I've never owned a tablet PC before. Until now. I just broke down and spent what feels like my life's savings on a Lenovo X61 tablet convertible. It won out over my other alternatives: a Q1 Ultra or the yet unreleased Asus T83.

Some of you may wonder why I would choose a bulkier X61 over a UMPC, when I clearly love the advantages of a lighter device with a 7"-10" screen size.

The decision was based mostly on the quality and power and years of service it should give me versus a Q1 Ultra. How could I compromise features with the Q1 just to cut the size in half? I am hoping that the additional size and weight of the X61 is somewhat offset by the ability to use it as a slate on my lap. As wonderful and useful as the Q1 would be, it seemed a bit too much like an underpowered toy, and I preferred a convertible form factor. In addition, I know that UMPCs are going to be revolutionized in price, features and power over the next couple of years anyway, so it just seemed too early to get one.

I suppose the Lenovo tablet might be "overkill", but I know it's got the power and storage I need, and now I get to see how both active and passive digitizers work as well as getting a larger screen. That should give me a much better basis of experience for making decisions about future UMPC purchases. (You know... somewhere around the year 2020 after my gadget budget recovers from this purchase!)

I prefer the Q1 size, but I just didn't feel that the UMPCs are quite mature enough to spend all that money on one. I do still long for a UMPC in addition to my X61 because I think the portability would revolutionize my computing life. But at this point a UMPC is going to have to wait. Maybe in 2020!

Obvious warning: Don't assume that the X61 is the right choice for everyone. It was the right choice for me, but a UMPC might be your perfect choice. As they always emphasize about tablet devices over at JKonTheRun (http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/), for example, these devices all involve trade offs. No single product is going to be best for everyone.

Obvious question: Will the X61 also be useful as a ridiculously expensive and overpowered e-book reader? I hope so!

Bob: That should work out to about $15 per month from now until 2020. You can do it. By then the prices on UMPC should drop a bit and have improved functionality.

OK, it can read A4 and letter sized PDFs.

Now the question on everyone's mind is: "Can you keep the Lenovo X61 working for 13 years?" Or are you going to use Paris Hilton accounting and get a new machine later this year? :D

Bob, I am surprised your enthusiasm was diverted from the Foleo!

Personally I am going to take the money I save by not buying a Lenovo X61 tablet and invest it in 12 Asus Eees. I will glue one to each bathroom wall, another one to the kitchen wall, keep one in the glove box "just in case". I will carry one in my book bag and keep another one on the coffee table. The folks at the internet coffee shop will keep an extra one under the counter for me for when I am thirsty. I will use the others for doorstops until a new purpose for them occurs to me. :D

But seriously, congratulations. This review (http://www.gottabemobile.com/LenovoThinkpadX61TabletPCFirstImpressions.aspx) suggests it is a great package. I am looking forward to your ongoing impressions of it.

It seems that a few months ago the choices were rather mundane. Now the tech market is turning into such a candy store. I am rather thankful I can only buy once a year when I visit the west.

@RWood: You'd be surprised! I have another ThinkPad laptop that I still like, which is probably about 13yrs old, and I can still use (well only for MS Office, and only when plugged into the wall outlet because the battery doesn't hold a charge!)

@Mogui: I like that! The "Tribble" philosophy for ubiquitous computing. You might be on to something! :wink:

Congrats on the new acquisition, Bob! :yes: I hope it works out really well for you. I should be getting a similar system soon through work (if they procurement folks ever get off it), and I have high hopes for the advantages the dual form factor will add to the way I work. I think it'll fit well with the way I already do things.

@ mogui, you present a very ... interesting image of your home. :grin3:

The decision was based mostly on the quality and power and years of service it should give me versus a Q1 Ultra.

Bob, and I thought it was I who influenced you in your decision-making :D Congrats on your new purchase. I know you'll love it -- common, it's a Lenovo, and we know they make the best PC notebooks out there!!

Congrats Bob,

I was never a Laptop-guy myself (anything that I can't upgrade myself is out of the question for me... ;) ) but I think the advantages over the UMPC are the same as my newest Mobile Phone (a Fujitsu-Siemens T830) over most of the other Omni-Phones out there.

