Blog:: Craig Pringle

Because I have a HTC Shift in my hot little hands for the weekend.

I'm really excited to have this opportunity. I think the Shift is an incredible and innovative device. Packed into it's tony frame are two operating systems - Windows Vista and Windows Mobile. It has embedded 3G wireless. There is a lot to play with.

Unfortunatly there is also a lot of confusion in the market about it as well. I aim to try and help clear someof that up. If there is something about the Shift you want me to check out while I have it leave a comment.

There is an issue that many mobile and tablet users have encountered with Windows Vista, myself included.  Warner Crocker also has encountered this issue and describes it thus:

I’m still frustrated with Vista on one front here and that is putting the Tablet PC to sleep. 3 times out of 4 everything will work as advertised. Close the lid, unit goes to sleep, open the lid, unit returns. But occasionally the OS just goes off into its own world without sleeping, or after a successful sleep, not returning. Occasionally it will return from sleep but the screen will stay dark.

I personally believe that this issue is not a Vista issue per se, but rather a driver issue.  I think that some drivers are poorly written and interfere with the sleep and resume process.  I also think that this issue is much more serious than it initially appears.  I have come to refer to it as the sleep of death.  But that I'll leave for another post. 

For Warner it seems his issues are related to when he is using Wi-fi.  For me it was BlueTooth.  Either way it points at drivers.

I’m beginning to think (this seems to be somewhat reproducible here) that these issues have something to do with being connected or disconnected to our WiFi network. Here’s what I’m experiencing and maybe someone smarter than me can help out here with some thoughts.

What worked for me was to disable the Power Management features for the affected driver.  For a wireless driver you would do this by going into Device Manager, right clicking on the relevant device and selecting Properties.

You may then see a Power Management tab.  Not all device or drivers implement this interface, so if yours does not you will not see the tab.

If there is one select that tab and then clear both of the checkboxes shown in the screenshot below. 

I have done this for my LS800 and it has all but eliminated the dreaded sleep of death issue.  I use to encounter this several times a week and now I get it less than once a month. 

The new software update for my first generation Zune has finally addressed one of the gripes I've always had with the Zune.  Namely the complete lack of integration with my Windows Vista Media Centre.  Because there was no support for recorded TV I never installed the Zune software on the Media Centre.  Since the new update supports this I installed it and set about syncing my Music, Pictures and Recorded TV to the Zune.  It took an age and I held my breath and navigated to the Videos folder on my Zune.  I played an episode of Futurama...  I marvelled at the spectacular picture - crystal!  Only then did I start to wonder why I could not hear anything...

As it turns out none of my recorded TV had audio.  I did some investigating and found that this was because all of my recorded TV was recorded from HD channels.  It is not that the Zune does not support HD, per se, but it does not support Dolby Digital audio that inherent in the HD stream.

As an experiment I recorded a movie off a channel that is not HD and lo and behold it plays fine.  This at least gives me a work around.   All of the channels that are available in HD are also available in standard format.  Now I can semi easily get my recorded TV on the train.

Saw this on the Outlook Team Blog.

Here’s a cool trick for Outlook: you can type in date fields!

Suppose I want to set up a meeting for next Friday. In the meeting inspector, instead of clicking on the calendar picker to navigate to the right day, I can simply type “next Fri” into the date field, then press Tab or Enter.

Check out the full post for more details. V. cool.

Well I don't know about that - but whatever takes his interest I'm sure he will be outspoken... It runs in the family.

My wife Patrice and I were very lucky on Wednesday afternoon to welcome a healthy child into the world.  This is number two for us and Sylvie is proving to be a very doting big sister.

Our new addition has been named Oliver.  Both Patrice and Oliver are healthy and well - and I'm currently on paternity leave and enjoying some time with my growing family.  As you can see in the above photo my Movember moustache is coming along well - I almost shaved it off for the new baby photos, but it is too good a cause!  It's not too late to donate to my Movember fundraising effort - and many thanks to those who already have.

GottaBeMobile have posted an entertaining recap of the Tablet Pc's short 5 year wishy:

Five years ago, on November 7 2002, Microsoft launched Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Bill Gates himself was on-hand to launch the new platform at a large press event.

"The launch of the Tablet PC marks an exciting new era of mobile computing that is limited only by the imagination of its users," Gates said. "The Tablet PC is a great example of how computers are adapting to how people really work, whether they're taking notes in a meeting, collaborating wirelessly with colleagues or reading on screen. We're just scratching the surface of what is possible."

As it comes time to celebrate the 5 Year Anniversary of Tablet PCs, it's only natural to look at how far we've come since that first operating system release. So let's take a brief walk down the dusty paths of Tablet PC history and look at how far the OS has evolved in five short years.

