How do you plan to use the U810?

[natcha]

While I'm waiting for my U810 to be delivered, I was wondering how other people plan to use their U810.

I’ll start it off.

I’m a design MEP engineer. I’ve been looking for some time for a way to have ready access to all the project documentation. This is very useful for design meetings, construction meetings, etc. The documentation can consist of the AutoCad Drawings, specifications, correspondence, e-mail, RFI’s, Change Orders, etc.

A large project can easily be 400-500 drawings (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Protection, Architectural, Structural, Site), 1000-2000 pages of specifications, hundreds of letters/memos, thousands of e-mail, etc. The drawings are typically 30” x 42”, so having them electronically is almost a must.

I’ve tried variously small PDA’s, notebooks, etc, but have never really been satisfied with them. The PDA’s are way too slow and really can’t handle the large amount of information. The notebooks work, but is extra weight I’d like to avoid.

For the past year I’ve been using a Stylistic LT C-500 with good success. Fairly compact, light, tablet format is perfect for what I do most – referring to information, but not really editing it. The downside is that batteries are hard to come by and they don’t last real long.

The U810 seems to be just what I’m looking for. Small, light weight. Can hold a lot of information. And the keyboard will allow for me to do some light editing of data. But I anticipate using it mostly in the tablet mode. The 5 hour battery is a more useable time frame.

So, what plans do you have for your new U810?

Bill

[adab721]

quote:Originally posted by natcha

While I'm waiting for my U810 to be delivered, I was wondering how other people plan to use their U810.

Ill start it off.

Im a design MEP engineer. Ive been looking for some time for a way to have ready access to all the project documentation. This is very useful for design meetings, construction meetings, etc. The documentation can consist of the AutoCad Drawings, specifications, correspondence, e-mail, RFIs, Change Orders, etc.

A large project can easily be 400-500 drawings (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Protection, Architectural, Structural, Site), 1000-2000 pages of specifications, hundreds of letters/memos, thousands of e-mail, etc. The drawings are typically 30 x 42, so having them electronically is almost a must.

Ive tried variously small PDAs, notebooks, etc, but have never really been satisfied with them. The PDAs are way too slow and really cant handle the large amount of information. The notebooks work, but is extra weight Id like to avoid.

For the past year Ive been using a Stylistic LT C-500 with good success. Fairly compact, light, tablet format is perfect for what I do most  referring to information, but not really editing it. The downside is that batteries are hard to come by and they dont last real long.

The U810 seems to be just what Im looking for. Small, light weight. Can hold a lot of information. And the keyboard will allow for me to do some light editing of data. But I anticipate using it mostly in the tablet mode. The 5 hour battery is a more useable time frame.

So, what plans do you have for your new U810?

Bill




I have had mine for about one week now and I use it for ocasional web brousing (I am using it right now) I use it mainly for Bible study with many dozens of different Bible commentaries and dictionaries and hundreds of books. I use a Microsoft Works spreadsheet to track my finances, and I use the Word processor for sermon preparition when on the road. The stylus is too small to use comfortably but any tablet pc stylus will work just fine, I sometimes use the stylus from my Motion LE1600 or the Fujitsu P1510

Brian

[natcha]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your reply.

I'm still waiting for shipment notice on my unit. The estimated ship date is tomorrow, so I'm hoping I'll get it either Saturday or Monday.

Which book reader software are you using?

I've seen other reports on the stylus. I'll probally try the one from my LT C-500. I like the spring loaded tip.

Which operating system did you get? I decided to go with XP.

Since you have a couple of other Tablet PC's, do you see the U810 replacing any of them in your use? Or being used in conjunction with them.

I'm looking forward to giving One Note a try out. I usually maintain a project notebook for each project now (3 ring binder). It'd be nice to have that in an electronic form.

Thanks,
Bill

[natcha]

Just got noticed that my unit has shipped. I just didn't realize it was shipping from Osaka, Japan! I wonder how long it'll take to get here. Are they all being shipped from Japan? I would have thought they would have them at a U. S. location.

Oh Well - At least it is in transit.

Bill

[adab721]

quote:Originally posted by natcha

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your reply.

I'm still waiting for shipment notice on my unit. The estimated ship date is tomorrow, so I'm hoping I'll get it either Saturday or Monday.

Which book reader software are you using?

I've seen other reports on the stylus. I'll probally try the one from my LT C-500. I like the spring loaded tip.

Which operating system did you get? I decided to go with XP.

Since you have a couple of other Tablet PC's, do you see the U810 replacing any of them in your use? Or being used in conjunction with them.

I'm looking forward to giving One Note a try out. I usually maintain a project notebook for each project now (3 ring binder). It'd be nice to have that in an electronic form.

