Incremental Blogger

It's Tuesday, Must be San Diego

I arrived at the San Diego Conference Center just in time for lunch. Sure enough, next to me was someone from BMW with an HP TC1000 Tablet PC and at the table behind me was someone with an Acer C110. Both people were showing off their Tablet PCs.

Now, I'm wandering around the pavillion. There are way more people here than were at MDC, so the Tablet PC should have a good captive audience. I ran into Bethany already and the wonderful MVP rep, Susan.

I'm on a mission to recruit people to tonight's Tablet PC BOF. Apparently, there is a cruise tonight that several people are going on, but the mention of a Tablet PC session made them waver about their plans. We'll see.

I'll pass along a little rumor... those who attend tonight's Tablet PC BOF might also get a fun reward.

TechEd 2004

I'm on my way to TechEd 2004. See you there!

Kim Komando picks the Tablet PC for ArtRage

In last week's Shareware Pick, radio talk show host Kim Komando, picks ArtRage. No doubt about it, ArtRage is a fun app. What really caught my attention though was that she mentions that it "works best on a Tablet PC." Yep. Software can make a big difference in the acceptance of Tablet PCs. You see, Kim has been only luke warm in the past in her commentary about the Tablet PC. Maybe ArtRage is helping her to see the value of Tablets. One step at a time.

Tablets at the Shack

Doesn't it seem like Radio Shack should be selling Tablet PCs?

Is IBM responding to the Tablet market?

I got a kick out of this online campaign for IBM middleware. Check out the "tablet" computer that the salesman is using. (For a better view watch the Flash animation and hover over the computer with your mouse or pen.) Very interesting. In this case, the person is using a touch screen, which makes sense for many applications. Not all Tablet PCs have touch screens although some do. Can anyone tell what type of computer the salesperson is using?

Sensible nonsense?

Sometimes I come up with overly-broad, off-the-mark statements that take on a life of their own inside my brain and I can't shake them.

In light of all the conversations about Microsoft and Google competing in the search space, here's my latest one:

Microsoft's model is "Give me a database and I can move the world." Google's is: "Give me an index and I can move the world."

Gates gives the nod to blogging

Bill Gates highlights the advantages of blogging to CEOs.

Steve Rubel asks: Does this mean Microsoft is now on the blogging warpath? He continues:

"Gates' remarks were reminiscent of the infamous Pearl Harbor Day email he sent to his troops nearly a decade ago, in which he "declared war" on the then nascent World Wide Web. At that time, few of us were on the Web. It was still the realm of techies, much like Weblogs and RSS today."

Could be. In fact, I hope Microsoft does step in. I see the competition as a good thing.

First, I hope this continues to encourage Microsoft bloggers. Maybe even Bill Gates himself. I know I'd subscribe to his feed.

I hope Microsoft steps in with a full-fledged blogging service. Blogger doesn't do it for me. And I think hosted services are going to become the most successful model for combating comment spam--something which can drive me to another product.

I'd also like to see some thick-client blogger apps. I'm guessing these won't come from Microsoft, but hopefully the tools to build them will.

There are some areas where the blogging model could help other products, such as FrontPage. To me, blogging illustrates the power of content management systems. Someone needs to cross the powerhouse UIs of FrontPage- and Dreamweaver-caliber products with the content simplicity of PostNuke, Blogger, and other "content management systems."

Almost every company that I've worked with--whether large or small--seems to stumble at managing their web-based content. It's too complex, so they have these extra layers of control and management when deploying content to their websites. It's too bad. At the user level there isn't much to it: "I have some text in a Word document listing some upcoming roadshow events. How come I can't simply add them to an existing block on a page?" Blogging tools prove that when something is easy, people use them. Although, web page design tools are powerful, competitively, the simplicity of blogging tools have the edge. People can focus on what they are really trying to do: communicate rather than design. (At least that's the case for most of us.)

And then there's the issue of RSS. Here again, blogging has shown the way with RSS. The ability to create, manage and track RSS feeds on "commercial websites" from within FrontPage needs to be built in.

Blogging can reach into other products too. What about a "Publish document to Blog" API accessible to all products? Rather than everyone rolling their own XML-RPC/SOAP or whatever blogging API, how about Microsoft providing an API? Can you guess what advantage this would give to Windows-based developers?

Blogging is getting more and more interesting.

TabletFlash wish list

No sooner had I gotten TabletFlash up on TabletPCPost and Lora was IMing me a list of features she'd like to see--oh, yeah, and a few bugs I need to fix too :-). I'll do what I can.

One good idea she had was to optionally display an "answer" for each card if the user requests it. Right now, an audio clip is the only way to accomplish this. Something visual makes sense too.

Microsoft Tablet PC Developer Center Launched

Linda posts on TabletQuestions:

Microsoft Tablet PC Developer Center Launched

http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/...pc/default.aspx

Welcome to the Tablet PC Developer Center
Welcome to the new home for Tablet PC development, where you'll find information on how to write great applications for the Tablet PC. If you are new to developing for Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, take a look at Tablet 101. Are you already seasoned at developing for Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition? Explore Mobile Ink Jots, the in-depth technical articles, and information about our featured partner listed on this site.

TabletFlash: Flashcard program for download

A friend of mine has been doing more and more business in China, so Lan's been helping him to learn some Mandarin basics so that he can get around.

