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Portables IBM Hardware

IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC Reviewed 186

Posted by Hemos from the looking-under-the-hood dept.
JR writes "CoolTechZone.com has reviewed IBM's ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC that works as a standard notebook computer as well as a tablet PC. Generally with hybrid products, there are quite a few limitations attached, is that the case with X41? According to the article, "The notebook has a lot of drawbacks, lacks important features and tries to make up all that with its lightweight and a fingerprint reader that works like a charm. If you are looking for a small lightweight tablet and won't do much more than e-mail and note taking, along with basic office stuff, we would seriously recommend this one for it's battery life, the extreme lightweight design and the brilliant IBM support, but be ready to pay anywhere from $1800 to upwards of $2000 for a common purpose machine."
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IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC Reviewed More

IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC Reviewed

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  • I really need a note-taking machine to be a Director of IT. I mean. Basically I take notes all day and delgate shit... occasionally turning wrenches when I'm the only one around who knows how. (Maybe I should be looking at a rachet set.)

    I like this one, but the HP TC4200 is just "nicer". If MS had any brains they'd force OneNote onto everyone of these machines. It's not the greatest program but it intergrates really well with Office 2K3.
    • Agreed. We use all Thinkpad notebooks but for TabletPCs we use the TC4200. It's just a more complete system. I see the X41 as a complement to someone that already has another primary system.
    • Tablet PCs just seem useless without OneNote, you might as well have a regular laptop. Having not used Linux on a tablet, does anyone know how it goes?

      One of the other things that I like about tablet PCs is that you can lay them flat on the table in meetings, having a screen between you and the person who you are trying to talk to, just seems rude. Personally I can't stand it, and it seems (From a body language point of view) a barrier between you and the other person.

      Berny
      • I have gentoo running on my hp tc4200 just fine... pen, wifi, and everything working well.

        Only problem is that there aren't many "pen enabled" programs for linux... so when note taking I am in Windows using GoBinder.

        About meetings: the collaborative part of tablets is _awesome_. Often in group meetings I will hook my tablet up to the projector and take notes so everyone can see what we are talking about. It becomes a kind of white board that you can save and email out the results to everyone... VERY handy
    • The thing I like about my Toshiba tablet is that I have it with me a lot more often than when I had a bigger laptop. It runs Firefox, Remote Desktop and SSH just fine. Add the Verizon National Access card, and I can reboot a bank of servers from the middle of the desert. Or at least from the edge of the desert.

      My boss actually bought it for a couple of years, too.
    • Sounds good to me. You can always remote into a "real" machine when you need to do heavy duty stuff! Under windows you have Remote Desktop Connection as well as VNC. For others you have VNC and perhaps other solutions.

      You know, I miss the days of the VT100. Now I can relive them!
    • I'm typing this on my tc4200 right now... and I've gotta say that I've fallen in love with this machine.

      I use it both at work and at school (graduate degree... blah).. and it serves both purposes extremely well.

      I personally selected the tc4200 over the x41 because it is _more_ of a desktop replacement+tablet than the x41 is. The 2Ghz PentiumM + 1GB of ram and a 7200 RPM hardrive upgrade make the tc4200 just as fast as most desktops. The only drawback being that you only have a 1024x768 screen, but a docki
      • http://reviews.cnet.com/Toshiba_Portege_M205_S809 / 4505-3126_7-30612819-2.html?tag=nav [cnet.com]

        I have one of these, and I ADORE it. I got mine for $1100 refurbished (couldn't tell it was used at all). 1.5GHz Pentium M, 512MB of RAM, 1400x1050(!) 12" LCD, discrete graphics controller (GeForce FX Go 5200), wifi and optional Bluetooth. Plus it's lighter than the HP model and the stylus is terrific - has an eraser and a button on it to do left-clicking. I also think the hinge is sturdier than both the HP and IBM mod
        • Give Gobinder [gobinder.com] a try... it has even better organization capabilities than One Note (for one thing it has integrated tasks and calendar...) and has great inking capabilities (including lasso for selection and moving... use "right click" for instant lasso). Honestly I think my tablet would be worthless without it...

