Experience with a Tablet PC

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human
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Experience with a Tablet PC

Post by human »

Early this year, after a year of research into different makes, while also avoiding spending the money, I bought a Tablet PC.

Everything I read seemed to indicate that the Lenovo X61 was the best choice.

I thought I was headed for the ultimate art experience. Wow, I would be drawing directly on the screen -- and also not carrying around a dangling USB tablet.

Well, I am very glad I have a second PC, but I am not exactly in heaven. (It would of course be hard to prove that I deserve heaven anyway, but I digress.) Here's why:

1. A 12-inch screen is small by today's standards. That was a step backwards compared to my very-average VAIO.

2. Holding the pen against the screen blocks one's view of the penpoint/cursor much more than one would have expected.

3. A Wacom tablet has very good traction for the pen. On a tablet PC, you are skating on ice. Of the three drawbacks so far, I think this is the biggest step backwards for me. The screen resolution is good--1400--but this makes the UI buttons and menus quite small targets when skating on ice. I've scaled up the size of the window controls but now I'll have to see whether I can also tweak the size of menu items.

4. Basic operating system tasks on the X61 like booting up and so on seem slow compared to my average laptop.

5. The X61 is more expensive than an ordinary laptop, although I was able to get a modest price break.

6. IBM is proud of its little red TrackPoint (tm). [TrackPoint is a tiny joystick in the middle of the keyboard which replaces a mouse.] Too proud. Much too proud.

Given these drawbacks, for the sake of completeness, one should mention some nice things.

1. Compact is nice. There is no corded tablet to fumble with. Divorced of its docking station, the X61 is fairly lightweight and small--you can cuddle with it as you draw.

2. Lenovo support is good--a very important factor. (On the other hand, the company does have that IBM geekiness which can be so utterly clueless about an end-user's point of view. The website and the included support software can, sometimes, be a bit disorganized, bureaucratic, and arcane.)

3. Quality is good, even if it's true that the design is classic IBM no-nonsense/blah. It's sturdy, reliable, neat, and good battery life.

Anyone else have any tablet stories?
Last edited by human on Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rplate
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Post by rplate »

Here's the one I'm drooling over. I'm a Mac fanatic.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/sho ... =205207260

Bob P
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

It has no key board?

I would love that mac too... but I need a keyboard... even if it cost more and was a little heavier. I suppose I could just carry around my roll up rubber usb keyboard. I love that thing.

-vern
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jahnocli
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Post by jahnocli »

I've got an Acer tablet PC, and I agree with all your points. I would add that the keyboard on the Acer is occasionally erratic too, which is REALLY annoying when you think you've typed that password out and you haven't. The biggest problem for me is the time lag; there is a minute (but noticeable) lag between an action and its appearance on the screen. If you are going to get a tablet, get a fast one...
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
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Víctor Paredes
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Post by Víctor Paredes »

i bought this year a IBM lenovo thinkpad X41 tablet.
it is very light and comfortable.

i just had to install wacom's tablet drivers, because the original wasn't too good.

it is just like a laptop, but you can turn the monitor on the keyboard, so you obtain something as a drawing book.

the keyboard is always working, but you can't see him when you are in drawing book mode.
you can turn the screen to vertical or horizontal, depending how you want to use the tablet.

microsoft has a system in which you can draw words with the pen, and this are converted to text. it looks good and you feel really futuristic, but actually microsoft system is not practical.

i have found a software called MessagEase, it is a little complicated to adapt to the software, but when you have some practice, you can write much faster than with microsoft's system, an you just have a tiny scalable window which can access all the keyboard (even control, alt, windows key, etc)
Image

