Adesso --> HomeMarc Says: Downloading the 134MB driver ".zip" file, which I hope will have a user manual for the digitizer pad. I like the idea of being able to write on any old piece of paper rather than the Annoto special (pricey!) pre-printed special paper. I don't really want to carry around an 8.5" by 11" pad with me--I like the highligher-sized Logitech io2 digital pen better. But I still can't get the Logitech driver software to install cleanly--I fear my io2 may be "shelfware".
Addendum: ZIP file downloaded. PDF user manual included. Unpacked. Reading.
Addendum: The device weights 1.5 pounds, not including the weight of the required 5 AAA batteries or the pad of paper. Heck, an entire slate Tablet PC weighs 2.2 pounds (but costs 20 times as much). The Logitech io2 is certainly the winner on bulk and weight, as it weighs less than 2 ounces (not including the weight or the price of the special pads of paper).
Addendum: The device has a nifty LCD display along the left side with all sorts of organizaion and status information.
Addendum: The pad has a compartment that holds two additional ink cartridges for the pen. The pen accepts a variety of ink cartridges, including those by Rotring (reputed to be the smoothest-writing ballpoint cartridge on the market, also popular among the Logitech io2 digital pen users as a replacement).
Addendum: There is some sort of built-in pad cover used to protect the digitizer's surface if you do not have a pad of paper mounted on the pad. The pad cover works like the top of an old roll-top desk, and stores wrapped around the back of the pad when not deployed (inside the plastic shell of the pad, it seems). I wonder how long this Rube Goldberg pad cover will continue to function. Revision: The protective cover pad is a separate piece of plastic, not attached and not retreactable. Apparently you are supposed to carry it around with you to have with you if you decide to use the tablet connected to a PC as a digitizer tablet. Adesso does not appear to sell the cover as an accessory, so you can not have one at work and one at home. I am starting to wonder if this product is really ready for prime time, as the lack of available accessories may be a show-stopper.
Addendum: When attached to the computer via a USB 1.1 cable, the pad act as a non-pressure-sensitive digitizer. The pen has several buttons. Pushing down on the nib (as when writing) performs a left-click. There is a button the shaft of the pen for a right-click. There is another button the pen for a double left click.
Addendum: Only 23 pages of the 191 page user manaul are in English. Rather than putting out many short PDF manuals, one lanuage per manual, Adesso combined all the different languages into a single PDF manual. User-unfriendly. I want just one language in my manual. I want just one manual in my language.
Addendum: The first thing that will happen with such a pad and its special pen is that I will lose the special pen, rendering the entire system useless. Adesso does not yet price or sell replacement pens. This may be a showstopper. The manual says that there is a small hole in the digital pad through which you can thread a tether, and that you can attach the tether to the digital pen to avoid loss. Adesso does not provide the tether. There does not appear to be a hole through the pen, so it is not clear how one is supposed to securely attach the tether to the pen.
Addendum: If one inserts an SD memory card to give the pad additional storage, the pad requires an additional 5 seconds to boot up before one can write on it. Excuse me? Do I have to pray to the computer gods for 5 seconds every time I want to write on the pad? How many times per hour do I have to suffer through this 5 second penalty? I am still looking to see what the power-off time setting is and whether I have to fully boot up the pad every time I pause in my writing for longer than the power-off timeout.
Addendum: The sense of the sliding power switch is reversed. The power switch is a slider on the left edge of the pad, on the upper end. One slides the switch down to turn the unit on and up to turn the unit off. I think this is backwards. The universal convention is that one flips a single light switch up to turn the light on, and down to turn the light off. I have not yet been able to figure out whether the sliding power switch is recessed to avoid accidental turn-on and battery-drain while the unit is in my shoulder bag or brief case. More Info: The power switch is not recessed. It protrudes. This guarantees that the unit will be unintentionally powered up in my backpack, shoulder bag, or brief case. This is a major user-hostile design error. Clearly no one at Adesso actually uses this tablet to get their job done, as the tablet could lose mission critical data by exhausting the batteries while in one's briefcase or suitcase.
Addendum: When you switch pages on the paper pad you have to remember to press a button the digital pad to tell it you have switched pages. Happily, the status LCD panel shows you which page the digital pad thinks you are editing, so if you number your paper pages and your digital pages in the same way you can go back to an earlier paper page to edit it by flipping back the paper pad and telling the digital pad which page you are editing.
