News Week of May 27, 2007

LG's C1 Tablet PC: Small And Fast, But Doesn't Last Long Enough


The LG C1 is an intriguing laptop with a surprising amount of power crammed into an extremely small and lightweight frame. On paper it looks unbeatable, but in real day to day use, lacklustre battery life and quirky software issues take some of the shine off what would otherwise be a stellar laptop. For some people, this may be the ultimate ultra-portable laptop – it certainly breaks new ground in some areas. For others, the limitations (including the high price) may outweigh the wow factor.   (Source: Jason Dunn, Thoughts Media)
Posted Friday, June 1, 2007 by ChrisD
Rating: 3.4 (Rate it) 1 Lowest 2 3 4 5 Highest Comments (0)

Lenovo Gives Its ThinkPad Laptops, Tablet a Makeover

Lenovo is revamping several of its ThinkPad notebooks, including a tablet PC, to include Intel's new Centrino Pro mobile platform plus features to improve security and battery life.

Lenovo, which acquired the ThinkPad name when it bought IBM's PC division in 2005, plans to roll out the new versions of its ThinkPad X61 and X61s notebooks and its X61 tablet May 31, company executives said.

The additional features in the X61 and X61s are meant to appeal to a wide range of enterprise customers who work from the road for long stretches of time, while the X61 tablet is geared toward customers in specific vertical markets such as those in the education and health care markets, said Mike Hagerty, a worldwide segment manager for Lenovo.   (Source: Scott Ferguson, ZDNet)

First Look : Lenovo Thinkpad X61 Tablet PC

The First Tablet PC featuring the new Intel Santa Rosa Processor

With the new Intel "Santa Rosa" Core 2 Duo processor, L7500 (1.6GHz) under the hood the most notable as well as noticeable difference in the Lenovo X61 is pure speed.

Add to that a clearer and brighter screen and beter wireless preformance and I have in my hand one Very Sweet Tablet PC....   (Source: Linda A. Epstein, TabletPC2.com)

General Dynamics Itronix Introduces DynaVue(TM) Touchscreen Display Technology for Its Rugged Notebook and Tablet PC Computers

Innovative patent-pending touchscreen display strikes balance between contrast ratio and brightness for superior visibility

General Dynamics Itronix today introduced a new standard for all-light viewable touchscreen displays: DynaVue touchscreen display technology. With a patent-pending design approach that focuses on contrast ratio and polarization techniques, DynaVue technology optimizes viewability in all lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, and will be featured as the standard touchscreen on General Dynamics Itronix's full line of rugged and semi-rugged notebooks and tablet PCs.

With DynaVue, General Dynamics Itronix has developed an innovative patent-pending touchscreen display technology that balances display brightness and contrast ratio and virtually eliminates the internal reflections that wash out display clarity.

"According to our most recent user research, display quality and daylight viewability rank among the top three purchase criteria for rugged notebooks," said David Krebs, a senior analyst at Natick, Mass.-based Venture Development Corporation. "The General Dynamics Itronix DynaVue display technology provides a truly impressive solution without compromising battery life or processing power."

Brightness Beyond "Nits" -- The DynaVue Difference

The DynaVue touchscreen display technology does not rely on adding light to improve visibility but focuses rather on a patent-pending light filtering technology that achieves a dramatically improved contrast ratio to provide rich color, sharp images and details. DynaVue also optimizes the notebook's battery life and processor performance. Prior to DynaVue, computer display manufacturers tried various methods to increase display brightness. Some attempts came with undesirable side-effects -- like diminished battery life, distorted colors and reduced contrast.

"DynaVue will provide an exclusive benefit to users of our GoBook(R) rugged notebooks and tablet PCs, especially those who often use the products in and out of their service or public safety vehicles," said Ben Thacker, vice president of strategic marketing for General Dynamics Itronix. "The DynaVue touch screen technology's unique focus on contrast ratio provides users with a superior display image and comfortable viewing experience indoors as well as in full sun, even when they are wearing sunglasses. DynaVue must be seen to be appreciated and it's being received with significant enthusiasm from our customers."

