Blog:: Craig Pringle

When I arrived at work today I was greeted with a welcome sight.  There was a new device sitting on my desk.  No explaination.  No note.  Just a toy in a plain white box.

When I opened the box I was reunited with an old friend.  The Padle.

The Padle - as it was sold in New Zealand by the now defunct (?) Lingo Computer Systems is quite dated, but when it first came out it was a really cool device.

I'll take some photos tomorrow, but suffice to say the Padle looks like a small slate tablet - slightly smaller than a Motion Computing LS800 - with an 8" screen.  Very thin and light.  Instead of Windows XP Tablet Edition, however, it is running CE.Net.  Basically it is a giant PDA.

As I said it is quite old - Circa 2001 I think - so as you can imagine the specs leave a bit to be desired.  It has 64MB RAM - Shared between storage and programs.  No Bluetooth, no WiFi.  It does have a PCMCIA card slot so you could potentially add something in to gove you connectivity, but as it is running CE.Net drivers could be an issue.  None the less I feel honour bound to find a use for it.  Right now I am thinking either digital picture frame or uber remote for the media centre.  Any other suggestions?

For those of you who are moving your computing life over to Vista there is a featrue that may get you over the hump if one or two of your apps don't run on Vista.

Run it in compatibility mode.  This feature has been around since XP.  My limited experience with XP was that running an app in compat mode rarely made it work  In Vista I've had better success, but I suspect it still depends on WHY it is failing.

So if you have an app that does not run properly under Vista (even if it is an installer) try this:

1. Right-click the executable and select Properties
2. Click the Compatibility tab
3. Check the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" checkbox.
4. In the dropdown select an OS that you know it worked on.  you can choose from Windows 95, Windows 98/ME, Windows NT4.0 SP 5, Windows 2000, Windows XP SP2 or WIndows 2003 SP1. (the default is Windows XP SP 2 and will probably work for many apps).
5. Do Not be tempted to check the "Run this program as an administrator" checkbox as a matter of course.  If running in compatibility mode does not work you may want to try running as admin, but any time you run a program as admin where you don't need to you weaken the security of your system.  You can always try this latter if compatibiltiy mode alone does not resolve the problem.
6. Click OK.

That's it.  Cross your fingers and your toes, poke your tounge out at just the right angle and then double click the icon to run the application.

Motion Computing have just announced the release of the Motion C5 - a new tablet PC designed specifically for teh Health Care industry.

From the product brochure:

The Motion C5 was designed based on input from thousands of clinicians to simplify workflow and
improve efficiency. It is the first mobile clinical assistant that integrates technology from Intel® Health.
A convergence of technologies in the C5 allows you to do everything you normally do during your
shift such as administer medication, record clinical notes and take pictures using one single device.
With Intel® Centrino® mobile technology and high-speed wireless connectivity, the C5 integrates key
functions that clinicians require to be productive during the course of the day.

The C5 includes some really innovative features and options including:

• Integrated camera
• Integrated RFID
• Integrated barcode reader
• View Anywhere screen
• Integreated moulded handle
• Semi-rugged, sealed case (so it can be wiped down with disinfectant)

The camera, RFID and barcode reader could really enable some cool end-to-end solutions that streamline the data capture and start off automated workflow.

Off the specs the unit looks quite capable:

Processor/Cache

• Intel® Centrino® mobile technology with the Intel® Core Solo
  Processor U1400 (2MB of L2 cache, 1.20GHz, 533MHz FSB)

Operating Systems

• Windows Vista™ Business
  Microsoft® Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition

Chipset

• Intel 945GM

Display

• 10.4" XGA TFT LCD (1024 x 768)
• View Anywhere® option
• Intel Display Power Saving Technology (DPST)
  

System Memory

• DDR2 533MHz SDRAM memory
• Base configuration of 512MB
• Upgradeable to maximum 1.5GB

System Storage

• 1.8" Hard Disk Drive (HDD) with 30GB or 60GB capacity
• PCI bus master enhanced IDE
• Supports Ultra ATA 66/100

Communications

• Integrated Intel® PRO/Wireless a/b/g network connection
• Optional Atheros 802.11 a/b/g card available
• Integrated Bluetooth®

Dimensions

• 10.0" x 10.0" x .95" (256mm x 256mm x 24.3mm)

Weight

• 3.1 lbs.