Last week I noticed that as part of his "homework" he had created a set of flash cards on which he wrote various Mandarin characters. Then he randomly sequenced through each card, prompting him to say out loud what the character was. When he got stuck, he switched over to his Palm on which he stored audio files of each of the characters he'd recorded on a handheld digital recorder. This got me thinking. Why not put all this together into a Tablet PC flashcard program? This is how TabletFlash was born--a screenshot of which is shown to the right.

TabletFlash is very simple. A typical 1.0 app. I don't think there's much to describe about it, other than to say you can handwrite whatever you want on a bunch of flashcards as well as record an audio snippet for each card. Later you can review the cards in order or randomly. You can use the audio snippet as a hint or clue or not at all. That's about all there is to it.

You can download TabletFlash from TabletPCPost here.

Ink-based diagramming tool

At the CEO Summit Bill Gates gives a sneak peak into upcoming tools that work with the Tablet:

"An example of just this shows in a tool we're coming out with early next year that goes into beta in a few months, our Visual Studio tool. You can just draw the model, actually you can draw it with ink on a Tablet and we'll recognize it and build it."

Users view of a Tablet PC Developer Tour event

Lora reports on her impressions of the San Jose Tablet PC Developer Tour event. What does she start with? Pictures of the hot Motorola MPx smartphone, of course!

It sounds like the event went very well. She also lists several of the developer questions that people asked. The jist? "More, more, more." Yep, Tablet PC development is getting hot.

(Oh, check out the cute "red" slate Tablet at the bottom of the article.)

Tablet PC Underground draws traffic

Scoble breaks down, second by second, how word spread about the ultra-fantastic Tablet PC videos on Channel9.

Here's a run-down of the videos:

1. Terrific overview of Lonestar by Tablet PC GM Peter Loforte.

2. Susan Cameron, group product manager, for the Tablet PC group, shows off a yet-to-be-released PowerToy for the Tablet PC that converts all the fonts used on the desktop to your own handwriting -- she also shows off why the Tablet PC is better for people who are left handed.

3. Michael Tsang is a software design engineer on the Tablet PC team. What does that mean? He's the guy who wrote the driver software for the digitizer. He also wrote the software that handles what happens when you push on the buttons on the Tablet PC (like the ones that make your page scroll up or down).

4. One of the questions the Tablet PC team gets a lot is "is it really ready to use with only a pen?" Robert Williams is the executive in charge of working with OEM partners. He does a lot of market research, and gathers feedback from OEMs and customers and knows just how hard it is to get people to give up the keyboard, and talks about some of those challenges here.

5. Burt Parker is the OEM Product Manager on the Tablet PC team and he shares the most interesting things he's seen a Tablet PC used for.

As one commenter posted on Channel9: "This is the best thing Microsoft has done since introduction of the TabletPC!" Well done.

TechEd and Tablets

One of the biggest Micro-fests is coming up next week--TechEd. I understand 11,000 eager softies are San Diego bound. Amazing. I wonder how many Tablet users there will be.

If you're going to TechEd and are interested in checking out Tablets, you'll have lots of opportunities. Lora tells me that the Tablet PC team will have 25 members at TechEd and three Tablet-oriented sessions. Plus, Julia Lerman will be hosting a Tablet BOF on one of my favorite topics--Tablet PC Design Considerations--Tuesday evening at 6:30. In addition, MVPs Chris DeHerrera, Chris Hassler, and Charlie Russel will be there too. Be sure to grab them if you have any Tablet questions.

And finally, for Tablet PC news at TechEd I'll be following Julia Lerman's blog.

It should be a great event. I'm looking forward to reading about all the exciting Tablet news made at TechEd.

TabletPCPost approaching 10,000 downloads

TabletPCPost is approaching 10,000 downloads.

Not bad. Many of these downloads are for products from smaller companies. I like that. There are a lot of creative Tablet products out there that deserve every bit of exposure they can get.

By the way, if you don't see your favorite product listed on TabletPCPost feel free to pass along the TabletPCPost link to the software vendor.

In case you're wondering, the total number of initiated downloads is located at the bottom of the Home page. Bryan asks: Where's the RSS feed for stats? Hmm. Sounds like a good idea.

Google's road to world domination

As my previous post indicates, Bryan and I have been having some heated conversations about Gmail. I'm a fan. He's not. Well, that's not quite right. He likes the idea of 1GB of storage space, but he dislikes the email ads. He'd rather pay for the service and drop the ad scanning.

To oversimplify, Bryan doesn't want to give Google too much access or control over his information. His reasoning: You give a company access like this and it's only a matter of time before they abuse it. But I think his concerns are stuck in 1984 and I bet he hasn't seen anything yet. Here's what I see unfolding:

Today it's about Gmail archiving my emails. Tomorrow it'll be about Gdrive--or some other like-named service--that enables me to archive, search and sync my data across multiple machines. The "sync" problem is a perennial one for me since I use multiple computers.

What I'd like to see is a service that continually syncs let's say my Documents folders on a remote store when I'm connected as well as with any other of my machines that are currently up and connected. Not only would this provide me with transparent backups, but it would also make it feasible for transparent indexing (to me anyway) so I could have Google-caliber searching of my own data. And, of course, it would enable me to keep my documents and data in sync across multiple machines.