Small size may be cool, but you need to be able to actually use the device, and the more functions it has the more keys it should have (really..) because all those fancy on-screen keyboards and stuff just don't have what it takes to replace a REAL keyboard and systems like predictive input have their limits...and you usually find them more limiting than you would expect...
I love the T830 because it means I can enter text (for calender entries, mobileread.com posts on-the-go and short emails) easily in whichever language I choose and can also tap the screen to quickly select certain links in the browser and so on...it's the first gadget-device where I have the feeling that I can actually use many of the functions...!!!

I hope you are as happy with your device as I am with mine!

@Mogui: I like that! The "Tribble" philosophy for ubiquitous computing. You might be on to something! :wink:

Ha ha! I had forgotten about the Tribbles! I must find that story again.

I was never a Laptop-guy myself (anything that I can't upgrade myself is out of the question for me... ;) ) but I think the advantages over the UMPC are the same as my newest Mobile Phone (a Fujitsu-Siemens T830) over most of the other Omni-Phones out there.

http://www.lunchboxcomputers.com/images/LC2000thumb.jpg

How can we define true love? Many years ago I developed a couple of protocol analyzers for the aircraft industry. They were done on what we called a "lunchbox machine". It had an early monochrome LCD and could house several ISA boards for added functionality.

It was luggable. It was lovable. Years later I found one in a thrift store. It still clutters up my apartment. I can't get rid of it. It is sooo practical, and soooo obsolete!

Has anyone looked at the Lenovo website? You can tell that they are trying to copy Dell, but fall short.

It's disappointing. They only offer one battery option, and only a 1 yr warranty. I, for one, always get at least a three year warranty on my laptop. Until they offer one there is no way I would buy a laptop from them. What does it say about their hardware, if they only warranty it for a year?

Actually, Lenovo has had a fantastic reputation for hardware so far. And for the X61, they do have a warranty (plus accident protection if you want it) for up to 4 years. You probably have to go to the second page of the order customizations.

I agree that a lot of these online sellers make the order process painful and the right information is not always there, or on the right screens where you need it. Partly, I suspect that it's on purpose - they want people to just make quick decisions without researching, so they pick the "recommended" high profit selections, and throw in some of the unnecessary accessories and software that are high profit add ons which aren't even needed by most people.

But I think you pretty much see that on all the major online computer makers.

The frustration I face is that it will be quite a while before the order ships. (Right now it says 7/12, but there have been reports that those ship dates can often slip.)Has anyone looked at the Lenovo website? You can tell that they are trying to copy Dell, but fall short.

It's disappointing. They only offer one battery option, and only a 1 yr warranty. I, for one, always get at least a three year warranty on my laptop. Until they offer one there is no way I would buy a laptop from them. What does it say about their hardware, if they only warranty it for a year?

Quite true, Alex! I had ruled out Lenovo because of the price, until you urged me to give it a second and third look. So you definitely get your share of the blame credit! ;)Bob, and I thought it was I who influenced you in your decision-making :D Congrats on your new purchase. I know you'll love it -- common, it's a Lenovo, and we know they make the best PC notebooks out there!!

This is a very interesting article expressing concern with the current platform being used for the newer UMPCs like the Samsung Q1 Ultra. The thought is that if you are getting a UMPC and can wait, then the next generation chips for 2008 will be much more suitable.

http://ultramobilepc-tips.blogspot.com/2007/06/mccaslin-stealya110a100-brief-stop-gap.html

Does this mean your Foleosis has been cured? :p

<< take two tablets and call me in the morning >>

Does this mean your Foleosis has been cured? :pBelieve it or not, it even exacerbates the symptoms. I want a Foleo more than ever. The Lenovo tablet will be good for serious computing around the house or at a table. My smart phone is great for limited "always in my pocket" computing. But there's still a need for Foleo/UMPC computing. UMPCs are a bit expensive, and Foleo is a bit limited. So people will have differing opinions.

My thought is that Foleo can do email, web and MS Office documents. That's good enough for me when I'm on the go. If it's a well designed product it could be really useful. The size and portability of a smaller, instant on, device makes it something that I would be a hundred times more likely to carry with me at meetings, conferences, on planes or in cars, etc. But like UMPCs, the Foleo is also in an immature state, so better to wait for more powerful devices with better smart phone integration and more third party applications.

So my Foleosis really does seem to be nearly incurable if the product is well-done.

