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Portables Hardware

Review of the 8 Hour Tablet: Electrovaya Scribbler 219

Posted by timothy from the but-there's-an-all-weekend-tablet-already dept.
Lisa Gade, the chief geek over at MobileTechReview.com, reports that they've just published an in-depth review of the Electrovaya Scribbler SC2200. "It's a Windows XP Tablet Edition with lots of the features you'd expect on a high end slate machine like a 12.1" screen you can write on, a Dothan 1.4GHz processor and WiFi. But its real claim to fame is the huge capacity 10,200 mAh SuperPolymer battery which will get you through a work day without a charge."
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Review of the 8 Hour Tablet: Electrovaya Scribbler More

Review of the 8 Hour Tablet: Electrovaya Scribbler

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  • Keyboard (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Stigmata669 ( 517894 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @05:45PM (#12029550)
    While this looks like a step in the right direction for tablet PCs, the docking style keyboard looks like a recipe for trouble, it looks like it's dangerously easy to break (snapping off because of the upright screen design) or at least damage the contacts from constant plugging and unplugging.

    The burden then relies on XP Tablet edition to get good enough to rarely need a keyboard... something I don't think is likely to happen any time soon. So good in theory, but not quite the magic form needed to bring tablet PCs into the mainstream.
    • What is so hot about the tablet PC's?

      How is it different from the old toshiba portege's they used to make, that weighed all of 3 pounds and had massive docking stations so when you got home you could have every perephrial attached?

      Seems to me it alot adu about nothing. Marketing is getting really slick. They keep selling people the same things, just with new names. Just like the republicans...

      • Judgeing by your comment I wonder if you realize that Tablet PCs are fundamentally pen-based computers. And the pen functionality is VERY slick indeed. I have a Toshiba M200 and its I never get tired of whipping it out in class and using it to take notes. Its really helped my to improve my note taking.
        • Completely agreed. My handwriting has always been messy, very messy, and not amazingly quick either. But I can type at 60 WPM, more than enough to keep up with my lecturers and be able to concentrate on what they mean rather than just what they say. Being on a physics course thoguh means lots and lots of diagrams making the pen invaluable.

      • Re:Keyboard (Score:4, Insightful)

        by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:34PM (#12030075) Homepage Journal
        "Seems to me it alot adu about nothing. Marketing is getting really slick. They keep selling people the same things, just with new names. Just like the republicans..."

        Uh, okay.

        To answer your question: Tablet PCs are more mobile since they don't require a flat surface to operate on. You can use one standing up, for example. That's definitely a huge plus in my opinion. I can carry my TPC around and use it in a lot more places than I could my old laptop.

        Whether or not you care is entirely up to you, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss TPCs as 'the same things with new names'.
    • Just a question, have you used a TPC lately?
      I rarely use my keyboard anymore. The input with the pen is so good that I only attach my keyboard if I'm going to write something longer than a few paragraphs.
      What people have a hard time understanding about the TPC until they use one is that it's not about text input. The killer app is the point-n-click interface. It's so much more natural than with a track pad or mouse stick. Just point and click. It's even better than attaching a mouse.

      BTW. This post was

  • Wait, who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by skomes ( 868255 )
    Sales of tablet PCs are sliding downwards, let's stop focussing on a hybrid of PDAs and laptops that nobody wants, and focus on getting 2 120 gig hard drives, and x800s in laptops, and getting microdrives and better-than-VGA screens in PDAs and standardize CIR in PDAs. Hybrids share some of the benefits of both technologies, but are really just watered down versions of both. I guess I just don't see the use, I can understand some situations, an engineer or whatever, but how well would autocad or something s
    • Surprisingly the price of tablet PCs are still so high despite low sales. I always marveled at the write-on-screen pen feature, but it's totally unaffordable. I always wonder if it's the Centrino scaring people away. Would it be better with an AMD chip?

      • Re:Wait, who cares? (Score:3, Informative)

        by ivan256 ( 17499 ) *
        Check out Averatec [averatec.com]. Their convertable notebook/tablet (screen flips to make it a tablet or a notebook) can be had for $799 if you catch a sale at CompUSA. Oh, and they're Athlon XP-M based.

        • Re:Wait, who cares? (Score:3, Informative)

          by evilviper ( 135110 )
          Sorry to ruin it for everyone, but I've bought a Laptop from Averatec before, and they are completely crap.

          Their components are just such junk, that you'll be shipping it back to them every couple months until the warranty runs out... at which point you're better off just buying a new one.

