Tuesday, January 31, 2006


 

Windows Live Messenger invites available

I have 4 Windows Live Messenger invites available….first 4 to respond get them.

Include your email address



 

The ride in from the airport

I had the pleasure of riding with Steve Hoffman of Active Ink Software. We had some really good discussions about the tablet pc market place, his software, and the “ink” marketplace. He confirmed my feelings that the tablet market place is taking off.

Active Ink’s software lets you build ink-enabled forms utilizing your existing printed or Word based forms and tie the results of the forms to a database in the background. If you are a company wanting to ink-enable your forms, you need to check them out.



 

MobileTrax 2006 Awards

For a great list of mobile software, hardware, and accessories, checkout the 2006 Mobile Trax awards.

A couple of highlights:



 

Tablet PC count while in the airport

I’m sitting in the Colorado Springs airport on my way to the Mobile / Tablet PC Partner Briefing at Microsoft.

Looking around, I see 8 Laptops, 1 12" powerbook, and 1 ThinkPad tablet PC - mine. None of the laptops are convertibles. 3 of the laptops are 14" Thinkpads. 1 of the laptops is a 12" ThinkPad.

5 ThinkPads out of 10 devices spotted. 1 out of 10 is a tablet PC. 4 out of 10 are 12" devices.



 

Paperless Challenge, Part 2

 Eric Mack and Tracy Hooten have posted part 2 of their Paperless Challenge podcast. Take a listen.

These paperless challenge podcasts are must have resources for mobile professionals and tablet pc users....especially those entering my docupen contest.


Monday, January 30, 2006


 

Marc Orchant is moving to ZDNet

Marc Orchant has just posted on tabletpcs.weblogsinc.com that he will be moving on to posting at ZDNet. The following post will be his last on the weblogsinc.com website (click to read more):

Congratulations, Marc. You will do very well over there. Be sure to check him out at his new blog.

This will be my last post here at The Office Weblog. I've been invited to contribute at ZDNet where I will be writing under the title "Office Evolution". Don't click just yet - I'll be back online sometime in the next few days, once the wires get twisted together and the lights start blinking.

I've had an incredible time writing here at Weblogs, Inc. I jumped when Jason Calacanis invited me to join a handful of other bloggers. Back then, the promise of this network was just that - tons of potential and and a lot of big dreams. These past two years I've had the great fortune to work with some fantastically talented people, make more than a few good friends, and have had a chance to speak with, interview, and pick the brains of a number of scary smart people.


Sunday, January 29, 2006


 

MyScript Notes

Here is another notetaking application for Table PCs: MyScript Notes by Vision Objects. What stands out to me?  the conversion of the notes and keeping bold, colors, and styles with the text that was handwritten.  Cost: around $72 (49.94 EUR)

While you are there, check out their SDK products for building your own ink enabled. forms

 

Via HPClean


Friday, January 27, 2006


 

jkOnTheRun: What would you change on your Tablet PC?

James Kendrick asks “what would you change on your Tablet PC?” What one thing would I change? the video output. Without using extended display I want to rotate my tablet into landscape mode and have the output stay the same way on the external monitor. Major usability problem.

If you had a magic wand what one thing would you change about your Tablet, either the hardware or the software? My wish is simple and may be addressed already by Vista- I wish the floating TIP icon would not constantly get in my way when I'm working. Let me know what you would change and when we get enough responses we'll take a look at what we know about Vista and see which ones are already addressed.

 



 

I am so enjoying this contest...

These entries that are being submitted are sooooo good. You are guys are making my job very difficult.

In those posts contain some of the best scenarios for mobile computing – students, teachers, doctors, people traveling – all using tablet pcs and wanting to get the most out of them by taking advantage of a great device like the RC800.

Keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to reading more.


Thursday, January 26, 2006


 

Gateway M280 on HSN

I’m sitting here watching the Home Shopping Network ( don’t ask ).  Gateway and the HSN rep are demoing the M280 Tablet PC.

They are doing a pretty decent job of demoing actual tablet usage, spending a lot of time on the Experience Pack, Journal, Sticky Notes, and Equation Writer.

Gateway is really hitting the masses with the M280. Great job, Gateway!



 

SnagIt 8 released

SnagIt 8. has just been released by TechSmith. SnagIt has become my new screen capture program, replacing the snipping tool. What’s new?

Check out the video: Watch What's New in SnagIt 8 video



 

A sad day

Our local Krispy Kreme is closing...


Wednesday, January 25, 2006


 

Tracy Hooten: I'll give OneNote one more shot

 Looks like Tracy and I have something in common – dropping GoBinder 2006  in leiu of OneNote and the promise of OneNote 12 .

With the public beta of OneNote 12 coming up soon, this is a good time, Tracy. I’m LOVING OneNote 12!!!!!!!!

 



 

Win your own DocuPen RC800

Ready for a contest every mobile professional will love?

I’m giving away a brand new DocuPen RC800 pen based scanner worth $299!

I just landed a very nice contract and was able to order my own RC800. So I was thinking, why not bless someone else who might not otherwise be able to afford one.

Answer this question as a reply to this thread: How would a pen based scanner like the RC800 impact your digital lifestyle?

A few guidelines on this contest.

UPDATE: The minimum of 50 entries has been met, but the contest doesn't end until 2/3. So, keep the entries coming. A winner will be awarded! Lets' get as many entries as possible.



 

Excalibur Online - Taking notes, version 2.0

Great article at Excalibur Online on taking notes using OneNote and using the tablet pc functionality built-in. Wait until the author uses OneNote 12!

Its ‘write anywhere' capability takes some time to master for those of us who are accustomed to using a word processor.  Each time you write on a page, you create a new ‘ink box' to hold your input, and until you get used to writing in this way, these boxes can become confusingly overlapped. Even so, you can write, draw and annotate.
    I found OneNote to be very useful in group meetings. You can type anywhere on the screen, which is a freedom not afforded by typically more  structured word processors. It is as flexible as writing on a piece of paper, but with features that can only be expected on a computer.



 

Pete Wright: Using a pen in Vista

 Pete Wright continues his great blogging of using Vista and the LE1600 Tablet PC. He also some good screen shots of the tablet pc functionality and a good account of the big bumps in the road.



 

WindowsWithInk blog

 Very cool homepage for the Windows With Ink blog. Can’t wait to see what else he does with it. I love the simple notepage look.

Via Loren.



 

The Feature Bob Invented

Jensen Harris blogs about the story behind the ribbon in Office 12 and how one of the features made it in. Thank you, Bob!



 

Paperless Challenge Podcast, Part One

Eric Mack and Tracy Hooten. have recorded part one of the Paperless Challenge. Take a listen. I’m downloading it right now.

These will probably be must have resources for Tablet PC and mobile professionals.



 

Uber Tablet: a Tablet PC Talk Spot!

Be sure to checkout Hugo Ortega’s new Tablet PC blog, courtesy of  Dr. Neil, a fellow Tablet PC MVP.