          I agree about the Portege... I actually would have gotten one myself, but as my job was buying it for me I didn't have much choice (IBM or HP). As it is though, I love the compactness of the HP, a

  • Daytimer vs. Tablet round 19 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bananahead ( 829691 ) * on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:30PM (#13916277) Journal
    "Before giving our final verdict on it, however, let's consider one more thing. Who is this hybrid product designed for? Is it for power users like you and me? Anyone who buys this notebook probably has a few hundred people working under him/her to do his/her presentations, work on excel and so on. The tablet is then around for sheer novelty and flaunt value. It's nice to have a tablet these days and that's what Lenovo is playing at. Those who own a tablet will normally be attending long meetings, taking quick notes and wouldn't want to generally carry around heavy models, but to the majority of us, tablet PCs don't make sense, financially or pragmatically."

    I used a tablet PC for several years while at Microsoft, partly because I wanted to understand what or if there was an application and partly because it was the politically-correct thing to do. I was not impressed. It really has nothing to do with the form-factor, although performance is a key factor. It has more to do with the software, specifically Windows for Tablet, and the whole human interaction thing.

    I took notes on it for about 9 months, and then finally had to stop when I realized I couldn't find anything for later review. The files were all there, my notes were in them, but to open and close hundreds of files looking for the meeting where that guy said that thing about that stuff? Forget it. There was no way I could be more efficient than the notebook and pen. True, you can't search your notebook electronically, but you can't search your written notes either. Convert handwriting to text? Forget about it, the error correction you have to go through eliminates ANY potential savings.

    My old-fashion father, now an 80 year-old CPA, used to laugh when I would bring home the latest PDA/calendar/phone thingy. He would smile, take out his daytimer and set it on the table. We would race to see who could look up a personal schedule for a specific date. I never won the race. I was never even close. I still cannot win that race, and I still cannot even come close.

    The Tablet does have some unique applications, such as the Doctor doing their rounds and updating charts on the fly. Inventory perhaps. There are others. But as a general purpose note-taking computing platform, forget about it. It the latest technology cannot outperform the oldest known writing standard in the world, pen and paper, and can't make general office functions any better, it is just technology looking for a solution.

    • Re:Daytimer vs. Tablet round 19 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bhtooefr ( 649901 ) <[gro.rfeoothb] [ta] [rfeoothb]> on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:43PM (#13916390) Homepage Journal
      Get yourself a copy of OneNote, and let's try this again.

      OneNote can search every notebook that you have in the thing pretty quickly.

      Windows Journal isn't very useful, from what I've seen, compared to OneNote, which I use on my ancient ThinkPad X21 (which is most definitely NOT a Tablet PC, but it's a predecessor to the X41 Tablet).
      • Exactly. His experience is the exact opposite of mine. I have more than a year's worth of notes in OneNote. I can find anything within seconds. I recommend OneNote to anyone with a Windows machine. A TabletPC is not required, but it sure is nice to have.
      • I have a tablet that I bought when they couldn't sell them (toshiba 3500) and the price went through the floor.

        It was great to use in meetings to wind other people up - the gee-wow factor, but even as a medic, I didn't find them useful in a workplace context. It's a nice idea, but there is a reason that Apple hasn't done tablets (yet). It has turned out to be an excellent general notebook though.

        OneNote does sound good, but the only real solution to portable computing input is good voice recognition, and I
        • If you read some tablePC blogs/sites then it seems like there are actually a few voice recognision systems that are very capable of understanding your voice.

          It also seems like voice regoc. is not such a good input method as it tends to annoy people around you.

    • I took notes on it for about 9 months, and then finally had to stop when I realized I couldn't find anything for later review. The files were all there, my notes were in them, but to open and close hundreds of files looking for the meeting where that guy said that thing about that stuff? Forget it. There was no way I could be more efficient than the notebook and pen. True, you can't search your notebook electronically, but you can't search your written notes either. Convert handwriting to text? Forget about

      • Re:Daytimer vs. Tablet round 19 (Score:4, Interesting)

        by TummyX ( 84871 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @02:03PM (#13916553)
        Just gotta add, Windows Journal can also search and match handwriting written on any angle. It's an impressive first demonstration for people.