Do you mean the page where you select the RAM, HD, etc.? That's where I was. I was only offered the one battery and one warranty option. If they put more options elsewhere, then their website setup is f***ing stupid.

I am also amazed at the delay you have to suffer. I ordered my last Dell laptop on a Monday. UPS delivered it on the following Monday. That is the turnaround time I measure everyone else against.

Actually, Lenovo has had a fantastic reputation for hardware so far. And for the X61, they do have a warranty (plus accident protection if you want it) for up to 4 years. You probably have to go to the second page of the order customizations.

I agree that a lot of these online sellers make the order process painful and the right information is not always there, or on the right screens where you need it. Partly, I suspect that it's on purpose - they want people to just make quick decisions without researching, so they pick the "recommended" high profit selections, and throw in some of the unnecessary accessories and software that are high profit add ons which aren't even needed by most people.

But I think you pretty much see that on all the major online computer makers.

The frustration I face is that it will be quite a while before the order ships. (Right now it says 7/12, but there have been reports that those ship dates can often slip.)

Actually, it's the next page. On my order, I believe the page with hard drive and RAM options only had a single 1-yr warranty line listed at the bottom. But when I clicked on "CONTINUE", all the full warranty selections were there at the top of that next page.Do you mean the page where you select the RAM, HD, etc.? That's where I was. I was only offered the one battery and one warranty option.

So my Foleosis really does seem to be nearly incurable if the product is well-done.

Ah! This sentence clinches it - you've been cured :D
You've stopped trying to find excuses for buying Foleo and resorted to waiting for a v2.0 :p

Edit: FWIW, i had a chance to play with an X60t and review it recently, and it's a really nice little machine (as long as you replace the light battery it comes with with the 8-cell one - the 4-cell lasts for only about an hour and a half of real use). I quite liked it (although i still consider slate Tablet PC's the only *true* tablets) and am sure you'll be really happy with your X61t.

Bob, excellent choice, you will love it! Marc and I just released the podcast covering the X61 today.

One think that might excite me about the Foleo is the possibility that it could come up with a screenful of Palm apps. I mean, you turn it on and within a second, you have access to everything you could see on a Palm T|X screen (for example). With that combination, the Foleo would be one of the easiest-to-use computers on the market.

I have purchased computers for nontech people in my family several times. I have taught them how to get on the internet and use email and chat. The next time I see them they have forgotten or become confused.

With the Foleo (in this fantasy) there would be no waiting. Grandma could click the listen-to-music icon or the view-my-photos icon.

Maybe I am deluding myself. Maybe it is just too much to expect.

My thought is that Foleo can do email, web and MS Office documents.

Do we know this, though? I thought the Foleo didn't come with anything other than contacts, calendar and web browsing. I'd LOVE to be wrong about that.

Lenovo's web site may be lacking, but bear in mind that Lenovo is really a corporate PC brand and not a consumer brand; most of their sales go to businesses, and most business are buying from a reseller like CDW or Insight, and not from Lenovo directly. The Lenovos aren't sexy, but they're solid.

Do we know this, though? I thought the Foleo didn't come with anything other than contacts, calendar and web browsing. I'd LOVE to be wrong about that.


It CAN open office attachments and uses Documents To Go, at least according to the official site:
http://www.palm.com/us/products/mobilecompanion/foleo/attachments.html

And web browsing would get you to any e-mail client that you can access over the web. :shrug:

Hi Bob!

I advise you to consider a Compaq/HP Tc1000 or TC1100 TabletPc.

You can find a review of the TC1100 here:
http://www.tabletpc2.com/Review-HPTC1100.htm

and of the TC1000 here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/HP_Compaq_Ta...-20627295.html

You should be able to fetch them used on ebay, the TC1100 for around 7-800 US$ and the TC1000 for around 4-500 US$.

I used to own a TC1000 and now have a TC1100, and found them reliable. The only real problem with the TC1000 was the affidability of the powered stylus, a problem that is totally solved by the TC1100 un-powered one.

I think Bob's pretty well decided, erwin, but I'm looking at a TC4400 through work, do you think your experiences with the 1100 would apply well to the 4400?

The main issues with the new HP tablet that ruled it out for me were battery life and heat/fan noise. Besides it wasn't that much cheaper either.

Hmmm. I'm not sure how much those will bother me, since I won't be using it "on the go" so much as transporting it from place to place.

