Chapter 3: Connecting to Your Office . . . and Beyond

In This Chapter

• Checking out connection ports

• Adding Plug and Play peripherals to your Tablet PC

• Using docking stations

• Working with power schemes and battery settings

Someday, perhaps, Tablet PCs will contain in their slim, lightweight packages everything a computer user ever needs. But for now, Tablet PC is more like a baby that survives on accessories. Whenever you see a baby, it's bound to be accompanied by parents carrying a car seat, diapers, a bag of crackers and fruit, a rattle, and a pacifier. Well, like a baby, Tablet PC has to be connected to other stuff in order to have a complete computing experience.

For example, it has to be connected to an electrical outlet for its battery to be charged periodically (think feeding time), and it needs to have connections to other hardware to print, store files on media such as a CD-ROM, and so on. And there's something to be said for putting Tablet PC into its cradle - called a docking station - when it's tired of traveling roads and corridors.