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TabletPCBuzz.com Weekly Newsletter
For the week of May 18th, 2003

Bill is off to the Tablet PC Summit in Boston tomorrow, so we've got a fill in article for you. Dennis, who is also headed to the summit, recently went on a Caribbean cruise and took his Tablet PC along. In this article he tells a bit about his experiences on board with "TC". Thanks for inviting us to your inbox! ~Spencer

"Cruising" with my TC1000"
By Dennis Rice

Spring Break for my family this year brought about a long awaited event -- a family cruise in the Caribbean to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Montego Bay, Jamaica. We had long anticipated this event, and when the day came, of course our newest family member, my TC1000, jumped in his case (yes my TC1k is a guy), and came along for the ride! Just thought I would share just how handy it was to have my tablet along.

Of course the first thing to note is that in any long journey, lighter is better. I used to carry my Dell 8200 notebook along on trips like this (when my wife would let me), but now, it stays at home and the tablet goes with me, and believe me, when you travel with a family of four, you really appreciate every less pound. I had no problems at all with security; it went right through with no questions (although I suspect they just missed it -- not a good thought). My first actual use onboard and got a quiet moment, was of course to open up Journal and start ... well -- a Journal! I was struck once again (for about the thousandth time), at how nice it was to pick up the tablet, and just start writing. If you use Standby and Hibernate on your tablet, you know what I mean -- this is one of the best benefits of these computers. I did my journal (in Journal, I like saying that) in many different places. I did it in my cabin, the dining room, in several different lounges, as well as out on the "Promenade" deck sitting in a deck chair watching the blue waters go by. One negative note here, is that using the tablet outside was great on the Promenade deck (which is covered and shady), but anywhere else outside was just not practical without a transreflective screen. I even tried under an umbrella, and although it was doable, was definitely not desirable.

The main purpose for bringing the Tablet (besides not wanting it to get lonely), was to download digital pictures. I was using a borrowed Olympus E10 digital camera which uses Compact Flash cards. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was each evening when I returned to my cabin to simply insert the CF card into my TC1k, give it a folder name, and offload all pics. The XP Photo wizard works great. I could then take the tablet to dinner with me and share our images of the day with my family and the folks at our dinner table. I even emailed a few shots to family and friends back home. Our dinner companions were shocked that I was going to email them a picture of our dinner group, and that it would be in their email before they even got home. I could of course also have done this with a notebook computer, but it was a ton easier with the Tablet.

How about Internet connectivity? Our cruise was with Holland America, and I must say I was impressed with their Internet Cafe capability. For $3.95, you set up an account on the ship for Internet access for the whole cruise, and can either pay a bit more and rent a computer of theirs, or bring your own laptop (or Tablet of course) and use their system -- they even offer wireless 802.11b! For a fairly decent charge of about 10 cents a minute, you can attach wirelessly to their WAP onboard at the Internet Cafe, and do your email, web surfing, etc. I had no problem accessing their wireless system. Just turned on my wireless, entered login info, and I was online. They also offered temporary shipboard email accounts if you could not access you account from their system. There was an "Internet Manager" in the cafe at certain times to help, but for the most part you just went to the Cafe, sat down and did your thing. The night before we would dock at a port, I would go online, do a little research, and find sites, etc. for our days visit there. Very nicely done Holland America!

Other uses were for my 14 year old daughter to play a few games, I of course did do a little work (but only just a little) on sea days when I had gotten enough sun for the day, and a little e-book reading (but I had forgotten to download some new books). I did of course have to do the obligatory demos just about every time I displayed it in public, but I tried to sit in quiet places when I could. While in quiet areas, I would at times be sitting near someone who was reading (or catching a quick nap), and it was nice to know I would not disturb them with the tap-tap-tapping of a keyboard. One additional very special note was that my TC1k even fit inside the cabin's mini safe! Try that with your notebook computer! I did not have to worry about just leaving it sitting in my cabin, which was a nice thing!

Well, that is about it. I thoroughly enjoyed my cruise, but also was thankful to have my tablet along. My wife was much happier than when I had my notebook as well (although I did get fussed at a couple of times). The versatility of this unit continues to amaze me. You can take a tablet lots of places that you would never go with a notebook computer. I really enjoyed having "TC" along!


"Ask the Buzz"
Here is the question for this week's Ask the Buzz

Question: How do I reconfigure the hardware buttons on my Tablet PC?

TabletPCBuzz: Reconfiguring a hardware button takes several steps, but is fairly easy to do. First, open the Tablet And Pen Settings dialog box. To do this, click the Tablet And Pen Settings icon in the taskbar notification area. You may need to show the hidden icons by clicking on the arrows in that area. Once you have opened this dialog box, click the Tablet Buttons tab.

The next thing to do is decide whether the change you will make applies to all screen orentations or just one. One you've decided that, follow these steps to make the change:

1. Select the screen orientation you want your change to effect in the Button Settings For list. The default is that the changes apply to all orientations.

