Okay, at long last. Finishing up the Scribbler review from our notes.

I suppose our personal concern about the Scribbler, the thing that would keep us from buying it, is its apparent fragility. It is engineered with certain social assumptions, you might say, to the point that we would likely be unable to take it anywhere without breaking one or more pieces! Or even use it at home safely, for that matter!

Consider some classic photos of how we use our tablets:

Now consider this take on the Electrovaya Scribbler:

Danger! Careful! Gently! And that lovely little extremely clever flippable and twistable touchpad thing? We’d destroy it in a week. (Luckily we did not destroy it in the demo model.)

So all in all, as we face the question of what our next tablet will be, given the demise of the TC1100, a Scribbler is unlikely. 

Okay, now the pressure is on.

People (aka Warner Crocker at gottabemobile.com) expect us to produce a serious review. Enough of the glamour shots. No more Scribbler with flowers and sunsets and ravines.

We were struck in reviewing the Scribbler how tough it must be to be a Tablet PC designer. Just because everything comes together in one neat little package in a Tablet PC (see perfect egg, here), so customer preference speaks at a hundred different points.  

In regular life, I have a computer; then if I want a thick pen or a thin pen, a heavy pen or a light pen; if I want glossy paper or a nice linen, I go out and buy them. But when I choose my tablet, I choose not just my computer but all these very personal things.

First Impressions

The Scribbler has the feeling of a hefty notepad lying on the knee. It’s a larger unit than the TC1100, with a 12.4" screen instead of the 10.4" we’ve had to accustom ourselves to in the last two years. The fact that the TC1100 does the smaller screen with the same number of pixels gives it a super-crisp visual appeal that we love, but there is a lot to be said for having that much more screen. I (Lyn) found myself reaching for the Scribbler to read and take notes over the TC1100 during its visit to our house, in order to have that extra space. And you get it for almost the same weight–3.5 lbs for the Scribbler vs. 2.9 lbs in the slate mode for the TC1100.

It writes a little different from the TC1100. It makes a scribble scribble sound, consistent with the name ‘Scribbler.’ We liked the drag and the nice feel of friction of the pen on paper, compared to the glossy feel of the TC1100 (of which we’ve never been great fans). I also picked it up for notetaking during its visit to enjoy the feel of the stylus on the screen.

The speakers get big points from us. We’ve grown accustomed to having the TC1100 talk into our bellies, with the speakers on what is the bottom edge when in slate and portrait modes. But it’s still a little odd. Kind of like some strange alternative medicine vibration healing thing. The Scribbler puts the sound where you want to find it: out into the air, travelling to your ear.

The stylus holder, however, is slightly less logical. If you hold the tablet in slate and portrait modes, the pen is awkwardly located on the left bottom side. As a right-handed person, I have to hold out the tablet forward with my left hand and remove the pen with my right hand. This feels strange and non-intuitive. I also worry that the pen will fall out, though it seems fairly secure in the holder.

Indeed, while Electrovaya, unlike HP, figured out that we didn’t want the sound projecting into our stomachs, they somehow thought we’d like to draw out the pen that way.

In landscape mode, it was somewhat less odd, because then the pen would be at the top left–still a reach across with the right hand, but the same as the primary landscape orientation on the TC1100.

(Of course, you have the four orientations available so you can turn things around–but then all the other buttons end up not in their intuitive places, and screen quality isn’t quite the same if it isn’t in primary portrait or primary landscape.) 

It really made us think about the development of tablet technology. Because people have such personal relationships with their Tablet PC and with writing implements, one shouldn’t really have to choose one’s tablet based on the thickness of the pen. It does seem that you can use digitizer pens interchangeably–the TC1100 pen on the Scribbler, for instance–but then it doesn’t store inside the unit, which does seem necessary, given how costly the pens are and how useless the tablet in slate is without one. Perhaps some day the market will be big enough that many other manufacturers will be making many different pens to fit each tablet…ah sweet dreams….

Keep tuned for more review to come…

Toronto based Electrovaya sent us a review unit of their Scribbler SC 3100.

How we evaluate this piece of hardware is greatly influenced by our experiences of the HP TC1100. For the past two years we have developed a close relationship to our TC1100s and it has been interesting to see this new (temporary) Tablet-PC-Sibling alongside the beloved TC1100.

If you have read this blog even for a minute you know that we have mostly enjoyed our TC110s. They have done their jobs well. The greatest disappointment has been HP’s discontinuation of this particular model which we have addressed here, and here, here, and here. If only Mark Hurd and Patricia Dunn had paid a bit more attention to further developing this model, they may not have had to testify in Congress, not to mention being indicted (Dunn only). Boardroom power plays take away from what is really important to us, the end-users–not to mention that it is quite boring (if one is not involved, at least!).

Ok, but somehow Electrovaya intuited that perhaps the day would come when we’d be in the market for another tablet. And like all TC1100 owners, we’re faced with making the leap some day. In the absence of hybrids, will it be convertible or slate for our next Tablet PC?

Back to the Scribbler:

Here is the basic rundown on the goods we received:

• Electrovaya Scribbler SC 3100 slate
• eraser pen
• keyboard
• docking station
• wire stand
• portfolio bag
• software including recovery cd-rom set

We forgot to ask for the outdoor viewing screen! Rats!

Our review unit had 1280 MB RAM and a 60 GB hard drive

Some features of the Scribbler:

• 12.1 inch XGA TFT 32-bit colour with 180 degree viewing angle
• dual array microphone
• intel centrino 1.6 GHz processor with 2 MB L2 Cache
• Integrated Biometric Device for Finger Print Sensor
• intel 802.11 a/b/g wireless network card
• Optional outdoor viewable screen
• superpolymer lithium 75Wh battery

According to our Wildflowers of Nova Scotia book, that’s a New York Aster keeping the Scribbler company on the estate of Melville Manor. 

So those are the facts. The hard-nosed hardware features of the temporary tablet-PC-Sibling to our TC1100s.

Coming next: our impressions and experiences. In the blogosphere, ever so much more interesting than facts! 

That’s two first-place prizes to give out in the first tabletology quizology (in a conceptual, prizology, kind of way), and one sour grape for neuroblabla (we know who you are!).

Yes, indeed, it is the Electrovaya touchpad that goes with the Scribbler SC 3100. You slide it out of the right top of the keyboard and slide it in to the side of the key board. You can place the touchpad either on the left or right hand side of the key board (useful for those of you who are left handed). Here is a close-up of what it looks like.

Clever, eh?  

We’re not exactly exhaustive, manual-reading kind of computer users. We’re kind of post-literate when it comes to technology. We expect things to make sense by feel. So we had the Scribbler a few days, and we had more than one conversation about the appearance that there was some "thing" that maybe could detach from the clip-on keyboard, before we figured out that it did detach and, furthermore, what it was. Can you spot it hiding in the picture below?

The origami appearance you see in our mystery picture is because the touchpad itself needs to flip inside the frame that has the connectors to the keyboard in order for it to attach on both the left and rights sides. They probably have a whole special team of elves in a special Santa workshop at Electrovaya who build this little gizmo.

First in a series of tablet PC mind-bending brain-ticklers:

What is this device? 

• Electrovaya’s Complimentary UMPC for your cat? 

• A finger trap for curious Tablet PC onlookers?

• A very clever mousing solution for a Scribbler Tablet PC?

Leave us an answer and tune in for the answer this weekend…

We get an email the other day from Electrovaya.