        For those who are looking for an example of how powerful tablets are, check out Math Journal [xthink.com]. It allows you to "write" mathematical equations and formulas and have the computer solve them for you.

        You can basically write:

        2 + 2

        followed by a "tick" and have it insert " = 4" in the right location.

        Ofcourse it supports more advanced functions (sin, sqrt, simultaneous equation solving etc) and includes graphing as well. It even lets you search your handwriting (ha).

        There's also 3D Journal [cornell.edu] which allows you to basically draw a 3D model in 2D on the tablet screen and have it automatically turn the 2D sketch into a 3D model (fully rotatable etc).

    • But your father's old-fashioned planner can't beep to remind you of something. That is why my PDA is great... not because it's soooo fast to look something up (it isn't) but because it reminds me to do things. And when it beeps, it brings up the details of the event.
    • My old-fashion father, now an 80 year-old CPA, used to laugh when I would bring home the latest PDA/calendar/phone thingy. He would smile, take out his daytimer and set it on the table. We would race to see who could look up a personal schedule for a specific date. I never won the race. I was never even close. I still cannot win that race, and I still cannot even come close.

      OK. Now, take his day-timer, and your PDA (or whatever), and throw them away.... Then do the race again. Assuming you're taking ad

    • The next time you want to race your Dad with his daytimer, put your PDA thingie next to his daytimer, and before you decide what date to look up, whip out a flamethrower and destroy them both. Then open a brand new boxed PDA thingie, connect to the WiFi of your neighbor, download your backup database from the net, and proceed to look up your schedule.

      That'll show the old bastard.
    • I would just like to throw one more hat in the "well then you were using it incorrectly" ring. As others have mentioned OneNote and GoBinder boths support searching... and both do a great job at it.

      In Gobinder I can even have equations written in my math class with small blurbs written all around the equations describing the different pieces... and if I do a search on the text in one of those slanty little blurbs it _still_ finds it. I have no idea how it does it, but it's awesome.

      To be honest though, I h
    • You hit the nail on the head when you said that the biggest problem the Tablet PC has is software. But this brings up an interesting problem. Because there isn't a great deal of software available, sales of the platform have been lackluster... which means it's incredibly difficult to get any investment to create software for the platform. Rinse, lather, repeat.

      As our final project in our undergrad computer engineering program, my group developed a mathematical handwriting recognition app for the tablet pc.

  • Well (Score:2, Informative)

    by Miffe ( 592354 )
    I got the X41 laptop and I must say I'm very pleased with it.
    Works perfect with Linux. All except the fingerprint scanner and the SD card reader.
    • ...Works perfect with Linux. All except the fingerprint scanner...

      Now that is a pity, that fingerprint scanner is one really cool feature. I can't wait for something similar to turn up on the PowerBook, especially if it ties into the keychain. No more passwords....
      • Too bad Gummi bears [theregister.co.uk] defeat fingerprint scanners.

        Also, if someone really wants to get into your laptop, it's a lot easier to force you to give up your key with biometrics. Rather than torturing you to get you to reveal a password, they just have to cut off your thumb. Probably won't even bother asking if you'd mind unlocking it.
        • That is fscking impressive.
          My lab's security system has just been invalidated. (RFID badge combined with fingerscan).
          For now we'll have to keep it, but I'm off to call a meeting. Thanks for the link.
          -nB
        • Too bad Gummi bears defeat fingerprint scanners.
          To me that process sounds a lot harder than shoulder-surfing or keylogging.
      • Now that is a pity, that fingerprint scanner is one really cool feature.

        I've found the fingerprint scanner a complete waste of tablet weight and space. It takes only a few seconds to tap in a password to login. Afterwards, any web interaction uses the fine password manager that comes with Firefox.

