<p>Let's see, pencil and paper; pencil and loose leaf note paper; pencil and legal pad... What's wrong with this picture? We still take notes like students did over a hundred years ago.</p>
<p>We can do better: The Tablet PC</p>
<p>Check out the following demo and see if it's right for you...</p>
<p>The Tablet PC is nothing more than a fancy electronic paper notebook. Why will someone choose to pay over a 100 dollars for a device that will serve the same use as a 5 dollar notebook? For those who are rich and more frivolous in spending, I assume that the pricetag and risk of theft will not bother them. However, those who are more money-conscious will probably not bother with the Tablet PC because of the pricetag and the high risk of theft associated with electronics. It looks cool, but novelty wears off quickly.</p>
<p>Nothing will ever beat good old pen and paper for transcribing stuff. You can burn paper if you ever get in trouble with the law, leaving no digital fingerprints.</p>
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You can burn paper if you ever get in trouble with the law, leaving no digital fingerprints.
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<p>Lol, we'll keep that in mind the next time we're taking notes in Bio 101.</p>
<p>LOL joev, good one! :p</p>
<p>Personally, my type of note-taking is doing it with pen and paper, then typing it all into the computer. That way, it forces me to actually read the stuff line by line and it helps me to study that way thoroughly. But that's my way; don't know if it will help others.</p>
<p>From my experience, Tablet PCs dont work very well.</p>
<p>Tablet PCs don't pass the 10 year test. They won't last a decade. Hence, they're a gadget that people will eventually wise up on. Note taking on the computer can be very easy and fast if you get used to it. Of course, taking math notes is rediculously hard and a waste of time on a computer, but for other stuff, it's great. The problem with pen and paper is holding onto it. In high school, I was lucky if I could find all my notes by test time. For the final at the end of the term, I had to re-read the text, which defeats the purpose of notes. On a comp, you can keep your notes forever without them taking up space (literally and on your hard drive; a few KB for word document is like a scratch on the surface of most memory devices, large and small).</p>
<p>joev: all you need is a fairly strong degaussing loop to ensure no one will read your dirty electronic secrets. Make a coil of wire and run AC current through it to create an alternating magnetic field. turn it on when the memory storage device is right in the middle of it, then move the device or the loop away slowly, reducing the strength of the magnetic field near the device. That does the trick.</p>
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Nothing will ever beat good old pen and paper for transcribing stuff. You can burn paper if you ever get in trouble with the law, leaving no digital fingerprints.
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<p>you can smash a tablet pc a lot faster than you can burn a notebook</p>
<p>It is still much easier/faster to type notes rather than write w/ the tablet pen or even an ordinary pen. I see myself typing notes in every class except for math.</p>
<p>I shudder to think what would happen if the PC screwed up.</p>
<p>Too bad I've already bought a laptop. I guess the tablet PC would have to wait a few more years! But seriously, Tablet PCs have a lot of problems now. Hopefully a lot of these bugs will be fixed in the next couple of years.</p>
<p>I'm not into the PC, but you should try GO BINDER!!! It's amazing. Your backpack will be pretty much replaced with your laptop. It has a calendar which automatically updates days you have hw due, quizzes, etc. it works in conjunction with the program your professors use (blackboard at my school). try it out <a href="http://gobinder.com%5B/url%5D">http://gobinder.com</a></p>
<p>Not to mention you can't draw diagrams/graphs/tables as easily on the Tablet PC than you could on paper.</p>
<p>Acutally, it looks to be a pretty cool gadget. If I had the money I would look into it.</p>
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<p>It is still much easier/faster to type notes rather than write w/ the tablet pen or even an ordinary pen. I see myself typing notes in every class except for math.</p>
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<p>Of course, I wasn't seriously thinking that a tablet pc is better because you can destroy it more easily</p>
<p>Tablets are not just a fad. Sales are increasing, and they're here to stay. And what are all these bugs everyone thinks tablets have?? My toshiba m200 has been running smoother than any other computer I've owned. As far as protection goes, I'll be backing everything up either on my college's webspace or on my desktop.
