Blog:: Craig Pringle

Like Greg Hughes I am planning to head to TechEd in Orlando next week.

All though I've been booked for the conference for ages my flights got stuck in an approval loop and were only booked today. Phew! Don't get me started on what I think of that!

'spose I should do something about a Tablet Meet-up @ TechEd!

Loren Heiny had an experience recently that got him thinking about the social implications of a slate over a convertible tablet. 

A couple friends came over for a bit this weekend and we got into a discussion about breeds of dogs. It didn't take long before I realized I needed some pictures to go along with the discussion. So I grabbed my Samsung Q1, booted it up, and Googled for each of the breeds we were talking about. Each search took only one query and in no time I had pictures of the dogs being talked about that I could pass around. No doubt a UMPC is quite "passable." Then it struck me: A slate (such as a UMPC) is more "social" than a convertible Tablet PC. I'm much more likely to pass around a UMPC or slate than a convertible.

This is an interesting new take on some thinking that has been around for a while. Notebooks, and convertible tablets in laptop mode, form a barrier between you and the person you are working with in a meeting scenario. For all sorts of psychological reasons, this is sometimes considered a sod thing in a business scenario.

As Loren points out a state is also more social in non-business scenarios because they are more passable as well as not being a barrier.

The smaller and more portable a device is the more personal it becomes. For this reason small slates and UMPCs are very much putting the personal back in the PC.

There is a new version of FeedDemon available and it includes a greatly improved offline reading experience. you can use a feature called 'Pre-fetch' to download your unread feeds, including links and embedded images.

Finally! I've tried a lot of readers and FeedDemon remained my favourite, but it away irked me that the images were not available when working offline. At last they are. You can get FeedDemon here.

My friend Lee who has been bitten by the tablet bug (admittedly since I started working with him) received the new LS800 he has been patiently waiting for today. My phone and I were there to capture the moment!

Those who caught my earlier post will know that Lee gave up smoking to fund his purchase. Good news, he is still holding firm in the effort to give up the cancer sticks. Now that he has a stylus to occupy his hands I'm sure it will only get easier.

In a cruel twist Lee's device arrived at 4:30pm with no time to charge it before he left. Lee was facing a long train ride with a new toy and no charge. I loaned him my extended battery for the weekend to get him on his way.

I'm trying out a Vodafone 3G Connect HSDPA modem for work. I found the 32-bit Vista driver on the Vodafone Australia website. Install under Vista took ages, but it was well worth it. I'm browsing my feeds and so far it has not missed a beat. Very cool. I'll do a proper speed test later today but for browsing at least it is quite snappy.

My friend Lee's long wait is almost over - his new LS800 is on the way.  He asked me today what he should do with his new tablet when he gets it.  There are tons of things you can do with your tablet and discovering those things is one of the joys of tablet ownership. 

That said here are 10 tips - things you can do with your new tablet to get you started.

1. Install Vista
   There is a lot to love in Windows Vista if you are a tablet or mobile user.  The Snipping Tool (which is available for XP tablet users in the free Tablet Experience Pack from Microsoft), Pen Flicks, multiple selections in Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer's panning tool, autocomplete for URLs and email addresses, an updated Tablet Input Panel and handwriting personalisation make Vista a compelling offering for tablet users.  You can read more about all of these in this post I did way back in April last year, during the beta.  There are some more mobile friendly features outlined here as well.
2. Make a Mind Map
   Mind mapping is a great way to plan things out or get your creative juices flowing.  I use Mind Jet's MindManager 6 - but there is a new version coming out soon, so that will be well worth checking out.  If you are running it on a small screen tablet, check out my optimization tips.
3. Ink on a PDF.  Tablet users delight in freaking people out.  A great way to do that is to return a PDF form that has been emailed to you by emailing it back within minutes all filled out.  I use PDF Annotator to do this.  Apart from being very efficient it is good fun.
4. Take some notes.  Note taking is where a tablet comes into its own.  If you have OneNote installed you can use that, but if not all tablets (Vista or XP) come with Windows Journal.
5. Do some drawing.  Drawing is great on a tablet.  For the best tablet experience you want something that is aware of the different pressure levels that are reported by an active digitizer.  My favorite is NZ grown ArtRage - even my daughter loves it.  Another good option is the free photo editor Paint.NET.
6. Read a book.  In slate mode a tablet makes a great platform for reading eBooks.  I've used both Microsoft's Reader and Palm Digital Media's eReader and they are both good.
7. Ink in Word - You can use ink in Word to markup documents or to insert ink comments.  If you are using Word as your editor in Outlook 2003 or if you are using Outlook 2007 then you can also ink email messages.
8. Ink on PowerPoint Slides - Another great way to show off in front of the ink challenged masses.  More on that here.
9. Ink Instant Messages - If you use Windows Live Messenger then you can chat in ink.  Great if you happen to be having an IM conversation while on the train (I've done that!)
10. Most importantly of all - Have fun!