Sierra recaps the major milestones of the tablet PC. whether you have been there from the start or have just joined us, it is well worth a read.

My, how far we have come!

Source: GBM 5 Years of Tablet PC: Operating Systems

You may remember my colleague Lee, who cut a deal with his wife - give up smoking and buy a tablet.  Sadly Lee is off the wagon. 

His wife it threatening to sell off his LS800 - I reckon that she should find out if it will blend and then sell the dust on eBay.

Are they you ask?  I think so and, quite frankly, it really annoys me.

SilverLight is a platform that offers a lot of potential to the tablet community as it opens the door to real ink on the web.  It is also a direct competitor of Adobe flash.  Flash is well established and SilverLight is the new kid on the block. 

To gain real acceptance in the market Microsoft need to convince developers to choose SilverLight over Flash.  The more developers that are using it the more widely the browser plugin will be deployed. 

So why are Microsoft still using flash on their sites?  I've seen this on a couple of MS sites lately - but tonight it was on Zune.net.  I don't get it.

After a litany of supply problems I won't recount here "new" but "end-of-life" tablet arrived. It is a Lenovo X60. (I will say that the issues were internal and were not due to Lenovo.)

Since we are only allowed to connect certified hardware to the corporate LAN I have been working with two devices and synchronisation strategy that would challenge most people for the last 6 months.

Now I have the X60 life just got a whole lot simpler.

My only gripe -and it is a big one- is that the standard image is XP Tablet Edition. More on that later.

The Mobile Tech Roundup team and Warner Crocker over at GBM are asking where the slates have gone.

Its true. Relative to the whole tablet market, there are fewer slates around now than there were. When I say "relative to the whole market" I am referring to the new form factors such is UMPCs and the new entrants such as Dell.

But why are the slates disappearing?

More accurately what is preventing slate adoption growing as rapidly as their keyboarded cousins?

I'd put the answer in three parts.

1. Fear. People are use to having a keyboard and giving one up (albeit part-time) scares some fairly savvy users.
2. Pen-abled applications - or more accurately a lack of. We need more applications that either expose more functionality when run on a tablet or are written explicitly for the tablet.
3. Natural language Input is just not there yet. Many working age people can type faster thanthey can write.  And that percentage is only increasing. Speech is a good alternative and works well, but it is fairly resource intensive, and many smaller devices such as UMPCs just can't hack it. Not to mention it is simply not possible to dictate to your PC in many situations. I'm inking this post on the train, can you imagine the irritated looks I would be getting if I were talking to myself?

That may sound pretty dire, but does it mean that slates will only be a niche player? I think not.

Why? Because the first two of those points are addressable now.

The fear factor can be addressed by education. Teach the market that you can use a computer without a keyboard. Teach them that if you dock a slate it works just like a "normal" PC. We call this education of the market "marketing" and it has been sorely lacking since the tablet was launched in 2002. It is time for Microsoft and OEMs, especially slate specialists like Motion, Tablet Kiosk and Electrovaya to lift their game.

On the second point there are some really good pen-abled apps out there, but we need to see more marketing from the companies that develop that software. It's a differentiator, promote that fact. But we need more, too, so as a community we need to educate developers and most importantly demand pen features in the apps we use now.

The third point will be eased as hardware performance improves, but will not be eliminated (lMO) any time soon. We need at least the next version of the Windows OS. We can't write off Apple here, either. Now that we have all seen the i-phone you can imagine that a Mac tablet would challenge the UI paradigms we operate in.

We are a few days into Movember and the moustache is coming along well.  What am I talking about you ask?  Here's some more information:

Hi All,

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'll be growin a Mo. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about changing men's health and the fight against male depression and prostate cancer. Why...

• Depression affects 1 in 6 men...Most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
• Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually.
• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/au/donate, enter my registration number which is 150854 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Movember Foundation" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 150854. Please mail cheques to: PO Box 292, Prahran VIC 3181. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative, which will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and male depression.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the detail at: Fundraising Outcomes.

Movember culminates at the end of the month at the Gala Partés. These glamorous and groomed events will see Tom Selleck and Borat look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title. If you would like to be part of this great night you'll need to purchase a Gala Parté ticket .

Thanks for your support

Craig

More info is available at www.movember.com.

Movember is proudly grown by Commonwealth Bank, Holden, Schick and VB.

Movember is proud partners with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative.

There are a few of us at work joining in the cause.  I'll post some photos as the weeks progress - if seeing me looking like a cross between Kojak and Magnum P.I. gives you a laugh, then consider donating a few alms to the cause.  Don't forget to use my registration number 150854.