It turns out Warner Crocker writing at gottabemobile.com isn’t the only one who misses us. Electrovaya would like to give us some incentive to get more productive on our tablet pc blog. 

They’re asking if we want to review the Electrovaya Scribbler, a snazzy-looking slate number.

Have they visited tabletology?, we wonder. Do they know what they’re asking for?

They do clarify that we’re on the hook for the price of the unit if we don’t return it from Melville Manor Ravine Daycare (our new digs) in the same condition it was in when it left its Toronto home.

It’s a sordid story. Terrible really.

Just don’t ask about the dwarves.

What does every Tablet PC owner who presents in public or teaches want, that PowerPoint can’t do?

Ink in presenter mode.

I.e. you want to be able to see the current slide and its notes and its context all at once, and you want to be able to ink. Because if you can’t ink on the slides, what good is your Tablet PC in teaching? You might as well have an everyday laptop.

First you need to know the hidden PowerPoint trick. At least no one I have ever known, except for Olga who discovered it and showed it to me, knew about this. Are academics just hopelessly behind corporate types in their PowerPoint skills? Anyway, you can present your slides with the projector considered as a second monitor, not just cloning what you see on the Tablet. I’m sure you already know to right-click on the desktop, select Properties, then select the "Settings" tab and extend your desktop onto a second monitor. When your Tablet is docked, it’s your external monitor. In a presentation, it’s the projector.

Now in PowerPoint you go to Slide Show/Set up Show… and under Multiple Monitors, check the box for Show Presenter View. If you already have the second monitor enabled (as per above) and your screen extended there, you’re set; if not, it will prompt you to do that at this point. Now when you go to project your show, you can see your current slide, your notes, and a filmstrip of your slides for context etc.

Hard to believe you’ve been using PowerPoint so long without knowing that was there, eh? But that’s not the main point here. At this point, you’ve noticed you can’t ink on your slides, so you give up and go back to the old system, which probably involves having a paper print-out of your slides for context. Crazy! Crazy Wrong!

See the long discussion at TabletPCBuzz.

It turns out that Classroom Presenter from the University of Washington lets you do what you want to do. Yay!

I could write one of those funny posts about how horrendous the documentation is. Take a look here at the quick start guide to get the gist of it. (I do hope that link becomes obsolete soon!)

But let me be practical, and cut straight to the goods, and give you the quick start guide. This is assuming that you are into it for the inking, and not for the elaborate system of instant classroom feedback, which requires a whole room full of happy TC1100-using students, because of course you can’t get the TC1100 any more, even if your institution could afford to equip a whole room with them.

So install your Classroom Presenter that you have downloaded from above, and enable your second monitor display (your projector is second monitor as with Presenter Mode in PowerPoint), open your ppt slide deck that you’ve already converted to a csd deck (because those instructions are more or less clear). And here’s the magic step you are hard-pressed to find in the documentation: in your Classroom Presenter, go to Tools/Properties and select the "Display" tab (of course!) and check the box for "Enable Dual-Monitor Output."

I guess if you have flashy slides with animation etc, it doesn’t work so well. (That’s supposed to be a lo-tech frown, but something  here in WordPress converts it to a hi-tech frown.) "Try not using images!" That’s practical advice! Just give me back my blackboard if that’s where it’s come to.

Paris

Earlier this year C., a colleague of mine (see viral map), purchased an IBM Tablet PC after seeing my TC1100. She had never l heard of or seen Tablet PCs but was intrigued and purchased it soon after she met the tc1100. We’ve been working on a project here for two weeks in Paris and Rennes and I got to meet the newly purchased IBM Tablet PC firsthand. It’s quite light and sleek. Lynette is convinced that the resolution is not as good as our TC1100 though she prefers how the writing feels to the TC1100. It seems like a reasonable alternative once my TC1100 bites the dust, though I am still hopeful some manufacturer out there will produce a hybrid model. Lynette is possibly eyeing a Motion since she is quite the slate user.  

No one asked once about the Tablet PC despite many hours of hanging out at brasseries though there were stares. No one asked. Perhaps more inhibited? Or not that hard core on technology like we are? This was quite a different experience than at home in Halifax at the coffee shop, Steve-o-reno’s. Today, the very nice man at the hotel asked if there was wireless close by because it was obvious that I must be doing something out there at all hours of the day. Yes yes there sure is.

Here the TC1100 meets the IBM Tablet PC at an empty brasserie on Bldv du Montparnasse in Paris.

Au revoir from Paris where the duck and wine is excellent, where fruit is tasteful (yummy cherries and figs and more!), where zebra crossings are for zebras and and not humans, and where getting a taxi is a rare feat (I am sure that if there was less regulation on the taxi business it would defintely increase economic activity in Paris)!

Paris

A few days before I left for France I posted a question on the Tablet PC
Buzz asing how I could work best in Paris on my email and documents given
that my TC1100 had to go into HP repair. Well this is how things got
resolved.

I purchased a 4gb verbatim flash drive. I wasn’t looking for any kind of
self contained operating system but it came with Ceedo. James Kendrick
suggested I use Migo but since the flashdrive came with Ceedo I thought I
give it a try. Well, overall it wasn’t that great. I can see the
potential though.

First of all there seems to be a problem when I plug the verbatim in the usb slot and run Ceedo on a tablet PC. This is the error message that comes up ("to open TCServer.exe under Ceedo, all other TCServer processes must be closed"):

 
When I plugged it in to a non-tablet pc this error message does not occur.  

So how was I able to manage all my work email? Well since I was meeting
Lynette and her TC1100 in Paris, she agreed to let me use it while I
stayed in France. She left Paris for Montreal last week sans Tablet PC, a
strange thing indeed. I put all my working documents on her Tablet and
also created an additional account in Outlook and was therefore able to
access all my email and write new ones with abandon (thank to mostly free wireless generously donated by the French).

Lynette’s TC1100 will be returned to her when we meet each other at the
Montreal airport tomorrow and board the same flight to Halifax. I suspect
that she’ll be eager to put her hands on the TC1100. All in all, let’s be
very clear: leaving me with her tc1100 for over a week was the ultimate
sacrific and I am grateful for that! Would you hand over your tablet for
a week without having access to any alternative except perhaps webmail (yikes!)?

So no Ceedo and Verbatim did not help sufficiently though I did need a
new flashdrive. I think Ceedo does have potential but it would need to be
able to run Office and Outlook without a hitch. I also posted a question
on the Ceedo forum asking them about the tsc server issue. I had hoped
for some response from Ceedo support but nothing was forthcoming before I left for France and I just checked the form website and no rsponse has been posted. Not sure if Ceedo understands the importance of customer relations.

What Ceedo looks like when you want to remove the flash drive:

Check out more on Ceedo by reading today’s article by NYT’s David Pogue.

And as to my TC1100, I received an email from work yesterday that my
TC1100 has been ruturned. And repaired, I presume. Yay!

I am here for work interviewing academics, civil servants as well as representatives of the private insurance side in the French health care system. Broadly speaking it has to do with resource (re)allocation in the health care system (we are doing a multi-national study comparing 7 countries). During one of the interviews I had the view of the Hotel National des Invalides and the golden dome was wildly bright. I would probably have to wear sunglasses if that was my office. During another interview I had a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower. It’s a nice way to see Paris.

Here you see only part of the dome of the Hotel National des Invalides, an old soldiers home. Clearly, veterans were treated quite differently during Napoleonic reign.

