Tablet PC 2 -News Archive December 2005

Santa's made his list and checked it twice.
We think you will find what's on it very, very nice....

A new era in digital ink solutions began in the fall of 2002 with three major events: the launch of the Tablet PC; the launch of the Logitech io Digital Pen using Anoto functionality and forms automation software that supports both major handwriting capture platforms by Mi-Co, the mobile data capture company. To observe the 3rd anniversary of the these milestones, Mi-Co has a number of activities underway including the publication of a white paper by James Clary, CEO of Mi-Co, entitled Modern Mobile Data Capture Technology for Government and Enterprise Applications.

“Mi-Co welcomed the launch of the Tablet PC and the Logitech Digital Pen,” stated Clary, “because this marked the point where the hardware and software for capturing and recognizing handwritten data came into synchronization. Prior to November 2002, many companies, including, Mi-Co, utilized Pocket PCs and other handwriting capture platforms, including signature capture pads. Similar to the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer, the new Tablet PCs and Digital Pens legitimized and accelerated the use of handwritten input like nothing that had happened before. The result is that industrial strength solutions are showing up in successful mobile forms automation implementations for an increasing number of enterprise and government applications.”

Airship among tech tests

Other technologies in the experimentation phase are the airship, the Soldier radiowave, the small-unit support vehicle, the Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below system and the tablet PC, which are tied together.

The airship, which looks similar to the Goodyear blimp, flies about 4,000 feet above the ground and can carry up to three people. In the experimentation phase, the airship has one pilot and carries a communications package.

Tablet PC: pocket-size FBCB2

The tablet personal computer and the FBCB2 are the same – the tablet is a handheld computer similar to a laptop in size, and they interface with each other.

For example, the company commander in the SUSV can instruct the platoon leader on the ground (who has a tablet personal computer) to move away from an area by using his finger to draw a line on the FBCB2 (from point A to point B), Zimmerman said.

“This is a four-year experimentation campaign, and we are in year two,” Zimmerman said. “We figure out what works and helps the force today, and what we can do to help the force of tomorrow. It’s all about saving Soldiers’ lives.”

Xplore Technologies(R) Corp. (TSX:XPL) a leading international rugged Tablet PC provider, today announced the strategic deployment of its award winning iX1O4C2V Tablet PC by a number of private fire brigade agencies in Germany. Xplore's Xplore Tablet PC

distributor, ID.SYS GmbH and its authorized systems integrator partner, MDAI have received an order for 125 Xplore tablets to be delivered to the fire brigades during the next 12 months. Xplore has received orders from ID.SYS for more than half of the total quantity which are scheduled for delivery this quarter.

To date, MDAI has delivered iX104C2V tablets for private fire forces at BMW Ag, Robert Bosch GmbH, TU Munich and MSA Auer GmbH. MDAI specializes in public safety applications, and has also formed a joint venture with the Technical University of Munich, known for its advanced mobile IT applications, to develop a software solution for fire rescue systems.

Xplore's state-of-the art Tablet PCs help the fire brigades work faster and more efficiently. "We believe that Xplore offers the best hardware platform on the market, with regard to its performance, compact design and degree of ruggedness. The E.I.S. software solution we provide, together with the tablets, puts us in a strong position to transition a greater share of the growing German public safety market to rugged computing," said Michael Grubl the Managing Director from MDAI.

Xplore's Tablet PCs are mounted in fire trucks and used as an electronic information system (E.I.S), which contains high-resolution views of properties, buildings, highways, and other topical features in the area. The system also provides details of potential dangerous materials at a plant, rescue plans and emergency call response. Future plans include the addition of mapping and global positioning for navigation purposes to the computing solution.

When a call is dispatched, an image of the location is found, displayed, and accessible on Xplore's Tablet PC for the firefighters when they are in response-mode. During the rescue incident, the firefighters' breathing system is monitored on the Xplore tablet and the responders can be recalled if necessary. Vehicle-mounted printers and USB-keyboards are connected to the tablets via Xplore's active Xdock docking station configured for fire safety applications. Xplore's rugged Tablet PCs are equipped with integrated wireless LAN capabilities.

In addition to its durability, the fire brigades were impressed with Xplore tablet's portability in and out of its vehicle-mounted docking system; its quick and accurate active digitizer response; and its award winning high- brite indoor and outdoor readable AllVue(TM) display, which provides users with ideal screen visibility at various times of day and under diverse weather conditions.

Jørgen Sundgot gets to grips with Acer's innovative TravelMate C200, sporting a snappy graphics card and slide-up screen unlike any other acer c200

convertible Tablet PC to date

First, there was the Tablet PC - and then came the convertibles. Having gained in popularity due to their chameleon-like ability to assume either a fully pen-driven or combo pen- and keyboard-driven user interface, it has been generally assumed that innovation within this niche category had settled for a while. Enter the Acer TravelMate C200, a tablet with a new and clever twist on the concept of convertibility; innovative, albeit not without flaws. We review the top-of-the line model, the C204TMi.

