I didn’t have high expectations for that little cable, but let me just say for the record… Wow! Worked perfectly from my Vista workstation to my she XP UMPC. Still incredibly useful after upgrading to Vista on my Q1P. It’s actually a little funny, as I looked through my box for installation discs, I started thinking about ways to improve the cable by making it look like a USB drive and making the software available on the cable itself… It wasn’t until I had almost given up and assumed that the installation disc was lost that I realized that was precisely what they did.

Just unpacked my Q1. Thanks a million for the USB Data Cable ID parade.
I could have been scratching my head bald.

Thanks Steve! I’ve got Marathon 2 and Infinity running on the Tablet and will put them on the Sony U71 to see if I can run them w/o keyboard.

jk, the address is http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org

Make sure to read through all the different downloads; some of them will only work on a Mac. (Most likely, you’ll be looking for the ones that work through the open source Aleph One engine… that should work on just about any Windows or Mac out there.)

— Steve

Steve, can you point me to a link for that PC port of Marathon?

It just occurred to me… that 8-way stick could’ve helped me get through that virtual keyboard as it can move the mouse pointer and I’ve mapped “left click” and “right click” to the user keys. *sigh* Oh well, I’m using the silicone keyboard for other things anyway.

— Steve

Rich, I missed your question earlier. (Sorry!)

No, I noted no problem with the digitizer calibration out-of-the-box; it was simple to get logged in to my Administrator account with the on-screen touch keyboard… though that does need the stylus, at least if you’re as fat-fingered and shakey as me.

The only time I had a problem with the digitizer calibration was after I had to reboot for a stalled-out screen rotation, only to find that the digitizer was still calibrated for the dudded 180 degree rotation (don’t ask) though the boot screen was at zero degree rotation. I thought I’d “bricked” my Q1 for a while, because I found it impossible to type upside-down and backwards on the virtual keyboard to log back in. However, a quick trip to the mall (and $30 or so) netted me a silicone USB keyboard and I was able to type in my password with that.

About the “joystick”, it’s not an analog stick. It’s a cursor control, more of an 8-way D-pad than a joystick. No enter function on it, though there’s a dedicated “enter” button on the right bezel below the 4-way function keypad. I wish there were a couple more buttons on there… I’ve loaded a PC port of Marathon (a Mac FPS from 1994-6) and I’m about six buttons short of being able to run it without a keyboard. *sigh*

Still haven’t tried the USB cable yet, as I made my DVD drive and a couple of folders on my desktop (ImMobile PC (impsey) anyone?) network resources and just swapped files from them over my WLAN. Not quite as fast, but far more convenient. (Until the router loses sync or something stupid.)

— Steve

For presentations on a BT equipped UMPC have a look at Salling Clicker that I wrote about recently that lets you use your phone as a remote for Powerpoint and other programs.

http://www.salling.com/Clicker/windows/

Interesting that some folks are not getting the USB Synch Cable. This was within the Samsung box, so I don’t think it’s a Best Buy issue; perhaps Sammy didn’t get them into the first run? Here’s a question for those of you that DIDN’T get one: is the cable shown and mentioned in your Samsung Q1 “Getting Started Guide”? If so, then I’d say you’ve got a case for calling Samsung customer service.

I did not find the cable in mine either – also from the initial Best Buy shipment.

Outside of realizing I have been left out of a cool use, I am extremely happy with the device. I even took it alone – no other laptop for my most recent week long trip. I did presentations (must use a mouse for sanity’s sake), checked/responded to email and completed some user documentation. No issues at all.

Nice review…

I didn’t get the USB Synching cable with mine. I got mine from the initial ’sold out’ batch from Best Buy. I wonder if it is something they added? I used an external hard drive to transfer files between PC’s.

jk said:

“If you put the Q1 on your network with the desktop then you can just map the CD/DVD drive to the Q1 and use it as if it was local.”

This works for almost all CDs, but you might find a few that don’t allow you to do this.Microsoft MapPoint 2002 wouldn’t let me do this on my Tablet PC without downloading a network installation utility. But it does work for most apps. I just wanted to throw that out there.

I purchased a USB to USB product a few years back that included the SuperLink software to do exactly what you’re doing above.

The version I got, however, also allows me to establish a network connection to another computer. I haven’t tried this second feature in a long time, so I don’t remember exactly how it works, but I do use the SuperLink software and cable occasionally on my job (computer service technician).

Richard L, I don’t know the answer to your question but if you put the Q1 on your network with the desktop then you can just map the CD/DVD drive to the Q1 and use it as if it was local. I regularly use this method to install s/w on my Sony U. I haven’t hooked up an optical drive to the Sony in a year.

Can you use that SuperLink to install CDROM software, i.e. use your desktop CD/DVD to do the installations on the Q1?