Blog:: Craig Pringle

Jon Harsem has produced a really cool comic depicting the three tablet guys who crashed a recent SWMUG meeting - myself included!

Love it - thanks Jon!

I've just had word from Hugo Ortega that Tegatech is going to be selling the TabletKiosk v-700 Orgami device and that it is going to be shipping next month.  Very cool.  Keep an eye on Hugo's blog for more information - coming soon.

With my day job keeping me up at night lately and my recent trip to Sydney I’ve not had much time to post anything regarding the Buzz on the Net vis a vis “Orgami”

Now Microsoft has officially unveiled the devices and dubbed them Ultra-Mobile PCs or UMPCs– here are some posts you should check out to find out more:

·         James Kendrick has the real dirt and also links to a great video on Channel 9

·         Loren has some info on developing for the UMPC

·         Those guys over at GottaBeMobile.com have a good article about some of the first software to be released including HandPortal from MobileKinetics, abletFoodCalc from abletFactory and GoBinder 2006.

·         The Official Microsoft UMPC site is here

·         And of course there is the OrgamiProject site - http://www.origamiproject.com/default.aspx

·         TabletKiosk have also provided jk with information on their new devices – including the UMPC that Hugo Ortega will be selling in Australia and New Zealand.

While I was in Sydney Dr. Neil gave me two really great gifts.  One was Cross Tablet PC Stylus and the other was a Tablet Guy.

Here's a shot of Tablet Guy checking out the view of Darling Harbour from the Novatel Hotel.

Details of the next meeting are…

Where: Microsoft, L12 Mobil on the Park, 157 Lambton Quay, Wellington

Soon Jinn of HeuLab (www.heulab.com).  Soon Jinn is the ROLE and is based in Singapore.  In the 2005 Microsoft Partner Awards HeuLab was named the Independent Software Vendor of the Year.  From the HeuLab website:

Brett Gross of Motion Computing (www.motioncomputing.com).  Brett is the newly appointed country manager for Motion Computing in Australia and New Zealand.  Brett is going to talk about the Motion range of slates and Motion’s plans for future in the region.

We’ll have some great prizes to give away including some copies of Windows Server 2003 and Virtual Server.

As always please feel free to forward this on to anyone you know who may be interested.

RSVP: For catering purposes we need to know how many people are coming.  Please send an email to: tugrsvp@pringle.net.nz

The Agenda:

• Welcome
• Tablets in a Digital Classroom (Soon Jinn)
• Motion Computing in NZ/Australia (Brett Gross)
• Prizes
• Beer & Pizza

Updates:

More prizes!

CA is providing copies of eTrust Pest Patrol, Home Edition to the first 30 attendees. Based on previous attendence that should be enough for a copy for everyone.

Also ActiveWords (www.activewords.com) have offered to sponsor 5 copies of ActiveWords - a MUST HAVE application for your tablet. I recorded a short screencast showing off ActiveWords - check it out here: http://www.pringle.net.nz/blog/PermaLink,guid,64786f3e-b861-4c64-b228-3be1a4ab2793.aspx

I finished Naked Conversations last night and will be posting a mini review of it soon.  Now I'm starting on Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook.  I've really been looking forward to making a start on this book!

For most of the last few days I have been tinkering with the M400 for short periods and then charging it up again - without running it right down. 

As a last hurrah before handing the demo unit back tomorrow I decided to get an idea of the battery life.  Not having much time left with the device I decided to go for the worst case.  I cranked the brightness up to full, turned wireless on and started browsing away.  This got me a bit over 3 hours continuous use.  So at worst with the M400 you can expect 3 hours running time. Turning down the brightness and tweaking the power settings using the Toshiba Power Management tool I would expect that you could stretch this to over 4(have not tried it).  This the extended battery I suspect (totally untested) you could get a full day.

Here's the power save settings I used for the test...

After trying the inplace upgrade option for Windows Vista build 5308 I can confirm that the upgrade does process does work, though as previously noted it takes a bit longer.

After the upgrade I was still without Areo Glass effects and I did not manage to resolve this.  Indeed when Vista first started I was greeted by a stunning 640x480 display at 256 colours because Vista had loaded a generic "Standard VGA" driver.  This is the whole screen (at 66% of orignial size)

Fortunately I was able to change the resolution back to 1280x1024, 32 bit colour.  That looks lots better.

Additionally the fingerprint driver, bluetooth, Wi-fi and Toshiba power management would not run after the upgrade.

After a tip-off from Warner Crocker that Windows Update had some driver updates for build 5308 retired to the study and I plugged in a network cable (boy - that took me back!!).  Windows Update contained two updated drivers - one for the wireless which errored when it tried to install and a new version of the "Standard VGA" driver - which still does not give me glass.  As there was no WDDM driver for the Intel 945 Express chipset I cannot stress enough - this does not mean the M400 will not run glass.  At no time did I have a WDDM driver.

On the whole I have enjoyed my days with the M400.  It is a nice machine and handles itself well - despite my demo unit only having 512 MB of RAM installed.  It will be hard handing it back tomorrow.

I've reverted it back to factory defaults and I'm using it now for my evening's blogging to get an idea of the battery life.  I'll post something about that soon.

My nearly-fifteen-month-old daughter had some tablet time yesterday.  She drew this stunning creation in ArtRage.  I did help her change colours a now and then, but conceptually it is all her.

Already it is clear to me that she has more artistic ability than I do

Two Tablet PC MVPs (and top chaps) have joined forces on a new mobility focused blog and community site.

Rob Bushway and Dennis Rice today officially launched GottaBeMobile.com.  Rob has long been an active and respected Tablet PC blogger and Dennis is the managing editor of TablePCBuzz.com so they should make a great duo!

If you were already subscribed to Rob Bushway's CutMeLoose blog then you don't need to do anything as the main feed is the same.  If you weren't then head over to GottaBeMobile.com or just take my word for it and subscribe to this feed.

From Rob and Dennis:

"Check out our new InkShows, news articles by ISV and OEM categories, our hsoftware list, and of course our editorials. Coming soon is an interactive hardware comparision matrix - something that is badly needed in the tablet pc space.

So, enjoy your visit, check out all the new stuff, and come back often."