For users in need of some muscle toning, the Acer TravelMate C200 is a look-no-further option. Bulkier than most tablets, the convertible weighs in at 2 KG at its very lightest, measuring a slightly above-par 315 x 238 x 35 mm - but then again, the C200 isn't quite like other convertibles.

Instead of relying on the typical swivel hinge solution, the C200 offers a sliding mechanism which tilts its 12.1-inch XGA screen upwards to a locking position with no adjustment options in order to switch between tablet and notebook modes. The solution has its distinct ups and downs, the former of which includes the C200 being a perfect companion for cramped airline seats as its screen doesn't protrude beyond the back of the notebook as well as low-hassle, high-speed switching between notebook and tablet mode.

Choosing the Right Gadgets to Fit Your Road Warrior Lifestyle

The big question is, exactly which portable gadgets you need? If you bought one of everything, you’d need Batman’s utility belt to carry them all around—which sort of negates the concept of portability. No, the savvy road warrior picks and chooses his gadgets, to maximize his portable computing and communicating efficiency. It’s possible, after all, to have a single gadget perform multiple functions.

So, which portable gadgets do you need? It all depends on your individual road warrior lifestyle. Here are some hints:

Tablet PC—This is a subspecies of the notebook PC, with a touch screen you can write on—with a stylus, that is, not a real pen. Tablets are great for specific tasks, such as meter reading or checking inventory in a warehouse. For most of us, they’re totally unnecessary for standard computing tasks.

The American health care system has many problems, but one of them is at once obvious and generally ignored: most doctors and hospitals still work in the buggy-whip era of information technology, dependent on pen, paper and manila folders.

At the turn of this century, when the average industry was investing $8,000 per employee on computer technology, health care was spending $1,000. By now, if you belong to a frequent shopper club, your grocery store almost certainly has far more computerized data about you than does your doctor.

In hospitals, RFID chips — the tiny radio chips that will replace barcodes in retail stores — can take on multiple roles. Each patient would have an RFID chip in their bracelet that would communicate with the tablet-style PC that nurses and doctors uses to update records. Each drug out of the hospital pharmacy would have an RFID chip as well and if it didn’t match with the patient’s chip a warning would sound.

Doctors will order prescriptions and tests on handheld devices or desktop computers that will connect straight to pharmacies and labs with no potential misreadings. (Physicians’ bad handwriting has long been a source of humor, but there’s nothing funny about sloppy data entry when lives are at stake. Electronic entry should improve the process significantly.)

About four weeks ago, Gateway was kind enough to send me a notebook they qualified as a 'value' machine. Typically, that means something stripped down to bare functionality with an appropriate price tag.

Not so the M280E. Not only is it decently equipped for a notebook, it's also got an additional feature: It's a convertible. Grab the 14-inch screen, hold down the release key, turn the screen around and you're tableting.

On the notebook front, Gateway is classing the M280E as a value notebook with a price of $1,299 in its base configuration, which gets bumped up to $1408.99 when you add in a four-year service plan and a casual carrying case.

Our test unit, however, came slightly upgraded with a 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M (up from the base Celeron), 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard disk trimmed out with both 10/100/1000 Ethernet and 802.11b/g wireless, USB 2.0, Firewire, one PC Card slot and even a handy 7-in-1 media reader built into the front. That bumps us up to $1,673.99.

Downsides: That 14-inch screen is big, which means an appropriately big case, which means pretty decent weight. It's certainly not anti-portability, but 6+ lbs. means it's definitely not an ultra-lite. Also, I hate the touchpad, but then I hate all touchpads so that's not a ding against Gateway. Considering the high-end screen and sound, I'm a mite confused as to why there's no S-Video port, but that's a minor ding on a value notebook.

Overall, the M280E is a real solid performer even in our tested configuration. At about $1600 for a working notebook, this still classes as a value unit. Given its size, weight and performance, Gateway's done a surprisingly good job building a notebook that works both as a travel companion and desktop replacement--and still keeping to a nice price. Not to mention that it's also a tablet.

Even more advancements in PC speed, power and portability are expected in the coming years. Additionally, wireless USB will do away with cumbersome cords, and wearable devices will transform our lives, experts predict.

We're updating Max today!
blogs.msdn.com

Say it with ink -- we’re excited to show you our new Annotate feature, which lets you draw on your photos without altering the originals. We’ve been having a great time adding notes and sketches, and now you can too!

Better setup experience -- We’ve made it a top priority to improve our setup experience, based on your feedback. We still have a ways to go, but this update should ease the pain.

Thanks again for using Max and sending us your suggestions and thoughts.

We typically are charged with developing the utility guides that accompany the selling pieces. As some of our clients are moving toward PC/tablet-based selling, we have become even more integrated into the process by partnering with the technology vendor ProScape to become a certified content provider. Not to repeat a hackneyed statement, but we all agree that the field force and sales department is a key customer. Thus we need to focus much of our energies on ensuring education/training, motivation, and message consistency with them.

