Blog:: Craig Pringle

Introducing the TC4400

I’ve been evaluating a pre-production version of the TC4400 for the last few weeks.  In addition to the usual poking and prodding I’ve used the TC4400 in anger for the last week or so because my beloved TC1100 became a bit unstable.  

Those who know me may be wondering how I’ve managed to keep this a secret for this long.  Sure – posted a couple of teases but I kept the cat firmly in the bag.  How is that possible when I am by nature a person who is passionate about gizmos, gadgets and especially tablets?  Well to be honest it was greatly helped by the fact that the TC4400 is, well, not all that exciting really.  While it has some good features and some points that need improvement there is nothing in particular that I’ve been dying to share.

In this post I’ll give you a visual tour and then drill down into the good and bad points.

An overview…

Lets have a look at the TC4400.

Firstly on the front edge there are four lights.  These are Wireless, power on, charging and disk activity.  There is also both a touch pad and stick type pointing devices, so you can use which ever you prefer.  The touch pad features an area down the right side that behaves like a scroll wheel.

The left side (when in laptop mode) includes a power button, a button to enable and disable wireless, a button that launches the HP info centre and a USB port.  There is also a cable lock connector and a sizable vent.

On the right there is a powered USB port, audio in and out ports, a PCMCIA slot and a S.D./MMC card reader.

On the back (when in laptop mode, pictured here in slate mode) there is another USB port, a RJ11 modem port, RJ45 LAN 10/100/1000 LAN port, power, VGA and S-video port.

The Good

·         The screen:  The viewing angle and the brightness are pretty good.  It is an XGA screen though, so the resolution is 1024x768.

·         The Swivel:  The hinge has a good solid feel to it and moves smoothly.

·         USB Connectors:  The three USB ports are on three different sides of the machine.  Personally I like this on a machine – when all the ports are jammed next to each other it can be hard to plug in multiple items – especially if you have a fat USB key.

·         The latch:  The latch is magnetic and works very well.  As you close the lid the magnet pulls a little metal latch into position and it locks securely.  This is one of the better latches I have seen on a convertible.

·         Charge indicators on the batteries: I’m a big fan of this feature.  You press a button and it tells you how charged the battery is. 

·         The stylus: It has a since feel to it. It is slightly shorter than a standard pen, but it has a nice weight to it.

The Bad

There are some features that are really not great.  Here’s the run down of some of areas that could be improved.  The really annoying thing is that many of these issues have been carried forward from the TC4200.

·         Extended battery connector cover: There is a sliding cover over the extended battery connector on the bottom of the unit that really bugs me.  There is not a very strong positive lock on this cover, which means that if you so much as nudge it the cover will move.  I found that when I use or carry the tablet in slate mode I frequently end up with a fingertip on this cover.  When it slides the whole tablet moves and I almost dropped it once as a direct result of this.  This design flaw exists in the TC4200 as well.  If I actually owned the unit I would get a screwdriver out and pop this cover off quick smart.

·         Hardware buttons covered up in slate mode:  There are seven physical hardware buttons and three soft buttons on the TC4400.  Four of the seven hardware buttons are covered up when you spin the tablet into slate mode.  The covered buttons include the presentation button, the mute button and the volume up and down controls.  Hardware buttons are useful in slate mode – why on earth cover them up?  I actually got caught out when I resumed the tablet in slate mode in a meeting, thinking it was muted and I got the resume noise really loud.  Oops.  I’d like to see more hardware buttons accessible in slate mode.  This was also a problem with the TC4200.

·         The Q-menu button is a soft button.:  What were they thinking?  As a long time TC1100 user I love the fact that I can bring up the Q-menu and mute the tablet, adjust the brightness, standby, hibernate and more using nothing more than the hardware button and the jog dial on the side.   With the TC4400 you have to use the stylus to activate the soft buttons, so you need to get the stylus out, tap the button and then you may as well use the stylus to tap the icon in the menu – the jog dial is a bit useless.

·         Square edges:  The edges of the TC4400 are not at all rounded.  This make it a bit uncomfortable to hold in slate mode.

·         Heat:  The bottom of the unit gets quite warm when it is in use.  I found it got to the point of being uncomfortable to use in your lap in both slate mode and tablet mode.  It also gets quite warm in standby mode – don’t put it in a bag in standby, even for a short time.  It will go into thermal shutdown.

·         The plug:  All of the HP tablets and laptops my wife and I have had in the past have used exactly the same power supply.  This is a handy thing because if you invest in an additional power supply you can keep it when you upgrade.  The power supply on the TC4400 is the same voltage, ampage and polarity but they have changed the connector so you can’t use your old power supply that is right in every other way.  Very disappointing.

Conclusion

The TC4400 is not bad, but it fails to dazzle.  A cursory search on Froogle seems to indicate that the TC4400 will be a similar price to the other Core Duo tablet on the market – the Toshiba M400.  I prefer the Toshiba M400 – you can find my review of that tablet here.

