The Tablet PC Show #051 (MP3 - 9.03MB - 26 min)

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Welcome to episode 51 of the Tablet PC Show! I’m recovering from Thanksgiving and am adjusting to a new work/life schedule (hence the delay since the last episode).

News & Updates:

• A couple of bits of search news from Ed Holloway. First, a new search site called TabletGoo.com that searches Tablet PC and mobile websites, and second a new ink search tool for tablets.
• INFILL is a UMPC concept designed specifically for cars. It’s got some interesting features, but no word yet on price.
• Lenovo has released the x60 Tablet PC. It’s got some very interesting features, like a dual-touch screen option, active rotation, and mobile docking station. But it’s a tough choice between the high-resolution screen and the dual-touch one!
• Acer, on the otherhand, is discontinuing the C200 and C300 lines of Tablet PCs. It’s a shame to see a tablet vendor leaving the field.
• If you use a Windows Mobile device tethered to your tablet for Internet access, you’ll want to read this about the changes coming in AKU3.
• A quick note about upgrading to OneNote Mobile 2007.

If you’re looking for another way to listen to this podcast, there are now a couple of options for listening to it over the phone:

• 619 644 1954 - Podlinez
• 712 432 3031 - Fonpods (or 712 423 3030 ID 18728)

Ultranauts is looking for a new writer. If you’re a mobile computing buff and are looking to share your knowledge, send an email to john@ultranauts.com.

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email me, or leave me a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

At the TabletKiosk Demo Days cocktail hour, I took a few photos of the goods.  You can view them below the cut.

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The Tablet PC Show #050 (MP3 - 10.8MB - 31 min)

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Welcome to episode 50 of the Tablet PC Show! This is a fairly short episode this time.

News & Updates:

There are only a couple of news updates this week.

• Fujitsu releases details on their two new tablets, the P1610 with a 8.9″ screen, and the larger T4125 with a 12.1″ screen.
• A Japanese company called Kohjisha has announced a “mini PC”, the SA 1F00, which looks like it could give UMPCs a run for the money (literally).
• Microsoft has released Windows Vista and Office 2007 to manufacturing. In a very short while they’ll appear on new systems and in stores.

Speaking of Vista, it’s time to start considering upgrading from XP. On a Tablet PC, the official upgrade options are somewhat limited, but I have some other ideas…

I attended the TabletKiosk Demo Days cocktail hour last night in Orlando. The high point was meeting a couple of listeners, but I also got to check out the goods from TabletKiosk. They had their full line of Tablet PCs and UMPCs there as well as something new…

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email me, or leave me a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

The Tablet PC Show #049 (MP3 - 13.1MB - 38 min)

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Welcome to episode 49 of the Tablet PC Show! I jump right in to this episode.

News & Updates:

• StreetDeck may be the “killer app” for UMPCs in cars.
• Microsoft’s Calendar Printing Assistant for Office Outlook 2007 (try saying that several times fast) offers several printing styles for those times when you need to print a calendar. Hat tip: Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows.
• There is a bug with Internet Explorer 7 affecting some UMPC and Tablet PC users that prevents them from using the TIP in IE. Here is the fix.
• Toshiba has released a white paper called Tablet PCs in Pharmaceutical Sales. It’s light on facts and figures but makes a decent case for tablets in that vertical. Email me if you’d like a copy of the PDF.
• iRobot shows some “semi-autonomous” robots made for the U.S. Army controlled by one of my favorite devices.
• Handango, the online application aggregator and vendor seems to have behaved very badly with one of their developer partners. Here’s a summary and here are the gritty details.

I’ve been using the Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth Keyboard with my mobile phone but it would also make a fantastic companion to a UMPC or slate tablet.

I give a quick review of PhatWare’s PhatPad 4.0, which runs not only on Tablet PCs, but Windows Mobile devices as well.

For Halloween, I did something pretty scary with my M200.

