<p>I'm considering getting the HP TouchSmart tx2z. It's about 4 lbs, 12.1 " and 4GB memory, 500 GB hard drive (what's the difference between 320 and 500 GB, in terms of usage?), webcam, bluetooth, finger recognition, etc. for below $900.</p>
<p>I'm very inexperienced with computers, in case you couldn't tell. so, thoughts?</p>
<p>Unless you’re doing science and really want to be able to take notes and organize them on your computer, you’re wasting your time with a tablet.</p>
<p>i am doing science. i’m doing premed. psych major right now, but i’ll be switching to neuroscience.</p>
<p>I would not get a tablet now because they’re evolving quickly. Get a real laptop.</p>
<p>^Apple is gonna be putting out a table early next year, so yea things are about to get interesting.</p>
<p>For a tablet, that’s a sweet deal. 4GB of RAM means you can get a good deal of multitasking down. And the 500GB hard drive should be able to hold just about anything you wish. But uhh… tbh, don’t get a tablet PC unless you’re like an engineering student or something like that who’s gonna do a lot of math or crap. You’d do fine with a regular notebook if you’re not one.</p>
<p>well i was thinking, if i get a tablet, then i’ll never have to carry around a notebook to class. all i need is the computer.</p>
<p>It doesn’t work that way. You’ll end up leaving the computer in your room anyway.</p>
<p>^Yea most people end up writing notes by hand. I do that too, so far I’m finding my 3 year old laptop perfectly capable of doing many things, especially after I got the new battery, which lasted all day (6 hours+)!!!</p>
<p>I have an HP tablet, and no matter how easy or “intuitive” they make the note-taking applications, nothing beats a regular pen and paper in terms of speed, ease of use, and reliability. Plus, any decent typist can type much faster than they can write by hand anyway; if you really need to take notes electronically, you can just make a text document.</p>
<p>The only real use for a tablet is as an art / design tool</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve used wacom tablets for drawing - and remember when they were 2 guys at a table off to the side in a hallway at MacWorld showing their touch-sensitive prototype and trying to get orders. </p>
<p>I’ve seen the pics of the MS folding tablet prototype. Neat, except without a keyboard I wouldn’t use it.</p>
<p>Whheex: I take “UVM” to indicate that you are or will be a student at the University of Vermont. If this is the case, UVM was a participant with Microsoft beginning in 2004 to explore the educational use of Tablet PCs in the classroom. UVM’s Schools of Business and Engineering either highly recommend or require incoming students to have Tablet PCs. </p>
<p>See: [Why</a> a Tablet PC? : Tablet PCs @ UVM : University of Vermont](<a href=“http://www.uvm.edu/~tabletpc/?Page=whyatabletpc.html]Why”>http://www.uvm.edu/~tabletpc/?Page=whyatabletpc.html)</p>
<p>UVM gives students some reasons why a Tablet PC would help them in their studies:</p>
<p>“A student preparing for his/her exam is reviewing his/her notes. In their OneNote notebook, they see a side note scribbled in the margin labeled ‘Topeka, KA – 1913’. Their recollection does not help them decipher this comment. With the audio indexing capability of OneNote, they can click on that note and can hear what the instructor was saying when this note was taken. If this was a 3 hour lecture, this indexed audio track makes audio records efficient and immediate.</p>
<p>A student doing homework comes across a term he/she remembers hearing in class earlier in the semester. With the full indexing capability of MS OneNote, hand-written notes, audio files and rich content are fully indexed and searchable so searching for the term “diminishing return’s” in their OneNote notebook will find all locations where the term was referenced or mentioned in class or in their handwritten notes.</p>
<p>With the advent of electronic text books, on-line course readings and overall digital management of course correspondences, syllabi and assignments, Tablet PCs enable students to fully entwine the plethora of digital resources associated to the educational experience in the modern classroom with their naturally captured handwritten notes.”</p>
<p>For math majors, Xthink’s Mathjournal program allows you to write out your equations on the Tablet Pc’s screen and then provides you with the solution. To turn in your assignment, the program outputs what you’ve written down and the solution to either the program’s native output format or to LaTex. </p>
<p>As for your coursework, a convertible Tablet PC is just like a regular laptop. If you can type your notes, you can do so easily. If you have to learn chemical compounds, you can either write it down on a piece of paper or write on your Tablet PC and link information off the web to that compound and hear whatever your instructor said about it during a lecture or any lecture during the term (using MS OneNote). </p>
<p>While e-textbooks are still rare, a Tablet PC would allow you to link your notes to your instructor’s audio portion of his/her lecture/lectures with information off the web (articles, pictures, songs, even YouTube videos) and search through your e-textbook for references. Just a click away!</p>
<p>DS was issues a Gateway Tablet his first year at the USAFA. Aside from the problems that Gateway had with the laptophardware, DS did not like the tablet feature for note taking. He and many other cadets moved to a desktop or regular laptop.</p>
<p>i’d just like to say that i got my tablet! 
and michuncle, one of the reasons why i got a tablet was so that i could write chem and math equations. i like it a lot. (:</p>
<p>i guess the thing that worries me is overheating. because i once overheated a laptop. i know there are cooling options, but it still worries me in the back of my mind.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your new Tablet PC! Now you can type when you want or write/draw when you want. No limits.</p>
<p>Before buying a laptop cooler, you may want to play with your Tablet PC’s power settings to lower your screen brightness, turning off your WiFi card and other device settings to decrease your energy usage. Less energy used increases battery runtime and reduces operating temperatures.</p>
<p>You mentioned that you were writing down chemical formulas on your Tablet PC. You should know that there is a new organic chemistry software program being developed at Clemson University with a grant from the National Science Foundation called “OrganicPad”. Designed to be used with a Tablet PC, this interactive program allows you to write down chemical compounds in a standard 2-D drawing and then have the program check what you’ve drawn is correct. The program even creates a 3-D version of the molecule that you’re studying. There’s even a YouTube video that shows you how the program works.</p>
<p>See: [OrganicPad[/url</a>] </p>
<p>There’s a free download of this program at the Chemson.edu site. Check it out!</p>
<p>There is also a “OrganicPad” website that is in development. You may want to bookmark it and check back occasionally for more news.</p>
<p>See: [url=<a href=“http://organicpad.com/]organicpad.com”>http://organicpad.com/]organicpad.com</a> - coming soon](<a href=“| Public | Clemson University, South Carolina”>| Public | Clemson University, South Carolina)</p>
<p>Typing notes is much faster than writing them by hand. However, I write by hand in 2 of my classes (prof doesn’t like laptops in one and there isn’t enough writing to make it worth typing in the other), type my notes in 1, and don’t take notes in the other 3.</p>
<p>D has a tablet and absolutely swears by it. Sets it up with a docking station, dual monitors and all the peripherals in her room, but takes it to class everyday. No heat issues. Another added bonus is that its quiet – some professors don’t like students typing in class because the clicking keyboards are a distraction. She says once you learn all the features and functionality you’ll really appreciate having a tablet.</p>
<p>ok… so there’s just one problem i’ve been having with my tablet… the screen spazzes out every so often and when it happens in the middle of the class, it gets super annoying because i have to reboot. i don’t know if you know what i mean by spazzing, but it’s like the screen becomes fuzzy… pretty much.</p>
<p>i’m taking it to the computer depot tomorrow. so hopefully nothing major is wrong with it</p>
<p>I think tabletpc’s are the best thing ever if you choose to fully utilize it. I do all my notes and homework on it, I read textbooks I’ve scanned myself on my tablet, and do a bit of drawing too. I carry around a notepad, but only for pop quizzes.</p>
<p>I see you got your tablet already. I hope you’re happy with it. I would’ve advised something with a wacom digitizer, probably a Fujitsu or Lenovo, but all that matters is that you’re happy with your tablet. Hopefully you’ll find yourself as happy with your tablet as I have been with my tablet for nearly the last three years.</p>
<p>oh… i got a hp. but i’m happy with it, except for the random times it decides to just spaz out.</p>