Sounds like your new bird could have fun with it! 
How’s the little bugger doing?
You could make one of these.
Tablet PC message board:
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/
Greetings, Paul! May I say I am happy to finally be able to answer a question with some authority for you. I’ve enjoyed your missives on this board for years!
We’ve been using the Motion 1400 Tablet PC for… a while (a year?), and the thing is great. Like the previous users, we take it on site for architectural investigations during construction, and it works wonders for updating CADD files, site checklists, survey checklists, ADA checklists, and some other personalized excel spreadsheets that we’ve manually generated in Excel.
The handwriting functions can be used in two ways. If you have Office 2003, you can use the “ink” feature to write directly on the forms, using the handwriting pad. Basically, the entire surface of the screen becomes writable, and then you can save it with the forms. Also, you can choose to have it convert your handwriting into text, and then insert the text directly into the form. You are writing on the screen, and the program does about a 95% accurate (in our cases) conversion from what you wrote into typed text. When we get back to the office, its a very quick matter to print the forms out, review them for grammar/meaning/misinterpreted words, fix them, and get the report to our clients days quicker than previous.
The handwriting program comes with the standard “Windows XP for Tablet PC edition” or whatever its called. Secondly, with office 2003, it does some handwriting conversion itself, I think, but don’t hold me to that.
There’s also a nifty little pop-up onscreen keyboard that you can use to tap out text into programs. However, we don’t use the keyboard much, as its the drawing/checking aspects we need in the field.
Secondarily, we also use the voice recognition software to do a LOT of our data entry, and make note transcription while we are on the site. We chose the Motion tablet because it uses two directional microphones, which allows it to do a MUCH better job of background noise cancellation, and it gets the main meaning of our sentences much better than the Toshiba or HP versions we tried. Again, its just a matter of cleaning up the text afterwards, and then sending out reports. Its also nifty to be able to vocally command the programs to do things. Like in Excel - “open new workbook. Down, Down, left. Type A” is just… nifty to do.
We also integrated the tablet with Voice Over IP card, and a cellular card, which allows us to send out the documents from the field, when possible. The quicker turnaround time on reports, the quicker access to the handwritten drawings of field conditions, and the overall more “professional and cutting edge” appearance of doing such nifty things in the field, on the fly, has made it a great investment.
Now, the pure “slate” style of Tablet PC we use in the field isn’t for everyone. If you think the functionality is something you’d like, but you don’t need/want to write everything you are doing, the “convertable” laptops by Toshiba or Gateway are great things. Basically, its your standard laptop, but you can rotate the screen 180, and lay it flat on the laptop base. Its great for drawing things, and some form entry, plus you have a keyboard handy if you need it. We found the additional weight to be a drawback in OUR case, but for other divisions in our company, the convertable laptops have become our new standard. I mean, for the same price, you can get the extended functionality, so why not?
Overall, if you have an identifiable need to get one (i.e. field work, on-the-fly drawing corrections), they are great things. For a casual user, go with the convertable laptop to get the additional functionality at not much additional cost.
Hope this helps!
Yeah, the more data you put in it, the more it weighs. 
I’ve had one for about a year, but I primarily use it as a light and easy to transport notebook computer (it has a detachable keyboard).
The note taking function is very good – I take notes at meetings with it. I can print them out, but if, months later, I want to find my notes, I know where they are.
On the down side, it’s not very good at translating text. It can be set up to use Grafitti, and also has Microsoft’s built-in work recognitions software, but neither is very good. It may be my handwriting of course – my cursive is unreadable, and it has problems with printed letters. There is also voice input, but I don’t use that.
The big drawback is battery life. If I’m at an all-day seminar, the battery isn’t going to make it (it’s got about three hours). On my Visor, I can take notes all day, and quickly put in new batteries if the old ones get low, but if the tablet runs low, it’s harder to swap out batteries, and if you shut down to save power, it can take a minute or two to boot up.
Another drawback is that wherever you take it, you’ll constantly have to answer questions about it.
However, as a laptop substitute, it’s great.
(Gosh, I am blushing N! Thank you for the kind words!)
I do not really need one, I just had a chance to really look at one the other day and was curious. You cannot help but think that it is a good idea, but poorly executed. The kind of thing Apple does so well with.
The parrot? He made it through another night and is now eating his breakfast with suspicion. He is making happy noises and is on his two feet, rather than hanging like a bat.
Working with a graphics tablet is actually pretty easy (for me at least). It’s no less intuitive than moving your hand on a mouse with that movement translating into motion on the screen. You don’t feel you get more accuracy by watching your hand move your mouse, rather than watch the pointer move on the screen, right? I imagine there’s probably a bit steeper of a learning curve with a graphics tablet, and really, the only long-term benefit I see (besides portability) is that with a tablet PC you know exactly where on the screen the stylus is pointing to when you first set it down (whereas with a graphics tablet you only have a general idea).
In contrast, I imagine trying to work directly on a screen with Photoshop and related applications might be more complicated in some situations with your arm/hand getting in the way of what you’re trying to see. Working with a graphics tablet, once you’re used to it, allows you to have the freedom that a touchscreen would seem to provide along with a “transparent hand” (i.e. your hand will never get in the way of seeing your changes).
Additionally, one benefit of an external graphics tablet over a PC-tablet/touchscreen is that graphics tablets are (relatively) cheap. In order to use the full range of pressure-sensitivity features (e.g. in Photoshop, the harder you push, the larger/darker your brushstrokes are), I’d be afraid of hurting the screen of a $2,500 tablet PC, rather than putting a scratch in a $100 or even $300 graphics tablet.
Never used a tablet PC, but just an observation. I own a cheap, small, Wacom tablet.