[naphtali]

Hi guys

I'm going to enter a course in information systems pretty soon, so I've started thinking about the gear that I'll bring to class everyday.

I've used both Mac and Windows OSes for many years now and am comfortable with both. While I'd definitely prefer running Leopard, I'm very curious about the benefits of the Tablet PC.

I'm not terribly neat when I take notes (some are totally illegible ), so I'll definitely want to take them electronically - either through typing or writing on the tablet.

I've narrowed my choices down to:

• Tablet: HP 2710p, Lenovo X61t, or whatever replaces them without significant drawbacks
• Mac: Next refresh of 15" MacBook Pro MacBook

What attracts me to the tablet are the ease of graph-sketching, concept maps etc.

On the Mac, I guess I'll be taking a reasonably light model, and a sketch pad to draw stuff on before redrawing on the Mac.


For those who have used Tablet PCs, how indispensable to your daily workflow has the pen functionality become? Is it compelling enough to make Windows a necessary evil? (Half in jest; please do not make this a heated Windows vs Mac debate) What do you like and hate about it?

What I gather from following Tablet PC development so far is that the note-taking functionality's really useful, but the quirks of Windows get in the way - screen orientation confusion, unreliable standby recovery etc.

I've just watched a gottabemobile video review of the Toshiba M700 and quite honestly I'm not impressed by how much fiddling is necessary for basic things.


Quite clearly, there isn't anything comparable on the Mac, not even the ModBook. The TabletPCs aren't just about their screens; it's the whole package - OneNote and the other tablet enabled applications.

I hope that Apple will release a really great tablet, but I'm not holding my breath.

[ctt1wbw]

Get a Modbook. It's a third party tablet tablet runs OS X.

[naphtali]

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw 

Get a Modbook. It's a third party tablet tablet runs OS X.

Hi ctt1wbw thanks for the reply! I'm actually aware of the Modbook and mentioned it in my post. My concern is that the tablet software on the Mac really isn't up to par with what's available on Windows.

I think this is a pretty legitimate concern that can't be shot down by the usual retort of how Windows has a thousand crappy copies of the same few applications.

Tablet-wise I'm sure that Windows is way further along than the Modbook, Mac OS X's Inkwell, and the odd tablet-enabled application. This is especially so when we look at the note-taking applications like OneNote.


That said, I really am not looking forward to using Windows unless the tablet functionality is really compelling. If I could do notetaking reasonably well on the Mac (with diagrams and all) then I'd happily forgo Windows!


What do you guys use for notetaking?

[ctt1wbw]

Good point. I've never used a Tablet PC, so I can't really say anything negative or positive about it at all. I can say that it is still Windows so therefore I will probably still hate it. I've used Windows since version 2.1 and it has sucked ever since then.

I have a new Dell laptop with Vista on it and it hardly gets use anymore. About two weeks ago I bought a Macbook Air.

And as for notes, I really don't take that many, I just use a pen and paper. But I'm using Office for the term papers and stuff like that.

Apple needs to make a Tablet or something that mixes the Newton and Leopard. Call it the Leopard Messagepad or something. Talk about a cash cow that would be.

[SirCastor]

Can you write faster than you type? I can see the value of sketching graphs and maps and what-not, but I think any teach worth his salt in this study-path is going to be putting his presentations up for download by the class. If not, then it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask for a copy. Beyond that, one of those iSight camera flippers will let you take pictures of anything you need.

Personally, I found taking a computer to classes to be a distraction rather than a help.

[ctt1wbw]

No way, man. Looking at porn while the comp 1 prof is talking is the bomb.

[Geofries]

Note taking in class is over rated, but not altogether un-useful. Don't buy a tablet pc though for notes, you will seriously regret it. Your teacher will probably have downloadable power points, and if he doesn't, probably isnt going to draw a ton of graphs and what not. And you can not write faster than you can type, so yeah.

[Cold Warrior]

Get a Mac notebook. That's my vote.

[slpdLoad]

Get a ModBook and run XP in Parallels alongside Leopard.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by naphtali 

I'm going to enter a course in information systems pretty soon, so I've started thinking about the gear that I'll bring to class everyday.
...I'm very curious about the benefits of the Tablet PC.
...I'm not terribly neat when I take notes (some are totally illegible ), so I'll definitely want to take them electronically - either through typing or writing on the tablet.
...What attracts me to the tablet are the ease of graph-sketching, concept maps etc.
...I guess I'll be taking a reasonably light model, and a sketch pad to draw stuff on before redrawing on the Mac.
...What I gather from following Tablet PC development so far is that the note-taking functionality's really useful, but the quirks of Windows get in the way - screen orientation confusion, unreliable standby recovery etc.
...I've just watched a gottabemobile video review of the Toshiba M700 and quite honestly I'm not impressed by how much fiddling is necessary for basic things..

Very, very few students use the workflow you describe. Not to say that you may not be on to a good workflow for you, but frankly it sounds like a radical approach to just jump into. If you do need typing to compensate for sloppy note taking I would think a good laptop keyboard would be the way to go. A very few students do take live notes in class that way and a fast touch typist can pay attention to a lecture and still type.

As a grad student I always used the very latest tech. However IMO trying to become fully dependent on an untried new tablet sounds like a bad idea. I would instead recommend a laptop and a digital camera for screenshots of blackboards if you find paper sketching unfeasible.

-Allen Wicks

[mduell]

You want all your notes typed. Scribble-to-text conversions are still way less than perfect and leaving it as just scribbles is nearly useless (not searchable!). There are some places where tablets make sense, but written notes isn't one of them.

Use pen and paper for your sketches, then scan/photograph and insert into your notes. Or do a little doodle in a graphics app.

[idykenano]

I have used OneNote on a compaq laptop (not tablet) when I was stuck with XP, now that I have broken back out to MacOS I use Circus Ponies Notebook. They have a free trial, I reccomend giving it a shot before going the Vista route. Here's a link:
NoteBook - Organization for a creative mind

As a side note, typing in class is no big deal, and a lot of my professors put notes online, especially powerpoints in pdf form. If you can pick up a cheap license to Acrobat, you can type your own notes in on the sides of the slides with the lines (power point, 3 slides per page, is a popular option with professors). Out of curiousity, what is your major?

[naphtali]

@Allen - Good point! Can't write neatly when I'm in a mad rush to keep up so typing is definitely better. Was intrigued by the workflows of some of the folks at tabletpcbuzz, student tablet pc blog etc - annotating, drawing etc seemed so easy with the pen. And trust me, some of them are even more extreme - ripping up their books, scanning each page to a PDF so they can annotate.

@mduell - As such, I'll probably do it your way, typing and separately scanning diagrams and charts. Hopefully Apple will come up with some sort of tablet functionality to eliminate the need to redraw stuff. Again, I'm not holding my breath, just wishing really hard.

@idykenano Great tip! I checked out the site and all 7 demo videos and really like what I see! Will definitely give it a try. I'll be doing information systems management, which is kind of like business + application of IT, and I hope either to do a double degree or an accelerated masters. I'm not sure yet about the lecture notes; there seems to be a strong emphasis on self-study and project work so there's a good chance I'll be generating most of the notes myself - hence the anxiety to scope out a good workflow now

The place is quite a Windows shop, .asp here and there, Exchange, Windows Media streaming for campus radio and stuff. Plus they seem to be recommending tablets quite a bit (though quick look at library shows just about 1/3 tablet users), so I was wondering if it were worth venturing to the dark side for the pen.

I'm now more confident of getting a Mac notebook as I really wished to Thanks!!

If you guys have any more suggestions on necessary programs/tech/workflows please keep them coming! Will be happy to explore them