Samsung Q1

I recently purchased a HP Tablet (Pavilion TX1200), works nice, cheap, runs Vista & HomeGauge 4 very well. Has a decent sized screen, and definitely gives the wow factor to the clients.

My biggest pet peeve about the tablet is the built in mouse (when in laptop mode). At first I wanted to scream at the thing, but after a while I got a bit better at using it. I’m getting more comfortable with it every day. Part of the problem is I keep switching back and forth between the tablet and my laptop, and I really should just use the tablet and put the laptop on the shelf.

HG 4 also has turned out to work great, has freed me to spend more time doing the inspection and less time documenting it, very nice improvement over their previous version. Anyone not using might want to check out the latest version.

Fujitsu Life book T4215 is what I’ve been using for the last 6 months

It ROCKS :slight_smile:

12" screen big enough for an old fart like me to see and easy to carry around.

No bigger that an ordinary clip board.

Not too expensive either, as tablets go.

Cheers

I remember the good old days when that phrase was only used for new guns . . .

Hey, it took 5 years to find SW that I like.
Now, I’m faster than 5.53 kbps!

I’m on Satellite!

Congratulations. We’ll have to hook up later and test out your new speed :slight_smile:

Russell’s already doin’ that… http://scottcompany.com/p-mrs.htm :cool: :stuck_out_tongue: :cool: :mrgreen:

Aw, you’re methin’ with me now, Lar!
:cool: :smiley: :wink:

Now I understand how you make all that money!

Funny Guy!!

I am using Q1 with Palm Tech software. I dropped it twice, it shut down and came back working fine without the loss of the data.

I was using a PDA and like this much better. Screen is great size and it is easy to carry around. Little tough in bright daylight but I get through it.

Slow to boot up, also. However I get 2 inspections out of the extended 6 hour battery with no problems!

Bought it for $767 frpm Provantage. It was the cheapest model.

Philip R. Hinman
NJ NACHI

Thanks Phil, that’s a good deal. I found it here for anyone looking: http://www.provantage.com/samsung-np-q1bv000~7SAMG003.htm

I might have to get it to use a demo for our software :wink:

Guys,
There are new PDAs that have larger screens also…and with the added benefit of longer battery life (over 12 hrs)…better handwriting interface… instant On/Off…readability outside… easier to carry around…plus you do not need to deal with the over-bloated Microsoft OS of Vista or XP. You do not need a full blown Windows Operating System to do data collection.

Here are a few I recommend…

http://www.expansys-usa.com/p.aspx?i=150276

http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/handhelds/handhelds/1/storefronts/FB041AA%2523ABA

(These devices are actually easier to read and have bigger text on the screen (640x480) then something like the Samsung Q1)

Jeff

Jeff,

You just recommended a $1,200 PDA over a $767 full blown windows xp system. An XP system can install normal software, browse the internet as a normal browser, has a better resolution, can connect to the internet, and create your pdf reports without transferring to another computer. Plus Windows Mobile is slow and crashes constantly (at least on my treo, I have to reboot at least once a day).

I could understand recommending a low end PDA for someone on a budget, but you can get a normal tablet PC for $1200 as we already showed in this thread! The second PDA is $450 which makes more sense as your saving a few hundred dollars but your still limited to just a PDA.

My thoughts on this have always been that if you purchase a tablet or laptop you can always give it to your kids when you go get a new down the road and you can use it for other programs now. A PDA is pretty much useless except for inspections, and with most of the software out there today you need to transfer the data to a normal computer to print the report anyways (I think Palm-Tech allows you to print directly now, I’m not sure about anyone else).

The last problem is the screen size & resolution of a pda is low which means lots of scrolling around to do anything. I’ve played with the Q1, it’s speed is pretty awesome and can get things done much faster with its 1200x600 (I think that’s what it’s at) resolution. Of course a normal tablet is great too.

Dominic,
Sorry to tell you but in this case you are not familiar enough with handhelds to say that they are “slow and crash constantly”. We have been using handhelds for over 10 years starting with the Apple Newton for doing inspection software. 3D said the same thing 10 years ago as did Home Gauge… that the handhelds made no sense… and now both companies have a handheld solution. All the major inspection software companies have a handheld solution…why…because it makes sense. If the software is written right you do not need to do any scrolling and actually can collect data much quicker then you can with a full blown PC tablet…and it completely avoids the rekeying of data that a lot of inspectors do with PC driven reporting software.
Yes…a $1,000 PDA is the Rolls-Royce…but you can also get ones for less then $300…and yes…most of the inspection software nowadays can print directly from the handheld to a portable printer…so that an inspector can walk around the house and collect their inspection data on a $300 PDA and then print the report immediately and be done. I have had a Q1 and a HP iPaq 4700 PocketPC and the resolution and screen readabilty of the PDA is better then the Q1 without a doubt. You can do almost anything on a PDA that you can do on a PC…browse the internet, e-mail, print Word documents…it is a real computer with a real operating system that is actually built to run on a small screen…which Vista or XP is NOT written for.
My experience over the last 10 years in the home inspection market has taught me that it is much better to buy a $300 PDA FIRST and then buy a Tablet after if you do not like it since you can still use the PDA for keeping track of your schedule, address book, mapping, e-mail etc…where a Tablet PC unfortunately will become an expense doorstop if it does not work for you since it really is not a good desktop machine replacement.

