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Zoostorm SL8 Windows Slate - it's not an iPad, it's a computer and it runs all your Windows applications.

Zoostorm SL8 gets a great review from Techradar

April 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

According to a recent (01/04/11) review on Techradar, the Zoostorm SL8 is”one of the best Windows 7 tablets on the market.”

The review goes on to say: “We were pleasantly surprised by the Zoostorm SL8 3310-9500, and those after a Windows 7 tablet would be hard pushed to find a better one elsewhere…” also noting the tablet’s excellent screen, easy portability and solid build quallity. It was awarded three and a half stars out of five – a good result, given the quality of other competing tablets, and only half a star below the iPad 2!

Visit Techradar to read more.

Filed Under: News, Press Release Tagged With: ,

Zoostorm SL8 – accessories & tips

April 1, 2011 By 1 Comment

We think that the Zoostorm SL8 has great scope for hardware add-ons, and in particular we’ve been trialling external Bluetooth and portable USB keyboards to compliment the device. Two in particular that we’ve found work extremely well with the SL8 are the Dinovo Mini and the Freedom Pro Universal Bluetooth Keyboard.

  • Dinovo Mini – The Dinovo mini is a pal-sized keyboard which runs independently on rechargeable batteries. It connects to devices using Bluetooth technology and has backlit keys to make typing on dimly-lit trains and dark rooms much easier.
  • Freedom Pro Universal Bluetooth Keyboard – The Freedom Pro keyboard is a regular-sized keyboard that folds in half for easier mobility. It comes with a foldable stand and case, and is powered by AAA batteries. It can also connect to BlackBerry and Android phones.

We’ve also been looking at suitable cases for the Zoostorm SL8 to keep it safe. Our preference so far has been the Techair 11.6” netbook case, which is just the right size to fit the device snugly inside, with extra pockets for any additional keyboards/stands or other small peripherals.

Tips

Fixing a small/awkward on-screen keyboard
It’s been noted that the on-screen keyboard for the SL8 can be a bit on the small-side. To fix this, you can either dock the keyboard at the bottom of the screen (which will also make it easier to type into) or drag the right hand corner of the keyboard to expand it.

Touch screen accuracy
If the accuracy off the touch screen seems to be slightly unpredictable, it is possible calibrate the device in order to fix any small glitches in the buttons and sensitivity of the device. Go to Control Panel  > Hardware & Sound > Tablet PC Settings and then select ‘calibrate’ in the display options box.

CTRL + ALT + DEL
It was brought to our attention that it can be tricky to deploy Ctrl-Alt-Del using the SL8, and as such many people are attempting to work around it by using the option in group policy to not use Ctrl-Alt-Del and rely on the Safeboot on screen keyboard instead.

Our tips on how to correctly utilise Ctrl-Alt-Del:

  • Firstly, configure the SL8 to use the windows accessibility keyboard for logon.
  • Secondly, change the local security group settings for the interactive logon policy item to enabled

Did you know that if you hold your finger over the hot key (light sensor) on the top left hand corner of the bezel, and hold down the power button for 2-3 seconds this does ‘ctrl-alt-del’?

Filed Under: Hints and Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Slates and Kindles: Tablet computing in a corporate setting

March 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recently, we wrote an article that began a little something like this:

“Interest in mobile computing has soared over the past 18 months. Thanks to wireless networks and better battery life spans, more and more people are turning to handheld devices to access their working world from wherever they are. Tablet or Slate computing is the latest and most advanced technology emerging from this increased focus on mobile working, and with such handheld devices as the iPad and Zoostorm SL8 overtaking sales of their conventional forbears the time seems right for the Health Sector to bring Slates into their working environments.”