Also, to ensure integrated communications across all departments and globally as well, we have developed our Brand Room. This branded secure Intranet site has proved invaluable in facilitating this cross communication and is used by many of our clients. So to us, sales and marketing have always been inextricably linked and should remain so.

Sahara also introduced a tablet notebook weigbing 2.5 kg. The compact NB2630-N7 tablet notebook is powered with Intel Pentium M Dothan 1.7 GHZ processor (Centrino mobile technology) that provide powerful graphics basis the Intel 855 Embedded Real 256 VGA Graphic chipset. The Wi-fi tablet notebook features 12.1" TFT screen with rotational capability to complete 360 degrees, 80GB Ultra ATA 4200 HDD for innumerable storage capacity for graphics heavy applications and presentations. The notebook also gives the user the ability to write more data due to its DVD R/RW 8/4/8X Dual drive and comes preloaded with Microsoft Windows Tablet PC Edition operating system, priced at Rs 69,995.

What happens when you take two obsessions and put them together into one thing? Honestly I am drooling here! As a seasoned guitarist who absolutely loves technology, I can't say anything else except "I have to have this". Intel and Fender have collaborated and created a concept Telecaster with a built-in HP TC1100 Tablet PC. How cool is that?

Agilix Labs, Inc., a worldwide leader in mobile learning solutions, today announced it has released a new version of InfiNotes that works with the new .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005, both recently released by Microsoft. InfiNotes 2.0 is a suite of .NET controls that dramatically simplify building ink note-taking applications for Tablet PCs.

When I was in Office Depot in Lynwood, WA this weekend, I saw Toshiba Satellite R15 Tablet PCs advertised for $999. Great price for R15s. I don't see the same price on Office Depot's website, so I'm not sure if this is a localized promotion.

Tablet Authority, the online Tablet PC reseller, announced today that it is offering Instant Coupons to all new and existing clients that bring down the price of the Motion Computing LE1600 Celeron to $1,549. Suggested retail for the LE1600 Celeron is $1,899. With the exclusive Instant Coupon offer, Tablet Authority cuts an additional $217 off the company's regular price of $1,766. There is no limit to the number of units customers can buy at the Instant Coupon price of $1,549. The Instant Coupon is good until December 31, 2005.

Coupons are available at: http://www.tabletauthorityinc.com/promo.html

The LE1600 Celeron Instant Coupon is just in time for Tablet Authority's corporate clients that are looking to make use of their 2005 equipment budgets before the year ends. The award winning LE1600 Celeron is currently in high demand, and Tablet Authority has them in stock and ready to deliver.

The LE1600 has all the features that sophisticated Tablet PC users demand. During 2005, the LE1600 won PC Magazine Editors' Choice Award, Pen Computing Editor's Choice Award and Laptop Magazine's Ultimate Choice Award.

Microsoft Enhancement Pack for Tablet PC
microsoft.com

The Enhancement Pack includes the five most popular programs from the

Microsoft Experience Pack and the Microsoft Education Pack for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, released for the English operating system. The Enhancement Pack is available in eight languages, enabling customers throughout the world to make the most of their Tablet PC.

New Version Launched With Breakthrough Performance Technology

In celebration of the 10th

anniversary of Diskeeper® for Windows®, Diskeeper Corporation announced today the release of Diskeeper 10.0. New Diskeeper 10.0 has defragmentation and storage performance technology that is light years ahead. The market leading automatic disk defragmenter continues to provide the most advanced technology to increase performance for Windows-based networks.

Included in Diskeeper 10.0 is Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology (I-FAAST™). This Disk Performance Calibration technology is a new class of disk technology that will allow users to squeeze more performance out of storage devices and is expected to deliver performance gains of 10-80% beyond defragmentation. Software Engineer, Kelly Irish, stated, "I believe that the 'I-FAAST' feature really separates Diskeeper v10. My hard drive now loads Windows faster, accesses data faster, loads applications faster, and it also has improved the speed of my programs. Overall in my opinion, version 10.0 is the BEST released by Diskeeper Corporation to date!"

The Acer TravelMate C200 is a notebook-and-tablet convertible packing punch with a mobile Intel 915PM or 915GM Express chipset and dual-channel DDR2 533MHz Acer

RAM support. The sliding track integrated into the laptop is Acer's patented technology which allows you to quickly go from slate mode to notebook mode.

The C200 also offers 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth connectivity options, as well as 3 USB 2.0 ports and 1 Firewire port. The fingerprint recognition software works very well. Users may have to get used to the diagonal scroll wheel at the bottom right corner of the keyboard. It is bundled with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

Pros: Bluetooth, Biometric security, Sliding track for quick conversion between tablet and notebook, display is very good
Cons: Battery life needs a check

A demonstration on Tablet PC technology was held recently during a Family Day celebration at Seri Begawan Religious Teachers' College.

