I did some early beta testing with MindJet’s new MindManager version for the Mac and it works really well. The interface is very clean and simple, but follows the same work flow as the Windows version. I am really glad to see them come out with this new version.

There is a gotcha, though, for tablet pc users wanting to use their maps with the new Mac version – maps with topics that have ink will not show up properly on the Mac. If you start using the Mac version MindManager, I’d recommend converting your ink to text first.

Maps created in either the Mac or Windows versions are interchangeable.

MindManager 6 Mac sells for $229.

Watch our MindManager InkShow

Well, some contests are hits and others are duds. The Design our Shirt contest turned out to be one of those duds, even with some great prizes like Alias Sketchbook and a Cross Pen. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive enough entries to award a winner.

Oh well. It would have been cool to see some great designs come through, but we’ll try to come up with something pretty neat anyway to launch our GBM Gear Shop. Stay tuned.

From the BBC, we learn that fuel cells in laptops could be right around the corner (image from the BBC):

Electronics companies are promoting fuel cells as an environmentally-friendly and convenient alternative to traditional lithium ion batteries.

The technology promises to supplement or replace today's batteries in laptops. Instead of storing power, fuel cells generate electricity by breaking down methanol via an electrochemical process.

The cells can be recharged by topping them up with methanol from a cartridge.

Recently, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Samsung and Sanyo, among others, have shown prototypes that suggest that the technology is just around the corner.

It has taken time to shrink parts such as pumps to sizes small enough for the fuel cells to be commercially acceptable.

Toshiba started fuel cell development for PCs about four years ago. It is working towards commercialisation next year, said Tomoaki Arimura of Toshiba's Methanol Fuel Cell Group.

Checkout Loren’s post for his thoughts on using the Q1 for the weekend.

When you are finished reading Loren’s post, checkout Michael Polino post. He was one of the OrigamiProject.com winners who received a free Q1 and Slingbox.

It is good to see these end-user thoughts coming out.

Kevin Tofel has produced the next installment in his Q1 series videos, focusing on usage scenarios. He covers the following:

• Booting up into AVStation Now for media playback.
• Booting into Windows XP to show the time-frame of a boot up.
• Putting the device into Sleep mode and restoring it back to show the speed.
• Inking in OneNote 2007, Outlook 2007 and Windows Journal.
• Handwriting recognition in Windows Journal.
• A quick stop into MindJet's MindManager Brief look at DialKeys and the Microsoft TouchPack.
• Surfing in IE7 via the LAN.
• Pulling the LAN cable out and surfing the web by using an XV6700 EV-DO Windows Mobile phone via a Bluetooth connection.
• An overview of the Samsung screen rotation

Many of you have expressed interest in getting the Bibles that I’ve created for GoBinder into a OneNote file format. Some early testing with beta users proved that the format and structure would work and be ideal for taking notes on the Bible text, but that we would need to wait until the public beta for some package and deployment fixes to be made by Microsoft.

Well, with the public beta release of OneNote 2007 last week, I’ve now moved passed the testing stages and into production of the English Standard Version for OneNote 2007 and New King James Version for OneNote 2007. I should have these completed by July 1. You will finally be able to ink and take notes directly on to your Bible in OneNote in modern translations. Just like the GoBinder versions, the OneNote versions will also be free.

I’ll post an update here when they are done and you can also check out the status at www.TabletBible.com.

Download the sample Notebook package at http://www.tabletbible.com/esv.onepkg . Only Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus are implemented right now. After downloading, double-click to install the Notebook. OneNote 2007 is required.

Watch our OneNote 2007 InkShows

Laptop Magazine has awarded Electrovaya’s SC-3100 its Editors Choice

Along with Motion Computing, Electrovaya is one of the only manufacturers to work almost exclusively on tablet design, and this laser focus shows in the quality and usability of the Scribbler SC 3100 Premium. It represents only a modest tweaking of last year’s SC 3000, but this is one of the most versatile, if costly, pure slate tablets available. A superb screen, rock-solid feel, and very good all-around performance add up to a model that should be on any tablet shopper’s short list.