    • Re:Well (Score:3, Informative)

      by daevux ( 626542 )
      Actually, the finger print scanner _DOES_ work. EmperorLinux, Inc [emperorlinux.com] sells the machine as the "Raven [emperorlinux.com]". For information about the tablet functionality, go here [emperorlinux.com]. The finger print scanner is actually tied into GDM! The SD card, unfortunately, does not work.
    • Is it useful as a tablet?

      I hadn't even considered a tablet since I thought the Linux support wouldn't be there.

      How's the power management/video support?

      • Re:Well - video (Score:2, Informative)

        by EmperorLinux ( 136519 )
        it hibernates to disk. The video is i915. there is no xrandr for the i810 driver, so you need two xconfigs, one portrait, one landscape. We've made the "rotate" button switch between the two. The pen works of course in either mode.

  • Lenovo (Score:4, Informative)

    by Brunellus ( 875635 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:32PM (#13916286) Homepage

    How long until these thinkpads are labeled Lenovo? As far as I'm concerned, there is no IBM Thinkpad any more....doesn't make Lenovo any better/worse; I'd just rather call a spade a spade.

    • Re:Lenovo (Score:2, Interesting)

      by dptalia ( 804960 )
      Part of the deal when Lenovo bought IBM was they got to use the name. Until some time (2008? can't remember) It's why they paid as much as they did.
      • The name they're allowed to use is "think" as in Thinkpad. Not "IBM". You're not alone, btw. I am an IBM/Lenovo bid specialist for one of their business partners, and nobody gets it right here either ;)
        • It gets even more confusing because the review is right correct in mentioning IBM support. For the time span Lenovo purchased the brand name option their mobility solutions will be supported out of the IBM Atlanta GSSC and Sterling Point locations.
      • Lenovo didn't buy IBM, just their PC division (the Tink- products). IBM still exists making their POWER (PowerPC) line workstations, servers and embedded stuff like the Cell.

    • Re: RTFA (Score:5, Informative)

      by Tezkah ( 771144 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:46PM (#13916415)
      How long until these thinkpads are labeled Lenovo? As far as I'm concerned, there is no IBM Thinkpad any more....doesn't make Lenovo any better/worse; I'd just rather call a spade a spade.

      from the title of the article: "Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC: Closing the Mobile Gap"

      Slashdot just got it wrong, this is definitely a Lenovo.

  • The future... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tprime ( 673835 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:33PM (#13916300)
    I often wonder which, in 5 years, will be the more practical tablet type of solution. Will devices like this continue to evolve into that elusive "paper notebook replacement" or will Windows Mobile devices expand in functionality? The part that really seems odd is that, if Microsoft keeps developing both XPTablet and WindowsMobile, won't they begin completing with themselves for usage?

  • Ars' UnReview (Score:5, Informative)

    by theGreater ( 596196 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:34PM (#13916308) Homepage

    Lenovo Thinkpad x41 Unreview [arstechnica.com]
    http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/thinkpad-x 41.ars [arstechnica.com]

    -theGreater.

    • Re:Ars' UnReview (Score:2, Interesting)

      by PhoenixPath ( 895891 )
      Much better and more informatve. Stats are great, but getting the lowdown personal opinion from someone who's actually used it and such is much more likely to affect my purchasing decisions.

      Thank you.

      (And it was quite amusing art times, which is always a good thing...unless you're drinking milk.)

  • Not IBM (Score:4, Informative)

    by macklin01 ( 760841 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:34PM (#13916315) Homepage

    It's not IBM anymore, guys, but rather Lenovo. Even for ThinkPads originally purchased from IBM, the Package Manager software has been steadily replacing all the IBM-branded ThinkVantage software with Lenovo-branded software. (So far, it all works the same, but they're making it very clear that it's a Lenovo show now.) Customer support has been turned over to Lenovo as well. (I can say from recent experience that it's still quite good.)

