Do you talk
to your computer and expect it to respond? If so, I hope you're taking
advantage of the Tablet PC's built-in speech recognition capabilities.
If you are doing speech recognition on your Tablet, I've got some tips
that can help you get better results. Here are some of my favorites:
Be sure
to pronounce your words clearly, but don't separate them into distinct
syllables. Modern speech recognition system works better with whole
words and sentences, rather than discrete syllables.
Dictate
an entire paragraph at a time. Once you're done with the paragraph,
use your pen to go back and make corrections. Since you can jump to
any point in the paragraph instantly using the pen, this is a mighty
efficient way to use the combination of voice and pen.
Always
add specialized words to the dictionary. Adding words that the Tablet
PC doesn't recognize to the dictionary greatly increases the accuracy
of speech recognition
Always
add the name of your company and of your boss to the dictionary. Few
things are more embarassing at work than to misspell (or have your speech
recognition system misspell) you company name or the name of your boss!
Conserve
electrical power and processing power by turning off the speech recognition
software when you're not using it.
Don't
start talking until the word Listening appears in the status area and
you hear a tone notifying you that the system is ready to listen.
Don't
let anyone else use speech recognition when they're signed on to your
Tablet PC under your user name. The system will try to recognize their
voice, and begin training itself to recognize them. This will likely
reduce the system's accuracy when recognizing your voice.
These simple
steps can easily increase the odds of your Tablet actually doing what
you want when you talk to it.
More on
eBooks
Last week's
article on eBooks prompted some Buzz readers to send links to their favorite
eBook sites. Here are some additional sites you can search for free eBooks:
Microsoft
Reader Catalog of eBooks (http://www.mslit.com/default.asp?mjr=FRE).
This site has over 1500 free books, all of which are already in Microsoft
Reader format.
Blackmask
Online (http://www.blackmask.com/) offers several thousand free eBooks,
most of which are available in Microsoft Reader format.
Baen (http://www.baen.com/library)
is giving away a number of its Science Fiction and Fantasy eBooks.
Our thanks
go to Mark Payton and Stephan Hodges for pointing us to these sites.
Want
to know how to do everything with your Tablet PC? Here's the book
that shows you how.
3,000
Members & Contest!
TabletPCBuzz
has hit the mark of 3,000 members. Thanks to all out there who are registered
and have been a part of making this site grow. To celebrate this milestone
we are having a contest, with prizes including Vision
Object's MyScript Notes and PhraseExpress.
Thanks to both of those companies for contributing to this contest. Watch
the site tonight and tomorrow morning for the details on how to win!
Ask
the Buzz
We are looking
for more of your user questions to answer in our Ask the Buzz column!
If you have a question about anything related to Tablet PCs, or have a
problem with your Tablet PC you just can't figure out, send us an e-mail
at spg@tabletpcbuzz.com and
let us know your question!
info@tabletpcbuzz.com
e-mail problems
Recently
some people have reported that the address that this newsletter is sent
from (info@tabletpcbuzz) has been bouncing their e-mail back to them.
I'm working on trying to figure out what is going on, in the meantime
if you need to get ahold of us please use my direct e-mail address - spg@tabletpcbuzz.com.
Thanks!
Tablet
PC Buzz Poll
Q:
Do you use the Tablet PC Online Help?
A:
Yes:
30%
No:
70%
Total
Votes: 96
Q:
Does your Tablet PC have the "Get Going with Tablet PC" wizard on it? (Located
in Start Menu > Programs) And if it does, have you run it?
A:
Yes,
I have it. No, I haven't run it.:
19%
Yes,
I have it. Yes, I have run it.:
62%
No,
I don't have it.
19%
Total
Votes: 42
This
week's poll question:
User assistance polls (Continued) & What factor is most important
to you when choosing a Tablet PC? Vote now at http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com!
A new offering
from Motion...again. This time with the recently announced ULV Intel Pentium-M
1GHz processor:
"Motion Computing
today announced immediate availability of the industry's first Tablet
PC to incorporate the power and wireless mobility of Intel(R) Centrino(TM)
mobile technology running at 1 GHz.
Motion's
newest M1300 Tablet PC model is also the company's fastest, running about
eight percent faster than the ultra-low-voltage 900MHz Intel Centrino-based
M1300, and up to approximately 40 percent faster than its M1200 Tablet
PC."
Maybe it's
time for Motion to adopt some sort of sub-model naming scheme. Could this
be called the M1300i, for example? Having so many fast-changing specs
in a single-named model line could lead to customer confusion, especially
when they order from resellers and not Motion directly (wait, that's heresy,
right?).
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