News Week of July 6, 2008

Toshiba Portege M200 tablet PC

Overall, it has all necessary features, and is clearly a first-class tablet PC made by a trustworthy manufacturer. The series has also proven tremendously successful for Toshiba, with successor models, such as the Toshiba Portégé M400-3G143, also faring quite well. Clearly, Toshiba have established their presence in the tablet PC market, and will continue to do so for years to come.  (Source: Wilson, Mobile Computing News)
Posted Thursday, July 10, 2008 by ChrisD
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Dialogue Flybook V5

Dialogue's Flybook V5 has the physique of an Eee PC, the heart of a bigger laptop and the style of a tablet PC. In short, it's an undersized, ultraportable tablet PC with a decent CPU.

The Flybook V5 is very small, which makes it very mobile, but it's also quite hard to use. As always, life is about compromises, and with the Flybook V5 you have to weigh up its light weight and tablet-convertible screen against its lack of proper touchpad or TrackPoint-style pointer control and decent-sized keys.  (Source: Elias Plastiras, PC World)

Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC Review

The good: Capacitive touch technology makes for greater accuracy; clearer, sharper screen; very usable keyboard; excellent hardware design.

The bad: Optical drive supplied as an external unit; expensive once you start adding extras; battery life and performance.

The bottom line: This is a handsome and very usable tablet PC, thanks to its excellent screen and keyboard. Battery life and performance are both a little disappointing, though, and the price becomes steep as you add in the options.   (Source: Sandra Vogel, CNET.co.uk)
Posted Thursday, July 10, 2008 by ChrisD
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Hands on with Giga-byte's M912X mini-laptop

The M912 mini-laptop really has some outstanding features not found on any other netbook currently, and at the price quoted for the Taiwan market, NT$19,900 ($654) makes it quite a bargain for the technology on board.

What separates the M912 from the rest of the pack is its 8.9-inch touchscreen that can swivel around 180 degrees. That device is going to ship with Windows XP or a Linux OS, and in future models, Giga-byte plans to use Windows Vista Home Basic.   (Source: Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service, InfoWorld)

HP Pavilion tx2500 Review

The HP Pavilion tx2500 is the much needed update to the tx2000 Tablet PC. That's right, the tx2500 has an updated processor and graphics. HP finally answered our prayers and added the new AMD Puma processor and ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics into the same great design. So let's see how much better it performs.

(Source: Tiffany Boggs, TabletPCReview.com)

Rogers debuts HTC Shift ultra portable PC

One thing you can say about the HTC Shift is that it looks good. An ultra portable PC that's a cross between a smart phone and a laptop, the Shift comes in an attractive leather holder that opens like a book to reveal a sharp, clear display.

Produced by Taiwanese electronics manufacturer HTC, who brought us the HTC Touch designed to rival Apple's popular iPhone, the Shift has been brought to Canada by Rogers Wireless and offers always-on, speedy connectivity through the carrier's 3G network. The HTC Shift is available from Rogers for $1,999.99 without a contract, dropping down to $1,699.99 on a three-year contract, with a current promotion reducing that to $1,599.99.   (Source: Jeff Jedras, ITBusiness.ca)

Living keyboard free - and loving every minute !

Three reasons to toss the keyboard:  (1) bring back the joy of computing, (2) live on the edge of advances, and (3) learn to write again.

When I die, they will need to wrestle my Tablet PC from my grip. While some Tablet PC evangelists wonder where all the leaders went for the Tablet PC,  some of us just keep using the pen. I don't need no stinkin leader to tell me the real future of computing is in the pen. I get it. (Source: Layne P. Heiny, Technology Questions)

A pen pal of note

Then, with one tap of the pen directly in front of the receiver, you turn the pen into a mouse.

The Tablet PC features of Windows Vista are all at your disposal at this point, too, converting your 50 cent legal pad into a 100 graphics tablet that uses Microsoft’s much superior handwriting recognition software. Neat trick.  (Source: New York Times