          Their service is horrendous (which matters much more when their products need service all the time), and more than once now I had my laptop returned with MORE things wrong with it than I sent it in with.

          If you have any
    • I rarely use more than 20GB, so my 80GB iBook is fine. I find myself backing up DVDs of television series (uncompressed!) for lack of anything better to do with the space.

      let's focus on:

      1. increasing battery life as much as possible but not at the expense of increasing weight, and

      2. increasing CPU and GPU as much as possible but not at the expense of near-silent operation.

      join the campaign to keep portables portable!

    • Re:Wait, who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by kamileon ( 35033 )
      The place where I have seen them be HUGELY popular is with graphic artists. Tablet PCs are the perfect configuration for doodling in Photoshop, doing image editing, etc. But I also have a number of programmer friends who prefer them over using a PDA, despite the extra bulk, because of the ease of jotting down notes quickly, with really good handwriting recognition. Programs like
      One Note just aren't available for the PDA. Which I agree that both PDAs and laptops could be massively improved, there is a ni
    • So you're looking for a laptop that weighs 10 kilos, has half an hour of battery life, and would burn you if you ever actually put it on your lap? And PDAs with moving parts? My 512 meg memory card already has more than enough room for all the books I need, though I admit better resolution would be nice. Even nicer would be a screen large enough to be comfortable to use at that resolution, in a system that either sucked a small enough amount of power or with a large enough battery to last weeks like the
    • SURPRISE
      These are not marketed at you. Them make great point of care devices for doctors and nurses. I could also see them being useful for performing an inventory or maybe maitre'de in a restaurant.
      Technology is for everyone, just because you can't think of a use doesn't mean it's useless.

  • What is your definition of a work day? (Score:5, Funny)

    by slagdogg ( 549983 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @05:46PM (#12029567)
    I haven't had an 8 hour work day since I was a child laborer. Of course, the only people I see using Tablet PCs typically do about 20 minutes of work per day anyways, so this is overkill for them. Good thing Windows Solitaire isn't a big battery hog.
  • I'd rather like one of these the battery life is increadable... or woo shiny - IT MUST BE MINE, either way, i want one.
  • Man, I would have been happy with just not having to charge the battery, but to be able to run with no charge at all, that's impressive!!! :-)

  • Interesting, but I think I'll pass (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kennyj449 ( 151268 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @05:47PM (#12029582)
    I can't help but think that, for that pricing and performance, one would be better off getting a more conventional laptop or tablet and keeping an extra battery or two around. It's nice to see a notebook that actually acts like a portable, but sadly the battery life is about the only thing that this tablet has going for it.
    • "I can't help but think that, for that pricing and performance, one would be better off getting a more conventional laptop or tablet and keeping an extra battery or two around. It's nice to see a notebook that actually acts like a portable, but sadly the battery life is about the only thing that this tablet has going for it."

      Question: If you're using a laptop, as opposed to a desktop, are you not focusing on mobility over performance? If so, does it really matter if it's not as fast provided it's more p
      • Who said anything about desktops? As an aside, it's also rather heavy for its size, has a smallish screen for its price, and has low performance for its price. As I said, battery life is the only thing it really has going for it, and for that pricetag, I'd much sooner take a nice Vaio or Powerbook and grab a couple of extra batteries.
        • "Who said anything about desktops?"

          Well, I know you didn't pick a laptop over a desktop because it was cheaper and/or faster.

          I'm not trying to arm twist you into wanting a TPC. Just trying to explain that speed's not everything. One of the things I really enjoy about my TabletPC is that I occasionally do sysadmin'ish jobs around the office. The TPC has built in ethernet and 802.11. I can walk around the office and use it without having to clear a spot to set it down. (Especially great when taking in

  • Tablet PC's? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by caryw ( 131578 ) <carywiedemann@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @05:48PM (#12029587) Homepage
    Honestly, am I missing something? I don't mean to troll, but what is the huge advantage of being able to write on a pc screen with crappy recognition software? I don't understand where the market for this kind of device is. I would much rather have a skinny VAIO laptop or a new powerbook. Do that many people need to use a computer standing up? Perhaps it's for taking notes? I still can type much faster than my fastest shorthand scrawl...
    I understand the need for PDA devices where a full sized keyboard isn't practical, but if the device is going to be laptop sized anyway...

