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Tablet PC and Mobile PC Users: Share Your Experiences With Us

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We received an email from a high school student last night asking for some help. He’s doing a research paper on Tablet PCs, Mobile PCs, mobility, etc, and could really use our help in collecting some user experience data. This is where you come in.

Please answer the following questions and submit them as a comment to this post. Your help would be greatly appreciated. To sweeten the deal and show how much we want to help this student out, we’ll pick a random winner from all those who submit answers, and award that person a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Let’s give this high school student a ton of useful information, k?

Here are the questions:

1)           How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.
2)           Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?
3)           What devices do you use?
4)           Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself ““Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain.
5)           Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?

18 Comments

18 Comments

  1. Andrew_Wilcoc

    11/21/2008 at 3:24 am

    1) About 5 years of using Tablet PCs TC1100 through to HP 2710p. Using a TC1100 to ink this
    2) Yes. Whenever leave the office I use Mind Manager in ink mode to record meetings and speakers. e.g. https://www.conferencereaction.co.uk/business_scen…the speeches and quotes were all ink originally. I h are spent three days in a field at a music festival with a TC1100 producing this. https://www.cabre.co.uk/croplog06/index.html I also painted standing up in the dark in a crowd.
    3) As above
    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have TabletPC . You can paint, do audio recordings, mind map I connect to the WiFi
    5) No

  2. Andrew_Wilcox

    11/21/2008 at 3:33 am

    1) Forgot to admit I stll have an Amstrad PPC640 (UK 1988) thats 30 years ago shock!
    https://pc-museum.com/officewing.htm

  3. Daniel

    11/21/2008 at 3:34 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.
    I have been using mobile devices since 1997 (Palm IIIx).
    I bought my first Cell-Phone in 1999. Using Notebooks has become so normal, I don´t even know how long I have used them.

    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?
    I´m using a cell-phone for voice-communication, e-mail and short research during bus rides.
    I use my Tablet PC as my main Computer and only have a Server at Home for my gigantic amounts of data. Since I´m an accountant and a Student I use my Tablet PC with all the Business and Accounting Software that I need. Wordprocessing, Spreadsheets, Email, Presentation. Everything that you can use Outlook for (Calendar, Contacts, Short Notes) I use on my Smartphone as well as on my Tablet PC. I am also a heavy user of OneNote to take notes @ University

    3) What devices do you use?
    Nokia E Series Smartphone
    IBM X41 Tablet PC
    I´m thinking about a Dell Netbook, but not yet using one.

    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain.
    I´m always glad, when I use my Tablet PC to take Notes while Studying, because they are searchable.
    I´m also glad when I use Twitter on my cellphone, since I don´t have to pay anything for short messages…
    5)Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?
    Actually I sometimes use pencil and paper when I feel to connected. But those are pretty mobile as well. I can´t see, why I would go back to pre-mobile era, because for me personally the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

  4. Scott

    11/21/2008 at 4:12 am

    1) How long …
    Wow…got my first tablet PC in 1993 – a compaq Concerto – Loved It (YES, there were Tablet PCs in the 90's, no one remembers them). Then I didn't get another until 2004 – Acer Travelmate C302. (had another notebook in between though – a late 90's compaq that fell apart) Still use the Acer every day, and have no intentions of replacing it any time soon.
    2) Do you use…
    Yes. I'm a software developer, and have to sit through a lot of meetings. I use my tablet PC in meetings for taking notes, giving presentations, and writing software.
    3) What devices…
    Acer Travelmate C302, with 2GB ram, Vista, and an upgraded CPU.
    I also make use of my AT&T Tilt phone – windows mobile, with lots of useful apps. (been using cell phones since 1991)
    4) Have you had a moment…
    Every time I have to sit through 4 hours of meetings, and my battery still has power left! The Acer has awesome power managment, and can easily go 5 hours on a single battery charge.
    5) Can you ever…
    Hell No! I plan to always have a tablet PC. They are so much more useful than normal laptops.

  5. Kevin Purcell

    11/21/2008 at 4:22 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience. since getting a PDA in 2002 or 3.
    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how? bible study, meetings using OneNote and I also do presentations with my tablet and a problem called Inkseine, so I can have a virtual whiteboard.
    3) What devices do you use? two HP TX2000 series tablets and an HTC Touch
    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain. Almost every day. Especially when I need some information on the web and my smartphone or my tablet along with my Verizon USB modem or to save some time that would have been wasted otherwise by using my tablet to do research for upcoming studies.
    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era? Only if the world electrical grid went down permanently. Even then I'd probably find a gas powered generator and still plug in.