Local sync solutions pale in comparison. They assume that the machines have to be connected and on at the same time. I don't work this way. After returning from a trip, I don't want to have to go out of my way to turn my home or work machine on to sync. Further, I don't want to have to wait to sync--just in case I lose my data. Yes, I could have my own server and manage my own data or at least route all my data through it. However, this seems like an appropriate solution for a business, not for an individual or the home. Even a home-based Google appliance seems like too much hassle for me. Of course, this all assumes some pretty good always-on pipes to the Internet. I'm guessing that this is a safe assumption. We'll see.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wouldn't trust just anyone with my data. Google is one of the few companies I would. Would I trust Microsoft? Maybe. Oracle? Eh. WeSyncForYou.com? Nope. MCI, Sprint, or some other telecom company? Absolutely not.

So of all the companies, right now, I'm rooting for Google to solve this problem for me. And when they do, I'm ready to sign up. Yesterday.

Update: A New York Times article (reprinted her at CNet) claims Google is releasing a client-side search tool. It'll be interesting to see what it is.

Is Gmail more trusted?

Things are heating up in the email space. First Google announced their 1GB email, Gmail. Now Lycos is getting into the 1GB act--for a price. And word is that Yahoo! is going to step in also.

A gaggle of online folks have been protesting the new Google email service. Bryan, for instance, isn't so sure. He's expecting Google will be pulled down into the depths of quarterly-profits and squander their good will. It's just a matter of time. So it's best to stay clear. Or at least it's better to keep the privacy lines better delineated from the get-go so that it's less likely to be abused. No reason to give Google the cookie jar, thank you.

While I share the concerns about privacy in general, I don't have the same fears about Google running wild with my email contents. It's interesting, though. When it comes to Lycos and Yahoo! doing the same thing, I'm a bit more cautious. Why? Google has earned my respect. I trust them. I trust that my email will be there when I need it. I trust that Google won't be passing along my email contents. I trust them as if one of my friends is running Google.

First Tablet team interview on Channel9

Peter Loforte, general manager of the Tablet PC team, gives probably the best demo on the Internet of Lonestar/Service Pack 2's new features. In fact, even though this video jumps right into the issues of handwriting recognition and Lonestar, it's probably the best online showcase for the Tablet PC. This is a must see video for anyone that's been wondering where Tablet PCs are going.

Many times online demos seem canned and artificial. In this case, Channel9 takes you right to Peter's office and you get a chance to see Peter show off the Tablet PC and Lonestar as if you were right there.

It's a little hard to read some of the fine print on the screen when Peter runs through the editing features on the TIP, but there's nothing like a live demo. Screen captures and flash animations just don't do Lonestar justice. There's nothing like seeing it in action.

Scoble at NextFest

Scoble reports that NextFest wasn't all that interesting.

I was wondering. It sounded like it would have some cool stuff. I was particularly interested in the Robots on display.

Robert also notes: "The fact that Microsoft wasn't at an event like this was embarrassing." Actually, I'm still waiting for Microsoft to realize that it should be leading the way in Robotics research. :-)

A sample physics problem using xThink Calculator

Over on TabletQuestions jjnoname is asking for a sample screenshot of what it would be like to work through a physics problem on a Tablet PC. Here's a screenshot of part of this problem handwritten and solved using the xThink Calculator:

The handwriting shown in black is what I wrote. The answer is shown in blue at the bottom of the screen. The recognized equation is shown as text above the toolbar near the bottom of the page. I've never used xThink to actually solve a problem before and not surprisingly it took me a couple times to figure out exactly how the equation should be written so that it would be properly recognized. I tried a multiplication sign first in the denominator and it didn't work, so I switched to using the parentheses. I also realized by trial and error that I needed to switch from radians to degrees so that the trig functions worked. After these adjustments, I got the right anwser.

Actually, xThink MathJournal may be more of what jjnoname is looking for. I'm not sure when MathJournal will be shipping, but hopefully we'll be able to post it on TabletPCPost as soon as it is available.

Free Tablet PC Developers Tour

My brother isn't exactly a developer--although he can muddle his way through SQL queries, php, and html--so I was a bit surprised when he decided to attend the Los Angeles Tablet PC Developers Tour event.

It's interesting. Even now a couple days after the event he's still jazzed about Tablet development and has been IMing me with questions and ideas. Uh oh, there goes my productivity this weekend :-)

Microsoft ISV Manager Frank Gocinski gave the presentation. I don't know who else is presenting at the events, but Layne says it was well worth it. Actually, his words were a bit stronger. He says he "Loved it. Well worth the time." Here's a bit more on what he thought of the presentation.

There are a bunch more Tablet Developer events coming up in the US and internationally. Check here if you're interested. I count 23 more events from today. Best of all it's free. Oh, and Layne says at the Los Angeles event they gave away an Acer C300. I don't know if this will be the case at the other venues, but it's worth checking out.

Editing source code on a Tablet

I've been paying a lot of attention to how I might be able to edit source code while in Tablet mode. Why do I want to do this? Because many times, particularly when I'm debugging, I'm really not doing that much typing and so it seems that using a pen probably should work OK. And I like the idea of being able to debug while waiting for my tires to be changed or standing in an airport line or lounging on the couch or clandestinely in the middle of a meeting--all of which I've done.

