Blog:: Craig Pringle

The code Project has a good article about Saving-Rebuilding InkCanvas Strokes in WPF.

One of the coolest controls in WPF is <InkCanvas…/>. It's definition from Windows SDK documentation: “Defines an area that receives and displays ink strokes”. When I saw what this control can do, I thought that it would be nice if we can use this control for saving signatures and save these signatures into a database. This <InkCanvas…/> control has a “brother” in WPF. It's brother is <InkPresenter…/>. The definition for this control is: “Renders ink on a surface”.

I took the plunge and I now running RTM code of Vista and Office 2007 on my Motion Computing LS800.

So far so good. Alas the SD Card still does not work so here’s hoping we see an updated driver from Motion soon! I want to throw in a 2 GB SD card and dedicate it to ReadyBoost!!

There is also not a publically available versions of the Dashboard that runs on Vista either, but that is of less concern to me as I use the Mobility Centre.

Lora Heiny has started up a list of Mobiltiy Features that are in Vista.  Lora’s post lists:

• Handwriting recognition
• Handwriting personalization training
• Windows SideShow
• Meeting Space
• Common location for battery settings

I can add a few to that:

·         ReadyBoost – Let’s face it mobile PCs tend to pack a bit less grunt than their deskbound brothers.  Not only does ReadyBoost improve the performance by servicing most of the random reads off the flash card – anything that reduces the number of disk accesses can only do good things for battery life.

·         BitLocker – I’ve never done it but it seems an alarming number of laptops are left in taxis.  Whole volume encryption provided by BitLocker will protect your locally stored data when it is in transit.  Which is great because...

·         Offline files!  They finally work in Vista.  Some of the improvements include:

o   All file types are synchronised (unlike XP which would skip certain file types)

o   It is lots less intrusive

o   Reads are serviced from the local copy when connected – unlike XP which would read and write the remote copy when connected with a huge performance hit.

o   Encrypted by default – so even if you are not using BitLocker there is some protection.

o   Only changes are in a file are synced from the client to the server, greatly reducing the amount of replication traffic.  (note – changes server side are copied in full)

·         Streamlined Networking, dial-up and VPN configuration.

·         Network profiles – different services are available under the Domain-based, work, home and public network profiles.

·         Remaining charge indication is much more accurate than XP was.

·         Mobility Center

·         Presentation Mode

·         Improved Touch Experience (for those touch screen devices)

·         Pen Flicks

·         Eraser works in the Tablet Input Panel

*Phew* and that’s just off the top of my head!  Its great.

JK is blogging from a wi-fi challenged cafe in Houston using an EVDO card in a Fujitsu P1610.  Am I jealous? Heck yeah – not only is it a really cool device (I would love to review one of those for the NZ market) but checkout the screenshot in the post!  I love my EVDO, but we have not been REV A’d yet and don’t get anywhere near that kind of speed (yet – it is coming soon).

Rob Bushway over at GBM has put together a collection of tips to help users get a better tablet experience out of touch screen devices.  Rob’s six tips are all good ones.  And while you are in an experience optimising mode you might want to check out the series of posts I put together about optimising the experience for small screen tablets:

Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part1: The OS

Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 2: Mind Manager

Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 3: Office, IE et al

Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 4: ActiveWords

Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 5: TEO

Nick Randolph links to a great post by Daniel Moth that drills down into SideShow gadgets.

“What's a SideShow, well it is the small display on the outside (typically) of a laptop that could show things like the time or information about the song that is currently playing.  It is very similar to the reduced display that some mobile phones have on the outside.  Well the great news is that it is going to be possible to build gadgets for the SideShow. ”

Check out Daniel Moth's blog to find out more.

If you have been using IE7 for a while then you have probably found the search box in the top corner. By default any text entered into this will be submitted to Live.com and you go straight to the results. You may well home noticed that if you click on the drop-down next to it there is an option to add more search providers and selecting that will take you to this page where you can add providers such as Google, Lycos and many more. There is now also a form that you can use to generate a provider for the search of your choice...