Brasseries in Paris tend to have signs in the windows advertising free wireless. And that is exactly where I am right now with my Cafe Creme (latte equivalent with a twist). Though as you can see, many wireless setups are security enabled. In the offices I visit I see many Dell computers and a few have laptops as well. However I have not seen one Tablet PC as of yet.

In general, Paris is la cite de wifi gratuit – there are always a few people who kindly leave their wireless wide open, so that you can sit in most cafes, parks, squares, and be in touch with the rest of the world without paying. Of course the charm of the local environment does make escape via the internet less necessary than in some settings!

The other day I stood on a corner with my tablet, headphones on, someones donated wireless and skyping some friends in Canada.  

And here Lynette and I gave an opportunity to let the TC1100 see the Eiffel tower. There were more close ups but, truth be told, we did not take the tc1100 everywhere! And you have to look carefully for the Eiffel tower (it’s in the back!).

Bonjour from Paris! Here we are in Paris where our TC1100 receives a few stares here and there, but it does look awfully pretty in front of the Notre Dame!

From the Seine side 

and the front:

As the previous entry tells you Tablet Zero has spawned to 9! What can we learn from looking at this data?

Gender?

Well, all are women except one.

Here is a chart of Tablet PC uptake by field. Technically the chart is more complicated because of cross-appointments etc. But this will do for now.

Where?

What can be gleaned from this? Well, probably not much except that we influence the adoption of new technology by those with whom we work at the university. And you can infer (backwards) that we work somewhere in the intersection of epidemiology, health policy, medical sociology, bioethics, philosophy, and law!

And another one joins the crowd. Number 9, M, who purchased a TC4200!

Over a hundred photos of our adventures with our Tablet PC’s from Canada’s East Coast and far beyond. See the Tabletology crew at work staging the shots you know and love. Go here to our Tabletology.com Flickr account to see them all.

All the appeals have failed. (See our last-ditch attempt at the Quebec Court of Appeals here.) The TC1100 has been abandoned by HP. We decided it was time to throw in our hats and admit defeat. All we can hope to do is write the history of this sorry course of events.

So the TC1100 got on a plane, flew across the Atlantic.  A little cappuccino in the new coach station at Heathrow to fortify us for our adventure.

And the TC1100 took its book proposal for "The betrayal of fantasy:  HP and the TC1200 that never was" to the venerable Oxford University Press. 

But we didn’t get past the Security. 

The letter carrier didn’t seem phased by our antics.

Looks like a nice and very much improved feature in Vista. It seems you do not need to train the software recognition software as much as previous versions or other software. Microsoft has released a worthwhile clip here for you to watch. The speech recognition feature provides a tablet user like myself more choices for inputting data. I am not the greatest slate user when it comes to inputting text and this will give me another option. You can also do additional activities like surfing around and more. This really looks like a piece of cake and an exciting new feature.

Well kinda. What would Steve Jobs do? Engadget ran this contest for Photoshop mockups of Apple products. Here are some of the Apple Tablets. They seem quite lovely though not that surprising. I am disappointed there is no hybrid design though I should remember that these are just mockups!

Go here for more mockups. 

Go see this ad! This is the first time anyone has figured out how to advertise a tablet pc. And it’s Microsoft! Astonishing.

This ad shows life with a tablet pc the way it is. It isn’t about about delivery boys and physicians doing electronic prescribing and … It’s about life and having all your info and all your connections all with you all the time. Taking a great photo and downloading it to the tablet; scribbling a note on it and sending it around the world. This is how we use our tablet pcs!

Origami tablet pc with Alias Sketchbook. 

Check out the cool video here!

[photos courtesy of jkontherun] 

A friend saw my TC1100 a while ago and today told me that she purchased a Lenova/IBM Thinkpad X41 Tablet PC. So the Tablet PC Viral Map is slowly expanding. It started off with Lynette (Tablet Zero), then myself and well, the Tablet PC virus spreads around. Here you can find the original Tablet Viral map post.

About two weeks ago I reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled Windows XP Tablet Edition on my HP TC1100 (1 Ghz, 1 gig of Ram) and loaded MS Office 12 Beta. Here are some initial observations. As you will see, nothing you will find here is new since Microsoft bloggers have worked hard to keep us up to date with many visuals & words:

OneNote (Owen Brown)

OneNote (Chris Pratley on the user-oriented view of OneNote) 

Outlook (Michael Affronti)

Outlook (Will Kennedy on the super feast new search feature in Outlook (and it IS really fast!) 

Outlook (Melissa MacBeth on Tasks and Time Management in Outlook– I LOVE the new ToDo bars and the Navigation Panes– perfect for the screen limited Tablet PC users) 

Office (Jensen Harris on the snazzy new interface of Office)

Excel (David Gainer on what is new in Excel) 

video at Channel 9 on new UI for Office 12 

Microsoft on the new UI for Office 12 

For the past 2 weeks I have been using Outlook 12, Word 12, Excel 12, PowerPoint 12, and OneNote 12 as my primary programmes on my tablet pc, both for work and other purposes. 

Installing and a new found love

Any glaring problems with installing? The only 2 immediate issues at hand for me were that I had to uninstall two add-ins for Outlook from both MindManager as well as Adobe Pro 7. Both mindManager and Adobe work fine otherwise. I can live with this as I don’t use these features much and I am really thrilled with many of the new features in this Beta version. In order words the benefits of installing Office outweighs the harms. Though, of course, I am fully aware that this is a beta version and snags could come along the way.

The most obvious newness about Office is the retooled user interface. It’s sleek and feature rich and I like the blueish colour in Word. I love, love, love, love the new ‘Ribbon’ that most of the Office programmes will have. Jensen Harris of Microsoft refers to the Ribbon as "a strip across the top of the window that exposes what the program can do." I appreciate this feature because I really did not enjoy the constant playing and futzing around on my Tablet with all the moving Office tool bars. The bars would not ’sit still’ and as a visual person I really like to see as many of my features as possible yet having things look organized. This became even more annoying on my Tablet PC when rotating from landscape to portrait and back. I have wasted many a minute to fix the toolbars so that I am less distracted. Of course, I could have choosen to leave the toolbars messy in Word 2003 but that would require more psychological energy than fixing them!

I should note that not all Office programmes will get the new Ribbon look. Go to this post by Jensen Harris for the who and why.

What I like the best so far

In the past few years I have used MS Outlook email with no problems. I always found the calendar, appointments and tasks quite a hassle to use to the point that I became an inconsistent user of those features. Why? I really had to mouse and click around to get a sense of what the tasks were, my emails and appointments. The UI in Outlook now brings together in one screen, e-mail, tasks, and appointments. This is hot! Now I don’t have to flip back and forth to find this appointment or write this email. I can stay in the same screen view much longer than before. And what is nice for people who use Tablet PC’s and have less than say 17 inch flat panels, the tool and task bars can be set up in such a way that even with my 10 incher tablet pc, I can view it all at a glance!

The picture above of Outlook shows you how my email navigation pane is on the left. I could choose to have all my Outlook folders showing but I like this better. I can set up the navigation pane which allows me to only show my favourite folders, in other words I can choose to only see incoming email from those I have designated as favourites. I really like this because it reduces the distracting emails. I can look at them later when I wish to do so and all I have to do is click on the navigation pane. Note the picture is a bit scrunched up so even on my TC1100 I do get to see way more than is currently showing. 

Note that in Outlook email there is a grab and drag feature (see more below). While the ribbon feature is present in Outlook it is not immediately obvious until you start writing emails.