Dr. Neil successfully evangelized the Tablet PC to Hugo, and now Hugo has taken off on his own. From his profile:

Hugo 'poogie' Ortega is one very misguided geek. Knowing that Tablet PC take up in Australia has been very unimpressive, to say the least, he has single-mindedly begun preaching to anyone, willing or unwilling to listen, about the merits of Tablet PC.

In UberTablet.blogspot.com we will share our Tablet related experiences and thoughts. With your input we'll make talk'n Tablet a daily occurrence.



 

Chad Essley's Tablet Pc SketchBlog: ArtRage 2.0 - The Review:

I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to link to Chad Essley’s ArtRage 2.0 review. He does some comparisons to Alias Sketchbook as well. This is the first time I’ve seen these two products reviewed, and Chad does a great job.

Does ArtRage 2 stand up to Sketchbook Pro in 2 terms of quality / features? In the following review, I do a side by side comparison between the two products, and a highlight of some of ArtRage 2.0's new features.

Via The Buzz


Tuesday, January 24, 2006


 

Will Core Duo Notebooks Trade Battery Life For Quicker Response? | Tom's Hardware

Good article at Tom’s Hardware on battery life and the new Dual Core processors:

According to vendor reports, the battery life for the new dual core platforms in notebooks using Intel's integrated graphics core isn't supposed to decline at all, when compared with the previous generation (Sonoma). Our first measurements on a prototype device with a dedicated graphics chip (ATI X1600) paint a completely different picture, however, and this detracts from the positive impression that the new technology's improved performance creates. We can only guess whether the relatively modest battery lifetimes we observed in our test system are due to the graphics subsystem, the chipset itself, or a combination of these elements. That said, as we'll prove later in this article, this new CPU is definitely no energy hog.

 



 

Still using the Thinkpad X41 Tablet PC as my only unit

Well, it has been almost a month and I’m still using the X41 as my only computer. I turned on my T42 last week because it has some compiler programs that I had yet to install on the X41 and that has been my only need to use the other computer.

Honestly, this thing is performing like a champ. I have not noticed any performance issues at all. I can’t recommend this tablet pc more. Having looked and played with the X60 notebook at CES, I can’t wait for the X41 to be refreshed into that model.

What is the only upgrade I would even consider? A faster harddrive. Not necessary, but it would be nice.



 

Media Center PC question for readers

If you were buying a media center pc today, which would you buy? I’m currently looking at the HP Z555 on eBay as strongly encouraged by my good friend Dennis Rice.

Being a total newbie to Media Center PC, I’m a bit behind the curve in regards to this technology. I know I could get a tower pc much cheaper, but asthetics is very important to my wife and it must look like a DVD or else it is not going in our cabinet.

Your input would be most appreciated.



 

My next gadget - the Docupen RC800

Well, I’m starting to save my money for my latest gadget – the Docupen RC800. It is a pen based scanner that will scan up to 400dpi, a full page at a time. I’ve tried using my camera phone as to take care of portable scanning issues, but the clarity just isn’t there. I still run into a lot of paper situations even though I use a tablet pc, and my goal is to touch the paper one time and store it directly into OneNote for indexing. I love how the device can charge itself using the USB of my tablet. After I get it and use it for a while, I’ll post a review.

Cost: $299. Some more specs:

Pen Size
8.9" X 0.5" X 0.5" -200mm x 20mm x 227mm
Weight
2 oz. (56 grams)
Scan Width
8” (205 mm)
Resolution
100-400 dpi
Memory
8 MB Flash Memory
Upgradeable with optional MicroSD memory cards to 128MB, 256MB
Batteries
Lithium Ion: Rechargeable Battery through USB cable
Battery Life
Virtually Perpetually Charged and ample to scan and fill 8 MB Flash memory
Charge Time
50 minutes to full charge
Scan Speed
4-8 seconds per page
Interface
Twain
Connectivity
USB 1.1 and 2.0 through integrated USB connector cable
Scan Mode

24 Bit, 12 Bit Color, Greyscale, Monochrome

 

 

 



 

What a week...

I’ve been heads down programming for the past week wrapping some some VB projects and web projects. I am soooo exhausted. I got to the point yesterday that I just couldn’t think anymore. That said, I love it when I’m in that groove.

I’m headed off to Redmond next week for the Microsoft Mobile Platforms Division Partner Briefing. Much of the meeting will be NDA, but I’ll pass on whatever I can.

The mobile tablet scape is getting very exciting. 2006 will be a good year.


Monday, January 23, 2006


 

Travelin' with Tablet Guy! - Dennis Rice's new blog

Dennis Rice, a Microsoft Tablet PC MVP, has started a new blog: Travelin' with Tablet Guy! 

If you follow Tablet PC news, this will be a blog that you will want to follow and subscribe to.


Saturday, January 21, 2006


 

An Office 12 UI blog - Jensen Harris

If you want to follow Office 12 developments, then you need add Jensen Harris’ blog to your reader. As beta testers, we are not really allowed to talk about Office 12 and its features. However, you can follow Jensen’s blog to get just about everything you ever wanted to know about Office 12 and its new UI.


Friday, January 20, 2006


 

Xplore adds EV-DO to their Tablet PC

Engadget has spotted the iX104 Xplore Tablet PC with built-in EV-DO at the FCC site.
Built-in EV-DO is such a welcome addition to new Tablet PCs. Look for more OEMs to do the same as the year rolls on. (picture via Engadget)



 

Billionton Fingerprint Reader winner - Ryan

Seeing as Ryan posted the only entry in the Billionton Fingerprint Reader contest, he is our winner! That said, he submitted a very fine post and is a well deserving winner. Congratulations!

BTW: Ryan, shoot me an email with your shipping address - rob at zoeinc dot com

 

Ink Gestures in Outlook 2003

If you have Word set as your email editor for Outlook, Ink Gestures will work within Outlook as you write email….pretty cool. Be sure to download version 1.09 for it to work correctly. Version 1.09 was just uploaded last night.

 


Thursday, January 19, 2006


 

More thoughts on Ink Gestures

I really believe that Loren’s Ink Gestures is going to sell extremely well and be very successful. Loren is the kind of developer and person who will pour a lot of effort in this product and work tirelessly at bringing together the rough edges. It’ll be successful because of Loren and because he has a great idea.

Who are potential customers? Teachers, students, paralegals, editors, and those who are doing editing / correcting without a keyboard or when mobile.

Having more apps like Ink Gestures really helps push the tablet pc concept and helps users be more productive when in slate mode. ActiveWords and its’ InkPad module, TEO, and now Ink Gestures for Word 2003. Kudos to these ISVs.

I think Microsoft is smart by not addressing the above apps (primarily TEO and InkGestures) in their applications. Why? They help create the development community by not killing off the small guy and it shows off what can be done, thus stirring the pot for other developers to do stuff. At some point, though, Microsoft is going to address gesturing markup support in Word, and inking functionality in Outlook, and I hope that they treat Loren and Josh well. Be sure to put a lot of zeroes in those checks!

I thought it would be in Office 12, but obviously not – good for Loren and Josh.

Where else could this gesturing support be used? OneNote and GoBinder.