  DynaVue Characteristics & Benefits in Brief

  -- Provides balance between display brightness and contrast ratio
  -- Increases contrast ratio to provide rich color and improved visibility
     of fine details even in bright sunlight
  -- Provides dynamic color saturation for rich-looking images
  -- Uses a single cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) to provide
     brightness control without sacrificing battery performance
  -- Does not degrade battery life or processor speed
  -- Eliminates susceptibility to heat damage from extra CCFLs
  -- Has the same optimal performance on or off dock
  -- Lighter display keeps overall unit weight down
  -- Meets MIL-HDBK-87213 Rev A military standard for electronically
     generated airborne displays for direct sunlight viewability

  Availability

DynaVue touchscreen display technology will debut in the next generation of General Dynamics Itronix computers.  (Source: Press Release)

An ultra modern PC for fast movers

Smaller than a notebook, bigger than a PDA and most often not including any kind of phone, this is a full-fledged PC running a modified Windows XP Tablet PC edition (now Vista) operating system, which makes it capable of running any application made for Windows XP.

Typically, it is a steno-pad-size device that can stream video from the Internet, providing users with a mobile entertainment experience.

"Ultra Mobile PCs overcome the computing limitations of handheld devices such as PDAs and smartphones, while simultaneously addressing the mobility constraints of PCs," notes market analyst In-Stat.

It also predicts that the UMPC market will touch the 8-million mark by 2011, provided it gets the thrust from industry heavyweights such as Microsoft and Intel.  (Source: Priyanka Joshi, Rediff India Abroad)

Take note: Computing takes up pen, again

And while pen computing has finally gained a degree of acceptance with consumers through devices like the Palm line of personal digital assistants and tablet PCs, those remain niche products, not the general-purpose machines that some pen computer pioneers envisioned.

Gates, for instance, predicted five years ago that 2007 would be the year when tablet PCs became the most popular form of PC sold in America, yet they still represent less than 1 percent of the market, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. (Source: Miguel Helft, The New York Times, CNet)

First Look: Samsung Q1 Ultra

Taking a step back, we're still a long way off the ultimate goal of a take-anywhere, last-all-day, always-connected device - for all its plus points and keyboard aside, it's arguable whether the Q1 Ultra is really as versatile a media device as Sony's sub-£300 Playstation Portable, so you'll need a good reason to spend £800 on it.

But assuming battery life, performance and the already decent build quality improve further, the Q1 Ultra will be the most tempting yet of its kind. We'll bring you the final results once we see a production sample, but it looks like the UMPC won't be going away anytime soon.  (Source: Ross Burridge, PCPro.co.uk)

Microsoft unveils coffee table 'surface computer'

Microsoft Corp. will unveil a coffee-table-shaped "surface computer" Wednesday in a major step towards co-founder Bill Gates's view of a future where the mouse and keyboard are replaced by more natural interaction using voice, pen and touch.

Microsoft Surface, which has a 30-inch display under a hard-plastic tabletop, allows people to touch and move objects on screen for everything from digital finger painting and jigsaw puzzles to ordering off a virtual menu in a restaurant.

It also recognizes and interacts with devices placed on its surface, so cell phone users can easily buy ringtones or change payment plans by placing their handsets on in-store displays, or a group of people gathered round the table can check out the photos on a digital camera placed on top.  (Source: Reuters, CNN)

Fly in your soup?

Hamilton County restaurant inspections enter the digital age this week.

Starting Friday, people can log on to the Hamilton County General Health District's Web site - www.hamiltoncountyhealth.org - and view inspection results for 3,000 suburban restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, taverns, nursing homes and schools.

Putting the records online won't change the inspections themselves, county health officials say.

"We still look for the same items. We're still checking food temperatures and all that. The only difference is now it's all done on-screen on a tablet PC," said Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram.  (Source: Peggy O'Farrell, Cincinnati.com)

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet Review (Video)

The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is a tiny little wonder. It's about the size of a smartphone or PDA, but it has a lot more functionality. It's not quite the same as a Tablet PC, but it's very similar to a slate Tablet since there is no keyboard. My first impression of the N800 was it's too small, who would want to use it to access the Internet. Well, my opinion quickly changed after I used it for a few days.

