Tablet PC Buzz

jkOnTheRun: Using ritePen on a Tablet PC

Great review by James Kendrick of JKOnTheRun on using ritePen on a Tablet PC:

"Touchscreen enabled computers and Tablet PCs are only as good as the ability of the hardware and software to handle ink input and convert it accurately to text. First generation Tablet PCs and other touchscreen devices did a much better job at handwriting recognition (HWR) than the devices that came before them but the accuracy of the conversion was still not good enough to satisfy many consumers. The Microsoft release of Tablet PC 2005 made a big improvement in the accuracy with which Tablet PCs could convert ink to text finally moving the Tablet PC into the big time.

I wrote an article about alternate text entry methods that describes many different software utilities that are available for use on touchscreen enabled devices (including Tablet PCs). Most of the methods are directed at devices that do not run the Tablet OS as the Text Input Panel (TIP) is quite good at handling ink and accurately converting it to text in any application. These methods can be used on the Tablet PC but most people have indicated to me that they feel they are not necessary because of the capability of the TIP, and for the most part I agree with them. The only real complaint I hear over and over about the TIP is the loss of the "write anywhere" ability that early versions of the Tablet OS made available to the user but was removed in the current version. While the TIP data entry area is very versatile, the ability to write anywhere on the screen is considered very useful by many.

Not long after the text entry article was published I was contacted by the EverNote Corporation. EverNote is the company that produces ritePen which was featured in the article. In that article I indicated that ritePen was excellent for non Tablet PC devices such as the Sony U ultra-portables which do not ship with the Tablet OS. That observation was not far off the mark as Sony began bundling ritePen on the Sony U750P that was released in the US late last year. Many Sony U owners are quite happy with ritePen which bears witness to the utility of the program on that particular computer. "

url: http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2005/02/using_ritepen_o.html

New Snipping Tool 2.0 PowerToy coming soon..

I was at a Tablet PC party tonight and ran into Shawn Van Ness. Shawn is the developer of the Snipping Tool for the Tablet PC. He told me that the new version was just released this afternoon.

I checked the power toy page at www.TabletPC.com and its' not listed yet, but I don't think it will be long. So, be on the look out for it soon.

I played with on the TC4200 today and it is great. Some really good enhancements.

Grahl Software Releases PDF Annotator

Rob posted about this software being quietly released a while back, and it looks like their press release is just now coming out -

"GRAHL software design has released PDF Annotator(tm), a Tablet PC program that lets you open any PDF file, add comments using the Tablet PC pen, and save the annotated documents in PDF format. Using PDF Annotator, you can highlight text, circle or cross out items, write your comments in the margins, and provide all sorts of written feedback that your business colleagues, customers, prospects, and students can read or print.

On December 1, 2004, Microsoft announced the winners of their Tablet PC Developer Application Contest, and PDF Annotator was among the 12 applications that won an award."

I've tried this software out, and if you do alot (or anything) with PDF files on your tablet, it is a very useful application to have. The software costs $29.90 USD, and can be purchased from Grahl's web-site.

URL: http://www.ograhl.com/en/pdfannotator/

Personalization of the recognizer, OneNote, Journal, and ink

During the question / answer time of the Design Considerations session, a question was asked about problems with ink recognition, like the letter "l", etc. The presenter said that in the next version of the tablet os, they will be adding an ability add your own handwriting to teach the tablet how you write.

In addition, David Hale was talking about the need for developers to support the Ink Standard Format so users could copy and paste ink across multiple apps, and ink could be read by other applications that supported that standard.

One of the common complaints among Tablet PC OneNote users is that ink is not ink within OneNote - they don't support the Ink Standard Format in use by Journal, GoBinder, and what Microsoft encourages ISV's to develop their apps in. Pasting selected ink from Journal into OneNote and vice versa, results in the the ink being treated as image.

After the session, I questioned David Hale about this. He did not know that ink pasted into and out of OneNote as an image and was actually really surprised to find this out. He said he would get back to me with an answer.

