Santry Skunk Works -- We are playing around with a Tablet PC and it does what it says in the box. After a morning of messing around with it, I have three immediate observations. First, its Windows XP operating system protected me from the blue screen of death.¹ Second, the battery life is as good as it gets. We turned it on shortly after 0900 and it was still able to run WiFi plus an InFocus projector right up to noon. That's better than any battery powered laptop I've carried.² Third, it feels like Compaq have taken all their processing power and ensured they buttoned it into an ergo-friendly package that adapts to the user, not the other way around. This alone makes the TC1000 a fine piece of technology.
We've had the opportunity to compare the TC 1000 to an IBM TransNote. The TC 1000 has some rough edges in the pen computing department. Specifically, its pen actions are no where as intuitive as touching and tapping. But for people lugging around a 6-pound laptop that's more than 3 years old, the TC 1000 is a real leap into the 21st century.
Dan Bricklin tried out tablets and he agrees.
The most important thing to know about the Tablet PC, as far as I'm concerned so far, is that Microsoft did a great job...of naming it. Much as the press wants to call it a "pen" computer, it is a Tablet computer. You must understand that. The basis of the machine is that it is (or can be turned into) a tablet. The pen is secondary, and not always important. I think they did the right thing in concentrating on the tablet aspect. I would not get a Tablet PC without the software supporting the pen. Those who use OneNote from Microsoft Office swear by its usefulness.
NOTE ONE WEEK LATER: I am amazed that 56 different people viewed this page within the first week of its publication. That indicates there's a lot of interest in the slablets, and in getting tablet computers with Linux.
TWO WEEKS LATER: We carried the TC 1000 around the lobby of The Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel while setting up for a regional IT Conference and the thing was a bona fide Geek Magnet. Business Week's Stephen Wildstrom would agree.³
¹ However, we weren't running anything outside of the standard installation and we didn't work with any other application other than a browser and Office.
² I haven't explored the default power-saving features but I believe they are set to maximise power savings.
³ "The Compaq is the most interesting of the bunch," wrote Wildstrom in "The Liberation of Laptop Design," Business Week, November 25, 2002.
Dan Bricklin and "Sighting: Slablet", Topgold Blog, 25 Oct 02
Sent by TransNote over Nokia D211+Airport WiFi.
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