Lora Heiny over at WhatIsNew.com is passing along a great tip from Josh Einstien (author of TEO) on how to multiselect emails in Outlook 2007 without using the shift key. 

Josh passed along a great tip. The cursor switches directions so that you can actually multi-select emails without having to use the Shift key.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 2007 in normal view mode
2. Move cursor position to the left side of the mail envelope and the right side of the divider, and the cursor direction switches to point to the right.
3. Now, drag the pen or mouse position down et voila! you can select multiple emails.

Great tip guys - works on any PC, but is awesome on a tablet!

Source: How to select multiple emails in Microsoft Outlook
Originally published on Thu, 17 May 2007 05:11:00 GMT by Lora

I neglect my feeds for a week or two and what happens?  Only one of the most speculated on and anticipated announcements in tabletscape!  No, not the Apple Tablet... (unless I have not gotten to that post yet)  It's Dell!  Dell have finally gotten off their bums and made a Tablet PC!

Check out the video where Jeff Clarke confirms that Dell is bringing out a tablet later this year.

My initial thought was great - another MTC (Me Too Convertible) but I have to say that watching the video I changed my mind.  When he changes it into slate mode it looks to be about as thin as the Toshiba R400, which I really liked and called "far and away the most slate like convertible I have ever handled."

Most people I know who have seen the R400 have also liked it, but most have also balked at the price of that unit.  This begs the question - what price point are Dell going to bring the Latitude in at?

The great Sydney house hunt is over!  I signed a lease yesterday and I get the house a week from Monday.  This is a huge load off my mind and should help me get back to a normal level of blogging soon.  Looking for a place to live has been my main preoccupation whenever I had an Internet connection up until now.

Even better my wife and daughter arrive on Tuesday!  I've will have been in Sydney exactly a month when they get here, which is by far the longest I have ever been separated from them.  Needless to say I can't wait!  I've got Wednesday off work and it is fair to assume I'll be offline (until they are both in bed, anyway)

I've got my work machine now as well (which is a laptop - curses!) and that has an iBurst card, which gives me some much needed internet connectivity.  That, too, should help me get back to blogging.  I'm working on the laptop thing with the boss - watch this space.  I want all the consultants to have a choice (and why would you choose a laptop?)  I had been using a tablet as my work machine exclusively for over 18 months.  I can't get over how much less productive it is having a standard laptop now.  I have also been forced back to XP - again I am hoping this is temporary.  I am also struck by how much harder mobility is in XP than it is in Vista.  That will need to be a post in its own right, but for now suffice to say that one really takes Vista for granted until it is gone.

Though we get a house on the 28th we are not sure when our stuff will be available.  Our container is scheduled to arrive on or about the 22nd, but who knows how long it will take to clear customs.  Once that arrives we can start returning to normality.  I've been floating around in a caffeine deprived haze without my espresso machine.  I can relate to Chad Essley's recent animation - With Coffee... Without Coffee...

If any of you have tried to ink enable web applicaitons you will know that it has historically been far from easy.  Basically you had to build a custom control into your page, which meant that users had to have you in their trusted sites group to use the control (with default settings).  This might be OK on the intranet, but it made Internet Ink just too hard.