    The article got this right, but I thought I'd post the FYI here as well. -- Paul

    • No kidding -- that's because all the U.S. Lenovo employees are all former IBMers. Most of them still sit on the same campus site with badge readers between them and the current IBMers.
      • Or current IBM employees. As far as I've seen there are two locations in Atlanta for desktop and mobility support of Lenovo and IBM in the US. Sterling Point has mostly contractors supervised by IBMers, and Riveredge is mostly IBM. The SSR's who go onsite when needed are mostly IBM as well.

        Granted that's not my area, but that's what I've picked up. I, of course, could be horribly wrong, but as far as I know Lenovo purchased the name and use of IBM's support structure. You still dial 1-800-IBM-SERV, for e
    • Tell me about it (T42 owner here). At some point in October, Package Manager sent me updated Lenovo WLAN drivers *and* updated Access Connections (IBM's network profile software I can't live without) which prompty messed each other up. Not only that but the updated Lenovo software ripped out utilities that other (older, IBM-) software was looking for giving me dozens of "Can't find such-and-such.exe" errors. And this was with every single package updated straight from the ThinkPad site; in the end I had

  • Another Tablet Worth Considering (Score:3, Informative)

    by SlashdotOgre ( 739181 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:36PM (#13916331) Journal
    Another one worth looking at is the R series by Toshiba; it's roughly 6lbs but sports a 14.1" screen. You can see one in person at Best Buy (but iif you buy one I highly suggest going elsewhere). Also for either machine, if you qualify for academic prices definitely go through a local college. My school orders a number of preconfigured models in bulk and passes some savings to the customer (it's cheaper to buy from my campus bookstore than from the IBM higher education page directly). On a side note, is there any good tablet linux distros yet?

  • Dear Lord, Handwriting? Why not Calligraphy? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gelfling ( 6534 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:37PM (#13916345) Homepage Journal
    I will never use an electronic device that forces me to write on it in my own handwriting or any other PDAish grafitti like trash. Never. Maybe this is a niche machine for people who need to lug around electronic forms, blueprints, contracts and whatnot.

    And please don't get me wrong I have a 12x12 Acecad digitizer tablet. I'm pretty familiar with using a stylus - - for things that it makes sense to use a stylus for. Like drawing.
    • Note that the X41 Tablet is a CONVERTIBLE. That means that in one mode, it looks like a normal laptop, but you can draw on the screen. (You can easily switch it so that only the screen is showing, though.) That's the only kind of tablet that I'd buy.

      A Slate tablet has no keyboard, and forces you to either write on it or use an annoying on screen keyboard.
    • I will never use an electronic device that forces me to write on it in my own handwriting or any other PDAish grafitti like trash.

      My BioPhysics major son uses full-size LE1600 tablet with an 8-hr battery for hand-taking notes in Chemistry, Calculus, Physics, and Biology. He's scanned in the presently needed chapters from his heavier books that he bought for each class and they live in his computer. The keyboard stays in his room and during the day he carries it as a tablet. It'd be damn near impossible

    • I will never use an electronic device that forces me to write on it in my own handwriting or any other PDAish grafitti like trash.

      You sure about that? Most places i've gone to pay with a credit card require a signature, and quite a few of those use an electronic device.

      Never say never.
    • I will never use an electronic device that forces me to write on it in my own handwriting or any other PDAish grafitti like trash. Never.

      Well, fortunately for you, this thing also has a STANDARD NOTEBOOK KEYBOARD that swivels out from behind the screen.

      So really, they're not trying to FORCE you to do anything. Why complain, then?
    • Look at the ArsTechnica (un)review mentioned in the threads. WinXPTE CAN handle non-printed handwriting. If it can handle complex calligraphy I don't know but it can handle handwriting. (BTW the reviewer at Ars misunderstood this at first, and so you have to look at the end where he revices some of his findings.)

  • Tablet tough for Apple. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CDPatten ( 907182 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:38PM (#13916347) Homepage
    Apple really needs to come out with something like this. I have a number of MAC shop clients and the artists have been seriously considering moving to XP for the Tablet functionality. The reason is that the Tablet can sense pressure, and a brush stroke is adjusted accordingly on the screen. The Waacom stuff can do drawing, but isn't pressure sensitive to this degree. There is about a 5k piece of equipment you can buy to do this with OSX, but its just not the same.