Battery

• Lithium-ion standard battery with 40WHr capacity

Preliminary specifications. Subject to change.
Weight represents approximate system weight measured with a 40WHr battery. Actual system weight may vary depending on component and manufacturing variability.

I love Motion Computing.  I think they have the coolest slates on the market.  However sometimes they do things that baffle me, and this is one of those times.

If you have recently purchased a Motion Computing LS800 or LE1600 with Windows XP Tablet Edition pre-installed - or indeed purchase one today - one of the applications installed will be the Omnipass suite, which enables the fingerprint reader hardware.  Without Omnipass (or some equivilant applicaiton) you cannot use the fingerprint reader in Windows XP Tablet Edition.

However if you then go and install Windows Vista on that tablet and download all the drivers for it you will find that the Omnipass download is a 30 day trial.  If you want to use the fingerprint reader in Windows Vista it will cost you.  From Motion's Vista Upgrade Guide document:

Softex’s OmniPass version 5.0 for Vista is a major release that includes new features and is available to Motion customer’s as a downloadable, free 30 day trial at http://www.motioncomputing.com/support/driver_download.asp. Motion has negotiated a reduced price for our customers for the fully licensed version of OmniPass. In the free downloaded OmniPass application, there is an option to purchase at the lower, negotiated price. OmniPass is a required application to use the biometric finger printer reader/security software. Note: You will not be able to import your profiles or information into the trial version. You will be able to import your profiles and information into the fully licensed OmniPass 5.0.

And how much is it?  The special reduced price for Motion customers is US$24.99  On checking the Softex site retail price from their store for OmniPass Client Edition 5 is US$49.00, so the discount is about 50%

I could be wrong - and if I am I would welcome comment from Motion - but I suspect Motion had a choice.

1. Absorb this cost by coming to an arrangement that would allow all existing Motion Tablet owners to upgrade for free.  They know how many they sold, they could come to some arrangement I'm sure.  It would not be hard to have the software vendor in question produce a version that is tied to Motion hardware.
2. Pass this cost on to their exisitng customers.

The problem is that by choosing the latter course Motion Computing have sent a message to their customers - if you buy our product today it may or may not work with the version of the OS tomorrow.  Don't they care about repeat business?  This is an especially bitter pill because the fingerprint reader was for a long time one of the features that set the Motion slates apart from their competition. 

Now that other vendors have cought up and integrated fingerprint readers into their units as well Motion risks falling behind again by effectively disabling this feature in any existing Motion slates that move to Vista. 

How do other vendors compare?  I work with several vendors and I know for a fact that HP, Toshiba and Lenovo all have Vista versions of thier fingerprint software available as a free download.  In my opinion this is how it should be.  I think it a shame that Motion have not seen fit to follow suit.

A couple of months ago I blogged about Converting a Physical Machine to a Virtual Machine using the beta version of the VMWare Converter.

The beta worked flawlessly and it has now been released.  Even better it is free!  Check it out here.

I dropped in on the Wellington .Net User Group today to deliver what they call a lightning talk.  The whole meeting was a succession of speakers, each alotted 5-10 minutes to deliver their message.  That is not a lot of time for anything more than a quick intro to a topic.

My topic was "Why you should be developing for Tablet and Touch technologies" and I went bare-bones.  No slides.  No projector.  No demos. 

I just gave a bit of background on the evolution of tablet to date - Windows XP Tablet Edition, Tablet Edition 2005, making the Tablet OS available on touchscreen devices, UMPCs and now Vista.  Then I put it to the audience that if - and I am not sure that this is the case - the tablet has failed to deliver on its promise then fault lies with developers.  Brave thing to say if you are in a room full of developers perhaps, but I stand by the statement.  Why?  Because tablet is just a platform.  Platforms in and of themselves do not add much value.  Applications that leverage the features of the platform to enable users to work better add value.

Next I outlined three classes of applications.

1. Tablet ignorant applications are unaware that they are running on a tablet at all.  They treat the stylus just like a mouse and you need to use the TIP to enter text.  A classic example would be Notepad, but in fact most applications fall into this category.
2. Tablet aware applications offer additional functionality to the user when running on a tablet.  Examples of this include MindJet MindManaer and most of the Office suite.
3. Tablet specific applications are designed to run on a tablet and don't work well (if at all) on a non-tablet.  Some examples of this include Windows Journal and the apps in the tablet experience pack.