2. Tap the name of the button you want to configure in the list at the bottom of the dialog box. The Button Location and Detailed View images in the dialog box change to show the button or button combination that you've selected.

3. Tap Change to open the Change Tablet Button Actions dialog box. The name of the button you selected appears at the top of the dialog box, right above an Action list.

4. Find the name of the action you want the button to perform in the Action list. If you select Launch an Application or Press a Key or Key Combination in this list, additional options appear in the settings area of the dialog box. For this example I'm going to select Press a Key or Key Combination.

5. Tap Clear in the Settings part of the dialog box, then tap once in the Keys text box to the highlight the word (None).

6. Press the key you want the hardware button to act as.

7. Tap OK to return to the Tablet Buttons tabs.

That is it, you've configured a hardware button. Repeat the same process to configure whatever other hardware buttons you wish to.

Got a question about the Tablet PC OS? A specific Tablet PC? Wondering how to do something with your Tablet PC? Whatever your question, send it to Ask the Buzz at spg@tabletpcbuzz.com. Thanks!


Tip of the Week

Repair Windows Journal :
If you have problems with Journal crashing on startup, try the following method to repair it. With Journal closed, tap Start|Run to open the Run dialog box. In the open text box type "Journal /REPAIRJOURNAL", then tap OK. Next, close the Run dialog box and restart your Tablet PC.


Tablet PC Buzz Poll
Q: Which first generation Tablet PC model do you like best?
A:
Acer C100:
8%
Compaq TC1000:
43%
Fujitsu Stylistic:
5%
Motion Computing M1200:
13%
Toshiba Portege 3500:
23%
NEC Versa Litepad:
6%
Other:
2%
Total Votes: 710

This week's poll question:
User assistance polls (See below)
Vote now at http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com!


Tablet PC user assistance polls

I've been asked by Microsoft to run a couple of polls regarding how much the user assistance features of the Tablet PC get used. So this week there will be three poll questions with yes/no answers in our weekly poll box. Please respond and let Microsoft know what is being used the most so that they can improve the usefulness of user assistance. Thanks!


Top News Story of the Week
Motion Computing First To Market With Slate Tablet PC Designed Around Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
By Peter Rysavy

It's cute how press releases these days aim to be the "first" something at any cost. The Panasonic was the first announced Centrino tablet. Acer topped it by being the first to market. And now Motion is the first to market slate tablet.

"Demonstrating market leadership and a nimble build-to-order business model, Motion Computing today introduced an innovative slate Tablet PC with the breakthrough mobile performance of Intel(R) Centrino(TM) technology.

The first "pure slate" on the market to feature Intel's most advanced mobile architecture, the Wi-Fi-enabled Motion M1300 Tablet PC delivers more processing power and longer battery life.

Compared with the company's former top-line product, the award-winning M1200, the M1300 operates up to 30 percent faster and extends typical battery life by 10 to 15 percent."

Not a drastic battery life increase, but practical user experiences and benchmarks may tell us more eventually. And here's pricing:

"Priced from $2,099, the M1300 Tablet PC is available now at http://motioncomputing.com or from more than 70 value-added resellers (VARs) in North America and the UK." (http://motioncomputing.com/about/release_m1300.asp).


Weekly Tablet PC News Headlines
May 17 2003 - ITBusiness.ca: York Region District totes tablets to school
May 16 2003 - Athens will synchronize with Tablet PCs
May 16 2003 - nVision Tablet PC shipping in Taiwan?
May 16 2003 - Sharp laptop with desktop sync abilites, good idea for Tablet PCs?
May 16 2003 - New tablet computer announced, not true Tablet PC
May 14 2003 - Forum Signatures
May 14 2003 - CNET: E-paper turns a corner
May 14 2003 - Silicon Valley Biz Ink: Microsoft and Ganassi Team Up at Indianapolis 500
May 14 2003 - MCP Magazine: "My First 150 Days With a Tablet PC"
May 14 2003 - MCAD Cafe: Alias/Wavefront and Acer Join Together to Drive Tablet PC Sales with New Alias SketchBook Pro Software Bundle
May 14 2003 - Business Week: A Light, Potent Tablet PC
May 13 2003 - Speaking of chats...
May 13 2003 - Microsoft Tablet PC development chat reminder
May 12 2003 - TabletPCBuzz Gear contest winners, hardware forums
May 12 2003 - CNET: Intel prototype transforms notebook
May 12 2003 - eWeek: MPC Adds Offerings Beyond the Desktop
May 12 2003 - PC World: Motion Ships Centrino Tablet PC
May 12 2003 - BusinessWire: Motion Computing Says UK Expansion First Step Toward Worldwide Network Of Tablet PC Resellers
May 12 2003 - BusinessWire: Motion Computing First To Market With Slate Tablet PC Designed Around Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
May 12 2003 - Wired News: Etch a Site as Easy as Pie

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