I am a bit concerned about the lack of an optical drive, but I'll figure something out on that, I'm sure. :shrug:

If you're looking for a vintage slate Tablet, the best one ever made IMHO was NEC's Versa T400. Especially for reading ebooks :D

I had it for about a year, then sold it because i needed the money (for other gadgets ;)). It weighed 1kg (2.2lb), was thick 1.5cm and had almost exact footprint of an A4 page. You could easily hold it in one hand for long periods of time and it never heated up above lukewarm levels. It used a Wacom digitizer (with a non-powered, or, actually, inductive pen) with pressure sensitivity and came with two pens - one stylus sized, without pressure sensitivity and an eraser, that fit inside the tablet, and a larger, typical Wacom pen, with all the bells and whistles. It was ideal for reading, quick jotting on the go and quick/light graphics editing.

It's only downsides were relatively non-impressive battery life (around 2.5-3 hours of averagely to slightly above averagely intense use - read: light Photoshopping) and limited storage space (20 GB HDD, and it was very hard to replace it, because it was of the slim, 5mm kind).

I kinda regret i sold it... :/

I'm not really looking for vintage, so much as a telecommuting/desktop replacement machine, and I don't expect to be reading all that much on it, I've got my Sony Reader for that. :wink2:

But it does sound like an impressive system from those early Tablet days. :smile:

Anyone have any experience with screen protectors for tablet PCs? Especially for both touch and active pen digitizer technologies.

I've seen these:
http://www.strongengineering.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=453
http://www.boxwave.com/products/cleartouchcrystal/cleartouch-crystal-screen-protector-lenovo-thinkpad-x60_2444.htm
http://www.boxwave.com/products/cleartouch/cleartouch-screen-protector-lenovo-thinkpad-x60_2444.htm

but I'm not sure if they will be more of a pain than a help.

Touch screen protectors are always a pain, it's just a question of how much pain :p

I used to use (overhead) transparencies, with one or two corners cut to slightly larger dimensions then the screen, so i can tuck it under the screen frame. Used to have one a tablet, and long time ago on an iPaq 3670. It held on pretty tightly (thanks to the oversized corner, static electricity and partial vacuum under it) and worked on both, the iPaq and the tablet, so i guess it works just fine on both passive and active touch screens (as long as it's not too thick).

Most transparencies i tried fared against scratches somewhat better than most dedicated screen protectors, but once they got scratched, it was more visible, so you had to change them every now and then.

I think Bob's pretty well decided, erwin, but I'm looking at a TC4400 through work, do you think your experiences with the 1100 would apply well to the 4400?

In my opinion no.

The TC1xxx family had (beside other intersting ones) the almost unique feature of a separable keyboard. The tc4400 is a convertible model.

The TC and TX stuff around today is related to the old TC1xxx models as the today iPaqs are related to the original modular design from Compaq: i.e. none at all! :D

In both cases HP continued to use the name of the product families after acquiring the lines form/with Compaq (both the modular iPaq and TC1xxx original projects were from HTC teams design anyway, if I remember well), and totally butchering every bit of originality in them... :(

If you want to have a more vivid impression of the TC1xxx models you can find some videos on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tc1100&search=Search

I actually remember them, now that I see images. The local MicroCenter had them on display, so I got to play with one a bit. I liked them well enough, but came away decided that the 10" screen was just not big enough for the resolution it seemed to force me to use. :shrug:

I like the 12 inchers a lot better -- it's amazing how much difference a mere 2 inches can make. :shrug:

Sigh!

I just wish Apple could get in the tablet and ebook businesses.:disappoin

I like the 12 inchers a lot better -- it's amazing how much difference a mere 2 inches can make. :shrug:

For me the 2" smaller screen is not so important compared with the general ergonomy of the machine, but, as always, is a question of tastes...

For me, it was more a question of visual acuity -- I couldn't see anything on the smaller screen at 1024X768! :dizzy:

With tablets, especially slate tablets, you can always use your built in zoom function (i.e. bring the tablet closer ;)).

Unlike with traditional laptops and heavier machines.

True, but this was beyond the limits of that. :tired:

erwin: I've never had a problem with my TC100's stylus, it's powered by a little AAAA battery (yup, finding the battery was a little problematic but Home Depot carried it). 4 years in August. I did have to buy a new keyboard a little over a year ago, when I spilled a Mountain Dew on it. Got a brand new one for $50 off of eBay.

