Gateway $100,000 Edge Contest

Got an idea for a new business? Does it involve Tablet PCs? Want $100,000? Checkout this contest from Gateway, Microsoft, Intel, and Forbes:

Gateway $100,000 Edge Contest

1.) Describe your idea in one sentence.
2.) Describe the expected Return on Investment and impact in one sentence.
3.) Describe your customers and why they would buy your product or service in one sentence.
4.) Describe how the new Gateway Convertible Notebook will give your idea the edge.

Limit your entire entry to 200 words

Judging criteria:

i. Overall quality, creativity, & originality of idea submitted
ii. How much difference winning the $100,000 would make to fulfilling the idea
iii. Potential return on investment – how quickly would the $100,000 prize make a difference
iv. How would winning the Gateway Convertible Notebook computer give the winner an edge

Via Loren

Eric’s paperless planning map

Eric has created a great mind map on the challenges and potential solutions to his paperless challenge. If anyone is considering this type of endeavor, I’d encourage you to check out his map. You will be prompted to install the mindmanager viewer.

New Tablet PC extensions for Firefox

Olga of Tabletology.com points us to new a Gecko TIP extension  which provides Tablet PC input support for Firefox and Thunderbird

The Student Tablet PC – a new home

The Student Tablet PC has gotten some new digs. Update your RSS feeds with this new address – www.studenttabletpc.com

Congratulations, Tracy.

Simplicity from Tablet PCs is needed

Loren wishes that Tablet PCs were even more paper like. I agree.

As I’ve been trying to catch up with 4 weeks of work the past week, I’ve been doing a lot of notetaking on paper. Why? Several reasons:

• I sold my LE1600 for funding reasons and the Gateway M280 I’ve been using has had pre-production pen issues, thus I’ve not been able to use tablet pc functionality for several weeks. As a result, I’ve pretty much been using a laptop and a notepad.
• I’ve had to whittle things down to the bear necessities the past month. Living in the hospital for 3 weeks had a lot to do with that.
• While working, I’ve found it easier to look down at my notes on paper while glancing back up to my computer . Going back to paper, I’ve found several things that I’ve really missed about the simplicity of regular pen and paper notetaking.

Once I’m able to get full pen functionality going on a tablet pc, I have no doubt that I’ll be back full force with digital ink notetaking. However, I’m beginning to grasp the simplicity of keeping some things seperated and not being totally digitally oriented. Tablet PCs are making a lot of headway, but we still have a long way to go to keeping it simple and effortless.

One of the lessons that going slate taught me: it complicated my life. Too much to worry about. I needed guarantees and no worries, especially with the constant back and forth in the hospital. Although convertibles are a little heavier, there is less worry about what you have and don’t have to be productive.

Just a couple of late night thoughts from someone who has had too much coffee on a Sunday.

My church’s sermons as a podcast

I was pleased to find out tonight that www.SermonAudio.com, has activated a feature to allow podcast subscriptions to the sermons that it hosts. My church has been using their services for quite a while, so having access to our sermons via podcasts will be very beneficial. In addition to subscribing to them via iTunes, I have added the RSS feed to my RSS Reader, Onfolio.

 

The Student Tablet PC: Acrobat Commenting

Tracy , StudentTabletPC.com offers a solution to Eric Mack’s highlight summary application that he posted about last month.

Very good work, Tracy. I honestly didn’t know that Acrobat had that built in. Now, if Acrobat would offer true inking support….

Oliver – any chance of building the commenting and highlighting in to PDF Annotator?

Does Fujitsu get a fair shake in the Tablet PC Community?

I’ll be honest: Fujitsu has never risen to the top of the systems I consider when recommending Tablet PCs to customers and community folks. The thing is, I don’t really know why it doesn’t rise above the TC4200, M200, or Thinkpad X41. Their convertible tablets have a fantastic round up of features and are the only ones I know of that offer a 12”, sxga, extended battery support, and built-in CD / dvd support,. They also offer the xga with wide viewing angles. Bottom line: they offer a great deal of configuration options to get where you need to go – almost to the point of taking the best of all the other OEMs and making those options available in a single T4000 convertible.

Plus, they are the only OEM (that I’m aware of) that offer both convertibles and slates. Their slates are very well  balanced, wide screen, and also offer extended  battery.

 

 

So you want to get a Tablet PC

James from JKOnTheRun posts a ‘reprint” of an article in which he reviews the types of tablet pcs out there and then walks you through how to find the right type of tablet pc to fit your work style.

Where the decision now gets difficult is the wonderful mix of convertibles out there: high res / xga, extended battery / regular battery only, 14” / 12” …..the good thing is that we have much more choices available to us now. Typically, if you want a CD ROM, you’ll be getting a 14”.

The closest that gets to meeting a combination of high res, 12”, CD ROM, and extended battery is the Fujitsu T4000 Tablet PC. The only thing I don’t like about the Fujitsu is that it doesn’t have a Track Stick.

OnTheRun with Tablet PCs #1- Warner Crocker interview

I have not listened to the podcast yet, but when I saw that Warner Crocker was the special guest, I quickly started the download. Looking forward to this relaunch and Warner’s interview.

jkOnTheRun: OnTheRun with Tablet PCs #1- Warner Crocker interview

OnTheRun with Tablet PCs is the podcast all about ink and slate and show #1 is the inaugural effort of James Kendrick and Marc Orchant. This show features a special guest- the newest Tablet PC MVP Warner Crocker and covers a range of topics about the Tablet PC. Marc fills us in on his decision to order the new Gateway Tablet PC and Warner discusses how he uses his Tablet PC in his job at the Wayside Theatre. It is a great show and we hope you enjoy OnTheRun with Tablet PCs.