 

Using MindManager to track goals and projects

I picked the following links up from a MindJet newsletter. I thought my readers might find them useful:

Setting Goals

Many of us start each year with pretty lofty goals. They fill notebooks, or a whiteboard, or pages in a day planner. And they usually make us exhausted just looking at them. But then what? You accidentally spill coffee on the notebook, erase the whiteboard and that front page of your day planner gets crumpled in your briefcase.

By February those goals are all but forgotten. This year, try using MindManager to set goals. Add images that help to prioritize and categorize, then use the task planning features to track them to completion. We think it will infuse new life into your goal planning.

So much so, that you may find yourself obsessed with conquering that next achievement.

Goals and Targets

This month's sample maps demonstrate various ways to use MindManager to set and achieve objectives.

Download Map

(http://www.mindjet.com/images/us/newsletter/012006/Mindjet_Goals_and_Targets.mmap)

Managing Projects with MindManager: How to get from point A to point B

New MindManager users ask many questions.  The questions can range  from the mind-bending complex ("Can you tell me how to use  MindManager as the front-end interface for my company's global database...?") to the utterly simple ("Uhh, my hard disk crashed and...") One of the most common, however, is "just tell me how I can use it to manage my project!" 

Learn how

(http://www.mindjet.com/us/company/newsletter/012006/support_qa.php?newsletter=012006us)



 

5 Year Anniversary Xbox 360 Giveaway - Jake Ludington's MediaBlab

5 Year Anniversary Xbox 360 Giveaway - Jake Ludington's MediaBlab.

I don’t have much of a chance at winning Jake’s Xbox 360 giveaway, but I’m on the top 20 list of link referrals to Jake’s site and I’m in the running – the contest is pretty wide open. So, I’m going to shamelessly ask you check out the following links on Jake’s site and give me a chance to win a brand new Xbox 360! I figure if my 800 readers each checked out the articles below, I’m going to have a pretty good chance, although that Lockergnome guy is going to give everyone a run for his money.

You might like the following articles

Digital Lifestyle Tutorials

Homebrew Tetris for PSP 2.6
PGR3 In Game Realism
4GB and 8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo
ZVUE 400 and ZVUE 500
29MP4 Video Store
ZVUE adds TotalVid Sports Videos
5 Reasons to Choose PSP over Xbox 360
iPod Video Not All That
Free Does Not Equal Piracy
Simple PSP Copy

EarThumps
Fujitsu LifeBook P1500D Tablet PC
Sony GVD-1000 Mini DV Walkman
Buying A Digital Video Camera
GotVoice
CALIBUG HDTV
Logitech PlayGear Pocket
Jackson Armor Card
Behringer Shark DSP110
Cell Phone to Landline Converter

 



 

InkGestures - a must have

Loren has done a fantastic job with the InkGestures add-in for Word 2003.

I’ve been playing with it for about an hour and it is much further along than I originally thought, even more so than when Loren talked to me about it at CES. The gestures are very intuitive and well thought out. It is beta software.

I immediately tried to use it in Outlook with Word set as the editor. The option shows up on the toolbar, but gesturing will not start up. I’m not sure if it is actually supported in Outlook. Would be great if it were.

Highly recommend the download.



 

Interesting development on the customer front

I have a customer that I set up with TC1100’s about 2 + years ago. They are ready to upgrade to some new stuff, we’ve been reevaluating what to get based on how they have used the TC1100. My biggest finding: they hardly ever used the tablet functionality. They are highly mobile, but they almost always used the TC1100 as a laptop. Prior to learning this, I was leaning toward getting them the X41T tablet, but since they hardly use tablet functionality and I can get a much higher end notebook for the same money now, I’m looking at the Lenovo X60 notebook.

Which brings me to my main point: we are hitting the point where companies who initially deployed tablet pcs two to three years ago are going to be redeploying new hardware. I wonder how many will choose to go with a tablet pc again vs a regular notebook.

Faced with buying a dual core notebook vs a pentium m tablet pc, is the choice very difficult? OEMs who are serious about tablet pcs need to begin rolling out dual core tablet pcs at the same time they roll out their dual core notebooks. Otherwise, the choice will go toward the dual core.



 

Billionton Fingerprint Reader giveaway - What do you struggle with most as a mobile professional?

The previous winner of the fingerprint reader never contacted me, so I’m doing another contest to give it away. The prize: a pc card based Billionton Finger Print reader and software.

Post an answer to the following question: What do you struggle with most as a mobile professional?


Wednesday, January 18, 2006


 

New Total Work Day Control winner - Philip Copeland

Philip Copeland won copy of Michael Linenberger’s book Total Workday Control and an interactive training CD.

Send me an email, Philip, with your address and I’ll get the book and the CD (when I get the CD from Michael) out to you.

 


Tuesday, January 17, 2006


 

Eric Mack - update on his paperless challenge

Eric Mack  will be doing a podcast about his paperless challenge and is looking for a co-host.

Eric is also looking for questions that people might have about going paperless. Head on over to his blog .



 

What's it like to install Vista?

Pete Wright is running a great series on installing Vista. A must read if you are interested in taking the plunge.

His next step - the LE1600 Tablet PC



 

Symbility Solutions to Demonstrate the Power of 'Insurance Mobility': Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Symbility Solutions to Demonstrate the Power of 'Insurance Mobility': Financial News - Yahoo! Finance.

Symbility Solutions Inc. (http://www.symbilitysolutions.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Automated Benefits Corp. (TSX VENTURE: AUT - News), will join Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Sprint to promote wireless communications in demonstrating mobile applications for insurance executives and analysts at the Insurance Mobility Tour, a three-city event kicking off in Chicago on January 31, 2006.

The tour will feature a panel of industry experts discussing the timely issues of mobility in today's insurance industry. Specific sessions will deal with the challenges of implementing the latest technologies now, as well as the vision for these platforms in the future. After the presentation in Chicago, where the Tour makes its first stop at the Palmer House Hotel, the series will head to New York City at the Marriott Marquis on February 13 and it will conclude in Boston at the Tremont Courtyard by Marriott on April 14.

"This Tour represents a fantastic opportunity to reach a wider audience in the insurance space and explain the immense values associated with mobile applications," said James Swayze, CEO of Symbility. "Symbility is constantly looking for the most progressive ways to use mobile technology to benefit the insurance industry and its consumers."

Symbility recently signed on for the Microsoft Insurance Value Chain (IVC) partner program, which allows the company to avail itself of Microsoft's sales and support forces, as well as a greater level of integration with Windows software as it continues to evolve. In addition to joining the Microsoft IVC partner program, Symbility Solutions is also a member of the Microsoft's Mobility Partner Advisory Council (MPAC), Microsoft Tablet PC Partner Program and continues to work closely with Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices Division.

 



 

The Student Tablet PC: New Site Feature - Tip of the Day

The Student Tablet PC now features a tip of the day that you can subscribe to via RSS or by simply visiting their website. Great idea, Tracy. subscribed. Whether you are a student or not, we can all benefit from those tips.

