Toshiba Tablet PC review (and what’s good to load on a new machine)

So as mentioned, I’ ordered and received my Toshiba Tablet PC,

well it’s here! I want to be careful of what I load so it stays light, mean and useful.

Its loaded with a CD-R/DVD, loads of RAM and power, built in thumb print scanner and SD card reader. Best of all, a wonderful stylus that allows me to draw on the screen. It just rocks.

The thumb print scanner seemed useless, until I realized that my ridiculously long password is a thing of the past, I just need to swipe my finger,, I’m starting to like that convenience.

As for the stylus control, it could be a tad tighter, but it’s still miles better than even the best Wacom pad (trust me, I’ve been using them for years!)

The SD card reader being built in is just great, it’s already saved me from having to go home with loaded cards, I just blast em in there and keep taking pictures!

Here is the software I’ve loaded so far (you have to keep reading). My list is the standard Adobe design batch (Illustrator/Photoshop), Rhino, and SolidWorks. Ahh Solidworks, (I’ve got an older version).

As for the rest of it, the machine comes with Microsoft’s OneNote, it makes the tablet ROCK! With OneNote writing, notetaking, and general document/sketching is just like using an actual notebook, only it’s organized and useful, (if you like that sort of thing).

Oh yeah, and everything from here down is a FREE download! (yes, we’ll roughly call it the Fred’s coolest gadgets list’O magic software).

I’m also going to load Open Office, because,, it works great, and does almost everything Office does.

Skype, because I want to talk.

Google Earth, because I can’t live without it (sheepishly I note I use the Google screensaver from their pack).

iTunes,, because my iPod sucks without it and I love podcasts (will we do one? will I do one? Who knows?!)

Convert (because it has all the conversions and it works really well!)

PDF Creator, (make .pdfs for gosh sakes,, open source of course.

Let me know what I’ve missed. What are your suggestions?

A special thanks again to the gang at Allegiance Technology Partners! They’re the best when it comes to tablet and convertible notebooks. Ask for John or the new guy Hal. They’re great! (thanks again guys).

Some of you with very little outdoor lives may have noticed that I’ve been a little light on posting s lately, trade shows are a drag and take a bunch of time, sometimes, they’re not even blog-worthy (yes, that dull).

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5 Comments on “Toshiba Tablet PC review (and what’s good to load on a new machine)”

Winkyboy Says:

Not sure why you install Convert… Sure, it’s free - but you can just search for “online {currency, length, etc.} conversion” and there are a handful of websites out there that will also do this, for free. Then you don’t even have to install anything.

I also recommend (that is, I install on my new machines):

- FolderShare (now Microsoft) for synchronization
- Google Desktop
- Google Docs (not even bothering to install OpenOffice)
- SnagIt($)
- ClipMate($)
- AnyDVD+DVDMobile($) for ripping DVDs to my PDA
- Firefox (plus Yoono for bookmarks)
- SuperC for video conversion (nice!)
- Audacity (which I mainly use to make custom ringtones
- ColorPad (color sampling; hard to find now)
- TrueLaunchBar (plus it lets me create my own Win+ shortcuts)
- TweakUI (Microsoft)
- Textpad($) or Notepad++ (free)
- Real Alternative
- Quicktime Alternative
- Foxit (PDF Reader; others say it’s free, but it seems to cost, now)
- VoipStunt (because I like to talk for less $ than Skype)
- Meebo (to have all my IM’s without installing anything)

There’s others, but that’s a great bundle of good stuff right there.

Fred Says:

Thanks Winkyboy (should we ask of the moniker?)

Yeah I’ve got a few you listed there.
in terms of Convert, I’m not always online when doing work, it’s a really well done program, and it is always there no matter the connection speed. I’m an industrial designer, and well, there’s a lot of math (not hard, but things need to be converted every once in a while and, well, it is a great way to get that done, plus it is free and effective). Josh Madison is the one who did it.

I OF COURSE run Firefox (haven’t explorer’d in years) and I do run a bunch of the software you listed as well (I just hit the high points.)
I love Meebo (in browser only of course), Colorpad, and I run del.icio.us (I’ve been using them since well before they were bought by Yahoo).

Also, I run Mozy for backup, I pay for there unlimited service on my home machine and I have the free service on this tablet Lappy.

I tried the Tweak UI (still loaded) but I’m not to into that level of tweaking, I prefer to do work on it and not mess with things, same with truelaunch, I had it on another machine and simply just set up a few hotkeys and learned the shortcuts. It keeps the system as light as possible. I’m all about keeping the taskbar visible and putting everything in the quick launch menu so I don’t have to go through the start button for anything. It makes it easy with the stylus or a mouse.

I’m looking to get a bluetooth mouse next, look for that post soon.

Winkyboy Says:

Winkyboy is just a silly name I thought up on the fly in ‘93 for a round of Marathon with some friends. I played well that day, so it stuck.

re: Convert - not… online… I see the two words together but it’s not making sense! Just kidding - that actually does make sense to install it, in that case.

I’ve never tried Moby for auto-backup. I was thinking of buying CrashPlan since it won’t require a subscription. I HAD a subscription to Carbonite until about a week ago, but I should really share the story there: I felt good about the unlimited auto-backup I got from them - until I actually needed to restore some files, and couldn’t. They apologized nicely and even refunded my money, but my files are still gone. After this, I did more searching around and found that there are others to whom this has happened, too.

Note: FolderShare is *NOT* good enough for backups; it will not support backing up of folders with more than 10,000 files (I’ve tried).

I use TweakUI for one or two very specific things, but I consider them practically essential, when I need them. I recall offhand that I really like the Windows auto-logon ability, even though I do understand the security problems of having auto-logon.

Oh, and I just learned JUST now that I will have to install at least Open Office. I received an attached .DOC file from a client that is over 1 meg in size and tried opening it in Google Docs; GD only supports 500Kb - who knew. *update: ugh! This document won’t even open in OpenOffice; I have to actually use Word. bleargh. Looks like the document’s packed with images.

I’m VERY curious to see what bluetooth mouse you go with. Note: Avoid Microsoft hardware in general. That’s my opinion. Also let us know what you intend to do with the mouse, specifically if you test it with a game or not. Please, of course

One last thing! (Dang, I’m chatty right now) I also use and love Filemenu Tools - it allows you to tweak date/time settings, open a command prompt from any folder, batch rename files using wildcards and patterns, synch folders, add/remove other files’ context menu options, all sorts of stuff.

goobob Says:

Take a look at the PowerToys for Tablet PC from microsoft. There’s a great make your own font tool. And consider PDF Annotator ($39). You should also download the current tablet driver from Wacom to enhance the quality of the pressure sensitive pen.
If you really like the sketching, look at Alias Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk.

Fred Says:

Winkyboy:
Funny on the name!

I”ll check out filemenu tools.

FYI its http://www.mozy.com (you noted moby, didn’t want you to get lost).

GooBob: I love Alias Sketchbook, I’ve played with the demo, but I’m going to wait until I have money to toss around to get it. I do have the free version of Artrage, which is actually pretty darn close to the Alias sketchbook software, and I need to pony up the $20 for their full version that does nearly everything that Alias sketchbook does (though I would rather have alias sketchbook, at 1/10th the price, you really can’t beat it!)

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