I really really recommend MessagEase if you have a tablet.
rplate
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Post by rplate »

selgin wrote:i bought this year a IBM lenovo thinkpad X41 tablet.
it is very light and comfortable.
i just had to install wacom's tablet drivers, because the original wasn't too good.
microsoft has a system in which you can draw words with the pen, and this are converted to text. it looks good and you feel really futuristic, but actually microsoft system is not practical.
i have found a software called MessagEase, it is a little complicated to adapt to the software, but when you have some practice, you can write much faster than with microsoft's system, an you just have a tiny scalable window which can access all the keyboard (even control, alt, windows key, etc)
Go here for a tutorial. Macintosh Inkwell
Did you know that if you are on a Mac and have your drawing pad plugged in you wil see this symbolImagein system preferences and it allows you to use your drawing tablet for handwriting recognition. Sweet huh?
PS: It only shows up in system preferences when you have a tablet plugged in.
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Víctor Paredes
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Post by Víctor Paredes »

rplate wrote:Go here for a tutorial. Macintosh Inkwell
Did you know that if you are on a Mac and have your drawing pad plugged in you wil see this symbolImagein system preferences and it allows you to use your drawing tablet for handwriting recognition. Sweet huh?
PS: It only shows up in system preferences when you have a tablet plugged in.
it looks just like microsoft text recognition. it sons good, but it is absolutely useless, that's why i love messagease, you can write anywhere on the screen, you can hold control or shift just like with a keyboard. you don't need to write by hand, you have all the keyboard, but with sudoku size (microsoft text recognition use 1/3 of the screen, is ten five slower and it is far to have fair writing recognition)
rplate
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Post by rplate »

Go here for tutorial on how to bring up the keyboard on a Macintosh in OS x.

Image

ANything you can do I can do on a Macintosh. :P
AND... it's built into the OS.

Thanks for the challenge.
I didn't even know I could do this before you mentioned it.
I hope it's helpful to other Mac users as well.

Bob P
chucky
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tx 2000

Post by chucky »

I just bought a tablet pc too , I wish it had more grunt and edge screen buttons for UNDO, cut ,paste and select all.Sigh :( I've gotta say it's a little disappointing after waiting so long for this technology, :evil:
hp tx 2000 :roll:
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Rasheed
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Post by Rasheed »

@chucky: HP has gone downhill with their PCs. I would not recommend anyone to buy PCs from HP.

Toshiba and Sony are fine, but have lousy support. I believe the best vendor for PCs is Dell, and the best "PC" to run Windows on is the MacBook Pro. I wouldn't want to have a MacBook (or a ModBook) as my only computer, though, because they are a bit underpowered for the video conversion stuff.

Going all digital isn't cheap. A properly sized sketchbook (analog) still goes a long way for the preparation work. Scanners are cheap and desktops give still give you the most bang for your buck.
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Post by chucky »

Hi Rasheed .

yeah the tablet is just for meetings n stuff .
I certainly could'nt go without my desktop with the wacom and all, even without the direct contact with the screen (which is sooo good).
I think that tablets have been on the whole designed for and marketed to entirely wrong crowd (real estate agents and medicos).
When the manufacturers wake up and smell the odor, it will be a good day.
I would have liked a mactablet but not the 'modbook'.


Image

cheap n nasty, but gets the job done, mostly...........mostly.
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Post by human »

chucky wrote:I think that tablets have been on the whole designed for and marketed to entirely wrong crowd (real estate agents and medicos).
When the manufacturers wake up and smell the odor, it will be a good day.
Bingo! This is so true!

Rasheed is right, too, in my experience. If I ever see the HP logo on anything, I start running... away. The only thing I run faster from is the awful brand they purchased, Compaq. (I'm less sure about his views on Sony. I've had good experiences with that company.)

By the way, imagine the ultimate art machine in 2009.

A tablet that ( somehow ?) provides better traction for the pen.

1920x1080 native resolution and HD output.

High powered cpu and graphics chip.

Dual-boot into Win XP or Ubuntu, with plenty of hand-holding to encourage us cowards to take the Linux plunge.

