Tablet-like

I hate Scoble.

Robert has been waxing lyrical about the utility of the tablet PC recently (or try here 'cause feedster is a bit flaky...) and linked to this note on the latest beta release of MS OneNote.
As a long time user of Palm devices -- starting with the original Pilot, the III and the M130 -- I have to say I was disappointed with the first few weeks on my X5 AXIM when I first got it a year ago. What the heck has that got to do with OneNote or the tablet? Well, as a tech devotee, I have been interested in efficient, energy saving ways of getting my head into my computer. On a regular basis, I run around from office buildings and plants to data centers and health care facilities. I can't be pulling out my laptop warmer every time I have a thought. Sure, taking grade 9 typing was the smartest decision I ever made in high school and it makes for efficient text input, but I have long
sought a fluid pen-based mechanism to get text and graphics into the computer. PDA's took me only part of the way there.

The Dell Axim was a surprise offering from one of my key technical partners. I wasn't looking to make a change from the M130, but my eyes loved the screen on the Dell right away. For one thing; I could read it. I also love the ability it has to take spoken word notes and store audio files. I can stuff two kinds of
memory cards in it and take a week's worth of documents anywhere. Pocket Outlook or whatever they call the lame contact manager that came with
the Axim, is not the equal of the Palm contact management software. Even the Word and Excel wannabe apps that Palm stuffs in its box are better than the eponymous PocketPC offerings from MS. The style of rapid fire note-making with timestamps, coupled with the quick cut and paste gestures that I was use to with my Palm were not there with my Axim even with Windows Mobile 2003. So I went to work making my PocketPC more Palm-like. I use Agenda Fusion for my main worker-bee program and picked up RegKing in order to hack the registry. I didn't bother to learn any of the alternate input pen techniques that were built into Windows CE, I stuck with the Palm oriented block recognizer. I learned how to tame the ActiveSync monster and I finally got AvantGo to work after 6 months of trying (it had been a breeze to use on the Palm). And I have been blissfully in no-growth mode on
my Axim until I read Scoble. And Pratley.

My current "main" machine is a Dell Latitude C840 and, as we all do after a couple of years, I've been kicking the tires of different machines -- thinking about making a change. Tablets turn my crank but I'm cheap. I am no longer interested in paying early adopter premiums and tablets seem unreasonably expensive to me right now. When everything I need to do, from design to development can be done on my stacked Dell, my inner old-man tells me to spend less and grow more "organically". So why not try a freebie demo of OneNote and see if this represents a key technology shift? Maybe I'll be so blown away that the tablet premium will seem worth it. So I browsed and downloaded. The features list I saw talked about the ability to download notes from the PocketPC. I played. I tried. I wiped it off my machine. OneNote does not do handwriting recognition, Windows XP Tablet does and I don't have that, so