The catch is that the user experience isn't quite there. The Visual Studio editor has lots of terrific mouse-oriented capabilities, but the pen is just different enough that there are a few tweaks I'd like to see, which could make editing/debugging on a Tablet PC a must-have tool.

First, I "find" things a lot. I mean, I use search for text and jump back and forth between the occurrences of tokens and their definitions. There are UI features to navigate around, but I'd like something a little more direct. I simply want to be able to select a variable and then search. How the search is invoked is the key. One simple approach would be to automatically place the first 40 or so characters of selected text automatically into the Find edit field on the toolbar. Then with a new button next to it, I could tap on the button and go to the next occurrence of that string. This wouldn't be too hard to do, but I think there are some other better approaches. I'd like to see a small icon pop up above selected text over which I could hover to access a popup menu. No clicking. Just hover. From that menu (and let's imagine a large menu) I could select, let's say Find or Copy, or maybe hover on one item to pop-up a submenu. I've never been much of a fan of pie menus, but I see where this might just be ideal here. A normally translucent floating toolbar may be a better choice since it would look more like standard UI elements, but the idea is similar. No matter. The goal is to provide direct and local access to common operations, such as finding text.

Another "tweak" that I'd like to see is on the recognizer side--in the TIP. I'd like to be able to reliably write program variable names. Right now it doesn't work well. There are a couple culprits. One is that variable names can have abbreviations. Another is that they often have concatenated words with specific capitalization. What I'd like to see is a "source code" context mode added to the recognizer that applies a couple heuristics to improve recognition of such things as variable names. Here's one approach: Let's say as long as you write out all variable names as non-abbreviated words with the beginning of each word capitalized, the recognizer can use the capitalization to segment the words and recognize them better, rather than relying upon spaces. So a function name such as DoEverythingFunction would be recognized at a word level as "Do" "Everything" and "Function," but the recognizer would also allow the concatenation of the three words because of the capitalization of the "D," "E," and "F." This doesn't cover all the odd words and spellings that may be necessary in coding, therefore, another feature would need to be the ability to add custom words to the dictionary trivially--I'm guessing from the TIP. I don't know if the TIP recognizer would need to have feedback from the editor as to whether the current editing position is expecting a variable, keyword, or punctuation. I can guess it would help, but I imagine it's a bit of work to implement and I wonder if other recognizer mods would be enough.

Here are a couple other recognizer tweaks (that apply to C#/C++):

* Improve recognition for comment delimiters: //, /* and */
* Allow punctuation (such as periods and arrows) within variable names or parenthesis up against function names or keywords.

There is lots more that one could do with ink and source code--some of which I've blogged about before--but tweaking the Visual Studio UI for pen use and adding a source code context to the recognizer would go a long way.

I hope the Visual Studio team is experimenting with Tablets. I can see where they've adjusted the UI quite a bit over the years so that the mouse is a terrific tool to use while editing and debugging--I hope they can do the same with the pen.

Students: Still chances to win one of 50 Tablet PCs

The Tablet PC Campus Demo Tour is in full swing and there are several more upcoming events. What's that? You'd rather sleep in? How would you like to win one of 50 Tablet PCs? Yep. If you're lucky enough to be near one of the following schools, who knows, you may be lucky enough to win one of 50 Tablet PCs that Microsoft is giving away on this tour:

Stanford University Stanford University Bookstore, 519 Lausen Mall Stanford CA 5/18/2004

University of Delaware Perkins Student Center, 325 Academy Street Newark DE 5/18/2004

Georgia State University University Center, 66 Courtland St. S.E. Atlanta GA 5/18/2004

Kansas State University KSU-Salina Bookstore, College Center, 2310 Centennial Ave. Salina KS 5/18/2004

University of Massachusetts-Boston Campus Center; 100 Morrissey Blvd. Boston MA 5/18/2004

University of California-Berkeley Cal Student Store, 108 Martin Luther King Jr; Student Union #4504 Berkeley CA 5/20/2004

North Virginia Community College 8333 Little River Turnpike Annandale VA 5/20/2004

University of South Florida 4202 E. Fowler Ave. Tampa FL 5/21/2004

University of Nebraska University of Nebraska Bookstore, 1820 R St. Lincoln NE 5/21/2004

University of Florida Museum Road & Reitz Union Dr. Gainesville FL 5/25/2004

University of California-Los Angeles UCLA Store, Ackerman Union, B-Level; 308 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles CA 5/25/2004

Bernard M. Baruch College (CUNY) Baruch College Bookstore, 1st floor in Vertical Campus Bldg., 55 Lexington between 24th and 25th New York NY 5/25/2004

Queens College (CUNY) Queens College Bookstore, Dining Hall 1, 153 St. across from Fitzgerald Stadium Flushing NY 5/26/2004

California State University-Northridge The Matador Bookstore, located on Lyndley just off Nordhoff St. (first building on left after ticket booth) Northridge CA 5/27/2004

City College (CUNY) City College / CUNY Bookstore, near corner of Convent and 138th St. New York NY 5/27/2004

Riverside Community College 4800 Magnolia Ave. Riverside CA 6/8/2004

Depaul University Depaul University Bookstore-Lincoln Park, 973 W. Montana St. Chicago IL 6/9/2004

University of Louisville Swain Student Activities Center: 2301 S. 3rd St. Louisville KY 6/2/2004

Drexel University 33rd & Chestnut, McAllister Bldg. Philadelphia PA 6/8/2004

Ohio State University Long's Bookstore, 1836 N. High St. Columbus OH 6/8/2004

Ohio University-Main Campus Follett's University Bookstore, 63 S. Court St. Athens OH 6/10/2004

Lake Washington Technical College Lake Washington Technical College Bookstore, 11605 132nd Ave. N.E. Kirkland WA 6/16/2004

* The events are held at the campus bookstore unless otherwise noted.

