The biggest issue I deal with is the balance of power -I work with animations and graphics, as well as building information models, and I need power for those tasks - verus battery life. I also work an eight hour day (you know the ones that stretch to 12 to 16 hours) like everyone else, so I would really like to have at least eight hours of battery power.
The options are to carry around an aircraft carrier sized laptop, with a bunch of batteries, or a heavily overtaxed TC1100 with a BatteryGeek Power station or two. No good choice there.

Most definitely battery life. It's always a constant worry even though I get around 3.5-5 hrs from the U810 plus an additional full charge with the Tekkeon battery.

Yes, there were times when both batteries were depleted and I didn't have an AC adapter on me.

The problem I have is, when I'm mobile, I tend to push devices a little too much which leaves me with very low battery life.
I'm not talking about simply viewing youtube videos.
Things like editing, encoding, uploading video.. streaming live video with Ustream and an USB evdo modem.. streaming internet radio in the car while GPS nav is going.. all while outdoors with the screen brightness at full blast.

Keyboard. No-one's built a pocketable (ie very portable) device with a decent keyboard and decent speed. The u810 comes very, very close but it is a little too fat to be pocketable.

My biggest problem has nothing to do with actual technology as the u810 has me covered there. No I am always worried about how to carry and use my tech without looking out of place.

I live in a small town in north-western Pa. and unless you are wearing hunting clothes to the shopping mall you don't quite fit in. When I pull the u810 out I feel like everyone is staring. It's probably just me but this what bothers me the most about being mobile.

Hopefully I haven't wandered to far off base on Rob's question here.

I remember bringing this up somewhere before, but there are times I feel really guilty for using mobile devices. Especially when I'm at a bar and pull out the iPhone or U810. I'm basically isolating myself rather than socializing with the other people in the bar.

Some of the older folks give me crap about that. Like I would sit and drink next to friends and hardly ever talk to them all night since I'm doing some crap on the internet.

So if it starts getting busy or I end up talking to someone, I need to put more effort into packing up my gear and putting them away.

Unfortunately for me not being a Professional, having the need to always be “connected” is just too expensive.

I had the Sprint USB 727 for the 30 day free trial period and absolutely loved it. The reception in my area is outstanding and my speeds were better than I had at home. To always be connected was the next best thing since sliced bread.

During the month trial period I had come to the realization that even though I enjoyed the new found freedom of having the internet anywhere I went, I couldn’t justify the high expense of that freedom. At $68 a month after taxes and being locked into a two year contract, I just found it beyond my means at this time.

I think the UMPC and MID market would be much larger than it is now if the cost of being connected wasn’t so high.

Just keeping up with everything: flashdrives, adapters, where are certain files stored? I work with children and I like to have a lot of tools available: tablet for writing and drawing, pda for notes, cameras and recording device for observations. Trying to balance all these desires and traveling light at the same time.

Battery life. If you use your device(s) very much, it seems like I'm always having to hurry up and finish what I'm doing before my battery dies.
Also an all in one small device....phone, PDA, and pc computer. So you didn't have to carry around multiple stuff. Less nerdyiness look.

I notice many of the commenters own the u810.

Do you take it with you more because of the small size?
Is the battery life sufficient?
I owna Sony UX and only get 1.5 hours of battery.

I've been thinking of getting either a u810 or a 1610,
but don't know if I would take the 1610 as much because it is larger and some have posted mediocre battery life.

Sam, battery life is really good for me on u810, 4-5hrs with screen on 80% and wifi on. I like it because I'm a laptop guy. I like the fact the screen is protected while I'm carrying it. I also just purchased the executive leather case and I love it. It's the first case I've had on any device that I like to leave on during use. The m200 and x41t cases I've owned were not close to this good.

SAM - If you're interested in a P1610, I have one I'm thinking of selling to upgrade to the P1620. It's loaded, and I have a extended battery in addition to the standard. Both XP and Vista, and a custom InvisiShield screen protector.

I have a Lenovo X61 Tablet and an HTC Advantage. Both are fully loaded.

One mobile challenge that I have is battery life, especially on the X61. I really don't like to have to turn the screen brightness way down, turn off wifi/bluetooth or WWAN, etc. If I have any kind of long meeting, I often need to have my power brick with me so that I can plug in to an electrical outlet. Even if I do go into power saving mode, I need more battery if the meeting is more than a couple of hours long.

I also have a Motion LE1600, and I experience the same problem with that Tablet.

Another mobile challenge I have involves device size. I sometimes need my tablet at a meeting/seminar. The WM6 Advantage doesn't quite get the job done. Then I have some portion of the day when I don't want to have to have the tablet with me, but I don't really have a secure place to leave it. Maybe I should experiment with using a UMPC?

Wow! 4-5 hours of battery life on the u810.
This unit is better than my Sony. I wonder if they
are about the same speed. Some seem to think it is
slow, whil others say it is fine w/ Win XP.

Also, being able to set it down without propping it up
sounds good.

Ross, thank you for your offer. I am leaning towards smaller
but I'll experiment with a book that is the 1610 size.
How much are you asking?