Also the new search feature in Outlook is super fast and handy. I had to find some email  today from 2002 and found it it no time. The old Outlook search feature was painfull in comparison! Yay! 

To Do Bar

I love the To Do Bar in Outlook 12. Again, it’s because Outlook now allows for a single page view of email, tasks and appointments. Appointments are clearly shown and lots of colours to choose from. Tasks are also integrated into the Outlook single view.  It is great to stay on the same view and quickly add tasks. It’s all about integration and a single view. When I use a docking station at work, I use the flat panel for Word or Firefox, etc and the docked tablet is set to my outlook. A small glance from my ever watchful right eye sees all that I need to know.

Grab and drag

I have written previsouly here and here how much I love the grab and drag Firefox extension. Why? When I surf around on the web I am usually in slate mode and control of web pages is higher with grab and drag than with trying to find the side bar constantly. It just feels like a more natural way of moving around on the screen. Smooth and intimate. Of course only a Tablet PC allows for such qualities. In one of these earlier posts I wished for the grab and drag feature in MS Word. Well my wish has come through! Yay! And not only in Word but also in Outlook. Though it will probably be more useful in Word because of reading papers and other documents. I have always disliked reading Word docs on the screen because of the difficulty I have navigating around using the side bar. Yes there are some other features currently to help you navigate but grab and drag is a superior solution for me. The picture below shows you the Ribbon style in Word.

Inking

The picture above shows you what the inking features look like at a glance in Word. While I am not entirely sure I have a feeling that some of the inking features in Word will be expanded. As of now, there are way way more colours to choose from and you can more easier choose the weight of the lines. Also it is possible to stay in grab and drag mode while making comments in the beta Word version. Nothing much else to report on inking so far but that could be because I haven’t noticed it. The same goes with Outlook. The basic inking features now available in Outlook 2003 are similar in this Beta version. I really do hope that some major refinements will be made. I have not really been happy with the inking capabilities in either Word 2003 or the Beta. I know they can be better.

Regardless of some of my complaints, I am very excited about Office 12 so far. I know it will really make a difference in my work.

As an aside, while I have been eager to try out Inkgestures in the Office Beta version, it does not seem to show up anywhere on the toolbar. 

In the near future I’ll have a write up on OneNote 12.

Warner Crocker and Random Elements put out notes that our post about the funny looking kinda hybrid Toshiba Tablet PC at the CES is not brand new in that photos were spotted last year. Yet it is on display at the 2006 CES and Barry Doyle at Tablet PC ReviewSpot.com has a really nice write up and some new pictures of this interesting model while visiting the CES. Barry also tells us that a brand new Tablet PC will be annouced soon by an, as yet, unknown manufacturer! Lynette and I hope it’s a hybrid. This is a different announcement from the dual core Toshiba M400 Tablet PC (I like higher resolution and speed), which can be seen here on Rob Bushway’s blog and here on TabletPC ReviewSpot.com.

Saw this curious looking Toshiba Tablet PC/ laptop at Fosfor Gadgets.

It seems to be running OneNote. Looks like the CPU / hard drive is in the keyboard part of the laptop yet you can separate the display but need the wireless to keep connected to the keyboard/cpu part. Hmmm, bit of a funny animal.

See more pictures here at Fosfor gadgets.

Congrats to March Orchant, (one of our favourite Tablet PC "boys") Tracy Hooten (of The Student Tablet PC fame), Josh Einstein (looking forward to TEO 3) and Craig Pringle (BlogPad developer and more) for becoming the latest Microsoft MVPs!

Tablet PC Decision Time: Hybrid, Convertible or Slate?

Do you see the poll on the right? Why don’t you make your choice and leave us a comment justifying yourself.

I’ll go first.

Hybrid (shocking eh?)

Why?

Choice. Choice. Choice. I can have it as a convertible or as a slate, pending needs. And when I have it as a slate it’s a pound lighter.

Ok, your turn.

This past Summer I was working and travelling for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Lynette and I hooked up together in Winnipeg, Manitoba and did some Red River roaming. Besides Winnipeg there was Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. Other trips feature our TC1100’s in Nova Scotia (malignant Cove, Antigonish and more), Bay of Fundy, and the big ocean. And our trips to Malignant Cove and West Pennant (Tablet PC vs. Maritime Gale) and of course Cape Split I and Cape Split II. You can find all of these and other trips in our Travelling Tablet PCs category right here.

At 14:24 AST (Atlantic Standard Time), Technorati shows that it is doing its job!
 

David Sifry, founder & CEO of Technorati, came up to the plate! He visited Tabletology.com, left a message and personally ensured that Tabletology.com would return to all things Technorati. And it does appear that there is some movement. That feels pretty good and makes me have a bit more faith in Technorati. Thanks David! Also thanks to Warner Crocker for gently pushing the issue and to Niall Kennedy, Community Manager for Technorati for properly reindexing Tabletology into the Technorati machine.

We’ve had an account with Technorati since this Tablet PC blog started and Technorati diligently noted our new posts with its various tags. But I noticed that near the end of November 2005 no Tabletology.com posts showed up under the ‘Tablet PC’ or any of our other Technorati tags (Tabletology.com, TC1100, etc). Zero, zip. I have several RSS feeds monitoring tags of interests and while our posts showed up in other feeds, Technorati ones disappeared all together. Also, under the Technorati Blog Finder, Tabletology.com used to feature in the top 10 lists of Tablet PC blogs. Zip, gone, 0.

I wrote an email to Technorati on December 1st 2005 and received a form reply. I then rewrote on December 7th to Technorati saying that I am still waiting for a reply (as they suggested in their initial form reply). It’s December 18th now and haven’t heard a peep from customer support.

I check and rechecked my Technorati account and as far as I can see I have done everything to make sure that Tabletology.com is properly claimed and processed. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hey James Kendrick, we’re thinking of taking a Tablet PC out for a little workout! You know hang it over some cliff or hold up the Tablet PC in a Maritime gale. We know you were quite specific about not loaning your TC1100 but we thought that perhaps you’ve changed your mind? We figured your Tablet PC is yearning for a taste of this wild and wooly Nova Scotia weather (see jpg, courtesy of Environment Canada). But where is the Tablet PC in the Canadian shallow fog?

Here is my poem (in Macromedia Flash -click to view) I read OnTheRun with Tablet PCs lamenting the HP discontinuation of the world’s favourite hybrid Tablet PC.

Write to Mark Hurd, CEO of HP, and bring your personal appeal to save this lovely Tablet PC (or encourage HP to create a TC1200).

It’s hard to keep up with those guys, James Kendrick and Marc Orchant of OnTheRun with Tablet PCs. And we don’t pretend to! They have just recorded # 6 of this great podcast series. Lyn and I were guests on their podcast last week and we had a blast. Check out OnTheRun with Tablet PCs here every week!

Warner Crocker developed the Wicked Stage Ink Blots Awards! And Tabletology cleaned up big time! We are humble yet we can count to three! [Note from Lyn to Olga: can we say we cleaned up big time and then say that we are humble?] [Note from Olga to Lyn: of course, you are right, but hey it’s our blog and our awards!]
 