Front view of the N800 accessing the Internet.   (Source: Tiffany Boggs and Antoine Wright, TabletPCReview.com)

HP Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment Notebook Evaluation

General Conclusions and Delusions:
HP and AMD afforded me 60 days to pound on the tx1000, this gave me the chance to see how it would really perform under real world usage in Vista x86, Vista x64 and of course as it would be shipped out from HP. For the most part I was pleasantly surprised by the quality, speed and the portability the tx1000. There were a few things that I wished HP had done differently (such as adding Wireless Wan, an HD or BluRay drive, more powerful GPU) but on the whole I feel that HP delivered exactly what they promise in the tx1000, a small ultra-portable entertainment notebook.  The tablet features are a bonus and add to the value of the tx1000, they also add the additional capacity to use the tx1000 for normal business work as well as photofinishing.  The small size and weight of the tx1000 made it perfect for carrying around during my workday and when I head out on camping trips or downtown for my photography. The warranty and support provided by HP was more than acceptable and with the quality I saw in the tx1000 I reviewed would not be needed except in extreme cases.  The typical package system shovelware was unfortunately present on the tx1000 just like every other system you would buy from a large manufacturer. This also throws a small wrench into the performance of the tx1000. If you know how and want to spend the time I would recommend a “ground up” install of the operating system that you want. This may present some issues if you need to contact support but you will get more performance out of the system and be free of some annoying applications that want to run every time you power on. But before you do this make sure you grab all of the drivers you need from HP’s website and store them some place safe. Another item worth mentioning is that you will need to provide your own DVD/CD burning software. I personally use Roxio Easy Media Creator but you can also use Nero or whatever your favorite flavor of software is. Make sure that your burning software has the lightscribe plug-in or head on over to lightscribe.com to grab it from there.  (Source: Sean Kalinich, PlanetX64)
Posted Monday, May 28, 2007 by ChrisD
Rating: 4 (Rate it) 1 Lowest 2 3 4 5 Highest Comments (0)

Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet Review

When it comes to laptops, it’s hard to find a brand that’s more instantly recognisable than ThinkPad. Since IBM’s PC division was bought by Lenovo more than two years ago, there’s been no sign of a dip in the quality of the systems arriving on the market, and the original ThinkPad X60 (July 2006, page 44) is a case in point. When we first reviewed it, we praised its excellent screen and build quality and declared it our alternative A-List choice to the cheaper Dell D420.

Apart from the tablet hinge at the base of the screen, and the fingerprint reader’s relocation to the bezel of the screen, there are no cosmetic differences between this and the original X60. This means you still get the gratifying experience we’ve come to expect from ThinkPads. Typing is a pleasure thanks to the solid keyboard, and the good build quality of the previous versions has survived the transition to tablet PC – the X60 Tablet will easily withstand the knocks that a road-going laptop can expect. Even the tablet hinge feels suitably rugged, and we appreciate the bidirectional catch that allows you to clasp the touchscreen to the keyboard in either laptop or tablet mode.  (Source:  Dave Stephenson, PC Authority)
Posted Monday, May 28, 2007 by ChrisD
Rating: 3.33 (Rate it) 1 Lowest 2 3 4 5 Highest Comments (0)

Windows Live Writer: Ink Blog Plugin

Ink Blog allows Tablet PC users to Blog in ink directly from Windows Live Writer.

Features include:

* Manyink colors, including custom colors
* Handwriting Recognition of Ink, which is posted in blog under the ink area
* Various pens and line weights
* Highlighters
* Lasso tool / Move / Cut / Copy / Paste
* Multi-level Undo / Redo
* Text inside the ink region
* Ability to re-edit ink before you publish
* Vertically Expanding ink area - unlimited 'paper'
* Edit mode backgrounds for cleaner inking (Several line widths & Grid)
* Recognition of shapes
* And More..... :-)  (Source: Windows Live Gallery)
Posted Monday, May 28, 2007 by ChrisD
Rating: 5 (Rate it) 1 Lowest 2 3 4 5 Highest Comments (0)

ModBook close to shipping- getting free upgrades

I have been following the ModBook for a while.  If you recall the ModBook is a Tablet PC based on Mac OS X.  They take a MacBook and convert it to a Tablet PC and are getting closer to shipping.  A reader who ordered one of the ModBooks just received an email from the ModBook team, detailing shipping dates and mentioning that some of the components initially listed are being upgraded at no cost to those with pre-orders.  You can now get a 7200 rpm drive in the ModBook, put a second drive in place of the optical drive, and get a whopping 3 GB of memory.  The upping to 512 levels of sensitivity for the active digitizer makes the ModBook perfect for artists.  I have reached out to the ModBook folks but sadly they don't return my emails.  :(  Read on for the whole scoop on the ModBook, which is now slated to begin shipping in June.  (Source: jk On The Run Blog)