OK - for the last 6 weeks or so I have been testing a pre-preoduction model of a new tablet.  Now I can tell you what it is. Here's the badge:

I'm putting the final touches on the review now so you'll be able to read all about it soon.

My poor little TC1100 has developed some pretty weird issues - but I can't say that I am surprised.  I've been installing and uninstalling all sorts of software - much of it beta - for the last few months.  I've swapped over to the secret tablet for now and will be using that until I get time to rebuild the TC1100.  I promise to post a full review once the NDA is lifted.

In the interim I have the secret tablet running Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005, Office 2007 Beta 1 Technical Refresh, IE7 Beta 2, Active Words, Mind Manager Pro and more.

Time for another Tablet PC User Group meeting – and another speaker coming from overseas!  This time around we are going to be joined by leading Aussie tablet blogger Hugo Ortega.  Hugo is a passionate tablet advocate, distributes TabletKiosk slates and has recently been appointed the official blogger for CeBit Austrialia – which is happening this week.

Should be an interesting session – not only will Hugo be able to give us an update on the happenings from CeBit but as if that is not enough he will have a TabletKiosk EO Ultra Mobile PC to show off as well.  The EO is one of the first UMPCs (aka Origami) devices to hit the market since the much hyped launch of the platform a couple of months ago.  To my knowledge this will be your first opportunity to see one up close in New Zealand.

Needless to say we will wrap up the meeting with some pizzas and a couple of beers – and a couple of prize draws. 

When:  6:00-8:00pm Thursday, May 18^th

Where: **Different Location**

Gen-i

L2, Gen-i Tower

109 Featherston Street

RSVP to TUGRSVP@pringle.net.nz

Look forward to seeing you there.

I seem to have exceeded my monthly download limit and my broadband connection has been throttled back to dial-up speeds - ouch!  :(  That's the terms of the plan I selected - I would rather be throttled than hit with a hefty excess usage bill.

It's my own fault for not monitoring my usage.  Downloading 2 different Vista builds in this billing cycle was enough to push me well over the edge.  Oh well - my billing cycle ends on Monday - I'm sure I can cope for 2 days.  After all I do have an EVDO card as well :)

Nathan Mercer has posted details for Vista and Office 2007 Technical training sessions being held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. 

"The Connect ’06 Technical Training Sessions are coming to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland during May:

Wellington – 11th May – Intercontinental

Christchurch – 17th May – Grand Chancellor

Auckland – 22nd May – Sky City

Agenda, registration and more info at www.microsoft.co.nz/techsessions

The event is completely FREE, but you must register.

Checkout the event agenda here and also the event technical content here."

Nathan is one of the presenters so it should be a good day.  If you are going to the Wellington session - see ya there!

Fellow Tablet MVP Tracy Hooten has her hands on quite a collection of Tablet PCs. 

"Thanks to the good folks at the University of Texas at Austin, I had a Motion LE1600 and an HP 4200 in my hands to demo this past week. Sahara was also nice enough to send me a demo i215. So this week I had my M200, my mom's Gateway M275, my uncle's Motion M1400, and three demo units. What to do, what to do....? Comparison time! I'll also put in my thoughts about the three demo units I get to play with."

Tracy has posted a great comparison including the Sahara i215, the HP tc4200 and the Motion Computing LE1600.  For good measure she also throws in some great info on the convertible keyboard for the LE1600.  Lots of photos and a couple of great little flash videos, wrapped up in insightful commentry - a great read.

Michael Linenberger's first book - Seize the Work Day - Using the Tablet PC to Take Total Control of your Work and Meeting Day has finally arrived.  I ordered it on the 2nd of February and it finally arrived, after being delayed three times, on April 28th!  Allow me to point to my open letter to anyone who writes a book....

Anyway I really enjoyed Michael's second book, Total Workday Control, so I am looking forward to this book.

I finished How to do Everything with your TabletPC last night.  I have to say - it was a good book.  By that I mean at the time it was published it was a good book, but it is a bit too dated now.  It was interesting from a historical perspective though - sometimes I forget how far we have come. 

I would love to see an updated version released for Vista, but unless that happens I don't think I would recommend it.

Back in February I posted a review of the fablulous Toshiba M400.  I then had three attempts at installing Vista and trying to get the Aero Glass effects working.

Take 1 was a clean install with build 5270.  The build used the Standard VGA driver so there was no glass.

Take 2 was a clean install of build 5308.  No glass.

Take 3 was an inplace upgrade of XP with build 5308.  Nice try, but still no glass.

Today I managed to get hold of a Toshiba M400 again for a short period of time.  I also managed to get hold of a "Pre-Alpha" version of the WDDM driver for the M400.  After installing it I can confirm that Aero Glass effects do run on the M400.  I can also confirm that it is very, very pretty :)  The experience is pretty good, though there is some flickering in some situations - but hey it's not even beta yet!