Is Dell coming out with a Tablet PC (finally)? If so, I bet it will be a UMPC.

Finally, Windows Media Player 11 is released. It is tremendously faster than the beta version and feels faster than WMP 10, too.

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email us, or leave us a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

The Tablet PC Show #048 (MP3 - 17.9MB - 52 min)

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Welcome to episode 48 of the Tablet PC Show! It’s a beautiful sunny day in Florida as I record this.

News & Updates:

• What exactly is the Glade OS that Intel plans to put on their UMPCs? Is it an operating system or a website? Or something in between…
• Loren Heiny has a web search page that allows you to ink your search terms. Why can’t more sites support inking?
• Is TEO 3.0 the last version of this excellent Outlook plug-in? Let’s hope not!
• Is Yahoo! getting into the UMPC hardware business?
• (It occured to me that those last three links all came from GottaBeMobile.com. I promise I’m not trying to podcast their entire site! But they’ve consistently got great content and cover the same stories that I do…)
• Windows Vista is almost here. Time to catch up on some tips and tricks.
• Intel has released Vista software and drivers for the 945 Express chipset.
• Is the indexing in Vista’s desktop search feature draining batteries?
• OQO talks about the next version of their extra-small tablet.
• DualCor talks to Judie Hughes of GearDiary.com about the next version of their device, but where is their first version?
• Save the TC1×00 tablets! Sign a petition to be sent to HP to get them to resurrect the terrific line of Tablet PCs.

Speaking of TC1×00 tablets, I share some news regarding my old TC1000 tablet.

I also share the news that I’m now blogging over at Ultranauts.com. Go check it out!

I’m also going to be at the TabletKiosk Demo Days in Orlando on November 9th. Anyone else going? I’d love to meet up.

I talk a bit (longer than I thought I would) about the advantages of having a hosted Exchange account for email. I also wrote about it at Ultranauts here and here.

Finally, I play some listener voicemails about Getting Things Done (GTD) and MindManager, topics we’ve covered on past shows.

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email us, or leave us a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

The Tablet PC Show #047 (MP3 - 17.1MB - 50 min)

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Welcome to episode 47 of the Tablet PC Show! This episode is our first trans-continental one as I’m in Tampa, Florida (as usual) while Matt is in Berlin, Germany..

News & Updates:

• Craig Pringle writes that Motion has introduced RSS feeds on their support website. Wouldn’t it be nice if all PC manufacturers copied them?
• OneNote 2007 has a very cool feature: you can search audio recordings made in OneNote just like you can search text, ink, or text in photographs.
• Craig Pringle has written a nifty little utility for Windows Vista to make the Start menu search field much more usable on tablets.
• MiniScroller is a small utility which can make scrolling in applications much easier with a pen. It’s now being hosted at GottaBeMobile.com (who are also having a very cool giveaway contest).

Matt is using a new case for his tablet from Laptop Armor which provides excellent protection for his device.

He is also using a very nice travel power adapter from Kensington and we talk power adapters a bit, including mine (also from Kensington) and others from iGo.

Matt and I also talk about the latest release of Vista and go over from listener emails we’ve received.

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email us, or leave us a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

The Tablet PC Show #046 (MP3 - 13.5MB - 40 min)

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Note: I’m re-creating the show notes for this one because I seem to have deleted them accidentlly. Whoops! Apologies if you’re subscribed and are getting this episode twice.

Welcome to episode 46 of the Tablet PC Show! While Matt is “on assignment” in Germany I’m flying solo again for this episode.

