Tag: Tablet PCs

  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of November 15th

    As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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  • Motion J3400 Tablet PC Video

    Our pharmacy department uses tablet PCs as a tool to get pharmacists out of the physical pharmacy and up on the floors where they belong. We use a combination of the Dell XT2 tablet and the Motion J3400. I’ve mentioned the J3400 a couple of times before, here and here. It is a nice, rugged tablet.
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  • Computer options for nurses using BCMA

    Our facility is in the process of implementing bar code medication administration (BCMA) at the bedside. A large part of the process involves selecting hardware for the nurses to use on the floor. In addition to bar code scanners, the nurses will need access to computers for documenting not only medication administration, but other patient specific information as well.
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  • Final thoughts on Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC

    dell_latitude_xt2_tablet_pcI’ve been using a Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC for a couple of months now. It goes with me to all my meetings and has replaced my stack of legal pads I used to have in my office. Is it a perfect replacement? No, but it’s good enough that I don’t think I’ll go back to paper anytime soon.

    Overall I’ve been pretty happy with this tablet and have grown quite accustomed to using it for almost all my computing needs. While I don’t think it will take the place of a desktop PC anytime soon, it is more than capable of stepping in as a replacement for my laptop.
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  • Great new idea for “InkPad” at GottaBeMobile

    Matthew Dillon at GottaBeMobile has come up with a great concept for a new tablet device that he calls “ink pad”. The most entertaining thing about the concept is that I have designed several of these on paper over the years myself. My scribbles are recorded in various notebooks lying around the house. Like Matthew, I too love Tablet PCs but have always felt that there is still a yet to be developed device that would be better.
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  • What tablet PC information did I miss? [Week of October 4th]

    I’m constantly trolling the internet for information on tablet PCs. What can I say, I’m addicted. And believe me, there’s was no shortage of stuff to read this week. Reports of the death of the tablet PC have been greatly exaggerated. I was going to add these thoughts to the “What’d I miss” post from yesterday, but it was just too much information. Anyway, here’s some tablet PC stuff I found interesting this week.
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  • To touch or not touch….a computer screen

    GottaBeMobile: “I am firmly of the belief that touch and multitouch make no real, practical sense on the desktop monitor. As we’ve stated on GBM before, the main problem for touch interfaces on the desktop is “gorilla arm”, that heavy, painful feeling you get in your arm after having it outstretched for an extended period, trying to touch a monitor 20-24 inches away from your body. Sure there are times when touch on the desktop monitor would be handy to just scratch out a quickie OneNote drawing, but for 99% of the time, for 99% of the people, touch on the desktop monitor space just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense even if it came for free. Now on the smaller form factors, Apple has really done the space a lot of service. Users and fanboys alike have been shown how touch and multitouch work on an iPhone. Apple’s advertising for the touch features of iPhone are direct, to the point, and show the audience what is going on without a lot of flash or distraction. Much like the HP ads for their newer IQ-series TouchSmart kitchen PC, the advertising is creative and effective.” – While I agree in theory to what Mr. Locke is saying, there are times when a touch screen is simply the best way to go. Desktop computers may not be the right application for such devices, but a desk surface may be the perfect area for a touch screen. We have several monitors scattered throughout our pharmacy that I would love to see as touch screens. For some reason I feel compelled to touch a computer monitor when I’m standing instead of seated in front of it. Touch screens also make excellent tools for surfing the internet while kicking back on the couch watching football. Now there’s a practical use for touch screen technology.

  • Additional thoughts on the Motion J3400 and Dell XT2 tablet PCs

    I’ve had the Motion J3400 and Dell XT2 for a few weeks now and thought I would update my opinion on these tablets.

    Motion J3400 configuration:
    Windows Vista Business
    1.4 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor
    2 GB RAM

    Dell XT2 configuration:
    Windows XP Tablet Edition –SP3
    1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor
    2 GB RAM
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  • First Impression – Dell Latitude XT2

    dell-latitude-xt2I got my hands on another new tablet PC today. This time it was the Dell Latitude XT2. This is our hospitals convertible tablet of choice. I would have preferred the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet, but as I have mentioned many times before we are a Dell shop.

    The Dell Latitude XT2 is a very elegant looking tablet PC, but was a bugger to configure. The tablet didn’t want to stay connected to the hospitals wireless network. This is in sharp contrast to the Motion J3400 I mentioned earlier this week which grabbed onto our network right out of the box. The problem turned out to be the Latitude’s ControlPoint Connection Manger. I was able to find some information by searching Google after a disastrous call to the Dell customer service line. I had all the right credentials to access the mega-super-extra-special customer service rep, but that turned out to be worth about the same as a hand full of rocks. Anyway, I ended up uninstalling the ControlPoint Connection Manger and restarting Window’s connection manager via MMC. After that the tablet’s connection to the hospital network worked great, but the “Tablet Buttons” that allow the user to operate screen rotation in slate mode stopped working. More research led me to a software bundle called the ControlPoint System Manager. I installed that and the buttons started working, but I lost the digitizer. An additional 30 minutes of googling led me to the N-Trig software bundle, which finally got me up and running. I’m sure all this would have been much easier if the DVD that the customer support website kept referring to was actually in the box. I never did find it.

    IMG_0583Now, on to the good stuff. The XT2 is a very nice machine. It is smaller then my Dell Latitude D520 by quite a bit (see photo). The J3400 is similar in size, but looks significantly bulkier. I prefer the look and feel of the XT2. The screen on the Dell is small (12.1”), but very sharp and easy to read. Like the Motion tablet it is much faster then the tablet PCs the pharmacists are currently using.

    The tablet came with Windows XP pre-installed which is fine. The inking experience is very nice. The feature I like the most so far is the ability to navigate with either finger-tip-touch or the pen. I can quickly change back and forth by tapping the screen twice with my finger to activate the touch interface, or by tapping the screen twice with the pen to activate the pen interface. This little feature alone kept me entertained for quite a while. It made surfing the internet more of a treat then usual.

    Based on the limited time I’ve had to spend with the tablet I have to say it’s a keeper. I actually like it quite a bit more then the Motion J3400. I’ll update you on how well it performed in the pharmacy after I’ve had a chance to put it through it paces. Until then, I have a new toy.

  • First impression – Motion J3400 tablet PC

    I received a new Motion J3400 tablet PC today from our IT department. It’s for our ICU pharmacists and will be replacing the Motion LE1700 tablet PC they are currently using. The tablet has the same application configuration as our desktop machines: Siemens Pharmacy, Soarian Clinicals, internet access, etc.
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