Tablet PC Buzz

Question re LG LT20-123U1 v. LT20-154F1

Hi,

I must choose between two versions of the LG LT20. The LT20-123U1 is going for C$1,729.00, and the LT20-154F1 (French) for C$1,813.00.

Are the LT20-154F1 keys physically arranged in the AZERTY format, or is it just a regular English keyboard with the keys remapped? I asked at a nearby Compusmart and all they knew was that the OS would be the French version. Are there any other differences between the French and English versions that I should know about?

How much better the LT20-154 is than the LT20-123? The fact alone that the 154 has 512MB rather than 256 almost justifies the price difference. I could only find the LT20-123 on the LG Canada site.

Thank you!

New Cintiq 21 UX (DTZ-2100) - 21 Inch Tablet Monitor

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but I just noticed a new LCD Tablet Monitor from Wacom listed on their Japanese website:

http://tablet.wacom.co.jp/products/cintiq/dtz2100/index.html

It looks like it has 1600x1200 resolution, 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity, 400:1 contrast ratio, Intuous 3 functionality (side touch strips and buttons), and is 21" (not sure if that's the screen size or not). I'm not sure if it has tilt sensitivity but I'm guessing it does.

Anyhow, I've been looking forward to a monitor like this for a long time ever since I bought my Tablet PC... hopefully it will be released in North America very soon.

Take Care,
Phil

LG LT20-186E2

I am thinking of buying this tablet, but I need to know if the digitizer is pressure-sensitive, as I'm going to use it mostly to run Photoshop and some sketching applications. It seems that it doesn't use Wacom digitizers... or maybe it does, I'm not sure.

Anyone here owns it and can help me out? Thanks.

LG LT20 Review

Ok, I�ve put it off long enough � time for my in-depth review of the LG LT20 Tablet PC.

At this very moment, I am typing this up on the laptop itself, sitting in the living room, enjoying a wireless connection (been browsing for the past 20 minutes), with 2:59 in battery life remaining.

As a Laptop

Not having owned a laptop before, I cannot directly compare to any of my past experiences. However, my best friend�s family, at one point, owned three; and I spend a lot of time at my friend�s house ;)

The LT20 is a standard looking 12�� model � XGA Screen (1024x768). It comes equipped with 3 USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE 1394 (firewire) port, a monitor-out port (VGA?), 100mb Ethernet, 56k modem, SD card reader, single pcmcia slot, lock slot, audio out, microphone in, and 802.11 b wireless mini-pci adapter.

Normally, I don�t enjoy typing on laptops � I usually get finger cramps very quickly� especially when I�m nervous. For some reason, however, I don�t have a problem typing on this keyboard. Despite it�s small size, it still feels very comfortable. Standard positioning of the FN, Ctrl, Alt, and Windows keys add to the experience. I do find myself hitting shift when I mean to hit enter, but I�m adapting. The cursor keys are very small, but functional. The only keys that seem just out of convenient reach are the PgUP, PgDN, and Delete keys, located at the top right of the laptop.

When closed, I�d say the laptop takes up a little more � of an inch, making it feel very slim. Yet, despite being made of plastic, the laptop does feel very sturdy. Part of the bottom of the laptop is coated with a carpet-like fabric. I have no qualms at all lifting the laptop, and spinning it about while using it.

The touchpad is a little small, to be expected on a smaller laptop. It is fully featured, however, with the usual corner / side-scrolling / etc�.

The XGA screen stands out very nicely in my mind: with it�s 150 degree viewing angle, I can comfortable look at the screen from nearly any practical angle. Direct glare from overhead lights is visible, but normally I find the laptop very usable in a brightly-lit room (I�m a student, using the laptop in class). Despite it�s size, 1024x768 is very comfortable to read on. With nine levels of brightness, the laptop will suit any situation. Normally, I run it at zero brightness without any issues at all. At highest brightness, the laptop is very usable outdoors!

This model is equipped with a speedy 1.5 Ghz processor, 512 mb of ram, and (I think), a 7200 rpm harddrive. Specs seem to indicate a 5400 rpm drive, but I haven�t noticed any slowdown that would seem to indicate a slower harddrive. Unfortunately, it is only equipped with Intel Extreme Graphics 2, making 3D gaming impossible. On the flipside, I haven�t had any display issues outside of gaming � I comfortable power an external 19�� monitor at 1600x1200 while decoding and displaying full screen xvid movies. No �clipping� or �lag� like my desktop computer (a PIII).

