Electrovaya Scribbler SC500 Tablet PC

Features: Software

Naturally the Electrovaya SC500 is available with only one operating system choice preloaded: Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. It would not make much sense to produce and sell a tablet PC without Windows XP Tablet PC Edition support being that it is the operating system that really enables the tablet concept to become reality. Trust us, a regular copy of Windows XP with a 3rd party handwriting recognition program is simply not the same. If you are interested in reading more about the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system and what features it includes, please take a look at our initial tablet PC review that includes an in depth look at Microsoft's latest OS.

On top of the operating system the Electrovaya Scribbler SC500 comes preloaded with a number of helpful tablet PC specific applications. In our previous tablet PC review we talked briefly about Corel's Grafigo program that provides an alternative to Windows Journal and adds drawing functionality. The Scribbler SC500 arrived at our door with Grafigo, a freeware program, preinstalled.

Also preinstalled was a trial copy of FranklinCovey TabletPlanner. TabletPlanner is a planning program designed around the tablet PC concept. Entries can be made by hand or text and the software offers the ability to search by either. We will take an in depth look at TabletPlanner in the near future but from our first impressions the software does seem to be useful.

You may recall the function button on the right side of the Scribbler SC500. Pushing this button allows for the other buttons on the surface of the Scribbler to perform a second function determined in a configuration screen. By default the function button provides easy access to many items. Pressing the button activates the function feature for a short period of time and if no button input is received soon after the function button is pressed the feature turns itself off. We liked the idea of a function button on our tablet: it really did make performing some common actions easier.

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