  6. Herushan (Andrew)

    11/21/2008 at 6:05 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience. I have used mobile devices consistently for about 2 years now.
    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how? I do use my tablet almost daily as a full time college student. I take notes for my classes and even do some homework and papers that require hand written sections on my tablet PC.
    3) What devices do you use? I use the Lenovo X61 Tablet PC.
    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain. I have them quite often when I am taking classes with my X61T. Having my notes searchable and easy to look through for many semesters makes studying and planning so much easier to do. I have really enjoyed having an unlimited supply of colors for note taking in my EE classes, and being able to print them off for reference when needed. The tablet PC has been the best thing for my note taking skills and I do not know how I survived without one.
    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era? No, I enjoy gadgets and plan on using them if not making them until I am unable to use them.

  7. Medic

    11/21/2008 at 7:29 am

    1) have used a tablet pc for 1.5 years
    2) Yes, for educational and scheduling purposes.
    3) Lenovo X60tablet
    4) Yes, several times. It is very usefull switching between laptop and tablet mode to change the interactive environment, preventing RSI and changing sceneries, between the desk, a couch or on the road. Taking notes in digital ink during a congres is very handy. No bulk paper, but everything in one place, easy to find and have access to in an instant. Using the internet in tablet mode is also very handy. No issues of having to search a place to put a laptop down to access the keyboard. Reading a newspaper or an article in the train is also a blast. No issues of flipping pages difficultly.
    5) If my wishes of the ideal tablet pc came true, no. With the current energy crisis this is a difficult issue. As long as half an ideal product is delivered and battery life is still a serious issue, I sometimes do leave my tablet pc in the drawer to save energy or when it crashes (I wait for a better moment in the week to fix the issue), going for a paper and pencil.

  8. Fleon

    11/21/2008 at 7:54 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.
    For laptops, since 1991, so 17 years. I got my first PDA with the first generation Palm, and I think must have been 1996 or 1997, so 11 years. For cell phones, since 1990, and I even had an adapter for it for a fax machine, which I had in the trunk of my car – cellular fax ftw!

    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?
    Tablets, yes- for presentations, notetaking, group brainstorming. In one group we have a shared Notebook for each of our projects so we can all be up-to-speed. Currently using Mesh with a couple of co-workers to share data as an experiement.

    3) What devices do you use?
    Lenovo X61T. I also have an HP 2710 and an HP Tx2500, both completely inadequate. For document review, the form factor is useless (16:9).

    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain.
    Well, the tablet everyday. It's gratifying to see people carrying around 20-30 pounds of paperwork and I have a 3.5lbs laptop.
    In particular, it's neat to be able to lookup ANYTHING I've written in the past 3 years. On my recent trip to Spain, my girlfriend and I were trying to remember some info on an economic project I'd done 2 years ago. Onenote's handwriting search to the rescue!

    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?
    I'll never be without a tablet again. I could probably drop the cell phone, shockingly enough.

  9. fergbrain

    11/21/2008 at 8:13 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.
    I've been using a Tablet PC since Fall 2004, so just over 4 years now. Before that I had a laptop since 2000, so just over eight years total.

    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?
    Yes. As a student, I use my tablet to take notes in my classes. I also complete almost all my homework assignments in either OneNote or Windows Journal.

    3) What devices do you use?
    Currently, Toshiba M700 Tablet PC. Previously, Toshiba M200.

    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain.
    On occasion, I'll drive somewhere that has some complicated instructions. Instead of printing out the directions (most likely because I didn't have access to a printer), I'll leave the instructions up on Google Maps and just leave my tablet in portrait mode. It works out pretty well, although it would be nice to have WiMAX so I could refresh the data.

    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?
    No. The ability to do just about whatever I want to do where ever I am is embedded in my routine. It's part of who I am and I only see that flexibility increasing.

  10. Gavin Miller

    11/21/2008 at 8:38 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.

    Well, I used to take my Sinclair ZX81 round to my friends house in 1981 if that counts! I had a black and white thinkpad for work in 1994, a Psion3 in 1997 and a Casio Cassiopeia E105 PDA in 2000 (greatly advanced for the time).

