Friday, July 29, 2005

Birthday!

As of 12:06am this morning, I'm 21 years old! Won't be doing much celebrating though; I have about 4+ hours of class today. Flying from 11-1 and then Ground from 2-4ish (I'll probably get out around 4:30 or 5). Then Dave, Roxy, and Sara (Uncle, Aunt, and newly adopted Guatemalan cousin) are coming to spend the night. Saturday I have class from 11-2 and then at 3 is the birthday party. I sent out an email invitation, but if you feel you should have gotten that invitation and I somehow missed you, give me a call and I'll tell you the details.

In other news, my checkride has now been scheduled. There's good news and bad news. The good news is that the examiner is Dennis Carvela, whom my instructor says is the guy you want if you're getting a checkride at Dupage FSDO. The bad news is he's gone the entire week that I was targeting for my checkride, and I leave for school the week after; so we had to schedule the checkride far earlier then I think I'll be ready for. It's now set for August 5th (ONE WEEK) at 9:00am. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE be praying for me. I will have to go to class multiple times a day nearly every day this week to even be close to being ready. It dwarfs the Instrument and Commercial checkrides I had this spring in difficulty, and you regular readers remember how insane that was. I'm just going crazy with the pressure of it all. Please pray for time to study, memory to remember everything, confidence when I'm with the examiner, quick and clear thinking, and for me to finally understand/apply these teaching skills I'm trying to learn.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

It's The Moon

I'm going absolutely crazy with my flight instructor training right now. So I don't have time to regularly update. Class 6 days a week plus tons of homework (and they want to pick up the pace), all in addition to my RevTrak job. The M4 with OneNote is really useful in class. I've been recording all our class sessions and referring back to them when doing homework. Please, please pray that I'll be able to finish before move back.

In celebration of the anniversary of Apollo 11's landing yesterday; I give you two links:
If you've ever wondered if there's anything to those conspiracy-nut claims that the moon landings were faked; this guys does a pretty good job of rebutting all the arguments I've heard on the subject:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/apollohoax.html Google has a knack for innovation. They didn't just celebrate the anniversary with a custom Google logo; they also did a spoof of their own Google Earth (zoom all the way in):
http://moon.google.com/

Sunday, July 17, 2005

3400+!!!

Wow, it was just two and a half weeks ago that I crossed the 1000 hit point since I got Site Tracker in April. Now, thanks to the M4 review, that number has more than tripled! Uff-Da! It's been a lot of fain seeing hits come in from all over the world and the feedback I've been getting has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve also been able to email back and forth with a few cool people who had questions or comments on the review. Yesterday my mom suggested I set up a way to give readers of the review the opportunity of donating to my Purdue tuition (she was only half joking). Too bad she hadn’t thought of it earlier, I might have given it a shot just for kicks.

For the Tablet readers: I'm in the middle of testing the secondary battery now. The improvement in battery life is substantial, to say the least. It'll still be a few days before I have data to post, but I definitely feel comfortable saying that if you're getting the M4, you need this battery.

In other news, my trip to Indiana to visit Shane and Chip went really well a couple of weeks ago. I met Shane in Lafayette and we took his truck to his hometown of Rochester, IN to spend the night at Chip’s house. It was really cool to see Chip because he’s been away in California interning for the Aerospace Corporation this summer. If any of you happen to run into him on the street, say hello from Shawn at Purdue:


He lives on one of the few lakes in Indiana and his family owns a couple of Jet-Skis, so naturally we went out and played on the water for a little while. I’d never been on one before, but before long I was fishtailing it around at high speed and pushing it to a top speed of 42 mph on smooth water. Yeah, it was fun. That night we went to a concert featuring The Elms, Barlow Girl, and Seventh Day Slumber.

The next day we got up early, hit the water again for a while. Then Shane and I left to have lunch at his grandparent’s farm. We spent the rest of the day at the Winimac County Fair. I’d never been to anything quite like it (I’m a city guy, that’s rural Indiana), but it was kind of fun. Especially the reason we were there; Shane was helping with the Tractor Pull. I had never seen one before; so it was very entertaining. I ended up helping with security, which was cool because it gave me something to do and I got a better spot to watch it from than most. Here are some pictures:

We went back to Shane’s apartment in Lafayette that night. Corbit was also crashing there for a few days, so it was cool to hang around with him. Sunday we went to two churches; first my church at 9:30, then Shane’s church at 11:15 (where Corbit was leading worship). We met up with Henry and spent the afternoon playing Halo and watched one of the exceedingly silly Ewok Adventures Shane had on DVD (none of us had ever seen them before. Somehow they managed to turn Endor into an enchanted forest that had absolutely nothing to do with the Force or anything else Star Wars related). Monday (the 4th) we, in typical college guy fashion; slept in, played Halo (until the pizza guy showed up), and then popped a DVD (Hitch) while we ate. After the movie, I left for home and went straight to the Snow’s 4th of July Party.