Bob: I think most of the newer Tablet PC's have scratch-resistant screens. I never used them on mine and there aren't any scratches on it. For that matter, the Gateway rep made a point to show how durable their model was by running his keys over the screen and knocking on it like he was wanting to come in.

... when I spilled a Mountain Dew on it.Interesting bit of trivia: You know the old, manually operated telephone switchboards? The ones with all the plugs and patch cable? They had a flat surface on top, with lots of ventilation slots cut in the panel to allow the heat from the vacuum tubes to escape easily.

What do you suppose the primary cause of failures in those devices was?

Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.

The operators would set their soup mugs on that flat surface, and inevitably it would get spilled sooner or later.

Just a bit of useless trivia that I always found interesting. Carry on. :smug:

erwin: I've never had a problem with my TC100's stylus, it's powered by a little AAAA battery (yup, finding the battery was a little problematic but Home Depot carried it). 4 years in August. I did have to buy a new keyboard a little over a year ago, when I spilled a Mountain Dew on it. Got a brand new one for $50 off of eBay.



From the info I got at the time the TC1000 pen problems were a "yes or no" issue: some machine had them right from the start, others never at all in their life. Mine, unfortunately, was a "yes" machine... :( :D

Anyway, I'm happy the have switched to the 1100 (bought it second hand on eBay for about 700 €). The 1100 is more powerful enough to eliminate all the (already few indeed) sluggines of the 1000, and the incorporated Bluetooth and SD slot are really useful.

IMO is unfortunate that HP choosed to terminate that form-factor product line.

Bob,
I'm desperately awaiting your opinion on the Ebook side of things with your tablet pc.
I'm on the very cliff-edge of buying a tablet myself rather than a Sony reader.
I figured that with the tablet I won't have any native pdf issues, I can also read my comics (cbr files) in full colour, and on top of ALL of that, I can surf the net if I'm in a wireless hotspot.
How can a Sony reader possibly live up to all that?
(Am I sort of looking at it in the right way?)
I'm torn between a IBM thinkpad x1 or a Fujitsu Stylistic 5020.
Both look very good...
So as for the pdf reading, I'd love you to confirm if it's just like reading a pdf file on your home computer.
Open in Adobe Acrobat and read away.
No sizing probs etc, like on the Sony Reader.
Any advice at this vital turning point in my life would be greatly appreciated.
:pray:
Thanks in advance

Just discovered the Fujitsu p1610.
What a little beauty THAT looks like!?

Bob,
I'm desperately awaiting your opinion on the Ebook side of things with your tablet pc.Haven't tired yet, but I think it will be nice for displaying ebooks, not so nice for very long reading sessions due to weight & size. I'll let you know more when I've gotten around to using it that way. ;-)

You're rather comparing apples and oranges when you compare the Sony Reader with a Tablet PC :). If you want to read fiction - just normal books, from cover to cover - and have a device that's instantly "on" and you only have to recharge once a month or so, the Reader is unbeatable.

If you want a full-blown computer or if reading A4/Letter PDFs is important to you, a Tablet PC would be a much more sensible choice.

Better still, get both :).

Thanks Bob. Looking forward to hearing what you think.

Harry, I see your point 100%.
I honestly wanted a Sony for the sole purpose of reading ebooks.
However I had a look over my downloaded collection of novels and every one of them is a pdf file in varying sizes and fonts, and having read extensively on these forums about how native pdf isn't always what you want it to be on the Sony Reader, it started my mind wandering to alternatives.
Comics, for example, and graphic novels etc. Colour would be nice, I thought, and then I read about how tablets are fairly portable these days (albeit a lot more money than a Sony reader) and on top of the ebook side of things, I'll also have a laptop/tablet to take with me and log onto the net if I'm in a wireless area (something I've never done before).
So as you can see, all of the possibilities sort of opened up.
Now I just have to 'open up' my wallet and part with a lot more money than I originally intended.
Heck, if we were at the stage where the Ebook's displayed everything you put on them natively, and were in colour, I'd buy one today.
The fast startup times and long battery life are unbeatable, as you said.
Anyway, I'm still very confused either way.
When I noticed that Bob bought a tablet to read ebooks, I jumped on him for more info because if it works for him, then I'm on the right track.