    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?

    Yes, I use my iPhone for exchange email and my Portege M700 for taking notes, running MS Office, givin presentations and many other typical office tasks. I may even watch the odd film on it ;-)

    3) What devices do you use?

    iPhone 3G, currently trialling an HTC Touch HD, HTC Advantage, Portege M700 tablet,

    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain.

    Few weeks ago, out in the middle of a huge customer site in Poland, needed a phone number for someone who I was expecting to meet but didn't have cellphone number for. Remembered I had a contact list in Excel format saved to a memory stick. Plugged the memory stick into my HTC Advantage using its 4 in 1 cable (USB, VGA etc) which was in my backpack, opened the file in the terrific Softmaker Office Suite and got the number.

    5) How did we COPE in the pre mobile era! ;-)
    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?

  11. Modnar

    11/21/2008 at 11:43 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.
    Started out with a simple palm pda in 2003 then 2 more palm pda's later I got my first tablet in Jan 2008 (Compaq tc1000) and another (HP TX2500) in July? of this year too)
    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?
    Yes. I use my tx2500 for my studies in Software Engineering by writing notes (love OneNote and recently InkSeine) as well as for programming in general.
    3) What devices do you use?
    A trusty Nokia 6585 for one network, a Palm Treo 680 for my portable organiser and emails a HP TX2500 tablet as my mobile computing device extraordinaire
    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <my tablet>”. Explain.
    After taking my notes in onenote for a while on my prev tablet I needed to quickly find something last minute for a test, that I somehow missed for studying, and typed the keyword for what I was looking for into OneNote and in under a second found all needed references and my accompanying diagram so I could quickly check it off. Another would have to be finding out appointments etc on my palm that happened months ago in seconds as well.
    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?
    No. Not in the slightest. Especially with all the fun (artrage) and help (onenote) I have had with my tablet.

  12. Snowii

    11/21/2008 at 12:13 pm

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.
    Being university student at the moment I would say pretty much since I was a little kid :) My parents brought first Toshiba Tecra laptop back home in 95 and wherever we went for holidays I wanted to have it with me… Since that time I have had Psion Revo, then Psion 5mx and tons of cell phones resulting in WM phones now.

    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?
    I do use tablet – I use it every day, especially for note taking and annotating ppt slides and in general it is my primary computer so I do all surfing, emails, shopping, watching films, picture editing etc. on it. In combination with WM phone I use it for time management as well, syncing calendar.

    3) What devices do you use?
    Lenovo X60t and HTC S710 Vox which I plan to replace by HTC Diamond Touch

    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain.
    Definitely, I don't carry any papers around with me, just the tablet… It's also great being able to have all my relevant files on me pretty much all the time

    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?
    Unfortunately I have become addicted to all this gadgets and tech-stuff so I can't even imagine that. On the other hand when one of my toys lets me down now and then I wish I was just a "simple paper user" but that feeling goes away pretty fast :)

  13. Taliesin

    11/22/2008 at 1:00 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience.
    Well, since two years ago, when I bought my first and current tablet pc, a portege m400 from Toshiba.
    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how?
    I'm a math theacher in highschool and use it everyday at classroom, and also at home, for work and joy :D
    3) What devices do you use?
    As I said, a Toshiba portege M400.
    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain.
    Of course! Everyday when I saw my mates teachers carring a lot of books from one classroom to another, and I take with me just my tablet, with all the books digitalized :D
    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era?
    No, no no no no no no :D

  14. markp

    11/22/2008 at 6:30 am

    1) Well, I made my own "portable" computer out of a Sanyo MBC 555 and a teeny monitor back in 1982–26 yrs.__2) Tablet PC, non-stop daily. I am an IT Director at a school and use it for everything I do. I dock it in one of three docking stations, depending on where I am working, when I have to be at a desk, but easily 75% of the time (outside of class time) I have it as a Tablet. I use it for research, notetaking , reading, planning, diagramming, etc. __3) My current first Tablet PC is an HP 2710p. My favorite design remains the HP/Compaq TC1100.__4) Without doubt, that is how I felt about the TC1100 when I first got my hands on it (actually on its predecessor the TC1000) and about the various Tablets I have used since then. I recently had to go through and toss my entire set of college notebooks–two entire moving boxes full of spiral notebooks and three ring binders. I have over five years' worth of meeting notes, documents, downloaded texts, saved web pages (printed to pdf files), etc. on one of my other Tablets, all of those things easily searchable and permanently storable. Dang, I'm glad I have a Tablet PC!__5) Not a chance!