At Mix '07 Microsoft announced the Siverlight (nee WPFe) beta 1 and in the announcement they pointed out that Siverlight has ink support.  How cool is that?

Gavin Gear has put up a great series of posts on the subject that you really should check out if you want to build ink enable web apps.  These include:

Silverlight 1.0 Beta with Ink Support Announced at Mix07

New Channel 9 post on the basics of adding Ink to your Silverlight webpage

How To: Implement an Ink enabled Silverlight Photo Annotation Webpage

Want to see some demos of Ink in Silverlight? Check out this video from Mix07!

Silverlight Ink Session @ Mix07, See the video!

Silverlight ink enabled photo browser – download the example code!

Overview of Ink support in Silverlight, MSDN conceptual topic

Gavin also points to Julia Lerman who is doing some investigation of the ink support in Siverlight.

Want to get started?  You can download the Siverlight beta here.

(Sorry for the mass linking - I'm playing catch up.  I'm still getting setup in Sydney and living in temporary accommodation.  I have to take connectivity when I can get it.)

One of the cool things I am finding out about Sydney is that there are more major events here than there were in New Zealand.

In the three weeks that I've been here I've gotten into the zone at CeBIT and this week I checked out MEDC.

MEDC was a riot - even though I was not speaking there in an official sense I was of course using my tablet and it attracted quite a bit of attention.  In pretty much every break I ended up giving a little talk about what a tablet is, how I use it day to day and how I'm finding Vista on the LS800.

I'm finding that Aussies are not shy about asking about something they think is cool, which is fine by me because I love any chance to talk tablet.

I'm into my third week in Sydney and I'm starting to have an impact on my new workmates.  Several have been very impressed by my Motion Computing LS800, and have made noises about buying one for themselves.  However none have been quite as enthusiastic as Lee...

Lee was so impressed by the tablet experience that he struck a deal with his better half - if he quits smoking he can buy a tablet and use the money he saves to pay it off.  No problem - Lee slapped on a patch and started shopping.

Having given up one addiction Lee is just itching to replace it with a new one...  The problem is that tablet procurement can be a long and frustrating process.  It would be fair to say he is not taking the delays very well.

Stick with it Lee, it is well worth it.

The coolest piece of technology on show at CeBIT Australia this year is an easy pick.

The EyeStep by EyeClick is a massive interactive display projected onto the floor. Sensors mounted with the projector allow users to interact with the display.

This can be used for eye-catching advertising or simple (but effective) games.

I watched these two little guys playing for about 20 minutes. It was great! They had a blast!!

The EyeStep has been a commercial hit, too. Both the units brought to the show have already been sold.

There is also a wall projected version called EyeTouch.

On the floor @ CeBIT Australia I just came across the coolest Wi-fi access point for travel. The Level 1 WAP-0004.

 Pictured next to my LS800 you can see it is tiny.

Again, the RJ-45 connector in the back gives you on idea of scale.

This looks just great. very small and light. Can be powered off mains or USB I includes a carry case & cables and runs at just AU $99.95

Not for show on any of the stands but when I saw Hugo he gave me a quick look at the OQO 02.

The unit he was sporting had the extended battery fitted and this gives it ~5 hours battery life. The display is a bright, clear and readable 5" with 800x480 native resolution.  It was the model with the 1.5GHz processor and was running Windows XP Tablet Edition.  The same unit is also available with Windows Vista pre-installed.

The slide out thumb board is quite usable.

Another cool feature is the two scroll bars on the edge of the screen.

Dragging on these will scroll the active window.

Quite a functional little device.

Just bumped into fellow Tablet PC MVP and all round tablet enthusiast Hugo Ortega in BloggerZone at CeBIT Australia.

Looking sharp, Hugo

One of the things that is quite striking about CeBIT Australia is that many of the Mobile PC vendors are noticeable by there absence.  Motion Computing and Panasonic have sizable displays on show, but there is no sign of Toshiba, HP, Acer, ASUS, Samsung, Fujitsu or any of the other big players I was hoping to see here.

