But I Actually Like Vista!

There’s been a lot of Vista bashing going on in the blogosphere lately. Postings about the horrors of attempting to run Vista on a UMPC, postings about computer vendors now offering XP downgrades from Vista, even postings from Chippy at the UMPC Portal on how he’s removed Vista and installed the XP Tablet Edition on his Kohjinsha SH6.

Well, I’m going to have to post a respectful disagreement with all this Vista negativity. I like Vista on my SH6 UMPC. I haven’t had any serious problems with Vista, and I’ve really come to appreciate the new features that it offers over XP.

Features like ease of managing local networks, ease in adding printers, cleaner and more attractive end user interface, better Tablet features (like improved handwriting recognition), decent performance (if you have 2 GBs of memory!), and good stability (I’ve found it comparable or better than the Tablet OS).

Now there are a few glitches in Vista, like sometimes being very slow in coming out of Sleep mode, but really nothing that I feel detracts all that greatly from its positives.

What can I say but that I’m just happy with Vista on my UMPC. Am I really the only person who is?

Kohjinsha SH8 Now For Sale From Dynamism

Dynamism now has the SH8, even the SSD model, now for sale with late September delivery.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I’ve been very busy starting work with a new pharmaceutical client in PA and so have been pretty slack about posting here. Apologies to everyone following my experiences with the Kohjinsha SH6.

To quickly summarize: the SH6 is still working extremely well. It’s really just about the very best possible work/travel/home computer for me. Performance is more than adequate and rarely do I notice that I’m only running a 600 MhZ processor. Multimedia performance is amazing! Last night I watched the HBO Films production of “As You Like It” in my hotel room in full screen mode and it ran the whole movie without a pause or hiccup. My regular stable of Office 2007 work applications run superbly: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Project.

Today’s picture shows my SH6 at my client work site. It’s using the monitor, keyboard, and mouse of the unused Compaq desktop that my client gave me. By the way, many people at my client have been simply blown away by the SH6 given it’s small size and amazing performance. I think I’ve sold a bunch of them here for Kohjinsha!

Internet Tablet School

The Internet Tablet School looks like a great resource for new N800 owners.

In Praise of Dynamism

I mentioned earlier here in this blog that I had found a bug in the keyboard driver in my Kohjinsha SH6, and had found an annoyance in the fact that WiFi and Bluetooth turned off when the SH6 went to sleep and stayed turned off when it was awakened. Well, I reported both problems to Dynamism and they in turn have just sent me email saying both problems have been solved. They are FedEx’ing me a CD with both a Vista update and BIOS update included on it. Now that’s the kind of support I was hoping to get when I purchased my SH6 from Dynamism! Bravo!!!

In Praise of the SH6 Screen

Check out the UMPC Portal posting.

“SH8″ Available from US Reseller on 9/17

Vye Computers will be offering the S37, which is basically the same computer as the Kohjinsha SH8 with a US keyboard, for sale in the US on 9/17.

Kohjinsha SH8 Now For Sale

Conics.net in Japan now has the Kohjinsha SH8 available for sale. It features a 200MhZ faster processor and 20 GB more disk space than the SH6. The US Kohjinsha reseller Dynamism still only has the SH6 on their Web site. Conics will ship to the US and has a dollar price of $1168.51 shown on their Web site.

My N800 Hasn’t Been Completely Replaced Yet!

Yesterday I left a posting here saying that my SH6 has replaced my N800. Well, it turns out that’s not completely true. I don’t use my N800 in the house anymore to surf the Web or check email, but today I had to leave the house for a shopping trip with my wife.  I needed to stay in touch with my work email so my Treo alone wouldn’t be adequate (it can’t handle Outlook Web Access). So the choice was between my SH6 and my N800.

I took the N800 with me. Why? Because it fit into the pocket of my shorts. Carrying the SH6 would have meant taking it along in some kind of bag which seemed more trouble than it was worth just for checking email. So it looks like the N800 has some life left in it yet!

SH6 Status Report

Well I’ve had my Kohjinsha SH6 for over a week now and here are some more thoughts on it:

1. I’ve only found one problem with it – apparently the keyboard driver that Dynamism installed on it has a slight bug: if you hit the Caps Lock key it gets stuck in Caps Lock mode and you have to reboot to get out of it. I just sent email to Dynamism today and I’m anxious to see how they respond to this bug report.
2. It’s definitely replaced my Electrovaya SC-3000 Tablet PC; in fact, I’ve given my Tablet to my wife!
3. A bit of a surprise for me: it’s also replaced my Nokia N800. I haven’t even turned on my N800 for days now. When not being used, my SH6 sits on top of a book shelf in our living room where my N800 used to sit. The SH6 is normally in sleep mode with the screen closed over the keyboard. When I want to do something on the Web I just grab it, pull back the screen, and I’m surfing the Web in seconds. It’s just as convenient as the N800, but lots more powerful.