Hugo Ortega on the
Slash Gear recently announced a new Slate by a Taiwanese OEM named Amtek. The model number is the T200 and the branding is iTablet; Warner was quick to spot it too. What I found interesting was that I have had the exact same model under my pillow for over two years. I even blogged about some Tablet PC surgery I performed on her (don’t try this at home folks). Over this period the only negative about the device, other than the retro specifications, was that it was never built to run Windows Vista, that is until I received an email from a friend recently.It turns out that the Manufacturer Amtek, had in fact released a Vista BIOS that now allowed for the installation to occur. So instead of going through the install on my own I thought I would make you all part of my work day and share with you the Vista install. Enjoy!
By the way, Amtek is the manufacturer while Tablet Kiosk is the ODM; just like the ASUS is the manufacturer and Motion Computing is the ODM. The most exciting thing about the Sahara is that it just had a new sibling, the i440D.
28 comments:
While we are on the subject of slate Tablets...
Today, something clicked in my head while using my R400. It's like my mind changed mode and found a better way of working; reaching out to the possibility the Tablet was offering. Strange how cognitive processes get to work like a nice biological system with purposes of its own.
I was working a particularly complex segment of text on methodology and data interpretation and I was drafting a new document and quite naturally, instead of doing the usual : ink the notes, read the notes, switch to notebook mode, type and edit; I did things differently without thinking.
I just realized, I was still in Tablet mode, writing in a Word dodument using the Input panel, editing as I went. I kept working in Tablet mode all day, selecting and moving segments of text with the pen, rewriting and composing anew.
I had to stop myself to meditate on what I was doing and what was going on. Woa, I thought. Again, the Tablet grew on me and it is as if I just reached and used its possibilities with a better inherent understanding of it.
The best part, is that I find I can go on indefinitely, my mind does not tire as quickly because I feel I am working more intuitively, more in sync with my thought processes, unimpaired. Intuitive is probably the right impression : what I was doing and how I was doing it felt infinitely more natural to me.
Slate mode has opened a better way for me to work with complex elements when thoughts need to be clear and guide the hands and the pen! When all is done, there it is, the document in full and much closer as a draft to what I intented it to be!
What an awakening!
so is this the best value for money slate out there? keep up the work Hugo, your video reviews are great
Hi Anonymous,
Best value Slate would be the new Motion LS1700 or new TabletKiosk i440D. Best quality would still be the Fujitu slates.
Hope this helps. Thanks!
Cheers Hugo for the speedy reply. i'll look into the two of them further. cheers agen, u are a legend!!
HI uber,
i would like to upgrade amtek tabletkiosk T200 BIOS in order to install vista. DO you have a link to this famous bios upgrade ?
THX in advance.
gouaig
Hi Gouaig,
For your convenience I have uploaded the BIOS I used. Please use it with caution and NO guarantees. I am posting it as I know it worked for me and I hope it works for you!
Download the T200 Vista BIOS Upgrade here.
My pleasure mate - please let me know how you go!
thx a lot Hugo, i'll give a try tommorow (i cross fingers). After a bios upgrade, just perform a full install of vista ? that's it.
thx again.
gouaig
Hi Gouaig,
Good luck! Here are some notes care of Ian Ross (owner of T200, Australia).
• SAS continues to work as it’s picked up by Vista
• The Menu button obviously doesn’t work
• The Internet Explorer button works
• The screen rotation button doesn’t work (but Mobility Centre allows you to rotate 90, 180, 270 options)
The Sahara achieves surprisingly good Windows Experience index numbers, but is let down by the video support which drags it back to 1.0. That, and the lack of Aero Glass, are willing trade-offs when considering the TIP enhancements and better support for Ink in Vista. Overall, I believe the OS is more responsive and interactive that XP.
thank you for these feedbacks.
In fact i own an Amtek T201 with celeron 900mhz, 1 Go ram, HDD 40 Go.
I don t know if i can use your bios update. More over the flash utility require a .rom or such a file but i only have a .gen
Thanks in advance for your help.
See you.
gouaig
sniff sniff, non more help for my poor amtek T201 bios update ?
pleeeassse....