Via TabletPCTalk

We had 14 really good entries in the SanDisk contest. We’ve decided to award three winners instead of two. Here are the winners:

• Nithi Sothilingam
• Barbara Liebgott
• Nicholas Moline

You’ll each receive your own SD 1GB Plus USB card! I’ll be in touch with each of you by email to get your shipping address. Congratulations!

Greg Ashbaugh has put together a quick look review of Motion Computing’s LE1600 Tablet PC. It is a little hard to hear Greg with the background music, but if you have been wanting some hands on looks at the LE1600, it is worth watching.

Thanks for letting us know, Greg.

My family and I had the the pleasure of spending some time with Tracy Hooten tonight, who was on her way to a summer internship. For those of you who don’t know, Tracy is co-founder of  StudentTabletPC.com, an on-line community dedicated to college students and tablet pc technology. She is also a Microsoft Tablet PC MVP. 

While she was here, we turned the camera on for a bit and chatted about college, tablet pcs, software, and where StudentTabletPC.com is headed. Take a few minutes and listen in on our conversation. Great stuff.

As you listen to Tracy, it is obvious that she has a real love for learning and sharing what she learns with others. She is an utter delight to be around.

Thanks for coming by, Tracy. You are welcome in our home any time!

• Watch this special InkShow with Tracy Hooten (WMV format, 23:31, 57.8 mb)
• Visit StudentTabletPC.com

Update: I modified the title of this post to reflect the recall letter that TabletKiosk sent out (see below).

John Tokash posted a letter on his blog from Martin Smekal, CEO of TabletKiosk, regarding the eo battery issue. A letter is being sent out to all eo owners advising them that the fix will involve them sending it in for repair (see below). Here is the letter from Martin as posted on John’s blog:

We will be sending out a notification later today to all recipients of the initial unit. The repair is hardware based and will require the unit being sent back to our offices for update (we have identified a set of defective cords / capacitors on the initial production run causing the high power drain). This repair will also effect the delivery of on-order systems slightly – we have some units that will ship next week that have the new suppliers components installed, and we are working diligently with our supplier to meet current demand, however some orders may be delayed a week or two while we transition to this new source for these components.

On a side note for your information we will also offer a 25% discount off any eo accessory to these first users to try and help compensate for the frustration this issue has caused.

And here is the official letter sent out, as posted on CTitanics blog:

Dear Valued Customer,

At TabletKiosk™, our primary goal is to provide outstanding products and superior service that "exceeds our customers' computing expectations." Guided by this philosophy, we take great effort to ensure that our machines perform exactly as they are promoted.

We recognize that the first shipment of eo™ v7110 was affected by a battery life that did not perform as advertised.

For this reason, we are initiating a voluntary recall of eo™ so that we can replace the defective component to provide you with a better functioning machine.

To expedite the process, please contact TabletKiosk at 310-782-1201 or eoreturns@tabletkiosk.com for return shipping instructions. Upon receiving your eo™ back in our facility, we will modify the hardware and will ship the machine back to you within 72 hours of receipt.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this issue and hope that you will support our decision to issue this recall. To thank you for your understanding and patience, we are pleased to extend the following offer to all current eo™ owners:

25% off any single eo™ accessory -

• - Offer good towards any new accessory order placed before July 31, 2006
• - Offer may be applied to any accessories currently on back-order

With our sincere apologies, thank you for your understanding.

The TabletKiosk Team

In this inaugural edition of Audio InkShows, we are thrilled to bring you our interview with Microsoft’s Chris Pratley. Chris is the Group Manager for Office Authoring Services, which includes OneNote, Word, and Publisher. He co-founded the OneNote team in 2001.

Chris and I talk about his OneNote team, the new beta, OneNote Mobile, insight into why OneNote uses ink the way it does, and more. He also lets us know that OneNote Mobile not only works with SmartPhones, but also with Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PCs and Phone Edition.

