TouchBook unboxing and first impressions

Google has all the photos I shot here. ( photos and text )

Overall the hardware is pretty cool. The tablet itself has some weight to it and is not balanced by the weight of the keyboard, so it can tip. We placed the magnets with some trial and error and were able to get the tablet to stick to the refrigerator and file cabinet both briefly, although it wanted to slide down. The small plastic latches on either side of the tablet as well as on its bottom seem to work fine. The touchscreen seem to work well and I find it frequently easier to tap the screen with my finger nail rather than drag my finger across the touchpad surface. And of course with the tablet loose, the touchscreen is all of it, but it seems to work well.

The software is labeled as beta and seem to be improving quickly. The community has started up today and looks promising. Equally encouraging is that the developers have started to put information into their wiki and support sites that help fill in the gaps. The IRC channel has been great so far. Early tests with ebooks and video files have been pretty good and the accelerometers (tilt-sensors) are working well .. maybe too well :)

LPI and Canonical offer discounted test vouchers

For candidates for the Linux Professional Institute LPIC-1 exams and the Canonical Ubuntu UCP exam there's a promotion available that will let you buy all three test vouchers together at 20% the usual rate.

LPIC is the respected vendor-neutral Linux professional certifcation, and Canonical's updated UCP program requires the LPIC-1 certification (two tests) as a prerequisite.

http://www.lpi.org/eng/about_lpi/upcoming_events/lpi_promotions_and_incentives