Hello Hugo,
Is your Slate the "touch" version - working with finger touch? Appears that Amtek has 2 versions 200 and 201 - 201 being the touch version ( http://www.amtek.com.tw/english/Products_Touch_Tablet_T201=04.htm ). Reason for asking is that after upgrading the BIOS of my "touch" version with your uploaded files, my touchscreen stopped working on Win XP. The other surprise is that even though mine is an i201, the specs other than "input" are those of i200 ( http://www.amtek.com.tw/english/Products_itablet_T200=04.htm ).
Wondering where to get the BIOS upgrade for the "touch" version - i201? Can you provide some pointers? Amtek's site does not list any upgrades. Any help appreciated.
Keep blogging the helpful posts.
Thanks.
Gopa
Hi Gopa,
I hope you backed up the existing BIOS before you upgraded??? The one I posted was for the Pen and I do not think it works on the Touch (as you found out). At present Amtek tells me that the touch BIOS (for Vista) is not complete due to the Touch Utility required for Vista to work properly. Not sure what all that means but all I can suggest for now is that you contact Amtek directly to get support.
let me know how you go and well done for keeping this thread alive.
Yes, I did backup the Bios and was able to restore it, so that everything (touch screen) works fine again with Windows XP. I will try to get Amtek support, but their site is extremely slow of poor quality - I hope I get a response.
Another quick question: Was your PC on Win XP Tablet Edn or on Win XP Pro before the Vista upgrade? Even though my system is a Tablet PC with touch screen, it has Windows XP Professional edition and not the Tablet PC Edition. (As also mentioned on Amtek's site http://www.amtek.com.tw/english/Products_Touch_Tablet_T201=04.htm ). Since the Tablet PC Edition is not available other than from OEM, I am wondering how to get the XP Tablet PC edition, if the Vista is ruled out for now. Any pointers?
Thanks.
Hi Gopa,
I am gald to hear all is well with you Touch and BIOS. With regards to my T201 I have it running Windows XP Professional as you do too. My T200 (Active Digitizer Pen version) has the Tablet PC Operating System installed.
In order to get the Tablet PC OS you need to be an OEM (as you suggested) or a subscriber to the Microsoft MSDN network. Check out option "B " for obvious reasons. If you're a software developer it will make a lot of sense fo you to be subscribed.
Thanks Hugo, I will investigate option B. But I feel Amtek or any company for that matter, should be stopped from making Tablets that can neither be upgraded to Vista, nor "upgraded" to XP Tablet Edition. Leaves us at a dead end.
Thanks.
Well said Gopa,
This is why Blogs are so important - you are being heard!
(By the way, next time you post a link try and use a href tags so it does not break the page layout. No drama, it will jsut be helpful.) Cheers.
Q: does anyone know where to get the original Bios for a T201..I picked up one of these off of ebay and it looks like they tried to upgrade the bios...I think this is the issue that I have...
Thank you..
Woooh!!!!
I found the old bios in safemode...Got it back working great downloaded all the drives from Amtek..
Incase anyone needs them....
http://www.amtek.com.tw/english/Download%20driver=04.htm
Hope this helps someone else..
TC
may i ask the current price of Amtek T200 Tablet Kiosk Slate? is this item still available now on the market?
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Hi Hugo
I am owning now a t200 iTablet and would like to install win7.
Do you just have tried to install vista on your device?
I can't install vista or win7 because i need the bios update.
Could you please put it again on the server?
Thank you very much.
Kind regards from switzerland.
Urs
Hi Mate,
I published the BIOS on my blog somewhere. Can you look through and see if you can find it? Other wise let me know and I will email it to you. You need the new Vista BIOS to run Win7 on there. :-)
Hi Hugo
Thank you for your answer.
You posted a link in this Comment:
http://ubertablet.blogspot.com/2007/03/tabletkiosk-i215-sahara-slate.html?showComment=1178286360000#c8919147131658078381
Actually, the File is not on the server.
Kind regards
Hi mate, send me an email to hugo at tegatech dot com dot au and I'll get you the file.
Hi Hugo
Did you get my E-Mail?
Kind regards
not yet. Did you send to (hugo at tegatech dot com dot au)
Hi Hugo
Thank you very much for the BIOS.
Now, my tablet is running Windows 7!
Kind regards
Thank you mate for the comment! I'm so glad everything worked out! Merry christmas to you!!
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