TPC Scape

This time it’s for real… promise!

f2thed — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:07:35 +0000

MobileTrash.org and TPCScribbles.com are up and running!

check by NOW

Moved Out

f2thed — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:44:24 +0000

To me it was obvious this was going to happen, and today I am proudly announcing it.

IT, that’s the official moveout from wordpress.com to a hosted server solution with far more capabilities. The site is now moved to http://www.mobiletrash.org, a community (it’s getting there) site featuring Mobile Tech and of course, good old Tablet PCs with a blog (maybe some more later on) and as far as possible a froum to move the site closer to YOU guys.

Start checking mobiletrash.org beginning tomorrow, coz that’s where the candy comes from now!

//F2theD

Sorry the second…

f2thed — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:27:21 +0000

Wow, guys – sorry. Sorry so much for the (what, 2-week?) delay from posting. I have a helluva lot of work to do (4 tests only in this week), and I am meanwhile… let’s say I’m extending the functionality of the blog to something I don’t want to mention quite yet because I have no idea if it’s gonna work out like it’s supposed to. Next week is fall vacation for me, and once I have my ass out of that pile of work called school, I’ll try to speed things up ~~a little~~ A LOT. Thanks for the patience everybody, I greatly appreciate you guys checking every day (2400 yesterday) for updates and stuff. I hope to write to you soon. cheers,

a tired F2theD

IRISPen express

f2thed — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:42:29 +0000

I generally sort out all spam without even looking at their content, and rather judging by the subject and header. You know, if the title is “All Natural” and the subject is “we can make yours 4 times bigger in just…” it usually populates the recycle bin after 2 seconds of subconscious influence on me (yeah right). This time however, The first email in the stack that I have to highlight so I can mass-select all others too, was an IRIS (OCR Hard- and Software producer) Newsletter that I had accidentally ordered a while ago. long story.

Apparently, what this highlighter-sized OCR pen does, it lets you scan a text, by running over a line of typed text, i.e. in a book or text document. It then instantly shows you the typed text on the screen. Feats are a USB 2.0 connection, multilingual interfacing (you can scan most other European languages) and several programmable pen buttons. I am excited about this, because If I had one of these, I wouldn’t have to scan all my books (running grand project, supposedly finished by fall vacation, more on that later), but I would take this thing to school, and then I could easily scan all pages to read, put them on my Tablet PC, and OCR all of it to take home. EVEN less luggage then now! I have requested a demo unit from IRIS Europe, but I haven’t yet gotten an answer. If I get it, I will post a review for sure. Well, if you are interested in the IRISPen, I recommend you follow this link:

http://www.irislink.com/c2-508/IRISPen-Express—p…

That’s it from me, type to U later!

//F2theD

UMPC Tips by thoughtfix

f2thed — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:19:30 +0000

Just a quick note to all existing and becoming UMPC users: I found a great list of tips in how to accessorize and lifestyle (verb) your Ultra Mobile. Thanks for the post thoughtfix!

Dell is part of the Party!

f2thed — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:34:54 +0000

According to one of my favorite German tech news letters, Dell has announced a new series of outdoor Notebooks Computers and Tablet PCs!

Although I know most of my readers don’t speak German, here’s a quick link:

http://www.chip.de/news/c1_news_21985321.html

… And a translated version:

DELL is planning the production of outdoor notebooks and Tablet PCs. This was Announced by Alex Guzen (General Manager of the DELL product group) on the “Technology Day” of his company.

According to him, the Notebooks (/Tablet PCs) will be based on the Latitude Series. This is supposed to make service regulations easier, as the “eWeek” published.

However, a final approval by DELL’s Corporate Management is yet to be released.

Where the pricing might be, is still unforeseeable, but it should be something like

DELL Latitude + Ruggedized (/Tablet PC) functions.

That’s it from me for now, here are some links about the topic I found elsewhere:

http://tabletpcs.engadget.com/2004/07/20/insider-s…

more coming up…

//F2theD

No Bluetooth???

f2thed — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:06:46 +0000

Damn, I feel bullshitted! All of you CX2724 owners know, that there is a Bluetooth fn button on the [F6] key, right? and you all know what it does, right? – nothing. I was a little irritated by this when I first tried to connect my Motorola Cellular to the Convertible. Also, the phone didn’t find any bt device in range while lying right next to the Gateway. So what I did was check the User manual. And although you can clearly see the purple icon on the f6 key in some images in the manual, a full-text search for “Bluetooth” delivers no results. The next thing I thought of was the online chat with a Gateway technician. After 15 minutes of the usual chitchat, the Gateway person finally had the idea to check her own information. What he came up with was “According to my catalogue, your device does not include wireless Bluetooth connectivity”. Great. So of course I said thank you and all, grinding my teeth and at a last attempt checked the devices and hardware manager. Sure enough, there was no trace of any Bluetooth compliant hardware to be found. So, if you are looking towards buying a Gateway device any time soon, DON’T TRUST THE ONLINE SPECS!!! Check the Online chat support people, they are dumb enough to give you the REAL, valid information. I am now checking my Tablet for any other missing specs or stuff…

//F2theD

Fujitsu P1610

f2thed — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:53:00 +0000

UPDATE: I fixed the links, they now lead to the Uber Tablet Article, from where you can watch the videos on YouTube. sorry for the inconvenience!