Warner developed the awards to pay tribute to the Tablet PC community. But he says it much better than we do:

It is a celebration of a community that I have come to know and admire. The Tableteers that make up the Tablet PC Community are an amazing collection of individuals who know and work with the Tablet PC platform. They are fiercely protective of it, insatiably curious about advancing it, very intelligent, often wickedly funny, at one time very forgiving and patient, and in the same breath, scathingly critical when the need arises. They are also exceedingly willing to evangelize the platform to anyone who will listen, and in my humble opinion, have helped keep the spotlight on The Tablet PC in ways that may, in the long run, prove to be responsible for keeping the platform thriving.

Ok and what awards did Tabletology.com humbly receive?

• Most fun new Tablet PC blog
• Best Tablet PC poem
• Best "I’ll have eggs with my Tablet PC" post

Thank you Warner for the awards. It is much appreciated. We are having great fun thinking of and excecuting posts, setting up photo shoots, fighting with HP, various software and hardware! And we enjoy being part of the Tablet PC community. Check out his blog here.

At long last our tablet PC has found what it was so restlessly searching the world for. That damn gnome.

And not just one gnome, but six of them.

And as is so often the case, the longed-for item that sent the TC1100 on its "quest" wasn’t to be found in Nepal, or in the Andes, or on a beach in Thailand. It was right here at home, in our shared laundry room. And in abundance.

Let this be a lesson to all of us tempted to roam. 

Sumocat joined the rapidly growing bevy of Tablet PC blogs a few months ago. I missed it then. Warner Crocker has a post on how Sumocat has posted a Tablet PC inspired Haiku (Japanese poetry) a few days ago (thanks Warner). This little cat has some interesting Tablet PC observations so be sure to check Sumocat out. Maybe one day Sumocat can play with our cat (Ego), if they can get along! The photo below demonstrates how Ego the Cat refuses to take second place to the Tablet PC!
 

There is a new kid on the Tablet PC blog scene called Pimp my Tablet: Looking for Ink in all the wrong places… Love the title! The author is a fellow Canadian, Mitch Tulluch, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the author of books like The Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking and The Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security. He received a Motion LE1600 in October and is sharing some thoughtful posts.
 
Tabletology.com had the opportunity to visit Winnipeg this Summer and we showed off our Tablet PCs at Portage and Main, one of those wild intersections to be seen anywhere (though confusion corner in Winnipeg is also impressively confusing)! Lynette was born in Winnipeg and then did her undergraduate at the University of Winnipeg. I have a soft spot for the prairies.

After our podcast with James Kendrick and March Orchant, Michael Scherotter (Business Solutions Architect) from Mindjet dropped by and wrote a couple of words on Tabletology.com. During our podcast we were explaining how we wished we could pen all over our mindmaps. Currently, penning all over the map is impossible and, from our vantage point, something that really needs to be integrated into MindManager. We hope this is possible in future versions. When the new version of Mindmanager was recently released (along with Mindjet’s nice new logo) we were surprised that the entire Mindmapping canvas was not inking sensitive.

This reminded us a bit of how few robust inking capabilities are integrated into Adobe Acrobat. This had always baffled us because PDFs are perfect for inking! This gaping hole by Adobe has left the door open for software like PDF Annotator. I have used PDF Annotator on and off and have wrestled between the shortcomings in both PDF Annotator and Adobe Acrobat. We wrote a little review of it here.

Back to MindManager. Michael Scherotter from Mindjet dropped by to let Tabletology know about a plugin for MindManager where you can export a mindmap into Microsoft OneNote. This is a good start,  though for now this is obviously a workaround for having the entire MindMapping canvas inking sensitive. 

I tried to export 2 mindmaps I have been working on to OneNote and have mixed results. The first map (see below) worked fine. The map was successully exported into OneNote. I can now draw all over it. Of course if I want to make changes to my original mindmap I will have to switch back and forth between MindManager and OneNote.

Then I tried to export another map I have been working on. It is a large map and while I tried to adjust the zoom function, as you can see from the photo it produced a fuzzy non-workable OneNote page. This is too bad. Does anyone know whether there is a workaround for this? Do let us know.

Download the OneNote MindManger plug-in here and let us know your experiences. 

We have some other wishes for MindManager which we’ll write about in future posts.

More TC1100 and Cape Split beauty. Go here for Part I of our Cape Split adventure.

And, in case you thought all went smoothly with our TC1100 shoots, this is Lyn’s reaction at Cape Split to Tim dangling her Tablet PC TC1100 (once again) above the highest Tides in the world.

It has been made clear that on the next challenging hiking trip it will be my TC1100 that will act as the stunt-machine!

We completed a 16 km round trip hike to Cape Split in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia. Despite all the dire warnings! I set off with Lyn, Tim, Simon the Dog and one of our trusty TC1100’s one early afternoon. The highest tides in the world are in this neighbourhood and, Wow, nature is spectacular here despite the windy and rainy feel to the day.

(Simon the Dog is very literate and clever!)

We used to live in Toronto and this photo reminds me of Ontario and the Canadian shield. Here is a painting from Tom Thomson (’Group of Seven‘) called Byng Inlet (Georgian Bay, Ontario). Windy comes to mind. 
Another ‘group of seven’ member, F.H. Varley, painted "Stormy Weather", Georgian Bay.

And when you arrive at the cliffs the views are spectacular. Here the tide goes out at Cape Split (oh and notice the TC1100).
According to this website: "The currents [here] exceed 8 knots (4m/s), and the flow in the deep, 5 km-wide channel on the north side of Cape Split equals the combined flow of all the streams and rivers of Earth (about 4 cubic kilometres per hour)."
In case you like to visit this amazing spot, here is a map and additional information. Go to Scots Bay and there will be a few signs for you to follow. Note that you should have good footwear and take proper precautions since Cape Split is a do-it-yourself-hike.  

We discussed this wonderful hike during our podcast OnTheRun with Tablet PCs with James Kendrick and Marc Orchant. Listen to the podcast here. 

Tomorrow we’ll post a few additional Cape Split photos. 

 
I said during Sunday’s OnTheRun with Tablet PC’s podcast (with James Kendrick and Marc Orchant) that the TC1100 is like an egg: the perfect food. Just like an egg, the TC1100 integrates the keyboard (the white) with the slate part (the yolk) in a perfect union.

The TC1100 is a source of high-quality mobile hybrid computing and a significant contributor to the overall satisfaction level of Tablet PC users.

In our house we are lucky to have two eggs.

Listen here to the entire podcast. 

James Kendrick of jkOnTheRun and Marc Orchant of the Tablet PC Weblog and the Unofficial Microsoft Weblog invited Tabletology.com Lynette and me to participate in their Podcast OnTheRun with Tablet PCs # 5. We had great fun discussing a variety of topics. 

Listen to the Podcast right here by clicking the mp3 player!

Well, this is no surprise, but I just noticed how one of the two the smartbuy TC1100 models  (PR092UA#ABA - English / PR092UA#ABC - French) on the HP Canada website is not available any longer.

The second smartbuy product is still available (PZ096UA#ABA - English / PZ096UA#ABC - French) and so is the standard model (PX284AA#ABA - English /PX284AA#ABC - French).
 

Hello Flybook! All 2.7 pounds of you (Listen up HP, that is what reasonable people call ultra-portable – not the TC4200 which weighs 4.5 lbs). Flybook is a Tablet PC kind a creature without Windows XP Tablet Edition. It features an 8.9 inch display and, oddly, a Transmeta Crusoe (1 GHz). US$2,490.

Flybook comes with 512 MB or RAM and a 40GB hard drive (upgradeable). And lots of pretty colours to choose from.