    Just wondering.
    --
    Fairfax Underground [fairfaxunderground.com]: Where Fairfax County comes out to play
    • Using a laptop assumes that you have a lap (or other suitable surface) to place it. Basically, tablets are a goodreplacement for things that might've otherwise have been done by someone with a clipboard, while they're standing. (the medical profession comes to mind quickly... I'm guessing there are other uses as well).

      Having something to quickly show something, and pass it back and forth between people might be useful, too. (sales? real estate?)

      I'm not in one of those fields, so to me, it's fluff ...
      • Tablet PC's make excellent point of care medical devices. It's a pain to type on a screen or use a little mouse while your talking to a patient. It's much nicer to tap on afew fields.
    • I got couple of places in mind where a tablet would be good.

      well, actually.. one. while lying in bed(for reading comics, books and so on).
    • Honestly, am I missing something?

      Nope, but your confusion is understandable. You have to understand something -- laptops are the *NEW* desktops. I know widows and old grannies with notebook pcs -- prices have dropped RADICALLY this last year. Manufacturers need *SOMETHING* to sell at a premium to replace notebooks, They want tablets to be that thing, but I cant see taht anyone cares. The only people really excited about tablets are people who make kiosks -- its all the hardware they need for cheap (ha

    • Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Rac3r5 ( 804639 )
      Actually there are a couple of uses. When I was in class in school, taking notes after notes, it would be nice to be able to take these notes down in digital format and not having to carry a big heavy binder. But wait, I can also search through my notes for stuff now. I don't have to worry about pages falling apart or carrying a binder for each class. Suppose im on the skyTrain or bus or sitting on my bead studying, I can go through my notes with relative ease... actually search through the stuff etc.. Tha

    • Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:5, Informative)

      by SuperRob ( 31516 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:11PM (#12029871) Homepage
      As a college student, I'll tell you that the Tablet PC coupled with Microsoft's OneNote software is a killer app for the Tablet PC. I was able to type notes, draw pictures, record a lecture as an audio clip (annotated with written notes), and grab a couple of web screenshots into a note file for my class, then catalogue and index the notes and make it all searchable. That is incredibly powerful.

      That said, the recognition software is NOT crappy, it's remarkably accurate considering my terrible handwriting, and any mistakes are also easy to fix. This is assuming you have Windows XP SP2, which has updated TIP/Recognition software in it. The initial software wasn't nearly as robust.

      • Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Webtommy88 ( 515386 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:35PM (#12030101)
        I wish i had mod points to mod you up.

        This is especially useful because all my notes come in PDF format so it works incredibly well by opening the pdf in acrobat and editing it straight.

        Also, being a CS/Math major, writting complex equations is alot easier then on a keyboard.

      • Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Barlo_Mung_42 ( 411228 )
        Agreed. Once people try them for more then a few minutes at a trade show they see the light.
        The Tablet PC takes mobility to a whole new level in a way that no regular laptop could.
        Even the Mac people I work with are jealous.
    • I have a cheap older tablet I picked up off eBay for about $150. It runs win98 and is good for quietly using in class; I can basically stick it in my notebook. But overall, it hasn't worked as a notebook replacement for me -- I still do all my equations and diagrams in my graph paper engineering notebooks like I used to. Maybe I just need better software, but overall it hasn't been as useful as I thought.

      However, drawing [isomerica.net] in paint is fun, and I can see using it for some photoshopping. I'm not so good at

    • Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Mumpsman ( 836490 )
      There is quite a high demand for these kinds of things in the medical field where physicians do indeed need to use a computer standing up. They need to be able to roam from one exam room to the next without having to drag a cart full of paper medical records. They also tend to work long hours and have low tolerances for having to do un-godlike things like swapping out batteries or returning to a docking station to get a new tablet.

      All of which typically would mean that this might be a welcome advance i
      • Mumpsman wrote:
        > There is quite a high demand for these kinds of things in the medical field
        > where physicians do indeed need to use a computer standing up.
        ^^^ -- this explains this:
        SuperRob wrote:
        > That said, the recognition software is NOT crappy, it's remarkably accurate
        > considering my terrible handwriting
        ======

        The recognition software has to be good to read the average M.D.'s handwriting. Heck...might even work for me -- and as to why one would need it over a keyboard? You try drawi
    • "Honestly, am I missing something? I don't mean to troll, but what is the huge advantage of being able to write on a pc screen with crappy recognition software?"

      You can use it standing up. I've used mine to walk around the office taking inventory and entering it into a spreadsheet. I loathe the thought of doing that with a VAIO.

      Oh, and btw, the recognition isn't so crappy.

    • Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tyman ( 831421 )
      The target market for Tablets isn't the average slashdot user. People who would rather have laptops, get laptops. The highest markets are for corporate installs where the workers are on their feet most of their day. For example, in the medical field where nurses need to fill in hundreds of pages of forms a day and have to move from patient to patient. You replace a clipboard with a Tablet and it functions in the same way, but the forms can be easily coordinated with a server so a doctor can access all docum

    • Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by larryj ( 84367 )
      At least at my office, pecking away at a keyboard during a meeting is a bit rude.

      I sit in meetings and quietly take notes. I have 2 years worth of notes that I can search in seconds. That's my handwriting that I'm searching through too. If I want, I can convert it to text but I've never really found a need to do that. I can also record the audio of the meeting and my notes are highlighted at the appropriate time during playback.

  • Just how many days? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @05:48PM (#12029594)
    10,200 mAh SuperPolymer battery which will get you through a work day without a charge.

    Just how many days will it get you through, before its capacity degrades below 8 hours?

    • Lithium-ion batteries are a lot like TFT backlights, you can accurately describe their degradation over time as a half life. li-on half life is about 12 months, so you can say half the capacity in 12 months and therefore half the runtime.

  • 4.5lbs = 2.0kg (Score:2, Insightful)

    by fembots ( 753724 )
    It's kind of heavy for a tablet. I'm not sure if battery life is more important than having to hand hold an additional kg.
  • Heck, who carers if it's a tablet too. It'd make a damn fine notebook.

  • Mon Mothma Reports (Score:5, Funny)

    by White Roses ( 211207 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @05:50PM (#12029622)
    Many Dothans died to bring us this information.
    • Wow. A 10 GHz processor? 30,000 GB of HDD? Da-yum!
    • But how does it compare with this:

      http://www.planetnz.com/palmheads/tandy.php

      20 hours battery life with AA non-proprietary batteries, and skip the wonky character recognition...

      I'm really looking forward to the day when modern portables are actually, well, portable...
  • and it had a guy in the stairwell writing something on his tablet. The tagline of the ad was something like "For those times when inspiration occurs between floors". The gist of it was that with a tablet PC you are not limited to using a PC at your desk, or some other such stationary place.

    What it left me wondering, though, was why not whip out a note pad or sticky note?

    The tablet PC has yet to prove itself as a device that is truly useful and practical--moreso than any notebook computer, that is. It
    • I think they have some use in industry, basically as a glorified clipboard which can connect wirelessly to a server, but for the home or office user, I would think they'd be of limited use.
    • Agreed. Marketing for these up to now has not been great. In fact it's been lousy.
      Fortunately that is starting to change and I've seen some good ads by Toshiba and I hear there's one by HP.
      Word of mouth is the strongest selling point though. Whenever I let someone use mine for a bit they are hungry for more. The pen is such a natural interface but it's hard to put that across in an ad.
    • What it left me wondering, though, was why not whip out a note pad or sticky note?

      Hi. I'm your lawyer. I'll be happy to bill you for the time it takes me to enter what I wrote on my note pad into the contract I am editing on my computer. Or to do the same for all my illegible-to-even-my-secretary revisions that I made to print out of the same contract when on the train home. Effectively I get to double bill you (no, I don't really do this, but it DOES cut into productivity to effectively do something twice

  • Review of the 8 Hour Tablet
    This is old news. Everyone knows that timed-release capsules are what's hot these days.

    • Everyone knows that timed-release capsules are what's hot these days.
      Yeah, I was disappointed in the story. I thought the "8 hour tablet" meant that Cialis was going to start coming in double-strength versions...

  • Electrovaya... sounds familiar (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rsborg ( 111459 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:01PM (#12029753) Homepage
    I looked around a bit, and found . These guys used to sell a battery that I really wanted (claimed 16 hour charge). However, my boss at the time wouldn't shell out. Now a bit later (4 yrs), I realize that it was probably not worth it, since I didn't travel as much.... but it still would have been nice, since [electrovaya.com]
    1. I have cycled through about 6 laptops in the past 4 years and
    2. I still travel once in a while.
    However, I did hear that the charge runs out pretty quickly (i wonder if I'd get as much as 3 hours from that pad these days), and the external batteries can be annoying (warm, and extra gadget to pack).... but some of my coworkers swear by their 2nd or 3rd spare battery for the long haul trip.

    I wonder if buying the external battery might be a better investment than this new tablet?