Tablet PCs are computers powered by the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, an operating system equipped with a sensitive screen designed to interact with a complementary pen. The pen is used directly on the screen, like a mouse and keyboard, to do things like select, drag and open files.

By interacting directly with the screen, the PC becomes more comfortable and easy to use. There is no need to find a flat surface to write. Tablet PC can even be used while standing up, which is perfect for professionals on the move.

Present at the event to witness the demonstration were Pengiran Dato Seri Setia Dr Hj Mohammad bin Pengiran Hj Abdul Rahman, Deputy Minister of Education, and other senior officials from the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, the Department of Islamic Studies is currently studying the feasibility of adopting the Tablet PC technology

However, one of the major barriers for the adoption of such technology is the cost.

With Tablet PC, students will no longer need to lug heavy textbooks to school. Students' notes, research, textbooks, class work and homework exercises will all be stored in the PC. Notes can also be written by hand on the screen as it accepts handwritten notes.

The Magical Screen

As mentioned, the P1510 employs a 8.9-inch WSVGA touch-screen display, Fujitsu P1510

so you can use either a stylus pen or your own fingers to point and navigate the system just like you would on a PDA. One advantage of having a touch-screen display over a digitizer-based screen is that you don’t have to worry too much about losing your stylus. Construction of the P1510 is solid and we find that its reasonably small size allows users to rest their palms on the side, which helps to keep those accidental taps to a minimum.

Business and Leisure on the Move

Now if you're constantly on the move and use a notebook for just about anything, business and leisure, you're generally looking out for an ultra-portable and if you manage to find one for less than 1.5kg, you're doing real well. The Fujitsu LifeBook P1510, weighs a mere 1kg and comes packed as a fully featured Centrino-based notebook.

All of Stidham's teachers use tablet PCs and digital projectors in their instruction, and students have rotating access to laptop computers with wireless connectivity. "The digital generation probably better understands the unlimited potential and possibilities that technology can bring to a school district," Banfield said. "Technology for us is a priority and a fixture in our annual budget, just like paying the electric bill or water bill. We budget for technology regardless of the state's or the nation's economy. Some school districts purchase technology only if they receive a grant or supplemental appropriation--they look at technology as an initiative. We view technology as an imperative." With 93 percent of his students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, Banfield said his goal is to change the face of rural education and give his students a chance to develop strong technology skills--something they can take with them as they go on to high school.

"I believe technology, laptops, and the internet have changed the game," he said. "The reason I am so enthusiastic about technology is because I feel it is the great equalizer. Technology doesn't care about your socio-economic status, race, or gender. You either have the necessary skills or you don't."

The school has a student-to-laptop ratio of 2 to 1, the best in the state, Banfield said, and Stidham recently purchased a dozen 2,000-lumen digital video projectors from InFocus Corp., one for each classroom. Each teacher also has a brand-new wireless tablet PC from Hewlett-Packard Co. "We're always setting new goals, and a dream of mine is for Stidham students to have their very own laptops every day," Banfield said. "That's a very bold goal, but that's something to work toward, and I think we're moving in the right direction--it just takes time." The entire school is wireless, inside and out, and is connected to a T1 line.

StayinFront, Inc., a global provider of enterprise-wide customer relationship management (CRM) applications, decision support tools, data services and eBusiness systems, today announced its latest release, StayinFront CRM 9.3. This release is designed to improve the user experience on Tablet PCs by meeting the highest Microsoft pen-perfect standard of integration within the Microsoft(R) Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 operating system.

Ideal for mobile sales professionals - such as those in the pharmaceutical industry - Tablet PCs are fully functional, lightweight personal computers that are equipped with screen-sensitive pens. These pens are used directly on the screen to point, select and drag data, or used instead of a keyboard to handwrite notes and input data. Pen-perfect integration supports ink interoperability, uses the pen as a pointing device, optimizes for handedness settings, uses gestures as part of its user interaction model and uses handwriting recognition.

"It's a natural progression that, as leaders in mobile CRM, we take a lead position in the Tablet PC market," said Tony Bullen, Chief Technology Officer for StayinFront. "StayinFront CRM 9.3 meets the highest standards of Tablet PC technology, creating simplified digital pen input for mobile sales force users that, in turn, fosters higher levels of data accuracy and meaningful sales reporting."

Some of the user-centric features included in StayinFront CRM 9.3 are portrait awareness, which automatically adjusts the screen and application layout when the user selects portrait mode, and pen aware search fields that permit search values to be easily input directly with the pen. StayinFront CRM 9.3 also supports electronic signature capture, allowing handwritten signatures to be attached to records in the system, factoid aware data entry, which optimizes the effectiveness of handwriting recognition based on the type of data being entered, and note dictation, which lets users verbally dictate directly into notes fields.

"StayinFront CRM Tablet PC functionality takes full advantage of the capabilities supported by the Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 operating system," said Chris Barry, Microsoft Tablet PC group product manager. "StayinFront CRM Tablet demonstrates the flexibility and innovative applications Tablet PC technology offers.

