Category: tablet computing

Another day, a happier Adam.

First of all, via the prompting of a thoughtful work friend yesterday afternon, I realized that I hadn’t installed a critical update on OneNote (SP1)… and installing that made a world of difference. No more wonky behavior of menus not coming up or the system getting stuck in select-mode, etc. Chris Pratley, one of the OneNote developers, also was kind enough to include a very thoughtful comment on my earlier blog entry, confirming that SP1 fixes a ton of stuff with OneNote and tablets (specifically for my brand of tablet, Toshiba).

Either related to that update, or just my “training,” I’m finding that the tablet’s recognition of my handwriting is now excellent. Its recognition of my printing is only fair, but perhaps that’ll improve with time, too.

Some questions about writing things:

– I wonder if it’ll be confusing to the poor bugger if I switch back and forth between handwriting and printing.

– I’m also unsure how to optimize my printing so as to get the greatest recognition results.

– How can I consistently get small fonts? This seems easier with printing than with handwriting, but I’m not sure.

Some other discoveries / thoughts:

Writing the number “1” has so far been nearly impossible. Argh!

For some reason, one of the Tablet Input Panels I have is to “recognize” words I type into the English UK dictionary. Huh? Why the UK dictionary? Was my tablet set up in the wrong language? How do I even check this? And what does that TIP option do anyway? Is it the same as “Add to dictionary”?

I played “Spider Solitaire” which was both fun and (embarrassingly) hard even at the easiest level. One thing that made me annoyed and even a little uncomfortable, though, was the requirement that one literally drag stuff every move. Why couldn’t I simply tap on the origin and destination? That’d not only be a lot more efficient, but it’d also freak me out less about scratching my screen. Yes, I have a screen protector (looks crappy, but I haven’t yet bought a new / nicer one), but still…

I know others have mentioned this angrily in many other places, but I’ll chime in: Toshiba, it’s a travesty how much crapware you’ve installed on this machine, both in terms of actual software and shortcuts. Three AOL links, two AT&T things, + Zinio, Franklin Covey, and other stuff, too. Sheesh! Throw in some more paper leaflets like credit card companies do, if you must, but please stop the practice of crapifying my tablet (unless you want to reduce the cost by $500 per tablet, in which case, sure, go ahead, make my day).

On a happier note, this thing is kinda fun to use in bed. I read my blog feeds, checked out a few Web sites, played solitaire… wheee!

And this tablet rarely has the fan go on and is also not very hot to the touch. That’s refreshing, especially compared to other laptops I’ve used!

Oh, and I’m proud that so far, I’ve used this as a slate most of the time. The only time it has gotten to be a huge pain is when filling out registration forms. Oh yeah, and entering in the WEP key (twice!) to access my home wireless network. I cried uncle on that and used the keyboard.

Frankly, I’m still not yet really sold on my purchase. I could have surfed bloglines in bed using a laptop, for instance. But the true test will be, I think, how this goes in a meeting… especially an upcoming meeting in which I’m taking notes about some Web site design and flow issues. Perhaps I’ll then use the keyboard, but keep the pen handy so I can make drawing notes on top of text (arrows, highlighting, etc.).

I’ll keep y’all posted here. And thanks, everyone, for the thoughtful comments on my previous tablet entry!

I just bought a used tablet PC (TPC) via eBay, and I’m not quite sure why. Guess it’s just the insatiably curious geek in me. I could have likely gotten a free laptop to use via work, but no, I had to try a tablet :-P.

It’s a Toshiba M205, and here are a few of my initial thoughts after playing with it for an hour or two.

This pen feels cheap, like a thicker version of the pens I used to use on those $1 write-on-peel-off “tablet” thingies my folks’d buy me from Sav-On when I was little.

This screen is ugly with the protective cover thingy. Little bubbles, wrinkles, oh well. Doesn’t really hurt readability though.

And speaking of readability, I was really worried that my old tired eyes wouldn’t be able to make out fonts on a 12 inch screen at ~1400×1000, but it’s not bad at all. Text looks decently sharp.

Okay, now for the pen try-it demo thing. This damn thing doesn’t want to doubleclick! Ack. What’s the trick to this?!

The Tablet Input Panel (TIP) just doesn’t seem very intuitive at all. It disappears if I float my pen a little too far away from the screen, which is way too easy to do. And there appear to be clickable shortcuts to www and .com, but they disappear as soon as I pen a letter?!

Hmm… this thing (sort of) recognizes both printing and cursive. Kinda cool.

Damn, not much battery life on this thing! 2-3 hours, tops? I guess I knew that, but gee, that’s a bummer. Good thing I got a spare battery.

Okay, let’s play with OneNote. I already know this app from playing with it on my desktop. What the heck?! A measly 30 day trial? I thought this tablet came with a free license. That’s cheap.

Anyway, let’s see how it is with a pen. Grrrr… not very good! First time, it seemed to get ‘stuck’ on a particular selection point. No matter what I did, it’d select text before and after a particular point. Had to close and restart the program. Other frustrations:

– Bulleting with a pen is impossible. I’ve tried dashes. Little dots. Nothing gets interpreted as unordered lists. How dumb IS this thing?!

– Why does it keep automatically switching back to pen? I want to stay in select mode!

– I like how it suggests auto-correct-type words. Surprisingly good most of the time.

– Why does it insist on creating separate blocks when I’m trying to just create a couple of paragraphs with a line space in between as one block?

Grrr… so far, not off to a great start. And the paper docs are useless, too. Ridiculously general (don’t use the TPC in the bathtub kinda stuff). Maybe the manual-on-CD will give me a better jumpstart into the world of TPC’ing? I know I really should have thought about this before plunking down more than a grand, but why the heck did I buy a TPC anyway? I’m not an artist, nor do I want to be one. And maybe it’s just a steep learning curve, but so far it seems that I could take notes on a paper portfolio, then type them up manually on my desktop faster than I could clean up a handwritten OneNote page via my TPC.

Or maybe I’m just too impatient.

Hmm… okay, tomorrow I think I’ll try Evernote. It seems like a nifty program on my desktop and it has a very enthusiastic following with good support. And I guess I should install Office on this thing, along with the special Office Tablet extensions thingy.

Ack, and then so much general-PC stuff to set up… Firefox+extensions, trillian, logmein, desktop search, some sort of synchronizing program and/or backup program, yahoo music engine, MyLifeOrganized, and lots more.

Forgive me for being rather cranky tonight, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder whether owning a laptop will end up creating more work and headaches for me in the long run. Yeah, I’m a geek, but all this system prepping, learning, and maintenance stuff is just seeming daunting at the moment.

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UPDATE:
Some of the problems I complained about in this entry have been solved, largely by installing the OneNote SP1 update. See this more recent post for details.