Dorko's Comments on Paperless Challenge Podcast 2

Well I know the Podcast from the Paperless challenge was posted a few days ago but I have just been so busy. I also see that Tracy from Student Tablet PC has also had the same problem and has even taken a much needed break from her duties on the student tablet PC blog but I am sure Andrew and Trevor will continue to keep the site going while Tracy recharges her batteries. I myself may fall into the same problem as classes are starting to really pick up and I really need to dedicate more of my time to my studies than blogging about my Tablet PC. Anyways since it has been so long I decided to just sit down and write something. I may not be able to post every day now but at the very least should be able to post at least once a week. So after that let's move on to my comments from the latest paperless challenge podcast.

First off like the first podcast this was yet another enjoyable one to listen to and again I would like to thank Eric and Tracy for taking the time to talk about their adventure as its a lot of work to do so.

Since it has been a couple of days since I last listened to the podcast I guess I will only able to comment on what I remember unless I have some time to go back and listen to it again. The first thing that I really remember them talking about is Eric and his experience with OneNote and its audio syncing capabilities. As I did in my article A Semester with OneNote, I once again would just like to say how absolutely cool this feature really is. It's my absolute favorite feature of OneNote and was of the important things that steered me away from GoBinder. I tried to use small mp3 recording programs but I never found one that was small and would not freeze up during class. Also these lecture were never synced with my notes so unless I jotted down the time something was said I would have to scan through a lot of the recording.

They also mention battery life in the beginning and this is an important feature I stress when other students ask for suggestions from me about which tablet they should look into. Your not always going to be able to sit next to an outlet, at least at my school, so making sure a computer is going to die halfway through your class is very key. I even have to stretch the limits of my own battery on days I have 5.5 hours of classes back to back and my tablet does not get time to charge. This is one of the reasons I went with the IBM/Lenovo Tablet since it was known to have one of the best batteries in the business. They originally proclaimed 7.5 hours but I think that is not the general consensus at least on Tablet PC buzz. I myself with max battery settings can get about 6 hours which is on the high end. If a single battery isn't going to last you over 4 hours on a single charge I definitely recommend you pick up a second one with your tablet purchase. If I had the money I know I would still pick up one even with my excellent battery life but since I have it configured to last so long it just it not a requirement for me. They also mention having an extra AC adapter on hand and again if you do have the option to plug in during or between classes. On long days at school where I am at school from 10am to 9PM or days I know I am going to be able to go to the library and study I also bring my AC adapter. Again my tablet can usually make it a whole day and also the fact I live relatively close to school that if I did somehow forget it, it would not be the end of the world for me.

Also speaking of extra accessories to consider an extra stylus may be something to consider. With a convertible tablet it is certainly not going to be a life shattering crisis if you forget it but it is certainly going to take away your tablet function and in a class like Organic Chemistry or Calculus where I use my tablet function 100% of the time it would indeed be a very big deal. I received a very nice Cross executive Pen for Christmas and I surely recommend this pen to anyone that would like maybe a bigger, heavier more sophisticated pen if your tablet only comes with a small one like mine. I know the gateway comes with a very nice pen so this may be not better than the one that is equipped with that unit but for me it really makes a difference. So I have the pen the slides into my tablet and my Cross pen which supplies with an extra pen at all times. I also filled out a survey from Lenovo and received an extra pen from them that I store around my desk. They also send me an extra one for some reason which gives me a total of 4 pens so I feel fairly safe in the pen department but if you don't have at least one extra one yourself I suggest you pick up one.

They also briefly talked about the hibernate feature a brief and I find it important to mention this feature myself. Maybe not so much the hibernation feature since I myself had some problems with it but the stand-by feature has been a huge saver. My computer, X41 tablet, is notorious for its slow hard-drive and boot up times. It sometimes takes me 5 minutes to just load up into windows and I have many things disabled. To deal with this issue I constantly use stand-by throughout the day. After class I'll put it in standby. Place into my bag, walk across campus to my next class and then open it up and take it out of standby in less than 5 seconds. This is a real time saver for me and his been incredibly reliable with no loss of date or freeze ups between travels. It's a feature I never really used before I had a laptop that I took to class everyday but is definitely a feature everyone should at least experiment with.

Now many other important issues were discussed but since it has been several days since I last listed to the podcast the things mentioned above are the things that I seem to remember and relate to the most. I look forward to the next podcast and again would like to Thank Tracy and Eric for their hard work!

*Also note I am typing on a new keyboard that I picked up and its one of those Microsoft Natural keyboards so it is taking a little getting use to so if my typing and speeling are worse than they usually are then I am going to blame the new keyboard at least this time around. :)

posted by Jason Dorko at 3:11 PM 0 comments links to this post