For text based pdf, use pdf2html to convert the pdf. Then you can clean up the mess and use either html2lrf or Book Designer to make the final LRF.

I've recently purchased a tablet pc to use to read around the house so that I'm not tied to the computer. I've quite happy with it.

I just wanted to mention though as far as reading outside the home, like taking a quick read in the line at the MickeyD's or snatching a moment here and there over the course of the day - it would not be my personal choice "if" there was a dedicated device available in the size I would need (10"x<something) and reasonable pricing. As soon as one of those is out, I'll be grabbing one fast as I can.

3.5 lbs can be a lot heavier than you think too. Try to find something that's 4lbs and wave it around and see what you think.

Even being lighter than a laptop, it's still far heavier than a device, eInk is a superior delivery to the eyes and the battery charging would probably be an annoyance to anyone else. I just bought 4 adapters and plugged them in at the 4 places I was likely to read so I didn't have to haul that around the house too. But then, I'm divorced <laughs>, not an option for everyone. ;)

Anyway, I just wanted to mention I consider my recent used tablet purchase well worth the money but I also consider it a temporary thing until they make an e-reader device I can use.

...

Better still, get both :).

That's what I just did, though I bought a used Tablet PC rather than a new one. Love my Sony Reader, but PDFs just don't work very well on them, especially ones that don't rescale well.

I have used the PDF to LRF converters and they work quite well (with new, non-image PDFs), but I still couldn't mark them up, add comments, etc. Many of the PDFs are images of pages from old books (as in way old - some are 18th century), and the converters don't work as well (at least on the ones I've tried). So I bought an old Fujitsu ST 4110 Tablet PC off ebay and so far (just received it), I like it.

It is, as Wayspooled says, heavier than you'd think. I have a pillow book rest that I'm hoping will work with it. I have a lot of research PDFs to read and I really wanted something I could read while not having to sit at my main computer.

The Sony Reader is still tops for reading fiction, though. Light, easy to read, and with a battery that lasts a long long time - it can't be beat! :2thumbsup

I've been using a Lenovo X61T for reading fiction and comic books in PDF format. As many have noted, the screen is wonderful for this purpose, especially for comics:

http://wowio.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/pennyandaggie2.jpg (http://wowio.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/pennyandaggie2-big.jpg)

I think comics on the tablet actually often look better than they do in print. However, I agree with Wayspooled and others that it's a bit heavy at 4 pounds, and all of the Windows overhead is far more than I want to deal with for an impulse read. I find that I use the Sony Reader far more often for reading straight fiction. I use it for unconverted PDFs regularly, but in landscape mode to get a comfortable text size.

My ideal machine would be a light, iPhone-/iPod Touch-like tablet equipped with an 8-10" screen with the iPhone's high pixel density (160ppi), the same slick interface and the web-enabled feature set.

More photos and thoughts on the Lenovo X61T here:
Comic Book Fans Surf the Waves of Change (http://wowio.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/pennyandaggie2.jpg)
Lenovo X61T Hands-On: A Bookworm’s First Ride (http://wowio.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/lenovo-x61t-hands-on-reading-on-the-high-end)
Lenovo X61T: The Reading-on-the-Couch Test (http://wowio.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/lenovo-x61t-the-reading-on-the-couch-test/))

Interesting bit of trivia: You know the old, manually operated telephone switchboards? The ones with all the plugs and patch cable? They had a flat surface on top, with lots of ventilation slots cut in the panel to allow the heat from the vacuum tubes to escape easily.

What do you suppose the primary cause of failures in those devices was?

Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.

The operators would set their soup mugs on that flat surface, and inevitably it would get spilled sooner or later.

Just a bit of useless trivia that I always found interesting. Carry on. :smug:

Hahah, teach them to hire humans to run the switchboard... er, guess this was before the computing age evolved. Actually and interesting bit of trivia, I'm usually quite careful around PC's and such with drinks; quite a while back I spilled a soda on a regular keyboard and it just stopped working (strange because I figured it would have only made the keys a little less responsive and not totally kill it), after that I've been a lot more aware of where and how I handle my drinks around PC's.