Blastoff from 46,000 feet

Paul Allen continues to impress me with his forward looking investments--this time on a manned spacecraft that just reached 211,400 feet before landing safely in the Mojave Desert.

The flight is part of the X Prize competition and a race to reach 63 miles in altitude, but the investment is more strategic.

Upgrading to the M200

Omar shares his thoughts on upgrading from the Toshiba 3500 to the M200. If you have a 3500 and are thinking of stepping up to a 2nd gen machine, this is a must read post.

My experiences are similar, especially in terms of all the tiny apps that Toshiba has installed by default on startup. This is my number one out-of-the-box complaint.

Several people have mentioned that they find the hi-res display too difficult to read. I can understand this, although it is something you can adjust. I experimented with different dpi settings, but found that the for me the highest setting is OK.

Gartenberg: The Tablet is not going away

Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research: Let me be clear. Tablet PC is not going away. Feel free to argue and debate it but it's not going away. Period.

Tablet grants for schools?

How do you promote Tablets within schools where the immedidate concern is about neighborhood crime, a shooting across the street, and where the next nickel is coming from? Kind of puts many IT discussions into perspective.

It's people like teacher-and-blogger Nancy that stay focused on the students that can make the difference: "Though I work in a tough area, the students here are so bright and creative--it just kills me that they don't have much access to technology. Tablet PC's could make such a difference, specially since most of the kids are second language learners so they could post online without having to write in english with a tablet--they could simply sketch and annotate."

Nancy isn't the only teacher I've heard from directly with this set of issues. I understand that Nancy had a couple Tablet loaners that she's had to return. I wonder if there's an organization that can help out. I know that Intel, Acer and HP have some grant programs, but is there anyone out there that knows of any other programs that could provide some assistance?

Tablet programming how to

Larry O'Brien shows how to program for the Tablet PC.

New Tablet developer blog

New Tablet PC developer blog.

One great article already: "Combining Ink and GDI+ to create a fill effect"

Almost instant on "almost there"

From an eWeek interview with Jim Allchin at WinHEC:

"Q: You talked about a new technology that allows devices and PCs to power up from a "sleeping" state in under 2 seconds called "Instant On" in your keynote. Is this technology in any shipping products yet?

A: This is fabulous technology, and the work around this has been quite something. We haven't decided when to include it in a shipping product as yet, but it will be soon...We are almost there, and that to me is just a mindblower in terms of the impact it can have."

I can't believe I missed this one. This sounds fantastic.

The Toshiba M200 is so fast that it already is able to wake up from hibernation in under 10 seconds. In fact, I've noticed that I use hibernate a lot more with the M200 (by simply closing the lid) than I have with any other notebook or Tablet that I've owned. The restore speed is so fast I use it. At two seconds I'd be addicted.

Learning to think in ink

Layne calls in his report on the happenings at the Tablet PC Developer tour in Los Angeles.

A couple highlights:

* Frank Gocinski from Microsoft emphasized the importance of Tablet developers in that: 88% of the general Tablet PC deployments are due to ISV solutions and 92% of the corporate deployments are due to direct ISV solutions.

* Developers can email tabbeta@microsoft.com to get a copy of Tablet SDK 1.7.

* Joe from Acer described the buying advantage of a Tablet PC over other computers very well. "The Tablet PC is really 3 for the price of 1: a notebook, notebook with ink, and a desktop replacement."

Update: Layne tells me that Acer gave away an Acer C300 at the Los Angeles event. I don't know if Acer is going to be doing this at each event in the Developer tour, but if you're looking for a "free" tablet, going to a Tablet Developer's Tour event could give you the best odds. Anyone know if Acer is scheduled to have other Tablet giveaways?

More Tablet doubts after WinHEC

One more press article--this time from eWeek--contemplates the future of Tablets in the wake of WinHEC.

As I mentioned earlier today, I wish I'd gone to WinHEC to better understand all of this. Oh well.

One point I would have made to author Mark Hachman, if I'd met him, is that yes convertibles are great for keyboard centric users, and yes, slates are excellent for people who have to stand up while working. However, hybrids are my favorite solution. I want to be able to type when sitting at a desk, but I'd like to be able to pop off the screen and take it with me when I'm moving around. Right now, HP has the best solution for this. But I'd like to see more.

After using a Tablet for about a year and a half, I can't imagine a computer without inking capabilities, WiFi, and ultra mobility. Tablets have changed the way I think about using computers and changed the way I think about programming.

Most people still have not heard or seen of Tablet PCs, so the word is still getting out. In fact, I'm having lunch today with a student and former colleague that wants to check out my Toshiba M200 to see if that's the Tablet model he wants to buy. If he does get a Tablet, he'll be the third student in his engineering classes that has one.