Shane:

Corbit:

Things have been really crazy around here with my Flight Instructor training. We’re having class every day this week (except Sunday) for 2 hours, plus several hours of homework for every period. Even at this rate I still don’t know how I’m going to get done in time for move-back on the 13th.

Lastly, I found this truth in the Chicago Tribune the other day. I’m thinking we need to make something like this and put it on campus. What do you guys think? Where would be the best place for it? I’ve got two spots in mind based on traffic and types of students supposed to be around, but can’t decide which one. First is the engineering mall (by the fountain) because it’s a very central area with a lot of engineers and others walking by. The other idea is between Beering Hall and the Beering Fountain because of all the liberal arts majors and because just about everyone from the west side walks by there on the way to class. Thoughts?

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Toshiba Tecra M4 In-Depth Review (Page 1)

I should probably start this thing with a disclaimer: This is my first attempt at a review of a computer, despite years of experience using them. I should also note that I am by no means a professional; I’m a Professional Flight student at Purdue (Go Boilers!) and working full time during the summer doing webstore development and tech support for a small software company.

Also, a note to my regular readers: This is my attempt at a review of my new Tablet PC, so those of you who aren’t “technophilies” can feel free to skip it (although I would hope that you would be curious and read it through anyway). I’ve tried to write it so that people mostly unfamiliar with the Tablet world can make some sense of it. I probably will not be making regular comments on this blog about using a Tablet (I’ll leave that to more experienced individuals like Rob Bushway or Eric Mack), so regular readers need not fear my blog being transformed into a “Tablet evangelizing” site.

Now, onto the review:


Tablet of Contents

1. Opening comments, Introduction, Convertible v. Slate, Specifications, Packaging/Contents, and Secret Decoder Ring

2. Body and Design, Build Quality Issues, Size and Weight

3. Screen Mini-Review I: Resolution, Brightness, and Glare

4. Screen Mini-Review II: Outdoor Viewing

5. Screen Mini-Review III: Viewing Angle

6. Setup, RAM Upgrade, Background Processes

7. Toshiba Power Saver, Undervolting/Centrino Hardware Control, and Battery Life

8. Timings, Video Driver and 3DMark03 Performance, and Sound

9. Software

10. Conclusion

11. High Quality Pictures



Introduction
The Toshiba Tecra M4 convertible Tablet PC is one of the largest, most powerful models on the market today. It weighs in at a hefty 6.2 pounds, featuring a Sonoma chipset, a real video card (verses video being integrated into the motherboard like most tablets), and a 14.1” SXGA+ display. It runs Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005, which is basically XP, Service Pack 2, and the pen interface all grafted together. By “tablet” and “pen” I do not mean a touch screen like you would find on a PDA, instead it requires a special digitizer pen made by Wacom.

For those of you who have not been following the Tablet market, this screen is a big deal, no other model features a resolution this high on a 14” screen. Virtually all other models have displays that are XGA resolution (with the exception of two 12” models, a Toshiba and a Fujitsu, with SXGA+). I will be spending a lot of time on the screen later because of how important it is.

You can use the Tablet of Contents above to navigate the various pages of this review. I have also created a site at Flickr.com to host high resolution versions of the same pictures you see in this review (and a few others), the link is at the bottom of the Table of Contents.


Convertible vs. Slate
So what does it mean to have a “convertible” Tablet? “Convertible” means that you can operate it like a normal laptop, but you can also rotate the screen around 180 degrees to close the lid with the display facing outward (so you can “ink” on it, aka use the digital pen). “Slate” models don’t have this functionality; they are basically just screens without the keyboard. Slates are typically smaller and lighter than convertibles (more focused toward mobility), but are usually less powerful and universally lack optical drives. Convertibles are larger and heavier, but usually have more computing “oomph.” I chose a convertible because I wanted the larger, high-resolution screen and I felt that my personal usage patterns require the keyboard enough that I would lose productivity to go “pure Tablet.”