However, the thing that caught my interest was this small print at the bottom of the page:

“Do you own a website? Click here to learn how to promote your favorite search engines in Internet Explorer 7.”

So I followed the link and learned about search discovery , or making your search more available to IE7. Basically if IE7 discovers a search provider on a page it will shade the dropdown arrow next to the search box and temporarily add the new provides to the list.

Users can then click the dropdown and choose to add the new search provides to the list. (or not)

In order to add a discoverable search provider onto my blog all I had to do was put this XML file onto my server and point to it with this in the html header:

<link title="Search Blog::CP" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" rel="search" href="http://www.pringle.net.nz/Blog/pringleSearch.xml">

You can even use the View XML link on the form shown above to generate the XML. Too easy and pretty cool!

Dennis Rice has posted a great video demo of some of the features of the Lenovo X60 TabletPC. Included is this must watch video is a fantastic demo of different ink experiences with digitizer and touch and how multi touch gives you the best of both worlds.

Dennis also gives a great Tour of the mobile dock, which seems like a handy and well thought out accessory to the X60.

The video wraps up with a quick demo of how one would go about upgrading RAM and HDD. As an It professional I do have something to add here:

Kids – don’t try this at home unless you are familiar with proper handling procedures for components that are sensitive to static electricity! Though rare a static charge can damage your device and or the components you are upgrading. Also be aware of the terms of your warranty before carrying out any upgrades or repairs yourself or you may be in for a nasty shock down the line if you send it back for a repair.

As promised Warner Crocker over at GBM has posted the first of the Video reviews of the Lenovo X60 Tablet PC.

“So, let’s take a look at the Thinkpad X60 Tablet PC. In this GBM Hardware InkShow I take a walk around tour of the unit I received which comes with the SXGA + (high res) screen option and is an engineering sample provided by Lenovo. I also discuss the battery options, examine the Nav Dial, take a look at the many utilities that come pre-loaded on the Thinkpad, and even show you a neat trick or two exclusive to the Thinkpad X60 Tablet PC.”

Check out Warner’s post and the associated Video Review of the X60.

Wow – the good chaps over at GBM have really outdone themselves this time.  They have scored an exclusive sneak peek at one of the most eagerly anticipated yet-to-be-released tablet PCs – the Lenovo X60 Tablet PC.

Warner Crocker and Dennis Rice trekked to Lenovo Corporation headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC.

They got a guided tour of the range, including the accessories and filmed this great video interview with Mike Hagerty, who is the WorldWide Segment Manager for the ThinkPad X series at Lenovo.

Even better they managed to escape with two of the engineering samples and are promising indepth reviews of them coming soon.  (That will teach Lenovo not to forget to strip search tablet geeks on their way out, eh?)

Great work GBM.  I’ll be staying tuned.

I just noticed that the TIP launching gesture is off by default in Vista. This gesture enables you to launch the Tablet Input Panel by waving your stylus back and forth just above the screen.

To turn this on:

1.       Navigate to Control Panel\Mobile PC

2.       Click on Pen and Input Devices

3.       On the Pen Options tab select Start Tablet PC Input Panel and click Settings.

4.       Check the Enable Start input Panel gesture checkbox and click Ok

Update: Excuse the shoddy screenshots.  I just found a new beta driver bug.  If I rotate into primary portrait the colour depth drops down to 8-bit.  I'll feed that back to the vendor :)

Update: fixed broken link

This is very cool.

Peter Green is on a personal crusade to make a Mac tablet! Way to go peter and keep up the good work. It seems to me that the fact that Mae users are going to such lengths should be a major hint to Macintosh to hurry up with a Mac Tablet!

He has a working prototype called the MMP MKIII Tablet Edition that he describes thus:

Based on the Mac Mini Intel Core Solo 1.5Ghz, 60Gb HD 512Mb Ram.

