"Twenty years and $40 billion. They seem like good round numbers." -Michael Dell



   
BentUser Updates Feed     


Featured Articles
iPhone 3G Review, Gripes and Praise: Part I
Xbox Live Arcade 2008 Preview: Part I
Resident Evil 5 Preview
Customer Service?
The Fallout from Sony’s E3 Press Conference
Windows XP and Vista b5270 Side-by-Side
DRM Hell
Sharp XR-10X LCD Projector Review
Xbox 360 Launch
Microsoft BOB Review
Logitech V200 Wireless Notebook Mouse
Office 12 Screenshot Gallery
Apple Thinks Same, Goes Intel
.NET 2.0 vs. Java 1.5 Shootout
Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5231 Indepth Look - Part 2
Why Google is Being Sued by Publishers
Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5231 Indepth Look - Part I
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Review
IBM / Lenovo ThinkPad T43 Review
Windows OneCare Live Preview
OpenOffice 2.0 Writer Beta Preview
Windows Mobile 5.0 Preview
Battle of the Betas: IE7 vs. Firefox 1.5
Unicomp Customizer 101 Keyboard Review
Dell UltraSharp 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2405FPW Review
Yahoo! Music Engine First Look
TopDesk Review
More
 
  Comprehensive Tablet PC Review with the HP tc1100
  By Andy

  Front > Software
  10/14/2005
  Specifications    Images    

 

Introducing the tc1100
Introducing the tc1100 

A Little History

There have been many reviews of various Tablet PCs, but these reviews focused on the hardware involved.  There have also been several reviews of Windows XP Tablet PC, but these generally amounted to feature lists rather than real investigations into the usefulness of Tablet PC.  But most importantly, Tablet PC as a product is really fusion of unique hardware and software.  In this review, I take an in-depth look at how useful Tablet PCs really are – and whether or not they are worth the tradeoffs and cost.  To do this, of course one needs a Tablet PC, and for this review we will be looking at the HP Compaq tc1100, a rather unique tablet.

For those unfamiliar with Tablet PC, Windows XP Tablet PC edition is based on Windows XP Professional with added “ink” features.  The idea of pen-based computing has been around for a long time, as the idea of using a pen is actually fairly obvious.  However, it was not until 2003 that this idea became a commercial reality.  Some may argue that such products as IBM’s Pen for OS/2 or Apple’s Newton were first (insert other unlikely candidates here), but the truth is the total market penetration of these products was essentially zero and they were discontinued.  Clearly they were missing something.  The Palm, and later Pocket PC, experienced initial success but suffered from that fact that it was not a pure ink system, and was instead a method of using ink to input characters one at a time.  Palm and Pocket PCs units with built-in keyboards have remained quite popular.

Apple Newton
IBM CrossPad
IBM Pen-Based Laptop

Probably the most important aspect of pen computing, or as Microsoft calls it – Ink – is the scope.  In what situations is Ink actually superior to a keyboard, or even voice recognition?  What kinds of applications should make use of Ink?  Is there a way to combine Ink and other input methods (such as a keyboard)?  Does the inking hardware involved work well?  What about people with poor handwriting – or cursive?  Perhaps the biggest problem with early attempts at pen-computing was that they did not adequately address these questions.  In this review, we will use the latest version of Tablet PC, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 and the HP tc1100 to try to answer these questions thoroughly.




     Next  
[ The Hardware ]
 

 

Contact Us        Links:  NLP APIs      




Copyright � 2005 Retro Reviews LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
Technorati Profile