Finally…if you set the Q1 to (1200x600) resolution you would need a toothpick to actually pick the menus since the font would be so small on the screen and would make it difficult to use. If anyone rememebers the small mini-computers running a full-blown Windows OS made in England about 10 years ago you will know what I am talking about.

Jeff

PDA’s blow

Hey Jeff,

I am actually VERY familiar with handhelds. I’ve used them for over 10 years, was network administrator for a school that had dozens of them and maintained them as well as network administrator for law firms running on blackberrys. In fact I have a drawer with 8 old PDA’s sitting in it (my own museum of them).

I agree that a $300 PDA makes sense if you’re looking for a PDA and you can try it out without spending a lot. You can even get some decent PDA’s for less. The rolls royce doesn’t make sense as it’s still slow and very expensive, and limited versus a full tablet. The Palm OS was stable and ran great, unfortunatley Windows Mobile doesn’t. I hope palm’s OS is reinvigorated by going to a linux core, but it doesn’t look that way as Windows is squashing them. I’m keeping my eye on the new nokia tablets running linux as a possibility but they are still a little week.

I have yet to see a PDA program on a 2.5 inch screen that you can enter in data faster than a 7" to 10" screen. That just does not make sense. If you can see 50 comments on the tablet, and 5 on a pda, how does the pda make it faster? PDA’s are great for guys who really want to hold something in their hand and walk around room to room and don’t want a large tablet. That’s why the Q1 and other UMPC’s have come into the market and fit in perfectly offering the best of both worlds.

The HP iPaq 4700 is nice, it has a 4" inch screen which isn’t bad, 600mhz processor which isn’t bad, but it still only has 64 megs of ram and 128mb of rom. How can something with that little memory import a hundred photographs, resize them automatically, then allow you to photo edit them. Especially if you’re taking pics at 3megapixels or above. You’d have a hard time.

I realize the other top programs have a PDA option. And in fact when someone calls me and says they really want a PDA program, I happily tell them who to go check out. I’ve looked at running my program on the iPhone as it can run a reduced version of java and I could do it without too much modification, but still think it a bad idea, maybe I’ll be proven wrong at some point.

The thing is, I sell multiple programs a week to people who call me and say they use x software program on their PDA and they are unhappy with it. They don’t like the size, speed and other inconveniences. If they would just use the full version of the software program they’d probably still be happy. I guess I’m afraid at leaving a bad feeling with guys. I did put together a small version about a year ago and gave it to a company with 30 inspectors to test out who’d been using our program on tablets. Out of the 30, none of them liked the PDA better. That could be because I did a bad job trying to squeeze things onto the small screen, but I think it’s because things are so much more efficient on the larger screen that people don’t want to be shrunk down.

I’ve gone to a few NACHI meetings and each time ended up talking to someone who bought the PDA and normal version of software and switched to the normal version, PDA remains unused.

I do concede, you’ve been around a lot longer than I have and maybe I did make a bad run at it the first time and I’m wrong. I do have inspectors using my insurance software on Treo’s running on the Palm OS but those are for 2-4 page insurance inspections.

This actually sounds like a good idea for a poll, which I think I’ll go make. I’m very interested in seeing the responses.