    Vista is making some big strides on the Tablet end and is upping the sensitivity, so combined with the more accurate graphic color rendering, windows may be able to woo some artists away. Adobe and Quark products work well on both platforms. The only real thing Windows will be lacking is a decent font management tool.

    This ThinkPad os exactly the kind of thing that I think could hurt apple at the end of the day. It may be easier for apple to get into this market now that they are moving to intel chips, since the hardware is already running on the x386 platform.

    • I couldn't agree more. Apple certainly has the technology. The Newton (yeah, sorry, I had to bring it up) was an amazing gadget in its day. With the advances in processing power, memory capacity, etc. Apple could certainly succeed in creating a new class of tablet somewhere between a PDA and a small laptop with a flip-screen. Throw in very good voice recognition, GSM/GPRS (are you favorite flavor of data)and immediate handwriting to typed-text conversion with learning capability and you'd have a winner.
    • I don't have anything from apple, but I love the tablet PC so much I'd be willing to try their version of it, as long as it didn't cost that much more than the competitors. Everyone complains that MS are not innovators, but where are the linux and apple tablets? I'd be willing to give them a try if they were available.

    • Re:Tablet tough for Apple. (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The _Wacom_ 'stuff' is the same technology in many if not all tablet pc as the technology as the _Wacom_ graphics tablet digitizers. So in fact my shiny Wacom Graphire 3 Bluetooth graphics tablet has 512 pressure levels, twice as many as the tablet pc hardware http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/comparison.cfm [wacom.com]
      It's $250 for the graphire 3 bluetooth... $200 for a wired one... and that's a 6x8inch active area... a similar size to a 12" laptop screen.

      I'm a user of an IBM x40 (which is extremely similar to the x41) wi
    • Actually, a Wacom Cintiq supports a wider range of pressure input, and also supports Intus-specific features like tilt. If one can forego portability / mobility, it is a compelling choice, which can pay off in improved productivity for high-end usage.

      It is really unfortunate the Apple hasn't done a tablet since the Newton --- using Rosetta w/ a Wacom is nice, but a pen-enabled Finder and pen tablet running Mac OS X could be a really nice tool.

      William
      (who gave up on waiting for Apple to make a tablet and got

    • The reason is that the Tablet can sense pressure, and a brush stroke is adjusted accordingly on the screen. The Waacom stuff can do drawing, but isn't pressure sensitive to this degree.

      Troll.

      While Wacom has competition, it's still the leader performance wise; it's tablets have (depending on model) 512 to 2048 pressure levels. Unless you're trying to emulate a real brush on canvas, this is as good as it gets.

      Yes, the driver is available on both Mac OS X and Windows, so all your bantering about Vista is c

  • This is typical of IBM; they have always gravitated towards the docking station instead of building bulky devices on board. They expect the user to dock the device for charging and stationary usage, and mobilize it when making rounds, or whatever. http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ P roductDisplay?catalogId=-840&langId=-1&partNumber= 250610U&storeId=10000001 [ibm.com] This is the docking station for the X41, including a cd-rw/dvd-rom drive. Perhaps you guys should investigate available acces
    • I would say that your statement is as much a mischaracterization as any other I've heard.

      IBM did not design the product. Lenovo did not design the product. They are companies. People designed the product. Those people were IBM employees while the product was being designed and those same people are Lenovo employees now that it's being shipped and supported.

      It's basically this sentence that seems like non-sense to me: "Lenovo was simply in charge when it made it to market."

      What does that mean to you? "I

  • If it's thicker than a pad of paper ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LaughingCoder ( 914424 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @01:53PM (#13916480)
    then I'm not interested. Honestly, am I the only one who has trouble "writing" on these touchscreen tablets? I find it very uncomfortable due to the thickness of the unit. My arm/wrist is at an odd angle. I think they're fine for checking off forms or choosing from drop down lists, but free-form note-taking on these things is not for me.
  • I have been using the x41 tablet and several other tablet brands for a couple of months and my conclusion is:

    "For mainstream use, Not Worth the Effort"

    Everything about them is slower than keying.