  • I didn't see any mention of heat... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PornMaster ( 749461 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:02PM (#12029774) Homepage
    Given that a tablet is probably meant to be written on while held in one arm... are there hotspots on these things that slowly cook your arm?

  • Bluetooth? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by voidware ( 81513 )
    Yeah, but there's no bluetooth. Isn't the point of these things to give me more freedom? Well, I hate wires.

  • Li-ion vs Li-poly (Score:4, Informative)

    by adralien ( 783161 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:14PM (#12029899)
    Lithium ion is far superior to Li-polymer, Electrovaya's polymer is well known for only getting 200-300 cycles, only a year of use for business... Li-ion typically gets 500 to 1000 cycles with a nicer fade over the life cycle.
    • But Li-poly is easier to get into cramped enclosures, right? Less heinous material means no metal box.
    • Far superior in one way, but somewhat inferior in another...

      Li-Po batteries are used mainly for weight reduction over li-ions. I'm assuming they chose Li-pofor this application to keep the weight down as much as possible while still providing much capacity.

  • Toshiba M200 (Score:5, Informative)

    by freitasm ( 444970 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:20PM (#12029942) Homepage
    I vote for the Toshiba Portege M200 [geekzone.co.nz] though. Much higher resolution (12.1" XVGA+ 1400x1050 pixels), faster Centrino (1.5GHz on mine, 1.6GHz on newer versions), SD card reader, PC Card slot, USB 2.0. And a very cool built-in accelerometer that is underused, but there's a demo application [msdn.com] available called WinGimcana.

  • We had some Scribblers (Score:3, Informative)

    by DarthZen ( 454447 ) on Wednesday March 23, 2005 @06:23PM (#12029978)
    The battery life we got with Scribblers was closer to about 6 hours than eight, but it's still pretty good.

    The irritating thing about them is that you have to manually turn the wireless connection on every time you boot the tablet. You can't make it automatic. Very irritating.

    In addition, we did a review on one model scribbler, which met our needs (2050, I believe). By the time we got around to ordering them, they had discontinued that model and gave us newer ones (2150, I believe) Every single one of the newer ones has had major issues remaining connected to the wireless network. They are constantly dropping packets. It's possible they fixed this in the 2250, but I'd be careful before buying one.
  • The eight hour battery life sounds impressive. But what I want to know is, why can't we get that kind of long lasting power out of boring old regular laptops? I don't need exotic features, but it seems that every time I go shopping for a working laptop power is at the bottom of the list, but there are tons of impressive power hogging features that are bundled with the product that I usually don't want or need.

    When I'm on the road, typically the only thing I need a laptop for is MS office (writing documents, working with spreadsheets), and occasionally working with some other third party apps like Primavera's Suretrak (which, incidentally, I hate).

    I can think of a number power hungry features that I don't want or need, that takes away my battery life:

    High-power graphics: I don't play 3d games on the laptop. I have a desktop at home for playing games, and if I'm bored on the road, my phone has enough entertainment titles installed on it to placate me. I don't do professional quality graphic arts work on the laptop. In reality, a 800x600 screen with 16 bit color would be aptly handle my work. So a power hungry graphics accelerator isn't needed, or any advanced graphics features. Also, I often find myself in well lit areas, and it would be nice to be able to easily turn off the backlight on the LCD display to save on juice, but I've yet to see that implemented.

    CPU hogging apps: Why is it every time I unpack a laptop, there seem to be dozens of background applications pre-installed? I don't need them, and I don't want them, and I always end up having to spend lots of time uninstalling them. I get this with desktops, too. Windows appears to love including all sorts of unnecessary bloat which gobbles up CPU cycles. If there was some way to get rid of all this crud, I could easily get by with slower (and less power hungry) CPU. I don't follow mobile technology closely, but if I remember the whole hub-bub surrounding Transmeta's Crusoe chip (other then Torvald's name being attached) was that it could husband the cpu's power requirements based on needs of the OS. Something like that would work great for me, since most of the time I'm just typing into a MS Word document which shouldn't require that much in terms of CPU cycles.

    Sound: Does anyone really need stereo sound on a laptop? I hardly need sound to begin with, and I certainly don't need to be driving two speakers on my laptop. I'm somewhat of an audiophile, and I like good sound from my home stereo and portable music devices. But from my laptop computer it's more or less wasted. Granted, I can always (and usually do) mute the sound on my laptop to save energy, but it seems that a lot of power is being driven towards something that really only serves the purpose of giving warning bells and beeps. Sure, some people like to use their laptops as portable DVD players while on flights, but for me that's really not a necessity.

