- The Via wireless is a real pain to set up. This could be a problem with the LinkSys router. Sometimes using fixed IPs help. I can't understand what he means by VIA Wireless, but I think that he's talking about a program or tool provided by VIA to configure the WiFi. No having the unit in front of me, the only thing that I can do is to speculate, but probably the best thing to do in these cases is to use the XP Wireless Network Connections settings to deal with any problem.
- Initially, cpu performance was not good. But after a reboot, performance was pretty decent. What kind of HDD that unit is using? a 4800 RPM HDD? Could be that he is talking about the overall performance of the unit, not just about the processor. I don't see how a reboot can fix performance problems. When he says "Initially" what does he mean? The time between the first time he turned on the device and the time when he turn it back off?
- I'm getting 1 hour 40 minutes on the battery. Under what conditions? It's not any secret that battery life in this first generation sucks so be prepare to buy the extended battery.
- It gets very hot when connected to AC. The stylus is metal and it is too hot to hold when taking it out of the stylus holster. It is also pretty difficult to remove the stylus from the holster - there is nothing to grab a hold of to pull it out. I think that this point is relative with the process of charging the battery. About the stylus part we have to keep in mind that this unit has a touch screen that means that anything can serve as stylus and I said that because from my experience with the PPC world the stylus that comes with the devices are not good the majority of the time so I ended buying a multi purpose pen that includes an stylus.
- I'm disappointed in the whole touch experience. I think that once a person is used to a magnetic screen it will take time to get used to a touch screen. In another hand, may be got too much expectation for all the Microsoft Hype.
- The alternates / correction part of the TIP does not work well at all with the touch digitizer. I was asking myself about this part. Everything that is relative with Tablet PCs "hover capability" will not work well in UMPCs. This is something that MS needs to think about it implementing a solution. Of course that moving the mouse on top of an object could be a solution but no the best one when you are taking notes with your stylus.
- I’m getting some interference from my hand when inking in OneNote, Journal, and GoBinder when using the 120 gram digitizer. Again, it will take a little time to get used to touch screen, here Pocket PC users will have some advantage over those users with little experience with "touch screens".
Next Tuesday Rob will post a video review that I recommend everybody to watch. It seems to me that this video has all it's needed for an Oscar!
Frank,
ReplyDeleteThe only problem I see is battery life.
Two reasons. I plan on buying the extended battery, but according to TabletKiosk, the extended battery will not be available until end of July, or August. So we have to wait to the end of summer to get any battery life.
Second, if it' true that under medium usage, that you only get 1:40 on battery, then the extended battery will only last 3:20.
That's not good for extended battery.
I guess we'll see.
There are other solutions like the extended battery that I listed here at my blog a few days ago. In another hand, usually the extended battery from the manufacturer always sucks that's why I was trying to contact a company like Mugen Powel. If a few of us show them some interest they may build one for us, and those batteries rocks. So go to their page and contact them too ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd the last pint. Remeber that that is a prototype. I believe that Lora mentioned once that there was not any power managment software installed.
Martin Smekal just posted a comment on the article that there is not any power management software installed on this prototype - thus the bad battery life.
ReplyDeletei'm quite familiar with pocket pcs and touch - having used them for many years now, so I'm not concerned with not getting "touch" - my main concern is that oveall lack of touch aspect to the overall experience - from system tray launches, to poorly designed forms within the program launcher itself. It just feels like once they got the initial program launcher designed, they left everything else behind.
I'm not oppossed to the UMPC at all - in fact now that Martin has said they will in fact now ship the eo with the 120 gram digitizer, I could be tempted to buy one - using touch, a stylus, fingernail, etc to navigate felt very freeing. I think I'd be happier with the LS800 at this point though. I will probably end up buying one for my kids - not sure when, though. I may give it a while for the wrinkles to get smoothed out, etc.
i'm quite familiar with pocket pcs and touch - having used them for many years now, so I'm not concerned with not getting "touch" - my main concern is that oveall lack of touch aspect to the overall experience - from system tray launches, to poorly designed forms within the program launcher itself. It just feels like once they got the initial program launcher designed, they left everything else behind.
ReplyDeleteGot your point. I have Sears from MS Origami team visiting this blog some times so I hope that he reads this lines.