Back from Comdex and exhausted. What a show.
Unlike previous years when I’ve gone to Comdex for no particular reason, this year I had a single mission: I wanted to see and learn everything Tablet PC. I don’t think I was the only one either. In fact, on the main show room floor, it looked to me like Tablet PCs in the Microsoft booth had one of the strongest draws. (Another popular area was the Open Source “pavilion.”) On Monday the Tablet PC area was essentially “shoving room” only. It was mad. The Microsoft booth was host to all the major Tablet PC vendors, which was great because you could see all the Tablet PCs in one spot. However, this created an overwhelming crowd on Monday. The isles were too small for everyone.
After a couple repeat visits throughout Monday I got a chance to try out the new Fujitsu convertible, Acer C300, forthcoming Toshiba M200 (only got to see and not touch), and the new Gateway convertible. The second-generation Tablet PCs are an amazing set.
As a developer I’m looking for more speed and screen real-estate. As you know I was trying to get an Acer C300, but now that I’ve seen the new Toshiba I’m not too sure what to do. I’m trying to find out when the Toshiba is going to really ship and what specs it’s going to have for the retail product. I’d really like a Tablet PC with a resolution greater than 1024×768–which it has. I also understand that the Toshiba is able to display “correctly” in portrait mode on a digital projector. This would be fantastic for demos.
Were any replacement pens available? I hate my stylus and want something with which I can write properly.
Larry,
I tried out one of the new Wacom pens–very, very nice. I particularly like how the right-mouse button is sunken so that it’s less likely that someone will accidentally press it while holding the pen.
I never found a Wacom booth although I heard someone from Wacom was passing around sample pens. I think Linda (www.tabletpc2.com) got one, so hopefully she’ll post her impressions.