ArcPAd10 with netbook?

Question

We have been trying to use arcpad 8 on an old dell axim and are finding it slower than we'd like and very limited in the screen real estate department. We now have arc pad 10 and have been wondering about trying it on a touch screen netbook. Asus and Lenovo are now making them. Processor would be faster and lots of screen space without having to lug a full size tablet pc.

Some have windows 7 starter edition, some have windows 7 home. Its not clear to me though if the OS will have the handwriting recognition / on-screen-keyboard functionality that would make it work.

Has anyone tried this, thought about it or know if it would work?

Thanks!

RobChouinard · Answer

Just a thought,
It is unlikely that ArcPAD 10 will run on a non-Windows Mobile device.  Here is a somewhat complicated workaround.  I have developed some programs using Visual Studio, and there is a built in Windows MObile emulator.  There should be no reason why you coudn't run it on a netbook that way.  GEt one of the cheaper versions of Visual Studio and test it that way.

Pat

ArcPad is made to and runs just fine on Windows PC's. We use it everyday in a few of our trucks using netbooks. ArcPad 7.1 - ArcPad 10 runs really well for us on Windows XP SP3 using 1GB of RAM, and the Intel Atom 1.60GHz CPU.

I've installed Windows 7 with ArcPad 10 for testing on 1 of these netbooks. It seems to run just as good.

I installed a touch screen inside of one of the netbooks. I bought it off E-Bay as a kit. It works great indoors. Outdoors (even in a truck) it has so much glare it's hard to see the map and read text sometimes. We prefer not to use the touch screens and went with a Logitech stationary mouse, the TrackMan Marble. I would recommend to not use any type of glossy type screen or glossy touch screen outdoors. Our netbook screens are 10" non-glossy LED screens and work pretty good in a truck.

We are looking into rugged tablets that have a touch screen and are made for the outdoors. :cool:

ArcPad 10 System Requirements off ESRI.com:ArcPad is supported on the following platforms:

Windows Mobile 5.0
Windows Mobile 6.0
Windows Mobile 6.1
Windows Mobile 6.5
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 7
See the Support Center for complete details.

ArcPad 10 Minimum System Requirements for the PC from the install guide:Processor: PC-Intel® 750 MHz (or higher)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7
RAM: 512 MB
Free Disk Space: ArcPad: Approximately 192 MB

PatrickMurphy · Answer

Just a thought,
It is unlikely that ArcPAD 10 will run on a non-Windows Mobile device.  Here is a somewhat complicated workaround.  I have developed some programs using Visual Studio, and there is a built in Windows MObile emulator.  There should be no reason why you coudn't run it on a netbook that way.  GEt one of the cheaper versions of Visual Studio and test it that way.

Pat

StephenQuan2 · Answer

Hi Ian, can I suggest you put the ArcPad 10 evaluation on a USB stick and so that you can test it when you visit your hardware vendor? Otherwise, if that's not an option, then, I'd research warranty and return policy options.