"The use of Microsoft tablet PC is not needed as Flybook has already preinstalled the parascript rite-pen software, which is able to recognize one’s writing and automatically convert it into text or with a command of the stylus you can send e-mails with the notes that you wrote on the screen." 

Parascript spun off its pen and internet subsidiary and merged with EverNote. I know EverNote has Tablet PC related software but I have not tried any of them (go to Evernote’s website to download  a freeware version of EverNote 1.1, a note taking application for both Tablet and non-Tablet PCs). I am curious to find out whether and how this particular no-windows-Tablet-PC-parascript-EverNote setup limits or expands Tablet PC features.

Would you consider this to be a Tablet PC?

Check out the Flybook website, Evernote ritePen and an extensive review of Flybook in the NYT.

In September 2005, Lyn and I wrote a little bit on how we use our Tablet PC’s in coffee shops. There was a really weird one in Halifax where the owner would pretty much berate the customers and any people walking by with coffee-to-go from nearby competitors. It was a stressfull experience and the cappuccino was poor and expensive.

We never went back (despite that it had wireless). The photo we made of the experience included the front page of The Globe and Mail where there was a story on Conrad Black, Canadian robber baron (well actually he gave up his Canadian citizenship and took on British citizenship so he could become a Lord - yup, really!). At that point it was known that Black seemed to have significant legal and financial problems. Basically, he has been accused of looting the public company — Hollinger  International — to fund his lavish lifestyle. Well, the coffeeshop went belly up and I interpreted the photo of Conrad Black in the newspaper as an omen of what would happen to the coffeeshop. But I guess the coffee shop closing its doors was also an omen for Conrad Black going belly up!

We have not heard of any reports that Conrad Black is an owner of Tablet PC’s. As you know, we have an interest in keeping Tablet PC’s out of the hands of suspected criminals! Which reminds me, has anyone seen Boaz Manor of now defunct Portus?

In the mean time, Conrad Black and his wife Barbara Amiel continue to sell their public shares in Hollinger at a fast clip. The lawyers will certainly need the proceeds!

Conrad Black is to appear in Chicago court next week, November 30th 2005. 

HP has come out with an outdoor viewable display for the TC4200. That’s great for people considering a new TC4200.

BUT…

Don’t think that the TC1100 fans can be won over with this measely bone. Of course, Lyn and I have a somewhat jaundiced view these days on HP with the discontinuation of the TC1100. Hey HP, how about a new hybrid, TC1200, with an outdoor viewable display? I know many would love that!

The TC4200 outdoor viewable display only comes when you opt for the Intel Pentium M 750 Processor (1.86 GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB). This will get your price to just above US$2,000.

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/tabletpc/tc4200/index.html

By the way, many would not consider 4.5 lbs of TC4200 as "ultraportable" as the ad below claims. Portable maybe.

There is a new Beta for the fabulous GeckoTIP Firefox extension perfect for your Tablet PC. It provides Input Panel support for Firefox. I can’t imagine surfing, doing research or writing this site without Firefox and its multiple open-source generated extensions. Be sure to uninstall any previous version you may have installed of GeckoTIP. Go here for an earlier Tabletology.com post on the lovely Grab and Drag Firefox extension perfect for surfing with your Tablet PC.

By the way, happy belated Birthday, Firefox on your first successful year! It certainly changed our way of using the internet. All for the better.  Download Firefox here.

Yes, the TC1100 is still for sale in Canada. Here is the link.
 

I was able to sign up for Google Analytics earlier this past week. Google purchased it from Urchin which charged a lot of money for analyzing your website traffice ($200 a month). Out of the past 5 days, Google Analytics has been able to provide me with one day of analysis (thursday). Analytics is also extremely slow. Basically it’s not working for now and I am glad no one is paying for this ’service’. Google is adding resources and warns of analysis delays (accurate). It’s been widely reported that Google Analytics has been having capacity problems and for now the service has been closed to new sign-ups. It’s okay though for now you’re not missing a thing.

Yup, so this morning I am looking for my TC1100 keyboard. There are two in the household so it shouldn’t be too hard to find just one of them. Can’t find it, can’t find it until I decide to make another latte and voila! This is exactly how I found the scene of the crime. 

Last night I was showing Tim something on the internet while cooking and I must have separated the keyboard from the slate at some point. And no, HP, we did not use the keyboard as a cutting board (note the yellow cuttingboard beneath the bread basket). It does show how our Tablet PC’s have morphed into our domestic lives. 

Part III

Go here for Part II and here for Part I of our Tablet PC repair adventures. 

Uh oh, Lyn’s turn again after a one-year plus ownership. Her TC1100 was not able to charge any battery. The motherboard was replaced. The part was out of stock and instead of a 2 or 3 day repair trip to Hull, Quebec it came back in four days. 

Unfortunately, my hard drive has been making roaring noises on and off for the past few weeks. I have been relatively careful in making back ups and I will have to play it by ear if and when I consider returning it. It’s always very hard to decide to give it up since it’s my main and only beloved TC1100. Sigh.

On the weekend we enjoyed some nice old Montreal cafe atmosphere. The hot chocolate was delicious, not too sweet and real cocoa. And a little TC1100 time.

The TC 1100 takes its case to the Quebec Court of Appeal on our weekend trip to Montreal.

HP, don’t discontinue this hybrid!

See this forum on Tablet PC Buzz for more info on keeping the TC1100 form factor alive. Or write to Mark Hurd, HP CEO and tell him how HP is doing itself a disservice by discontinuing the TC1100 form factor. We’ll be closely watching the outcome of the Appeals case in Quebec and elsewhere!

Martinique Beach is a favorite Nova Scotia spot. Simon, who just moved to Nova Scotia in October, likes Martinique Beach too. He kind of calls it his own. In that way dogs do.

On a cloudy October day, you and your dog and your friends and your TC1100 can have miles of beach all to yourselves.

Palmaddict reports that Ford is installing Tablet PC’s in their new trucks using Stargate Mobile technologies.

While this is probably a bad idea for most of us it is also inevitable. The Tablet PC connoisseur in me says Yes, the rational one in me says No. I am already wildly annoyed at people using cell phones in cars and studies are clear that this multi tasking is at the detriment to the safety of all. Here are some of the details on what Ford is doing in creating the mobile office:

Features:

• Tablet PC Running a Windows XP Pro OS
• Mobile and Rugged (No Moving Parts)
• High Bright Touch Screen Display
• Vehicle and Desk Docking Stations
• Mobile Work Bag w/ Keyboard
• Visual or Voice Prompted GPS Navigation
• Internet Access (Email, WWW, FTP)

Tablet PC specifications:

• Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 1GHz Processor
• 256 MB SDRAM
• 4 GB Flash Memory
• USB 2 port
• PMCIA slot
• Compact Flash Slot
• High Bright 8.4” SVGA Display
• Vehicle Cradle w/ USB and 12V Power Port
• Hot Swappable Lithium Ion Battery
• Programmable External Buttons

There is a study in the New England Journal of Medicine which found that your chances of getting into an accident quadruples when using a cellphone while driving:

Association between cellular-telephone calls and motor vehicle collisions, NEJM

Perhaps service ads for "No Tablet PCing While Driving" will be in the works soon!

Two great new Tablet PC utilities for Firefox have just been released or updated:

1. The GeckoTIP extension, developed by Ian Weiner (thanks Ian), provides Tablet PC Input Panel support in Firefox and Thunderbird. Previous versions tended to be somewhat unstable, though I am grateful for anyone (Jim Hurd) contributing these handy utilities.

