New Tablet PC
This past Tuesday (August 16) I went to Best Buy to look at Tablet PCs. Tablet PCs are like notebook/laptop computers, but the screen swivels and folds down with the screen facing upwards, allowing you to write directly on the screen with a special pen. Windows XP Tablet Edition's support for ink (hand-writing) recognition is rather impressive, as the first demo on this page shows. The killer app that I want is Microsoft OneNote, which is like a one-in-all piece of software for thing everything from random notes to drawings to song lyrics to basic recordings. I intend to use it as I work on new worship songs.
Tablet PCs are still difficult to find and Best Buy only had one model for sale (this one). Since they have a 14-day return policy with no questions asked, I decided to go ahead and try it out. Unfortunately, at the price of $3050 with a 3-year warranty and taxes, it's more than I want to spend.
Fortunately, Best Buy also has a Price Guarantee. If you can find the same item advertised elsewhere within 30 days of purchase, you can go back to Best Buy and they'll refund you the 110% of the difference so that their price is lower than the competition. When I was researching prices yet again this past week, I also looked at Future Shop online but they didn't have any tablet PCs at all. My dad, bless his heart, looked at Future Shop again after I made my purchase and he found a new listing. The end result is that I got a refund for $434 from Best Buy because Future Shop's price was $300 lower, once the taxes and the lower warranty price were factored in.
As my sister will testify, there just ain't nothing like a tablet pc. Very cool.
2 comments:
I was at the Terrys yesterday and Joel was playing with the tablet for about an hour. He experimented with two different drawing programs that came with it and he was impressed.
"It's just like paper." If that's not a glowing review from an artist, I don't know what is. It can overlap colours on top of one another in layers and it senses if you're vaguely sketching or if you're pressing firmly for a solid line. He was more than a little impressed.
I bought the Fujitsu Lifebook T4010D about six months ago and couldn't be happier. There is nothing better than pen-based computing in a cafe, home on the couch, in the laundrymat, outside on the deck and on and on...
Just thought I'd throw in some additional cheer from another very happy Inkling. Congratulations on your tablet purchase! :)
You can find me here: Inklings and Impressions
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