Dr Kalam asked the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), R&D Organizations and Private Industries to launch a programme to design, develop a hand held device like Tablet PC at affordable prices. This will definitely be possible, since the number of tablet PCs required in our country for the students will be in millions. Economy of scale will bring down the cost. This will not only enable the school children to carry just the hand held computer rather than a heavy bag for reading and doing class work, but also be useful for teachers and the other professionals. Once bought, this computer should be useful for the rest of the educational career, the President said..

Are you biased against purchasing used PC hardware?

I admit that I am.

My gut reaction of "don't do it" is left-over from watching people end up spending money on technical support after they purchased a used part or PC that was less than advertised, gray market, or remarked products. Also, a manufacturer warranty is good only to the original purchaser, so the new user is out of luck if they have a problem. I cringe enough when I see someone handle system memory without sleeves rolled up, not grounded, and while standing on carpet -- let alone want to know where used hardware has been.

Do more with the Ink data that you collect on the Tablet PC Platform. This session teaches you all about managing, analyzing, and interacting with the Ink data that your Tablet PC application collects. Learn about concepts relevant to the Ink API such as hit-testing Ink, choosing different types of bounding boxes for different tasks, using Bezier Control Points, using stroke Intersections, and more

White Electronic Designs Corp. (WEDC) disclosed that its Max-Vu technology will be integrated into HP's "Enhanced Outdoor-Viewable Display" option for the HP Compaq tc4200 Tablet PC. The Max-Vu technology offers optimized contrast and viewing of Active-Matrix Liquid-Crystal Displays (AMLCD). WEDC explained that the Max-Vu process was achieved by bonding an optically matched window directly to the AMLCD using specifically formulated silicone. The window is optically coupled to the display resulting in increased optical performance.

"WEDC's proprietary Max-Vu process improves the optical performance of tablet PCs in outdoor and high ambient lighting applications where they otherwise could not be viewed as easily," shared Bob Ritter, WEDC VP for strategic development. "Furthermore, Max-Vu provides added robustness to the display."

The Max-Vu technology provides HP Compaq tc4200 Tablet PC users who choose the "Enhanced Outdoor-Viewable Display" option with a 200 percent increase in contrast ratio in high ambient lighting conditions, 85 percent decrease in reflections in high ambient lighting conditions and significantly improved display readability. According to WEDC, users will enjoy improved viewing at wider angles in virtually any low-light or bright-light environment.

"The Enhanced Outdoor Viewable Display on the HP Compaq tc4200 opens the door to greater productivity, giving mobile professionals the flexibility to work virtually anytime and anywhere," commented Carol Hess-Nickels, director of commercial notebook marketing at HP.

More and more laptop manufacturers are adding the Tablet OS and hinged swivel screen to thin-and-light systems. Fujitsu's latest offering is a 12.1-inch convertible Fujitsu

tablet that weighs just 4.6 pounds and has an internal optical drive. If you're looking for a laptop that has some tablet functionality, the Fujitsu LifeBook T4020D ($2,149 direct) hits the mark.

The gray exterior is business casual, neither too flashy nor too plain. The 12.1-inch screen is equipped with Fujitsu's indoor/outdoor display. The screen seems a little grainy indoors because of the special screen. Fujitsu uses what it calls a "casual outdoor" screen, a glass screen with a special coating that lets light pass through more uniformly in outdoor situations. A true outdoor screen uses a mirror, which replaces the fluorescent backlight normally found on indoor screens, to maximize the reflection of sunlight. (Of course, true outdoor screens are much harder to see indoors.)

The swivel screen reveals a full-size keyboard and a very responsive touchpad. The 4.6-pound frame weighs exactly the same as the HP Compaq tc4200's, but includes a built-in optical drive that's lacking in the tc4200.

Using the pen for fast note-taking with Microsoft Windows Journal was smooth, and we didn't see any drag latency using OneNote 2003. The writing experience is on a par with that found on the Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet, our current Editors' Choice. The T4020D's pen is a little thicker and feels more substantial, though both pens are fine for extensive writing.

The T4020D's display has very good viewing angles from all sides, but is not ideal for pictures and movies; it is better suited for reading and writing, especially in outdoor situations. The X41 has a similar screen, but because it lacks an internal optical drive it is over a pound lighter, and its quad metal swivel hinge feels a bit sturdier that the T4020D's. The T4020D has five programmable quick-launch keys on the screen and dual microphone arrays for voice recognition.

The Fujitsu LifeBook P1510 is one of the smallest and lightest ultra-portables to hit the market and should quickly stir up attention among those who travel frequently. Its diminutive size, light weight and touch-sensitive display are features that many would love in a Tablet PC and the design is something to be lusted after. We hear Fujitsu will be making available a Windows XP TPCE version of the P1510 late December 2005, maybe in time for Christmas even.

The P1510 was designed for covenience, not speed; and its size, widescreen display and form factor make it highly portable and fantastic for viewing multimedia contents on the go.