As a Tablet

But this review isn�t just about the laptop itself, it�s about the tablet. See, the LT 20�s LCD screen rotates about it�s centre hinge and folds flat over the keyboard, becoming a nice writing device. It�s quite fun to use this mode to play Yahoo! Graffiti. With the speedy processor, writing is very quick, with next to none delay in writing to inking. The surface doesn�t quite feel like a piece of paper, and there have been times I wish I could just write something down, but the organizational ability of OneNote and Windows Journal far exceed anything I could have dreamed of with a binder + notes.

Weight is ~4 lbs, which for a light person like me, is more than light enough to comfortably balance in one hand. Battery life claims to be @ 5 hours, but fully charged, I only read 4 hours. This is a sustained four hours, however. One nice feature is a protective �flip� at the back of the laptop that folds down to create a sort of stand (for air-flow) in laptop mode, and protects the laptop when in slate mode.

Quirks

1) The power button is located on the front of the LCD screen, meaning one cannot turn the laptop on without lifting the lid. This doesn�t really irritate me, but could be annoying if you only want to use the laptop in a �docked� configuration.
2) As with many tablets, the edges of the screen do not register the pen as smoothly as the centre. This means that when writing to the edge of the screen, the inking appears to write much more slowly, or doesn�t register smoothly at all.
3) The speakers are located underneath the laptop, which makes for �canned� sound when playing videos. Music seems to sound fine though. Playing anything through a headset, however, is nice and loud and very, very clear. No problems at all with a headset.
4) The plastic on the LCD sags a small amount while writing on the lower portion of the screen, and can sometimes create a �creaking� noise that can be irritating. This doesn�t appear to impact the laptop in any way, however.
5) While useful, the flip does cause some irritation when converting between slate and laptop mode � in order to fold it down / up, one must disconnect Ethernet/vga/and up to 2 usb ports. Typically, I just leave it folded down to avoid this issue.

None of these quirks are severe enough for me to experience �buyer�s regret�. I�ve thouroughly enjoyed this tablet, and the freedom it brings. There have been many, many times that I�ve walked around a building in slate mode, comfortably and safely �flinging� the laptop around into laptop mode to do some typing, or keeping it in slate mode to pass to a friend for analysis of a website or photo or schedule. And at the price of $2600 CAD, it is more than affordable. I�m very pleased with my purchase!

One added benefit of this laptop, is that it is produced by a fantastic company (that I never knew made laptops), called LG. Talk about support! When I purchased my laptop, I received the personal cell phone and e-mail address of the representative who sold me the laptop (which I have used to resolve some issues), and with little more than a five-minute wait on hold, I was able to speak with the lead laptop technician in Ontario. None of this "let me put you on hold to check with my superior". I ask him a question, he answers it. I talked about TabletPCBuzz and creating a WinXP Tablet CD, and he responded as though he had visited the site himself, and created the cd himself. No one acted as though they had never touched the laptop before in their lives. ;)

Pictures to come very soon!

I want a tablet that can do Cleartype in portrait Mode!

One of the best uses for a Tablet PC is to read ebooks and other documents. Of course, you want to do this in Portrait Mode because the human eye is more agile at moving bigger distances up and down rather than left to right.

When doing heavy reading, ClearType, by effectively tripling horizontal resolution, aids legibility tremendously. However, ClearType will only work in Landscape Mode for all the tablets out there I know of, since as far as I know they use standard LCD displays with vertical LCD pixel alignment in Landscape Mode.

I know of PDAs/handhelds where Portrait Mode is the default, LCD pixel alignment vertical in this orientation, and thus ClearType works in portrait mode (only) so there must be some manufacturer awareness of portrait orientation support for ClearType.

Does anybody know of any Tablet PC's out there whose LCD displays are vertically aligned in Portrait Mode or of any manufacturer planning to manufacture such a tablet? I also prefer one where the resolution is at least 1280x960 as 1024x768 is not enough screen space for me.

I desperately want to buy a tablet but am holding off from buying one until I can be sure I can get one optimal for reading ebooks, etc... in portrait mode.

External displays

Random thought - is it possible to use a laptop as an external display? Brother's monitor's just blown and the company's quoting up to a week for a replacement on warranty, I was trying to figure out if it's possible to use the VGA port to display the desktops image on the laptop's screen. Any ideas?

pls enter tablet rumors here!!!

IBM will launch their tablet in EUROPE in MAY 2005 (IBM-Brand!)

also Toshiba is offerin for projects in France a successor of the M200 Tablet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toshiba Hard Drive {Tablet} Life Span

All,
I am doing some reports on Toshiba Tablet M200's and I was curious if there were any opnions on the life span of a Toshiba Hard Drive a 40 gig preferably. If no one can get info of the 40 gig, just overall in general what the life span of a toshiba hard drive is actually. I appreciate your time and assistance in this thank you.