    Peripherals: I've never used or needed the CD-Rom burner on my laptops. Lately when I need to quickly transfer data from one machine to another, I'll use a USB thumb drive (a technology which I've learned to love!) In fact, I've never used any removable storage drives on my computer while mobile. Yet when I turn the laptop on, I can hear the drives spinning up, sucking power away. On my old laptop I had a secondary battery I could put in the slot where the CD-Rom goes, but I still had to carry around the drive in my laptop bag. That's not to say that I'd never need a CD-Rom drive, but it would be nice if I could easily just turn it off (as opposed to yanking it out of the laptop).

    Networking: Wifi is great. There are times when I can and do use wired or wireless networking when the laptop isn't plugged in. But I don't see why the integrated 802.11x device in my laptop needs to be on and taking up power while I'm in flight, or when I'm on the side of the road just trying to finish up a report. From what I understand, the wifi device is always running in the back
    • Perhaps you don't want something that runs Windows 2000/XP at all, but rather a simpler device. I'd suggest the ClioNXT [dataevolution.com]. It's not available just yet, but should be soon (I've preordered one to tinker with). The ClioNXT runs CE.NET 4.2 Pro on a 10" 800x600 color screen, and has built Wifi along with PC card, compactflash, and SD card slots. It will come with the CE versions of all Microsoft apps, and of course you can develop your own.

      From what I understand this device should run 8 to 12 hours on a batter
      • Actually, that looks just about perfect.

        The $999 price tag is a little steep, but overall it looks as if it's been custom tailored to address the laundry list of features I put above.

        The only question would be how it runs some of the third party apps I have to use for work. I know next to nothing about CE, or how it runs applications developed for other flavors of Windows.

        A HDD would be nice, even a small one, but if I can plug in USB thumb drives, I think that would probably take care of my needs.

        Heck
        • Yeah, the price is a bit steep, but I was able to pre-order it during a special they had in January and February for $799.

          As for what it will run, it's targeted toward PocketPC/CE applications. It will have a fully compatible version of Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and Outlook on it. There are a lot of third party apps being developed- MiniMo comes to mind, a CE version of Firefox. Also with it fully supporting the .NET framework it will be easy to port .NET apps to it.

          I figure for big storage I can ge
          • Considering the last laptop I bought was a Dell I got on special for $399, which does far more then I need it to, it's stil tough to justify spending an additional $600 (or even $400 to get the special deal you got) just for longer battery life.

            The .net is neat, and the pocket versions of MS Office would be used. Having Firefox ported is an added bonus. But I'm thinking of applications like Premivera's Suretrack or MS Project.

            Yes, I want my cake and I want to eat it too.

            Realisticlly, a conventional lap
    • Sound: Does anyone really need stereo sound on a laptop? I hardly need sound to begin with, and I certainly don't need to be driving two speakers on my laptop. I'm somewhat of an audiophile, and I like good sound from my home stereo and portable music devices. But from my laptop computer it's more or less wasted.

      I use my laptop as a music workstation. However, I'd be happy to find a laptop without integrated speakers, as they are utterly useless for anything besides beeps. The space saved might be usefu

    • The eight hour battery life sounds impressive. But what I want to know is, why can't we get that kind of long lasting power out of boring old regular laptops?

      You can. If you haven't found any, you haven't been looking. They're not cheap, though.

      High-power graphics: I don't play 3d games on the laptop.

      Good graphics are necessary even for watching a short video clip now and again. If you don't really use it, it's not going to be using up very much power.

      In reality, a 800x600 screen with 16 bit color

  • When are we going to see some diversity in tablets? It's easy to find a big, heavy tablet with a 12-15" screen, attached keyboard, all the wizbangs you could ask for ... But when am I going to see a replacement for my Newton, at least hardware-wise? While the Newton wasn't pocketable in the same way Palm Pro was, it was still small enough to have with me all the time, stuck in my pocket or in a small bag/case. For me, it's the perfect form factor- a large paperback book. I want a PDA or a tablet with a
  • Is there any software that can convert
    a trackpad into a medium for handwriting recognition?

    a key selling feature of these tablet PCs is that handwriting complex equations (eg when sitting in a classroom taking notes for CS/Math/Econ) is much easier when you can just jot it down.

    If my ibook came with a stylus and a means for writing these eqns down on my trackpad (and then saving them as an image//handwriting recognition for symbols etc) -- I think the usability would go through the roof...

    Any observation

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