EDIT: Or Mac! Mac is cool! Apple is cool! PLEASE don't beat me ! ! !
chucky
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Post by chucky »

human wrote:
A tablet that ( somehow ?) provides better traction for the pen.
Yes that's right they're slippery little critters, but this could be easily fixed by the addition of a felty tip that wacom do, this would also stop abrasions to the surface, minor but noticeable.
might be possible to get one somewhere. :idea:
That dream tablet you speak of is just pure filth :lol:
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SoinergyDude
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Post by SoinergyDude »

If you own or have a chance to ever look at a Wacom art pad, look at the surface texture of the pen zone. It is ever so slightly frosted, much like a glass can be. This gives us that little extra paper feel we like under a pen.

To do this full time on a Tbalet PC would be silly, as this soft frosting would also make print and images look fuzzy. The Tablet PC screen needs to resist much more impact from daily use than a art pad would, so the PC screen is made to be as scratch resistsant as possible. Making it very slick.

What I would do is in effect combine the best of both types in input. Why not make an acrylic screen that can snap onto the tablet PC over it's screen so while drawing you get the feel and textured surface you want, and when not drawing pop this cover off and you have crisp clear images.

I know where will this cover be stored when out and about... If the tablet PC is of the fold open and rotate and fold back over the keyboard type which for me would be the only way to go, I would make the back side of the screen a little bit thicker to allow the drawing surface to be stroed in it. So it would slide and click or otherwise lock into place as to avoid it falling out every time you pick up the tablet pc.

Yes, that means instead of being as thin as it is now it might be a little thicker.

For the tablets that do not cover up the screen, just make the bottom able to store the drawing screen in the same fashion. This would need a little more thought into how it would function as the battery, and more than likely cooling vents would be located... So it would be a little more of a challenge.

For the Do it yourselfer who likes to invent, tinker and customize... A simple peice of plexi-glass from a local hardware store, and very fine sandpaper (wet may work best), and after a few test runs on scrap peices of plexi-glass to get that soft etching effect... And cuto to fit your screen and presto, you have a very low cost method to get the feel you like, and the comofort of drawing as if with a paper art pad.

As for storing the the screen if you carrie the tablet in a bag, pop the screen in that when not in use. :)

Hope this helps.


O,o

MAC Is awesome! :) I use my Mac SE 30 to run Windows XP Pro and all other programs, has quad boot... I can boot into standard MAC OS 7, MAC OSX, Windows, and Linux... :)

Then don't get me started on the 2 Power Mac PC's I have... Oh, and the Apple III, in the basement... O,o It can run only the apple system and Windows XP Home edition. DANG....

Took me forever to covert or port the codes so it would worl.

Yes, I need a life....
DANG! I forked up my nickname... It is not SoinergyDude... O,o

It is SpinergyDude - Spinergy is the brand of rear wheels on my wheelchair.
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GregSmith
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Post by GregSmith »

I'm using a Samsung Ultra Mobile PC, which has the same "too slick" quality of stylus on screen. This causes me to draw with far too many "jitters" when using art tools, especially the pencil in applications like FlipBook and Pencil.

What I have done to remedy the problem is to, first, use a rolled paper "pastel blender" stick - you know - the kind that is sharpened on both ends for working with chalk pastels, instead of a plastic stylus. This, alone, provides some additional friction and control, as well as being rather fat - which helps me reduce finger jitters quite a bit.

The second thing I did, to provide a really "slow" paper like texture is to get a piece of "single matte" mylar - the kind I used to use in pen and ink drafting - available at the rapidly vanishing brand of small art store - cut it to the exact size of the screen - tack it at the four corners with thin, double-sided tape, matte side up. This surface, combined with the use of the pastel blending stick, is about as "slow" as it gets. I only use this on the final inking pass and can achieve super steady lines and see enough of the icons and text within the program to get by. I wouldn't want to work through this haze all the time, but for finished line work it cannot be beat. It's a very inexpensive solution which also works on a regular Wacom tablet surface.

For an incredible Wacom tactile improvement, try cutting a piece of green drafting table covering - (very thick and cushiony rubber type stuff) and placing this on your Wacom tablet surface. Use a regular stylus. It provides greatly increased friction while maintaining incredible smoothness of surface. No jitters. Makes the stylus tip last longer, too.

Greg Smith
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