Clearly I have no control over whether this driver ever gets released, if it will be released with Vista, or if it will be released before/after Vista.  I would hope that it will release with Vista.  When it is released M400 owners will be able to enjoy Glassy Vista Goodness.  Till then here is a screenshot of Glass running on an M400.  Notice how the sidebar (down the right) is transparent, too?  Click on the image for a full size version...

What else is in Vista for tablet users?  I wrote a post about just that - check it out here.

A final note - I will not redistribute the driver to anyone, so please don't ask.

Darin Gray has authored a very detailed review of the beautiful Nutshell case for the HP TC4200 (with extended battery).

You may not be aware that Nutshell is a New Zealand company.  I know they are looking to make cases for other tablets because I've been helping to put them in touch with a few vendors.  I'm not going to say which ones but I look forward to seeing what they produce.

If you use a Tablet PC you may be wondering what is in the pending operating system for you.  In this post I’ll be looking at some of the features in Windows Vista that tablet users will appreciate.   I’m going to focus on the pen friendly features in this post.  That said Tablet PCs are mobile PCs and I’ll be looking at features for mobile users in another post in the near future.

The Snipping Tool

I’ll start with the snipping tool because I’m going to be using it for all the screenshots I take.  Existing tablet users will know and love the snipping tool from the Tablet PC Experience Pack.  For Vista the tool has been revamped  somewhat.  The first time you run the Snipping  Tool you are asked if you want to add it to your quick launch bar.  This is a good idea and I would recommend it – if you  change your mind you can always toggle it on or off in the options menu later.

 The way the snipping tool works has changed in Vista.  In XP when you activated the Snipping tool a screen overlay appeared along with some controls docked down by the start bar.  You selected what you wanted, added you ink in situ and then selected to save, copy or email the snip.

In the Vista version when you snip you get the overlay and this dialog:

You then select what you want using one of the 4 selection tools (freeform, rectangle, window or screen) and the snip is immediately copied to this editing window.  You then add your markup and save, copy or email the snip.

One gripe I have is that the default save format is “single file HTML” or MHT.  It does not seem that you can change this default and I almost always want it as an image (GIF or JPG).

Pen Interaction

There are a number of enhancements that provide a better experience when interacting with the OS with a pen.  Foremost among these is the Pen Flicks feature.

Pen Flicks are quick little gestures that can be assigned actions.  The act of flicking is like quickly drawing a line in one of eight directions.  It is important that the line is straight and that the motion is brisk.

The default setting is to enable only navigational flicks as shown below.

You can also enable editing flicks.

If you want to get really tricky you can customise the flicks – just click on the drop down next to one of the actions and select Add.  You can then give your action a name and specify the key combination.

If you need some guidance I recommend going through the Pen Flick training – just right click on the Pen Flick icon in the system tray.

Another great feature is the multi-select feature in Windows Explorer.  Basically each icon has a small checkbox next to it.  You can simply check multiple boxes to select multiple files.  Anyone who uses a slate will appreciate this!  You can also use the box in the top left corner (by the Name column) to select all.

The last pen-friendly feature I’ll point out is another thing that long time tablet users will like.  In IE there is now a panning tool.  Click the little hand and you can drag the page up and down with the tip of the pen.  (a panning tool is also included in Office 2007 applications – but that is another story.)

Updated Tablet Input Panel

I love the way that the new Tablet Input Panel (TIP) hides.  When not in use the TIP docks at the side of the screen with just a wee sliver visible.  Best of all you can dock this at any height on either side of the screen.

When you move the pen over the sliver a tab pops out.  Tapping on the tab causes the TIP to slide out.

The text entry experience is very familiar.  There are the same three options as there are in Windows XP Tablet Edition – Writing pad, Character Pad and on screen keyboard.  When you start using it you notice there are some pretty cool differences.  One of these is AutoComplete.  For example if you are writing a URL using the TIP it will pull up suggestions from the browser history and display this above the TIP like this – before you insert the text.  Saves heaps of time.

In the options there is a tab that lets you configure how the TIP opens and docks.  I turned off the animation that has the TIP slide out from the docked position.  Now it just appears and the experience is much smoother.

There is also an advanced tab where you can specify password security settings such as defaulting to the keyboard for password input or even requiring it.

The main enhancement for pen users is the ability to personalise your handwriting.  This is done via the TIP Tools menu.  You can target specific handwriting errors or go through training sessions (ala speech recognition).

In conclusion…

The good news?  All these features make for a much smoother experience on a tablet than the one we had with Windows XP Tablet Edition.  And the even better news?  I’m not done yet – Tablets are mobile PCs and I have another whole post planned on What’s In Vista for Mobile Users.

The bad news?  It’s not out yet!