Thanks to Aubergine for the rocking intro music, Pursuit, and a special thanks to James Kendrick for letting me know about USB Microphones and music.PodShow.com

• Listen to the Audio InkShow ( MP3 format, 20:13, 23.1 mb)
• Download the Office 2007 and OneNote 2007 beta.
• Visit Chris’ blog

A couple of years ago Microsoft was giving away a couple of ebooks a week. My wife and I got hooked to reading books on our Tablet PC's. I have bought a few over the years, and all was okay until recently. I had to reimage my M280, and my M200 went out for a hard drive replacement. Both devices were previously "activated" with my Reader account. Now neither one will work, nor will they activate. I sent in a request to have my count reset, and have heard nothing. I tried the phone number on the Reader web site, but it says it is not longer in service.

Now I own 20 or 30 useless lumps of e-books. I have no recourse other than to get on the phone and wait forever to get support from someone. What number do I call? Who will help with this issue?

I am getting ready to go on a trip, and I want my e-Books! I am NOT happy.

Signed...,

Readerless

The UK web site Computer Active is reporting that Via is not giving much praise to current Ultra-Mobile PC devices. Well, if this story is true, I can imagine the Ultra-Mobile PC vendors not being too happy with this statement from Via:

"Colin Brix, chipset platform group international marketing specialist, said although such devices would find strong markets in the future, the current generation needed better battery life, and to be slightly smaller, slimmer and more powerful. 'Some of the first models we are seeing are not at their optimum,' he said.'The technology is there, but for early devices they are really rushed."

Ouch. That certainly will not spur on sales of Ultra-Mobile PC's, especially those with Via processors.

Sure wish we had the ability to easily do some ink posts on GottaBeMobile.com. There are a number of ways to do this today, but none that feel right yet. Hugh Sung is moving in the right direction though. Check out his video podcast on this here

Perry Reed has released the next edition of "The Tablet PC Show", podcast # 36 of Tablet PC news and info. Here is the outline:

News and Updates:

• HP announces a new tablet, the tc4400, which is a convertible style device and apparently an update to the tc4200.
• Word 2007 is going to support blogging directly from within the application. And OneNote 2007 will, too.
• Updates are available for GeckoTip and Grab And Drag for Firefox users.
• The DualCor cPC will be shipping soon, but without WiFi or Bluetooth or 3G cell phone radios built in.
• A Korean company called NAVIsis has released an attachment that turns any monitor into a touchscreen.
• OrigamiProject.com has published a great article with tips and tricks for tweaking your UMPC.
• Sony has announced the Vaio UX, a micro PC that is not a UMPC.
• Samsung releases some performance numbers for their new hybrid flash memory / hard drives.
• Samsung has also announced the Q1-SSD UMPC which replaces the hard drive with a 32GB flash memory drive. It's fast, but pricey.
• Microsoft has filed patents for using UMPCs to control home appliances.
• Microsoft has also released the beta 2 version of Office 2007, including Outlook 2007 and OneNote 2007 to the public.
• After the news and updates, I announce my own personal news: I've bought a new Tablet PC to replace my existing one.

As I cruise the internet, I like to highlight blogs I follow that have great potential (at least IMHO). I came across this blog today, Scarlet Umbrella, authored by Susy Doyle. Susy is blogging her Tablet PC experience. What I especially like about Susy's experience thus far, is that she is making really great use of a Compaq TC1000, which was my first (and in many ways favorite) tablet. Just goes to show you that powerful CPU, etc. is not what makes a tablet PC useful, it is the individual and their ability to adapt to the device. I know tons of people with great and powerful tablets who are not making near the effort, or achieving half the result that it appears Susy is. Here is a bit about Susy from her bio:

"Susy Doyle is a graduate student in chemistry. When she is not in the lab doing research, her interests include progressive politics, film, and gadgets. She speaks German and English and is currently working on learning Irish and Japanese. She has also studied linguistics and is fascinated by internet language and culture. She is deluded enough to call herself a writer".

With that bio, one would assume some intelligence! Susy proves it as she works on adapting the tablet PC into her professional and personal life.

