Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Tablet PCs

  • Lenovo continues to impress, this time with customer service

    I’ve been using a Lenovo T410S for several months now. It’s a great machine, but I’m not here to talk about that. Recently I took the T410S on a trip and busted the case just to the left of the trackpad. Bummer.

    I jumped online and opened a ticket with Lenovo through their customer service portal. A few days later a box with appropriate shipping materials arrived. I packed it up, delivered it to the UPS store and sent it on its way. A few days later I logged into the Lenovo customer service site to check the progress of my repair. Imagine my surprise when I entered my ticket number and nothing appeared. A few minutes later I was on the phone to Lenovo. The gentleman on the phone was polite and courteous, but ultimately he couldn’t help me because my help ticket was no longer in their system. Doh!

    Needless to say I was in a bit of a tiff wondering what the heck happened to my laptop. The next day I called the UPS store only to find out they couldn’t help me either. Double doh! Anyway, as I was ranting to my wife and threatening to hurt people I’d never met there was a knock at the door. When I opened it there was the UPS man headed back to his truck, and on the doorstep was my laptop freshly repaired by Lenovo.

    Lenovo came through like a champ. They turned the repair around in just a few days and returned my machine to me in perfect condition. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

  • Tablet hunting – the Fujitsu STYLISTIC Q550 not so good

    I’ve been contemplating a new slate tablet PC. The market is full of them, which should make choosing one a piece of cake. Unfortunately it’s turning out to be much more difficult than originally thought.

    The most common problem, for me at least, has been short battery life. Less than four hours just isn’t an option, which eliminates what I think is the best slate tablet on market the Eee Slate EP121. So you can imagine my elation when I saw the specs for the Fujitsu STYLISTIC Q550. The screen size of the Q550 is a little small, but the pen and multi-touch input along with the claims from the manufacturer of extended battery life, up to 8 hours, caught my attention.

    (more…)

  • Motion Ships the First Ultra-light and Rugged CL900 Tablet PC

    Motion News Release regarding their new CL900 tablet PC:

    (more…)

  • Windows 7 tablet PC desktop done right by an end user

    From Windows 7 Tablet Blog. Look at the screenshot and then watch the video. When you’re through being amazed jump to the website and read how this transformation took place.
    (more…)

  • Taking a look at the new Lenovo X220t Tablet PC

    I purchased a Lenovo x201t Tablet PC back in November 2010. It’s been a great machine.

    The new x220t is every bit as impressive as the x201t, but has a slightly larger 12.5-inch Gorilla Glass touchscreen. In addition it has a new ThinkPad battery pack that should provide the user some serious portability without the need to continuously be tethered to a plug. I get about 5-6 hours of continuous use  on a single charge with my x201t extended battery pack. I expect the new x220t will get at least that. Throw in the new batter slice and users could potentially get up to 16 hours on a single charge. You simply can’t ask for more than that.
    (more…)

  • Different tablets for different tastes

    The Digital Reader: “Due to weight I had to pick between my a Win7 tablet convertible or (as a pair) my iPad and Viewsonic gTablet. I’m taking the Inspiron Duo.

    I can get more work done with it than the other 2 combined. I can run all the same apps on my Win7 laptop and on my Duo. I can start a project on one, email it to myself, and continue it on the other. I also know that no matter what I download I’ll be able to open it. Neither mobile OS has any real support for Office formats, not even basics like RTF, ODT, or others.

    The same goes for all my other data. Just a few minutes ago I copied 70GB of work files onto the Duo. I didn’t need more than about 100MB, but copying the files over was so easy that I went ahead and grabbed them all. I know that I will be able to open whatever I happen to need, so why not?”

    While I don’t completely agree with everything the author says I’m slowly coming to the same conclusion myself, i.e. that a Windows tablet is the way to go. I experimented with an iPad last year, but it didn’t meet my needs. I’ve been seriously considering an Android tablet, but just can’t seem to pull the trigger; can’t really say why. One thing I do know is that I use Windows 7 for a majority of my computing needs, including on my current tablet of choice, the Lenovo X201 Tablet PC.

    The Inspiron duo is an interesting machine. I’ve played with it at the Microsoft Store in Bellevue, WA and wasn’t all that impressed with it. But I must say it’s a refreshing change from the standard slate and convertible designs I’ve seen over the past couple of years.