Subscribe by visiting the link above and then add the Tip of the Day RSS to your news aggregator.


Monday, January 16, 2006


 

Windows Live Messenger invites available

I have a total of 5 Windows Live Messenger invites available. The first 5 that respond to this post and provide your email address like name at address dot com , I’ll send you an invite.


Sunday, January 15, 2006


 

Jake Ludington's MediaBlab

I linked to Jake’s blog last week regarding his Fujitsu P1510D. Until today, I didn’t realize what a tremendous amount of helpful tips Jake’s site had until I started really looking about. I’ve already found a couple of really helpful tips that used to have me stumped. Check it out…

Some highlights:

For those of you who have a Cingular Aircard, you might find this one interesting. Although I'm on the Verizon network, I've found that when I sit next to a window, it helps connectivity a whole lot. His post also contains some good, general broadband connectivity tips.




 

Including your kids in your work

One of the things I’ve really appreciated about Robert Scoble’s blog is when he posts about how he involves his son, Patrick, in his work life. Granted, he doesn’t bring him to work everyday, but when he is out and about, meeting folks, etc, his son is right there with him. He is actively involving Patrick in the technology world, broadening his world, and letting him find his own way.

Now, Robert’s world is a little different than the normal person (ie – you and I), but there is something there that we all can learn – involve your kids in your world. As mobile professionals, we are all over the place. We go to customer sites, trade shows, we meet with people who are impacting the world and making decisions regarding the technology that ultimately ends up in our homes and businesses. By including our kids in our work world, they are making good contacts, they learn how to properly behave in meetings, they are seeing technology at work, and they are gaining an insight that most kids won’t get until they get out of college. Now here is the real gain – it gives you and your kids something to talk about. “Say, Dad, were you able to fix that problem we were working on a ABC company? How did you fix it?”

Practically, how can you and I do this? Take your kid to a customer site and let him sit with you while you work. Explain to him what you are doing and why. Allow him (with your customer’s permission) to sit in on your meetings. When going to a conference, check in to minimum age requirements and take one of your kids along. Walk the trade show floor together, sit in on tech talks, etc. When the day is over, take him to dinner with your friends. What better way to train up your child in the business world!

In my opinion, I think your child needs to be at least 11 or 12.

Dax is already asking me to take him to CES next year. I need to find out the age issues, but I’m going to work hard to find a way. I have an NDA meeting next month in Redmond that I can’t take him to, but if it were not NDA and it were ok to bring him, I’d bring him in a heartbeat.

In the 1800’s, farmers involved their kids in all aspects of the work – they had to for labor purposes and it was the way they trained their kids to take over the farm. What is so different today that we can’t we cannot do the same.


Saturday, January 14, 2006


 

New Total WorkDay Control contest - your biggest productivity struggle with Outlook

Post your biggest struggle with Outlook in terms of productivity. I’ll pick a random winner and award Michael Linenberger Total WorkDay Control book and a training CD that Michael only has available for folks who order the book from his website.

I’ve not seen the training cd’s yet, but knowing Michael’s indepth work on the book, I can assume that they will be an excellent resource.

Want to know my biggest struggle? Not spreading the sync process too thin across multiple applications. I want to the use task and calendar data in multiple apps (onenote, mindmanager, etc), but I find the process of keeping the sync process up to date and active pretty painful. I find that I’m the most successful if I limit the spread of tasks, appointments, etc to only 1 outside application (not counting my pda).



 

jkOnTheRun: Several tips for the Palm Treo 700w phone

Great tips from James on the 700W

 



 

Linking to paragraphs and individual pages from MindManager to OneNote

I think this is safe to post about since Chris Pratley posted a comment on my blog on how to link to an individual paragraph or page within a onenote section from MindManager. I tried out his tip last night and I had a lot of trouble getting to work, until I started investigating MindManager a bit further and found the arguments option. I’ve outlined the correct process to make page and paragraph linking work. What Chris has pointed out has made my decision to switch completely to OneNote 12 even more exciting.

1. Within OneNote 12, find the page or paragraph that you would like to link to. If it is a paragraph, then right click the paragraph handle and choose Copy Hyperlink. If it is a page, just right click the page and choose Copy Hyperlink.

2. Go to MindManager and click on the topic you wish to create the hyperlink for. Then click the hyperlink button.

3. In the Hyperlink screen, navigate to the section that contains the page or paragraph you want to link to. Do not paste the hyperlink that was copied in OneNote in to this field. MindManager won’t accept it.

4. Then click on Options and go to the Arguments field. Paste the hyperlink that was created in that field. Then go to the beginning of the field (ctl home) and remove everything up until the # after the section name. For example, my hyperlink looks like: (the bold part contains the text that you will remove, the italicized part contains the part you will keep.

onenote://C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/rob/My%20Documents/OneNote%20Business/Business/DC/Punch%20list.one#1/14/2006&section-id={7B6AF8A8-5048-4F23-8B36-2FEC4E353F28}&page-id={C40EF86C-19CC-437E-A072-EA3FCA1B1C39}&object-id={569D97CB-BC67-0CE4-13C7-1D5536C0BB80}&17

The part you keep serves as the command line arguments that get passed in to the section that you linked to step 3.

If you are only hyperlinking to a section, you don’t need to mess with the argument stuff.

Now you can create a hyperlink from MindManager to a section, page, or a paragraph within OneNote 12. If you are beta testing OneNote 12, give it try.



 

update on using the X41 as my only computer

I had wayyyy too much coffee this evening – having a tad bit of trouble sleeping.

I thought I’d update everyone on my qwest to use my x41 tablet pc as my sole computer. It has been two weeks since I began this effort, and I have not used my t42 thinkpad for much of anything except for grabbing a few files that I forgot to pull over to the x41. I’ve been very pleased with the performance. I’ve been doing flash work, dreamweaver, sql server, outlook, mindmanager, and the occasional word processing. I have not experienced any hiccups along the way. I’d highly recommend upgrading to 1.5gb. For some reason, I’m finding the need to defrag more often. Every Friday night I check my disk, Windows advises me that it should defrag - so I do.

I went to a client site yesterday afternoon from 9:00 – 1:00. When I left, I still had 2 hours of battery remaining on the 8 cell. The computer was on the whole time, brightness at 3, wireless on. I was not using the extended wedge battery ( highly recommend it, though).

BTW: my wife is using the Gateway M280 convertible notebook tablet pc and really likes it. She has yet to use the pen. ;-)

My kids on the hand love their tc1x00s and frequently use the pen. My two youngest love their “tablet pcs” as well: Leapsters :-)

What I didn’t see at CES – I didn’t see anyone using a Gateway M280. If they were in use, it was in a booth on display. I also didn’t see any Tecra M4s being used. Otherwise, people were using m200s, x41s, tc1100s, and le1600s. Makes sense when you consider how they are built, but it begs the question as to the usability of such devices if you can’t use them when mobile.



 

Best Blonde Joke Ever...

I picked this up from Kent Newsome who had a link to the best blone joke ever…. pretty good stuff! Sadly, my son is 11 years old and has some of the worst jokes ever. This one is pretty good.



