TeacherTabletPC

From GottaBeMobile.com:

Gateway is offering their CX210X Tablet PC for only $899.99 on their website now. Not a bad deal if you are looking to get into the Tablet PC arena without having to shell out a lot of money. … Thanks for the tip on the CX210 Josh.

This is undeniably a good deal for anyone looking to get started in the tablet world. This machine, however, is not one of my favorites. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s one of the few using an active digitizer that isn’t Wacom’s.

Spec highlights:

• Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2350 (1.86GHz, 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium (32-bit)
• 1024MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-512MB modules)
• 80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
• 14.0″ WXGA TFT Active Matrix (1280 x 768 max. resolution) w/ Gateway Executive Stylus w/ Continuous Sensing Technology
• 24x/10x/24x CD-RW / 8x DVD Combo Drive
• Integrated Intel® 3945 802.11a/b/g wireless networking
• Primary 8-Cell Lithium Ion battery w/ 1 Yr. limited battery warranty
• One type II PC card slot
• (3) USB 2.0, VGA, IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
• 7-in-1 media card reader (Memory Stick®, MemoryStick Pro®, MultiMediaCard™, Secure Digital™, xD-Picture Card, Mini Secure Digital®, RS-Multimedia Card™)
• Integrated V.92 56K modem
• Integrated Intel® 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter

At school, there’s been a lot of talk about what can be done differently with an online course management system (particularly Moodle, since one new faculty member has extensive experience with it) and to what end.  Having heard what some of my colleagues have done with asynchronous discussion online outside of class, Jim Vanides’s experiences with online instruction seemed to fit right in:

In my “spare” time (not related to my work at HP), I teach an online science course designed for elementary teachers.  … I have previously taught the same content in the form of face-to-face workshops offered through an NSF-sponsored “local systemic change initiative” grant that funded teacher professional development in the Silicon Valley (California). Converting these workshops into an online (asynchronous) instructor-led 6-week course has been a fascinating experience. The content was identical, but I had to entirely redesign the learning experience. What was more surprising was the difference in discourse – in some ways, the discussions were BETTER than when I taught the same material face-to-face.
If you’re interested, check out the May issue of ISTE’s “Learning and Leading with Technology” magazine. My article, “Online Learning that Works“, is a free PDF download until September.

As I play more and more with my review X60, I am increasingly concerned that my reviews will turn into I-hate-Vista notes rather than actual assessment of Lenovo’s hardware offerings. Especially given that I was only given one 8-cell battery and one AC adapter with the X60 (versus the two 8-cell and one 4-cell batteries, stand-alone battery charger, and 2 AC adapters I use with my X41 to consistently achieve all-day and often two-day computing), battery life is high on my list of Vista concerns. So, here are a variety of relatively recent Vista Battery Life links:

• Sneaking Suspicion Dept.: Vista Battery Life Sucks kizo interesting info (May 4)
• Humor: Microsoft Vista Laptop Battery Enhancement Kit – In Stock : Meandering Passage (May 5)
• TechBlog: Vista, Aero, battery life . . . and Doom (May 5)
• nullstream weblog – UMPC Vista Battery Life Comparison Summary (May 9)
• jkOnTheRun: Microsoft weighs in on Vista battery life issue (May 15)
• Incremental Blogger: Aero consumes 1-4% of battery life (May 15)
• jkOnTheRun: Freeware of the Moment- Vista Battery Saver (May 15)
• jkOnTheRun: Vista Battery Saver first impressions (May 16)
• GottaBeMobile.com – The Vista Battery Conversation Continues, an App Comes to Our Aid (May 16)
• jkOnTheRun: Battery life in XP: 4 hours. Same battery in Vista: 3.5 hours (May 16)
• Save Your Windows Vista Battery (May 18)
• Techlogg.com – Five easy ways to improve Windows Vista battery life (May 19)

From The Tablet PC Education Blog:

Tom Farrell uses PowerPoint slides to summarize how faculty use Tablet PCs for 1:1 computing in the College of Business and Information at Dakota State University.Farrell described the tablet PC as a “smartboard on steroids” while speaking to faculty at Arkansas Central University.

Dakota State University students are issued tablet PCs (convertible laptops).

I originally noticed this on Teachers Using Technology, but Warner Crocker summarized it very well, so here’s GottaBeMobile.com’s post about it:

Over at the Teachers Using Technology site there is a great video of KellyC making a presentation in front of the local school board. Not just any presentation, he’s using a Tablet PC to demonstrate how Tablet PCs can be an effective tool in education.

[Direct link to the referenced entry on Teachers Using Technology]

From The Tablet PC Education Blog: Evaluating Tablet PCs in Schools, a suvery given to instructors using tablets and the results:

Chris Clark posted an excellent survey instrument [PDF file] for evaluating use and opinion about Tablet PCs in schools. Two-thirds of respondents use their Tablet in every class and 100 percent use them at least an hour a day and would recommend Tablet use to others. …

Respondents ranked number 1 use as making live annotations as on PowerPoint slides during class and ranked number 2 as using the multimedia library during class. They ranked Internet Explorer and PowerPoint as numbers one and two software used.

The Lenovo Thinkpad x60 won the 2006 Engadget Award for Tablet PC of the Year, both as Readers’ Choice and Editors’ Choice.