  15. Mary Lee

    11/22/2008 at 10:28 am

    1) Graduated as ME in1980, Fortran on mainframes, WANG, first iteration IBM PCs. in 1987 was lugging Compaq "sewing machine" laptop and a MAC SE on NY commuter trains. My 1992 PDA was an HP200LX – which still gets some use. I provided consulting on Macs and PCs until 1992 when I went out on disability.
    2) No field of work, still disabled. I bought the Lenovo X61T this summer. Love it. Use it for web research, Office apps. First time user of OneNote.
    3) I use Lenovo X61T, Itouch, Moto phone, Phasing out old Dell desktop and HP200LX.
    4) For me, it's dramatic how much easier it is for me to work on a tablet PC with a) inking; b) its landscape and portrait views; c) data entry and collection. OneNote is wonderful. My disability includes cognitive impairment, so a tablet PC helps me with input and finding data. (A tip of the nib to GBM for your articles and forums. I couldn't have made the transition to a tablet without you.)
    5) Nope. My pace of life, even with a chronic disabling illness, a PC seems mandatory. Having said that, I still prefer books and newspapers over the e versions.
    Best of luck with your study.

  16. Tami Brass

    11/22/2008 at 12:40 pm

    1) I've been using laptops since 1989, but I've only been using a tablet for 3 years.
    2) I'm a middle school teacher at a school with 1:1 laptops. Teachers at my school have been using tablets for close to 4 years. We've just started using tablets as a student laptop. Our kids do everything from make video/audio projects to sharing science and math notebooks with teachers via our network with OneNote.
    3) Toshiba M700 tablets.
    4) When we first started doing OneNote notebook sharing. Imagine being in middle school and never having to hand in paper homework! We have kids create shared notebooks in a shared folder with their teacher. They go home and ink their assignments in their notebooks. When they come back to school, they sync their notebook. That's all it takes to turn in the assignment.
    5) No. For most of my teaching career, I've been a Mac person, but my tablet has converted me. Kids create incredible drawings, Ink flashcards, take notes in their reading, have electronic lab notebooks for science… Paper could never engage kids this way!

  17. Tim

    11/23/2008 at 9:21 am

    1) How long have you been in the mobile device world? A la your experience. :Laptops since the DEC Vaxmate in the late 1980's, palm since the Palm III
    2) Do you use tablet/mobile devices in your field of work, if so how? yes I use a tablet in my daily work as a consultant & facilitator, taking notes and drawing to enhance presentations.
    3) What devices do you use? AT&T Tilt & Fujitsu T4220 tablet.
    4) Have you had a moment or experience where you thought to yourself “Dang I’m glad I have <insert device here>”. Explain. Yes both of my devices. I have been in many environments where my Mobile PC/Phone has helped me in responding to customer quickly via mobile email, GPS to get me around traffic & to my appointments, and retrieving information from the internet. The tablet PC has allowed me to become paperless, I take notes & print everything to my tablet, and file them all in OneNote just like a file drawer.
    5) Can you ever see yourself going back to the pre-mobile era? I could if I was in another line of work. But my current responsibilities include traveling & various actions & projects that need to be followed & worked, and the ability to take all of this work with me, look at it and edit it at a moments notice on my mobile device, provides me with the productivity I need to be successful.

  18. tablettutor

    12/08/2008 at 7:11 pm

    1)Bought my first Tablet PC hp1100 when they first came out
    2) I take it to meetings instead of paper. I have years of handwritten notes on it. My kids use them for school and I am experimenting with distance tutoring via tablet.
    3) I now have several tablets plus an iphone.
    4) Every time I use the tablet. BTW, when I got the TC 1100 I took the keyboard off and never used it. You can’t do that on the new ones. But the real ah ha was when I discovered programs to help kids learn using the stylus instead of keyboarding.
    5) My whole system of working is based on the tablets. I could never go back to pieces of paper with hand written notes all over the place.

    Check out the blog about using tablets for distance tutoring. This is a powerful new technology.

    https://tablettutor.blogspot.com
    https://autismtechblog.blogspot.com

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