Some Q1 Leftovers

I had some leftover thoughts on my Q1 now that I've had a couple more connected days with it. Apologies if these are a little disjointed. I've had a lot going on.

• Kudos to Samsung. The Q1 DOES NOT ship full of crapware, removeware or other junk. The only thing I removed was the 3 month trial of Norton AV but I consider some kind of AV software a must. They sell it, they get to pick the default and I'm ok with that.
• Rotation is fixed now with a reinstall of the drivers (c:\program files\samsung\graphics drivers) and a reboot. Rotation makes a HUGE difference in useability. I sat a restaurant and made notes in portrait mode at lunch yesterday. There wasn' t room at the table for to turn the unit to landscape mode. Many thanks to Kevin at JK on the Run and the folks in the Origami Project forums who already had this licked and were kind enough to share. For folks looking at an EO, rotation is really cool.
• I have some quibbles with the documentation. I'm accountant, I have lots of quibbles. They teach it to you in college. The documentation clearly and repeatedly says that the Q1 does not support CRT only output. You must use either the internal screen or both the internal and external screen. This implies that the max resolution out would be 1024 x 600, the max resolution of the internal screen. In fact, this only applies when using the video out utility bundled with the Q1. (So you can change it with your finger.) If you use the included Intel graphics driver utility, you can have your monitor at a higher resolution and a blank internal screen. I'm doing it now on a 19" LCD at 1280 x 1024 resolution. The Q1 sits nicely in front of the monitor and you barely know it's there. Why Samsung wouldn't clarify this, I don't know. But if people want to use this as a main PC they need to know they're not limited to 1024 x 600 for external viewing.
• Somehow this has become the beta Q1, IE7 beta, WM11 beta, Office 2007 beta. Hey, they all run! I do see some slowdowns but in fairness, I've got a lot loaded, I haven't optimized it yet and I saw slowdowns on my 700m. So far, I'm still really happy.
• One form factor gripe still, the slouch on the couch position is still a problem. With a convertible or slate tablet you could rest the bottom on your leg and just stick an arm behind it to prop it up. The Q1 you actually have to hold. It's going to be weird for all of the devices this size.
• I got my first "what the heck is that?" comment at the grocery store last night. People want to hold and touch it. I found it provoked a Daffy Duck like reaction in me. ("It mine, all mine, mine mine mine. I'm rich, wealthy, yeeha!) Not something I'm proud of but that's the way it is. Part of that may also be that, because I won it, there is no insurance and limited chance of replacement if it breaks in the short term. I had a principle in school growing up who had won a car. A brand new AMC Pacer. The Q1 is a better prize.
• These things are dangerous. They go places you wouldn't otherwise take a PC. I had my grocery list in Windows Journal, so I took the unit in. Never did that with laptop or a tablet. I put it on the kitchen counter to check blogs this morning. Does anyone think making eggs a few inches from a Q1 is a good idea? Me neither, but I did anyway. I'm not going to admit to taking it into the bathroom, unless that will keep people from asking to hold it.
• Last item, Acrobat Reader 7.0 ships with the Q1 but won't update because the install directory gets removed somewhere along the way. Not Samsung's fault in my mind, but it means I have to remove and reinstall Acrobat Reader 7.

I'm going to post photos comparing the Q1 and the 700m as soon as I get a chance. Maybe tonight. I'm also going to try to post pictures of my add/remove programs window so you can see what will run on the Q1. Wow!, that was a lot more than I intended to write!