I am just back from a 3 week tourist-type trip t

[solonglake]

I am just back from a 3 week tourist-type trip to Thailand, Cambodia, and Bhutan with a group of 24 people. After this, I will never travel without my M1300, at least until I getting my M1400 ;). I have a 60GB HD, 1GB RAM, and a 20GB USB 2.0 HD. I also carried 2 spare batteries, an 8 megifixel Sony camera, and a Blackberry.

On the long flights, I had a large selection of books, audio books, and a few movies to choose from. The spare batteries were highly useful here. During the trip, many of my fellow travelers had questions that I was able to answer in that I had MS EArcata in the virtual disk. Several people had new digital cameras, and found they were running out of storage space on their memory cards. I was able to download their photos onto my hard disk.

It was also invaluable to be able to review shots on site to see if I had captured what I meant to. And to amuse the kids and Buddhist monks by showing them their pictures, the M1300 screen blows away the little LCD screen on the back of the camera. Carrying the M1300 on standby mode this practicable.

The size, light weight, fast change batteries, and Slate form factor made this far more feasible. Natives and Western tourists were constantly fawning over my M1300. I wonder if the unit is drool proof.

Sorry for the long post.

[rktech]

...not a long post at all, really. Could you expand upon it a bit ?

So you charged the spare batteries ahead of time, I'm assuming, and downloaded ebooks or the like, and had camera supplies and batteries at the ready...How did the actual logistics of this all come together ? And standby mode...how did you set that up ?

I'm curious to make my Motion a travel companion as well.
Thanks !!

[solonglake]

The batteries were indeed charged ahead of time. I also had the power cord along, so I was able to recharge while awaiting the second stage of the trip to leave Tokyo. You can also buy wireless time there.
I took along a power strip to recharge multiple things at the same time. My Blackberry recharges off the USB port, but my camera did not. The multi-unit battery charger was helpful. The standby mode was very helpful. There was so much to see, I didn't end up reading as much as I thought I would. So basically, my machine was on standby much of the day. The batteries seemed to be up to that without any trouble. With books, I get abort 2-2.5 hours per battery. I find the batteries to be small and light enough that I can carry 2 extra without trouble. I am also starting to use my computer in my ophthalmology practice, so the spare batteries and the multiunit charger are helpful there.
The protective cover got quite a workout, and has some rather handsome bragging scratches ("I got this one at a bar in Paro, Bhutan"). With the cover on, the M1300 also makes a great tray to carry drinks on and fill out paper forms on. I even used the lid to fan myself with during a longish lecture in 95 degree heat. I transfed photos by compact flash to pc card adapter. I was unable to find any good GPS software for Asia, so I left my USB GPS unit at home.
My Sony camera has a battery that lasts well, and I had 2 extra of those. I recharged those in the camera, so that required its own cord. I would love to find a way to charge the camera off of the computer, and could then carry one less cord. I carried a couple of extra styli, but never needed them. I also carried the arcdisk 20 USB 2.0 hard disk for backup of the photos. I figured that if my M1300 was stolen, I would always have the arcdisk in my pocket. It is only about the size of the 3.5 inch floppy disk and very light. I meant to get insurance for computer theft, but forgot. I will get that in the nor future.
I'd be happy to answer any other questions.

[astronaut]

Digital photography is really a killer app on the M1300. Last night we had a surprise birthday party for my 18 year old. My wife and I gave him a 5 megapixel camera as a present and he quickly filled the 32mb card that came with it. I whipped out the slate, downloaded the photos and everyone went crazy. They loved seeing the photos on it while the party was still in progress.

A question though : you mentioned using a card reader. Was it really better to carry the card reader than just using a USB cable to download from the camera?

[solonglake]

The card reader stays in the computer while the USB cable would be one more thing to carry. I would rate this as a personal preference as opposed to seeing one as being better than the other. While I originally thought this would be a time saver, I was amused and bemused as to how much time was spent passing my M1300 around. Such hardships. I think I may have been responsible fir 3 or 4 sales of these fine Motion Computers.

[ssetomd]

Solong:

I am interested in how you are now using the Motion 1300 in your ophthalmology practice. What Practice management software do you use, and are you using an EMR?

I also have recently bought a Motion, and intend to eventually eauip my technicians with their own, set up a WiFi network in the office for the EMR.

Any input or feedback you might have would be appreciated.

Thanks.

ssetomd

[solonglake]

Sorry to be be slow in answering Yom questions. Currently, we are not using an EMR. We are looking at a system that would put our paper forms on the screen and keep the records as text files. Then it is just document management. Currently, I have been using it to print out glasses prescriptions, accessing e-pocrates over the internet, and having ophthalmic texts on line for references. I have also retrieved foreign language web pages with explanations of patients' conditions when their translators weren't so good.

Ours is a group of 14 ophthalmologists with seven offices and a surgery center. I liked NextGen as a full fledged EMR, but hare met some resistance from a couple of partners. So we'll do document management at first. Once I have them carrying M1300s around, and doing their writing on them, I figure I have them most of the way too a full fledged solution. They just haven 't realized it yet.

[blazio]

Solonglake,

In your experience, are physicians in private practice only using Tablet PCs in the offices, or are hospitals also using them? I'm in medical school right now, so I'm curious as to whether I'll be seeing more and more of Tablet PCs in my medical training. I'm a sucker for technology and I love how current technology is being incorporated into the medical field (ie, viewing xrays on computer, optical fiber technology in bronchoscopies, etc).