News & Updates:

• Intel is showing off the latest version of their UMPC concept, now sporting a UI by Yahoo!
• SwitchBack has announced their ruggedized UMPC which has the unusual feature of being able to run not only Windows XP or Linux, but Windows CE and Windows Mobile as well. Shades of the DualCor cPC?
• LG is working on a tablet of their own that will include EDGE cellular data built in.
• Lenovo is working on the X60 tablet, a follow-up to the X41, which will have dual digitizers — an active digitizer for use with a pen, as well as a touch screen.
• Will Dell release a Tablet PC? Or perhaps a UMPC? What does that mean for tablets in general?
• Do you ever get asked why someone should choose a Tablet PC? We have the answers for you.
• Toshiba has not released any Vista drivers for the M200. But they have released drivers for the M400 and you can use some of them with your M200. Hat tip: GottaBeMobile.com
• Ed Holloway’s Ink Plug-in for the Windows Live Writer has officially been released. This combo is the best blogging tool around for tablets.
• UltraSync is also officially released and is ready to sync up your Outlook data across PCs.
• Citrix will support Tablet PCs in their next release of their Metaframe Server.
• The Podcast Network’s annual survey is now open! Please take a few minutes to tell us about yourself and let us know how we can improve ourselves and bring you even better podcasts. This is your chance to tell us what you’d like to hear, not only on The Tablet PC Show, but on the entire Podcast Network. Click here to take the survey.

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email us, or leave us a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

The Tablet PC Show #045 (MP3 - 10.5MB - 31 min)

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Welcome to episode 45 of the Tablet PC Show! Sorry for the delay but Matt and I weren’t able to find a time when we were both available (entirely my fault), so I ended up recording this episode alone.

News & Updates:

• Samsung’s next UMPC, the Q1P, will have HSDPA high-speed cellular data built in. Could this be your next cell phone?
• The beta version of ClearContext is open to anyone who sends an email to beta at clearcontext dot com.
• Computer Weekly (via Tabletgear.com) has an article on digital pens, perhaps a “poor man’s tablet?”
• Medion has a new UMPC, the MD RIM 1000, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
• The Adesso CyberTablet M17 is a monitor/touch screen which can give any PC or Mac a Tablet PC-like experience.
• The UREN V1 Mobile Auto PC is meant to be used in a car and includes built-in GPS and a dashboard mount.
• The S-XGen from Seamless Wi-Fi is interesting in that it includes a fold-out QWERTY keyboard. (UPDATE: It turns out that this will run Windows Mobile, not XP and therefore is a PDA and not a UMPC.)
• Inteset’s Julia PC is a Media Center Edition (MCE) PC that includes a touch screen. Odd combo, but kinda cool.
• The new Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth keyboard from iGO (formerly ThinkOutside) is an extremely usable keyboard that makes an excellent companion to any slate tablet, UMPC, PDA, or SmartPhone.
• InScribe, the tablet input tool that I helped beta test has been released now. And best of all, Ilium Software has made it free!
• Handtops.com has a great article on things you can do to speed up the performance of your UMPC (or any other PC).
• Toshiba has released some beta Windows Vista drivers for their M4 and M400 tablets. (Hat tip: GottaBeMobile.com)

I was very surprised to find out that Windows Vista RC1 cannot be installed on a Toshiba M200 tablet. At least not as directly as you’d think. Turns out the latest system BIOS for the M200s, version 1.80 is incompatible with Vista RC1. There are some workarounds available, however…

I was having some very severe performance problems with my tablet, as well as routine crashes of Outlook 2007. The culprit for both turned out to be the 1.5 beta of EverNote. Note that I’m not saying that it’s bad software, but it was definitely causing problems for me.

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email me, or leave me a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

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The Tablet PC Show #044 (MP3 - 23.5MB - 69 min)

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Welcome to episode 44 of the Tablet PC Show! Matt Hoffman and I run through a large number of topics (and run a bit longer than usual, as well). It seems to be the week of beta software…