It’s clear though, that the usefulness of slate computers isn’t reserved for use within the health sector. All businesses could benefit from them, given the amount of paper and information they deal with on a day-to-day basis. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Slate computing – real world experiences part 4

March 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some feedback, warts and all, from one of our clients (and our reaction, in blue):

“The Good

It seems fine to sit on windows 7 on our domain. It has office 2010, virus protection, and all the usual trust apps running nicely. The touch response is good, even with just your finger. The screen reflectiveness is fine in all light conditions. The weight, screen size and button/slots are well postioned. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hints and Tips Tagged With: , , ,

Windows Slate and Safeboot

March 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Safeboot login screen on a Windows Slate

The NHS has strict security and governance policies regarding encryption of mobile devices.

The two main encryption technologies are McAfee Safeboot and Microsoft Bitlocker.

Thanks to the kind help of the IT team at Humber NHS Foundation Trust, we have now successfully installed McAfee Safeboot on a SL8 Windows Slate and demonstrated that it all works absolutely fine.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Hints and Tips, Support, Technical, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Mobile worker – Real World Experiences

March 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What are your experiences of using Tablets and Slates on a day to day basis?

We are aware of many trusts and organisations evaluating tablet and slate devices and we are very keen to share experiences of devices like our own SL8 Windows slate, ‘traditional’ tablet computers (laptops with rotatable touchscreens, iPads and Android slates.

We are primarily interested in experiences in the business context – running MS Office-type applications, line of business applications, accessing corporate information, inputting data into electronic forms etc,

If you are using a tablet or slate please add your thoughts and comments here, covering aspects of use including: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hints and Tips, Support, Technical Tagged With: , , , ,

Cloud2 and the Zoostorm SL8 in the news

March 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We’ve been hitting the headlines (almost) again!

The Yorkshire Post have posted a full write-up of the article they printed last Tuesday 23/02/11 in which Simon was quizzed about how useful Tablet computers could be to the NHS and healthcare sectors.

In it, Simon said: “There is an awful lot of interest around iPads but there is limited ability to deliver them into the NHS because of the software they use. Instead, we are selling Windows tablets, which use all the existing applications you find on a normal PC.”

Read the full article here: Yorkshire Post

Filed Under: News, Press Release Tagged With: , , , , ,

Slate computing – real world experiences part 3

February 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

One of the things I really like about the SL8 is how easy it is to use with people – it’s a far more communal device than a PC or laptop or even a smartphone.

I see people wandering around all the time with a pad of paper  or one of those card backed notebooks (the paper type, not some new low cost laptop initiative), ready to make notes or scribble a picture. I use the SL8 in just the same way and it weights more or less the same (OK, it’s a little heavier, but not that much, ~300g). It’s also just as un-intrusive, being about the same size as an A4 pad and boots fast enough to be as quick as finding an empty page; I have OneNote open most of the time so creating a new page takes 2 touches of the screen. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hints and Tips, Technical Tagged With: , , , ,

SL8 Firmware update

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There have been a couple of enhancements to the firmware/drivers for our Windows SL8 tablets.

We have been running the new firmware for a couple of weeks and are seeing increased performance, quicker screen rotation times and elimination of the occasional ‘freezes’ we experienced.

The only two that you should really need to update are:

http://downloads.zoostorm.com/drivers/tablet/SL8/

Filed Under: News, Support, Technical Tagged With: , , ,

Slate computing – real world experiences part 2

February 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Using the SL8 slate to access content on our Sharepoint portal and other online sources has proved very successful, but sometimes the applications you need are only accessible through a rich client.

“It took about 2 minutes to launch the Remote Desktop Connection client from the slate and log in to the other machine and launch the application in question.”

Obviously we could install the software on the SL8, but with just a 32GB SSD drive there is a limit to how much software should be installed, plus the client applications are often already installed on another machine and it doesn’t make sense to pay for extra licences, go through additional installation and configuration and work out how to keep data synchronised between multiple client applications.

We have this with one of our apps. It runs fine on a machine in our office, but there are times I’d dearly like to run it on the SL8. The solution is surprisingly satisfying. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hints and Tips, Technical Tagged With: , , , , ,
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