NovaSam

Hello all,
I'm new to the forum and had a question about tablet PC's. I work for a company that has thousands of kiosks around the nation. Part of my job duties are to optimize the location of our kiosks. This involves drawing small scale diagrams identifying where the kiosks need to go along with detailed information about the specific site (power/phone needs).

Currently, I use a paper form to capture all of this information, but am hoping to find a more efficient method as the workload increases. I presume a tablet PC could help me utilize a simple drawing program (which I could take suggestions on) and also allow me to send the document electronically vs. snail mail.

I need help/suggestions on what type of tablet PC would fit my needs and if there are any drawing programs out there that would assist me in the small scale sketches I do on what I call "survey forms".

Thanks,
Sam

Aladdin Builders

Motion PC Tablets are great IMO....

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bamawildcat

Look at the Fujitsu Stylistic line. Great tablets and can be had from eBay for reasonable prices.

A big decision will be whether you go with an active or passive digitizer.

A passive digitizer requires no special pen, and you can use your finger, like an iPhone. The BIG downside? Not much accuracy. If you want to draw on it you have to bear down harder than you would an actual paper.

An active digitizer requires a special pen, and you cannot use your hand or other objects. It is really accurate, and can draw different shades or thicknesses depending on how hard you press the pen. The downside? You lose the pen, you are out of luck.

thom

Don't buy an HP Tablet. I did. HP Sucks.

One of the accessories does not fit. I talked to probably a dozen people before one said, oh yea, that won't work on that unit. They agreed to refund the $80 but didn't.

The car charger comes with an adapter to fit the unit rather that a plug that fits. The adapter was missing. They said they would send another (a different person, one of many you must talk to) but they didn't.

This was an expensive special order unit. It's pretty clear, after HP gets your money they are unwilling to honor even the initial sale to insure you got what you paid for.

HP, a once great company, is now just another internet scam.

HP SUCKS.

Mitch M

I have to disagree. I have and had HP desktop and presently also have a HP tablet. I got it 2.5 years ago and I have never had any problem with it. I use a wireless card and it stays in my truck on the computer stand all day long just about every day. Heat and cold it works great.

I did have a problem with an HP printer a few years ago and contacted HP. They sent me a replacement at no charge. I have used Dell at another office and I was not happy with it. I have used Toshiba. My wife has one right now but I am not sure she is happy with it.

thom

I think the current HP is a different company entirely. I've had good luck with them in the past, this last time was different. Rather than deal with their problems, they spent a few hours of my time transferring my call around the world (and hanging up a few times). Every person I talked to was only interested in telling me why they could not take care of me, not actually solving the problems created by their own incompetence. They were happy to admit their screw-ups, just kept explaining why company policy would not allow them to be solved.

When I finally got people who agreed to resolve the problems, they were friendly enough, took all the information, but did not follow through. This was two different people in two different locations, solving two different problems with the hardware they provided, but the same (lack of) result.

I now believe this was their intent, to just agree to solve the problem but to do nothing. That would be consistent with the information provided by the countless other employees who said company policy would not allow them to actually remedy the problems they created.

Mitch M

Thom, sorry you have had problems with it. I have not had to use them in quite a while. I bought a new computer a couple of years ago. Vista had just come out and it was preloaded.

I have been happy with HP so I will probably buy another in the future unless I see something different. I bought my tablet through the NAR so I got a good price. It is aggravating that it did not specifically have the CD drive installed. It is separate. It can be annoying but I deal with it. It makes it lighter. I don't really need it unless I am loading software. I save everything to a stick.

Mitch M

Is the kiosks for areas like malls or is it designed for outside? I am not sure what you have to measure. If it is inside, you can probably get a copy of the plan in dwg format and then input things then. However, from my own experience and what I have heard there is a big learning curve. It is kind of hard to suggest a software unless we can understand more about what you are trying to do.

Another one that comes to mind is Good Sketchup. I have not used it yet but I think some of the guys have. One last thought is Leica laser measure. You can measure an area with that and it will save it to a pda. I do not have that version but the one that I do have is very accurate and it has saved me a lot of time when I do use it.

NovaSam

The kiosks are designed for grocery stores for the most part. There are two different kiosks, one of which can only be inside and the other can be placed inside and outside. Since we dont usaully have access to the store plans we are forced to draw freehand. The space we try and capture is the front of the interior portion of the store.

My main goal is to try and transmit these "forms" at the time they are finished vs. compiling all of the surveys at the end of the week and sending them snail mail. I assume that with a tablet PC, s simple drawing software program and wireless internet I should be able to accomplish this.

Hope this helps to clarify what problem I am trying to find a solution for.

Thanks!

DeanV

Dell xt has active and passive input on the screen.