You may remember what I wrote about the Fujitsu P1510 Convertible Mini Tablet PC. Well, the 8.9″ dwarf has an improved sibling now, which still cuddles in your hand and gives you cramps from typing. The P1610 has the same casing as the 1510 did, but there are some major improvements right underneath it. So it is for example, that when the P1510 first hit the markets, the Case was just big enough to squeeze a few USB and standard slots under the hood. Now however it was possible to comfortably fit all that AND

-An SD Card Reader

-Integrated 3G wireless (with SIM card slot)

-a PCMCIA PC-Card slot for extended connectivity

-and a new integrated direct VGA out

Under the shiny black hood. These upgrades are huge, for especially the PC-Card slot were simply “Not possible 8 months Ago” (Hugo Ortega).

The 3G wireless is something nice that we all know from the very small and very expensive Flybook. It is very good especially when you have a Cellular flatrate, because you have general connectivity pretty much everywhere you ever go. To make use of this feature, all you do is undock the battery and slide in your SIM Card where it belongs.

However the greatest and most amazing of all new features and upgrades is the very special (very “crisp”) touch screen. While inking and taking notes on the Q1 or especially on the predecessor of this unit, the Fujitsu P1510, was an extremely difficult and hand tiring procedure, the P1610 lets you rest your hand on the touchscreen. That’s right- on the TOUCHscreen. As far as I know, this means you can still select icons and buttons with your finger, but when you ink with the integrated stylus, the new, smart Fujitsu technology recognizes only what’s relevant to you – the pen. The only compromises to this that I’m aware of are the Tablet Kiosk eo 1st gen UMPC with a 110 gram touch screen, and the OQO model 01+ with an active digitizer. However, these alternatives can’t cut it in the great connectivity and featuring of the Fujitsu P1610. I assure you – if I had the money, this baby would be the first device on my wish list to trade for my current unit.

In fact, I was right on buying the Fujitsu P1510, but when I came across the Inking problems I switched gears, and now call this Gateway CX2724 mine.

I DEFINATELY recommend you watch this video on YouTube. I haven’t yet received answer form Hugo on how he always gets the cool toys, though .

Well, I’ll find time for you guys later on again, so stay tuned on Ink+ !

//F2theD

Back and up running

f2thed — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:57:49 +0000

Wow, I don’t recall school being this busy last year! I’m sooo sorry about the 2 week delay from posting, but I am having a hard time even getting enough sleep with all that homework, scanning books, AND various PC problems. These problems aren’t much of what keeps me from writing, but all that scanning worksheets, printing homework, and scanning textbooks is keeping me up on almost everything personal. I know I’m lagging on the IFA report, but after my digital camera was stolen a while back, I had to take an old one – analogue. The pictures are still in development, but I PROMISE they will be on here as soon as I have them. All in all experiences on IFA: GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS!!! oh, and tec too, I suppose… There were however, WAY too many LCD/Plasma TVs around. It all seemed to drown in these big, silver black things. Things were very monotonous after a while. The expected real innovations in the Future Parc left you unsatisfied, and you would have to look carefully for the really interesting stuff. More on that later. For now, I will dwell on my school experiences after 2 weeks of heavy duty ~~education~~ work. I am writing this article in lunch break, in my school’s main library, as this is the first day that I don’t have to study my ass off in my little spare time.

Wow, Tablet PC computing has seriously changed my school routine! I now have a pretty full schedule, and on 2 of 5 days I have school from 8:00am to 4:00pm with no real lunch break. Before the second Executive Stylus arrive, my School Day looked something like this:

8:00 am-4:00 PM School

after a bike ride home

4:30-6:00 PM Homework

after that: Chill time (usually reading “Catcher in The Rye” for English classes)

7:30 pm Dinner

8:00 pm Shower and stuff

21:00 prepare school things

22:00 news, updates, emailing, trying to get in the mood to post

Now, with a Tablet PC, it looks more like this:

8:00-12:30 Classes

12:30-13:30 Break: emailing, Homework, Posting, Organizing

After School: More Homework, Studying, Preparation

18:00 Chill Time (Reading is already done) Soccer, Posting, emailing, IMing, News and Updates…

19:30 Dinner

20:00 Shower and stuff

21:00 Whatever I feel like.

The Gateway Convertible Tablet PC has really changed my day and how I use my time. There is always time to study and learn, as well as to take notes. There is however also a fair amount of time where I can do things that usually I couldn’t without my Tablet PC in school and as my primary Computer. Thank You Microsoft! I’ll be posting very soon, and the IFA article wont be in too far future either, I promise.

//F2theD

Off to IFA 2006!

f2thed — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:26:54 +0000

Living in Berlin can be annoying at times concerning the scarce amount of possibilities to check out new hard- and software, but the IFA 2006 in Berlin (!)the world’s second largest Home Entertainment and Digital Lifestyle exposition after CeBIT already. To get there, the organizational authorities had to make the huge event a yearly, (not bi-yearly as it used to be) spectacular. For the reason so many people are being attracted, the IFA committee is already being sued by many other trade show organizers, due to the loss of up to several hundred visitors and exhibitors to IFA.

My main point is that I am visiting the IFA 2006 in Berlin on Sunday, and I will be there the whole day, which should give me plenty of time to review any stands YOU want me to check out. Send me an email with your request by Sunday, and I will write an article of all things that readers asked for (and of course those, that I thought are cool ). Pictures will be included, as long as The Camera doesn’t get stolen by pickpockets or something.

Well, go ahead and get writing, You have 28 hours starting NOW!

//F2theD