Her post today:

"I work in a lab and part of our weekly group meetings is the discussion of scientific papers. Due to various reasons, my colleague giving the presentation was unable to send us a copy of the paper she was discussing until last night which meant I didn't get the email until this morning. Since I am in a lab, our "IT person" also has a full-time job as a grad student. The rest of us try to help but with so many people using the computers, having a duel Mac-PC environment, and machines runnings both Windows NT and XP, the network often acts like it is possessed. Needless to say, I couldn't print the paper. Luckily, I had my tablet PC so I was able to use a neat program called PDF Annotator to markup the paper with highlights and notes from the pen (I am one of those people who needs to scribble notes on everything they read to fully comprehend it). I wrote up an agenda of the points I wanted to discuss in the meeting using OneNote and a meeting stationary and I was able to have one tool to bring to the meeting instead of my agenda, notepad, and the paper (which is nice if the meeting is down three flights of stairs). Very cool".

Subscribe to this one folks, and encourage Susy in her efforts!

After doing my own review of the Acer C200 series, I have kept an eye out for other reviews. I'm afraid I really got shown up this time!

Want to see a true test of "usability" and accessibility on the Acer C200? Enter David Wallace, aka "lifekludger". Dave is a C4 Quadraplegic since an auto accident in 1981, and he knows how to make a Tablet PC do it's thing!

Dave managed to borrow a C200, and spent some great time working on it and judging it's true accessibility. Here is a clip from his C200 review:

"In short, for me, operating a computer as I do with a disability layout and positioning is everything, well the absolute first priority overriding all other considerations anyway. If I can't reach it with my mouthstick, leave it in the box! So the Acer really grabbed my attention.
When I got hold of one I found the layout of keyboard, with the keys right at the front edge, the compact design and the 'reachable-ness' of everything brilliant. The Trackpoint 'pointer' device, although not my ultimate device for pointing, worked for me and the little scroll-wheel, which was an added feature I hadn't accounted for, I found handy and easy to use, despite the angle. The fact it has great specs, speed, all the connectivity you could want and Tablet functions to boot were pleasing benefits".

He has also done a review of the Sahara slate Tablet. Check out his blog!

Chris Pratley is blogging more good info on the upcoming OneNote 2007 release. In this post on his blog:

• Info on the new "Ultimate" Office SKU, which will include OneNote
• An update on the latest beta release issues, including activation woes
• There is new blogger on the OneNote team, Dan Escapa.

I also picked this bio information up from his blog:

"About Chris Pratley:
I am the Group Program Manager for Office "Authoring Services". That means I manage the teams that design Word, Publisher, and OneNote (the "authoring" applications). I co-founded the OneNote team back in early 2001 and have been part of it ever since. At the same time I have been part of the Word team since 1995, starting on Japanese Word95 and growing to be the manager for the whole Word program management team. Before I joined Microsoft in 1994 I lived in Japan for several years working for Seiko-Epson Corp on color inkjet printers and had a great time learning Japanese language and culture. I met Seiko (my wife to be) there as well, and we have a son Ciarán who is two years old. I am originally from Montréal, Canada and I have a Systems Design Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo. "

And finally, stay tuned to GottaBeMobile.com for the next few days, and "hear" more about Chris Pratley and his efforts at Microsoft. Rob is working with Chris on an audio interview!

Next week, we will be launching a new feature series called “Life With Ink”. We will be featuring stories about real world use of tablet pcs, umpcs, how people really use tablet pc software, the impact the technology and software has had on your business and life, struggles you’ve had, expectation adjustments, etc.

The key to this features series will be you, the GottaBeMobile.com reader. See, these stories are going to come from you and they are going to be about you. We want you to tell us your story.

For example, we want to hear about how you utilize OneNote in a busines setting, how the use of forms software has impacted your bottomline, how the implementation of Tablet PCs changed your business or how it didn’t impact it at all, what the impact has been on your productivity, integration successes, a Day in the Life of your work, etc. We want pictures of you with your tablet, pictures of you and your associates with their tablet pcs, pictures of you at home using some software, videos, etc. You get the idea. Rich, real world stories of Life With Ink.

Be thinking about how you can contribute to this series, and we will let you know next week what we are going to do for you if you send us your story and we publish it. Our goal will be to publish a Real World story once a week, but that will all depend upon you sending them in.