I'll being using my tablet to take all my notes. I don't organize papers very well so it will really help me out. Also I found a couple of my books online, so I can just takes notes in the book on my computer screen without having to lug the book around. :)</p>
<p>Looks like an over-sized palm pilot to me.</p>
<p>Its all about product life cycle. A ten year run of any emerging technology is an eon. The Tablet PC is a laptop with a Wacom digitizer screen designed for pen input. In this regard, Tablets are a step up from laptops and a quantum leap from PDAs (with their stylus-enabled screens). And while no one is suggesting that laptops or PDAs will disappear any time soon, I believe that Tablet PCs will be around for a while too. Desktops morphed into portable PCs (a 30 lb. Compaq, anyone?). Portable PCs morphed into laptops. Laptops morphed into Tablet PCs. Tablet PCs will morph into? Thats the nature of technology. Stuff evolves. We no longer dip our quills into an inkwell in order to write on parchment. Why use e-mail or IM when a letter or a phone call will do? Isnt it much cheaper to mail a letter than it is to send an e-mail using a $1000 laptop and the cost of a monthly ISP/Cable connection? </p>
<p>Reality check:</p>
<p>Stuff happens
Stuff gets lost.
Stuff gets stolen.
Stuff breaks.
Hard drives fail.
Files get corrupted.
Files get erased.
People never back up.</p>
<p>Got important files? Back them up to your network, your jump drive or burn it to a CD. Just dont blame your Tablet PC, laptop or desktop for your failure to appreciate the dark side of our dependency on technology. In the end, a Tablet PC, like any laptop or desktop, is a tool. And a tools value is measured by its utility to its owner. A Tablet PC provides terrific value for what it does best: enabling its user to capture hand written thoughts (both structured and chaotic) and link them dynamically to a much wider universe of ideas.</p>
<p>I prefer the feeling of grinding a pencil against paper; finger prints can get on the screen of a tablet, writing recognition is not 100% accurate, and making corrections is cumbrous. I have a feeling that I would spend more time trying to make it work rather than working with it.</p>
<p>Additionally, it uses Windows as an operating system. Who would want that?</p>
<p>Tablets come with a special screen coating that minimizes the problem of fingerprints. This same coating provides resistance to your stylus that mimics writing on paper rather than on glass. The release of Service Pack 2 has greatly improved handwriting recognition when you want to convert to text. The great thing about digital ink is that you can leave your notes in your own handwriting (just like you would on paper). </p>
<p>Which is better: flipping through a semesters' worth of paper notes looking for a particular topic or doing a Google-like search for all of your digital notes with the word "abcdefg"?</p>
<p>Embedded within Tiger OSX is "Inkwell" (Apple's own version of digital ink). See the following Wacom link:</p>
<p>You have to attach a Wacom digitizer pad to your Mac computer or laptop to get it to run wtih IWorks. Not your typical Apple elegant way to work... And way back in the past, Apple fooled around with the Newton (a handheld computer that used a stylus...much like current PDA's). So Apple has experience with digital ink technology...</p>
<p>A month ago, Apple announced that their entire product lines will be switching over to Intel. No longer shackled to the dead end PPC platform, a MacTel based Tablet PC is a real possibility. </p>
<p>The Intel switch gives Apple a roadmap to the Tablet PC architecture. Why is this important? For creating their own Tablet PC? Sure. But wait, there's more. As Mac fans should know, Jobs is going to wage war with Microsoft over control of your living room. Controlling entertainment media is the key to Apple's future (Job's opinion). The IPod is just the opening salvo in this war. And this war will not be won using a keyboard or mouse. Apple already has design patents for a Tablet/slate like device. Something "interesting" will be coming your way... (My prediction.)</p>
<p>But it runs on a Wintel platform: "Who would want that?"</p>