ForbesOnTech

Why Reviewers Need to Think Outside the Box--Tablet PCs

Last week, while being interviewed for a Pod Cast that’s now up on www.GottaBeMobile.com, I was asked by the host “why tablet PCs have gotten short shrift by reviewers writing for the computer press.

I’ve been thinking about my answer to the question all this week. Right off the top I think the question was fair and I agree with its premise.  Until recently there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of thought among the magazine editors about how to review tablet PCs. I also believe tablet PC makers have a big role in why tablet PCs have gotten some bad press. Here’s what I think has happened

+Today’s generation of tablets are light years ahead of first generation products such as those made by Momenta Inc., General Magic and others. Today’s machines not only work well, their battery lives are better than those of most conventional notebooks. Furthermore, Tablet PCs with integrated keyboards and swiveling screens are among the most versatile small form factor portables ever produced..

+Magazine reviewers are production writers whose professional life is governed by their ability to produce X number of stories in Y amount of time. If you’re in that environment you quickly realize there’s only so much time you can devote to reviewing a specific machine. New form factors that break old molds are a challenge to magazine reviewers who focus on quantifiable factors like system benchmarks, overall usability, cosmetic appearances, general reliability and other items in reviewer’s spreadsheets (the exact specifics of which are seldom made public to notebook makers or their marketing representatives).
+ In an effort to simplify reviewer’s lives and to cover marketing points, PR people who present information to reviewers are overly reliant on PowerPoint decks that are given to reviewers as leave-behind material. For the most part, every magazine gets the same material.  This is often why a review in one magazine closely resembles that of the same product in another magazine.

+ There’s no way on God’s Green Earth that a reviewer can grasp what are often subtle, but very important differences, in a machine that incorporates new functions or which breaks new ground by using a machine on a desk for 5- 8 hours. To write a breakout review that goes beyond numerical values in the spreadsheet you need to physically live with a machine and try to find it’s limits and to verify its usability. This is particularly true with tablet PCs.

My experience with using a tablet for the last half-year is that the one I use, a ThinkPad X41 is one of the most versatile computing platforms I’ve tested in more than 15 years of writing, editing and directing reviews of portable computing.  Had I not carried my tablet PC into a university classroom, I may have never discovered how useful PowerPoint can be as a two-way instructional tool.

+ Until very recently manufacturers never varied their messaging on potential markets for tablet PCs—entering data on forms, annotating files with handwritten information and so on.  Reviewers and editors have been equally blinded by past attempts to market tablet PCs.

+ The overall versatility of the platform has never been effectively communicated by notebook manufacturer’s PR people and by editors.

+  I honestly believe that if PR people were to be forced to use tablet PCs on a daily basis, in the months before reviewers’ units are distributed they would be able to much more effectively communicate how tablet PCs can break new ground. But by and large, reviewers are just too pressed for time to really do this form factor justice.

And I know, I use to review notebooks for a living.  But what I’ve learned over the years is that there’s no substitute for long-term hands-on experience, And most of all, that experience should start with the people who are charged with promoting and writing about the platform—Jim Forbes, a true believer using a Lenovo ThinkPad X41, from Escondido, CA.

   

Me And My Tinkpad X41-- On the Technological Curl, Again

Every once in a great while, I get to live and experience life on the curl of a breaking trend. Such has been my experience with tablet computing. I was once asked by an editor “how many revolutions do you want to live through?”

In my time I’ve seen and been a part of the first personal computers, a variety of PCs built around graphical user interfaces,  truly portable computers, ubiquitous wireless connectivity, web-based applications, and more recently very usable tablet PCs.

For the last six months, I’ve used a tablet PC, a nifty little Lenovo ThinkPad X41, as my primary computer, putting it through damn near every “don’t try this at home kiddies,” test I could come up.

I’ve tried to come up with scenarios where the tablet metaphor would fail to meet my expectations and am somewhat disappointed that I failed that exercise.

Some examples:

+Despite told that using the X41 outdoors was not’t recommended, I do exactly that two of the five to seven hours a day I use it. I live near San Diego, maintain two large organic vegetable gardens and keep extensive records of my crops, the soil, and weather conditions. That information is recorded daily in spreadsheets I fill in as I walk my gardens. As if that’s not extreme enough, I’ve taken the X41 on the boat a couple of times, stealing bandwidth from unsecured WiFi networks belonging to yachts tied up in the harbor near my favorite bait barge in Mission Bay. At no time when I’ve had my X41 outdoors have I ever not been read my screen or connect to an open WiFi network.