Check it out and be careful to uninstall earlier versions before installing GeckoTIP:
http://geckotip.mozdev.org/ 

2.  The Grab And Drag extension provides Adobe Acrobat-style grab and drag page scrolling with the mouse. It is an extension for Firefox and Thunderbird 1.0 and higher. Easy to disable when you need to grab some text! It’s a utility I have been wishing for. I would like it to work in MS Word as well.
http://grabanddrag.mozdev.org/index.html

For Part I of our Tablet PC repairs, go here. 

2a. My turn for repairs. Booting up my tablet, the screen used to get all garbled. See photo below.
 
I really did not want to send the tablet off to HP but after a month or so of spending a lot of time waiting for a proper boot up I had to let it go. The Puralotor box was shipped by HP and off it went and back in a few days! HP replaced the motherboard. Great job.

2b. We also had some problems with a total of three pens. Pen one, an eraser pen, simply was not erasing any longer. Pen two, an eraser pen, had separated in two from sitting in the somewhat overheated penholder. And pen three, a non-eraser pen, the ‘mouse button’ was acting very strangely. HP was gracious and mailed us 3 boxes with new pens and we shipped the non-working ones back home (like greyhounds who go to a retirement home).

Close-up of one of our broken TC1100 eraser pens 

2c. One of our batteries was draining itself in less than 15 minutes. I called HP and I was told that the batteries only had a one-year warranty (unlike the rest of the computer parts) and I had to produce a receipt. After faxing it off, being called back to be told that the receipt was too faded, faxing a more clear receipt off, I did receive a new battery. All in all it was a big shipment and it went smoothly.

The big shipment

Why does that damn cat always get the Tablet PC? It’s just not fair!

Grape for cat; cucumber for dog:
http://www.primates.com/monkeys/fairness.html 

As many of our loyal readers may know, Steve-o-Reno’s  is a special part of Halifax for us. We have spent many, many hours there with our tablets, and the idea of our tabletology blog was born out of the experience of spending so much time at Steve-o’s answering people’s questions about tablet pcs as their curiosity got the better of them and they overcame all natural reluctance to interrupt strangers at work.

It was like a form of extremely minor celebrity. When we met people at parties, they’d say "oh I know you, you’re the ones at Steve-o-Reno’s with those computers!"  People we got to know would report that when they discussed getting tablets with co-workers, their co-workers would say "I’ve seen those! At Steve-o-Reno’s! There’s always these two women there with tablets."

And then the day came when another piece of technology entered our lives. After months of research, Olga settled on the Rancilio Silvia as a home espresso machine and its companion the Rancilio grinder. While we had never done that self-justification dance where people claim they’ll save so much on coffee out that it’s actually thrifty to buy a pretty expensive espresso/grinder duo, in fact the net result of bringing Silvia (we call him/her Tony…but that’s a story for another day) into our home was a sudden end to our intense involvement with Steve-o.

It’s sort of sad. Sometimes we miss it. The great wait staff. The orange walls.

So we made it in a couple of weeks ago on a whim, for old times sake. We were sans tablets.

And there, two tables down, sat a woman with a tablet pc. A toshiba I believe. The first time we have spotted a tablet pc in Halifax, outside of the set of tablets purchased by co-workers as a result of our tablets.

We couldn’t resist interrupting her to ask her about her tablet pc. Just to continue the tradition.  

Just noted in todays NYT that HP has quite a few ads running. Sadly and surprisingly, of the three rotating ads I noticed one featured the TC4200 and two ads featured the TC1100. Yes, two ads of our beloved hybrid model which HP will stop shipping (and developing) in December 2005. What is that about? Is the advertising arm of HP not clued in to what is slated to happen to the TC1100? Are we upset about this? Yes! And as an aside, why are there no girls with tablets in these ads?

TC1100 (ad featured in today’s on-line NYT)

TC4200 (ad featured in today’s on-line NYT)

TC1100 (ad featured in today’s on-line NYT)

We have two Tablet PC’s (TC1100) and we have had three round-trip HP repair trips between the two of us in the past year.

Repair trip I (December 2004)

Lyn’s TC1100 made funny hard drive noises after about 4 months of happy ownership. As she will remind me I was nagging her about doing the proper back up (before the hard drive would die) and sending it off to HP. And as I will point out to her, hers has been making the same noise for 10 months now. -LR Reluctantly, Lyn called HP, HP send a box via Purolator the next day and off it went. We were nervous, especially Lyn (mine was purring along!), since we had notyet gone through the HP repair process. We were amazed that it came back in 2 or 3 days. The HP Repair Centre for our geographical location is in Quebec. HP placed a spanking new harddrive in the TC1100 and the weird noise was gone. Lyn was happy once again. Of course all software had to be relaoded again and data needed to be transferred from our desktop via the router. Very labour-intensive. Given the 3 yr warranty there were no charges, not for the shipping or the hard drive or the labour.

West Pennant is about 40 min South of Halifax. The weather was spectacularly Nova Scotia: Winds and rains, coming and going all day long.

And here is our very good friend Tim, and his dog Simon, bravely holding the TC1100 in the midst of a forceful Maritime gale. And this is not even a rugged Tablet PC!

West Pennant vis-a-vis Halifax

A typical small Nova Scotia inlet. No wireless available!

Of course for some reason we were taking these pictures with MY tablet. Was it punishment for my insistence that we bring the tablet along for downloading photos?? But none of this weather in the end was more impressive than my dropping my tablet as I unlocked the door at home.

It still works. But don’t try to duplicate that at home! - LR 

Ah lovely Nova Scotia with unbelievable winds and whipping rain!

 
Tim on the left, TC1100 on the right. Europe straight ahead!

Fascinating article today in the NYT about "interruption science". As most of us experience every day and all day long, we get interrupted at work. Often at the end of the day you may feel like you did not accomplish much. And technology, in my experience, is the worst interruption culprit. Interruption science tries to figure out how much (or not) multi-tasking people can do and when they can be interrupted. Note the use of a Tablet PC to measure the brain activity of this Microsoft software designer.

For a full look at this article go to the NYT:
http://tinyurl.com/annu8

Shallow fog sounds so mysterious! Weather in Halifax (Nova Scotia) is a funny thing and very very local. It changes around here in a jiffy.

I have been taking extensive notes using my Tablet PC within Adobe Acrobat Standard 6 on a 106 page PDF. I then opened another PDF document within Firefox and Crash, Boom! I am afraid many highlighted passages and notes have disappeared and I’ll have to start again. Grrrrrrrr. Lesson learned: Save frequently!
 

Check out Mike Wentland’s interview with Bill Gates on Tablet PC’s. They both love them! Clever guys!

http://ej.typepad.com/tech/2005/10/gates_stakes_re.html 

The NYT has an article on Tablet PC’s today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/13/technology/circuits/13basics.html

The article provides a basic intro to Tablet PC’s, why they haven’t been accepted by the mass market (yet), how education and medicine acts as a niche market for tablets, and what the future may bring. A list of a variety of tablets is featured and a review of some tablet-specific software.

There is also a slideshow called the "Tablet PC Wars" featuring the Fujitsu, Motion, HP, Gateway, Lenova, and Toshiba. The war is described as between the slate and the convertible models. Even though we are against war we are in favour of expanding this war & throwing in the hybrid model. Let’s give the hybrid a fighting chance!
A war without hybrids is a lousy war! 

As an aside it seems that HP, in conjunction with Intel, bought up all advertising space for this article.  