    Interacting with websites or other apps which expect keyboard entry is painfully tedious. Annotation of existing digital docs require another step, another app and is of limited use to send to others unless they are so configured. (MS Journal, etc)

    And as previous slashdotter noted: finding anything is proble
    • I agreed... until about two months ago... then I found a problem... but it was better solved by slates than convertibles.

      Namely, my problem was the medical industry (non-hospital)... doctors want to be able to walk around with their computer and review the patient's information before going into the room with the patient. Then they just dock it when it's time to work with the patient, and keying is faster.

      In other words, the problem solved is easy read-only portability... the input still sucks, but plenty o

    • Interacting with websites or other apps which expect keyboard entry is painfully tedious. Annotation of existing digital docs require another step, another app and is of limited use to send to others unless they are so configured. (MS Journal, etc)

      I have all my common URLs contextually bound to the URL box so i can access my websites pretty quickly by simply writing the URL (slashdot.org etc) and sine the dictionary of URLs is small, accuracy is almost 100%.


      And as previous slashdotter noted: finding anythin
  • No, seriously; how many Harvard-boy types do you know that use a PC as anything more than a fancy typewriter?

    Put a secure OS on the machine so the PHBs can't load it up with their usual menagerie of malware, and IBM could have a real winner here.

  • I have one of these... (Score:4, Informative)

    by jbf ( 30261 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @02:00PM (#13916532)
    In fact, I'm typing this comment on it. It is a bit sluggish, but I suspect that's because my add-in memory is still on order. The battery life (as with all X series ThinkPads) is unbeatable. But the killer app to me is not the note-taking. There are a few nice applications the tablet can be used for that don't work as well on a regular laptop (and I won't buy a non-ThinkPad until someone else figures out how to put in a sane keyboard layout).

    1. Driving directions. Bluetooth GPS + Streets and Trips 2003 = turn-by-turn directions and a nice huge map.
    2. Photo editing. Instead of having a separate digitizer tablet, this one is built-in. Using the mouse for this kind of stuff really sucks, especially if you have RSI.
    3. Aircraft use (pilot). There are a pile of programs to help aviators figure out where they're going, and they're much easier to see on a Tablet than on a laptop. In a vacuum or electrical failure, this can be a real lifesaver (by acting as a DG or VOR/GS).
    4. Aircraft use (passenger). You can read PDFs in tablet mode, even when the seat in front of you is reclined. You can even annotate them with the pen.

    So sure, its a bit sluggish (but another 512MB RAM will help that quite a bit), and the resolution sucks (1024x768? are we in the 90s?), but I think I'm sticking with the tablet for the near future as my portable. My power use takes place on a Pentium D desktop with 4GB RAM and a 24" LCD, so there's little need for me to have a beefy desktop-replacement laptop. And the optical drive problem is solved with an external DVD burner that hooks up to both the laptop and the desktop.
    • The killer feature for me is to be able to sit on the couch(or the bus) and browse comfortably.

      First thing I did is buy a 1GB stick from Crucial; makes all the difference. I use Outlook, Virtual PC, RSS Bandit with no problem.

      Yeah, the resolution is a bummer, but would you really want a really high res on a screen so small?

  • Do they understand the concept of a TabletPC? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by larryj ( 84367 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @02:14PM (#13916629)
    "When in tablet mode, the screen for some reason is not a touch screen, but works if we point the stylus at it."

    Yeah, that's kind of the point. The idea is that you rest your wrist on the screen and write like you would on a piece of paper. If it was touch sensitive, that would be a little messy (virtual ink everywhere).

    I guess this is Microsoft's problem: No one knows enough about TabletPCs to consider the benefits. Even the "reviews" seem to miss the point on some features. My Motion M1200 is almost 3 years old now and I still love it.
  • the brilliant IBM support

    That's funny; when I call them I get Lenovo. Is this review in a time warp?
  • Good lord, I thought this thing was supposed to be lightweight - it's 3.5 pounds!!