+I take my ThinkPad X41 everywhere. One of my favorite destinations is a friend’s home in the California Gold Country East of Sacramento. His WiFi network is in his “barn”, a solid 250 feet away from his dining room table.  Other portables I’ve taken on trips there are lucky to find and maintain a network connection, although my HP Pavilion 8000 will catch it and hold it (but shows only one bar of signal strength).

I’ve had similar problems with other portables connected to hotel WiFi networks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lenovo’s 802.11 implementation and antenna implementation are prime

reasons I continue to believe in the ThinkPad brand and why I’m so upbeat about the X41 as the solid foundation for future tablet computers.

+ I have a disability that I initially thought prevented me from using a tablet or pen-based computer successfully. I’m left hand dominant but had a debilitating stroke on the right hand side of my brain and it’s almost impossible for me to write or print legibly with my left hand. I use the display-based keyboard to enter data on the X41 and other tablet PCs I’ve experimented with. I’ve become incredibly fast and exceedingly accurate hitting the keys with the stylus and using cursor control keys mounted on the edge of the display case.. My experience leads me to believe that tablet PCs can be an important part of educational computing, for physically challenged and “normal” students.

+I’m a ham-handed typist and was initially very concerned about how long the X41’s keyboard would last and whether or not the size of my large hands would prevent me from using the machine comfortably for extended periods. Boy, was that misgiving ill placed. The X41’a keyboard is a joy to use and is as crisp today as it was when I unpacked it more than six months ago.

Those are just some of the pluses I’ve found in today’s first real tablet PCs. There are others that make machines like the ThinkPad X41 a natural for corporate or educational deployment. One of the most important on this list are the multiple security layers (biometric finger print reading and conventional passwords).  Something that’s not promoted by Lenovo and other notebook makers who employ password and biometric security is that the two features work in combination to authenticate that data coming from a machine is from an “authorized” user, providing a functional.equivalent of an electronic signature.

The one criticism I, and other, X41 users have  is  its slow boot-up time, which can be traced back to its small form factor 5200 rpm drive. But I’ve learned to live with that since five hours of battery life means I almost never shut it down.

My experience with the X41 ThinkPad has expanded my creativity, and helped me to better perform many tasks. It’s also helped me realize that once again we—computer users-- are at the forefront of a revolution in computing.

Me and my X41, I’ve got my long board out and waxed.My toes are over the nose as I surf virgin waters,and live through another technological revoluion, yet again.—Jim Forbes, from technologically enriched but bucolic northern San Diego County, writing outside in the shade of an avocado tree connected wirelessly back to the world from my ThinkPad X41 tablet PC.—07/20/2006

Fshing strategiy that works: The Mighty Worm

For the last four days I've been in trout fishing heaven here in the California Sierra.

I fished the Carson, Lake Davis and a small reservoir called Sly Park, I'm sun burned happy and ready for home.  Truth be told, I miss my dog, Senor Perro.

the takeaway lesson from this trip, is that when lures don't work, and floating bait and salmon eggs are being scoffed at by trout, it's time to return to the mighty worm. There's r eally nothing quite like it. thread a worm on a hook,cast it, unweighted up stream of a pool and then let it float through. Repeat if necessary.  My belief is that, if you don't have a fish by the second retrieve, move on downstream to the next pool. Also,trout are pretty territorial and it's unlikely you'll find more than two in any one pool. So, if you get your fish, move to the next pool and tr your luck there. 

At the moment, I'm taking a break from weed whacking at a friends house. Soon I'll be down bound on I-5 where my big treat for the day will be a piece of apricot cobbler at the Apricot Inn, midway between Tedium and Apathy n the road that connects northern and southern California.

Back to blogging about technology and notebook computers in a couple of days.  Soon, it will be Tuna Time in San Diego and i do have my priorities--Jim Forbes 05/11/006

Gates Starts Promoting Tablet Computing, Again

Bill Gates is back to giving tablet computing its occasional booster shot. Last week, speaking in Holland, the Gatester predicted that tablet PCs would replace textbooks for all students.

If that doesn't make tablet PC marketing managers' heart beats spike and their spread sheet projections go through the roof, then there's nothing that can be done for them.