Ed Bott chimes in too

Ed Bott shares his perspective on the Mary Jo article.

One jewel: When the students on either side of you are using a tablet every day for a whole semester, it makes it easier to see why it works

I agree. Of all the markets right now, I'd say the education market is one of the most crucial. For long-term growth of Tablets, I'd put it above real-estate, healthcare, architecture, and engineering. I'd put it above all other verticals. Part of the reason is that there's excellent software for the education market right now. There's OneNote. There's GoBinder. There's Blackboard (and WiFi) for distributing content. There's tremedous value here to students, faculty and staff. I can only imagine how much better I could have taken notes, created study guides, and the like as a student if I only had had a Tablet.

Microsoft understands this and is helping to educate the educational system. This spring and summer Microsoft is visiting 80 campuses to help spread the word to students. I wonder if they are giving away any goodies?

Real world rants

Peter has two back-to-back posts that challenge the notion of what a Tablet PC is and what it means to market them.

Talking about Tablets

Robert responds to Mary Jo's question: Where will the Tablet PC go tomorrow?

I was thinking about responding to Mary Jo's points one-by-one, but Scoble's better at this than I am.

I know Lora's been kicking herself for not going to WinHec--where several of Mary Jo's issues seem to have solidified. Many of the Tablet OEMs/ODMs were there and it would have been a great opportunity to get together and share insights on the Tablet. But it also would have been a great opportunity to share her enthusiasm for the Tablet and highlight how enthusiastic developers are for the platform--many of whom she constantly talks with through her efforts with TabletPCPost--with the press. The press, for instance, appears to have missed that several Tablet vendors made the trek to WinHec to showcase their products and support for the Tablet.

The importance of attending conferences, such as WinHec, became evident to me at Demo 2004. Demo was a conference I'd always been interested in attending, but it didn't happen until Buzz from ActiveWords and Scoble stepped in at the last minute to make sure I'd go. And I'm very glad they did. Everyone was interested in the Tablet PC. I talked with print and TV reporters, investors, entrepreneurs and even some very large potential Tablet customers. Everyone had questions about the Tablet. It was an excellent opportunity to share what I know or at least be able to point people in the right direction to get answers. I also learned a lot about how people viewed Tablet PCs.

So with WinHec behind us, now comes TechEd. I'm checking into going for a day or two, but no solid plans yet. However, today, it seems more important than ever. We need to make it obvious to everyone that Tablets are here to stay--that the Tablet form factor, digitizer and software are as enabling as an LCD projector or CD-RW drive or many of the other innovations over the years.

So anyone going to TechEd? Let's make sure that Tablets are widely seen.

Most common steps to selling a Tablet

Marauderz's three steps to selling a Tablet wouldn't be so funny if it wasn't true:

1) Open Journal, Write 'Hello', Recognize 'Hello'.
2) Convert model.
3) Tell customers they're better off buying a normal notebook cause they're cheaper and more powerful and that Ink is just a gimmick.

Don't believe that last bit? Believe me I heard it before.

Yep, I've seen permutations of this too.

Maybe plastered on every Tablet sold at retail should be a bright yellow Post-it looking cheat sheet that runs through the benefits of a Tablet:

1. Do you ever need access to information on your computer while not at your desk? With a Tablet you can get to it--whether you're standing up, walking down the hall, or sitting on the couch. Many Tablets will also give you access to the Internet while you're walking around.
2. Have you ever had to carry a laptop around all day? Wouldn't you like it to be lighter? Most Tablets are.
3. While taking notes in class or a meeting, do you ever need to draw a graph? Or do you ever want to circle something important, highlight key points, or draw arrows between them? With a Tablet you can.
4. Do you fill out forms? Imagine how more natural it would be with a pen.
5. Ever tried to share your digital photos by passing around your camera? Isn't it awkward? The camera display is small and it just runs your expensive camera batteries down faster. Instead, upload your pictures to your Tablet PC and pass the Tablet PC around. Tablet-sized photos are large enough for grandparents to enjoy.
6. Have you ever thought email is too cold? It looks too formal? Wouldn't it be wonderful to send or receive a handwritten Valentine's note instead? With a Tablet you can.
7. Do you draw or would you like to learn to draw better? With a Tablet there's no wasting paper. And have you ever found yourself erasing something you've drawn too hard and had to practically scratch a hole in the paper with an eraser to remove it? With a Tablet erasing doesn't leave marks behind.

OK. I've gotten long winded here. There's no way this can fit on a post-it sized sticker. :-) And to Microsoft's credit, I've seen tri-fold flyers next to Tablets at CompUSA. So there is information like this available. However, maybe a condensed verision of it needs to be plastered on each Tablet so salespeople are more inclined to use it.

Does a tablet have to be different than a laptop?

In one of Scoble's comments, someone asks:

"Why does a tablet have to be different than a laptop?"

Outside of a few obvious differences (such as the screen digitizer), Tablets and laptops don't have to be different. However, what I've noticed is that because Tablets are just different enough--making it practical to use them in more and varied ways than their notebook cousins--that I start wanting more. I want some changes to Windows and my Tablet. I'd like to see optional start screens that are more like those in a Pocket PC, because drilling through menus is too slow. I want to click and go. I'd also like to see programs redesigned so hovering on items provides direct or indirect access to context menus rather than right clicking or double clicking--both which are a bit clumsy to do with a pen. I'd like faster bootup so I can use my Tablet at the split second I need it, wherever I am. I'd like all-day battery life too, since I'm using my computer in many places away from the wall. But when you think about it, these are features that all Windows and notebook users would probably enjoy.