WinUser2003

GPS + Tablet + Voice Recognition + Cell Phone

Maybe I'm dreaming, but is it possible (using currently available products) to do the following?

I already have this cell phone... Motorola V551
http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0,,72,00.html

If I purchase the following...
1) Tablet PC... Acer TravelMate TMC303-XMISP2 (LX.T280E.183)
http://www.shopharmony.com/product.asp?i=ACETMC303XMISP2
2) Bluetooth Headset... GG Telecom Gg03a
http://www.ggtelecom2002.com/products/gg03a/gg03a.htm
3) Voice Recognition Software... Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
http://www.scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking
4) GPS Software... CoPilot Live Laptop 8
http://www.alk.com/products/consumer/copilot_laptop8
5) GPS Hardware... CoPilot BT
http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/copilotbtgps.php
6) Audio Cable... Y-Splitter 3.5mm stereo to 2 RCA
http://www.csccable.com/images/20582.gif

Setup:
1) Install Dragon on the Tablet
2) Bind BT Headset to Cell Phone (Ch.1)
3) Bind BT Headset to Tablet (Ch.2)
4) Bind BT GPS to Tablet (Ch.3)
5) Connect Y-Splitter from Tablet Line-Out to car stereo AUX-In

Talk to the Tablet and ask Dragon to lookup a contact from Act!, Goldmine, Outlook, etc. Once the record is pulled, ask Dragon to send the corresponding address to the CoPilot software, and the corresponding phone number to the cell phone.

The BT GPS maps the directions and begins announcing turn-by-turn directions through the car stereo. The cell phone dials the number provided by the Tablet. If the contact answers the phone, then press 1 time on the headset to activate Ch.1 and begin talking via the cell phone's BT connection. After the phone conversation is finished, press 2 times on the headset to connect back to the Tablet and resume voice recognition functions.

Besides looking up contact information, one could ask Dragon to lookup a Point of Interest (POI) from the CoPilot software. Also, since the cell phone has Internet access, one could potentially ask Dragon to lookup http://yp.yahoo.com for POIs not currently listed within the CoPilot software.

Ask Dragon to queue up some MP3 songs and/or playlists (which plays through the car stereo). With an 80GB hard drive and 4.7GB DVDs, one could have an endless on-demand, voice-activated, music collection.

CoPilot Live has a feature by which you can receive traffic updates and the GPS software will automatically reroute you. I'm not sure if that data can come down from the cell phone's Internet connection and be passed to the CoPilot software or not. Maybe I need to purchase one of these PC cards (plus $80/month Internet subscription)...
Sony Ericsson�s GC83 EDGE card
http://www.engadget.com/entry/6686037593646783/

I've read BT headsets are not great for voice recognition. If this is still the case, then a wired microphone to the Tablet would be needed. That might make other BT connections work better, as I'm not sure how all of those devices would interact anyway.

In other words, I'm not sure if all BT devices can automatically communicate with all other BT devices within range. In the case of the headset, it is clear you must press the button one, two, or three times for the headset to know which device to interact with. That being said, just how the Tablet would know to send an address to the BT GPS and a phone number to the BT cell phone is a mystery to me.

Perhaps using two microphones is best? One BT to the cell phone and one wired to the Tablet. This would allow the Tablet to take dictation of your half of the phone conversation as both microphones would be picking up your voice at the same time. Is there a way for the BT cell phone to connect to the Tablet and then have the Dragon software convert both sides of the phone conversation to text?

While a Tablet provides pen features for easier navigation within the GPS software, the ultimate goal is to create a fully voice-automated GPS system (and MP3 player) so the driver does not need to type in any addresses or phone numbers.

I would appreciate any feedback on this project.

Thanks!
- Scott

LG LT20 questions

Hi All,
I got a chance to work with LT20(Dothan 1.6) today. As this is my first handon experience with a tablet PC I have a few questions:

1) The accuracy of a pen tap is somewhat frustrating I needed to tap a few times before I could click a button or other windows controls. Couldnt calibrate it with the programs found at the EzMenu. Any ideas ?

2) The cursor follows the pen in every application while in the tablet mode. Can I disable it (for tablet mode only) ?

3) I asked my local retailer to upgrade the disk to 80g, not the retailer nor the importer were ready to offer an upgrade as they dont know how to transfer the OS, lol. I have a portable box (USB2) for laptop disks, so I think there is a way to create an OS image and put it on the new disk. I thought of some sort of ghost prog. What program do you guys use for this ?

4) BTW, used it for almost 2 hours at maximum screen brightness (office apps only) battery is at 50%. Is it a dothan thing or am I the lucky owner of some super battery ?