[petermillard]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Would someone that had real hands on experience with the Microsoft Tablet of 10 or more years ago care to comment on it.

I believe it had a stylus.

I have used a stylus on a Palm PDA and on a Wacom pad. How did the MS tablet compare?

I had a Compaq TC 1000 - the early one with the skanky Transmeta Crusoe processor - for a little while. It was perfectly adequate for its time, albeit slow - slooooow - with a so-so 10" screen; chunky, heavy and poor battery life, it was pen-based computing of it's day, but compared to the poisonous Fujitsu tablet I had before that running WinCE it was a joy to use.

WinXP Tablet Edition wasn't bad at all; you could write with 'digital ink' in a specific application (Journal??) or use the 'ink to text' utility to write in a specific area and have the words translated into typing in apps that supported it; handwriting recognition was pretty good, though I do remember having problems putting formulae into spreadsheets with it - the virtual keyboard was a better bet for that.

The pen/stylus was powered, and not Wacom-type, it was something else, can't remember what; FineLine or something like that? I remember it being criticised for not being Wacom-compatible, though I don't think it really made a difference for many people.

It was very expensive at the time, around £1500 UKP I think; my wife's company had a few units in for evaluation, then sold them off to the staff at a big discount, so I picked it up cheaply and sold it on at a profit - I couldn't justify keeping it and I am nothing if not mercenary

Originally Posted by SeaKing

I want a tablet for the cockpit, for the car (disclaimer: not while at the controls). In a tight space. Essentially like an eReader but more. To read, to study, to listen to a course, in the car to have a larger GPS. You don't have to worry about sand or mud in the keyboard while using it. Just protect the ports.

I love the built in GPS, larger than the portable GPS I have in the truck. Note not aGPS with cellular GPS or WiFi, but a built in chip. As for the cellular connection when wanted or needed for email or browsing a WiFi tablet can use a mobile hotspot or a business hotspot.

Now I have tried a phone with all these functions but the screen was too small...

You've just described my usage of a tablet for the last couple of years - though in addition I've been using it as an A-Z, a TV, a radio, my book, news and magazine reader. I've used it to check parking restrictions near a customers house before visiting them, I take all my work notes on it, use it for a whole host of things you'd expect, and a few you wouldn't e.g. invoicing and accounts - who'd have thought?

And every time I hear someone say that the iPad is just a 'media tablet' for 'content consumption' I just laugh to myself; I do understand that it won't work for everyone, but it works just fine for me.

Cheers, Pete