 

Neek Talk : Tablet PCs in Education

The Neek Talk girls interview good friend Ken Collura and Cia, of Bishop Hartley Schools. Bishop Hartley was one of the first schools to implement Tablet PCs ( TC1000s)  when they first came out in an HP pilot project. Apparently, they are still using Tablet PCs 3 years later.

I first met Ken at CES in 2004. Then, several months ago, he showed up in Colorado Springs for a conference and had a special “Bishop Hartley” gift for Maggie. Ken is a great guy and does a lot of the Tablet PC community.



 

Dave Taylor won't be buying an X41 Tablet PC

After using the X41 Tablet PC for several months, Dave Taylor has decided that he won’t buy one – why? Performance and battery.

I have not experienced any of the problems that Dave has, but I can certainly understand his frustrations. I’ve actually been quite pleased with the overall performance of the x41.

He is not totally jaded on Tablet PC, though. He closes with this comment.

In the end, I am not impressed with the usability of the X41 Tablet PC and am not going to buy a unit for my office after all. I am quite impressed with Windows for Tablet PC, however, and will try to find another ultralightweight unit that has better battery life and higher performance, but until then, I'll have to go back to my trusty Apple PowerBook. And dream of when the MacBook Pro has a Tablet option.


Friday, January 13, 2006


 

ContextExplorer for Word and MindManager

ContextExplorer for MindManager and Word ( by Model Technologies) is something every MindManager user has to check out. They feature a 90 day trial of the Word app that I am just starting tonight. It looks very promising. I'd love to see a ContextExplorer for MindManager and OneNote developed.

Update: The MindManager integration is currently underdevelopment. I've been playing with the Word aspect of it. Quite a piece of software there. I'd highly recommend reading the overview of the product.

MindJet’s Hobie Swan shared this with me from Chuck Frey's blog:

Model Technologies is working on a new plug-in for MindManager that can review a Word document, extract the key topics and phrases, rank them in order of importance, and can insert the results into a MindManager map.



 

The 2005 Engadget Awards: Nominate the Tablet PC of the Year

Nominate your Tablet PC of the Year for 2005 at Engadget

 

Taking note of taking notes ... now a OneNote user

I’ve officially switched over from GoBinder to OneNote 12 beta for my free form notetaking and storage of printed documents. In addition, when I need to do free form notetaking within MindManager, I create a hyperlink from a topic to the OneNote section where I am storing that note.

I’ve printed all of my GoBinder notes into OneNote 12 – note that GoBinder 2006 currently has a bug printing to OneNote 12 using the MDI option, so I printed them using GoBinder 2005. I’m also in the process of printing all of my Bible stuff into OneNote 12. All of my books and Bibles will be available for OneNote 12 within a month or so of OneNote 12 going in to public beta.

The main reasons for making the jump are as follows:

1) I can’t talk about features of OneNote 12 beta, but suffice it to say it is really stable. You can read Chris Pratley’s blog for more info.

2) I really like doing all of my project planning and task management within MindManager. However, the free form noteaking in MindManager leaves a lot to be desired. I can, however, link to individual OneNote sections. Because everything in GoBinder is stored in a single database, I can’t link from MindManager topics to anything within GoBinder. Having that ability to have file level access to my notes is very important now.

3) Note flag summaries are in OneNote 2003 and 12, not in GoBinder 2006.

4) linking internally to other notes ( a great feature!!!!)

I’ll still support all of my Bible text in GoBinder 2005, 2006 and future releases. In fact, I’m working on something with Agilix that will make it even easier to implement. I can’t, however, use GoBinder on a day to day basis any longer. The way I work has changed over the past year, and GoBinder no longer fits.


Wednesday, January 11, 2006


 

The Student Tablet PC: Scanning a book start to finish with MODI

Tracy   has got a fantastic post on how to scan a book. Very well documented.

A must read for those of you going paperless with or without a tablet PC.



 

An iTablet - finally (sort of...)

I’m finding it hard to not blog today (heads down programming), but I couldn’t pass this up. The Register has posted a link to www.ThePlaceForItAll.com who are taking auctions on custom built iTablets modded from iBooks. A lot of caveats to this auction, so you want to read it thoroughly, but based on all of their language, etc, it appears to be on the up and up. This isn’t the iTablet from Apple that we have all been waiting for, but looks pretty interesting to say the least.

The are only making up to 100 per series and they are individually numbered and signed by the modders. No handwriting recognition

via The Register, via TabletPCBuzz.com



 

Samsung's 720TD 17-inch tablet display

I couldn’t pass this one up. Samsung has an LCD that you can write on. I’m not sure if it the computer is running the Tablet PC os or not, but the article indicates that it works within Photoshop. Check it out on Engadget and then the article they point to at PC World

Samsung plans to release the 720TD later in the year. Cost: $800.


Tuesday, January 10, 2006


 

some light blogging ahead

I’m taking a little break blogging over the next several weeks as I head into “lock down” on several projects that I’m working on.

I’ll post a little here and there, but it will be very sporadic. Catch you in a couple of weeks.



 

New Apple ad

relentless…



 

MacWorld from Engadget - MacBook Pro with Core Duo

Gotta love those Engadget guys – they are running a great transcript of Steve Jobs keynote – the powerbook now has Core Duo processors and is renamed MacBook Pro….they say it screams….

1:31 PM - "It's a new name because we're kinda done with power, and we want the name the Mac name in our products." The same dual-processor as the iMac in every model. This is hard to believe: 4-5x faster than the PowerBook G5. These things are screamers."


Monday, January 09, 2006


 

The Asus R1F Tablet PC

Commsoft, from a TabletPCBuzz.com thread, has some pictures of the new R1F tablet pc from Asus along with specs.

More pictures….

http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/Spec%20Sheet.jpg

http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/Open%20Slate.jpg
http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/Open%20with%20KB.jpg
http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/Back.jpg
http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/Front.jpg
http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/Top%20Closed.jpg
http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/Bottom.JPG
http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/RHS.jpg
http://www.commsoft.com/R1F/LHS.jpg



 

Jake on the Fujitsu LifeBook P1500D Tablet PC

Jake posts some pretty good thoughts on the P1510D Tablet PC. I really like the feel of that tablet pc, but it needs some work with the touch screen sensitivity. I had a lot of ink appearing just from pressing on the screen ever so slightly. If they could get those issues addressed, it would be a great ultra mobile solution.

I found that when I didn’t rest my hand on the screen, it wrote very well, but I’ve grown to accustomed to resting my hand comfortably.

From Jake ( read his blog for more info )

All through the CES show I've been drooling over the compact size of the convertible LifeBook P1500D Notebook. The 8.9-inch screen might seem small in the age of desktop replacements, but I travel frequently and want to eliminate some pounds from my travel bag. There's enough horsepower to handle the live audio stream for the radio show, the hard drive is big enough to transport my travel needs. By eliminating a DVD drive, there's less wasted space (I never install anything to my current laptop from a shiny disk). The screen offers both stylus and touch screen sensitivity for the best of both worlds.



