I’m still actively using my Windows 8 Based Dell Tablet; but I have a couple of updates. Let’s talk Microsoft OneNote.
I work in corporate America, as a software quality professional. I do that in the healthcare arena as well, and as such, I often find myself either on the phone in conference calls or going from meeting to meeting every day. My work day starts between 7:00-7:30am and usually ends between 5:00-5:30pm. I am often in demand for a couple of reasons:
- I’ve got over 21 years of experience in quality assurance and am an SDLC expert
- I’ve got over 17 years of experience as a technology journalist, and I’m often sought out by people at the office – both formally and informally – to address technology issues.
Yep. I get everything from, “Chris can you help us define the right mobile testing strategy for this project?” to, “Chris, my daughter can’t get her iPad to download this content.”
If I’m not at my desk, I’m out and about; and being a contractor, I don’t have a cubicle to myself. I’m located in a contractor’s bullpen with 32″ of shelf space – just enough room for my desk phone, laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse and coffee cup – to call my own. As such, having my Dell Latitude 10 ST2 here at the office is very beneficial, and actually pretty cool.
Microsoft OneNote is a really great note taking application. Inking aside for just a moment, its organizational features allow me to take and organize notes for any number of different project meetings. If notes are typed, or if hand written notes are run through the app’s included OCR engine, notes can be cataloged and searched quickly and easily.
From a digital inking perspective, the device just shines. As a digital notepad, I can use the device’s TabletPC features and Wacom stylus make taking handwritten notes easy. Even without transcoding all of the digital ink into text, it’s still easy to organize and find meeting notes from a specific meeting and date thanks to OneNote’s cataloging system.
I’ve used TabletPC’s at two different companies between 2007 and 2010. I really liked the experience and found it to be the type of computing experience that worked the best for me. I’ve been trying to replicate that with my iPad, but the technology in it just didn’t cut it, despite the type of note taking app or stylus I used. While Windows 8 isn’t my favorite OS, mostly due to ModernUI, I’ll gladly use it as long as I can keep the Latitude 10 ST2′s slim form factor and easily portability. This is likely one tool that I will continue to use for years to come, if only for this purpose. I’ve gone green when it comes to meeting notes. No more pads of paper for me…
I was recently made aware of some updates that became available for the device. Dell is actually pretty good at improving current generation products; and the Latitude 10 ST2 recently got a BIOS update as well as driver and support program updates during mid to late April 2013. I spent a good deal of time downloading the files and planned on spending a small amount of time refreshing the BIOS and those drivers I mentioned. I’m hopeful that the updates make a bit of a difference performance wise.
As you may recall from the review, while the tablet has 1.8Ghz Atom z2760 processor, the device doesn’t have a lot of punch. The Atom z2760 processor may be “fast,” but it doesn’t have a lot of horse power.
One of the drivers that got updated was the tablet’s graphics driver. This is important, as the original Windows Experience Index score for the device is 3.3, with the devices Gaming Graphics determining the overall score. There was a change after the updates were applied.
The overall Windows Experience Index Score went down from 3.3 to 3.2.
Prior to the new graphics drivers being installed, the Desktop Graphics score was 3.8 and the Gaming Graphics score was 3.3. After the graphics driver update, both dropped to 3.2. I’m not encouraged…
I will need to do more testing, and there may yet be another driver update. Hopefully, the combination of BIOS and driver updates will produce a smoother experience. However, I’m not holding my breath.