Though I’m still living in the land of XP, I have noticed a good bit of buzz lately about how Vista may or may not affect battery life. GottaBeMobile.com reports that Motion is delaying the Vista LE1700, possible because of battery life issues:

Motion Computing has been informing their partners this week that Vista based LE1700 Tablet PCs will be delayed until July 31. Here is the message that was sent to their partners and also posted in the GottaBeMobile.com forums :

Motion has postponed the shipment of Vista on the LE1700 to July 31, 2007 to allow time for further testing. Recent industry-wide testing of Vista has revealed critical errors that Motion has also observed while running Vista on the Motion LE1700. Although this postponement is very disappointing, Motion has made this decision to ensure a stable Vista environment for our current and future LE1700 customer base.

From CNET News.com:

Some of Microsoft’s most important customers aren’t happy with the battery life offered by notebooks running Windows Vista.

“It’s a little scary,” said John Wozniak, a distinguished technologist in Hewlett-Packard’s notebook engineering department, referring to the work HP needed to do on making Windows Vista more suitable for notebooks.

Brandon Paddock assesses the article, pointing out a critical error:

While I’m the first to agree with the fact that the out-of-the-box power settings are not ideal for my uses, I don’t think the article was particularly fair. For example, they didn’t even bother to cite actual battery life comparisons – nor compare the default power settings from different OEMs.

…

However, there’s a notable error in the article:

The Aero interface is automatically disabled when users put their Vista notebooks into the “power-saving” profile, one of three new simplified power-management states.

That is not correct. Switching to “power-saving” profile will disable transparent glass only when on battery power. That is not the same as disabling Aero by any stretch.

From my perspective at least, the flurry of posts started on GottaBeMobile.com with Rob Bushway’s “Microsoft, lets start an open conversation on Vista and battery life”

Over the next several months, I plan on taking the issues I raised and addressing each with its own focus with the end goal of bringing about positive change in the space. The first issue I’d like to focus on is battery life and Vista.

and continued with Warner Crocker’s “Vista Battery Life Conversation Heats Up”

Rob Bushway’s editorial yesterday about battery life woes for mobile users running Vista has sparked quite a bit of conversation. And as usual on the Internets, some of the talk can get a bit wacky. Apparently one meme in the thread has info reporting that the Aero interface is automatically disabled when users run under “power-saving” mode. As Rob pointed to in an update, Microsoft’s Brandon Paddock weighed in with a rebuttal to that point[.]

I think these are more announcement and pre-release at this point, but here are some links:

Fujitsu Lifebook T4220 Review by LAPTOP Magazine

The new Fujitsu LifeBook T4220 is a travel-friendly, well-rounded convertible Tablet PC that suffers from a few flaws. When it comes to computing horsepower and video quality, the newest addition to the LifeBook line reaps the benefits of Intel’s Next-Generation Centrino Processor Technology (codenamed Santa Rosa), but its battery life left us wanting more.

TabletPCReview.com: Fujitsu Announces T4220 Tablet PC

The LifeBook T4220 is a new edition of the popular T4215 convertible notebook. It is designed for on-the-go mobile professionals who require the flexibility of a tablet for note-taking or navigating through forms-based applications, along with the traditional keyboard input of a notebook.

HP Compaq 2710p laptop – First Look Review – Pocket-lint.co.uk

Being called a lightweight is not want you want to hear in the drinking dens of London, however that’s exactly what HP newly announced HP Compaq 2710p laptop is – lightweight.We got our hands on one at the HP Making Connections summit in Shanghai, so should you be packing this in your bag?

TabletPCReview.com: HP Officially Unveils 2710p Tablet PC

Starting at only 3.6 pounds, the HP Compaq 2710p, ultra-thin convertible tablet sports an innovative design. With a twist of the screen, it transforms from an ultra-light notebook PC into a pen-based tablet. It comes with Mobile Intel GMA X3100 graphics, an optional ultra-slim battery accessory, which allows users to enjoy up to 10 combined hours of battery life, and a convenient ultra-slim docking solution that features an integrated DVD /-RW drive.

In addition, it offers an optional integrated camera for convenient video conferencing and image capture, HP NightLight on the keyboard to improve visibility in low light and integrated business card reader software. The 12.1″ screen has a resolution of 1280×800 and it has an outdoor viewable screen option.

I learned about Notebook Hardware Control (NHC), a free (for non-commercial use, anyway) utility to hardware settings tweaking, in a post in jkOnTheRun:

One of my ‘must-have’ programs on mobile computing devices is Notebook Hardware Control, which we’ve pointed out many times prior. This free application provides a solid tool-set for monitoring or tweaking performance and battery life on a notebook, Tablet PC or UMPC. Previous versions didn’t work too well with Vista since the new OS wasn’t supported, but I’m happy to share the good news: there’s a pre-release version of NHC available that does support Vista right here. Although it’s ‘pre-release’, I’ve used it for the past two days in Vista without any issues. As always YMMV or ‘your mileage may vary’…..

Having just installed it, I can’t give too much of a review, but it certainly gives a lot more information and options than the default WinXP or even the IBM/Lenovo software. So far, so good. I have a strong suspicion that this will be a utility that stays on my tablet.