Specifications
Intel Pentium M 760 2.0 Ghz
Sonoma (second generation Centrino chipset)
256 MB ram (quickly replaced by 2 Gb of Transcend DDR2 533Mhz RAM off Newegg)
NVidia Geforce Go 6600 TE w/ 128 Mb
60 Gb 5400 rpm SATA Hard Drive
DVD+/-RW DL Super-Multi Drive
Intel Pro/Wireless 802.11a/b/g
Integrated Bluetooth
3 year SystemGuard accidental damage protection warranty
Slim-Select Bay secondary Li-ion battery


Packaging/Contents








I ordered my customized M4 on June 10th from Toshiba Direct. They took their time building it, but it eventually did ship on Monday, June 20th. I got the 3-7 day ground shipping from FedEx (cheapest shipping Toshiba offered), so I wasn’t expecting it until the end of the week at the earliest. Boy was I wrong; FedEx managed to get it all the way from China to my family’s house in the Chicago area by 9:30am Wednesday (June 22nd) morning! Needless to say, I was most impressed.

The M4 came securely packed from Toshiba. No complaints in this department. I still don’t have the paperwork on my SystemGuard warranty (Toshiba’s order status page said it shipped well over 2 weeks ago, but never gave me any tracking information, I guess I’ll have to call them) and they still haven’t shipped the secondary battery.


Secret Decoder Ring!
A small ring-like piece of metal with a gap in it is usually included with new Tablets. Because they don’t include any documentation on it, new Tablet users are often confused, hence the “super secret decoder ring” nickname from longtime users. Its actual function is to remove worn-down pen nibs. The picture shows it on my pinky next to the pen and the extra nibs Toshiba included in the box (for the record, I don’t actually wear it; I just put it on for the picture).


Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Pictures

M4 Page 2

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Pictures


Body and Design

Top view:
Not much of anything to see here:


Front Panel:
Having a convenient switch to turn the wireless on and off is very useful. The volume knob is somewhat recessed into the body (I assume to keep you from bumping it accidentally), but is recessed a little too far in my opinion. If it were just a little farther out it would be easier to make small adjustments with it. To open the lid you press on the button just above the yellow arrow and that releases the lid grip. I’ve noted what I believe to be two of the three microphones on the M4, but I can’t find the third one.

Left Side:
When the M4 really gets going (say, after an hour of Prime95 on High Power), the vents put off quite a bit of warm air. People have complained about the noise of the M4’s fan, but I’ve never had it get above a quiet whirr, even when I was running on high power with the vent partially blocked to test stability at high CPU temps (74 C) during my undervolting experimentation. I still have the little plastic cover over the IR port that they put on there for shipping, it doesn’t hamper its functionality at all.

Back:
There are less ports on the back than most laptops so they can fit in the sturdy hinge mechanism.

Right Side:
To release the pen you push in on it and then it springs out slightly. Based on my use so far I don’t think there’s much danger of it popping out when you don’t want it to. When you set the unit to Primary Portrait, this side is downward, so you have to move the unit away from yourself (if you’re holding it) to get the pen out. I’ve found that when I’m in Primary Portrait, I will frequently bump the release button for the DVD drive without realizing it. This is merely a minor annoyance for now, because in the future I’ll be keeping the secondary battery in that bay the majority of the time. You can reprogram the OneNote button to open any program you like (it actually doesn’t come pre-programmed for OneNote), but I have yet to find much use for it. Perhaps once I get a more regular usage pattern going I’ll find a useful program to link to it.

Bottom:
I’ve mapped out components on the bottom of the unit as best as I’ve been able to identify them. The four yellow X’s mark the spots that get the hottest under heavy use. I’ve been surprised how hot the hard drive gets, even under light use, although I’m not worried because the internal temperature reading isn’t high enough to be a concern. I’m trying to figure out exactly where the CPU and GPU are located, but as yet haven’t been successful (best guess is that they are under the two uppermost yellow X’s). Sadly, the M4 doesn’t include any little fold out feet to help raise up the back end for ventilation (I’m looking at these, but am not yet sure if they are cost effective for my needs: The Laptop Legs).

Laptop Mode:
Unless you know to look for the single, center hinge, the M4 looks like any other 14” laptop.

Keyboard:
The keyboard has a good tactile feel without being too small, noisy, or flexing while typing. I would describe it as being above average compared to other laptops I’ve tried. There are a few irregularities with Toshiba’s keyboard here. For example, note the placement of the ~ key between the space bar and Left Alt. That gets annoying because when I’m surfing the net in laptop mode, I frequently hit Alt+D to highlight the address bar and Alt+A to open my favorites, so I have to be a little more careful to hit Alt without accidentally hitting ~. Also, the arrow keys are smaller than normal.

The M4 has two mouse devices here: the touchpad and the IBM-like blue nub in the middle of the keyboard. I frequently switch between them based on what I’m doing. It’s nice to have scrolling areas built into the touchpad, but between the up/down scroll, left/right scroll, forward/backward (not marked, but side-to-side along top of touchpad), and the secondary button for the nub reaching into the top, there isn’t much touchpad space left for regular mousing.