I closed with a call to action.  In short I said:

Work with a tablet if you can.  This is the best way to understand their strengths and the painpoints of tablet ignorant apps.  Next start making your existing applications tablet aware.  Lastly if you find a use case that lends itself to ink input then consider writing a tablet specific app.

One of the major limitations of the Acer that Microsoft and AMD sent me is that it is not a tablet.  I previously blogged about using an external Wacom graphics tablet to enable the pen and ink features in Vista.  However, truth be told, using an external graphics tablet, while better than nothing certainly does not make the Ferrari a Tablet PC.  It is simply not as easy and natural to write off to one side and have the ink appear on the screen in front of you.

So while you can add tablet functionality to an ink challenged mobile PC it does not a tablet make...

...But there is hope yet for the Ferrari to redeem itself.  If it can't be a tablet, then the next best thing is for it to do is to empower real tablets by being used to develop tablet applications.  Here's how to go about setting up a Vista machine to develop tablet applications.

Step 1.  Ink enable your Vista development machine by adding a Wacom graphics tablet as I described here.  You can develop tablet apps without any pen functionality, but it is really hard to get a feel for how your application feels when you are emulating ink with a mouse.

Step 2. Install your development environment.  I am using Visual Studio 2005 Professional, but you could equally use one of the express editions.

Step 3. If you are installing Visual Studio 2005 or one of the Express Editions then install the appropriate version of Service Pack 1.

Step 4. Install the Windows Vista SDK.  According to Gavin Gear...

This option does not install the InkAnalysis binaries, but exposes the Winforms, COM, and WPF InkAnalysis binaries – this allows you to use InkAnalysis with the Windows Presentation Framework!

 Step 5. Install the Ink Analysis binaries.  Gavin's step 4 gives you two options to achieve this, I went for B because I like command lines.  Make sure you run the following as administrator.  Also note that I've replaced the dashes (-i) in Gavin's example below with foreward slashes (/i).

Option b: Manually install the InkAnalysis binaries:

Open a Windows SDK cmd shell from Start->Programs->Microsoft Windows SDK->CMD Shell

Run the following commands:

cd %ProgramFiles%\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Tablet PC\v1.7

gacutil /i iacore.dll

gacutil /i microsoft.ink.analysis.dll

cd %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Bin

gacutil /i ialoader.dll

regsvr32 iacom.dll

And you're good to go!  Gavin also provides a couple of good articles for getting started with Ink Analysis in WPF.  Check out:

Tablet PC: Getting started with InkAnalysis in WPF

Shape recognition with the Tablet PC Platform InkAnalysis API

Yesterday I picked up a Portege R400 from Toshiba for review.  I unboxed the unit and found that it had Windows Vista Business pre-installed.  This innovative new convertible from Toshiba has drawn some flack from some because it lacks some features people have come to expect from Mobile PCs.  And this is in fact a valid criticism.  There is no 6-in-one card reader.  There are only two USB ports and no FireWire.  There is no integrated optical drive. 

On the other hand there is a lot to like in this tablet.  The R400 is far and away the most slate like convertable I have ever handled.  It is light and thin and this makes it very comfortable to use in slate mode.  It is also the quietest Core Duo device I have yet seen.

In addition it has a very innovative hinge design that completely eliminates the floppy head that some convertables suffer from.  I also suspect that the new hinge design has eliminated a lot of weight from the swivel.  On either end of the bottom edge of the screen there is a foot - for want of a better term - that seats into a plastic guide.  The screen will only rotate when it is roughly at right angles.  The rest of the time there is no side-to-side play at all.    Here is a close-up of the foot on the right.

The innovation does not stop there.  The R400 also sports integrated EVDO - which is not activated on my demo unit.  Indeed I know that Telecom New Zealand requires that any EVDO device used on the Telecom network be certified and I don't know if this has been done yet on the module in the R400.  For my American readers - there is a link in one of the utilities that takes you to the Verizon site to activate the EVDO.

In addition the R400 sports a Windows SideShow enabled LCD display on the front bezel that supports something that Toshiba call "Active Notifications".  This display is extremely hard to photograph, so sorry if it is a little blurry.