Well actually there is an it's up to Microsoft to do it. The one thing that's needed now is Vista, which will contain updates to Windows' aging tablet PC drivers and which will be the keystone to the release of new, better performing tablet PCs.  Microsoft's push back on the release of Vista upset more than a few marketing managers' plans. It also has likely delayed the release of new hardware needed to help push tablet PCs directly into the mainstream.

Absent commercial release of Vista, Microsoft appears to be using it Origami UMPC spec to test new tablet PC operating system code.  Although I don't t think UMPC will be much of a success in the long term, anything that gets tablet PCs going mainstream is good for the industry and this category.

Speaking way back in 2001 at Comdex (remember Comdex?) Gates predicted that within five years tablet PCs would be the most popular form factor sold in the US.

Well, no one can ever say that Gates has been hesitant to climb  out on a limb. It's been five years since Gates made his prediction but little has happened in the market to position tablet PCs a viable alternative to mainstream notebooks. However, if you look beneath the hood of today's tablet PCs what you find is state of the art portable that--thanks to Intel DuoCore Pentium M processors and a lot of hard work by manufacturers on power management-- has enough power to keep you working from wheels up to the initial descent on transcontinental or transoceanic flights. More importantly, what today's mainstream tablet PCs from HP, Lenovo and Toshiba do is bring new meaning to the word "versatility."

I'm intimately familiar with two of the best selling tablet PCs, a Lenovo ThinkPad X41 and a Hewlett Packard TC1100. In fact it was after briefly using an HP TC1100 at Demo Fall 2005 that I got interested in tablet computing again. As I've written in earlier blogs, I became disillusioned in  tablet PCs after using a device called an M240 from a smoking hole in the floor of Silicon Valley caused by a company called Momenta Inc.

But, It turns out, I'm a die hard tablet PC fan so I jumped at the chance to use and evaluate a Lenovo ThinkPad X41. After living with one for nearly five months, the versatility, power and usefulness of this platform device has me hooked. The tablet PC has cut the tether that  bound me to the desk in my office.  It's light enough that I take it with me in the mornings when I go out to my garden, have my morning coffee, tend to email, and read the various on line versions of newspapers I'm interested in. When I'm done with that, I go into tablet mode and tap in the various observations I record on my tomato, pepper and hybrid potatoes I'm growing in my two gardens. And, unlike other notebooks I've used in the last two years, I've never found myself out of range of my wireless networks-- which is more than 200 feet from the access points in my house. Although the documentation for my X41 suggests I not use it outside, I do sonearly everyday and have found that as long as the screen is not flooded by direct sunlight, I can use the machine comfortably and see what's on the display easily until I'm ready to go back indoors so that My dog can see that I've not run away and have settled down with my second cup of Folgers.

Second generation tablet PCs like those made by Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Toshiba still have a ways to go and the manufacturers are working on improvements-- some subtle, some pretty dramatic-- that meet my needs and which I think will carry the form factor forward for at least another four or five years.  Paramount in the list of improvements under way are brighter screens, improved boot up and overall performance as well as more consistent operations when the machines are put into "Suspend Mode." I also think that some of the tablet PC makers will raise the bar for securing data by adding hardware based encryption in coming versions of new hardware.

For now, I'm quite satisfied with my light weight Lenovo tablet.  I boot it up in the morning, carry it with me as I work outdoors and close the lid to work elsewhere on my property.But what really has me sold on the long term viability of this platform today is its versatility as both a conventional compact, lightweight notebook and tablet PC, its above average performance for routine computing tasks, superior wireless technology, and its outstanding battery life ( in fact, as i write this,  I've had my X41 off AC power for more than 4 hours and it's still got a substantial charge remaining in its battery.

This is a far cry from first generation tablet PCs, which had limited battery lives, substandard performance and didn't work as advertised.Moreover, first generation Pen-enabled applications were less than satisfactory whereas today's mainstream office productivity apps work interchangeably for pen-based or keyboard data entry. The  future looks quite bright for tablet PCs. but manufacturers need to put the fire to Microsoft to get features like "Instant On" and to develop more refined drivers for new forms of data input.

I love the form factor and the inherent capabilities of tablet PCs, I think this class of computers is about ready for wide scale corporate deployment. I'm sold on the technology and intend on using this machines for years to come.--Jim Forbes

Tapping Into Tablet PC's Potential

The more I tap into pen-based computing, the more I realize that I have a lot to learn and a lot to forget. Right up front, I once savaged the pen-based computer  metaphor based on a horrible experience with a tablet PC. Within one short month that first tablet PC--mad by a now defunct company called "Momenta Inc." made the jump from front-page leading edge technology to unwieldy office door stop.

