Comments on: Netbooks: Swivel Touchscreen Does Not Equal Tablet PC

By: JudgeRight

JudgeRight — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:01:03 +0000

I’m now looking at a Panasonic Toughbook CF29. Finger touch, wifi embedded, backlit keyboard, 13 inch screen, 1.3-1.6 Ghz processor, 1.5 GB RAM max, and best of all ruggedized for the environment. I might have to add a bluetooth dongle for the printer and to get sound into the truck’s audio system, but I’ll have my internet radio, gps working with Google maps, and mobile printer capabilities all packed into one unit powerful enough to handle all three simultaneously. An off-lease police unit should serve nicely and for around $400.

By: Robert Carnegie

Robert Carnegie — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:14:05 +0000

From online descriptions of Walkabout Tablets you probably need a crowbar to open one up. You could ask the manuufacturer whether a replacement digitizer is possible, or look at third-party overlay digitizers. Many years ago I saw a computer that simply had invisible light beams crossing the screen, up/down and left/right. You’d put your finger in and break the beams. I don’t know if you can still get something like that. Some monitor digitizer kits do expect you to take the monitor apart.

Speech control would probably exhaust the thing and won’t be easy in a truck! Maybe with a very specialized headset microphone?

I am now looking at Intel Classmate PCs with about a 9 inch touchscreen and Windows XP Home. The performance doesn’t knock your socks off but it isn’t bad. And I’m writing this on a Samsung Q1, a lower performance touchscreen machine without a keyboard but of course you can plug one in. Q1 Ultra has a weird little split keyboard either side of the screen, not really for writing. My Q1 fan failed, so for extended use I advise fitting a laptop cooler, a very large fan that you can tape to the back of the machine, which is what I did. I expect this will cool the machine so it doesn’t need to turn its own fan on so much.

I also have used clear plastic designed for bookbinding as a very chapply applied disposable screen protector, but I hven’t yet tried to unstick it from the screen to dispose of and replace it.

Oh, and some of the buttons on the Q1 wore out.

By: JudgeRight

JudgeRight — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:18:25 +0000

Actually, at this point I’d rather find something much more powerful than the Walkabout and replace the digitizer in IT to achieve what I want, since I do also use it as a regular net capable laptop. Mobile officers know what I’m about. Timesheets, work reports, safety meetings and all the stuff you’re legally required to do with a team, I’m doing from my truck. So I can pick up a nice used convertible for a pretty reasonable price if I can change the digitizer to finger navigation. Otherwise, I’m stuck with either a tiny screen or a hefty pricetag. Some of the Fujitsu T5010 tablets have dual digitizers but getting one for less than a grand is unheard of and my budget is under $400 dollars at this point.

By: JudgeRight

JudgeRight — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:48:57 +0000

I don’t suppose I could pull this Walkabout apart and replace the screen with a passive or resistive digitizer and if I did, at what cost?

By: JudgeRight

JudgeRight — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:46:33 +0000

I’m $650 in the hole for a unit I hate. Custom ordered in ignorance and got all the features I needed installed only to find out I have to use a pen. Now I’ve educated myself and I’m shopping for a replacement and am about to hand the other one off to a 6 year old kid for a Christmas present because it is a rugged unit and can handle some learning programs. I could have used a much cheaper product for that purpose, though. The bluetooth, gps, and a whole set of features I needed are going to go to waste.

By: JudgeRight

JudgeRight — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:41:30 +0000

Okay, everybody is all excited about the ability to ink. I’m exactly opposite. I have no desire to write notes on my computer screen. I want to navigate my computer by touch. I use my tablet in my truck to navigate google’s maps similar to dedicated GPS devices but with a nice big 12 inch plus screen. I also use it in laptop configuration to print via bluetooth to a mobile printer in the truck. Managing a field force, the ability to print a map and hand it out is a miracle, but I am frustrated as the inkers in the way these things are advertised or described. The tablets should be described in novice users’ terms. (finger touch, dual touch, or pen touch.) What would a shopper know about “active vs. resistive, vs. passive?

By: YANG

YANG — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:02:50 +0000

I have both active digitizer on Siemens T4215 and passive digitizer on Asus T91. The differences are huge. Just forget it if you really want to ink with T91, while T4215 is too heavy to carry around (> 2 kg when two batteries are used), although it inks well. I just heard Asus is going to launch eee pc T101, a successor to T91. Is it possible to have the ability to reject palm touch? Anybody knows?

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:26:48 +0000

Lower resolution digitizer makes sophisticated handwriting recognition much more difficult. Not to mention the fact that it is impossible to write on a 9-inch screen without resting your palm on the digitizer, which is recognized as a stylus touch.

By: Nameless

Nameless — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:04:59 +0000

I’ve yearned for a Wacom-or-N-Trig-equipped tablet netbook for 500 US$ or less NEW, so that the average person (read: not the likes of us, who know about buying used HP TC1100s and the like) will see it on a store shelf, know it exists, and at least consider buying it.

That said, resistive digitizers work okay on small-screened (4″ 4:3/4.3″ 16:9 or less) devices because you’re not very likely to touch the screen with your palm, but getting beyond that, there will be problems if a resistive digitizer is used for the pen/stylus. (While I’ve never used one of the old Apple Newton MessagePad 2000/2100s, I’m still not sure about their 6″ resistive-only screens. They seem just large enough that I could accidentally touch the screen with my writing hand.)

My priorities are on the pen/stylus, however. While I would like to just touch my TC1100′s screen sometimes, I get over it because I don’t want to deal with the accidental input issues that could result if it did have the capability to register finger touch. Also, pressure sensitivity is an EXPECTATION from me-something you can only get out of a Wacom or N-Trig pen (especially the former).

By: Alejandro Aguilar

Alejandro Aguilar — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:01:33 +0000

I’m not totally convinced about your point. Although active digitizers are better, passive digitizers are good for digitizing and vectoring. My proof: My Palm T/X, that can recognize digitizing of the letters I write into it. If a little Palm can do that, why a 9 inch screen can’t without fancy hardware?