I’ve blogged previously about my first Christmas with OneNote but this weekend the UMPC really came into it’s own. Sunday was Christmas shopping day. The kids were with my parents, so my wife and I had an early breakfast and while we were eating, we pulled out the Q1, reviewed the Christmas list in OneNote and speculated about where we would buy certain items and what they would cost. We then applied for a second mortgage online, right there during breakfast. (Just kidding, but not by much).
At Target we found the gaming chair my son wanted but it was more than I thought it should be. So, right there in the aisle, I surfed the web for my options. (Wal-Mart doesn’t sell gaming chairs, Best Buy’s chairs don’t have speakers or are pricey.) I was quickly convinced that what we had found was a reasonable price (grumble, grumble) and we bought the chair. I could possibly have done this on a Pocket PC style phone but not with the same browsing experience and big pictures.
The day went on like that. We were able to compare prices, find stores to touch things we had seen online, etc. When my wife needed a few minutes in a section not dedicated to electronics, I grabbed the Q1 and surfed the web. Why they have these other sections I’ll never know but I find that the Q1 makes waiting for anything infinitely more palatable. Perhaps the DMV should give them out in line?
There are some day to day activities were a UMPC really shines and this is one of them. In contrast, the Lenovo x60 for example, looks like a great tablet PC, but I don’t see many people, including myself, taking it Christmas shopping. Hey IBM, I am willing to give it a try though! Any UMPC however, should handle tasks like this with ease, oh yeah, at 1/2 the price. The UMPC lifestyle continues!