I think the best idea I’ve heard is both a digitizer and a touch screen, where it was touch screen until the pen came near, at which point the touch screen would disable until the pen went away again. That way while writing there wouldn’t be any problems, but you could still tap away with with your finger when you wanted.

I’ve had the chance to play with a Panasonic Toughbook for a while, and I must say, having a touch screen is dang convenient at times.

fil – check your PM

Thanks Steve. The only guy I know who had a Flybook sold it on ebay pretty quickly. I agree with you the screen size is pretty good.

I wonder how the Flybook works with its larger touchscreen. I’ve never read a review, though I got the impression they are shipping. My concern with the touchscreens is that all the Palm devices I’ve used with touchscreens have fairly quickly developed marring from the stylus in the places the software most directs you to write or tap. In nine months with a tablet (Acer with a 10.4 inch screen) I don’t have a single nick or mar on my screen, no blurry spot from the stylus. That’s a problem I can accept for a couple hundred dollars on a PDA, but not one I’d be comfortable with for a couple thousand.

I have also grown to enjoy the hover feature in presentations, and would miss that. I wouldn’t want to go much smaller than the screen size of a Flybook for my main computer; I still use a PDA for those moments when a quick note or reference is necessary, but my Acer has replaced most of the functions I used to do on my PDA.

Thank you, James, for an insightful comparison. If you know people with Flybooks, encourage them to write in.

Hehe…

I’m in VA Beach in August…PM me at Handtops if you want it done.

You know, I wish one of you lived close by so that you could upgrade my U for me to Tablet OS. I’m too chicken to try to install it.

The one thing I’d like to add about Tablet OS on the Sony U is when you rotate the screen to Protrait mode, the extra character recognition, numeric pad, and character block areas are gone because the screen is too narrow at 600×800.

Most Tablets are 1024×768 and rotated are 768×1024, so those areas remain on the screen. The smaller U resolution chops off that area.

I also miss the Hovering feature using the Sony U, but to offset it I take the pointer mouse (built into the U) and move the mouse over it or tap the touch screen near the area that I want to see the underlying property text and then move the mouse over it to reveal the mouseover text.

Interesting read. Since I’ve never owned a Tablet PC nor have I installed Tablet OS on my U750, the benefits of a true Tablet have always been a little murky to me.