Get ready for a new type of computer that is definitely about to be as common as being the laptop. In fact, you could think of it as our next evolutionary step of any laptop.
Before you replace your own portable computer, you may want to get yourself informed about this handy new machine that has the name the Tablet PC.
Of all the personal technology advances we've seen within the last few five years, the Tablet PC has to rank among the most significant. For the Tablet PC is truly one of the most innovative and useful products that is definitely just now starting to get maximum major traction. These systems, which are powered by just a specially tweaked version of the Windows XP operating model, allow users to scribble notes on a screen with a pen-like stylus, turning handwriting or block printer into what's called electric ink.
Although Tablet PCs have been on the market for a few many years now, much of the public has been unexposed in their eyes. That's about to change. Tablet PCs are now showing on TV commercials, in magazine and newspaper ads and being exuberantly talked about through word of mouth. Maybe it's time to be able to consider one.
Some Medicine are slate models only. That means there is not a keyboard, just the screen. You write on him like those old Etch-a-Sketches that kids useful to play with. Others, are called convertibles. Flip the screen up and it looks and works as a notebook computer, with a keyboard, CD/DVD slot, track pad and the like. But swivel the computer screen around and down over the keyboard and it's a fabulous slate.
All of the big computer makers make Tablet PC models: Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, Lenovo (IBM), Fujitsu and others. There are a couple of Tablet-only makers, too, like Motion Computing and Solid Computers. Even Apple Computer with its fabled Macintosh line is rumored to generally be close to developing a fabulous Tablet version.
You can get a Tablet PC to get arounf $1, 800 with most of the features we all requirement in portable computers like wo-fi Internet access and Bluetooth wireless. Some models have built-in MP3. DVD drives (which adds to the weight factor), others comprise them as external devices.
Whatever you do, make sure you get enough memory to exercise all those cool apps. My recommendation is at least one GB, instead of standard 512MB on most products.
Over the past period, Tablets have sold fairly well in what are known as vertical marketplaces, among niche interest categories like students (great to get note-taking and recording lectures), medical professionals (for keeping track of patient records) and sales staff (for forms and order-taking). Indeed, some schools are now giving Tablet PCs to the students, that's how great they are as educational tools.
But now that the momentum has built up, most observers are convinced the authentic market is much larger sized... and largely untapped, if you'll excuse the pun.
The Tablet PC does everything a regular computer does. It has a complete Windows xp operating system and can run all of the normal programs and applications individuals are used to on their desktops and laptops. The big difference is that with your Tablet PC, you can also use that electronic stylus to jog many programs, taking notes by hand or tapping on the individual letters of an on-screen computer keyboard representation to type.
Handwriting can be converted to type with just a tap of the stylus, though, obviously, the neater everyone write or print, the more accurate will be the conversion into type.
I've been a a tablet user for several years and, truthfully, I seldom convert handwritten notes on the Tablet. I don't will need to. I can read mine notes just fine. And there's something satisfyingly personal about seeing my scribbes on a computer screen. It's sort of the ultimate in modification.
While a Tablet does everything a regular computer does, they provide the added advantage of quite a few special tablet-only software upgrades. I bought a $39 add-on into the Outlook program that enables me use digital tattoo to enter calendar, to-do, journal and contact info. And a $99 method called PlanPlus from Franklin Covey puts the equivalent of a Franklin Planner regarding my Tablet. I've fallen in love with this application.
Then you can find Microsoft OneNote, which comes bundled on many of the Tablets sold today or are sold separately for $99. OneNote I believe, is the most amazingly useful application for any platform I have truly tried.
Besides the electric ink note-taking and organizational benefits, OneNote uses the built in microphone on the Supplement to record meetings, lectures, interviews, whatever you wish. As you take notes associated with a presentation and hear anything that's important, make a star or exclamation mark at the side of someone's words that you have jotted down, just as you may do with pen plus paper notes. Afterwards, as you review the notes, you can tap on the special mark you made to hear the actual recording on the subject as the presenter spoke the results.
No matter how much I use OneNote, it blows me away every time.
If you're thinking in regards to new laptop and if note-taking is portion of your life, a tablet should be at the top of your shopping list.
It's that handy.
Is a Tablet PC befitting you?
Obviously, only you can answer that. But it's been my esperience as a longtime road warrior who has used all sorts of laptops, that the Tablet PC offers so many more features and so much more convenience than a standard laptop which i would never go again.
I bet you will have the same.
