Tablet PCs – The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread -This Knowledge Has Been Valued by a Very Small Group – Participants and Users – Lesson Learned, Be A Tablet PC Goober No Matter What Everyone Else Thinks!

I dearly love all this talk about Tablet PCs and those who know the value are the users and participants. We have log of “Magpies” here too, those who just talk about it and are afraid to break the paradigms of the keyboard. As everyone knows I have been an avid user for years, why, because I saw value and was not afraid to experiment with other means of interacting. That fear is alive and well today and has been for years.

I have had a hospital CEO in Long Beach run for the hills to hide when I would show up with my Tablet, in other words the Medical Quack was here again with that “thing”, darn I don’t want to have to deal with it and learn something new that might help me and show value (grin). I used to just sit there and watch the shear look of panic that would come over his face. What was also funny was the look of anger I would get if the battery alert went off, it was like shut that thing up.

I used to do some training for Intel at retail locations and sometimes I would have a representative from HP show up and we worked together. It was funny that the HP rep would show up with old paper files to have the Best Buy or Circuit City attendees sign in. What did I do? I scanned an Intel sign in sheet on the tablet pc and had everyone sign in that way – paperless. I used to sit and wonder why a progressive company like HP didn’t train their “own” employees on value, but yet were there to pitch and promote their technology savvy products? What was up with that picture? HP reps couldn’t use their own tablets? Most of them I met didn’t even own one, but they could sure tell you how to connect a TV to a notebook, again I mention this as it relates to where our focus is, entertainment and not knowledge.

What was really great was the ability to use the touch screen capabilities of the Tablet PC to show Intel flash videos to help educate. I even had a couple store managers who thought that was very cool, and then I had the old school folks who didn’t get it and thought I was showing cartoons, go figure (grin).

Even when I was at HIMMS in 2008 the paradigms of the keyboard were strong and alive. There were many vendors selling and promoting Tablet PCs, but the unspoken rule of thumb was “don’t take that thing out of the booth, show the value here instead of showing value on how it could be used at a convention”. I did it but was seen as a bit of “goober” as folks just saw this as “not being cool”. I laughed and generated a lot of interest when I visited other booths and was prepared with my One Note Intelligence Files, ready to take notes, and hey the EHR vendors were impressed too. Panasonic, Motion and more, would they step outside the booth and use a tablet in real life – heck no – you would look like a “goober” if you did that (grin). God forbid if you actually walked around with a device that you had incorporated into your own personal and professional lifestyle, that was just not cool and appearance as a disguised Magpie was all.

HIMMS 2008 summary - getting organized is the trick

At HIMMS it was back to the old “Magpie” philosophy of I’m going to tell you what you can do with a tablet pc, but for God’s sakes don’t expect me to use one, I’m just here to sell you. Below is a video of me live at HIMMS 2008, just being me and using technology, defying the “Magpie” code of honor.

I used to frequently run into drug reps that were given Tablet PCs to use for the course of their work and would chat. Do you think any of them knew how to go beyond their installed programs and use Windows Journal to take notes in meetings, not a one and most just complained about having to use a Tablet pc. This comes back to education and participation once again.

It was and still is truly a sad note to see frustration and anger from those who would choose to be non participants and thus saw very little value with Tablet PCs, but hopefully we are now overcoming some of this.

I have an entire section on this blog devoted to Tablet PCs, so be a “goober” and explore and find some value (grin).

According to CNN, tablet-sized computers are now "a much-hyped category of electronics." True. The Associated Press says, "Tablet-style computers that run Windows have been available for a decade." Yes, and a lot longer than that. And a PC World editor states, "Tablet PC's are not new.

The slate form factor portable computer has been around for almost a decade, since Microsoft initially pushed the concept with its Windows XP Tablet PC Edition." Nope. Microsoft did not initially push the concept with the XP Tablet PC Edition. Microsoft released a tablet OS way before that, in 1991, and even then it was just a reaction to what others had done before.

Tablet PCs: Learning From The Past -- Table PCs -- InformationWeek

Easy to swallow - the tablet pc