WordLogic Corporation (OTCBB:WLGC) today announced the release of the Tablet PC version of its critically-acclaimed software -- WordLogic Predictive Keyboard TM v4.2.

The on-screen WordLogic Keyboard is an innovative way to accurately and quickly enter information without the use of cumbersome keyboard layouts or extra hardware. By predicting words and phrases while inputting, WordLogic allows the user to easily and quickly enter information into a Tablet PC anytime and anywhere. Its colorful and efficient interface saves time and effort as text is entered in any application.

Provided with a quality dictionary with 50,000 entries, WordLogic also has the ability to pick up new words and phrases and adjust its prediction uniquely to a user.

WordLogic Predictive Keyboard for Tablet PC v4.2 features:

- Resizable on-screen QWERTY-based keyboard

- Interface with a physical keyboard, a mouse and/or stylus

- Prediction offers five word or phrase "chunks" at a time

- Powerful and accurate word and phrase predictions

- Words and phrases can be added on the fly as they are entered

- Allows creation of a personal dictionary to predict user-specific data (names, street addresses, web-links, e-mails, and others)

- Simple access to non-English characters and special symbols

- Built-in calculator

- Multiple ways of selecting words and phrases to increase input efficiency

WordLogic patent-pending WordChunking TM technology allows users to select WordChunks TM which are parts of longer words and/or phrases and construct the longer word or phrase with a few simple commands. As an example, a user can input "talk..." to get "talking..." and then "talking about..." and finally, "talking about the future".

"Our research has told us that users haven't adapted well to the standard input methods offered on the Tablet PC," commented Frank Evanshen, WordLogic's CEO. "By using the WordLogic Predictive keyboard, Tablet PC users can input text faster than any other existing alternative. Our new tablet offering will result in increased efficiencies, faster work output, and lower operating costs for companies who deploy Tablet PCs in their workforce."

"The Tablet PC market is predicted to exceed $5 Billion by 2009," added Evanshen. "Based on the compelling efficiency our tablet offering provides to users, we anticipate a significant market share in this channel."

The software will be available to consumers online via the Company's website, www.wordlogic.com

Faculty and staff will get a first glance at new emerging classroom teaching technologies today during an online seminar sponsored by Gateway Computers.

The Center for Academic Technology Support will host an Emerging Technologies for the Digital Classroom seminar, which will explore new teaching tools within the digital classroom and how educators can use such tools to educate technology proficiently and audio-visually.

John Henderson, the director of Information Technology Services, said the seminar will not only include a look at new emerging technologies within the digital

classroom but also explore how Eastern is doing with its digital technologies.

"We were never sent an agenda for the seminar," said Michael Hoadley, assistant vice chair for Academic Affairs, Web-Based INS. "I'm guessing the seminar will cover

such topics such as the hot new items Gateway has produced, such as Support Classrooms, Smartboards, Tablet P.C. and so forth."

Back by popular demand -- instructions on how to send Holiday Cards using Microsoft Journal. The article is re-posted here on Whatisnew and some free, card templates are now available on TabletPCPost.com . Be sure to share tempates that you create too.

The holidays mean different things to different people: quiet by a glowing fireplace, serenity amid happy voices, ecstasy in the eyes of a child, and expressions of love. Demonstrate your care and kindness to colleagues, friends, and loved ones with simple holiday cards that you can create with your Tablet PC.

Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition includes Microsoft Journal, which you can use to handwrite notes and messages--perfect for giving a personal touch to an emailed greeting card. We've created several Microsoft Journal templates that you can download right away, jot down small messages on, and email to your friends and family (provided you have a Tablet PC, of course). Plus, we'll show you how to create your own greeting cards so you can let your own creativity go wild.

New Version Launched With Breakthrough Performance Technology

Disk fragmentation causes crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures. The number one reason for performance bottlenecks is fragmentation. Even the best hardware will eventually slow down unless the drive is defragmented daily.

The disk drive is by far the slowest of the three main components of your computer: CPU, memory and disk. If the drive isn't defragmented the fastest CPU in the world won't improve your system's performance, because information from the disk simply can't be delivered fast enough.

Manual defragmentation just isn't practical—who has time to defrag every system, every day? Manual defragmentation is a break-fix situation. Automatic defragmentation with Diskeeper, the Number One Automatic Defragmenter, is the only true defrag solution. Diskeeper 10 uses "Set It and Forget It

It's a known fact fragmentation cuts directly across the integrity of your systems causing crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures.

new diskeeper 10 provides new adaptive technology designed to wring every last drop of performance out of every computer on your network - automatically.

Diskeeper 10 Home Edition
Automatic defragmentation the “pros” use designed for home-computing needs to keep non-networked PCs healthy and running at top speed.