You didn't happen to have a Campbells soup incident did you? :tipsy:

From the info I got at the time the TC1000 pen problems were a "yes or no" issue: some machine had them right from the start, others never at all in their life. Mine, unfortunately, was a "yes" machine... :( :D

Anyway, I'm happy the have switched to the 1100 (bought it second hand on eBay for about 700 €). The 1100 is more powerful enough to eliminate all the (already few indeed) sluggines of the 1000, and the incorporated Bluetooth and SD slot are really useful.

IMO is unfortunate that HP choosed to terminate that form-factor product line.

Yes, I've heard mixed reviews about the pens as well, though I've used a few different Tablet's afterwards and most of their pens were either too thin or felt like I was holding a square plastic stick in my hand; not too natural.

I agree about the TC1100, I should have upgraded already but decided I needed to move to a different form-factor. I could have really used the pep introduced by getting away from the tired Transmeta Crusoe proc, not to mention the Bluetooth and 802.11g would have been a nice upgrade! Does it still run as warm as its predecessor?

Also agree about how they terminated dev on the formfactor too, I think they could have eventually gotten the slate down to a lot lighter and thinner form (though it was pretty nice to begin with). Most of the weight was in the battery and there have been a lot of advances in mobile computing since. :smack:

Yes, I've heard mixed reviews about the pens as well, though I've used a few different Tablet's afterwards and most of their pens were either too thin or felt like I was holding a square plastic stick in my hand; not too natural.

The X61T's pen feels like the one from a Wacom tablet -- that's a good thing. It has a substantial diameter like that of a normal writing pen, and it's comfortable to hold.

You didn't happen to have a Campbells soup incident did you? :tipsy:Nope, the story was related to me in one of my Electronics classes in college (that type of switchboard rather pre-dates me, I'm afraid, and yes it was very much before computers :wink:).

Interesting you should mention keyboards -- with the old ones you could actually wash the things: dunk 'em repeatedly in clean water until you were happy with them. As long as you let them dry out completely before you plugged them back in, they were fine. Go figure. :shrug:

Can't do that with the new ones, of course the old ones didn't cost $9, either. :nice:

Nope, the story was related to me in one of my Electronics classes in college (that type of switchboard rather pre-dates me, I'm afraid, and yes it was very much before computers :wink:).

Interesting you should mention keyboards -- with the old ones you could actually wash the things: dunk 'em repeatedly in clean water until you were happy with them. As long as you let them dry out completely before you plugged them back in, they were fine. Go figure. :shrug:

Can't do that with the new ones, of course the old ones didn't cost $9, either. :nice:

Correct me if I'm wrong on this but isn't the USB card that's more likely to fail a shorting than the keyboard itself?

Not necessarily, yvanleterrible, the keyboard has circuit boards in it too.

A lot of modern stuff is, usually, a lot less moisture sensitive than you'd probably think, it's the combo of water and electricity that is ... a 'not good' thing.

It really depends a lot on the construction of the individual keyboard. If it uses epoxy circuit boards, and the key/contact/spring mechanism isn't sensitive to moisture, it'll probably come through fine, in the absence of electricity, of course.

A USB card would probably survive a dunking just fine, as long as it wasn't powered up at the time, and it wasn't re-connected until it dried thoroughly. They're mostly epoxy boards, and most components aren't too moisture sensitive these days.

For those old switchboards, for example: if I remember rightly, they just hosed 'em out, let em dry and replaced a few vacuum tubes and put 'em back in service. :shrug:

On the other hand ... I really, really don't recommend that anyone dunk electronic parts just to see what happens. :grin:

Wait, nevermind all that, I missed a word or two in your post, yvanleterrible.

Yeah, the USB card probably is more sensitive than the keyboard, but it's not that big a difference, I wouldn't think. However, I didn't put any research into that comment. :wink:

You gave good info, I didn't know there were cicuits in keyboards.

That's because you don't take apart everything you can get your hands on like some people do. :whistle:

That really upsets my wife, my taking things apart....

See, the trick is to get them put back together before she sees them ... well, that, or hide the evidence. :grin2:

hey can you give the information about full details

hey can you give the information about full detailsOf what, exactly? :headscratch:

Well, uh, the full details about the information. You said I heard you didn't I?

Well what I want to hear is what Bob thinks of reading on his tablet. We've been waiting patiently, Bob. :)

He's got a Sony Reader -- I'd be surprised if he has ever read on the Tablet -- I haven't on mine. :grin: