Archive for 'Hardware' Category

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Lenovo ThinkPad X60 12-inch Tablet PC for $851

31 January 2008 Posted By: Andrew
Posted in: Hardware, Low Budget Tablets

Dealnews.com has a pretty fantastic deal on a Lenovo X60 Tablet. $851, shipped! It looks like similar units usually retail for around $1500, so this is definitely a good deal.

Here are the relevent specs:

• Intel Core Duo L2400 1.66GHz dual-core processor
• 12.1″ 1024×768 LCD
• 1GB RAM
• 80GB hard drive
• 802.11a/b/g wireless
• Windows XP Tablet Edition

via BoingBoing Gadgets

Neat little Recorder/MP3 Player

13 January 2008 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Accessories

Thanks to Kathy Jacobs with Vitamin CH for this tip. This device (which comes in other colors than pink) does around 5-6 hours recording, plays MP3’s, has an FM tuner, and has an easy-to-use user interface. Only $70 at Fry’s and weighs hardly anything. I thought it was neat.

Wired for sound? Be careful out there folks!

9 January 2008 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Accessories

I’m still mega-busy here (sigh!) but I thought I’d provide a quick interlude to Tracy’s excellent CES 2008 coverage by drawing your attention to an ad campaign that has nothing at all to do with Tablet PCs. Go figure?!? This is one of a number of posters from a road safety campaign, run by the NSW Police Force in Australia, which highlights the dangers of pedestrians being killed while wearing their iPods.

I applaud the look of this campaign. The visuals are to the point and they powerfully juxtapose Apple’s familiar iPod advertising iconography. Most importantly though they deliver a reminder to all of us that as much as we love gadget geekness, there are the inherent dangers that come with their use.

At CES!!! Watch for live updates!

7 January 2008 Posted By: admin
Posted in: Hardware

While I couldn’t arrive until late today due to a friend’s wedding last night, I’m now here in Vegas and ready for CES tomorrow! I hope to do some videos if my camera allows and hopefully many pictures.

Exciting!

-Tracy

Asus Eee PC Sighting on Campus

4 December 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Hardware, Low Budget Tablets

This isn’t a tablet, nor does it have a rotating screen, but the Asus Eee PC is obviously a device a student could appreciate. At around $400 and light as a hardback book, it’s a handy tool for typing papers and reading around campus (like a Kindle with a keyboard).



I didn’t realize how small they were until I saw one in person yesterday. Apparently a guy in my class has one since he was using it in our study lounge and looked to be efficiently typing some paper just fine on the little keys. Interesting.

I’ve also seen two folks in my classes purchase the low-priced HP Pavilion Tablet PC this semester thanks to it being THE ONLY TABLET IN STORES AROUND HERE. Sigh Of all tablets to be in stores. I’m all for touchscreen, but not ONLY touchscreen. I guess it’s better than nothing. That now makes four tablet users in my class of ~70.

Nice Gateway C-120X Review (on our forums!)

2 December 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Hardware

User sghill posted a review of the Gateway C-120X thin and light convertible here and it seems like he/she likes it, minus a few grievances. A nice tid-bit of advice included in the review:

The price (with coupon) was inflexible, but I was able to manage free shipping and handling out of the deal. I’d highly recommend calling any company you’re deciding to order a tablet from to see what the sales representative can work out for you. Gateway’s representative was as friendly and well-informed as I’ve encountered anywhere.

The C-120X starts at $1299 and is available from Gateway here.

Introducing the QuadPad 1

28 November 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Hardware, Low Budget Tablets

Here’s a slate-based Tablet PC many of you probably won’t have seen before and for good reason. A product of Quaduro Systems, a small company based in the UK, the QuadPad 1 is a Tablet PC that has had its previous marketing focus directed towards the automative and logistic industry. However, confident that the QuadPad 1 can also perform to a similarly high level of function and effectiveness in schools, Quaduro Systems are now beginning to focus their attention on the educational sector, primarily in the UK.

The Amazon Kindle: A Yin for the Tablet Pc’s Yang?

21 November 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Digital Books, Hardware

Well the much anticipated Kindle e-book reader from Amazon has arrived (at least in the US - heaven knows when those of us who live elsewhere in the world are going to see it..sob!) and as you’ve no doubt seen for yourself already, it’s causing quite a bit if a stir on the blogosphere. The love/hate camps have sprung up, with the geekamentalists in the ‘love’ camp proclaiming the dawning of a new technological age, while the ‘die hards’ in the ‘hate’ camp are lamenting the death of the book in its traditional form (and also moaning a lot about the price :o)). I’m kind of midway between both camps (love the reader, hate the high price point) but wherever you’re inclined to pitch your tent, one important question remains - What value, in terms of usability, does the Kindle hold for the student who already uses a Tablet PC?

Long’s visual lowdown on the specs for Dell’s Latitude XT

19 November 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Choosing a Tablet PC, Hardware, News

As we all know there’s been a lot of chit-chat on the ‘net-vine’ about the specs for Dell’s eagerly awaited Latitude XT Tablet PC. However Long Zheng of istartedsomething.com has posted a nice little run-down on the ‘official’ specs which he’s enhanced with a few visuals. Interestingly one of the ‘visuals’ that Long has pasted up, is a piece of internal documentation that suggests that Dell should have been shipping the unit into our eager sweaty hands already (it’s nice to see Europe would have got it earlier than the US for a change as well :o)). Oh well if nothing else Dell is teaching us all to be patient

Out with the old (sob!) and in with the new

4 October 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Hardware, Low Budget Tablets

Well it couldn’t have happened at a worse time i.e. a few days before the start of my new term, but recurring battery problems have finally caused me to lose faith in my trusty old Acer C300 and as a consequence I’ve sent her packing to the Tablet PC retirement home (well actually I’ve passed it on to my daughters who will still hopefully gain a limited ‘tethered to the mains’ benefit from her). I’m truly sad to let the ‘old girl’ go. She was my inking partner for well over 2 years and during that time she helped me greatly to get through some pretty intense bouts of academic workload. However when a machine becomes more and more prone to instantaneous bouts of ‘electronic narcolepsy’ you just have to do the right thing and let it go.

So given this unexpected setback I had to rush out in ‘panic fashion’ to get my hands on another Tablet PC and fast. Not being prepared for the sudden expense I definitely had to err on the side of finance and not wanton desirability. That meant instead of reaching for a more cutting edge solution such as a Lenovo X61 (like our glorious leader - pokes out tongue :o)), a HP 2710p or a Fujitsu T2010 etc. I had to set my Tablet PC buying sights a little bit lower (aahhhh….the wonderful, gritty world of the poor student eh? :o)). So in the end I ended up going for a Toshiba Portege M400, which following the arrival of its more powerful bigger brother - the R400, has made it a more cost effective, yet still reasonably powerful, solution than it was previously.

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