News Week of April 13, 2008

Smitrix swiftpoint triped mouse for tablet PCs

You have already seen the Swiftpoint Slider Mouse, a device that effectively makes your keyboard into one giant mousepad, and now we learn that there is a similar device made primarily for tablet PCs and multi-touch tabletop surfaces.

Besides being pointier and cooler looking than the Slider, the Triped aims to "remove barriers to the growth of the Tablet PC market" by eliminating one of its major drawbacks—the pen.   (Source: Portalino, Gizmodo)

This laptop has an exciting twist

Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion tx2000 Entertainment Notebook PC is bound to be a scribbler's delight

EVERYTHING but the kitchen sink.

That's about what you can expect if you get Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion tx2000 Entertainment Notebook PC.

With its latest offering, HP has somehow managed to cram all the functionalities of a multimedia machine into a package that can also convert into a tablet PC.

The review unit comes with a 2.1Ghz AMD Turion 64 X2 processor and is loaded with 2GB of RAM, giving the tx2000 enough horsepower to breeze through almost any business application.  (Source: Eugene Wee, The Electronic New Paper)

Microsoft and HCL teams up to rollout cheapest Windows-based notebook

The notebook will be rolled out as part of HCL’s MiLeap brand of HCL Leaptops. It will be running Windows XP Home, weigh less than 1kg, and have a 7-inch TFT LCD touch-screen.

The screen will be able to be rotated converting the notebook into a tablet, and it will be a touchscreen, it will respond to a stylus and the software will include handwriting recognition software for taking notes. The whole system will be powered by an Intel ULV processor with Intel’s 945 GU Express chipset.  (Source: SlashGear)

Mac OS X on a UMPC: first ink, some thoughts and challenges

I should probably start out by clarifying what I'm doing. Or rather: what I'm not doing. I don't intend to create a step-by-step guide on how to install Mac OS X on a Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium. I also won't be running the OS on the device for long. I simply want to get a feel for what it would be like to carry and use a UMPC with Mac OS X. Many readers have clamored for a Mac Tablet and aside from the Axiotron Modbook, this is the closest you can get today. The Q1 Ultra Premium has enough oomph in the 1.33 GHz Core Solo and the 2 GB of RAM I installed to even make this viable. I don't expect everything to work but it should prove an interesting experiment to see how usable the full Mac environment will be on a device with small keyboard and a 7-inch touchscreen.  (Source: jkOnTheRun)

TabletKiosk Sahara Slate PC i440D

With convertible PCs dominating the Tablet PC market in recent years, only a handful of manufacturers specialize in the pure slate design, and for the most part, these companies understand the platform’s use cases very well. While most business users prefer the flexibility of an attached keyboard, stylus-only computing fits some vertical niches such as health care, construction, and design. The Sahara i440D demonstrates that the company knows what slate customers want.

Comfortable, Sturdy Design

On a slate tablet, ergonomics really matter. That’s because this kind of tablet usually sits on a user’s forearm for long stretches. We also expect a slate to be a little more durable than traditional notebooks because they’re meant to be used while standing and walking  (Source: Steve Smith, Laptop Magazine)

Electrovaya Scribbler SC4000 Review

The Electrovaya Scribbler SC4000 is a unique slate. It doesn't have a keyboard except for on the screen and is targeted toward the vertical market. It runs on a 1.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor and has 1GB of RAM. The screen on the SC4000 is beautiful though. There isn't much graininess and the colors are bright and vivid. Making this the perfect travel companion and great for note-taking in class.

(Source: Tiffany Boggs, TabletPCReview.com)

Willcom D4 WSO16H from Sharp and Willcom - the little UMPC that could!

Sure, this little UMPC can fit in the palm of your hand and is only marginally larger than a lot of the larger smartphones being released these days, but this is no smartphone, this is a full on computer. It has an Intel Atom processor inside, a 40GB HDD, a 5” touchscreen, and so much more.

