A quick guide to the Tablet PC

Since I did a story earlier this week about the Tablet PC, I’ve received lots of e-mails from folks wanting to know more.

So here’s a quick guide, with links:

Small, lightweight and rugged, these powerful machines are branded by well-respected manufacturers and consumers can chose betweenthe Dell Tablet PC, Gateway Tablet PC, the Motion Computing Tablet PC, the Fujitsu Tablet PC, the Toshiba Tablet PC and many other rugged tablet pc types.

Tablet PCs come in two configurations: the slate model pc tablet, which is like the old childhood etch-a-picture toy.

You use a tiny pen-stylus to write on the surface of these tablet pcs, with your handwriting digitally converted and showing up on the screen just like it was a piece of paper.

Then there is the convertible model tablet pc. It is a tablet pc laptop in form, combining a screen which can be turned around to cover the keyboard and used just like a slate model tablet pc or, when flipped upright, the screen works just like a laptop computer or notebook
computer.

The weight of these tablet pcs ranges from around 2 pounds for some Fujitsu tablet pcs to over 6 pounds for some of the HP Tablet PC models.

Shopping for a new tablet pc is best done online. Although some of the large box computer stores carry tablet pcs, the best selection is found through the many specialized sites, which often offer tablet pc comparisons.

You can also find the cheapest tablet pc for you by shopping online.

Hope this helps.

Watch your digital dirt

“Digital dirt”: It’s a relatively new term used to describe the unprofessional, often risky and even potentially scandalous information and images that people post about themselves online, from pictures of intoxication-induced escapades to blog rants about anything from professors to politics. Central Michigan University Director of Career Services Julia Barlow Sherlock is available to comment on digital dirt and its consequences.
As social networking sites like Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) and MySpace (http://www.myspace.com) grow in popularity, particularly among college and high school students - and as more people feel comfortable posting life details, deeply personal thoughts, compromising photos and other information about themselves online - Sherlock says employers’ scrutiny of prospective employees’ pages on such sites will continue to increase as well. And, it is “a perfectly legitimate screening method because it’s self-reported,” she says.
A few of Sherlock’s initial thoughts on the subject:
· “The Career Guide that CMU Career Services distributes to students quotes a couple of startling statistics from an ExecuNet survey, which found that 75 percent of job recruiters have looked up information about candidates using Internet search engines; 26 percent had removed candidates from their screening pools based on the results of their searches.”
· “The best advice I can give is to be proactive. Don’t put it on the Internet if you wouldn’t want someone else to see it. Unfortunately, today’s young people often flirt with disaster until it’s completely out of their hands.”
· “If a prospective employer finds something negative, it’s too late. Someone else’s values and experiences come into play, and whatever he or she has found can influence hiring decisions.”
· “I was recently at a conference and heard about a student who lost out on a job at an insurance company because the company Googled her and found photos of her engaging in risky behavior.”

Google Maps as computer wallpaper

A Web blog called Google Map Mania that keeps track of Google maps mashups has made a bunch of them available as Google Maps Wallpapers.

Here’s a complete list of some of the files.

IBM joins in battery recalls

UPDATE
Add toshiba to the list with 830,000 batteries. Fujitsu is expected to also join in the recalls today, too.

These massive battery recalls show no signs of ending.

Today, joining previous recalls by Apple and Dell Computer, IBM Corp. announced a recall of 526,000 laptop batteries made by Sony Corp.

IBM and the batteries’ distributor, Lenovo Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said the rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries are used in ThinkPad notebook computers and pose possible fire hazards. About 168,500 of them were sold in the U.S., while the rest were distributed worldwide.

Maybe a shorter list would be of the laptop batteries that don’t pose fire hazards.

Podcasts are popular with the public

Over on MacMikeNews, they’re talkling about how much they listen to podcasts. With one out of five Americans now in possession of an iPod, the rapid proliferation of podcasts is reaching an audience that has to be sending shudders down the spinte of over-the-air and satellite broadcasters.

I’m struck by the diversity of podcasts that the posters are talking about. I confess, I haven’t downloaded many. I’m too much of a news junkie, I guess. And a country music fan. My new car (a Buick Lucerne) has XM Radio and I’m like a kid on Christmas morning unwrapping the presents on the sat channels.

But there’s a port for me to plug in an iPod on the car radio so I’m heading to the Net and going to sample some p’casts for the long commute.

New iPods

Ny NBC-TV piece this week looks at the new iPods from Apple. Click below to see…

Answers on demand

My NBC-TV report this week for the affiliate stations around the country is on Answers.com an online Encylodictionalmanacapia. That turns out to be an accurate term for what the site has become. It’s a huge information clearing house, all free, and it is doing a pretty darn good job of becoming the Google of information-on-demand.
Take it’s latest tool called 1-Click Answers. Once downloaded and installed on either your Mac or PC, it allows you to click on any word in any program and then pop up a concise factbox that tells you everything you want to know.

Olive Branch Iraqi bloggers

My NBC-TV "High Tech Talk" segment this week is on a fascinating collection of bloggers from Iraq called the Olivebranch Network. You can check out their site at http://olivebranchoptimism.net/ and see my TV report by clicking below.