Those who are in attendance are reaping the benefits as both the Motion and the Panasonic stands are packed every time I walk past.  I hope the competition is at least attending the show and learning that they should be here next year.

A MP3 player that looks like a banana. for all those people who don't want an iPod because everyone else has one... This is the MP3 player for you!

see it at CeBIT Australia or see if you can find it on the website.

I spotted something at CeBIT Australia today that just embodied the value proposition of a slate over a traditional convertible tablet PC.  There are a couple of people walking the floor with Motion Computing LE1600s (pretty sure - but they could be 1700s) using a web application to conduct live surveys from the trade show floor.

This is where a slate excels.  You can use it standing up, you can use it walking around.  While you can do these things with a convertible it is much more comfortable to do this for extended periods with a slate.

Also at CeBIT Australia...

Panasonic have a good range of Toughbooks on show. 

There is a Toughbook 19 in a Perspex case and you can press a button and spray it with water.  Rather ominously it appears to be either off or dead...

How do you keep a gaggle of bloggers fueled during CeBIT? 

Caffeine, water and jelly beans (blogger beans)...

One of the cool things about Vista is that if you are running Home Premium, Business, Enterprise or Ultimate then the tablet features are there, all you need is a Digitizer to turn them on.

Wacom has an awesome stand at CeBIT Australia that has an excellent range of external tablets you can connect to you standard PC or laptop to pen enable them.  Developers - This is a great way to ink enable your development machine so you can start writing those ink enabled applications. *hint*

These range from small USB tablets...

...to a massive 23" digitizer monitor that would be awesome for the professional artists and media types.

Very cool - though I would not recommend reading with in bed with that tablet!

The other one I think would be very cool to play with is the Bluetooth digitizer. 

No wires and the stylus just stores in the back of the unit. 

Would be great with a Vista based Media Centre PC.

Walking the floor at CeBIT Australia I dropped into the Motion Computing stand.  There is a lot of interest in the Motion range.  The C5 is drawing considerable interest.

However one of the coolest things on the stand - IMO - is easy to miss and you really need to play with it for 5 minutes to really get in touch with the unique experience that is WriteTouch.

On the stand is one of the new LE1700 units equipped with the WriteTouch option.  This is Motion Computing's answer to the dual mode touch and active digitizer model and it works very well.  If you are attending CeBIT Australia, then make sure you drop in and check this out.

Before WriteTouch there were basically two ways that touch and digitizer have been implemented together.  The first is to turn the touch screen on and off based on the proximity of the pen.  If the pen is in range then touch is disabled.  If the pen is out of range then touch comes on.  This is also known as the soft switch approach.

The second approach to this problem that emerged was a hard switch approach.  In this model there is a hardware button on the device that toggles touch on and off. 

WriteTouch is a combination of these two approaches and could best be described as a hard switch on, soft switch off.  What I mean is that touch is disabled completely if the pen is in range, hence the soft off.  However you have to proactively enable touch when the pen is out of range.  The difference is that there is no button to enable touch.  You simply double tap the screen with your finger and touch is enabled.  This gives you the ease of use of the soft approach without the accidental screen clicks that you sometimes get with the hard approach.  Very, very cool.

There are some other differences between the WriteTouch tablets and other touch enabled tablets I have used in the past.  These differences stem from the fact that it is not a resistive touch screen - it is capacitive touch.  A resistive touch screen responds to pressure and therefore needs to be a little spongy so there is give - i.e. something to press.  The capacitive touch screen, however, recognizes your finger as a finger because it is conductive.  This means that the Capacitive screen does not need to be spongy and the WriteTouch Le1700 has a writing feel just like any of the other Motion slates.  Another side effect of this is that you have to use the fleshy part of your finger, not your fingernail or a ballpoint pen. 

Overall I was very impressed by the WriteTouch LE1700 and look forward to getting one to play with for a bit longer in the near future.