It packs in a 1.33GHz Intel Centrino Atom processor model Z520, has a 1024×600 touchscreen LCD with LED backlighting, a full keyboard that slides out from underneat, and WiFi b/g. Add to that the Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, a 2MP camera that is capable of video recording, and 1GB of RAM and this thing is shaping up to be one of the best UMPCs there is.  (Source: James Allan Brady, Slash Gear)

More Early Thoughts on the HP TX2051

I’ve been really enjoying both the Inking and the Touch capabilities on the HP TX 2051 that I’m evaluating (when I can keep it out of Rob’s hands). But I do have a few niggles.

The screen is my biggest one niggle. The layering that gives it excellent touch and active digitizter capability makes the screen a bit grainy. Add to that the glossy finish on the screen and you’ve got some pretty severe limitations on viewing angles. If you’re in a room with flourescent lights, you’ll have difficulties viewing the screen. At least I do. If you tilt the screen away from you while in slate mode then you’ll see an immediate degradation of what you’re viewing.

This is a heavy Tablet PC, and that of course is due to everything that is loaded on it, especially the extended battery. With the standard battery it is listed as 4.3lbs, but with the extended battery it feels closer to 5lbs.  (Source:  Warner Crocker, Gottabe Mobile)

Two very different sequels

• PAVILION tx2000z — $1,927, Hewlett-Packard. Last year I reviewed the predecessor to this model, the tx1000. It was one of the most disappointing HP products I'd tried in a long time, and easily the worst consumer Tablet PC I'd tested. In fact, I slammed it so hard that a copy editor put this subhead over the review: "Not great, not even good" (see www.chron.com/tx1000).

Here's the subhead I'm suggesting this time around: "Aaahhh, much better! (Source: Dwight Silverman,  Houston Chronicle)

Willcom D4 UMPC impresses

This is another one of those Japan-only products which we can only dream of having. Willcom, an operator there, has just launched the Sharp-made D4, a UMPC based on the recently launched Intel Atom CPU.

Aside from having cellular capabilities, the D4 has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, too. Its 1024 x 600 screen resolution means you can view most Web pages without having to scroll horizontally, unlike the 800 x 480 HTC Shift, the product which most resembles the Willcom in our region. It's even lighter than the Shift, at just 470g. Considering it has almost all the same features including a slide-out keyboard, that's quite a feat. (Source: John Chan, CNet Asia)

Toshiba Portégé M700-S7002

Although its tablet PC lineup may not be as impressive as Fujitsu's, Toshiba has put together a solid and diverse array of convertible tablets over the past several years. The Toshiba Portégé M700-S7002 ($1,799 direct) is a convertible tablet that competes with the Fujitsu LifeBook T4000 Series and the ASUS R1, offering a wide selection of bred-for-performance, standard-voltage processors. Although not the lightest model by tablet standards, the M700 has a built-in optical drive to soothe some of the grumbling over its weight.  (Source: Cisco Cheng, PC Magazine)
Posted Monday, April 14, 2008 by ChrisD
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Fujitsu LifeBook T2010 (3.5G)

With a SIM card facility and 3.5G antenna built in, as well as WACOM touch-screen technology, this sub-2kg tablet-convertible notebook is very easy to use and fully-equipped to connect to the Internet using a mobile data plan.

Physically, the LifeBook T2010 has a 12.1in touchscreen with a 1280x800 resolution and a sturdy, bi-directional hinge. That means you can turn it either way without any fear of turning it the wrong way. The notebook's base measures 30 by 22 centimetres, and is 2cm thick — it doesn't house an optical drive. Its 3.5G antenna sticks out of the right-hand side of the screen, and this can also be used as a grip when the screen is in a tablet position.

There's not much to the base: it has two USB 2.0 ports, a mini-FireWire port and a PC Card slot for expansion. You'll also find an SD/MS memory card slot, a D-Sub port and a gigabit Ethernet port. On the inside it has Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11a/b/g/draft-n networking (with MIMO) as well as a 160GB hard drive.   (Source: Elias Plastiras, PC World)