He Sicheng writes: I’ve acquired a Tablet PC and am experimenting with the handwriting features with regards to Chinese characters （汉字）and input. Having gotten accustomed to Microsoft’s Pinyin IME, it is quite a different experience. For one, it’s a lot harder for me as I actually need to know my 汉字 inside-out.
One thing I learned from He Sicheng’s post is that a slate computer is called a 平板电脑 in Chinese. Roughly it is pronounced (pingban diannao) and means a flat panel computer…I think :-). Maybe someone out there can correct me.
Yeah, you are right. Tablet PC in Chinese means flat panel computer, mostly because when it was introduced in China, most tablet PCs were slates. Recently many convertibles are introduced.
I was born in China and live in the US. Plan to buy a tablet PC too because my three year old laptop is really heavy. I just it can deal with both of my Chinese and English handwriting.
–Coolkid
Talk about good timing. 🙂
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Recognizer Pack
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=080184DD-5E92-4464-B907-10762E9F918B
Installing Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Recognizer Pack enables you to convert handwriting from digital ink to typed text in multiple languages on the same Tablet PC. For example, if German and French recognizers are installed on a Tablet PC, ink that is written in German or French can be converted into typed text with greater accuracy.
The following language handwriting recognizers are included in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Recognizer Pack: Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), U.S. English, U.K. English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.
Coolkid–thanks for the translation. I wondered.
Yeah, most Tablets are nice and light. Are you thinking of getting a convertible?
Loren
Chris: Thanks for the link…I’ll download it this evening and see how my Chinese reco does 🙂
Loren–I seriously consider Toshiba M205 these days. Actually local shops (in Utah) only carry Averatec and Tosh tablets. Tosh is a bit beyond my budget and I am not satisfied with Averatec’s screen display. So I need to balance a bit.
I won’t choose slates because I need a keyboard when having lots of input.
Anyway I still wonder if this is a worthwhile investment.
An interesting fact to know is that whenever I read material from China some of them still refer to computers as 计算机 Ji Shuan Zhi or literally translated… calculator… 😉