    It just goes to show you that one size definitely doesn’t fit all. Different strokes and all that jazz.

  • Lenovo continues to impress

    Electronista: “Lenovo gave its ThinkPad X series a major refresh on Tuesday with a generational leap. The X220 notebook and X220t tablet both use a newer 12.5-inch, IPS-based rich color display but thrive with a new external ThinkPad battery pack. They can last up to nine and eight hours respectively on extended internal batteries, but the battery pack pushes them up to 15 hours on the X220t and a full 24 hours on the X220.

    X220t owners also get their own touches with a much brighter 300-nit touchscreen that uses Gorilla Glass to improve their resistance to shattering or just casual scratching. The X220 notebook is the lighter of the two at under three pounds, where the swiveling display adds an extra 0.9 pounds to the X220t.”

    I purchased a Lenovo X201 tablet back in November 2010. It’s a fantastic machine and I haven’t regretted the purchase for a moment. I consistently get about six hours of battery life out of the extended battery pack. The idea of getting more than double that with the new X220t is mind boggling. Throw in an extra 0.4-inches of brighter touchscreen and the strength of Gorilla Glass and I think Lenovo has another winner on its hand.

     

  • Is the tablet PC dead?

    Mashable: “Microsoft will release a tablet-oriented version of Windows no sooner than 2012, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

    Despite Steve Ballmer’s bombastic statements in July last year, when he said Microsoft is “hardcore” about tablets and that we can expect “a lot” of Windows-based tablets by the end of 2010, none of the tablets that actually did hit the stores made any significant impact on the market.

    The reasons for this are quite clear: Windows 7 simply isn’t optimized for use with modern tablets with finger-based input. Remember the long, painful transition from Windows Mobile 6 to Windows Phone 7? Once again, it will take time for Microsoft to deliver the user experience it needs to be able to compete with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Honeycomb.”

    While the tablet PC may not be dead, it’s certainly on life support. The lack of a significant “Windows” presence in the new tablet market is troubling to say the least. I use a tablet PC nearly every day and for the life of me can’t figure out why Microsoft hasn’t taken a different approach to this market. Apple is kicking the crap out of them, as are Android tablet makers Motorola and Samsung. Why? Because Microsoft isn’t making tablets that people are interested in using.
    (more…)

  • The evolution of tablets for pharmacy

    Everywhere I look these days someone is showing off a new tablet; in the media anyway. Out in public I typically see mostly iPads with the Galaxy tablet coming in a distant second. I’m not sure that this will change anytime soon, but it’s clear to me that tablets will become mainstream devices for many people over time. The technology is simply too good to ignore. No one knows if the tablet will ever replace desktop machines, but I have an idea that they will for many, especially as the tablet market matures and hardware vendors begin to meet the needs of consumers. Case in point is the growing number of iPad keyboard cases you can find floating around on the internet. People want the iPad experience, but they also want a solid keyboard to work with so vendors obliged consumers by creating things like the ClamCase.

    To the best of my knowledge the next twelve months will bring tablets of all shapes, sizes and OS flavors to the market. I’ve seen information on tablets with screen sizes ranging from 7-inches to just over 10-inches, and operating systems including Android, Windows 7 (8?), WebOS, BlackBerry, and of course iOS. Did I miss any? It’s possible that I did as I’ve seen a few others thrown in the mix over the past several months, but I believe these constitute the bulk of what we’ll see.

    With that said, what impact do I think these devices will have on pharmacy practice? That’s a good question. Because I’m a tablet enthusiast I’d like to think they will revolutionize pharmacy practice as we know it, but in reality it probably won’t make much difference at all. Why? Site back and I’ll tell you.
    (more…)

  • Disinfect your tablet PC without the chemical mess

    Check out the video below from HIMSS 2011 demonstrating a product by Advanced Technical Support, Inc (ATS) called ReadyDock:UV. It’s really quite neat.

    ATS makes a host of ReadyDock products for the entire range of Motion tablet PCs including the LE, C5, F5 and J3400. According to the company website:

    “ReadyDock:UV – Chemical-Free disinfection for the Motion C5 Tablet in 105 seconds Flat! The world’s first and only product offering automated general purpose disinfection for TabletPCs. Disinfect without the mess.

    ReadyDock™ products are used around the globe to support workflow and the overall management of tablet PC applications in hospitals, field service, and other applications that require charging, storage, and security of tablet PCs.”