New Tablet (Acer TMC204TMI) has arrived.

The new tablet has arrived.

I spent most of yesterday evening going through the initial setup. Booting the machine begins a process of installing additional Acer utilities. This took about 30 minutes. The next step was to create an Acer recovery disk. 5 cds or 1 dvd. This was another 20 minutes.

I installed Norton SystemWorks 2006 Premier. Then ZoneAlarm Security. After that, the machine would not finish booting. Luckily GoBack was enabled with SystemWorks. I was able to go back to before the ZoneAlarm install and everything is fine (except no firewall).

I then went for the Microsoft update and the SystemWorks Live Update. This ran until I went to bed. In the morning the machine had rebooted and was waiting for me.

Ghost is running now to get a point in time backup. Then the app installs begin.

Initial impressions:

Screen angle - I was worried about the angle of the screen in laptop mode. It works fine, the viewing angle is good.

The weight - at first it seemed a little heavy with the 6 cell battery, but after walking with it to a meeting, the weight is good. I think the 3 cell will reduce that somewhat. It might be good to use when I'm in 1 or 2 meetings seperated by a few hours to hold down the weight.

Overall fit and finish - very nice, the screen slides nicely, no dead pixels.

Keyboard & Trackpoint - I was concerned about the lack of a wrist rest. So far, it doesn't seem to be a problem. I prefer a trackpoint device, but after trackpads for the last year or so, I'm having trouble adjusting.

Noise & Heat - This has been a big topic on the Toshiba forums with the M400. I can hear the fan, but it is not obnoxious. It is way quieter than my Averatec (a plane taking off is quieter than my Averatec). The heat is not noticable. I would often feel that the Averatec was way too hot.

Speed - it doesn't seem blinding fast, but it is not slow.

Inking - Excellent, way better than the Averatec. I would have brief periods when the ink gods would smile on me with the Averatec, but this experience is far superior.

Ports - There seem to be enough for my needs.

Other goodies - I haven't set up the fingerprint reader yet. Soon. The little scroll wheel dealy is odd, I'm not sure of the value in it.

Crapware (coined by Warner Crocker I believe)- none that I can see. There are some OEM versions of software on the machine (NTI DVD Creator and PowerDVD), but no obnoxious ads or anything else that I noticed.

Processes running - there are quite a few Acer utilities installed, I'm not sure what is running and what isn't. I haven't really dug down into this.

Software - both tablet experience packs are installed, nothing much else. They should at least throw in One Note.

Battery - I have no idea at this point. I'll try to report back with the 3 cell and the 6 cell. I'll have to fool with the power settings some too.

Next steps - start getting the apps on. I'm debating on Office 2007 vs. 2003. I ran 2007 on the Averatec and was generally pleased with it.

Overall Out of box experience - Very good. I'm very pleased with my purchase.

More to come.

New Tablet on the Way!

I should have a new Acer TMC204TMI today or tomorrow. Unfortunately, I won't be home to take a picture of the delivery man walking up the driveway with it (a la Rob Bushway).

It is time to send the Averatec off to have some maintenance done before determining it's final fate.

Steps to setting up the new tablet.

1. back up documents on old tablet to usb hd
2. back up downloads on old tablet to usb hd
3. run belarc advisor on old tablet, create pdf copy to usb hd
4. install Partition Magic on new tablet
5. repartition tablet (100 gig drive - 5 20 gig partitions, xp boot, office & documents, apps & utilities, development and reserved for Vista Beta Boot)
6. Install SystemWorks 2006 Premier
7. Install ZoneAlarm
8. Update SystemWorks on Web
9. Run Microsoft Update
10. Ghost the boot drive to have a point in time restore
11. Burn restore to dvd
12. Copy the documents and downloads to the new tablet from the usb drive
13. reset documents folder
14. start installing the apps - MS Office first so I can get to the spreadsheet with my registration codes

This should take me a good chunk of time.

Brando Workshop Case for Nano

I just received my Brando Workshop case for my Nano. Very cool, very solid. I love the Nano, but I'm worried about damaging it. The Nano seems fragile (because of the size) and the horror stories when it first came out have me worried.

The case is aluminum. Getting the Nano in was a tight fit, but it is in there securely. It won't fit in the Nano dock anymore, but I can live with that.

http://shop.brando.com.hk/bwmetalcase_details.php?i=52