• Electrovaya has announced a new keyboard for their Sribbler SC3000 tablets that will include an optical drive. We like this idea and think they should take it further. The Scribbler seems to be becoming the the successor in our minds to the HP TC1000/1100.
• GottaBeMobile.com has the specs on the new Asus R1F tablet. There are some interesting features on this one.
• Ed Holloway has already released the second beta of his ink plugin for Microsoft’s Live Writer blogging tool. And it’s great stuff!
• Ed has also found a likely cause of performance problems on Lenovo X41 tablets and has a workaround.
• Samsung has finally released their flash memory-based Q1 UMPC.
• If you’re running Office 2007 beta, you need the second beta version of Windows Desktop Search 3.0, which was just released.
• EverNote has released their 1.5 beta as well with some nice new features.
• Windows Vista will support the touchscreens on UMPCs with a virtual mouse. But the Motion LE1600 won’t need it since it sports both a touchscreen and an active digitizer.
• PDF Annotator has been improved with version 1.3, just released.
• IMSI PDF to Word version 3 offers another solution for dealing with PDF files — convert them into Word documents.
• The HiPAD II looks like an Etch-A-Sketch, is available only in Korea, and has a very interesting feature set.
• The beta version of ClearContext version 3 looks really nice on Outlook 2007… and that’s all I’ll say about it so far.
• The beta of Ilium Software’s InScribe virtual keyboard for tablets has just ended and during the testing we discoverd a conflict between InScribe and ActiveWords. A workaround for the problem is to disable the ActiveWords Buffer (without which it can still run just fine). In ActiveWords, go to Options -> Operating Mode and click the Advanced button. Then select the checkbox as shown here and you’ll be good to go.

• Awhile back I blasted Apple for putting their application menus at the top of the screen rather than in the application window. After reading this from Jensen Harris’ Office UI blog, I may have been mistaken.
• FireFox 2.0 Beta 2 is about to launch and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 RC1 is out as well.
• Matt is eying this sweet multi-monitor solution from Radius:

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email me, or leave me a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)

The Tablet PC Show #043 (MP3 - 19MB- 55:30 min)

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Welcome to episode 43 of the Tablet PC Show! I’m joined again by Matt Hoffman for this episode and we discuss the following (among other things):

• The University of Buffalo has a research project into a touchscreen with tactile feedback, which would be pretty cool on a Tablet PC.
• Apple has a patent for “visual buttons” which appear to combine a screen with input devices (like a scroll wheel). Is this for the next iPod or the oft-rumored tablet?
• GControl is a fun little drum machine program which works great on a tablet. (Via Music Thing.)
• TabletKiosk has revved their eo with the new i7200 series, which improves performance over the original.
• The “mystery” new UMPC device from the last episode turns out to be this Korean import which is not an Origami device, but promises six hours of battery life and should sell for only $700.
• UltraSync from Imagine LAN may be just the thing you need to keep two computers in sync with each other.
• Windows Live Writer (beta) is a very nice new blogging tool, and this plug-in from Ed Holloway makes it ink capable.
• OneStat.com released the top seven operating systems in use today by web browsers. The results may surprise you (or disappoint you if you’re an Apple or Linux fan):
1. Windows XP - 86.80 percent
2. Windows 2000 - 6.09 percent
3. Windows 98 - 2.68 percent
4. Macintosh/ Macintosh Power PC - 2.47 percent
5. Windows Me - 1.09 percent
6. Linux - 0.36 percent
7. Windows NT - 0.24 percent
• ClearContext is offering $15 off a purchase of their Information Management System for Outlook. Buy version 2.0 now and get a free upgrade to 3.0. Email me for the coupon code.
• InScribe from Ilium looks to be a nifty new input method for UMPCs and tablets. Unfortunately, it is not working (yet) on my tablet.
• Microsoft has released a hot fix for a battery drain caused by USB 2.0 ports which do not power down correctly. You can get it here.

Matt and I also discuss various UMPCs, mobile devices, PDAs, hosted Exchange email, and other topics.

If you have comments or questions or feedback, or a problem or issue with your Tablet PC for which you’d like help, please feel free to leave a comment here, email me, or leave me a voicemail right here!

Music:Intro: “Wallawalla” by Drop Trio
Outro: “Second First” by Drop Trio

(Music available at magnatune.com.)