If it's true that time loves a hero, then pen computing has come full cycle in my world, and I'm just beginning to take full advantage of this renewed usage metaphor. The machine that's turned my views on tablet PC's around is a Lenovo ThinkPad X41.  I bang away on this machine about six hours a day and I never go more than two hours from my home without it. In addition to Microsoft Office, I've also loaded Microsoft OneNote on the X41. Excluding my Internet browser and email program, the other applications I use the most on my  X41 are Excel OneNote and Skype (with a Bluetooth headset).

A little about how and why I use those applications first. I'm a pretty serious gardener who happens to have gone to an agricultural college here in Southern California.  One of the things I learned in college was the importance of recording and using field observations to make strategic decisions. My observations are pretty basic, daily sun hours, temperatures at specific times of the day, weather conditions, daily, rainfall and humidity.  All of that data gets plugged into an Excel spreadsheet that also notes plant growth, the dates flowers, fruits and vegetable appear, days o maturity, and the size and weight of the grown product at harvest. All of this gives me a good overall  picture of my efforts to grow crops in two different garden plots. What I've learned from plotting this year's data against similar points from last year is that in 2006, I set my crops too early and have plants that are only half as tall this year as they were in 2005.

I enter this data in my spreadsheet as it's collected by using an onscreen keyboard and the basic hand writing recognition software that's supplied by IBM and Microsoft with the ThinkPad X41tablet PC. I annotate a lot of the numerical data in my spreadsheets, using my own notational short hand and by switching from tablet PC to conventional notebook computer mode to gain access to the portable's keyboard. Switching between tablet and conventional notebook modes couldn't be easier tan  with the current crop of tablets like the ThinkPad Z41. Controls on the bottom of the display case let you easily move the cursor and the swivel hinge for the screen is rock solid.

It may take some users a little time to become accustomed to the tablet PC computing metaphor, but when you become use to it, it opens up new potentials.  I spend only about two hours a day in tablet mode. Most of that time is either entering data, surfing the web reading content or dealing with e-mail.

The size of tablet PCs like the X41 have yielded another bonus for me, reclaiming desk space and helping me to put aside my PC and use it 0only when its needed. If I am flaked out in my chair with my dog in my lap watching TV,  the only time I pay attention to my tablet PC is when a soft chime alerts me of an incoming email. The X41, which uses a monocore Pentium M runs cool enough to escape the attention of my cats, who in the winter and spring actively search out thermal heat sources.

Finally, my fist experience with a tablet PC-- the Momenta-- was so bad that I've intentionally run the tutorials shipped on the X41's hard disk drive several times. When I've had additional questions I've been able to get answers by activating the "Access IBM" button on the keyboard. I've really like this ThinkPad feature.  It helps me to remain productive and not fall victim to my own incompetence or arrogance.

Tablet computing still has a ways to go. No other category screams out more for "instant on."  I really hope IBM and Microsoft get this feature shortly. As soon as they do, I suspect we'll see a big sales by OEMs for vertical applications like order taking, warehouse and inventory control, law enforcement, and insurance claims.  Until that happens though, boot up times on the X41 and other tablets have to be improved significantly.  But the current form factor and configuration of the X41 comes close to being my  ideal: it's small enough to be unobtrusive, built like a tank and can be used effortlessly to connect to 802.11 wireless or ad hoc blue tooth networks. Its battery life is so noteworthy that I  seldom worry about running out of power  until after I break for lunch. And with it's integrated biometric security, I feel confident that my data is safe from unauthorized use.

And those are big reasons why my Lenovo ThinkPad X 41 is my new favorite traveling partner.--Jim Forbes wirelessly from my garage in rural northern San Diego County on my 41.

Obligatory Disclosure Statement:  I am not a paid blogger.  I have written about potable computing and related trends for more than nearly 20 years. For about 10 years I was an volunteer member of IBM's Mobile (Computing) Advisory Council. Tablet notebooks, biometric security and wireless connectivity were several of many technologies I actively discussed while working with the council.

the Portability Dream Realized

I spend between two and three days a week away from my home in an "unconnected" environment  . The place Itravel to is about 115 miles away from Escondido, where my bullet proof wireless network and laser printer reside. One of my dirty little secrets is that I still print a lot of paper. In fact, much of what I write is based on material that's comes out of my printer.