Stay tuned for more details…

Quick post!

ASUS is on the move with a new Tablet PC. Core Duo news had this blurb today:

Asus has been pretty busy introducing various Core Duo laptops since the beginning of the year. By now it has one or several Core Duo notebooks in every category: ultraportable 12.1? Asus W5F, 13.3? Asus W7J, 14? Asus A8JF, 15? Asus W1J, A6J and V6J, 17? Asus W2J and Asus A7J. It had even brought us some cool and trendy high end laptops like leather clad ultraportable Asus S6F or Lamborgihini styled Asus VX1. The only thing missing for the complete line up, was a Tablet PC. We knew there was one - Asus R1F Tablet PC was spotted during CES and TabletPC Review Spot even got some specs:

Intel Core Duo chip
13.3? Widescreen display
Up to 2GB of RAM
80-120 GB SATA HDD
TPM security chip

But Asus was keeping very quiet about it. Well, we can not tell you much more about the specs, just that some Asus R1F configurations may include Intel's ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) chips, but we can tell you that this Tablet should be announced soon".

JkOTheRun’s Kevin Tofel just received his Samsung Q1 and has posted a video of the “unboxing ceremony” . Check it out. You’ll want to follow www.JkOnTheRun.com for Kevin’s complete Q1 chronicles.

He’s got 14 days to play with it before making a decision on whether to keep it or not. Any guesses on what he’ll do?

Hugo Ortega has just posted a video review of Fujitsu’s T4020 Convertible Tablet PC. Hugo was the Official CEBIT Australia blogger and used the T4020 for his blogging duties. Well done, Hugo.

The Tablet PC continues to make in-roads in to education, this time with the Air Force Academy. The graduating class of 2010 will all be getting Gateway M280G Tablet PCs. Being from Colorado Springs, the home of  the Air Force Academy, I’m going to see if I can get on campus for the delivery - that would be major cool.

From PR Newswire

GTSI Corp. , a leading information technology solutions provider to the government, today announced that it has been awarded the U.S. Air Force Academy Class of 2010 Cadet Purchase Buy. GTSI, along with Gateway, Inc. , will be providing the cadets with a Gateway M280G Tablet PC. The Tablet PC and accessories will be specially packaged and priced for the students.

"We applaud the Air Force Academy's decision to become the first military academy to offer tablet PCs to its cadets," said Scott Friedlander, GTSI Executive Vice President. "We are delighted to support the Academy and to be teamed with Gateway who offers such a feature-rich product. The tablet PC has many possibilities for improving the educational experience of the cadets in the future. With the Air Force Academy leading the way, the tablet PC could become an important tool for all institutions of higher learning."

"We're excited to support the United States Air Force Academy with the provision of one of our most feature-rich and performance-oriented notebook PCs for educational institutions," said Vin Riera, Gateway vice president of government sales. "Combining the benefits of a standard notebook with the advantages of pen computing, the Gateway M280 is ideal for the academic environment, where it is tangibly enhancing teaching techniques and increasing student engagement and learning. The flexible option of being able to handwrite text and draw diagrams saves time, paper and costs for students who want to use it for note-taking. It is also ideal for educators who can comment directly on student's work without having to print a page."

"We are excited to be introducing tablet computing to our new cadets this fall," said Larry W. Bryant, Director of Academic Computing at the United States Air Force Academy. "Tablet computers offer all the advantages of notebook computers in the classroom, but the tablet's ability to capture handwriting, formulas, and drawings make it even more valuable. It still allows the students the mobility and freedom to work almost anywhere, and the addition of special math and science software designed specifically for tablets extend the concepts instructors can teach and the way students learn. We look forward to pioneering tablets with both our students and the faculty."

GTSI estimates that the Air Force Academy will order between 1200 to 1400 tablets and accessories. Accessories include an external hard drive, external keyboard, 128 MB memory stick, Ethernet cable, power strip, and carrying case.