 

2nd winner to Outlook Productivity contest - Andy Gray

Andy Gray is the second winner to the Outlook Productivity Contest. Here was his entry:

Simplify email reference and archiving:

Don't go overboard trying to construct a complex hierarchy of folders for saving messages you want to keep, then spending a lot of time to file each message into the correct folder by topic. This significantly increases the number of places that something _isn't_ when you go to look for it later.

Instead, simply create a separate .pst file for each calendar year (e.g. 2005.pst). Create a very simple hierarchy (perhaps just a single Reference folder) into which to drag messages you want to keep. Change the AutoArchive settings for your Sent Items and Deleted Items folders to archive into this file, and you'll automatically get a dated archive of your sent and deleted mail also.

Then when you want to find something, either sort the Reference or Sent Items folder by recipient or by sender, and/or use search tools to find a keyword in the appropriate folder. More often than not, you'll find what you're looking for with a minimum of fuss.

At the end of the year, burn a copy of the .pst file to CD for archiving.

Andy has a copy of Michael Linenberger’s book, Total Workday Control, coming as well.

Congratulations to Steve and Andy. I’ll have a couple more contests coming in the next few weeks.



 

What was missing at CES?

James Kendrick agrees with me that HP was a huge disappointment, Motion was no where to be seen or heard of (disspite a lot of requests from folks), and Toshiba stole the show. I posted my own thoughts, but James gives a good summary in what was missing as well.

HP was abysmal without even bringing the one Tablet PC model they still sell to the show. No Tablets at all from them. Motion Computing did not have a booth again, something I frankly don't understand. I was asked countless times for directions to the Motion booth and I had to tell them to take a flight to Austin and visit them personally because they were not at CES. I think that is a major mistake on their part.



 

Favorite TabletPCBuzz.com post winner - Reign

Reign won the favorite TabletPCBuzz.com post contest with this entry:

My favorite is http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24523
WHat Do You Hope the new Version of OneNote will do?

This LONG thread not only is full of good suggestions and insight from board members, Chris Pratley (MS) provided feedback and input on the suggestions. This thread is an a good example of TabletPCBuzz acting as a serious resource for users and developers.

I picked this entry because 1) it is really good, and 2) shows how serious Microsoft and other OEMs take the community feedback (they really do read this stuff). Reign won a Billonton Fingerprint Reader. Please contact me, Reign, with your email address and shipping info.



 

Outlook Productivity Contest winner - Steve Beller

Steve Beller won the Outlook Productivity tip contest and is getting his own copy of Michael Linenberger’s book “Total Workday Control”

I love being able to drag and drop an email onto the calendar to make a new appointment, tasks to create a new task, contacts to make a new contact, or notes/journal to make a new entry there with all of the email content there.

Congratulations, Steve.

BTW: be sure to checkout the good collection of tips posted on the contest entry.


Sunday, January 08, 2006


 

Tracy Hooten's M200 on display at CES

Looks like Toshiba had Tracy Hooten’s original glass damaged M200 Tablet PC on display as an encouragement to buy service plans. – sorry Tracy, I couldn’t resist!!!

BTW: we took the opportunity to talk to their service rep about the bad image Toshiba has in regards to their support programs.


Saturday, January 07, 2006


 

Neek Talk : An Interview with Chris Barry

It is not often that two teenagers get to interview Chris Barry, group manager for XP and Tablet PC at Microsoft. I don’t even think that James Kendrick and Marc Orchant have posted an interview with Chris Barry yet. Great job. Take a listen. and subscribe.

Although we had other Neek Talk podcasts planned, while we were wandering around the CES 2006 showroom floor we had the opportunity to interview Chris Barry, group manager of XP, Tablet PC, x64 marketing. So, we decided to postpone our other podcasts and post our interview with him instead.

We asked him what he thought about the Tablet PC, what he would change about the Tablet PC…. In my opinion, it was a really interesting interview, and we hope you enjoy it just as much as we did creating it.

Neek Talk : Neek Talk: An Interview with Chris Barry.



 

TechSmith's SnagIt

TechSmith and a bunch of Tablet PC MVP’s met with Betsy Weber – TechSmith’s Technical Evangelist. They are doing some really good stuff with SnagIt and Camtasia.

The question was asked about Tablet PC functionality and SnagIt – what can be done to make SnagIt more Tablet PC and Ink friendly.

I told Betsy I would ask the readers of my blog for their suggestions. If you have not done so, be sure to download a trial copy of SnagIt and give it a try on your Tablet PC, then post your suggestions. It is the Snipping Tool on steriods and, in my opinion, should be considered your first tool of choice for screen capture utilities.

In addition, be sure to subscribe to the TechSmith blog - a good way of keeping up to date with TechSmith and their products. You'll see a pretty good picture of the MVP's on that link. On the TechSmith blog, Betsy is also asking SnagIt users to chime in on Tablet PC support.



 

Toshiba - setting themselves apart

Toshiba definitely stood out with their focus on tablet PCs at CES. Not only did they have their consumer and business oriented tablet PCs there, they also soft launched the M400 tablet pc.

Now, here is how they really racked up the knotch – they had a caricature artist who was doing free caricatures using a Tecra M4 and Alias Sketchbook. Everytime we went by the booth, there was at least 4 – 6 people in line waiting to get their picture done. Well done, Toshiba.

I’ll post my cariature when they email it to me.



 

CaseLogic, accessories, and CES

Dennis and I stopped by the CaseLogic booth. They make all kinds of cases, from laptops to ipods, to cameras, etc. They make some great sleeves, but all geared toward notebooks and powerbooks.

We talked to one of the product managers about cases specific for Tablet PCs. He said they had no plans to make cases specific for tablet PCs (like carrying sleeves with the tablet part open for writing, etc), because they don’t see a need in the retail market. He didn’t know that retail establishments were selling tablet PCs (M200, Gateway M280, Averatec, etc). They mainly sell their cases in Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Depot, CompUSA – exactly where the M200 is being sold.

We didn’t seem to make any headway with him, but it was apparent that folks at CaseLogic are not familiar with the surge in retail demand for tablet PCs brought on by the Gateway M280. I would encourage the folks at CaseLogic to do some usability case studies with slate users and find out how unique their needs are – then address them and come out with products that throw their competitors for a loop. The good thing about CaseLogic products is that they are normally very light and thin.

To be fair to CaseLogic, overall, there were very few accessory booths with tablet pc specific products. Dennis and I did run across a vendor, CellFan.com who made skins for cell phones, notebooks, and tablet PCS. They had a little kiosk in the Toshiba booth. They sought us out because they saw Dennis and I demoing the M400 to prospective Toshiba customers in the Toshiba booth. We spent a good hour talking to them about what they were doing. They plan on putting up a request page for customers to request their tablet pc models and they will make a skin pattern to fit your model if there is enough demand – hello Slate users! The only tablet pc model they support right now is the M200, but they said they would add more tablets if people put requests in. Otterbox also had a booth at CES

Not much has changed from last year to this year in regards to accessories and tablet PCs. Vendors just don’t see the demand and consequently are not developing product. Either the message is not getting out or the demand is really not there. The good news is that many of the notebook specific accessories work perfectly with a tablet pc. Where the need comes in is optimizing the accessory for use with a tablet pc, particularly when it comes to operating in slate / portrait mode.



