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Thursday, September 07, 2006

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TabletKiosk eo i7210 UltraMobile PC InkShow!

- Dennis Rice

The TabletKiosk eo i7210 Ultra-Mobile PC!

Yes — its arrived, and caught me quite unready to do my job as trusty scoop reporter at GottaBeMobile.com. My video camera was out for repair, so a quick IM message to my neighbor Eddie Vanderbeck to borrow a camera solved that (nice to have tecchie neighbors). Then I needed a cameraman, but what I got was a camera”woman”! My poor wife got roped into using technology, which by the way is typically left up to me in this household (or maybe I just never let any of the others get a chance, not sure which!), and ran the camera for me in a hastily planned production! I had clients call needing work, but after all, priorities are priorities, so of course, I stopped everything and did the show!

This is just the first in a series of InkShows I planning with this unit, but I wanted to quickly get out a quick unboxing and walkaround of the machine with my first impressions. I am looking forward to lot of hours curled up with this thing,

If I mispeak any specs, etc., please forgive and promptly correct with kindness, as I said, it was a quick run through. I also must say that except for a couple of minor glitches here and there, my wife Sandra did a rather fine job of running the camera for the first tim in her life (hint-hint, tell her she did a good job — please!)! Thank you darling!

I gotta tell you folks, this thing feels really good in my hands, and I am looking forward to integrating it into my lifestyle. It feels solid, well built, and I think the configuration has been done well by TabletKiosk. Our thanks to Martin Smekal and staff (especially Gail Levy for putting up with all my emails and requests!) at TabletKiosk for getting us this unit so quickly!

Please let us know if there are questions you have, and we will get answers to you as soon as possible!

Watch the InkShow (12:54 minutes, 70mb, .wmv streaming or direct download.).
Visit the TabletKiosk website for more on the eo i7210

Enjoy the show.

All GottaBeMobile.com InkShows are sponsored by:

9/7/2006 4:14 PM MST

TabletKiosk eo i7210 UltraMobile PC InkShow! Comments [21] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:15:36 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Great work! Looking foward to seeing more videos!

Also, how does the built in "pad" feel on the device? Would you have perfered a nubbin, like on the original eo and other tablets (x41t, p1510d, etc.)?

Tyler

Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:58:49 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

The "pad" feels fine, but I have been used to using a similiar one on my Media Center keyboard. I personally do not care much for pointing stick, I much prefer the rocker type button. I am still working on adjusting the sensitivity, etc., but so far so good.

Just FYI, I have loaded some music on this thing and am sitting here listening right now. The sound output to the headphones is awesome! Gotta get a couple movies on this thing!

The one thing I do not care for so far? Dialkeys! There is a development opportunity if I have ever seen one. It just is not an easy thing to type on... Maybe with more practice....

Dennis Rice

Thursday, September 07, 2006 6:23:20 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Interesting. How's the external speaker quality? I love using the Q1 to put out a nice volume of music through both of its large, loud, and nice sounding speakers!

Tyler

Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:33:43 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Nope -- just a single speaker. Sounds not bad, but definitely not concert sound! :-) The Q1 may have the edge there....

Dennis Rice

Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:16:54 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Okay, one last question, I promise :)

Are you able to customize the brightness buttons?

Curious to see if you're able to change it to a set of volume adjusters.

Thanks for answer all of my questions! Enjoy your new toy!

Tyler

Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:31:36 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I have not been able to find ways to program any buttons yet.

As far as volume goes though, the "media buttons" are already programmed to adjust it up and down.

And btw, ask all the ?'s you'd like! :-)

Dennis Rice

Thursday, September 07, 2006 9:08:05 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Cool! It's really neat to see such a "media centric" device. It would be nice to have the EO with the screen off while you adjust all the controls via the media buttons.

I'm impressed! Can't wait to see more! Also interested to see how well this machine does in the future as a "docked device."

The UX is plenty fast for a docked unit, and isn't to slugish to work on. However, it's difficult to do much on, like type up a document.

I think TabletKiosk could have a real winner here with the media buttons, and all the power this little devices packs! Possibly in the future I may get rid of the Q1 for this awesome little i7210!

Tyler

Friday, September 08, 2006 7:08:12 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Sweet Dennis. I'm jealous mine's still a day or two away!!!

It looks like you whizzed right by the 4-in-1 card reader.

Other than that and the odd aspect ratio of the video, that makes you look really slim BTW, you and your wife did a good job getting the premier view of the i7210 out there to the world.

Thanks.

ree

Friday, September 08, 2006 7:57:58 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

TabletKiosk is just a variant of Founder model....

What is the local touch ???

A french test about the Founder original model made by a French man. He bought it 4 fonth ago in China.

Yes, 4 month !

It's a fresh old product !

http://www.tabletpccorner.net/content/view/2431/31/

Slim Boy

Friday, September 08, 2006 11:16:57 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

You are correct Slim Boy about the Founder and the eo being based on the same OEM product, but the OEM is actually ESC (Elite Computer Systems)out of Taiwan, not Founder themselves. The ESC model for this is the H70, and is also being released under the Daweoo-Lucom-MSI names also I believe, each with their own unique inplementation. Each vendor has the option to make many choices in their release of any OEM product.

