I rock up to meetings and take notes on my pda – its not converted text, just inked. Having it in that form alone is valuable because I don’t have to fiddle around with little pieces of paper swimming around my pockets, and its date stamped and can be synched back to my computer for safe keeping/later reference. I also have a foldable keyboard for it, but you know what? Keyboard taps are distracting in a meeting, and absolutely useless for drawing diagrams on the fly…also, there are times when you need to input data, but have nowhere to sit down. For now, the pda is ok for this, but its the possiblity of doing things like using onenote and having searchable ‘ink’ that’s drawing me more towards the UMPC/tablet pc realm…the prices are becoming more reasonable, but still a big barrier for me unfortunately.

All I do is push x and right when I push xxxxxx
it does that and I push sxxxxxxxxxxxx
wxhxxxxxxxxxxxaxxtsxxxxx ronxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ggggggggg wxxixxxxxth thisxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx. pleasxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxppppppppppppxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
hexlxxxxxxxxxp.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I had an interesting experince this weekend. I went to my brothers house and showed he, his wife and 4 daughters my Q1P.

He is a network professional working for a Fortune 500 company. Although his division makes big use of mobile technology in the form of laptops and Blackberrys he could not see the usefulness of it in his environment. He could not get over the lack of a keyboard, even after I showed him my Sierra Stowaway bluetooth unit. He considered the touch screen a novelty item.

The eldest daughter is 20, is in school in Manhattan and works as an intern at a very chique New York marketing firm. She is also a pretty run of the mill computer user; she knows how to do what she needs to do but is scared to install software herself. She loved it instantly and thought her father was an idiot for not seeing immediately the possibilites. She was also surprised that her nerdy uncle would have anything so cool before all her terminally hip co-workers did. I am sure she told them all about it on Monday and they are no doubt scrambling to find designer versions of UMPCs I write this.

The 18 year old was too busy on the phone with her new boyfriend to be bothered with any other electronic device.

The 13 year old took to the UMPC like a duck to water. She used the handwriting recognition of ritePen to search Google and Wikipedia for answers to her homework for about 40 minutes. She then demanded one for her birthday.

My brother’s luddite wife’s eyes glazed over at the discussion of anything technical. I pointed out that as a hospital nurse she would probabably have to use one of these pretty soon. She liked the idea of making her paperwork chores quicker and easier but was not interested in any of the tech.

Writing? What’s that? Nobody writes, anymore — that’s what keyboards are for.

My handwriting sucks. I almost never write anything, anymore, except for short little notes to myself that I’ll scratch out now and then — and that I won’t have to try to figure out in the distant future (distant, as in more than a few hours). Even the IRS doesn’t require me to write anything. On those very rare occasions when I do have to write something to give to someone else (you know, like my signature, for example), I have to really concentrate to get it right (and not make it look like Grafitti 1).

I can’t remember the last time I wrote a check. Do people still use those?

I’m being facetious, of course — I know they do because those are the folks always holding up the checkout line fumbling with their checkbooks. The only thing worse are the folks who hold up the line trying to dig actual *money* out of their wallets or pockets (“Let’s see…fifty-one cents…fifty-two cents…how much was it, again?…fifty-seven cents?…oops, I dropped a penny…fifty-six cents…let me check my other pocket…hmmm, I’m a penny short, here’s a dollar.).

:)

I had a similar experience this week re: pen input, but this time it centred around my Toshiba M205. I was using it in tablet mode and was asked by a friend about the handwriting recognition. They were very impressed when I explained that I can minute meetings and have OneNote convert my handwriting into text for distribution to attendees. Their interest really peaked when I explained that the ink in OneNote was searchable. We all agreed that these two features of a tablet pc can be huge time savers as well as excellent organisational tools. Who knows perhaps their next laptop might be a convertible, maybe even a slate.

Sure! I am the point of attraction during the first five minutes of every meeting. People just don’t know what the heck I have in my hands and despite of explanations, people still look confused :P

Well, my wife doesn’t understand what is the Q1 for as well, LOL