If I had 3,000 to spend on tech, I'd have a new Fujitsu P1630

On FriendFeed, someone asked what tech-toys we would get, if we had $3,000 to spend. I decided to spec out a Fujitsu LifeBook P1630. I love the tiny netbook concept, but I've got to have my digitizer; it really helps me get paperwork done at my job without my having to keep up with paper. I really tried to stay below 3k, but it wasn't easy. Couldn't I sneak in a little more change?

Dell Latitude XT takes it off!

GottaBeMobiler and Tablet PC MVP Rob Bushway had a problem, and Dell solved it. Rob found that the digitizer grid on his brand new Latitude XT Tablet PC was just too distracting during usage, so the company contacted him and sent a technician with a new LCD/digitizer assembly. Rob snapped some pics of his new kid whilst it was en deshabille. Click the image below if you're like me and into nekkid tech action (hey, don't give me that look; it's part of my job, and I might as well enjoy it!).

The Dell-certified technician in me noted that it seems LCD replacements will be simpler in one respect and more difficult in another as compared to pre-D620 D series Latitude notebooks (my users haven't broken any D620s or D630s yet). The tech Dell sent apparently arrived with the screen as a whole unit; he had no need to pop the rubber tops off the screws, pull apart the top plastics and separate anything from the brackets as I've done with D600s and D610s. However, the technician had to pull antenna wires out of, then back through the back of the unit, which I have not had to do unless replacing a motherboard. Since I've seen only one XT in our organization, and I did resist the urge to take it apart, I will have to reserve judgment for a while.

Catch ThisTech-Ed Australia 2007 Tablet and Mobility Session

Microsoft Tablet PC MVP Craig Pringle will be crushing Tablet PC myths and delving into how Tablet PCs and Ultra-Mobile PCs work in a mobile enterprise. I recommend catching this session!

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Craig Pringle: Ship Convertible Tablets in Slate Mode

Tablet PC MVP Craig Pringle has seen people using tablets purely as laptops. So have I. He's also seen people with tablets who never even knew they could even be used in any other way. To help correct this problem, he suggests that OEMS start shipping the devices in slate mode, with cleverly-placed overlays which give the new user info about switching from one mode to another. At first, I thought, "Why the heck not," and then I thought of a reason why.

In my IT shop, the devices generally come to us for re-imaging before they go to the user. We open the boxes, and we don't glance at or keep the documentation. Although I'm the only one who uses a tablet full time, we all know at least something about what tablets can do (Interestingly enough, we have maybe ordered one convertible that I know about; the other 30 or so tablets are slates). How many more businesses have IT organizations that work the same way?

I still like Craig's suggestion. Even in my organization, we have a large segment of users who are responsible for their own computer purchases and who have their machines delivered to them. Many of them wait for us to come and open the boxes, but there are those who can't resist the temptation. Surely some of them would benefit from seeing the tablet in its proper position and from seeing the documentation laid out as Craig recommends. For those tablet buyers who are making personal purchases, the IT department intermediary wouldn't be an issue.

So, any recommendations for getting desktop support technicians everywhere to deliver the machines in tablet mode?

Time to talk about my TabletPC!

The V1250 and my external USB TEAC CDRW drive

On May 15th, 2004 (in pretty much the middle of the night in my time zone), after forcing myself to wait a year, I ordereda ViewSonic V1250 TabletPC, from Dell, no less, and I have been completely enthralled ever since. Seven months later, I still have trouble putting the thing down for very long. I LOVE my TabletPC! I have fun playing with it. I have fun working with it (is that not weird?). Given that it appears that ViewSonic is not as popular a brand among TPC owners (at lest, not as popular as, say, Acer, Motion or Toshiba), I am astonished at how truly delighted I remain with my Tablet experience (but then, ViewSonic is no stranger to the world of computing) especially when I've seen some of the comments made by less-than-thrilled owners of the brands that are higher-profile.

Under the hood:
The V1250 is a convertible , and before SP2, I used it in laptop mode most of the time. After the improved handwriting recognition of Service Pack 2, I almost never come out of slate mode (see an explanation of the types of TabletPCs at thetabletpc.net, and see pictures of the V1250 in both modes in Microsoft's Comdex 2003 photo gallery). It's got a 1 gHz Centrino processor (not sure which Centrino), and I have read that this model's performance isn't on par with other devices that have Centrino processors, but I don't notice a problem. I started out with 256mb RAM. This ran ok until Microsoft released Service Pack 2, so I maxed it out (Crucial.com) at 768mb, and everything was back to happy (note: ViewSonic recommends Kingston for memory upgrades). By comparison, the V1250S holds a gig, and the V1250P hits its peak at 2gb. I've got to buy a bigger hard drive; 30 gigabytes isn't enough.

The video card is Intel embedded AGP 4X. It can access up to 64mb of my system's RAM. I saw signs that this was a bit of a problem before I upgraded to 768mb of RAM. A reviewer once said the V1250 LCD looks as good as some lower-end laptops, though TabletPCs are known (except for the Motion, anyway) for being a bit hampered by their digitizer layers. My darling can be a little hard-put to compete with florescent lighting sometimes, but I've found it to be legible in direct sunlight, if I fiddle with the brightness settings.

Intel 2100 3B 802.11b is built in, and it works fine, but I can't use the Intel PROSet; my machine will blue-screen. As a result, adding a 26-character hex key for WEP is a less efficient process than it could be (one day I'll have a router than can do WPA). Ethernet works great. I used the modem once to send a fax, which I'm told was received, so the modem must work (with broadband at home and work; I've never tested dial-up... boy am I spoiled!). No Bluetooth, but nothing else I have has it, either, so I don't miss it. I have no Infrared port; that annoyed me, but I have a USB-to-IrDA adapter, and it works fine for syncing my Nokia phone and my PDA. The plastic tongue thing broke in my USB port (the one closest to the power), and the computer shuts off if I try to use it, forcing me to disconnect the power cable and remove the battery before it will come back on; I'll send it off for repairs before the warranty goes out; for now, I just use the 2nd port.

Some TPCs have microphone arrays; I just have one mic hole, but it did ok with voice recognition before SP2. People who hear my TPC think the sound is pretty good for a portable. Other convertible Tablet owners have complained that their speakers are covered up when they flip into Tablet mode; ViewSonic had the prescience to make sure this was not an issue.

I can boot with the TEAC USB CD burner I bought; quite a few TPC models from other vendors require one to buy the vendors' drives in order to boot cds or DVDs. The Secure Digital /Memory Stick / MultiMedia Card slot works great with my SD cards; I don't have any of the other types for testing. The one PC Card slot worked fine when I used a PC Card adapter and a Compact Flash card; I haven't needed the slot for anything else. The V1250 has 9 hardware buttons; I think 8 are customizable (I've heard that Microsoft specifies that the security button shall not be changeable), and I've modified the functions of two of them. Often people cite battery life as an issue with TabletPCs; if I'm not getting the advertised 3.5 hours on battery, it's mighty close. My best laptop never gave me that much!

As I've gotten long-winded, I'll just make this post the hardware post and follow up with a new post about the software I've been using with my beautiful device.