It should be news to no one that most parts of our economy are not doing very well.  That situation makes it especially tough on those of us that crave the latest and greatest mobility gadgets.

I’ve been a gadget collector for my entire adult life.  From a mobility point of view, I’ve been a very satisfied Table PC owner and user since late 2002 when they were first released.  Unlike many of my friends and peers, I keep my gadgets a bit longer.  The Tablet PCs that I’ve owned include: a Compaq TC1000, an HP TC1100 and most recently a Lenovo X60 Tablet.

I’ve started looking at e-book readers and UMPCs to either replace and/or supplement my nearly three year old Lenovo X60 Tablet.  I want a device that allows me to do two things very well: browse the internet and read e-books.  Additionally, it would be nice to occasionally listen to my digital music collection.

So what did I do?

For the last several months I’ve been researching MIDs, UMPCs, e-book readers in search of the perfect replacement device.  The prospects of the Apple and the Crunchgear tablets are intriguing, but they are not yet available.  Accordingly, I’d pretty much settled on the the announced but not yet available Archos 9 running Windows 7.  I had seriously considered the Viliv X70 UMPC but after learning that the OS was Windows XP Home Edition (not the Tablet PC Edition), I crossed it off my list.

Enter Windows 7 to the equation.

Needing to wait until the official retail release of Windows 7 (which determines the availability date of the Archos 9), I decided to keep looking for other options.  A couple of weekends ago, I learned that as a registered Microsoft partner and a subscriber to the Microsoft Action Pack, I was eligible to download the official RTM (release to manufacturing) version of Windows 7 Professional.

With my old TC1100 Tablet PC sitting on the shelf not being used, I downloaded the Windows 7 RTM with plans to install it on the TC1100.  I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I wasn’t even sure it would work.

Having been a long time reader of the forums at TabletPCBuzz.com, I quickly learned that others were already running Windows 7 on the TC1000/TC1100.   I found a TC1100 installation guide for the RC (release candidate) version of Windows 7 at HP/TC1100/Windows 7 Installation Notes,

While I followed these installation instructions in detail, I did not have problems with either the SoundMax or Wifi drivers.  I suspect that things were simply fixed in the RTM version of Windows 7.  When the installation completed, I was quickly impressed with the initial results and system performance.  Next, I installed my four favorite e-book readers, all of which work perfectly:

• Microsoft Reader (the one I use most often)
• Sony Reader (not the device, just the software)
• Barnes & Nobel eReader (formerly eReader.com)
• Zinio (for magazines)

My TC1100 has new life!  I couldn’t be happier with the results and performance of the device with Windows 7 on it.  Compared to the Archos 9, I now have:

• a bigger screen (10” 1024×768  vs. 9” 1024×600)
• a 1.2 Ghz Intel Pentium M (733) processor vs. an 800 Mhz Intel Atom (Silverthorne)
• more RAM (1536 MB vs. 1024 MB)
• more money in my pocket

What’s missing from the TC1100 is:

• finger touch
• a faster graphics processor

While I can’t run Aero Glass Desktop, Flip, 3D or Media Center, my TC1100 boots faster than ever and now has many of the features of a new UMPC or Tablet running Windows 7.  The best part is that in these challenging economic times I did not need to spend several hundred dollars.
—
Rich Bilancia