    I was looking for an ultra-lightweight a year ago, and when I saw this review, I thought "Damn. That's what I wanted - it's even got the touchstick (nipple, whatever)".

    Then I go check the website. 3.5 pounds! Unbeeelievable!

    I was looking at a Panasonic ...Y4? W2? I think that was it. Anyway, DVD writer (!), 1.1 Ghz machine, half a gig of memory, and only 2.5 lbs. Granted, it cost $3400+, and was only available via impor
    • 3.5 pounds is not heavy by any measure.

      If you think carrying the extra One Pound over a similar notebook model is going to cause you difficulty, perhaps you should take that tablet stylus, open up your Outlook calendar, and schedule a few trips to the gym.

      • My brother's response was basically "Buy this laptop for $800. It weighs 4.5 pounds. Take the extra 1700$ for a gym membership"

        You guys have no appreciation for the sublime things in life! It's not an issue of how much encumberence I can carry (not many piles of coppers to loot these days, after all), it's an issue of "I have a super-light laptop".

        3.5 pounds. Geeze.

        --LWM
  • ...and all the neato features actually WORK. I've been working on these for several months now, we announced [emperorlinux.com] this a month ago, and we have all this stuff [emperorlinux.com] working: The integrated Biometric Fingerprint scanner works in Linux, so you can train your fingerprints, and use them to login (via PAM/GDM). The pen works in Xorg, so you can input to screen as a mouse pointer or stylus. You can hand-write commands on-screen (converts handwriting to ascii text in the focus area (using rosetta)). It includes a recognition suite (trained conversion of handwritten text to ascii text (using Jarnal [dklevine.com])). And the digitizer is pressure sensitivity in Gimp. now, that said, all of the handwriting features will require some training, but with carefull training, are very nearly as good as the "Windows Journal" at this time.

    The screen can be rotated to portrait orientation via rotate button (not dynamic, no xrandr on i915 yet, so 2 Xconfigs). It has special "BlueKeys" support when folded into tablet configuration: scroll Up, scroll Down, Enter, and Toolbox keys. The Toolbox Key (plugin to "EmpTool [emperorlinux.com]" tools to access LCD brightness up/down, volume up/down, backlight, wifi kill, etc)

  • I just bought a tablet pc this morning - Fujitsu T4000D. I'll now bore you with summary and details, skip down to the end for my actual point.

    I found myself burning enough time on the pc at home, and getting pains from it, that I needed a different ergonomic solution. I've already got an ergonomic mouse, but it's not enough. I know for a fact it's just related to my posture/position, I have everything in place to fix it, but my habits destroy all attempts to rectify the situation. What am I doing when I
  • Or, you could save a couple hundred bucks by getting the Fujitsu version of the same idea. [shopfujitsu.com] It's very similar to the X41, although it might be a smaller display. My office has two, and our experience with them seems superior to what's described in the review (Arstechnica.com) I read about the Thinkpad.

    (Keep in mind that these are niche devices. It so happens that my office also sits in that niche, so we love 'em. YMMV.)
  • http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/thinkpad-x 41.ars [arstechnica.com]

    I'm not sure why suddenly all these companies are doing reviews on the x41 tablet pc. It's been out for quite some time.
  • I have one of these machines. About a week after I got it, I lost the pen on a flight. That was an expensive mistake. If you ever lose the pen, you will find that:

    a) It is difficult to find a replacement. You certainly won't find one on short notice. (I was unable to find any store in the Bay Area of California or in Pittsburgh PA that had them in stock.); and

    b) They are EXPENSIVE! Replacement pens online cost at least $40.

    Egads!
  • All IBM ThinkPads contain boobytrapped self destructing Trusted Computing chips inside. Chips designed to allow your computer to be secured AGAINST YOU. You are forbidden to know your master keys (PrivEK and RSK and certain kinds of lower keys) and denied the ability to read or alter your "secured" files except under control of the Trust chip (sealed storage), and the chip is designed to spy on and to be able to send a secure spy report (Remote Attestation) to other people over the internet revealing exactl

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