Diskeeper 10 Professional Edition
Automatic protection against fragmentation-related problems for PCs and laptops

Diskeeper 10 Professional Premier Edition
Advanced defragmentation technology that automatically boosts speed and productivity for power users and high-end systems

Handwriting on a computer - it's the quintessential blend of the analog world with digital technology. The desire to be free from the constraints of a keyboard and mouse for a more direct form of input has meant the persistence of the pen into the computing arena.

If you find writing more comfortable than typing or have an aversion to keyboards, a tablet notebook might be the way to go.

Microsoft dived into pen-style computers in 2002 when it released a Tablet PC Edition of Windows XP. While tablet computers existed before Microsoft came along, the introduction of the Tablet PC Edition helped more mainstream players such as HP, Acer and Toshiba get into the action by providing a "standardised" platform to design their notebooks around.

As such, any notebook that's built to run this operating system is referred to as a tablet PC. They're often called convertibles as well, given that their displays can flip around so that the screen is facing up when the lid is closed. It's designed to be used like a regular paper pad, so you can just hold it in your arm or lap and scribble on it with a special pen.

There's a dizzying array of notebook systems on the market today. Add to that the fact that notebooks now outsell desktops, and you have a market ripe for confusion.

Solution providers have long selected specific manufacturers and models to meet their customers' portable computing needs. Yet VARs still must balance a vendor’s features against channel programs and against pricing to pick the best notebook for a given customer. Over the last year, the process of choosing an ideal notebook has become even more complicated, driven by a bevy of products aimed at different markets. Notebooks now come in all shapes and sizes, including ultra-light versions, tablets, desktop replacements, value models, widescreen models, media-centric platforms and so on. Toshiba aims to bring some order to the confusion with its latest notebooks, which are divided into four product lines: ultra portables, tablets, media-centric and desktop replacements. But what's interesting about those product lines is the overlap in features. For example, Toshiba’s Tecra M4 series combines tablet features with desktop performance and laptop portability. CRN Test Center engineers recently took a Tecra M4-S515 for a few laps around the block and were impressed with many of the product,s capabilities. The M4-S515 is built around a 2 GHz Intel Pentium M760 processor and sports 512 Mbytes of RAM and an 80-Gbyte hard drive. The unit has a travel weight of around 7 pounds, making it portable for moderate travel, yet it still offers desktop-style performance.

The system’s ultra-bright display is a 14.1-inch tablet touch screen, which can be twisted around and locked down to make the M4-S515 a large, powerful tablet PC. Resolution on the display is a crisp 1400x1050 pixels and comes across very crisp. Unlike the typical tablet, the M4 sports an optical drive, in the M4-S515’s case that is a CD/DVD writer that supports all of the major standards (including double layer DVD+RW).

Does shopping for tech gifts give you a migraine? Not to worry: We've made it easy for you by cherry-picking gadgets for music nuts, video gamers, digital shutterbugs and computer users.

Shopping for a computer? We love Apple's recently updated iMac all-in-one Macintosh machines, which are a little thicker than flat-panel displays but have powerful PowerPC G5 processors that will handle just about any chore. They even include a built-in Webcam and a TV-style remote.

If you're shopping for a Windows desktop machine, try a Media Center model. The trim, affordable Dell Dimension E510 (www.dell.com) is quiet but plenty peppy and offers TiVo-like TV recording (a trick iMacs can't match). Power users might prefer a higher-end Media Center PC (such as a Dell XPS model) with dual-core chips and dual TV tuners.

Laptops: Among Windows laptops, we like Toshiba's Satellite M45 and Gateway's Convertible Notebook. Both have wide-format screens for DVDs or working on two Word files side by side. The Satellite (www.toshibadirect.com) is aimed a bit more at audiovisual users, while the Gateway (www.gateway.com) is a productivity model — it's a Tablet PC with a touch screen that swivels around and folds flat for stylus-driven note taking or Web browsing.

We've lost count of exactly which generation of tablet PCs the TravelMate C312XMi is part of, but Acer tells us it's the fourth, and who are we to argue

Whether this is going to be the time that the tablet PC concept catches on outside the education and healthcare sectors is anyone's guess, but if you're thinking about buying a convertible tablet then the C312XMi is well worth considering.

HP has announced that HP personal systems group (PSG) will help businesses and consumers enjoy mobility, commercial advantage and multimedia explosion from technology in the coming year.

With notebook PCs, tablet PCs, and pocket PCs based on wireless communications technologies, the company already offers one of the industry's broadest ranges of highly configurable mobile devices. In 2006, these solutions will be further strengthened.

"HP's iPAQ Pocket PCs will continue to grow in the enterprise in the coming year, with more vertical applications, including property management and field sales, coming online in Hong Kong. We are also enthusiastic about new mobile innovations, including RFID-based commercial solutions that place HP iPAQs in a critical position within the supply chain across multiple industries," said Zoe Kwong, general manager, personal systems group, HP Hong Kong.

If you're using a Tablet PC, check out SearchTIP -- an early version of a webpage that allows you to handwrite your search query. See Loren's blog for details.