Because I lost the use my left hand from a --here comes that damned phrase again-- "vascular brain accident" a couple of years ago, I now take notes using a computer, rather than a lined pad. The transition from one technique of note taking to another has been pretty smooth. The more I bang away on the keyboard, the better my note taking skills become. And the added bonus is that I'm able to remain focused on the task at hand for longer periods of time.

That damned accident also has had some unintended benefits. notably, I'm much more open to trying software that I can use to become more efficient in my life.  Hence my use of Microsoft OneNote, a product I now use daily to organize the thoughts I use as the basis of my blog entries.

Back to the topic at hand, portability. Evey notebook I've ever used for a long time has its own unique eccentricities. For me to really bind with a machine though, it has to be drop dead reliable, withstand my ham handed typing without sending key caps into orbit beyond Pluto, and, it needs to have good battery life as well as easy connectivity. And nothing illustrates the emphasis I place on easy connectivity more than my weekly trip to my ancestral home in Azusa, CA.

Azusa is so far from the cutting edge of technology as to be classified as "neolithic."  I make my Internet connection via an AOL dial up account and until recently had to print documents remotely at a friend's copy shop.

The big change happened last week, when along with my Lenovo ThinkPad X41 portable, I brought along an HP PSC 1140 multi-function printer. Because Ma Forbes is no longer a spring chicken I was very reluctant to leave ten feet of USB cable on the spare bedroom's floor. I really don't want to go to through the broken hip thing again. One of the key things that originally intrigued me about the X41, was its native support of multiple wireless ( Bluetooth as well as 802.11) connectivity schemes. So, before i left last week for my regularly scheduled trip to Mom's I spent a couple of minutes rummaging around my desk drawer where I remembered stashing Bluetooth and 802.11 wireless dongles a couple of months ago. Arriving in Azusa, i realized that I all I really needed was a short range network that didn't require a lot of bandwidth,since I typically only print one page of at a time.

"Voila!" I thought. Here was a chance to do something I'd always wanted to do, create my very own personal Bluetooth network. Total time from power on of the printer and notebook to looking at a completed test page was approximately 5.75 minutes, and until the test page appeared, I had been a Bluetooth  networking virgin. i like Bluetooth on my X41 a lot. I'm a Skype user and I've become accustomed to using a blue tooth headset. I like mine because it has great noise canceling technology, allowing  me to type notes as I talk on the phone without the person I'm talking to hearing me beat a keyboard to death.

It's also not much of an extra power drain on the X41's battery, which goes into the plus category for increasing connectivity and usability without significantly cutting down on battery life.

As i said earlier, every notebook has its own set of eccentricities. The X41's happens to be slow boot up and I've learned to live with that and accepted that IBM's mirror image on the hard disk (which is invaluable if you need to go back to restore point to get your machine back up and running) outweighs any disadvantages of waiting for the X41 to become usable. But really makes this machine a delight for me is its rock solid construction, extreme versatility, and the most comfortable keyboard and cursor controller I've ever used on a small form-factor notebook.

I use my X41 in the tablet mode about once a day, typically in the morning, when I'm at home in Escondido, taking notes on the vegetable stock and conditions in my garden. While I'm as far from a scientific agronomist as you can possibly get, I now know from comparing my notes from last year, against those from this year, that I can plant organic heritage and hybrid tomatoes much sooner than I previously thought (providing there's neither a invasion of locusts or a freak hail storm) and that I need to move my ever-bearing sequoia strawberry beds to the lower garden in time for the summer season.

My notes also suggest that I can cut down on fertilizing my garden. I'm sure the steers from the Bandini herd will miss my business.

But, while things look pretty good in the garden I haven't stopped waiting for a plague of frogs. Should it come, I'll be out there with my compact portable, measuring amphibians and recording the results in my gardener's spreadsheet.

And that's my latest ThinkPad X41 usage report for now--Jim Forbes, from rural northern San Diego County, written on my ThinkPad X41 connected to a high speed wireless network from about 285 feet away from the nearest access point. 

<<Obligatory Disclosure: I am not a paid blogger. For 10 years, however, i was an unpaid member of IBM's Mobile (Computing) Advisory Council, during which time I frequently discussed issues relating to portable computing and user requirements>>

After one month hard use, Thinkpad X41 still Rules

I've been pounding away my ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC and I still think it's a best-of-breed notebook. What's I find attractive about this machine is that it's size and durability. I'm the first to admit that I'm hell on hardware yet there's no sign that my ThinkPad is any worse for the wear. Physically, the X41 is small.  I have big hands and can easily tote this notebook from room to room.