The Ontario Securities Commission—along with many duped investors—is looking for Mr. Boaz Manor.
         

What’s the connection to Tablet PC’s, you ask? 

Have you heard of the collapsed hedgefund ‘Portus Alternative Asset Management’? Portus, as a funny aside, means "safe harbour."

Boaz Manor, the now fugitive co-founder of Portus, stars in his company’s marketing clip showing off his Tablet PC (can anyone indicate which model?). Sadly, many people lost their life savings pouring money into Portus. If anyone has seen Boaz Manor and his Tablet PC, do let us know. Let’s keep Tablet PC’s out of the hands of suspected criminals!

Boaz Manor (on the left) with the Tablet PC 

Just say no to suspected criminals with Tablet PC’s!

I’ve had PDF Annotator on my Tablet PC for about 6 months. I stopped using it because there were issues with it (Lynette really never took to it (yet)), like hogging the memory etc. Still, given that Adobe had failed to produce anything reasonable for inking I was happy with it and hoped it would develop further. The other problem is that I do at times lapse into printing off journal articles. So the combination of these two led me to ignore PDF Annotator for a little while. I decided today to see how things are coming along. I upgraded my version and opened up a pdf and things are looking ok. I have two immediate wishes I can think of right now:

• The ability to have some kind of bookmarking feature so I can easily figure out where in my 313 page document I bothered to highlight or make notations. Preventing me from looking through the entire document again looking for annotations would be very useful
• I also would like to have the option, like in Adobe Acrobat, to use the dragging tool (the little hand) to move from one page to the next rather than clicking (see in pic below) or using the scrolling wheel on the side of the TC1100.  

What about Adobe? I have Adobe Acrobat Standard 6. It can bookmark notes and give me one click access to the page and its annotation.  The Adobe marking tool is a sad imitation of inking. Both programmes have something that is useful. My happy understanding is that the developer of PDF Annotator is working on the bookmarking feature.

The continuing problem I seem to have with Acrobat is that it crashes way too much and is basically a memory hog. 

Ok, so we are enjoying a little recognition from our Tablet PC peers while it lasts. Here’s another mini-review. Thanks Kevin! You can find his site here:  http://kctofel.blogspot.com/

Beer and Tablet PC at Susan’s house

A failed attempt to get the wireless printer feature to work @ Susan’s. One of the tablets is hers. Don’t know which one.

Because of the Halifax Tablet-Virus, Susan purchased a Tablet PC (tc1100) after seeing me with one for 2.5 months (she was very patient!). Here is a repeat of our worthwhile sociological map: "Tablet Zero and its Effects on Friends and Colleagues."

What are some necessary ingredients for a lovely Nova Scotia day-trip?

• Rental car (the PT Cruiser is kinda lousy but it has great pockets in the door for our tablets!)
• Digital camera
• Multi-card reader (for fast downloading of images to tablet)
• Our tablets to download all those pics as we go (and to pretend we’re doing work)
• Maps
• Beautiful Nova Scotia

Yay! Warner Crocker of "Life on the Wicked Stage" fame seems to be the first one to have discovered our Tabletology.com and wrote something very sweet about it. We are tingly all over! Thanks Warner! Soon we’ll develop a Tablet PC link feature. In the meantime you can find his contributions here:

http://wickedstageact2.typepad.com/ 

Tabletology write up by Warner Crocker of "Life on the Wicked Stage"

Foggy Bay of Fundy but it can clear in a heartbeat

One of the first downloads after getting my tablet was ArtRage. It was (and is) free of charge and seemed too good to be true. Not to mention that there aren’t that many tablet specific pieces of software around. Could ArtRage really let you (apparently) smear around paint or smudge pastels on rough paper–while creating a digital image on a tablet? Well to my untrained eye it certainly seems like that. Keep in mind, I couldn’t save my life drawing a stickfigure.

ArtRage has a very user-friendly layout. After installing and opening the programme anyone can start dabbling without having to scurry off to the help section. On the left of the programme is the palette with the various media (crayon, watercolour, pencil etc). You can also control the thickness and its pressure.
 

For a while I was doodling a lot! I pretended to go through a variety of periods: the blue, the red and the green. What great artists took decades I accomplished in a month! Amazing fun software.

My red period

My blue and green period

My blue (and yellow) period

Art Rage Tracing Paper feature

The Wellcome Trust very kindly had me along for their Summer School in Neuroscience, Ethics, and Society last week.

These pictures are from the balcony of my room at the new residences at St. Anne’s College.  

Fellow participants from England and Brazil scribbled down "TC 1100" on scraps of paper to take home after a particularly intense few hours of collaborative PowerPoint creation on the tablet.

What is it that’s so great about a tablet pc? What shifts the response from the "cool!" factor to need and finally to devotion? A few of our favourite things:

• Lying in bed reading the NYRB and NYT on the tablet (ooops, minus the NYT Select)
• Choice, choice, choice
• All these years I never knew I was a visual/spatial thinker forced to live in a linear tree-structured computer world
• Easily bringing the tablet to and from work without feeling that you carry a brick slab around (3 lbs w/o keyboard)
• Handing the tablet to someone else to read or write something
• Taking handwritten notes reduces the need for carrying around and organizing scraps of paper
• Access to email and web anywhere there is a friendly router 
• Having the computer at hand in a meeting — but not as a wall between me and others

Some of these features can only be realized most fully with a hybrid, and with our fave hybrid: the HP TC 1100. The ability to leave the keyboard behind makes it super-portable, and the beautiful quality of the screen brings the true end to the paper era finally in sight. What will happen to the hybrid model with the premature death of the TC1100? We shall investigate. After the mourning period.

Simon & Sasha & the glow of a Tablet PC in Montreal

Tim giving it a try….very carefully!

Early morning (pre-coffee)

Heading East from Halifax!

Cape George, Nova Scotia

Malignant Cove (where a Great White shark was caught (and let go) this Summer)

Antigonish, Nova Scotia @ Tim Horton’s watching our digital catch of the day

Catch of the Day @ Arisaig, NS

Another catch of the day (one for each or there would be tears)

@ Steve-o-Reno’s in Halifax. Now that we purchased a Rancilio we don’t see Steve much any more.

The old days at Steve-o

We miss the egg-o-reno’s

At ‘Perks’ coffee shop in Halifax grading med school exams on ethics. 

The anvil: Conrad Black, Canadian robber baron, in the Globe and Mail. A month later this rather bizarre Halifax coffee shop went belly up.

We installed Google Talk and like it. So far I have resisted installing any type of IM or instant messaging programme. I want something that is not loaded with unnecessary heft. This may be it. Lynette and I both installed it earlier this week and since our TC1100’s have built-in microphones and speakers, Google Talk worked without any tinkering the first time. We were happily surprised and a bit in awe.

There is a NYT article a few days ago by David Pogue discussing how Google’s Internet Messaging software is unique:

"Google Talk aims to end the ridiculous era of proprietary chat networks. At the moment, AOL, MSN and Yahoo each maintain separate, incompatible networks. The big boys each want to be alone in the sandbox, and the losers are their customers. Google Talk, however, is based on an open, published standard that the company is making available to all."

At the same time, all this new and free software is apparantly making some nervous. The article ends with:

"Trying to figure out what this company’s really up to is enough to drive you crazy."

While I am somewhat leery of Google’s increased dominance and observe in me that I do not like their excessive datamining, I have to admit that using Google software does make me feel good.