Here are some Tablet PC stories that slipped past me while I was busy with other stuff (including my latest monster-sized UML post)...

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Tablet PC Review Spot has a review of the Acer TravelMate C314XMI Tablet PC:

The Acer C314 is an excellent full-featured Tablet PC that is powerful enough to function as a desktop replacement. The generous 1024MB of RAM, 100GB hard drive, Built-in Bluetooth and fast 2.0GHz processor are a good value for the price. This machine is great for students or consumers who want a Tablet to be their "only" PC.

Although there is value in the features that are included, it is obvious that Acer has cut back in their technical support. I would not recommend this model to any first-time computer user who might need to talk to a reliable tech support representative without having to wait for 20 minutes on hold.

I like the thoroughness of the reviews on Tablet PC Review Spot (and on their companion site, Notebook Review). They don't just review; they benchmark and compare in great depth. And heck, you gotta love a review that includes calling tech support and measuring how long it takes to talk to a human being. Now that's practical information!

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Pocket-lint reviews the HP Compaq TC4200 Tablet PC. You know you're in trouble when a Tablet PC review starts like this (emphasis added):

WHAT IS IT?: Tablet PC

THE GOOD: Powerful, great battery life, affordable

THE BAD: It’s a Tablet PC

Uh, guys? That's the point of the machine. And it's a good thing, not a bad thing.

The review itself isn't nearly so biased:

The move from slate design to the versatile clamshell will certainly prove a popular choice with buyers, as it will allow you to use the TC4200 primarily as a notebook but with the added functionality that comes with the Tablet PC operating system. If you haven’t been converted to Tablet PC before, now may well be the time to give it a second chance.

It makes you wonder if the person who wrote the "scorecard" at the start bothered to read the review.

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Lora from What Is New makes a valiant effort at a quantitative response to the snarky statement by The Register that I linked to the week before last. While I would love to embrace her conclusions, I have an innate skepticism toward all such "how many Google hits" studies. I'm just enough of a statistician to know that I'm not enough of a statistician to evaluate the validity of such studies. So my default response to all such studies is skepticism, even when I support the conclusions.

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Both eWeek and Computerworld discuss Fujitsu's tepid non-Tablet "but maybe Tablet soon" machine, the P1500. It has a touch screen, but not the Tablet PC OS. The reasons for this hodgepodge decision make little sense:

The LifeBook P1500 will run Windows XP Professional rather than any version of the Tablet PC operating system as a way to keep costs down and let customers leverage their current standardization on XP, according to Fujitsu officials in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The Tablet PC OS by itself doesn't represent that big of a cost differential. And as for "leveraging their current standardization on XP," the Tablet PC OS is a superset of XP. It should fit right in at any organization that has standardized on XP.

I suspect that cost is an issue; but it's the cost of digitizing hardware that meets Tablet PC specs, not the OS. I'll have more on this topic in the next item.

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I've seen this mentioned in a couple of places, but the Jakarta Post was where I saw it first: a review of the Dialogue FlyBook. This is a nice looking little machine; but in one respect, the review is flat-out wrong:

A Stylus? Yes, because it is also a Tablet PC. Surprisingly, though, the pre-installed operating system on this unit was Windows XP Home Edition, not the Windows Tablet PC Edition.

Here they made the same mistake as eWeek and Computerworld: a Tablet PC is more than just a laptop with a pen, as I wrote elsewhere. What makes the Tablet PC great is not the pen, it's the operating system that works with that pen — an operating system that should be properly named as Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. In other words, first, it's Windows XP. In fact, it's Windows XP Professional, not that wimpy Windows XP Home Edition. Any worries about standardization are misplaced.

But then beyond that, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition adds the Tablet PC API. And that, boys and girls, makes a world of difference. I already explained the reasons why, so I won't repeat myself; but suffice it to say that without the Tablet PC API, you're missing the Tablet PC experience.

Along with the wrong OS, the FlyBook shares with the LifeBook P1500 the wrong input technology (emphasis added):

The 8.9-inch widescreen, which displays sharp lines and characters as well as brilliant colors, can be rotated and folded flat on top of the keyboard. It is a touchscreen, actually, so it is not exactly the same as the screen on a typical Tablet PC. We can move the cursor and emulate double-clicking with our finger.

In other words, it's emphatically not A Tablet PC. With a touchscreen, you give up a lot:

• In-air gestures and in-air cursor movement.


• Eraser-end pens.


• Barrel-button pens.


• The ability to rest your hand on the screen while writing.

But perhaps most importantly, you give up resolution. Typical Tablet PC digitizers have a resolution suited for detecting a fine-point stylus. The resolution is actually smaller than a pixel. Typical touchscreens, meanwhile, have a resolution suited for detecting fat fingers — i.e., pixel-sized or larger.

None of this is to say that the FlyBook or the LifeBook are bad machines. They may be very nice machines. But they're laptops or notebooks with touchscreens. They're not Tablet PCs. And the difference is important.

Say it with me, children... A Tablet PC is more than just a laptop with a pen... A Tablet PC is more than just a laptop with a pen... A Tablet PC is more than just a laptop with a pen...

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SHAMELESS PLUG: And if you want to learn more about why a Tablet PC is more than just a laptop with a pen, and if you want to write your own great Tablet PC applications, then I have to recommend our Tablet PC Programming BootCamp in Boston.

Moved to the top because it's marketing, ya know? It doesn't make sense to let your marketing messages scroll off the cliff...

Well, I can now announce the big news: The Richard Hale Shaw Group will be holding a Tablet PC BootCamp at the Microsoft offices in Waltham MA, created and taught by yours truly. This will be a hands-on class for C# and VB.NET programmers, running November 1-4.

If you're planning or considering a project using Tablet PCs, this is the class for you. I'll teach you easy ways to get productive with Tablet programming quickly; but then I'll take you beyond the easy stuff, and into the real power of the Tablet API. Check out that course description.

But we'll do more than just program the Tablet PCs. We'll also discuss what makes a good Tablet PC app (or a bad one), and we'll discuss design considerations for Tablet development. (Given my perspective, there will inevitably be some UML creeping in there, too.)

We're still finalizing details, so registration won't open until next week. This will be a BYOT (Bring Your Own Tablet) class, but we're hoping to have a few rental units, too. I'll announce details when we have them.

Like all RHS Group classes, show up prepared to work, to be productive, to learn a lot, to have great food, and to have great fun!

UPDATE: Like all Richard Hale Shaw Group classes, this one is also available at your site. You can train a busy development team all at once, and save money in the process! Contact Richard for details.