You may not have heard of Active Notifications before, but it is not actually not a new thing.  Active Notifications uses Exchange DirectPush, which is the same technology that enables push email delivery to Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.  The net effect is that you can recieve notifications of new emails on the SideShow display, even if your tablet is in Sleep mode.  That is very, very cool. 

The other cool feature of the R400 is the wireless port replicator, which alas - I don't have for this review.  What I do have is the tablet itself, so lets go for a wee tour of that.

On the front bezel, in addition to SideShow display, there is (left to right) the pen, an array of indicator lights (power in, power state, battery state, aux. battery state, disk activity, Wi-Fi activity and cellular state), a microphone, the SideShow, three buttons for use with the SideShow display and a Wi-Fi hardware switch.

On the right there is a PCMCIA slot, the volume control, headphones and microphone jack.  Thw two jacks are right at the back and, if the R400 port replicator lacks audio output like the M400 port replicator does then I much prefer the new placement.

The back of the device includes two USB ports, ethernet, power and a vent.

On the left there is a lock slot, VGA output and the edge of the pen, so you can push it out the front.

The stylus is quite compact and includes the traditional right click button on the barrel and an eraser on the top.

In slate mode, as I said, the R400 really feels good, for a convertable.  The hardware buttons available in slate mode include a power button - which has a lock switch so you can store the tablet in slate mode without risking it turning on in your bag.  There is also a joystick directional control that can be pressed in to send "enter".  The next three buttons are Esc/rotate, Windows security and an email button.

There is also a finger print reader.  In slate mode the screen is offset (in portrait) so you can adjust the orientation based on your handedness and still have an edge that is comfortable to hold.  Since I am right handed I put the buttons (which are on the edge you would hold) on the left.

Over all this is a really nice convertable.  While I think that some of the criticisms that have been made are valid (the lack of an SD card slot in particular) the R400 looks great and has a nice feel to it.  Performance is snappy and it rates a respectable 3.1 on the Vista Perfromance Rating. 

I am very excited by the innovative features such as the hinge design, the wireless port replicator and the SideShow display that is powered by DirectPush.

I just wandered down to Toshiba and collect a brand new R400 to review.  It's Friday today, Tuesday is a holiday and like most people I'm taking Monday as well, so I've got the R400 'till Wednesday.  I've not had time to really look at it, but it has Vista Business pre-installed.  More later...

Check out the great Vista Video Competition that is running over at Geekzone.  Submit a 15-30 second video showing what you love about Vista and you could win some great prizes like a Zune media player or a copy of Vista Ultimate.

This competition is sponsored by Microsoft New Zealand and Geekzone.

Please note that entry is restricted to residents of New Zealand.  Check out the rest of the Terms and Conditions here.

Microsoft have released Vista versions of a couple of good downloads for the Tablet PC.  Firstly there is the Experience Pack:

Media Transfer
Copy or stream media files from your home computer to your Tablet PC, so that you can enjoy your favorite music, videos, or pictures wherever you go.
Ink Crossword
Solve crosswords on your Tablet PC using your tablet pen. Twelve puzzles come with Ink Crossword. You can also download a free daily puzzle and purchase more puzzle packs online.
Equation Writer
Easily add mathematical expressions to your papers. Handwrite a math equation, and then convert it into a neatly typewritten image to paste into a report or a presentation.
Ink Flash Cards
Create flash cards to help you learn facts or study for an exam. Handwrite a question on the front of a card and put an answer on the back. Draw, insert graphics, and add text, too.

Also available is an updated version of Ink Desktop:

If you have a Tablet PC, you’ll love using Ink Desktop. It’s like having a portable dry-erase board on your screen all of the time. Whenever you want, you can jot down a phone number, directions, or top priorities for the day.

Source: Tablet PC downloads for Vista.
Originally published on Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:43:46 GMT by Colin Walker

Motion Computing have released drivers for the LE1600 and the LS800 slates.  You can get them here.

Strangely the place holder page they put up a couple of days ago that says that Vista Drivers are Coming Soon is also still up - so if you have been checking that URL to see if the drivers were there yet (like I was) you may have missed the release (like I did!).

While leaving the placeholder page up was not their best work I do have to commend Motion on the detailed upgrading informaiton they provide to help users make the transistion.