Dell is part of the Party!

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???

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

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

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!

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