 

Disappointment with HP, where was Motion Computing?

I continue to be disappointed, but not surprised, with HP. HP at a HUGE booth area at CES. Dennis and I made our way to their portable computer section – no sign of the TC4200 Tablet PC.

We talked to a couple of the reps about why the TC4200 was not on display, especially considering that Toshiba was displaying all three of their tablet PCs, Microsoft had a great display of a multitude of Tablet PCs, Fujitsu was their with their Tablet PCs, OQO was there, etc.

Their lousy excuses:

Planning to fail…

Another notable miss at CES was Motion Computing. I understand that somebody from Motion was attending, but nobody knew they were there. I met with a major tablet pc software rep on Friday and he asked me where Motion was. They did the same thing last year. They are totally focused on the business sector, but the folks that attend CES are not just consumer oriented. Why would Toshiba choose to soft launch the M400? Why display the Tecra M4 if it didn’t feel there would be benefit to business market attending CES.

CES has become THE major trade show for technology focused professionals to attend. Scouting the products, learning where things are headed helps us get leg up on how we can help our customers make better technology decisions. There is not another major trade show happening where you can get your hands on so much technology at one time. Motion needs to be a visible player in 2007.



 

Successful mobilization at CES

When you navigate the floors of CES, you need to travel light, but with plenty of juice.

The first day, I used the roll bag that CES gave all the press. It was very nice, but still a little too much.

The second day, all I carried was my Thinkpad X41 Tablet PC in its carrying case sleeve, along with a very light XM trade show bag for carrying swag. When I wanted to take notes, I simply brought the tablet pc out of standby, tilted the device toward me in landscape mode and wrote. I carried my camera in my jacket pocket.

When I was ready to post my blog entries, I plugged in my Verizon EVDO card and posted my entries – very seamless.

What do I consider the essentials for navigating a conference like that?



 

jkOnTheRun: great DualCor coverage

James Kendrick has the best coverage and specs on the new DualCor PC announced at CES. His article is a must read for those of you interested in this groundbreaking device.



 

Toshiba M400 Tablet PC Intel Graphics screen shot




I took this screen shot of the M400 Tablet PC Device Manager as displayed at CES.

Friday, January 06, 2006


 

Couple of other CES notes, Tablet PC / Blogger meet up

Went over to the Targus booth and really liked these two carrying cases:

Pretty cool portable notebook stand from Targus: Mobile X Notebook Stand

I looked for links on http://www.targus.com/ website, but did not find them listed

Over at the SanDisk booth, I saw the Ultra II Plus SD Plus 2 GB card that folds out a usb plug. Very cool

Played with the new Treo 700W Pocket PC phone. I think I might be picking up one of those new phones. Nicely done.

Saw Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes – pretty short guy.

Had a fabulous time at the Tablet PC / Blogger meetup tonight. Great conversations. There was probably close to 50 folks there. Here is a sampling:

The cost was picked up by a mix of vendors: Ablet Factory, Microsoft, OQO, Provo Labs, Monster Cable, Chris Pirillo. Thanks to all the vendors for picking up the cost



 

ThinkPad tablet pc Notes from CES

I met with Jeff Samitt, with Lenovo, today. Jeff is the conceptual designer for the X series notebooks and tablets. Jeff said that demand for the X40 tablet pc has drastically exceeded their initial forcasts.

They announced the new x60 notebooks yesterday. the future x60 tablet can be found in the new X60 notebook

No word on when the X60 tablet will come out, but I'd look for it in the next 6 months to a year. No current plans for a alternate tablet sizes - 12" only for now



 

TEO Delays

Josh Einstein. on the status of TEO 3.0 D I've seen screen shots - great stuff going on


Thursday, January 05, 2006


 

Picture of Dennis and me

This is a picture taken of Dennis and me by Robert Scoble (hosted on Robert’s flickr blog). We are standing in front of the Microsoft booth – can you see my Thinkpad X41 in my hand?

I’m having a great time with Dennis, one of my best friends in the world. Dennis is also a Tablet PC MVP and a moderator and now Managing Editor of http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/ He and I go way back. Everytime we get together, we pick up where we left off last time. Good stuff



 

Mixed messages on the offiicial announcement on the Toshiba M400

A couple of reps told me that the “Official” announcement would come in a couple of days and other reps have told me that it will come in early February (8th?).

The issue with the removable CD-ROM and replacement with a battery could be addressed in a refresh later this year. As it stands right now, though, the only other periperals you could put in there would be extra harddrive or different ROM drives. I was told that the decision to go Intel on the graphics chipset was due to the included CD ROM. They weighed their options and decided to forego Nvidia in favor of optional CD-ROM. Big mistake in my opinion and several of the Toshiba reps I spoke with did not like the decision either.

I think that one will come back to bite them. Nvidia was the ace in their hand and they let it go.



 

got an answer on the TC1100 stocking issue

As most of you know, HP relisted the TC1100 Tablet PC on the US site and many of us have questioned about what HP might be doing.

I asked one of my contacts at HP, Ben Thacker, if he knew what was going on. He told me that HP will list the TC1100 until supply is exhausted from all the channels. Production on the TC1100 has indeed stopped. Ben added that HP will of course have a lot of parts and products to support warranty obligations.



 

Troy Aikman and Tony Labonte signed my Tablet PC

-Troy Aikman and Tony Labonte signed my Tablet PC



 

Toshiba M400 Tablet PC Notes

Spent some good time talking to the former Toshiba Tablet PC Product Manager , Brian Forrester.



 

Toshiba M400 Tablet PC to be announced in two days

Toshiba will announce the successor to the M200 Tablet PC in two days with February shipping times – the M400 Tablet PC, which will become the fastest Tablet PC on the market.

Dual Core
Available with a choice of display – 1400 x 1050 or 1024 x 768
Intel GM945 integrated graphics - major Mistake
removable CD / DVD ( supports extra hard drive, not battery)
Support for thin extended battery on bottom of tablet
Built in finger print

It looks and feels thicker, but is surprisingly light. Viewing angles are really good

Picures with some comparisons to the X41 Tablet PC



 

Tablet PC Notes from CES - Day 1


Wednesday, January 04, 2006


 

OQO Introduces a Tablet PC Edition of the Model 01+

Great news from OQO. They now support Tablet PC. I'm headed over to their booth at CES for sure now.

( via http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/ )



 

Customize GoBinder 2006

For those of you beta testing GoBinder 2006, check out http://www.gobinder.com/Customize.aspx This is where you will be able to find plus- ins and skins, and paper types. They even have a skin customized with the TabletPCBuzz.com look and feel.

 

Congratulations to the new Tablet PC MVPs

Congratulations to Josh Einstein, Tracy Hooten, Craig Pringle, and Marc Orchant on being awarded the MVP for Tablet PC by Microsoft. Very well deserved by all four.

