<p>What do you think about Tablet PC's in general? Are they worth the $?</p>
<p>I would like to get one. There are still regular laptops that are more expensive and heavier and the convertible tablet pc seems very versatile. </p>
<p>You must take great care for it. Repair costs are double what they are for normal laptops. Get an extended warranty.</p>
<p>P.S> 3 -4 hour battery life. :(</p>
<p>i'm about to get the ibm x41 thinkpad tablet. its on sale right now for 1679.20 w/ onenote, an 8 cell battery, 3 yr warranty, a sleeve, 512 ram, bluetooth, wireless a/b/g, and 60 gb hard drive. u have to use a visa card to get the discount @
<a href="http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/visa%5B/url%5D">http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/visa</a>... its under x series notebooks, not the tablet</p>
<p>i figure, u can't go wrong w/ ibm & i've been searchin 4 a tablet 4 a while.
oh yeah, here's a real good thread on how ACTUAL college students use their tablets</p>
<p>I think the technology is still new, and for the price, I personally wouldn't use its features. Repair costs and easily breakable are two more cons. Sure, they might be good for on-the-go business people, but for the average college student a laptop wil more than suffice. So right now, I don't think they are worth the money...but they look like a great option in the future.</p>
<p>Tablet PC: A laptop only better</p>
<p>Tablet PCs come in two flavors: Convertible and Slate. Convertible models look just like a regular laptop with an attached keyboard but with a center hinge which allows the LCD screen to swing around and lay flat against the keyboard. To conserve weight, many Tablet PCs come with external optical drives. The latest Toshiba Tecra M4 and the Satellite R10/15 come with the optical drive built in (making them weigh in at 6lbs+ rather than 4 lbs+).IBM/Lenovo just released the X-41 Tablet with an external optical drive (3+ lbs.) Slate models have a detached keyboard and optical drive. They are meant to be carried around all day (sans keyboard) and are most useful in the healthcare and insurance industries. Long battery life is the best feature of slates (8 hrs or more). Convertibles Tablet PCs are the most popular since people want the convenience of a keyboard when they need it.</p>
<p>Why are there so many computer/laptop threads on CC? After tuition and room and board, buying a computer represents a major purchase for families. Parents are looking for a computer that will last for four years and will help their child do well in school. On the other hand, students are looking for computers that will only incidentally do school work. Lets see: web surfing, e-mail, CD burning, IM, gaming and, oh yes, school work. Lets try to redress the balance between parental expectations and educational realities.</p>
<p>So why choose a Tablet PC over a regular laptop? You can write on the screen like you would in a paper notebook. Big deal ? Absolutely. Check out the many laptop threads on CC. Only a small minority of students take notes in class by typing. Most students still use pencil and paper. Why? Science and math classes arent conducive to typing. How much noise do you make while typing? A few posters claim they dont type that loud in class and that they dont annoy their fellow students. Lets ask the other kids about that. </p>
<p>How many hours per day to you spend in class? How many classes are you carrying? How many notebooks and textbooks do you carry around in your backpack? Handouts ? How good are your class notes? How do you study for a test? Ah, thats the rub studying for a test. Pressure! Late nights and Red Bull before your mid-term ? Read through your sequentially written notes; review your handouts; find relevant text book passages and maybe some stuff you Googled off the Net. Sound familiar? Your laptop isnt too useful now, is it?</p>
<p>With a Tablet PC (and a software program like GoBinder or OneNote to manage your class materials): All your notes are captured digitally in your own handwriting (which you could convert to text if you want). Depending on your inner Geek, Tablet PC students have been known to scan in all of their handouts and even textbook chapters into PDF files. Create links on keywords or passages which brings together your notes, handouts, textbook passages and web pages. You have the ability to write on any of those sources. Add circles around important material. Draw arrows to point to stuff. Highlight handout material with a digital highlighter (your choice of colors from the tool bar) and then link it back to your class notes. Think about it: everything is captured on your Tablet PC. No more hunting through piles of paper.</p>
<p>Consider CC subject categories and how theyre organized. Think about College Life as a class that youre taking at school. You click on College Life and you see all the subject threads. You go to the subjects that youre interested in and read through the posts. Some posts have links to articles on the web about that subject. You can PM or e-mail a poster for more information on a subject. From dorm room pictures to what computer is best for me, everything is organized. If your test is on dorm room pictures, you go to that thread, open it up and click on the links to the posters photos. Done deal... Now imagine if all of the threads in College Life were written on index cards in no particular order. Not a pretty picture, is it? Thats why a Tablet PC is so great for education. You can organize and link materials together including the notes that you write in class. Want more information? Use the search function. All in one place (You could go back to your dorm room and re-type your notes into folders on your regular laptop and some students do. Your call )</p>
<p>Finally, Tablet PCs are still a few hundred dollars or more expensive than regular laptops. That fact alone keeps Tablets beyond the reach of many families. If you or your family can step up to get a Tablet PC, its well worth the money and gives you a better academic experience (and you can still surf the web, get e-mail ).</p>
<p>Personally, I don't feel as comfortable with a tablet as I do with a pencil and paper.</p>
<p>jaykaegee... I ordered that but cancelled my order because it wasn't going to be delivered for a LONG time and I simply wasn't willing to wait... and then possibly getting a buggy unit(like some have).</p>
<p>I know a few kids with tablets and most agree that it is a novelty item and not really necessary. Also, for math/science majors the conversion tools are seriously lacking... or that's what I've heard.</p>
<p>I have a Sony Viao T series on order... about 3lbs, a 7-9 hour battery life, TINY, and also a big LCD screen for at my desk. I have taken quite a few college classes already and have gotten by fine with a good old pencil and paper. I wanted a laptop for in between classes and I wasn't going to carry a 15" widescreen in my purse.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I think tablet pc's still have a lot more advancing and improvement to go. You can just tell by looking at the price. I think I'll just get a regular laptop for now. Plus I don't want anything to go wrong with my notebook during school...I'll just play it safe for now.</p>
<p>I love my new toshiba m200. I just got it for $1030 refurb and bought an extra gig of memory for $80. It's almost as fast as my desktop and only 4lbs. The 12in screen is really bright and 1400x1050 looks amazing on such a small screen. With the built in nvidia go5200 I can even play some ut2004 or hl2 if I ever get bored.</p>
<p>I'm planning on double majoring in physics and math, so most of my notes will be diagrams and equations, stuff that you can't easily type. I hate having tons of papers and notebooks and think my tablet will make me more organized. The current gerneration of tablets seems to be much better than the first and about the same quality as any other tablet.</p>
<p>Are refurbished electronics really "safe" to buy? How do you know if they will be reliable and not internally damaged?</p>
<p>The Toshiba M200 Tablet PC units on sale at select resellers on the web are factory refurbished (by Toshiba). Most were demo models used in stores and some were customer returns. All units are completely examined and fixed (if necessary) by Toshiba techs and given a 90 day guarantee. I believe you can buy an extended warrantee from the Toshibadirect.com web site.</p>
<p>Be sure to see if the external dvd/cd-rw drive is included. Look for the M205 S810 model (which included the external drive). It's not a deal breaker if it's not included. You can buy an external optical drive for $100 or so.</p>
<p>To put this into perspective, my nephew has the M205 and the family paid $2100 a year ago.</p>
<p>Refurbished is fine, as long as there's a warranty.</p>
<p>Tablet technology is very good right now. I can take notes on my tablet just fine, it's like writing on bright paper with different colored pens, and it's a very good notebook as well. It's the Toshiba R15, got it for about $1300.</p>
<p>I think the largest tablet is around 14" right? Do they have anything in the 15" range?</p>
<p>14" screens are the largest available. The Gateway M275, Toshiba's M4/R15/R10 are 14". Most of the remaining Tablets are 12".</p>
<p>Because Tablets are designed to be used for taking notes, they mostly resemble your standard paper notebook or legal pad. The 12" models are the size of an 81/2 x 11 sheet of paper. The 14" models are about the size of a standard legal pad (81/2 x 14). </p>
<p>Both models are designed to fit comfortably on a standard student desk (the ones with the small armrest on the right). Anything larger than 14" wouldn't be too practical. The 15.4" and 17" behemoths wouldn't balance too well.</p>
<p>no... nothing larger than 14" currently. When you think about it, the point of having a tablet is to be small and portable. I'm writing on a 14" laptop right now and it's pretty big... IMO it's almost too bit to be carrying around and using on a tiny desk. </p>
<p>... I continue to question my decision to NOT get a tablet but I figure I can always get my parents to get me one for Christmas if my ultra portable laptop doesn't work out. </p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>I didn't hear that much about tablets when I was ordering my laptop (I got a powerbook) and I don't know how comfortable I would be with writing on tablet. </p>
