Saturday, December 31, 2005
TABLETS OF SILICON
A very entertaining and well written article by Tony on the benefits of going mobile with a Tablet PC vs "Lapzilla" (via whatisnew)
My first laptop, a Toshiba 17" wide-screen P4 desktop replacement (appropriately referred to as “Lapzilla”), became my web development project centre, as well as the heart of my new songwriting and recording studio. Over the past year, I found that with its base weight of 10lb., (not including the power adaptor and other accessories such a beast requires), I did not have as portable a solution as I had hoped for. First, Lapzilla just about covered my desk. Second, its battery lasted just over two-hours on a full charge. Finally, the intermittent cooling fan sounded like a jet engine on take-off.
The problems became even more evident when I started taking Technical Writing classes at BCIT; the sound of the fuel-injected cooling fan drowned out the instructor. At the same time, I had a personal awakening: I had too much information stored between my various computers, as well as in several paper notebooks and journals. I felt the need to “defrag” myself, and that a smaller notebook computer was the answer. At the time I wasn’t even looking for a tablet, but was fascinated by the imagined potential of the technology.
Within a month, I found a recertified Toshiba M200 tablet PC convertible listed for less than half the retail price on the website of Consumer Computer Services, a Toronto company that handles all of Toshiba’s recertified and refurbished products. My first impression was that the M200 looked like a PDA—a REALLY BIG PDA, with more than enough power to synchronize my schedule—this machine would eventually consolidate my life.
I decided to call it “The Consolidator”.
