This fall marks a day in our household that I am proud of. All my girls will be playing soccer. What this means in our household is a lot of schedule planning and camping out on the various soccer fields across our town. For most of the soccer season my wife and I will be on separate fields when some of the kids have game conflicts. This really stinks because we like to be there for all of our kids events and hate having to rotate which parent gets to go with which kid, but at least this year it all balances out equally. Usually I pack a Windows Mobile 6 device either my Smartphone (Standard) or Pocket PC phone (Professional) and try to squint at the screen on my device in the blaring sun to read some email, RSS, websites, etc. but the direct sunlight makes it quite unbearable. One of the main reasons I purchased a P1610 Tablet PC was to enjoy it outdoors mainly on our deck in the backyard as well as times on the soccer field today I am writing this from my folding chair in a truly portable office. It also makes copying over video and pictures I took from the previous game much easier while the kids are playing, I can make what little free time I have into something more productive. Usually I wait until my memory card is full or hard drive on our video camera and download when I have to, which generally takes quite a while when you are usually in a rush to get out the door and go digital record you next family event. I then use Foldershare when I get home to copy over all the photos and video to our Media Center PC using synched folders, which is really cool. The size of the P1610 is really nice and portable as well and fits in our “activity” courier bag (a messenger bag I used to use as a bike messenger, then became a diaper bag, now it’s a carryall for our kids stuff-wipes, Purell, Gatorade, reserve snacks, Zone bars, crayons, cards, PMC,etc. Even if I don’t get to use my Tablet (or forget I have it on my lap when I stand up and cheer) I generally slap my memory card in and automatically transfer over the events pictures with a tag and GPS information via Robogeo, GeoSetter or WMMX and iTrek Solar Bluetooth GPS unit before we leave the field.
One of my daughters just recently used one of the pictures for a school project and was amazed at how quick I got the picture on the Media Center. She thought she would have to use a much older picture rather than one that was taken yesterday. The P1610 also works well for jotting down notes and ideas I have, which I still do with One Note Mobile on my Windows Mobile Devices, but I have a larger canvas to play with on the P1610 and can use text and ink simultaneously and even insert pictures. I do wish that the P1610 had a web cam like the Acer 1000 Ferrari that flipped around or even the fixed one on the TX1000 to take short videos.
At least this year I don’t have to coach even though I have already been asked to cover a few practices and games for when their coaches are out of town and I can’t say no to my kids.
Written by Steven Hughes - Visit Website
