OnTheRun with Tablet PCs Show #27- the boys are back and there's gonna be trouble

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Marc Orchant and James Kendrick are back with show #27 after a very long, unrestful hiatus and we have some catching up to do.  The latest build of Vista seems to be making a lot of people happy, especially Tableteers like Kevin Tofel.  Everyone must be aware of the big battery recall going on now affecting Dell, Sony, and Apple customers.  Hey, these are the three big OEMs who don't make Tablet PCs.  Hmmm, coincidence?  I think not.  Marc is loving the new Object Desktop 2007 for simulating Vista Glass on his XP Tablet.  Matt Miller visits Mobile Tech Manor and watches my HP tc1100 die.  HP warranty service came to the rescue and in just a few hours the tc1100 came home feeling all better.  James used a Sony U71 with the 5 inch screen as a replacement while waiting for the return of the tc1100 and the experience has him jonesing for a UMPC. 

Does the Asus R2H really have a screen resolution of 1280x768, a first for a UMPC.  James may have his hands on a Samsung Q1 with a flash memory hard drive.  The two new TabletKiosk eo UMPCs look pretty sweet and the one with the Pentium M gives Marc and James pause for consideration.  We would never tether our Palm Treos to our Tablets since that would violate the Terms of Service (TOS).  Marc gets a Palm Treo 700p and to his surprise finds out he now has EVDO coverage.  Can you use OneNote Mobile with a TAblet PC to help you move?  TabletKiosk is hitting the road to show off their new UMPCs.  Allegiance Technology Partners is throwing a Tablet PC Webinar soon so don't forget to sign up if you want to participate.

Links of interest from the show:

• Object Desktop 2007
• Loren Heiny chimes in on the Asus UMPC
• Asus R2H UMPC
• New TabletKiosk eo UMPCs
• PDAnet
• Cellet Treo holster
• Tablet PC Webinar

Enjoy the show and let us know what you think!

Special thanks to Tiedye Keith for the great song "Vulnerable" with vocals by Tony Lindsay of Santana.

Comments

[Dan Terrell]

Guys, welcome back! I've been a listener since day 1 and I was missing my favorite podcast.

While you were taking a hiatus, I broke down and bought a tablet. My son is one of those poor Virginia Tech freshmen who are required to get a tablet for classes. Well, the parts for his fully loaded Fujitsu T4210 started coming in and I got tablet envy. Long story short - I've now got a tc1100.

Unfortunately, I'm in the position of having a work machine (Dell Precision M60) and my tablet, which I want to use for work as well. My question for you guys is, how is the best way to keep both machines synced? I want to have everything - outlook, word files, mindmaps, onenote databases, firefox bookmarks - the same on each machine. What approaches do you take for multiple machines? What programs do you use, have used and/or have rejected?

Thanks!

Dan

[Marc Orchant]

Hi Dan - welcome to the Tabletscape. I've long since given up on attempting a complete sync between two systems. It's simply too much of a bother. What I do is create a folder that has the files I'm working on right now on a 1 GB USB memory stick. I pop that in and out of my Dell laptop and Tablet and am always working on the "right file".

Outlook sync is a bigger issue. I use an IMAP server so my e-mail is current on both devices and I use my Treo as an intermediary between the two systems, flipping the ocnduits around between "Handheld overwrites desktop" and "Desktop overwrites handheld" as appropriate.

A bit of a klude but it works.

I assume James, who does a lot more of this shuttling than I do, will have a more elegant answer for you.

[jk]

Dan, I have been using multiple devices for a long time and the combination of tools that work the best for me are rather simple. First of all, the most important thing is to keep your Outlook data synced and the best way to do that if possible is to use a hosted exchange server. They are as cheap as $5 per month and once you have it going every device you use will always be in sync with the server. There is no other way to do it cleanly, although some people have success using a program called syncpst to do it manually.

Data files are easy- use Microsoft's free service FolderShare. It is fast and elegant and will keep multiple devices in sync. You can configure any directories you want to keep synced.

Good luck!

[Denis]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the lead in SyncPST. I was looking for something just like that..

Let me return the favor. I haven't heard anyone here mention this one. A great extension for Firefox that is especially useful for Tablet users.

Clippings - you right click in any text box and it will list user-defined options to fill the text box. You can use this for commonly entered text like email addresses, usernames, passwords, form data, etc.

It's really great for use with a pen...it's great and lite!!

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1347/