Anyone experience with Tablet PC's

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

The Question Asker wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm looking at getting a laptop but came across this
> http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/tablea_1.htm its Mesh's Tablea
> laptop. I have a few questions about it:
>
> 1) It has "14.1" TFT XGA (1024x768) Rotating Touch-Screen" does this
> mean that it will respond to any touch or only the stylus pen,
> because if your writing it could be annoying keeping your hand off
> the screen. 2) It also has a external USB cd drive, now how would one
> boot from a CD if you needed to reinstall, I've been trying to boot
> from my USB floppy on my laptop but it wont allow me.
> 3) It has no printer port which is ok as my photo printer is USB and
> my laser has an IrDA Wireless port. How does one print to a wireless
> port? Do you install the printer normally then select the port as
> wireless? 4)Finally does anyone have any experience of Mesh laptops?
> and do you think the Tablea would be a suitable alternative to a
> laptop.
>
> Thanks for the long questions
> Olly

1. The screen responds to the correct pressure, however that is applied
by hand or stylus - or fingernail or stylus.
2. You need to research the boot options in BIOS. Some laptops are
able to boot from USB, some not. Also, take a look at Windows XP Tablet
Edition for special capabilities built into the OS. Tablet Edition has
had many problems which AFIK are still being ironed out.
3. Infrared comms require an infrared capable printer, PDA, or another
computer. There are very few (if any) current IR printers since the
advent of workable USB.
4. No idea about Mesh, but the world at large has rejected the tablet as
a viable alternative to laptops much to the consternation of the vendors
who believed that tablets would simply fly off the shelf. The concept
is being resurected in new tablets based on the Mobile Pentium M
(Centrino). So far, according to the pundits, the new tablets are still
gathering dust on the shelves.

Q

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

First, the mesh unit doesn't qualify as a Tablet PC 'cause Microsoft requires
an active digitizer so as to allow ``hover'' (moving the cursor w/o clicking).
With a pressure sensitive digitizer, the big concern is how good the ``palm
rejection'' is (the system not registering / being confused by one's hand
resting on the display as one writes / points / draws).

Since it has XP Home edition you won't get Journal --- I believe Office 2003
has HWR though, and there's always OneNote which some people like.

Tablet PCs have done very well in vertical markets, and some manufacturers
(e.g., Fujitsu) who build highly desireable units are experiencing strong (and
profitable) sales.

Windows XP Tablet PC edition is Microsoft's third try at pen computing (not
counting WinCE), and MS usually gets things right on the third try. It's quite
good by most accounts, very good by those who are patient and whose work habits
are suited to the tradeoffs which it makes (grafting Pen UI onto Windows, as
opposed to a clean slate, pen-centric UI).

Lots of discussion of ``real'' Tablet PCs (as well as pen slates and
convertibles) at http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com

William

--
William Adams
http://members.aol.com/willadams
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.