<p>I have a question about attachable tablets though. They're like small pads that you can attach to your computer, and input your handwriting, but when you write on them, does the text only appear on the computer or also on the tablet pad? And can they be attached to a computer that's closed? I'm guessing they're not very efficient =/</p>
<p>Your thinking about Wacom digitizers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wacom.com/index2.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://www.wacom.com/index2.cfm</a></p>
<p>Their digitiizer pads attach to either a PC or Mac and prices start around $90 and up.</p>
<p>Wacom licences their technology to Tablet PC manufacturers for their pen-enabled LCD screens. This is the high end of their product line. What you're thinking about are the small attachable pads that connect to your laptop. </p>
<p>The big difference between the Tablet PC and the Wacom digitizer pads is the interaction between you and the software. Most Wacom users are graphic designers, architectural and industrial engineers who have software programs that utilize Wacom technology. They're great for design and drawing work. The pads have a grid pattern printed on a plastic film so that you can position your stylus. You can't see anything on the pad itself. As a designer, you look at your computer screen with say drafting or design software running. Like using a mouse on a mouse pad, you start drawing with the stylus on the pad using the grid printed on it for reference.</p>
<p>With a Tablet, the functionality is built into the Tablet PC operating system (XP Pro). Pen-enabled software allows you to write directly onto the Tablet screen and see what you're writing or drawing. And you have a much broader range of Windows based software to run...</p>
<p>Tablet PCS are busines units in use now primarily by medical and pharmacutical professions thathave the bucks to keep above with the cost of maintaining them. The screan is awear item and the top layer of it frequently needs reseating. Buty the extended warranty from the manufacturer. Only buy a name brand that has an authorized service center(not best buy, compusa or circuit city), the can reseat the film on premises.</p>
<p>Also, the tablet feature is only available when you use the tablet edition software, so your friend's non-tablet xp pro, office, etc. are all worthless. Otherwise, they can't be beat for note taking.</p>
<p>So...should I buy my tablet pc online? Who would you recommend is an authorized seller? Also, with all that new software and the screen that wears out yearly...is it really worth the $ to put an investment into one? I'm going to be a college student in the fall, and I think it'd be handy but it'd also be a novelty.</p>
<p>Tablet PCs have been around since 2002. Unless you break your LCD screen or have some dead pixels (which can happen to any laptop), the screen doesn't "wear" out. Tablets come with a protective film coating that covers the LCD. There are a couple of companies that sell additional clear screen "protectors" that you can put on a Tablet screen for even more protection... I have never heard about Tablet screens needing "re-sealing" or "re-seating". </p>
<p>Interestingly, there are numerous Tablet PC posts from users who want to remove the top most protective film because they believe it cuts down some of the brightness from the LCD screen. Once they manage to peel away that protective film (which is kind of difficult), they seem to be quite happy with the additional brightness and no one yet has written in about their screen wearing away from use.</p>
<p>Tablets are finding a lot of uses in the medical field: </p>
<p><a href="http://www.medicaltabletpc.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.medicaltabletpc.com/</a></p>
<p>Tablets are especially useful in patient information gathering so they are in use 24/7. There hasn't been any reports about LCD screens wearing out. Maybe a few scratches because the stylus tip was worn, but that can happen to any PDA. Reports from other Tablet PC sites indicate that Tablet screens are more scratch resistant than typical PDA screens.</p>
<p>If you have a Tablet PC, it runs on XP-Pro. In fact, all copies of XP-Pro has embedded within it the Tablet PC operating system. The pen-enabled features work with MS Office, Outlook and IE. You can e-mail or transfer your files with your hand written notes to anyone. Your friends need to download a free "Viewer" plug-in so that they can see your handwriting. The same is true if you want to download or view an Acrobat document. Download a free copy of Acrobat Reader and you're in business.</p>
<p>Typical in-store repair departments usually send out Tablets back to authorized repair depots so buying an in-store insurance plan isn't worth much. Depending on the manufacturers' warrantee that you buy with your Tablet, you call up customer service, get an RMA # and they will send you a box from FedEx or UPS for shipment...</p>