I spent this weekend baking holiday cookies and decorating at a friend's house. With sugar cookies dancing in my head, I flipped open my grandma's recipe book, which I store on the Toshiba Portage M200. Within hours, The Very Best Sugar cookies were fresh out of the oven and 5 dozen more on the way.

Here is the recipe:

Very Best Sugar Cookies
1 C Margarine
1 C Oil
1 C Sugar
1 C Powdered sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
4 C Flour
1 tsp. Soda
1 tsp. Cream of tarter
1 tsp. Salt (left out of recipe)
Cream first four ingredients together. Add eggs. Mix dry ingredients together. Add to batter.

Chill – very important – 2 hour or overnight. Form into small balls. Roll in sugar – press with glass or fork. If cutting shapes, use plenty of flour on rolling surface and rolling pin.

Makes about 6 dozen. Bake 350 deg. for 12 min.

Fortunately, no food is involved. But a few of the technologies could mean that as you are chopping veggies or, for the less skilled, elbow-deep in suds washing dishes, you can keep tabs on loved ones with a glance.

The dashboard-like technologies were shown at the company's European Research and Innovation Day in Brussels last week. So far, none of the technologies are on the market, but they show how Microsoft is increasingly looking at the integration of mobile devices into home environments.

One of those is HomeNote, a flat-panel device that can receive text messages from mobile phones or be scribbled on with a stylus.

For demonstration purposes at the show, HomeNote used a Tablet PC -- much too thick, but fine for a demo. Microsoft had a clean, foodless counter for HomeNote to sit on. HomeNote is always on, giving it a trait the company calls persistence, with messages in large, easy-to-read fonts.

Microsoft notes that the device allows people to communicate with a place rather than a person. The device also fulfills "awareness reassurance," another concept where people know where their family is and what they are doing, said Abigail Sellen, a psychologist and senior researcher with the Computer Mediated Living group at Microsoft Research Cambridge in England.

Back to School Ease: Touch Tablet(TM) Get kids geared up and excited for heading back to school after the holidays with the VTech Touch Tablet. Proving that it is "cool to be smart," the Touch Tablet is a sleek, portable, laptop tutor designed to teach basic school skills and language skills through more than 125 engaging, game-style activities for learning fun at home or on the go. The Touch Tablet includes a word processor, personal organizer with address book, calculator, savings tracker, music composer and puzzle strategy games that reinforce the subjects kids are learning in school, including English, math, science geography, social studies and history. Complete with a built-in Learning Progress System, the Touch Tablet tracks young students' performance and will automatically adjust skill levels to help build knowledge and confidence. A favorite among tech-savvy kids, the Touch Tablet truly appeases kids' desires to have high-tech gadgets just like mom and dad. Ages 8 years and older -- SRP: $99.99 Kid cool factor: Sleek, cool design makes the cool kids and the smart kids one in the same Mom cool factor: Mom's laptop is back to being a mom-only laptop

Lenovo today announced that the University of Richmond has deployed Lenovo Tablet PC

ThinkPad X41 Tablet PCs to provide students with the advantages of a "real-time" electronic curriculum. Using ThinkPad Tablet PCs linked to the school's new wireless network, students can complete and submit assignments from anywhere on campus, collect and input research findings while in the lab or field and quickly turn their written notes into professional-looking documents.

The incorporation of ThinkPad Tablet PCs, equipped with high-tech visual capabilities, into the classroom enables enhanced interaction between professors and students. Faculty teaching math and computer science courses can annotate charts, formulas and equations on their tablets that can then be transmitted in real-time to each student's tablet or notebook PC via the university's wireless network. Students can use the tablets to build advanced technology skills in preparation for the digital workplace. For example, students studying Business Administration can enhance their presentation skills by learning how to integrate tablet PCs into meetings and discussions.

"Since the deployment of ThinkPad X41 Tablet PCs, we have received only positive feedback from the faculty and students who have used the tablet and its writable slate to take notes, draw illustrations and transmit electronic documents," said Doug West, director of communications, University of Richmond. "We believe tablets will play an increasingly pivotal role on campus. The ThinkPad technology offers endless possibilities for improving and revolutionizing the university's classroom learning environment."

Administrators at the University of Richmond plan to use funds from a recent National Science Foundation grant to expand the deployment of ThinkPad X41 Tablet PCs on campus.

Complementing its deployment, the University of Richmond offers students the option to purchase ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops at negotiated pricing.

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According to Paresh Gathani, general manager, Fujisan Technologies Pvt Ltd, Fujitsu's dedicated sales ans service support vendor, "The LifeBook P1510 was designed with powerful mobility in mind."

Sporting an 8.9-inch swivel wide SVGA LCD screen, the LifeBook can be used as a notebook computer or as a digital notepad with the screen swivelled over the keyboard. Its handheld tablet format, using the included stylus to make notes would be particularly useful for medical professionals and travelling executives as it rests comfortably on an airplane table tray.

Choosing the Right Gadgets to Fit Your Road Warrior Lifestyle

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