Design may be coming full circle

Tablet PC Review reports that the Samsung Galaxy Note includes a pen.  A pen for taking digital ink notes.  This is a great step in the right direction.  I love the flexibility of the tablet (iPad, Zoom, etc), but without a pen I would not consider them.  Add the power to run compatible software to my Tablet PC and the perfect traveling machine is born.  Online learning, including interacting with the lecture in the classroom, might be enhanced with more of these devices.  Let's see.

Campus Technology misses the Tablet PC

Are you kidding me?

Campus Technology has a product focus on interactive whiteboards as a collaborative tool.  It also has a long list of alternative technologies, but they miss the ultimate collaborative tool.  Each of the technologies are involved in trying to get the written and drawn image on a white board projected or saved and transmitted electronically to students in the classroom or at a distance.

How can they miss the Tablet PC?  Really folks, I can write or draw on my tablet screen and broadcast it anywhere.  One can simply use Microsoft Journal to create a white space to write on or write on any of the Microsoft Office products and with other apps can write on anything.   I have been doing this for years to great success.  When the screen in the classroom is in front of the classroom whiteboard as it is in almost every classroom I walk into, the Tablet PC is both the projector of content and the electronic whiteboard.

I think this reaches a new height with using DyKnow Vision in a 1:1 computing environment.  Each student needs a computer to receive the message and a free client download and they do not have to be Tablets.

New Tablet PC

I picked up my new Tablet PC today. This Lenova X220 replaces my HP2107p. So far the form factor win goes to the HP2107p. I am starting to set up the Lonova X220 and ergonomically I really dislike it. Why would you design a Tablet that is awkward to hold. I do like the touch screen, but little else on first impression.

The dock is ridiculous. Compared to the thin dock of the HP2710 the Lenova X220 dock raises the keyboard up over an inch. Getting used to typing at this height and angle will take some adjustment. If the DVD weren't in the dock, the dock would be in a drawer.

Overall the X220 has to edge out the 2710p, but perhaps only because it is 4 years newer.

More later.

Are You Using a Tablet (PC) at Work?

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I was thrilled to see that the concentration was not only on what the consumer world now calls "tablets," i.e., ipad, zoom, etc, but included the Tablet PC. One of my responses was: "The Tablet PC is a full computing environment and adds the luxury of a stylus and pen / electronic ink input and markup. It is the best of both worlds."

I remain a fervent evangelist for the Tablet PC as my only computer for my business. i still think to buy a laptop without giving oneself the luxury of a pen interface is short sighted for everyone who takes notes on paper, grades papers, gives presentations, reads articles and books, and more. In short, the Tablet PC remains the best platform for all around computing.