TC1000. It was terribly underpowered with a Transmeta Crusoe Processor. It left a bad taste for many.

Fortunately, HP quickly got their act together and fixed the TC1000 by putting a decent Intel Centrino processor in it. The result was the TC1100, which is still today a very capable and sought after Tablet PC.

What was so good about the HP TC 1100 you might wonder? Well, it was the only Tablet PC to come in a Hybrid form factor. It could be both a convertible tablet (With a keyboard attached) and a slate.

In slate mode, you had a powerful and lightweight portable device weighing just over 1 kg. With the keyboard attached, you had a Tablet PC that also functioned like a laptop. 

Unfortunately HP decided that the TC1100 wasn’t important enough in the scheme of things. They continue to develop Tablet PCs, but have taken the safe road of laptop style convertibles like the HP 2710P.

Enter Motion Computing. To be honest, Motion have been around in Tablet PCs since the very early days. So we may be a little slow in reporting this, but we think that Motion have had an alternative to the TC1100 form factor for quite a while. It’s the LE1700 with convertible keyboard.

We put together the following video to demonstrate the similarities.

To see the Motion LE1700 Tablet PC in more detail, visit the LE1700 page on our online shop.

HP recently released the new Tx2000 which is in very similar to the entry level Tx1000 Tablet PC.

The major drawback of the Tx1000 was the lack of a digitising tablet. The Tx1000 only has a touch screen, which is not very practical in a full size tablet PC because in normal writing posture, your hand will create multiple touch points on the screen, making it difficult to use.

Hat’s off to HP who listened and built a digitising tablet and a touch screen into the Tx2000. The tablet pen is a battery powered model and not a Wacom pressure sensitive digitiser, no doubt to keep the price down.

Correction: This Tablet PC does use a Wacom capacitive touch digitising system. The pen does not use a battery and the touch screen function works with a nice light touch.

HP have released a video series for the launch featuring Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs (Discovery channel).

Not really sure if it’ll sell more Tx2000s but it’s a bit of fun anyway!

Check out the full video series here.

HP Pavilion Tx2000 Key Features:

• Full on entertainment machine
• Looks pretty cool
• AMD Turion™ 64 TL-64 2.20 GHz Processor
• 2Gb DDR2 RAM
• 12″ Wide screen display
• Touch screen and active digitizer
• NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6150
• 8X DVD±RW Double Layer, Lightscribe
• Weight: 1.96 kg

We’ll have them in the shop soon for AUD $2199.00 Inc GST.

The Tx2000 is a great way for home users to get started with a Tablet PC.

Late last year PC World (US Version) released their selection of the Top 10 Ultra-Portable Notebooks and it’s good to see that Tablet PCs made up five of the top 10.

PC World describes the Ultra-Portable category this way:

Ideal for the mobile professional, these notebooks stand out for their low weight and small footprint.

All of the Convertible Tablet PCs currently on the market fall into the Ultra-Portable Notebook category.

The Tablet PCs that the list were:

• Lenovo X61t at number 2
• HP Pavilion tx1000 at number 5
• HP Compaq 2710p at number 6
• Fujitsu Lifebook T4220 at number 7
• Fujitsu Lifebook T2010 at number 10

The good thing is that it shows that Tablet PCs are gradually becoming mainstream. Tablet PCs are certainly one of the best options available for mobile professionals.

Read the full PC World Review here.

I became interested in low power PCs when I recently brought two of our servers back into the office. Our power bill doubled overnight :-|. As you can imagine, I’ve been madly looking at ways to reduce the power usage of our network.

That’s the beauty of thinking green, using fewer resources can save you money.

It got me thinking… How green are Tablet PCs?

Well we already know that Tablet PCs are way ahead on being green. How?

• Most Tablet PCs have a tiny 65W power supply and usually incorporate Intel Centrino Ultra Low Voltage Processors.
• They are also smaller and lighter which means less materials are used.

But is there room for further green innovation in Tablet PCs?

I note with interest what HP are doing in this area:

The HP Compaq 2710p Notebook PC is just 2.82 cm (1.11 inch) thick and weighs 1.63 kilograms (3.6 pounds). This is made possible by the HP Illumi-Lite Light Emitting Diode (LED) displays, which are thinner and lighter than traditional screens. The Illumi-Lite display also requires less energy and does not use mercury. The case is built using lightweight and durable magnesium, which is easily recyclable. The smaller notebook packaging allows HP to transport 60 units on a pallet instead of 48, which saves energy in transportation.

Source: HP

It’s good to see Tablet PC technology leading the field in Green PCs.

I’ve had a really great run with the HP TC1100 Tablet PC. It was a fantastic unit, and up until it was cancelled by HP we sold many of them. Just about every managing director that I worked with at the time bought one because it was so cool. We had them in construction, insurance, engineering, sales and project management roles amongst others.

Some of the things that we loved about the HP TC1100 were the:

• A4 sized form factor - it literally was as big as an A4 sheet so it could pass off as a big diary when it was in it’s case
• Docking station
• Detachable swivel keyboard
• Super low weight, 1.2 - 1.6 kg

Time has run it’s course and the TC1100 is now too slow to satisfy my daily Tablet PC needs. It’s time to move on, but I’ve struggled to find an adequate replacement.

The reason that it’s hard to replace the TC1100 is that it was the only hybrid Tablet PC on the market in Australia. With a hybrid you could detach the keyboard completely. So that means that the TC1100 could function as a normal laptop with a keyboard, but also as a pure slate tablet PC.

This gave us the flexibility to choose whether to carry the extra weight around. A very handy option.

So we finally found a replacement. I’ve known about the motion computing LE1600 and LE1700 for some time now, but only recently got to have a closer look. It’s a really nice Tablet PC made by a company that is 100% dedicated to making Tablet PCs.

The clincher for me was the detachable keyboard option. While it’s not a swivel hybrid style option like the Tc1100’s keyboard, it does clip onto the screen of the LE1700. So it’s portable, and it protects the screen while it’s in transit.

The LE1700 is about 1.6kg and it is super thin and super portable. The docking options are brilliant too. The hardware is inline with all of the convertible Tablet PCs on the market, but Motion have their View Anywhere display that works well outside in the sunlight.

This is a brilliant Tablet PC. It’s perfect for anyone who uses a computer outside - think construction, insurance assessors, engineers, architects, supervisors, surveyors…

I’m sold.

Want to get a close up look at a Motion Computing LE1700 Tablet PC? Thanks to US based Xtremenotebooks.com you can see it in action here.

Please note that the Mobile Broadband option on the US model is EVDO and it’s locked to Sprint. The Australian version includes UTMS and HSDPA and it’s not locked to any carrier. So if you want a LE1700 and you plan to use it in Australia, don’t make the mistake of buying the US model.