It has been about four days, two rebuilds, using my M400. At first I thought I would take a ride on the wild side with Windows Vista 5308. Many of the Toshiba features didn't work properly, Bluetooth, fingerprint logon, Hard drive accelerometer to name a few. The most annoying of the bunch was the inability to be able to use DUN with my Windows Mobile 5 EDVO phone. Bluetooth wouldn't work and the USB DUN required a reboot every time I disconnected the phone. Lucky for me I had made the recovery DVDs before I actually took the walk =).
Occasionally after an install, the Tablet hardware buttons didn't work. I don't know what the cause was but all I had to do was reinstall the driver. One other thing, if you office uses Citrix, don't install the password manager. It replaces the windows logon GINA and your fingerprint logon will no longer work. A quick uninstall of this remedied the problem.
Anyway everything is back to defaults, Windows XP and all the Toshiba drivers. For the most part I have to say everything is working as expected. I did have to hard boot a few times since the screen would turn off and I could not get it to turn back on. (I found that I had to update a bunch of the drivers from the Toshiba site. The weird problems disappeared after doing so.)
The one feature I am really happy with is the fingerprint reader. Since it is a pain to enter my password in through the virtual keyboard or switching to the keyboard (When I have the screen in Tablet mode), I was happy that I didn't have to disable the normal security features of the OS just so I didn't have to be inconvenienced.
Some other things that I really like, are the dedicated page up and page down keys on the keyboard. On my Dell 700m, you need to press the function key to utilize page up/page down. The high resolution screen, SXGA+ , is a dream for reading those e-books in portrait view. The keyboard is nice and comfortable, a little soft compared to the IBM Thinkpads.
For all those Photo enthusiasts, the high res screen in conjunction with a digitizer makes those retouching jobs a breeze. Since most graphics cards do not accelerated 2D actions as done by most graphics programs, the dual core processor makes many of these operations fast! An now you can do it anywhere you can take your Tablet!
In my last post, I mentioned that the Core Duo's seem to have Virtualization turned on. It seems that Intel has updated their processor feature set silently. Kudos to Intel. Now we have to wait for Microsoft or VMWare to get on the hardware virtualization bandwagon. There was a write-up on this feature as related to the Intel iMAC.
So far the handwriting learning curve has been relatively minor. I am really impressed with how good the handwriting recognition is. So the lack of people using a pen will decrease and good legible penmanship will rise. So have written this whole blog entry using the pen.
I don't have that much negative to say about the tablet, however I wish the default battery life was a bit longer and the cost of the accessories were much cheaper. Why would anyone spend $200 for an external charger?
A recommendation would be to make the screen a wide screen and move the battery to the rear like the Dell 700m. This will also allow you to slim down the chassis.
But in summary the Toshiba M400 is really in a class by itself. It is the only high resolution (1400x1050) Core Duo tablet on the market.
It looks to me that Intel may have enabled their Virtualization technology in their Core Duo chips. But alas it seems that it is only working on the Apple/Intel machines.
What does this mean… Are PC users now second class citizens, next to Apple? Or are PC manufactures behind on implementing the new features in their BIOS? Anyway this is good news since VT allows the second virtual machine to run almost as fast as booting it natively. Very cool.
Tablet Kiosk pic0
Tablet Kiosk pic1
Tablet Kiosk pic2
ASUS UMPC pic0
ASUS UMPC pic1
Not a UMPC but really cool: Motion Computing LS800 pic0
It is about the same thickness but a bit wider, since it is 800x600 vs. 800x400
There were a number of UMPCs and Tablets here at the conference. Tablet Kiosk and ASUS. They also had the Fujitsu 1510D and the Motion Computing LS800.
I won't go into the details, you can get them from the links above.
These devices are a nice size, little on the heavy side though. They run pretty hot, which doesn't lend its self to good battery life.
Unfortunately they were only showing off the tablet pc user interface, there were no videos or applications to really get a feel for the power of the VIA processor.
With the various units side by side, I am really having a hard time understanding why I would buy a UMPC. I still like the portability aspect, but I need a bit more computing power if I am going to carry a UMPC as my primary device. If I need some basic note entry, I still have my WM5 phone.
But the Motion Computing LS800 and the Fujitsu 1510D are what I think I would look to for a ultra-mobile tablet, if they could add a touch screen in addition.
The IBM ThinkPad x41 and the upcoming IBM ThinkPadx61 a good compromise between portability and functionality for a laptop.
Anyway, I am still leaning toward the Toshiba M400 for my primary laptop.
I can't believe that the UMPCs will cost more than some laptops!!! I don't know if I would buy one now especially since there is not Core Duo in the device...
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/31/samsung-q1-umpc-available-for-pre-order-for-1-400/
If the price doesn't com down I am going to forget about it...
So it has been a couple of weeks since I have had my XV-6700. So far it has been a good device. The most notable areas are
-
EDVO connection (200-300kb 80-90% of the time, 700-1000kb in some areas. Tested with infospeed.verizon.net)
-
Keyboard (Wide keyboard, took some time getting use to since I was a Treo user)
-
Screen (Bigger than the Treo 700w)
-
Windows Mobile 5
-
Intel PXA 270 (Not TI OMAPI, not as sluggish when running multiple apps. Web browsing large pages is more stable than Treo 700w.)
-
Cradle that supports charging second battery.
-
When Phone is seated in cradle, the phone isn't drawing power from your USB ports. Useful when you have a bus powered hard drive that needs USB power.
Some areas that I think need improvement are
-
Phone (Only supports 1-10 quick dial numbers)
-
Single hand use (Almost impossible, but doable with practice. To many steps to find and dial a number, don't do this while driving. =) Get a Bluetooth voice dialer.)
-
More user assignable (shortcut) hardware keys. (Leverage the full keyboard hardware keys for application launch, phone dial etc…Take a tip from the Treo 700w)
-
Battery life (Moderate to heavy use, the phone will only last one day)
Conclusion...
I think overall for a person who needs functionality over portability this is a great phone for them. Otherwise if you need a better phone with occasional internet access you should probably look to the Treo 700w. (You should be aware of this article) And finally for all of those people who absolutely need portability, then you will want to get the Cingular 2125.