Blog:: Craig Pringle

Microsoft has released:

• Service Pack 2 for WSS (Download)
• Service Pack 2 for Office 2003 (Download)
• Service Pack 2 for OneNote 2003 (Download, More Info)

Hat tip to Colin Walker

Mauricio has posted details of the new OQO model recently released.

"OQO Model 01+ connectivity options include WiFi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 and FireWire (1394). The pen-based digitized is based on a Wacon design."

I wonder if they have plans to release a Tablet PC Edition version now that it can be licensed to OEMs for touchscreen devices?

Check out Mauricio's post on Geekzone for full device specs.

Update: Appears to

On his blog Colin Walker writes:

"Iggy Kin blogged that the Tablet PC is not as successful as people imagined because "Computing with a pen is unnatural"."

Colin has quite a good post on his blog with his thoughts on the subject and has also posted two great articles on some of the new pen centric features he has found in the Windows Vista betas (here and here).

I have one key point to add here.  Its not about the OS - its about the applications.

While it is possible to improve the pen hooks in the OS (and I like what I have read in Colin's articles referenced above) the real key is the apps.

There is no one size fits all solution here either.  How you make pen computing natural depends on what the application is trying to mimic.  Look at some of the applications that people with Tablet PCs love.  OneNote - mimics paper.  MindManager, mimics an existing diagramming technique. Infoapth - mimics paper-based forms. 

The apps are the key.  If you install Windows XP Professional onto a desktop and give it to a user with nothing else, it is pretty useless, too.

Colin Walker has installed build 5219 of Windows Vista (released at PDC) on his Tablet PC.  He has a very interesting post that walks through some of the new tablet specific features coming in the new OS. 

Colin’s article goes into a great deal of detail (including screenshots) of:

·         Improvements to the clicking experience with a pen (similar to those found in the Click! Utility.

·         Support for “flicks” – gestures that can be customised to execute the command of your choice.

·         Personalization of handwriting recognition

·         Training of handwriting recognition

·         New Tablet PC Pen Training wizard

·         The new “Touch” settings to allow support for devices with dual mode (touch and digitizer) screens.

All up a very interesting peek at what is over the horizon for Tablet users.  Great reading.

As promised Chris Pratley has posted some more really interesting stuff about features that will be in OneNote 12.

Chris talks about unifying the analog and the digital.  What does this mean?  Well an example of this you may already be using exists in OneNote today.  OneNote takes your handwritten notes today (analog data) and converts them into searchable text in the background (digital data).  Anyone who has used this knows what a powerful feature this is.  OneNote 12 is going to take this much much further.

Today, you can send just about any content to OneNote by "printing" it to the Send to OneNote power toy.  The printed document ends up in OneNote as an image and can be annotated and marked up - BUT - the resulting image includes the text in the original document that is not searchable.  OneNote 12 will take this to the next level. 

"OneNote 12 includes its own "OneNote Import Printer Driver" which captures the text of any document that is printed to it, and stores it with the images of the pages you print into OneNote. This lets you have not only images of printed pages, but you can search through the text in those images. This printer driver works for anything that can be printed, not just Microsoft applications or documents."

In addition if you scan a document into OneNote 12, take a screenshot or insert a photo of a document the text will automatically be recognised using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and will become searchable. 

"For you existing OneNote users, that means the documents you have printed into OneNote already will all automatically become searchable!"

I can't wait to see how well the OCR technology works, but really even if it is not perfectly accurate it is going to be a huge leap forward.  That said, it sounds like it is going to be pretty cool!

"In fact, we're including about four different OCR engines in OneNote, each one optimized for different types of images that contain text. We sniff the type of image and use the appropriate one automatically."

And as if all that is not cool enough you will be able to search audio and the audio from video because this is going to be indexed for seaching as well.  How?

"The way this works is pretty cool. The audio is converted from waveforms to phonetic equivalents, and those are indexed. You can type your search term, then this is converted by OneNote into a phonetic equivalent which searches against the phonetic index of the audio. Actually this is a gross oversimplification but you get the idea."