I will likely be removing the red stickers from the keyboard soon; I don’t like having that extra clutter on my nice Tablet (not nearly as irritating as bloatware, but same principle). For those of you with sharp eyes, the small orange mark just below the F2 key is a reflection of the room’s lighting on the reflective black plastic strip in-between the F_ keys and the number keys.

Slate Mode:
Here is the M4 in Primary Portrait slate mode. On the right side (from top to bottom), you can see the hinge, the directional stick (small, 4–way joystick/enter key), the rotate screen/ESC key, the “Windows security key” (aka, Ctrl-Alt-Del), and the sliding On/Off switch.

If you press in on the directional stick for one second, a small onscreen menu will pop up (seems like Toshiba’s version of HP’s Q Menu) and will allow you to quickly make a multitude of different adjustments.

Getting used to rotating the screen is a bit tricky at first. You press in on the rotate key for three seconds while pivoting the unit in the direction you want the new orientation to face. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it, but there are occasions where it seems like it just doesn’t want to rotate (likely all user error).

The pen is fairly comfortable to use. It’s not too thin (like the Motion M1400), nor is it unusually thick (like the HP TC1100). You can think of it as being just a hair thicker than a standard Bic ballpoint pen. The clip doesn’t seem too sturdy, so I’ll just keep the pen in its garage when I’m on the move. I also got the Toshiba Reserve Pen, which is a very thin pen about 3/4 the length of the main pen (without an eraser) that hides away on a clip in the battery compartment. I’m hoping to never need it (because that would mean I lost my pen), but it’s good to have as insurance.


Build Quality Issues
There seems to be a slight defect in the construction of my M4. Three of the corners of the screen are flush with the edge of the frame, but the fourth corner is not. It lifts up about 1mm above the frame around it. The amount that it lifts above the edge seems to be somewhat variable; on hot, humid days it is worse than on cool days. When I get some time I’m going to contact the local Toshiba Service center and hopefully they’ll be able to replace the screen without having to replace the whole unit (thus lost time, even if I backup everything).
Here is a picture of one of the normal corners:

Here is the corner with the defect:


Size and Weight
There’s no question, the M4 is BIG (at least compared to other Tablets). When compared against normal (non-Tablet) 14” and 15” notebooks, it is fairly normal. Nor is it light, coming in at a hefty 6.2 pounds. I personally don’t have any problem with the size or weight because I won’t be using it much while standing and the laptop I’ve been carrying around for the last semester was about the same size and weight. More mobile users will likely find that it’s too big and heavy for most upright applications (aka, used when you’re standing), but it all depends on your personal preference.

Here are some pictures comparing the M4 with my old Toshiba Satellite 1115–S103 (Pentium III 1.5 Ghz, 14”) and a Medion (Centrino 1.6 Ghz, 15”). I would have liked to compare it against Tablets instead of normal laptops, but I don’t have access to any other Tablets.

Left to right: Satellite, M4, Medion:

Side view of stacked laptops (top to bottom): Satellite, Medion, M4

Front view of the same stack:

Top-down view of same stack (front edges are lined up; the only difference in size is visible in the back):



Tablet of Contents

1. Opening comments, Introduction, Convertible v. Slate, Specifications, Packaging/Contents, and Secret Decoder Ring

2. Body and Design, Build Quality Issues, Size and Weight

3. Screen Mini-Review I: Resolution, Brightness, and Glare

4. Screen Mini-Review II: Outdoor Viewing

5. Screen Mini-Review III: Viewing Angle

6. Setup, RAM Upgrade, Background Processes

7. Toshiba Power Saver, Undervolting/Centrino Hardware Control, and Battery Life

8. Timings, Video Driver and 3DMark03 Performance, and Sound

9. Software

10. Conclusion

11. High Quality Pictures

M4 Page 3

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Pictures


Screen Mini-Review
Quite frankly, this screen is the primary reason I got the M4. Actually, I think it’s safe to say that of just about everybody interested in the M4; so I’ve decided to dedicate a whole section of my review solely to the screen.

In my process of trying to find a Tablet, I decided I wanted a high resolution screen if at all possible. The problem was that the only high resolution models (the Toshiba M200 and the Fujitsu Lifebook T4000) had only 12” screens. I tried out the M200 and decided that everything was just too small for me to use it comfortably. So when I realized I’d be stuck with the lower XGA resolution I was inclined to go for a small, light Tablet like the HP TC1100. Thus, when the M4 was announced, I was very excited.