Check out this very short video of me with the Motion LE1700, filmed the night before I had to send it back.

It shows the auto-rotate feature, where the tablet uses an accelerometer to determine its orientation and rotates the display accordingly.  This actually works at a very shallow angle, or even when flat on the table it you give it a bit of a flick.

I've been luck enough to have a Motion LE1700 in the house for a while but I have not had the time to really explore it.  I had just started having a real look at it when low and behold Motion needed it back.  C'est la vie.  I snapped a few photos before I sent it back so I could post this mini-review.  Click on any of the photos in this post for a larger image.  Motion have promised to send a unit with the WWAN module in it, so I'll do a full review then. 

I've had a couple of Motion slates in the past, including the LS800 I still use on a daily basis.  I have always found them to be well designed and with quality construction.  The LE1700 is no exception.  It has a very functional design and the silver and black finish is striking.  The unit is very comfortable to hold in either portrait or landscape mode, because it is very well balanced.

Here's a tour:

The tablet buttons are similar in design to previous Motion tablets.  There is a directional pad with enter in the middle, surrounded by four buttons.  On one side you have the programmable buttons, on the other you have an Esc button and a function button, which alters the action associated with the other buttons if you press it before another one of the buttons.

On the side below these buttons are the infrared port and the PCMCIA slot.  There is also a SD-card reader, but that is just out of the shot above - you can see it better below.

On the other end of the same side is the stylus and the antenna for the embedded WWAN module.  This particular unit did not actually have the WWAN module so I can't report on that, but you can see how the antenna can be raised up as shown or lowered so that it sits flush with the front of the tablet. 

The antenna is designed to snap on and snap off, so that if it takes a hard knock while raised it will snap off rather than breaking or transmitting any force into the body of the tablet.

Here's the antenna sitting flush.  Just below the antenna you can see one of the three microphones on the outer bezel of the tablet.  The other two are in the bezel as well, but in the bottom left and bottom right (when the unit is in landscape mode).

On the side below the screen (when the tablet is in landscape mode) is a Motion accessory port and (under the cover) a connector for when the tablet is used with either the convertible keyboard or the FexiDock.

On the left side of the tablet (when it is in landscape mode) you will find the following up the top on the front.  Two indicator lights - one for power and one for charge.  The fingerprint reader and the Windows Security button (pressing that is like pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del on a keyboard).  Notice there is no HDD activity light.  I've had another tablet without a disk activity light and it was a minor annoyance.  However the version of the Motion Dashboard that comes with the LE1700 puts an icon in the system tray.  This can optionally be configured to blink on disk activity - nice touch.

On the side of the unit below the activity lights are a hardware switch for the wireless, the power switch and two USB ports.  A couple of points worth mentioning here - the power switch is on the opposite side on this tablet than it is on my LS800 - though the units are otherwise laid out pretty similarly.  This is not a problem, but it does take a little getting use to.  However that is always the way with a new unit.

The other difference between the layout on the LE1700 and my beloved LS800 is that on the LS800 the USB ports are upside down - in that the top of most USB devices ends up facing towards the back of the tablet.  I'm pleased to report that this has been corrected on the LE1700.

In the middle of the left side there are microphone and headphone jacks; next to that is a DVI-D output, below which is a SIM card slot for the WWAN.  On the right of the photo below is a VGA output.

On the bottom left corner there is an RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port and a laptop lock slot.  On the front bezel you can see another of the array microphones and the ambient light sensor.

Last but not least - on the back you will find three covers held in place with screws.  The top left one covers the WLAN and WWAN modules, the bottom left exposes the HDD and the third cover exposes the two RAM slots.  Very easy to service.  The sliding cover you can see exposes the extended battery connector.  One of the great features of the LE series tablets is the shape of the back - note how there is a slight inset about an inch below the top of the tablet?  This is so that when you fit the extended battery to the unit it sits quite flush.  Because the battery is rectangular and flat the additional weight is evenly distributed and the unit is still easy to use for extended periods when you are moving about.

Using the LE1700 is a joy.  I've had 12 inch slates before and I've had tablets with SXGA screens before (which gives you a native resolution of 1400x1050) but to have both really is having your cake and eating it, too.  The unit I had did not have the ViewAnywhere display option - having had that on my LS800 I would highly recommend it.  The unit I had was the Core 2 Duo model and the performance was fantastic.  It came with XP Tablet edition pre-installed, but with Motion's permission I rebuilt it with Vista.  The Vista experience is flawless.

Overall a great experience.