Addendum: The digital pad has the concept of folders as well as pages, so apparently one can create a large number of folders and have pages in each folder. I don't know whether folders are recursive or whether there is only one top-level set of folders. More info: There is only one level of folders. There are a maxium of 26 folders. There is a maximum of 99 pages per folder. The device can hold 2,574 pages of information, though it is not clear from the manual whether the device itself can hold this much information or whether this is an operating system limit on the maximum contents of an optional additional SD memory card. More Info: The folders are labeled A-Z. Pages are labeled 1-99. There does not appear to be the concept of a page numbered 0.
Addendum: An SD card has a sliding switch to prevent writing to the card.
Addendum: The less-than-fully-useful manual does not explain whether or how one can use an SD card and a USB SD card reader to transfer handwritten information to the computer. The Adesso web pages suggest this is possible, but the user's manual says nothing about it (that I have been able to find). The most interesting and useful information in the manual is in the trouble-shooting section, as that section contains lots of otherwise undocumented specifications and limitations.
Addendum: The tablet supports 20 hours of actual writing time on one set of 4 AAA batteries, and 68 hours of standby time. It is not clear whether these two times are additive or competing. That is, it is not clear whether you get 20 hours of writing plus 68 hours of standby time, or whether these times are the upper limits for using the tablet in just one mode. It is also not clear what standby time is or how you get to it, or how it is measured.
Addendum: The manul says that one AAA battery gives the pen 15 months of writing time. It is not clear whether the pen draws the same amount of power when you are writing as it does when the tablet is powered down. I suspect that the pen just broadcasts all the time. Happily, the pen itself has a low-power LED.
Addendum: It is possible to use rechargable AAA batteries in the tablet. I suspect I would go through several sets of batteries per week for the pad when I am doing a lot of writing in classes, meetings, or just doing longhand journaling. It is not clear whether it is possible to use rechargable AAA batteries in the pen.
Addendum: The maximum writing area is 8.5" by 11". The clip on the top of the pad does not appear large enough to accomodate my beloved wire-bound Ampad writing pads. There is a standard cloth-bound version of my favorite pad, so I supposed I could get along. It is not clear whether you are supposed to flip filled pages up over the top, tear them off and write on their backs, or just remove them. There is no provision on the tablet to hold or store or retain torn-off pages (at least, I don't see one--but maybe I tape a plastic folder to the back of the tablet to have a place to put my filled, torn-off paper pages).
Addendum: The LCD status panel shows you whether the digital pad is capturing pen strokes so you know whether you are writing to memory or just drawing on the paper with no possibility of eventual transport to the computer for handwriting recognition.
Addendum: The manual does not say what happens to the contents of memory if the batteries go flat. I assume that the contents of memory are lost under that circumstance. I also assume that one had better use a non-volatile SD memory card to avoid memory content loss in the case of the batteries going flat.
Addendum: The manual does not say how much memory the digitizer tablet has on its own, or how many pages of handwritten notes the tablet can store without the use of an SD memory card.
Addendum: The manual suggests SanDisk SD memory cards. It is not clear whether they work better, who tested them, or why, or whether this is just a paid-advertisement for SanDisk. There is also no discussion of whehter high-speed SD cards offer any advantages.
Addendum: When the ink cartridge runs out of ink, one has to use tweezers to remove the ink cartridge from the pen. Adesso thoughtfully supplies a small set of tweezers. It is not clear that these tweezers can be stored inside the tablet, so it looks as if you must only run out of ink when you are at your desk, not while you are in a meeting. Again, it looks to me as if no one at Adesso actually has to use one of these tablets to get their job done. More Info: The compartment in the tablet that holds two extra ink cartridges also has a little gizmo built-in that grips the tip of the ink cartridge so you can change the exhausted ink cartridge without having to carry the accessory tweezers around with you. I can guess how well the gizmo in the tablet's compartment works, given that Adesso also includes accessory tweezers (hint, the gizmo probably does not work at all, or there would not have been any need to include accessory tweezers).
Also note that this device is NOT the device pictured earlier this week on engadget and many other sites. As far as I know this is the only accurate picture of the cPC so far.
conventional medicine: A reliance on medical journals filled with scientific articles crafted largely with the help of freelance ghostwriters paid by 