The MMP MkIII is the LIGHTEST Macintosh portable ever made at just 1.9Kg including batteries.

It has a 3 hour battery life, integrated 8" touch screen tablet, full Blue Tooth, Airport, full SPDIF audio in/out and Front Row capabilities, on screen touch keyboard - no hardware keyboard required!

The MMP MkIII is the same height (or a little slimmer) than the original Mac Mini by Apple, it's been made a little wider for extra electronics and being ergonomically better to hold.

Upgradable battery system for potentially unlimited battery life, video input (TV). if someone can write me Intel drivers for my webcam - it'll have a built in iSight too!

More pictures on Peter’s site.

Previously I blogged about the new Mobility Centre in Windows Vista. While many of the utilities available in the Mobility Centre are new versions of familiar tools there are a couple of new things that are pretty cool.

One of the coolest in my opinion is Presentation Mode. This can be toggled on or off bin the Mobility Centre.

By clicking the picture of the projector you can configure how presentation mode behaves. This will launch the dialog shown below.

As you can see entering presentation mode will prevent the computer from going into standby and turns of system notifications – which means no embarrassing Windows Live Messenger pop-ups.

Optionally you can disable the screensaver, set the audio volume and turn off or change the wallpaper. This means you can have your cool wallpaper most of the time and use something more professional for those client facing presentations.

Another cool trick is hidden away. Clicking on the “Connected Displays” button will show you the currently connected displays. Most recent displays will uniquely identity themselves. If you use the same projector frequently you can remember it. If the checkbox is ticked for a particular projector then as soon as you connect the display Presentation Mode will be enabled automatically. Very handy! Naturally as soon as you disconnect the projector or disable presentation mode your previous settings are restored instantly.

The Mobility Centre is one of those Vista features that once you find it and start using it you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

The first thing you need to know is how to get to it. You can of course find it in the control panel, or if you enter “Mobility” into the Start search box you will find it. However there is an easier way, the keyboard shortcut Windows key + X.  That is fine if you are docked or in laptop mode on a convertible; but for tablet use I recommend assigning a hardware button to launch the Mobility Centre.

When you launch the Mobility Centre you are presented with a collection of tools that are useful to – well mobile users... hence the name. The tools available will depend on your hardware. For example of your display driver does not support rotation, that tool will not be shown. In addition I understand that the mobility centre will be extensible for OEMs so your hardware manufacturer may add in their own tools.

For those of you on a small device you will be interested to know that he dialog will resize itself if the screen is not wide enough – for example if you are using a small in portrait mode. This is the sane dialog when I rotate my LS800 into portrait mode.

Something that is not instantly obvious when you launch the Mobility Centre is that each icon is in fact also a button that takes you into an associated control panel application for more advanced configuration.

Here’s a rundown on what’s available in my Mobility Centre.

Brightness

Use the slider to adjust the brightness. Clicking the icon takes you into the brightness settings for the current power scheme.

Volume

You can mute the PC and use the slider to adjust the master volume. Clicking the speaker takes you into the sound control panel applet, so you can modify playback and recording devices.

Battery Status

View your remaining power or change your power scheme. Clicking the Battery icon launch the Power Options dialog. Matt Faulkner has a good post about Vista Power Schemes over on GBM.

Wireless Network

Shows you your connection status and allows you to enable or disable the WLAN with a click. You can also click the signal strength icon to go to the Connect to a Network wizard.

Screen Orientation

Click the Rotate screen button to cycle through your screen orientations. Clicking on the icon will take you into the Tablet PC Settings control panel applet with the “Display” tab selected.

External Display

Click here to enable or disable the external monitor. Clicking on the icon will take you into the Display Settings dialog. There you can change the position or screen resolutions of your screens if need be.

Sync Centre

Your one stop shop for all your OS sync tasks. Click on the Sync Settings button to configure offline file and mobile device sync settings. This could be a future post in itself.

Presentation Settings

Enable or disable Presentation Mode. This will certainly be a future post cause it is so cool!