Also as an FYI, TabletKiosk is the first vendor to put the Tablet OS on this OEM unit as well (according to TabletKiosk). Founder had XP Home on theirs I believe, not sure about the others.

Dennis Rice

Friday, September 08, 2006 2:03:14 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

sadly recd mine today. wireless not working(hardware/software read fine)but alas no connection.next doc connector failed to enable doc after initially working. back it goes. l'll just rely on my tc1100-build quality is a huge issue as a traveler. people at tk were great though as is thevform factor

bil

Friday, September 08, 2006 2:29:32 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Dennis, I believe you're right about Founder and XP Home... Expansys Canada had the Founder available by special order as early as last May, but it shipped with XP Home (Simplified Chinese) and I wanted XP Tablet to get the full use out of a UMPC. So I ended up jumping through a lot of hoops before someone at CDW showed mercy and let me buy a Samsung Q1 from across the border.

Mind you, that Founder also had a Celeron 900 in it instead of the Pentium and had 512MB RAM. I think your model is a lot beefier.

It does look like a nice unit, though. Definitely interested in seeing how it handles multimedia and video!

(Oh, and can you put Notebook Hardware Controls on and let us know typical power draw? It might make timing battery life simpler too.)

-- Steve

Anton P. Nym

Friday, September 08, 2006 2:48:42 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Wow Bil, that is nothing short of tragic! Mine arrived working well thank goodness. I guess time will tell as far as durability goes though! Glad to hear TK was so willing to work with you on it though. We hear so many bad experiences, it is nice to see the good ones, even if it is requesting a refund!

Dennis Rice

Friday, September 08, 2006 2:51:31 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Steve,

I am working on some battery tests right now, and will post some initial results soon.

On the multimedia comparisons, what do folks want to see as actual tests? How do we do a good comparison of the models capabilities on this?

Dennis Rice

Friday, September 08, 2006 3:03:36 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Dennis, sorry about the question, but it's a big one for ebook-guys like me. Screen rotation?

Floyd Wray

Friday, September 08, 2006 9:36:40 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

It definitely has screen rotation capability, but right now I am having a driver issue with it. It will rotate with the Intel graphics utility included, but not the built in popup utility application. I talked to TabletKiosk on this today, and they are looking at a driver update to fix it. I ecpect to have the update pretty quick.

TK is the first one to put the Tablet PC OS on these units, so I expect a couple of small issues like this to surface in real use scenarios. The good thing is that they are very interested in resolving any issue I find!

I'll update you as it develops!

Dennis Rice

Saturday, September 09, 2006 8:05:42 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Hi Dennis, nice video review, thanks. My i7210 is on order and should arive next week, so this preview was very welcome... I don't think I'll be disappointed at all when it arrives. One thing though... the specs at TabletKiosk say it comes with a Carry Case, but didn't see that when you unboxed your unit, so does it not actually include the case? I was hoping for a nice form fitting slip case.

Thanks,

Jim

Jim Sparkman

Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:12:20 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

No, no carry case Jim. I do not think any case is included for free though, you have to buy them. There is a portfolio case and a slip case as options I believe, but I do not think they are available yet. I have asked them about this, and should know something sometime next week. You definitely need one though IMHO.

I ordered lots of accessories. They are trying to get the machines out to people right now as a priority though, hopefully accessories will follow shortly!

Dennis Rice

Sunday, September 10, 2006 9:03:06 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Thanks, Dennis. Yes, I agree, case is needed and I went ahead and ordered the portfolio case, plus had ordered several accessories myself, as well. Yep, I'd be happy to have the machine first, though! Hopefully I'll have mine by the end of this week... they said week of 9/11 !

Jim Sparkman

Monday, September 11, 2006 2:54:42 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I got mine (i7210) today and I'm guessing I'm going to have to exchange it. The stick inside the Synaptic TouchStyk pointer is off center with respect to the hole in the case body. So I can't push it left and up very well. :(

It also seems that the "Power Lock" slide switch on the top is not a lock for the power switch, but a lock for all inputs. When it's locked absolutely no inputs work.

Screen rotation doesn't seem to be enabled on mine.

And I've had some instability in the System Management Master (SMM) which is what pops up when you hit the SRS/C-A-D button and lets you pick screen resolutions and turn on and off the BT, Wireless and Camera. It goes out to lunch after resuming from a hibernate. Plus sometimes it just doesn't react for me has to be killed and restarted.

Also, it seems that if you don't use the SMM to change screen resolutions, the touchpad settings will not always be made at the same time and you'll end up with a touchscreen that doesn't match up with the cursor.

Also, I've had the tip executable go out to lunch. A kill in the task manager and restart has fixed it for me.

These things aside, I'm loving this little device. I'm sure all the kinks I've experienced will be worked out in time. Too bad it hasn't been a perfect experience thus far.

ree

Monday, September 11, 2006 3:25:21 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Good news from TK. I just spoke with one of their tech support guys who was very nice and pleasant. They'll do a replacement for me when they become available (est 2 weeks).

I relayed all my issues (some that they hadn't hear about yet hibernate messing up SMM). They're sending me updated VGA drivers to enable the screen rotate feature on my machine.

All in all, very nice helpful support staff.

ree

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