Outlook 2007 beta 2 is much better than previous builds I’ve tested. I’ve been putting the To Do section through its’ paces today and I have to tell you it is becoming my favorite new feature. What I really like is that I can flag emails as “To Do” items and they show up with my Tasks in the same list. I can sort that To Do list by Categories and get a more complete view of my list of items to accomplish. For my categories, I’ve created each client and project as a category. Categories could be greatly improved by allowing sub-categories. Right now, if I have multiple projects for one client, I create my categories as “Customer – Project 1”, “Customer – Project 2”

The other feature I really like is having an RSS Feed feature. It works much better and faster than previous builds. I might be tempted to give up Onfolio to have my RSS data in Outlook. The one missing feature is the ability to mark all the sub folders as read. If you subscribe to alot of feeds and have trouble staying caught up from time to time, you know how valuable a global “Mark All As Read” can be. I use that feature a lot in Onfolio ( now a part of the Live Toolbar ).

I have not done much with Inking, but I’ll give that a whirl over the next day or so.

What is missing? Newsgroup support. If you participate in Newsgroups, you’ll have to continue to use Outlook Express or Windows Mail in Vista. I’m disappointed that they chose not to offer Newsgroup support. Microsoft Entourage, the Outlook equivilent on the Mac, has newsgroup support. Why not Outlook 2007?

CNET is running an article about Microsoft’s planning for next year’s Origami devices, dubbed ‘Vistagami’ within Microsoft.

As with the first generation of Windows XP-based minidevices, the Vistagami products will be built on top of the operating system, Krammer said. They will come with a software pack that adds features to make it easier to navigate around or open programs on a device that has a 7-inch or smaller display. Other features are still being determined, she said.

The devices will require Windows Vista Home Premium, Ultimate, or one of the business versions of the upcoming operating system, because they rely on the touch and tablet capabilities included in those editions.

Even with the new operating system factored in, Microsoft hopes the price of the devices will be somewhat lower than that of their predecessors, though the improvement isn't expected to be dramatic.

"We're not saying in the Vista time frame we'll see it slashed by 50 percent," Krammer said. "We're not going to reach the ultimate $500 price range at the time of the Vista launch."

In addition to talking about next year’s devices, Microsoft’s Mike Krammer had this to say regarding this years launch:

While Microsoft was under no illusions that it could hit its long-term $500 price goal, the company said Tuesday it was not happy with how expensive the first devices turned out to be.

"We were (disappointed)," said Mika Krammer, a director in Microsoft's Windows product marketing unit. "We would have liked to have seen a lower price point."

Krammer said Microsoft doesn't have much say in what the final price of the device is, but conceded "the ding accrues to us, regardless."

Michael Venini has produced a video review of Samsung’s Q1 UMPC. He covers the following:

Ports
Battery Life
Games
Notes
Outdoor view
His Opinion

I’m downloading it right now and will watch it later tonight. Thanks for doing this, Mike!

BTW: Michael has revamped his blog to be totally focused on UMPCs and the Q1. He’s already developing some good resources.

Chris Pirillo is an interesting guy. Apparently Jim Alchin of Microsoft asked him to give him a "critique" of the latest Windows Vista build, and well, that's what he got! Chris certainly took this task to heart, and compiled a HUGE list of things he found with an extensive session. He did warn him though! Here is Chris' intro:

"I spent a few hours with Windows Vista last night, per Jim Allchin's request to send him feedback about what I discovered in terms of discrepancies and oversights. I took that task seriously, and stayed up late to compile this far-from-comprehensive list. I sent it to him at 1am, and I hope he doesn't have a filter that keeps him from seeing it. I realize this list is lengthy, but… these reasons are exactly why I'm afraid Vista won't be as polished as originally anticipated. I warn you, this list is long - and it's only going to get longer, the deeper I dive into Vista Beta 2. This list is longer than the interview!"

I enjoyed his comments on the time spent with Jim, sounds like he got a really good feel for Jim's honest desire to produce a good product. He also did an interview with Jim. I am going to keep an eye on this post by Chris, just to see what other interesting things he find. If you want something tested, I'd say Chris is a good candidate to do it!