And that's exactly what I do with it everyday.  I boot it up, swipe my finger across the reader, make myself comfortable in a chair  and start pounding out words. When I'm down, I close its lid, move on to the next task and pick up on where I left off when it's convenient, Last week I started preliminary work on my 2005 taxes, saved my work, closed up my machine, stowed my X41 in my overnight bag, loaded two days worth of clothes and whirred up I-5 to the San Francisco Bay Area. Five hours and 385 miles later, I checked into my hotel, opened up my X41 and plugged the next-to-last set of numbers I needed before transmitting my tax data to my tax partner.. Everything --including the X41's suspend mode worked exactly as it should.

Over the years, I've become very wary of relying on any notebook's suspend mode, the only other notebooks I've ever used that could be reliably suspended were early HP Ominbook's (specifically the 300, 600 and 800) which set sch a high bar for this feature that 10 years after my last 800 surrendered to my abuse I still see if a notebook I'm testing measures up to that stratospherically high standard. The X41 does, providing you take care to save your work. I've had a few problems in the last month caused I believe by my not paying enough attention to the amount of power remaining in the battery.

And I've used this machine enough both as a conventional easy to carry notebook and as a tablet PC that I have to add a note to Lenovo, HP, Toshiba and others tablet PC makers.  No other type of portable computer cries our louder for "instant on" than this category.  Think about it: manufacturers want badly for tablet PCs to be used in vertical applications. Yet, it's exactly this type of use where professionals don't have the time to wait for a machine to boot up.

And that brings me to another thing I've happily learned to live with on the Lenovo Thinkpad X41, it's long boot-up. The really good news is that rock solid biometric security like finger print verification helps to guarantee the sanctity of your data. The maybe not so good news is that it adds to the time it takes a notebook like the X41to boot up. I can live with this very nicely, thank you. But it needs to be noted. I like biometric finger print identification and think it should be a part of any notebook sent by a company into the field. On the X41, it makes this computer really shine.

I'm beginning to use my X41 in its tablet mode more every day, particularly for answering emails as they come in when I'm away from my desk, but more importantly to me, the tablet mode is great for cruising the web and for entering and looking at statistical data I keep on my garden, which on March 5 has already produced it's first three crops, six days earlier than last year. My general impression is that tablet computing is something that you find new uses for as you become more accustomed to this new style.

What makes the X41 such a great platform for tablet computing in a group setting is it's native communications capabilities, which include blue tooth short range networking and a great implementation of 802.11 WiFi. Once you get used to this, it's easy to imagine sitting in a group setting listening to a pitch and quickly communicating your thoughts on the presentation to others with similar computing platforms. I won't even get into the potential for making snide private comments to others,  But you can imagine that.

I've enhanced the X41 by installing Skype 2.0 and a Bluetooth headset. I spend at least two hours outdoors everyday, on the fringe of my house's wireless phone's range but well within the comforting umbrella of my 802.11 network.  I use Skype to make calls in and out of network and my X41 to take notes on projects that need followup work.

I'm anxious to see how the X41 fits into my life. Thus far, I've found it rock solid, extremely capable and flexible enough to fulfill all of my portable computing needs.

** Disclosure statement: I was a member of IBM's mobile advisory Council for nearly 10 years, was privy to IBM's research and development of this computing platform and have been provided with a sample unit for review purposes. When I'm done reviewing this notebook, it goes back to Lenovo. I receive no compensation for my review. I do it for fun and because during my career as a journalist, I reviewed hundreds of notebooks, and now I still like to write about new technologies.

Specifics on Building Support for Tablet Portables

If a notebook maker is going to popularize computing paradigms, they have to be willing to ad more than two cents worth of work into making the new model work.

(OK, go ahead and temporarily suspend my literary license for a stretched metaphor in my lead!--JMF)

And perhaps no where is that more important than in tablet computing. (or to some of us old timers from the time of Jurassic carnivore computing, Pen Computing). To be completely honest, my view of tablet computing was horribly colored by my first real experience with a tablet computer- a relic that ended its life as a door stop that was finally thrown away after a friend's puppy repeatedly baptized it before the dog was truly house trained.