So does the Tablet need a different OS or a different set of applications than those that run on plain notebooks? Nope. From what I see, Tablets are just different enough that they point out changes to Windows and many apps--changes that probably will enhance the user experience for all Windows users.

Even if Tablets are kept separate from notebooks, there are several innovations--in fact, maybe all innovations--that probably make sense for the greater computer community.

So maybe Tablets have to be just different enough from notebooks today so that we expand or alter the way we use our computers so that in the end we can make them the same.

Demoing built-in software

This past week I attended a computer industry event targeted to resellers, VARs, developers and the like. To my pleasant surprise I saw one Tablet PC on display. At least that's better than nothing. Unfortunately, the distributor showcasing the Tablet knew little about it so you can imagine what happened when people tried to check it out. A self-running demo might have helped. But it also got me thinking about how important it is for the Tablet's built-in apps, such as Journal--often used while demoing--to give immediate and obvious access to the things everyone wants to do.

For instance, Journal desperately needs a recognize button. Also, I've noticed that many people are having trouble figuring out how to select objects. Maybe there's no way around this, but 9 times out of 10, people assume they can handwrite a few words and then tap on some button somewhere to recognize it. No selecting ink. No drilling down ink. No pop-up dialogs.

Yep, Lonestar/SP2's new TIP is going to help out a lot on the recognition part in terms of demoing ink. However, just as Journal pushed ink-as-ink too far (in terms of demoing), I think the new TIP is going to emphasize recognition too much.

Here's my concern: To try out the new TIP (and recognition) I'm guessing someone is going to open Notepad, handwrite something and check to see if the recognized text inserted into Notepad is correct. The problem is that Notepad doesn't show off any inking capabilities. Journal would be a better app to demo. However, it doesn't leverage the TIP in its main window. Hopefully, this will be addressed in updated versions of the Tablet OS.

I understand why Journal deemphasized recognition in the first pass. Journal is an excellent ink-based app. However, the problem is that Journal is being used in most demos, so it needs to do well what people want to try out---and that's two things: recognition and drawing.

Check your work

Someone on Scoble's blog challenges the notion of MathPractice and FractionPractice that provide instant feedback when working through math problems:

"...that seems like a bad idea. Shouldn't we promote work-checking? If feedback is instant, most kids will just "brute force" their way through the answers. Unsure if its 7 or 9? Don't think, just try them both! I know that's what I'd do, if I was still a kid. I hope this feature can be disabled in Worksheet mode, or whatever you end up calling it."

Hmm. Makes me think...

What about a feature and/or separate app that supported casting out 9s? Or for every multiplication problem a companion problem could be used to verify the answer?

Being able to verify work is a valuable skill. Brute force verification methods, such as "casting out 9s" is one useful scheme, but also being able to apply common sense rules to the answer is another. I'll see if I can integrate something like this in.

Important Update: Tablet PC campus tour changes

On WhatIsNew Lora relays important date changes to the Tablet PC Campus Tour.

"Attention people planning to attend University of Washington Microsoft Tablet PC Campus Demo Tour, the event is actually Friday, May 14th NOT May 6th as the website listed.

These events are an excellent way to see Tablet PCs and especially how to use them in college settings. If you are in an area where there is an event, please stop by."

Pass it along.

JRJ shares WinHec Tablet tidbits

JRJ shares WinHec Tablet details.

TabletPCPost download count

I helped Lora add a tally of the total number of downloads to the bottom of TabletPCPost's index page. As of this evening it looks like there will have been 6000 downloads initiated on TabletPCPost since it's beta launch in March. Officially, TabletPCPost went live last week and as a result traffic has picked. Over the last two days, for instance, there have been 1000 downloads launched.

There's plenty of room for growth, but it's great to see end-user interest in so many different Tablet PC applications.

Tablet PC interviews on Channel9

I can't wait to see the interviews of the Tablet PC team on Channel9.

Notes on audio notetaking

One of the features I find tremendously compelling in OneNote is its ability to record and synchronize audio (and now video with SP1) with my note taking. It's a really slick feature to demo. In practice, I've run into a couple snags.

The biggest problem is capturing high enough quality audio. I've been relying upon the built in mics and the quality of the audio they capture isn't so great. A remote and/or wireless mic would help. At least that way the mic could be placed close to the speaker, so I could capture better audio. Of course, a mic connected point-to-point with my Tablet would work fine for me, but what about the other people wanting to record on their Tablets? Would everyone need to provide their own wireless or wired microphones?

Actually, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, I think an alternative, stream-based approach is a good solution. I'd like to see audio digitized and streamed onto local or ad hoc networks. That way rather than simply an analog wireless or over-the-air mic, I'd like to see digital mics that publish in real-time the audio stream onto a LAN so I can record it. The available streams would appear within OneNote from which I could pick and then record. This would be quite useful at planned speaking events, such as in conference sessions, for instance. The normal analog signal could be hooked up to the stage speakers, but I'd like to see simultaneous LAN-based audio webcasts that I could attach to from within my note taking app. The result would be that I could record better quality audio. Of course it would be just as useful to record Internet-based webcasts. I'd like to see OneNote lead in audio recording features like this.