-

Rob and I were talking the other day about scheduling things for GottaBeMobile.com. The question came up about what to do our next few InkShows on. There are a number of possibilities, but I thought I would ask you folks who read our content what you would like to see! Give us your requests in the following categories, and we will do our best to acquire them and put something together for you:

• Software applications
• Computer hardware
• Mobile computer acessories

What do you want to see?

Just a reminder that there are only three days left to get your entry in for a free SanDisk SD Plus USB 1GB card.

So far, we’ve received some great entries.

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After my woeful sounding post the other day about my Toshiba M200 hard drive crash, I decided to go online today and check the status of my repair. COULD IT BE TRUE? Is my M200 already on it's way back to me? After having heard all the bad reports on Toshiba repairs, I was prepared for the worst. I was prepared for a 2 week minimum wait to get my primary road warrior tool back. But dare I hope it is true?

If you click on the image on the right here, you will see a full size image I grabbed using SnagIt of my repair status log at support.toshiba.com. As you will note:

• 5/15 - I called to report the problem
• 5/15 - They shipped me a box at no charge via UPS 2nd Day Air (which was satisfactory to me)
• 5/17 - I received the box, instructions, and prepaid shipping return label
• 5/18 - I shipped it back to them with the prepaid label (2nd Day once again)
• 5/22 - They received it at the depot (there was a weekend between there).
• 5/22 - They diagnosed the bad hard drive, replaced it, reimaged it, and shipped it back on the same day
• 5/24 - I should receive it back today. I checked the tracking number with UPS, and it says it is on the truck for delivery!

Now..., assuming I get the unit back in good condition, assuming it boots up and all appears to be well, I am one very happy Toshiba repair customer! I see nothing to complain about here folks! The only thing I would like to see changed would be to use overnight shipping instead of 2nd day, but I really am not overly disappointed in that personally. Toshiba did what they said they would do, they never "sat" on my process or equipment, and my machine is on it's way back. Oh, and by the way..., this did not cost me a dime!

I know we tend to only get vocal about the bad stuff, but this time I need to say what I am thinking:

THANK YOU TOSHIBA. THANK YOU FOR BACKING UP THIS PIECE OF EQUIPMENT.

UPDATE:  My M200 arrived, in good working order.  Mission completed!

Chris Pratley has offered a good look at how OneNote 2007 and Outlook (2003 and 2007) work so much better together now.

While beta testing, I used a few of the new features – tieing a OneNote note directly with an appointment, etc and they worked really well. I’m not one for spreading my task list too far, choosing to integratre them with MindManager at the moment, but the integration between Outlook and OneNote 2007 is really, really good. BTW: If you have not downloaded the OneNote 2007 beta, do so today. It is pretty solid. Outlook 2007 – still pretty buggy on my end, but hey, that is why they call it a beta. They need help identifying stuff.

From Chris Pratley’s blog:

From the beginning of OneNote we've had a lot of requests to deepen our integration with Outlook. In 2003 we had several connection points: you could email notes directly from OneNote if you had Outlook 2003, and you could create tasks from OneNote items. With SP1 of OneNote 2003 we added more Outlook integration features, such as "Insert Meeting Details", and the ability to create Outlook Appointments and Contacts.

When we did 2007 planning, it was clear from our user surveys that anything we could do to integrate better with Outlook would be most welcome. So here it is, my long-awaited post on all the great things OneNote can do with Outlook (and some additional goodies at the end).

Any eo, Q1, LS800, or P1510D users missing their EV-DO card due to no PCMCIA slot? Well, it appears that your wait might be over. AllTP.com is selling a USB to PCMCIA Card Adapter and has certified it to work with the following wireless modem cards ( see below from AllTP.com):

Most PCMCIA wireless modem cards are compatible; check the list below to find out whether yours is included or contact us for advice. Please note that the unique hardware design of this unit has been developed especially for these types of wireless modems, so other card types are not supported. It does not support memory cards.

According to the Allp.com website, they are currently taking backorders for delivery in June. They are selling for $199.90

Windows Vista Beta 2 is now available for folks who have an MSDN or TechNet subscription, or who have been a part of the beta program.

If you don’t have a subscription, Microsoft will be announcing Customer Preview Program within