Thanks,
Bill

Hi Bill;

I havn't tried any ebook readers because the Bible software I use has built in readers. I use e-Sword (it's free) and Online Bible (also free and also I have been usiing and old version (3.0) of Quickverse.
I am using XP Tablet Edition because I have heard horror stories about Vista being a resource hog. I do not use the U810 as my primary computer, I don't think it is suited for that but I use it on the road when I want to travel light. My primary computer is a Motion LE1600 which I dock to a 32" LCD TV while I dock my U810 to a Samsung 19" monitor.

Brian

[adab721]

quote:Originally posted by natcha

Just got noticed that my unit has shipped. I just didn't realize it was shipping from Osaka, Japan! I wonder how long it'll take to get here. Are they all being shipped from Japan? I would have thought they would have them at a U. S. location.

Oh Well - At least it is in transit.

Bill



Hi Bill;

Mine also came from Japan, and when I bought the 1610 it also came from Japan...but the good news is that it only took four days to reach me on the east coast. Fujitsu dosn't farm out the manufacture of their computers like others do but builds them in Japan which results in a much better quality computer than one made in China.


Brian

[natcha]

Received my U810 late Monday afternoon.

First impressions:

- Stylus is defintely too thin. Will be using the one from the LT C500.

- Keyboard is overloaded with some very unusual key mappings. But it does have a nice touch to it. Will probally re-map some of the keys, especially will reverse some of the function keys - up/down arrow, etc.

- Screen is very readable. I did increase the DPI from 96 to 120 - made a world of difference.

- Although I have switched off the WI-FI and Blue Tooth, the blue tooth light continues to flash. I guess I have to turn that off in software. I'll proablly use WI-FI much more than blue tooth, unless I get a blue tooth headset with mic.

Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase.

I got it with XP Tablet, docking stand, spare battery, leather case, and the tablet nylon bump case.

One funny thing though - the hard drive came partitioned with a "D" drive of 1GB. I'm thinking that the D drive could be used for haberination? If so, I'll probally remap it as a "Z" drive so that it stays out of my way when I'm using CF and SD cards as well as USB drives.

I can see I'll be spending way too much time at work over the next few days playing with my new toy.

Bill

[sbtablet]

Hi Bill!

The partition you're seeing is probably a recovery image for system restore. It's probably a good thing to have.

I'm thinking about the U810 myself, but haven't taken the plunge. I teach. I would be using it mainly for reading, marking up documents, record keeping, hauling to class for power points, etc. As well as some web browsing.

SBT

[natcha]

"The partition you're seeing is probably a recovery image for system restore. It's probably a good thing to have."

That's what I thought at first except that it's completely empty. It's very odd.

Could other people who have received their U810 check to see if they also have a 1GB "D" drive.

If I can't find a use for it, I'll have to load up partition magic and either increase it in size to make it a nice sized data paration, or just combine it into the C drive.

Bill

[leighj]

The 1GB D: partition is v. common on Fujitsu laptops - haven't figured out why it's there but whenever you restore your drive to factory settings it creates this extra empty partition.
I think I read in one of the Fujitsu manuals a while back that it was used for system updates - but that never made sense to me.

[sbtablet]

Weird.

[natcha]

leighj wrote:

"but whenever you restore your drive to factory settings it creates this extra empty partition"

I just did a restore this weekend, and the restore only copies to the C-Drive. The D-Drive is left unchanged. I ended up re-partitioning the hard drive to 19GB C-Drive and 20 GB D-Drive. Then restored to the C. Worked great and I now have a decent size D-drive.

The reason I did a restore is another story - see my post on my Weekend U810 Adventure.

Bill

[DancesWithBikers]

My U810 has the 1GB D: partition, but if you look at "Disk Management" under "Computer Management" there is also a 1.5GB partition before the C: partition. It's labeled as "EISA Configuration" under "Status", but there's just a blank under "File System".

Any ideas on that partition?

Has anyone tried upgrading the hard drive on the U810 yet?

[natcha]

Just did a look at the Disk Management and I have a 17 GB C-Drive and a 20 GB D-Drive. But no unused drives space. But this is after I had used the Restore DVD to redo the drive partitioning. But it does look like there is some missing space on my drive.

"Has anyone tried upgrading the hard drive on the U810 yet?"

I haven't tried yet, but will probally do it sometime in the future. I believe it's a 1.8" drive, 5mm thick, single platter, with a ZIF connector. Please correct me if I'm wrong. As such, I think the largest single plater drive is 80 GB. There are some larger drives, but they are two platters, and thus too thick to fit.

I notice on the UMPC Portal site that someone has been successful in replacing the hard drive with a SSD. But at the prices of a SSD, I'll stick to rotating drives.

AS soon as I get a little time free, I want to try making a bootble USB drive with GHOST on it so I can Ghost the C-drive with all my setup on it. The Restore Disk works fine, but it's a pain to have to do the OS updates and re-install my programs.

Update: Just figured out how to do the Ghost Image using a USB drive. Refer to my post "Creating Ghost Image of U810" at following link: http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36227

Bill