FIRST IMPRESSIONS (rz1700)...

The bottom left has New (for starting an Appointment, Contact, Message, Note, Task and Word Document) which is the same as always but the lower right has a different icon; one with two diagonal red arrows with a white and black dot on two corners. Pressing the icon, a utility called HP Task Switch started with a note saying “this screen is displayed because there are no active tasks”.

There were two Tabs located at the bottom of the screen labeled version and settings. Pressing on the settings, a screen appeared giving me a choice of an “icon pad” or “menu on the task bar”. There were two additional options that followed for setting timeout options.

I went back to the opening screen and immediately started several applications. Pressing the Task Switcher, it displayed a little pad with icons showing the running programs as well as a tool (wrench) and an X. By pressing the navigation pad I was able to move to the different icons. I was able to get to the running program by either pressing the center of the navigation button or waiting a pre-defined time (I had set it to 3 seconds). If I pressed on the X, it closed all running programs and if I pressed on the tool it brought me back to the settings menu.

I changed the settings so the menu on task bar option would show. Pressing OK, it brought me back to the Today screen and when I pressed the Task Switch icon it did what it said it would….a menu on the task bar appeared. I really shouldn’t have been surprised but I was because it worked so well. This is a neat utility!

Pressing Start gives the same drop-down we have been used to with a slight change. In the past, recently run programs would appear as icons at the top, now they are listed in the drop down. This is different but its OK…change is good (sometimes). If the unit is being run in Landscape mode, the icons do appear at the top rather than in the dropdown menu.