Thanks

It's a good little machine, quite usable for longer periods, which is a challenge with my Sony UX. I get a couple of hours on the standard battery, and up to 4 to 5 on the extended battery. It's the loaded model, 80GB hd, bluetooth... I'd like to get about $1200 out of it.

For me it's juggling all my different devices. I have 3 tablets, a UMPC, plus 2 desktop computers in heavy rotation that all serve different roles for me. Plus I have at least 6 other tablets and PDA's collecting dust that I just have basically given up on keeping going. Keeping up to date with patches, updates, software installs, making sure batteries are ready to go, that the latest version of my talk is on the computer I haven't turned on in a month, etc. is a huge hassle for me. But all the devices are good for different things and it's hard to eliminate those roles.

That and I lose all my darned tablet pens.

I'm with Rodfather on this one. Disconnecting is an issue for me. I have a Treo 700P as my personal phone, I have been using a XV6800 as a demo and my work requires me to carry a BB. I use a P1610 when mobile, but I also have a Lenovo X60 when I need a more powerful, but still mobile, platform. I own an old TC1100 that I should have sold a year ago and I bought a Samsung Q1 Ultra that I'm just not using enough to warrant keeping.

My work involves constantly looking for mobile solutions for our employees. To be honest, I'm fairly confident that I am *less* mobile because I'm always thinking about which tool I need to be bringing with me instead of focusing on just one platform.

I actually find myself withdrawing from the technology at times because it just goes too far. I need to step back, stop worrying about what's best and simply go with what's "good enough".

Sam, propping up my ux180p was the main reason I couldn't get along with it. Screen size was to small for my eyes as well, that extra inch really makes a difference. Speed was actually pretty close to me even going from xp pro on ux to vista on u810. nothing scientific though.

For me: Resisting my employer's corporate crackberry culture that every email is critically urgent and important when that is not the case along with not falling into the trap of creating or trying to resolve conflict via email.

Secondly, knowing who the audience is for particular meetings and not bringing too much or too little technology for the culture of that particular audience. 60+ year old management is not in the tablet pc mode for example, they use paper for their notes and any tech sticks out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, when meeting with software teams, they respect and admire my use of tablet pc and onenote.

My biggest mobility challenge for work is dealing with the varying technology available to me in the various classrooms that I work in. I teach, and don't really have control of which classroom I teach in (too low on the totem pole). In one room I have the ability to plug in my tablet and mark up PowerPoint slides while I lecture, and an ELMO projector so I can project things on paper for the class.

In another room, I have to have my PowerPoints on USB, so I can drop them on the classroom computer to show them. No mark ups, so I find myself writing on the board while doing PPT and splitting the students' visual attention.

In a third room, the AV equipment is on a little cart, which I can't back up far enough to make full use of the screen and still plug in, so PPT slides designed for my other settings often have text too small to be ideal in that room. Also, that projector sometimes simply refuses to connect for me at all, so I end up using chalk when I thought I was going to use PowerPoint. Frustrating to deal with those issues I can't control.

I also have trouble with connecting to my gadgets when I should be connecting with my loved ones. I get a lot of complaints from the extraverts in my family that I'm playing on the computer and ignoring them. (I've experimented with unplugging at home, and find I have the same issue with books, so it's me, not the toys.)

My other temptation is that my toys and my work are all there on the same device, and it's all too tempting to play rather than grade papers.

My biggest challenge is deciding to turn my devices off so can give my family my undivided attention.

The problem with bring so mobile to me is work tends too never stop.
By the way with 2 6 cell batteries I am getting about 10 hrs on my p1620.

My biggest challenge is making time to learn how to use the devices I have to fullest and best advantage!

My Fujitsu T2010 has superb battery life and is light and portable. My biggest challenge is waking it up from Vista sleep or hibernate. If I'm using my broadband card or bluetooth GPS, wake up messes up my connection. I have to shut my devices down and restart them. As a result I tend to set it not to sleep and thereby don't get the full benefit of an outstanding battery system.

I have to agree with asiriusgeek.These machines are tremendous but also expensive and find myself spending more time trying to get as much out of them as I can.Which is prbably why I am here to learn what I can about my hardware and applications.
Probably will be a never ending saga trying to keep up.Need to be 20 years younger so I can retain info better.

My biggest challenge is being able to get the tech that I know will do me the most good. My Tablet PC was quite underpowered, even compact to other tablets, but it was what was available to me. My R2H...is an R2H. My MacBook has no digitizer. It took me nearly two decades, but I've finally learned to save up for the technology I want. The waiting is horrible. It often ends up with my losing patience and buying something else I wanted that I could get with what I had. I was supposed to have a Fujitsu P-something last year, but that money went to a WinMo phone, an Asus R2H and a MacBook. Now, I'm a good way down the P road again, and the doggoned OQO folks have a sale. Since I was planning to get a ModBook in 2009, that could have been bad, but then I read up on the processor and performance benchmarks. I think the Fujitsu will be the one to change my challenge.