Eric Mack On-Line

I've been silent on the Tablet adventure for the past 24 hours.  There's a lot of information to digest, about tablets in general, and about the Tecra M4 in specific . Some things I like;  others I don't. (Not surprising. I go through this with every new technology I evaluate.)  I'm mostly sold on the Tablet PC platform - I sort of expected I would be. Some of my issues deal with hardware and ideal form factor. I suspect that as I study the manuals and speak with others who use Tablets, I'll come up with solutions to address some of my concerns. Overall, my impression is positive.

One feature of the M4, that I discovered quite by accident (before I found it in the manual), is a joystick on the front of the tablet screen. What first appeared to be a button is actually a pointer - like you would see on a ThinkPad. With a little pressure, I can move the mouse in four directions and make selections. Great for scrolling through documents and menus.

Today, I used the M4 to take notes during a company teleconference for DavidCo. It worked well. The down  side is that I ran through a battery rather quickly. (I'll play around with the power settings to see what I can do about that.)

I will continue to share my experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly - not as a structured product review, but as I encounter them. That said, my next action is to load up the tablet into my standard eMack configuration. Then, I'll use the unit as much as possible for day-to-day work. It would be great to have a few people that I can call on from time to time. If any of you would like to volunteer, you know where to find me.

Thank you to those of you who have sent tips, tricks, and words of encouragement.