Story: Tablet PCs on slow dissolve

Posted by: Timothy Tripp (Tuesday 8 June 2004, 7:30 PM)

Having just recently bought (last month) a Toshiba M205 Tablet/Convertable, I agree with the content (if not the title) of this article. When Windows first came out, not everyone had a mouse. They could have put out a special version called "Windows Mouse Edition" which would basically be what they've done with the Tablet PCs. It wouldn't be a bad thing at all to bring the Tablet features into the core OS (especially when you consider service packs, which they have thankfully synchronized between different editions). The author's mention of Windows for Workgroups is spot-on. It was only when it was added to the core OS that workgroups became common-place. That same thing will be true with pen interface.

There are MANY things I would not do without now that I've used them. The ability to brainstorm in an organized way (One Note) and the ability to mark up Word documents (or for that matter, ANY document - you can print from any program inot the built-in Journal, then draw on the result on-screen). This is also the first form-factor (tablet mode) that MSReader is actually a viable alternative to a paperback book (and the ability to look up word definitions is a very nice feature).

In all, it's a notebook with a lot of very nice features that notebooks without touch screens can't offer. You may not want to use every feature I do, and you may use others that I don't. Having the features is worth (to me) the extra $200-$300 you'll spend to get them.

BTW: The exact model I bought is the Toshiba M205-S810.