Resolution
SXGA+ vs. XGA:


What you see above is the same desktop at the two different resolutions. As you can see, there is significantly more information on the SXGA side. In fact, the SXGA screen has nearly twice the resolution of the XGA (191%). So what about the “pixel density” (a term for DPI, the measurement of dots per inch on the display) that I found too high for my preference on the M200’s 12” screen? The M200 has a density of 145 DPI and the M4 has a density of 124 DPI. By comparison, the HP TC1100 (a 10.4” XGA screen that I find perfectly comfortable) has a density of 123 DPI.

For all of you who are familiar with the TC1100, you can think of the M4 screen in landscape mode being similar to two TC1100 screens in portrait mode side-by-side in size and resolution.

UPDATE: At the suggestion of Thingsforjason over at the TabletPCBuzz, I've put together a similar comparison to the one above in Portrait viewing mode:


Brightness
The following three pictures show the M4 at minimum brightness, half brightness, and max brightness. I exposed the shot for the half brightness setting and kept the camera settings the same for the other two. Please note that for the viewing angle comparisons later, I exposed each shot individually, so they are not valid comparisons for brightness.

Minimum Brightness:

Half Brightness:

Maximum Brightness:

Glare
Glare is definitely an issue with the M4. I’ve been able to work around it whenever I’ve had issues, but this is by no means a low-glare screen. You’ll see plenty of examples of glare in the outdoor pictures below. I have yet to have enough of a problem with glare that it’s hampered my use of the M4 indoors.

Example of glare with indoor lighting:


Indoor glare with camera flash:


Tablet of Contents

1. Opening comments, Introduction, Convertible v. Slate, Specifications, Packaging/Contents, and Secret Decoder Ring

2. Body and Design, Build Quality Issues, Size and Weight

3. Screen Mini-Review I: Resolution, Brightness, and Glare

4. Screen Mini-Review II: Outdoor Viewing

5. Screen Mini-Review III: Viewing Angle

6. Setup, RAM Upgrade, Background Processes

7. Toshiba Power Saver, Undervolting/Centrino Hardware Control, and Battery Life

8. Timings, Video Driver and 3DMark03 Performance, and Sound

9. Software

10. Conclusion

11. High Quality Pictures

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

M4 Page 4

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Pictures


Outdoor Viewing
The M4 doesn’t have an indoor/outdoor screen, so I didn’t have high expectations when I went outside for this test. The weather in Chicago was sunny with a slight haze higher up in the atmosphere, so the sun was bright but slightly diffused. I compared the M4 with the Toshiba Satellite 1115–S103 (all shots on max brightness unless otherwise noted).

Both computers with direct sunlight and maximum brightness:


Just the M4 in direct sun (entirely unusable):

Both laptops facing away from the sun:
Same angle, Satellite only:
Now the M4. While it does include a nice shot of me, you can see the glare is a significant problem. I would say the actual viewability of the screen in this shot is slightly better than the picture indicates, but not by much:
Both laptops in moderate shade:
Satellite only:
M4 only (Again, it is somewhat more visible than the picture suggests, but not much. If you tilt the screen to minimize the glare, under most circumstances the majority of the screen will look like it does where my shadow is on it. I would rate this as usable, but hardly ideal):
M4 on minimum brightness in the same shade (entirely unusable, the glare is too strong):
In case you want to know what “moderate shade” is, here is a picture of the test site on a cloudier day (the sun in the shade shots above is behind the top of the tree and also partially blocked by the canopy over the swing):

Outdoor Viewing Conclusion:
The M4 by no means has an indoor/outdoor screen. In moderate shade it is perfectly usable, but glare quickly becomes an annoyance. As you saw, it is somewhat useable when facing away from the sun, but when the screen is into the sun it’s worthless. If on a bright, sunny day you wanted to pull it out of standby to jot down a quick note (an attractive individual’s phone number, perhaps?) on Ink Desktop or Journal, you probably could tilt it just enough to write your note half blind, but entering your password to log in would definitely be a problem.



Tablet of Contents

1. Opening comments, Introduction, Convertible v. Slate, Specifications, Packaging/Contents, and Secret Decoder Ring

2. Body and Design, Build Quality Issues, Size and Weight

3. Screen Mini-Review I: Resolution, Brightness, and Glare

4. Screen Mini-Review II: Outdoor Viewing

5. Screen Mini-Review III: Viewing Angle

6. Setup, RAM Upgrade, Background Processes

7. Toshiba Power Saver, Undervolting/Centrino Hardware Control, and Battery Life

8. Timings, Video Driver and 3DMark03 Performance, and Sound

9. Software

10. Conclusion

11. High Quality Pictures