That computer was a Momenta M240 and the company that made it, Momenta Inc., earned a first place spot on my list of "silly Silicon Valley startups that knew how to spend money by over promising an uder-delivering." Momenta set such a stratospheric standard for screwing up that few eager beaver MBAs at dot bomb start ups ever surpassed it. It also made it very hard for me to accept that tablet/pen computing could ever take off.

In the 16 years since Momenta imploded http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20051220ABriefHistoryofTabletPCs.html  a lot has changed, including most of all the introduction of processor,display screens and battery technologies that are powerful enough to make the tablet computing paradigm really shine. But most of all what's happened is that companies no longer are besotted by the fatal "If We Build It, They Will Come" marketing mind set. As a result of this, companies like Lenovo and HP are putting a lot of effort into helping users make the leap from conventional keyboard to pen-based data entry.

That effort has moved me back into the tablet computing fan camp, despite the fact that I'm handicapped now and have only intermittent use of my writing hand (I was left-handed until I had a rather unfortunate brain accident on the right hand side of my brain five years ago). i wanted to focus this entry on one area-- what I think PC makers need to do to sell tablet computing into the mainstream portable market.

+First, take what for-hire-analysts say with eithera grain of salt or a healthy dose of laxatives. When an analyst tells a tablet notebook marketing director "this will be great for vertical applications like hospital bedside patient record keeping, record keeping for municipal law enforcement or utilities," and insurance adjusters" what they're really saying is that they can't think out of the box or that you're talking to the wrong consultant.

+Look around, if the person you're talking to about a tablet PC isn't using one, you're wasting your time and most likely hearing only time worn platitudes in response to your questions.

+Make sure you're asking the right questions.  Tablet computing isn't about super computing in your off hand, IMax-comparable displays,  Theater quality sound, or trying to look cool. It can be defined in one word "convenience." if you don't believe that look at what I think is the ideological leader in this category, Palm Inc. (Hold your screams for later). What Palm has done that deserves to be held up for inspection is make personal information one-tap away from the user, and give users an easy method of entering data on the fly. In the full measure of time Palm has kept up with user demands, by adopting more powerful processors and a keyboard for data entry. It's also embraced wireless connectivity and concepts like data sharing.

+One of the best investments a tablet PC maker that wants to build a community can make may be to send appropriate evangelists, marketeers and even ranking executives to Palm's yearly Developers' Conference. Palm Developers rock. While their world may be only fractionally as big as that of the traditional PC, they fundamentally understand the concepts behind tablet computing. Providing seed machines for this community could be a great way to kick tablet computing innovation into overdrive.

+Tablet PC makers need to keep the pressure on Microsoft to make sure that new features of forthcoming versions of  Office and Windows increase the versatility of their platforms.

+Work very hard to provide tips on using a tablet computer that can be accessed easily within hours of a user first turning on and registering their machines. Many users of tablet PCs may be new to the concept so short tutorials that pop up after 15 or 30 days of use could help make users more productive and more knowledgeable about tablet computing. Lenovo's implementation of this concept, which I've experienced using my X41 evaluation unit is above average and is what I expect from a company that has the advantage of IBM/ThinkPad research and DNA. Access ThinkPad could be enhanced by the addition of more comprehensive tutorials on using a tablet PC.

Tablet PC makers should not allow themselves to get boxed into vertical thinking. I use the X41 as much as a compact notebook as I do as a tablet computer.  I'm not alone, when I see other X41 users they are most often using its integrated keyboard or taking notes on its digitizer screen. In fact what I like most about the Lenovo X41, HP 1100TC, and Toshiba Satellite tablet are their versatility and durability. Manufacturers need to emphasize the versatility of current tablet PCs over features that let users enter data with a stylus. Marketing a tablet computer as a versatile platform  is a much easier strategy for selling tablet notebooks to corporations than is the concept of selling pen/stylus-based computing platforms.

In the spirit of full disclosure: I served on IBM's US Mobile Advisory Council for about 10 years, beginning in the early 1990's. I also served oPalm, Handspring, HP and Toshiba advisory councils. Furthermore, while working as a producer of Demo shows I came into contact with numerous technology executives and start-ups. The Lenovo Thinkpad X41 I'm writing on is a review unit that will be returned to the manufacturer early this summer. I  write about portable computing,wireless and other technologies and gardening for fun. I am not a paid blogger. So there, I guess I can doff my hair shirt now.  --Jim Forbes, from my little mountain top in the slow wireless lane of rural Northern San Diego County.