SP2 TIP for Firefox

I received an email from Jim Hurd. He has developed an extention for Firefox that will cause the pop up TIP to work normally in Tablet PC XP SP2.

I have just downloaded and installed it. The only problem I have found is that it doesn't support the shortcuts (.com, http, etc) like the TIP in IE does. Can't complain, though.

The extention can be installed from http://tpctip.mozdev.org/index.html

Agilix� Unveils New Software Development Kit for Mobilized Applications Smart Client Platform

" In an effort to assist developers in transcending the limitations of today�s web-based and client-server applications for mobile workers, Agilix Labs, Inc., a leading provider of mobilized software and Tablet PC solutions, today unveiled a new software development kit called GoBinder SDK.

GoBinder SDK, which is based on Agilix GoBinder--Agilix�s proven mobilized solution for higher education--is an innovative .NET platform for building mobilized applications for many vertical and horizontal markets, saving significant development time. Mobilized applications allow mobile workers to continue to be productive independent of network connection, compared with Web applications that assume 100% connectivity.

A tech preview of the GoBinder SDK is available now, with availability scheduled for later this year. For more information on GoBinder SDK or to inquire about participating in the beta testing program, contact Agilix at info@agilix.com"

This is some great news, as it will allow developers to extend and cutomize GoBinder: control over how tasks, calendar, etc work, installing custom apps within GoBinder, etc. I saw a demo of it yesterday - its' fantastic! It also provides the capability to build and install a completely custom version of GoBinder.

url: http://www.agilix.com/www/pr_020705c.html

CDMI Software delivers Sales Force Automation for Tablet PC

"CDMI Software announced today the first public release of Sales Ace, the company's sales force automation software built specifically for the needs of the manufacturer's sales representatives in distribution-based industries. Designed exclusively for Microsoft's software platform, Sales Aces offers salespeople the greatest flexibility and mobility when coupled with Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005."

url: http://www.cdmisoft.com

Bluewire Technologies announces launch of BluewireInk

"Bluewire Technologies are pleased to announce the launch of BluewireInk, a component targeted at the Microsoft .NET Framework which allows software developers to cost-effectively add rich comprehensive ink and note taking functionality to their windows and web applications. BluewireInk provides a feature rich component and comprehensive API, allowing developers to easily extend and customize the product to their specific requirements.

BluewireInk runs on any Windows XP based computer (including Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition) and has been designed specifically for use within web applications targeted at Microsoft Internet Explorer. Utilizing BluewireInk, developers can immediately add powerful and comprehensive Ink functionality to existing applications and allow end-users to fully take advantage of the Tablet PC platform."

url: http://www.bluewire-technologies.com/news.html

Tablet Enhancements for Outlook (TEO) 2.1 coming soon

I had dinner with Trevor Claiborne, Tom Clarkson, and Josh Einstein tonight. Had a great time talking about tatoos, Tablet PC's, and listening to Tom and Josh talk shop about .NET and Tablet PC programming. Josh told us that TEO 2.1 will be released soon. It will include bug fixes and a few new features. Support for TEO can be found here.

Here is a list of some of the fixes and features:

- Configurable input contexts (for locale-specific reco)
- Reminders default to "off"
- Much faster load times
- Email #3 is replaced by Fax in contact
- Activation improvements
- Does not load when Outlook invoked by automation (ie. ActiveSync)
- Workaround for Outlook Notes bug (thanks Omar!)

For those you who havn't tried it yet, I'd highly encourage you to. It does for Outlook what Microsoft hasn't done yet: ink-enabled Outlook.

url: http://www.tabletoutlook.com

ActiveWords and OrangeGuava working together

I sat in on a meeting between Tom Clarkson and Buzz Bruggeman tonight. OrangeGuava and ActiveWords are working together to ink-enable ActiveWords. Your words launch programs, jump to websites, send email, substitute text, search, and more. Receive information about any word or phrase in any context. By using OrangeGuava, you ink your ActiveWords word and initiate the ActiveWords gesture.

Buzz Bruggerman and Tom Clarkson will be demoing their work at Windows Anywhere on Tuesday. Its' great to see two companies working together like this.