Man - and I thought the current product was cool.  Roll on OneNote 12!

Chris Pratley has a post about what is (and is not) coming in OneNote 12.  Firstly he explains that OneNote will not be using the new UI and tells us why.  He also delves into some of what will be in the new version...

"OneNote 12 actually has some new UI for navigation and organization. For example, you can pop open your set of notebooks (yes, you can now have multiple notebooks!) and leave it sitting next to your note page (on the left) to make it easy to navigate your notes, and also to use drag 'n' drop (Yay! Drag 'n' Drop!) to rearrange your pages, sections, folders, and notebooks."

That all sounds great - but please tell me I'll be able to insert a link from one OneNote page to another!

Chris is promising to post more on OneNote 12 in the near future, so watch this space.

Mike Wood has a very detailed review of Motion's ultra mobile tablet. A good read and I learned something very interesting - Motion is now supporting up to 1GB of RAM! The snip below is from the Motion website.

Rob Bushway writes:

"I have several hundred blogs in my Onfolio reader. Want to know my favorite? Warner Crocker’s, Life on the Wicked Stage Act 2

Why? I really appreciate how he shows how the tablet pc is such an integral part of his work flow and how it impacts everything he does day to day. Heck, if you can’t be productive using a piece of technology, why use it, right? He’s also honest in its’ drawbacks and won’t shy away from calling a spade a spade."

I've been really busy of late but when I get time to read my feeds I start with Warner's. Warner blogs so much good stuff and usually adds his own perspective to his posts.I'm never disappointed.

Microsoft has set up a forum to address questions and issues that developers have concerning Mobile PC and Tablet PC development.  There’s not much content up yet but that is sure to change soon.

Hat tip James Kendrick

Hobart Swan has a post that outlines some of the key features in the new version of Mind Manager.

"Rather than try to communicate detailed information about the new product to you using the standard linear form, let's use the new Beta version of Mindjet's new browser-based (IE 5.5 or greater) MindManager Viewer and show to it you in the most efficient manner: a map."

Tom Clarkson, the developer behind OrangeGuava Desktop, has an interesting post about why he chooses to write software specifically for the Tablet PC.

"The general software market is around 100 times the size of the tablet-only software market. However, it is also around 10000 times harder to get noticed in."

In addition to being easier to get noticed in Tom points out that the Tablet PC market is growing fast and presents some great opportunities for small developers that can turn things around in a hurry.

At times like this I wish I were a code monkey. (N.B. that is a term of the utmost respect.) From GeekZone:

"New Zealand-based developers and companies will be able to showcase their new software applications based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform in a new Mobility Developers Contest sponsored by Geekzone, Handango, Microsoft New Zealand and Telecom d>zone.

The objective of the contest is to demonstrate the potential of mobile platforms, using the features available on a connected device (Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition or Smartphone) to tap into networked resources.

A panel of judges from Geekzone, Microsoft New Zealand and Telecom d>zone will evaluate the ability of applications to deliver information and services that people would want to use while on the move and to enable interaction with other users, either consumer or enterprise.

Examples of consumer applications include on-line multiplayer games, electronic greeting cards, instant messaging, online dating, etc, while enterprise applications may include CRM, ERP, mobile office, PIM, email, news and financial information, banking, route planning, traffic information, ticketing, shopping, advertising, etc.

Registration for the contest will be accepted from 12 September to 01 November 2005, and a functional copy of the application must be submitted to the judges for review by 05 November 2005.

Winners will be announced at Convergence Oceania ’05 organised by the New Zealand Wireless Forum at Sky City Auckland on 25 November 2005.

The winning developer will receive an Apache Pocket PC Phone Edition from Telecom New Zealand; a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition from Microsoft New Zealand; publicity in Handango’s Windows Mobile Pocket PC newsletter (February 2006) if the application is listed in the Handango catalogue; and two months of banner advertising on the Geekzone website with a total of 100,000 impressions worldwide.

After the contest, all entries will be presented in an article on Geekzone listing the developer, application, features, benefits and links to the developer’s web site."