Dominic,
How much programming have you done for a PDA ? I would venture a guess that the inspectors that have had a bad experience on a PDA is because of the software…not because of the hardware. What happens is that the software company that wrote the inspection software for the PC think they can use the same interface on a PDA and when they do that it…as Mr. Kelly puts it…it Blows. You need to rethink the interface to make sure that it makes sense. We have literally thousands of inspectors that use our software everyday on a PDA or CE tablet. Once they have used our software on a PDA they never looked back. It is way too convenient for them to be able to walk around and enter the data as they are doing their inspection and then immediately print out their report within 5 minutes and then be done…then to go back to their office at night and spend hours reentering data on a PC at the office using reporting software.
Many have tried a laptop or tablet device in the field but they find themselves setting it up in the kitchen and having to run back and forth to enter the data or reentering the data at the end of the inspection while the Realtor is watching them impatiently. I agree…the handheld solution is not for everyone…some people think they need to see a full page of information at once to enter data but you don’t.
It actually would take me longer to look through a list of 50 comments to find the one I need then to have a list that is more compact and had dropdowns inside the comments. With inspectors that use our program I rarely see more then 30 comments for each item since you can have dropdowns within each comment to build your comment and you can group the comments plus have the most common comments at the top of the list.
With pictures you actually do not have to import them at all…just reference them…you take the pictures with your camera…insert the same card into your PocketPC and when you print the report it automatically prints the pictures in the report where they need to be…no need to have a huge amount of memory. You reference the pictures in the software as you are doing the actual inspection. With editing the pictures…I don’t see inspectors doing that in the field anyways…so if they want to edit the pictures they would be doing that at the office on their regular PC.
I believe putting your software on an iPhone would be a great idea but I do not think the market is ready for it yet…and you would definitely need to start from scratch when it comes to the interface… you do not want to squeeze your current interface into that small of a screen. As we learned many years ago when attending a Apple Newton developers conference… you need to rethink…not just port over the same interface.
Saying that a PDA is slow is not correct at all…just because the processor is only 600 mhz does not mean it is slow since the operating system is a 100x smaller then a full-blown Windows OS the actual running of our software is very fast and never slow.
Anyways…every inspector has to discover on their own as to what type of solution they are looking for and what works best for them.

Jeff

You do not have to rethink anything, PDA’s are too small, too slow, and under powered, besides that they are great. The bubble game is fun on them and perhaps tetris, but not a home inspection. I have an axium somewhere???

I bought a 12.1" laptop because I thought smaller and lighter would be better. It lasted one night with me, I turned it in for a 15" wide screen vista machine. The difference in weight was probably equal to 1/2 of my normal lunch, so what was the point really?

I have not seen a PDA that will operate as fast and efficiently as a laptop, and I hate the tiny screens. The samsung Q thingy reminded me of pong (wish I still had that).

I put my laptop in the kitchen and input my data there, it is really not to hard to remember that that the side garage door is fubar in that long walk back to the kitchen. I carry enough crap around during the inspection as it is.

Carry on. :smiley:

I have a Mac plus somewhere that probably is equal in size and speed to a pda. :stuck_out_tongue:

Hey Jeff,

I’ve only spent about 1000 hours of programming for PDA and only for the Palm OS. I totally agree the interface has to be totally different than the pc version, and the program I wrote for Farmers Insurance inspectors was totally different in interface. Simple drop down boxes, radio buttons, and a few text fields as well as adding photos. It was designed for Palm OS (specifically the treo or any palm device with a wireless card inserted) which wasn’t strong enough to create a pdf which they required so it actually uploaded the data over the phones wireless connection to the server which generated and emailed the pdf that Farmers required. But that was to create and fill in a specific insurance form they had.

I do agree if I did bring the program over to the iPhone I’d have to redo the interface. I’ve only had about a dozen people ask if the program would work on the iPhone so it doesn’t really seem popular enough yet and I don’t know if it will ever be. Luckily I did not need to make huge changes to get the program to work on a mac.

600mhz for a pda is about as fast as it gets, I have just not had good experiences with windows mobile. I think they need to rewrite it from the ground up. Palm was just much more stable.

I don’t think that just because an inspector uses a tablet or laptop on site means they print on site. Many that I talk to still go home and look it over and then email it later that night. Many print on site too, personal prefrence. I think the advantage of the PDA is obviously it’s size and the tablet/laptop is that you have a larger screen (many inspectors have a hard time with the small text), can customize your templates on the fly when your on site, add new comments and edit photos easier. I see the reports that are uploaded to our site and about 80% of the guys annotate photos.

You must be doing good with the PDA software you have though as no one has ever switched to our software and said they were using your PDA version that I know of. I haven’t checked out your PDA software, but when I get a break at some point I’ll download the trial and check it out or hopefully you’ll be at the NACHI conference and we can catch up and talk.

I really don’t think I’ll ever be developing software again for a PDA as I really think the UMPC’s will take over. My big questions is, like you stated the PDA’s keep getting faster and faster, at what point does a PDA become a UMPC? At this point the UMPC’s start around 1ghz, only 400 mhz more than the PDA you pointed out (thought with a gig of ram). Will companies keep making PDA’s or are they just going to merge into phones or UMPC. Right now it seems like the PDA lines are decreasing although it’s rumoured Palm might make a last stab at it.

By the way, does all the pda software out there right now run on windows mobile, or does any still run on Palm (I’m guessing Palm Tech runs on a palm)?

I agree Brian.
I have my camera to record what I need and no PDA is going to let me edit photos on site.
Competition has a great looking report and mine needs to be better.
I suppose a small percentage of inspectors use them but most do not .