There are some other hardware tweaks I think my help too. Better placement of mics or mic arrays can help, but I'd like to see more. One problem I've had with built-in mics is that if I'm typing while I'm recording the key clicking is too loud. Maybe that's just me typing too hard. But if the distance to the speaker is too far away, the key tapping overwhelms what I'm trying to record.

A detachable wireless/bluetooth mic that is normally embedded in the Tablet PC case but could easily detach seems like it would reduce this key clicking noise problem. A downside is that the mic would be yet another thing for me to lose.

Maybe someone could manufacture an SD-sized bluetooth mic with a built in battery that I could at least house in the SD slot and pull out when needed. This way I could easily carry the mic around with me all the time and pull it out of the SD slot when needed.

If these far out ideas aren't enough, I still have room in my heart for another killer audio capability--an ad hoc mic array. I'd like to see someone try to stream, synchronize and enhance the audio from multiple mobile devices/Tablets. All of the Tablets in a LAN would be sharing their mic streams in P2P fashion so that the strongest stream could be archived. I'm not sure if this could be done in real-time or not, but it seems like the audio signal processing could be done asynchronously. If the enhancements can't be performed fast enough, then the audio quality is what it is. However, under ideal situations everyone would benefit from each other's mics.

Maybe better mic technology with noise canceling will improve the audio recording enough so that these other more complicated scenarios aren't needed. I don't know. I guess I need to try out the new Motion Tablet to see how its mic array works with OneNote. Maybe this is all I need. Does anyone know how the mic array works?

Free Tablet PC developer training

Have you thought about developing for the Tablet PC, but aren't sure how or where to start? Then check out these free Tablet PC courses. Yes, free.

I see there's one class coming up this Wednesday (May 5) in Denver at the Brown Palace Hotel and another on May 6th in San Francisco at the downtown Hilton, so if you live in either area be sure to sign up now.

I don't see any classes here in the Phoenix area, but I'd sure like to go. I'm cursious to hear what problems developers are having and what areas they are interested in.

Tablets need pen tilt support

None of the current Tablet PCs support pen tilt. Too bad. Where would pen tilt be useful? Graphics programs would be one category. Wouldn't a version of ArtRage that supports pen tilt be amazing?

But pen tilt has value that goes far beyond drawing and painting apps. In fact, every program needs pen tilt right now. Pen tilt would be useful for the OS to guess where the pen and hand are oriented so that pop-up menus and flying hints and the like can appear elsewhere.

From what I understand pen tilt is actually supported in the digitizer that your Tablet PC has right now. Plus, the Tablet PC SDK is ready to handle the pen tilt data. Unfortunately though the hardware does not enable the pen tilt data. I've heard from OEMs that they don't enable pen tilt because of power concerns. Hmm. Surprising that there would be this much power loss due to pen tilt sensing.

Hopefully as Tablet competition heats up pen tilt support will be added. Till then, anyone know if there's a way to enable pen tilt on an existing Tablet?

Telling a story

Scoble discusses how effective product marketing can focus on process. It's true. When I dig deep into products, I want to know not only the "what," but the "how" and the "why." Blogs are particularly a good platform for filling out the picture.

Back to school sales

Joe Wilcox of JupiterMedia shares his concerns about missing the Back to School market now that Service Pack 2 is delayed--which includes significant improvements for the Tablet PC.

"The longer Microsoft takes delivering SP2 the more likely that the software vendor and its Tablet PC manufacturer makers will miss, yet again, the back-to-school buying season."

It takes time to get products out through the channels and even if Microsoft releases SP2 to manufacturing by mid summer, it'll be unlikely that products make it to store shelves by August. And, of course, this says nothing about training the channel either. Will sales reps in Best Buy or CompUsa even notice the amazing changes to Tablets?

It looks like it's shaping up to be a tough transition, so this is when the marketing folks get to earn their wings.

Joe Wilcox makes a few suggestions: provide students with OneNote SP1, MSN Messenger and other software on free discs. (Or on sites, such as TabletPCPost, I'd say). Not bad. But I'd go further.

One idea I've mentioned here before is to erase the price difference between Tablets and notebooks. Give a $300 rebate to all students, faculty, academic staff members, or parents of students that purchase a Tablet PC by September 1. Sound too open ended? OK. Limit it to all incoming college freshman and give $600. And don't forget, college orientations are a last chance to get to this audience before they buy their computers.

Another bold idea is to give Tablets away--by the hundreds. This is how you qualify: You have to blog about how you'd use a Tablet if you got one. From the list of daily submitted blogs, Microsoft would pull let's say at least one blogger each day--with a compelling story--and give the winner a Tablet. For added juice, let Bill Gates and/or Steve Ballmer pick the daily winner (from a short list, of course). But this wouldn't be all. Simultaneously, allow end users to read from the submitted blog entries and vote on who they think should get a Tablet. The blogger with the highest number of votes each day gets a Tablet too.

The Tablet team already has some excellent campus programs in motion here and here, but I'd like to see more. I'd like to see something that gets people talking--talking about what they'd do with a Tablet.