 

A winner to the TabletPCBuzz.com riddle

Dany won the contest to the TabletPCBuzz.com riddle. Here was his answer:

Spencer/Lora April Fool Marriage thread

 

Neek Talk: The Making of A Podcast

Neek Talk #2 is live. . From Layne:

Elizabeth and Sarah walk the listerners through the making of their first podcast, specifically the duo used OneNote 2003 shared sessions and audacity. The neek talk duo used the Toshiba M200 and HP Tablet PCs to create their second podcast.



 

HP Compaq tc1100 still on hp site

It it Jan 4 2006, and look what is still available.



 

Google is dealing with blog spam

Just last night, my blog got flagged by Google / Blogger as being a potential spam blog. I can still post via BlogJet (as a draft only), but I also need to login to Blogger and verify the entry with a word verification. Great to see Blogger doing this.

I went through the process of notifying them that my blog is not a spam blog, so the problem should be addressed shortly. I certainly don't mind dealing with this issue if it helps reduce the amount of blog spam out there.

I wonder how many other blogging services are doing this.

 

The Student Tablet PC: Answering Common Tablet Questions

Trevor continues his great articles by answering some of the common Tablet PC questions that arise for the naysayers and uninformed. Good screenshots, especially in regards to the natural use of the tablet; and he does a good job of dealing with Tablet PC myths

I agree with Trevor, most of the time, I leave my handwriting as ink. The only converting I do is via the TIP. Why convert when you can search the ink?



 

HPClean reviews the LE1600 Tablet PC

HPClean, fellow Tablet PC MVP, does another great job in reviewing the Motion Computing LE1600 Tablet PC – lots of close up pictures, etc. It is in French, so use your favorite translator.



 

FranklinCovey Releases PlanPlus(TM) for Windows(R) XP 5.0

I don’t know what to make of this press release (I’ll try to find out later), but it looks like that FranklinCovey has released PlanPlus for XP 5.0. I find this a bit strange because Agilix is still working on GoBinder 2006 which still has a tremendous amount of performance issues and bugs to the foundational part of the system. In addition, all of the screen shots on FranklinCovey.com are of 4.0. I’ve posted a thread to the Agilix public beta forum inquiring to the status. You can follow it here.

FranklinCovey (NYSE: FC)
announces the launch of PlanPlus for Windows XP 5.0, the company's latest
release of planning software. PlanPlus for Windows XP 5.0 has a customizable user interface, FranklinCovey applications for the Palm(R) OS, full category support, improved task organization and enhanced note-taking features.

FranklinCovey Releases PlanPlus(TM) for Windows(R) XP 5.0.


Tuesday, January 03, 2006


 

Riddle clues

It seems everyone is having some trouble solving the TabletPCBuzz.com riddle that I posted last night. Here is a clue that should provide some help –

Look at my profile on http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/ – something is a little different with it that stands out from the others. It (and many others) appeared at some point in the last couple of years. That should provide enough to help solve the other parts. It definitely helps to have a little history on the Buzz to solve this one, though.



 

Lots of Business Products at Consumer Electronics Show

Given that many of the business-oriented details of the new operating system — such as its Restart Manager — have already been discussed by Microsoft, Gates may instead focus on Vista's Media Center capabilities, or outline its Tablet PC functionality.


Businesses might find tablet PC talk of interest. Tablet PCs, which use pen input and a special Windows XP Tablet Edition operating system, have generally been slow sellers compared to standard notebooks. However, tablets have found homes in areas such as health care and education.

Meanwhile, some firms have also begun to show interest in Media Center PCs for audiovisual duties in showing presentations in boardrooms or sales meetings, some PC makers say.

FOXNews.com - Technology - Lots of Business Products at Consumer Electronics Show.



 

MindManager and Ink Notes

I’ve blogged about this in the past, but MindManager really needs to fix their ink notes module and make it Tablet PC friendlier. They are getting there, but they have a ways to go.

1) Scrolling notes goofs up the ink to the point that you have to close the note and relaunch it just to get the ink lined up again.

2) The pen doesn’t hold its’ width selection when the eraser is used

3) ink and text can’t be used together.

4) Cannot paginate the notes

5) Can’t have more than one note per topic

6) Can’t select and copy paste into another ink app, or paste ink from another ink app

7) Can’t search the ink in the notes (text is searchable, but not the ink)

I’d encourage MindJet to look at the Infinotes API and consider using it for their notes module. As it is right now, I’m having to do my ink notes in a separate application and hyperlink to the note, which is disjointed.



 

Len's Blog

Add Len's Blog to your reader. Good stuff, especially the PDA / Tablet PC post.



 

LenToGo - Review of the Motion LE1600 Extended Battery

 Len, of LenToGo, gives a really good and detailed review of the LE 1600 extended battery.

I'd have the following to add to his very detailed review: if You forego the extended battery route and get extra standard batteries instead, seriously consider buying a charging unit. It will make your life easier by not having to use your slate as the charging mechanism for those extra batteries.


Monday, January 02, 2006


 

Giveaway #3 - Solve this TabletPCBuzz.com riddle

I’ll give a Michael Linenberger “Total Workday Control, using Microsoft Outlook” to the first person who can solve the following. It’ll take a little bit of sleuth work, but it can be figured out. Provide the links as well…

1) My Profile on www.TabletPCBuzz.com

2) Month and Day of importance to my profile

3) Lora?

5) Warner?

6) The Date

7) The podcaster



 

CES: You are invited to Tablet PC Gathering #4, plus Blogger Meetup

Lora  has posted the CES Tablet PC meetup info for Friday, January 6 at 4:00 pm at the Cheese Burger at the Oasis at Aladdin’s Desert Passage.

More info at Lora’s blog. Hope to see you there!



 

Using the X41 Tablet PC as my only computer

For the next several weeks, I’m going to attempt to use my X41 Tablet PC as my only computer.

I’ll be at CES later this week. I’m trying to travel as light as possible and want to use this opportunity to put X41 throught its paces as my only system. I’ll be doing some development work with SQL Server, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Visual Basic. Performance wise, this tablet is doing really, really well. I’ve been very impressed.

The only thing I can forsee is the extended display issues. The M200 with the NVidia certainly has the X41 with the Intel graphic chipset beat on that end. I’ll also end up having to purchase a docking station, which I have put off.



 

Improving the Outlook Task View

omar gives a great tip making the Outlook task view easier to read.


Sunday, January 01, 2006


 

The Student Tablet PC: ActiveWords Overview

Trevor has posted one of the best articles on ActiveWords that I have ever read. I picked up a great deal of tips from that post. Great job Trevor.

Now that Buzz has essentially made activewords free to all tablet users (link), now's the time to check it out. I also figured that there would be a lot of new activeword users, and I wanted to help get them up to speed and introduce them to some of the more powerful functions of activewords.

 



 

ThePodcastNetwork :: The TabletPC Show #026

The Tablet PC Show on TPN  is back, with host Perry.  Looking forward to it. Check it out.


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