News Week of February 18, 2007

Modern sound system big step in remodeling

"One of the cool things about the sound system is that it includes a tablet PC," Hill said. The laptop computer can be taken into the auditorium. The operator can adjust the sound system from anywhere in the room.

The system is motorized, and slides on the sound board will automatically move in the control room when adjustments are made on the laptop. Settings for certain performers or groups can be stored, and the slides will automatically move into position when a code is entered. Up to 300 settings can be stored.

The new board offers many options "you can't do with a regular analog mixer board," Hill said. "It's a really nice system."   (Source: W. Winston Skinner, The Times-Herald)

Panasonic to present 10.4-inch industrial notebook pc ‘CF-08’

Panasonic(www.panasonic.com) presented its 10.4-inch industrial notebook pc ‘CF-08’, which can also be used as a display client computer in connection with a server computer or via P2P. The CF-08 features 10.4-inch XGA touch-screen, pop-up on-screen keyboard, WLAN, and Bluetooth connectivity. It is water-, dust-proof and shock-resistant.   (Source: Grace Wong, Aving.net)
Posted Saturday, February 24, 2007 by ChrisD
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UMPCs catch Middle East fancy

Even as vendors made a low-key entry into the UMPC market, sales of the devices have beaten market expectations across the Gulf. Corporate buyers in particular have been driving purchases.

Since Intel’s showcasing of its reference design for UMPC variants, players like ASUS, Samsung and Sony have made an entry into the market with full function, ultra mobile PC devices. According to Intel’s GM Gulf Countries Samir Al-Schamma, the UMPC in different forms is expected to promote digital transformation significantly in the region. “We see that connectivity and portability go together, which means that WIMAX connectivity and ultra portability can actually put these devices in the hands of every customer and executive user,” says Al-Schamma.  (Source: CPILive.net)

Eleksen fabric keyboard series (1) - yellow color wired model

Eleksen presented an interesting fabric keyboard that can also be used as a pouch for UMPC. It is powered via USB port. The company presented a series of three fabric keyboard at 3GSM World Congress 2007 and this one is a wired model. (Source: Rose Kim, Aving)
Posted Friday, February 23, 2007 by ChrisD
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Commentary: Google's low-cost alternative to Microsoft Office

Compared with the big gun in this industry, Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, Google Apps Premier Edition currently lacks

• Team collaboration and basic business apps. Functionally, Google's tools pale in comparison with products like Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which neatly links your Microsoft Office applications to back-end servers, the Web and a dizzying set of software services. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 also offer a rich team collaboration environment, basic document management services, and a set of 40 application templates including business performance reporting, employee self-service benefits and manufacturing process management. Google Apps Premier Edition also lacks a Groove equivalent. Groove is peer-to-peer collaboration software that works well offline and across firewalls--it is particularly well-suited to inter-enterprise collaboration and can plug into SharePoint repositories on the back end.

• A OneNote equivalent. While not quite the next killer app on the desktop, many information workers use Microsoft OneNote to support the collaborative capture of meeting notes and actions, capture and annotate presentations, keep interview notes or capture notes created on a tablet PC in a more familiar notebook format. OneNote supports dispersed work groups by synchronizing meeting notes captured by multiple authors in real time. While offline, OneNote provides end users with a single place to capture and review what they normally may have captured in a spiral notebook--with the added advantage of capturing audio and video content.  (Source: Forrester Research, CNet News.com)

Seattle PI, others offer news-reading software

For Microsoft, the software is one way to promote alternative forms of hardware, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland-based research firm.

For example, announcing the software at last year's American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Seattle, Bill Gates demonstrated The Times Reader on a Tablet PC.

"But it's sort of a cutting-edge thing," Rosoff cautioned. "I don't think it's mainstream, something that everybody is going to adopt tomorrow."  (Source: Todd Bishop, Seattle Post Intelligencer)

Nokia's Marriage To Small Computers Still Has Its Problems

Nokia is hoping that open-source developers will help polish the N800's software and add functions. This is an idealistic goal, and has won the hearts of some techies. But mainstream consumers expect complete functions on the device, out of the box. Third-party software is a great thing, but it isn't a substitute for strong software from the manufacturer.

Still, the N800 does some things well. Web browsing is a pleasure, because pages render much like they do on a real PC, and you can see a much larger portion of each page than you can on a typical phone, even a Windows Mobile or Palm model. Handy buttons on the top of the Nokia make this even better, by zooming in or out on the Web page, or instantly hiding the navigation controls so the page can claim the whole screen.  (Source Walter S. Mossberg, Personal Technology)

Review: Nokia N800 web tablet

The most serious criticism is that the N800 is simply too small; navigating web pages is very awkward, even though the N800 does as much as it can to help you. However, it is a good platform for specialist web-based apps designed for small screens, particularly because sensitive data can be retained on remote servers rather than left on a small device that might be lost or stolen.

But in its own way this is a revolutionary device. For a start it makes audio or video calls by bypassing completely the mobile operators who are Nokia’s biggest customers.

And it is an open platform: an open-source based tablet heading the same way as the ultra-mobile PC (UMPC), but coming from the mobile-phone world rather than the computer industry. It should be encouraged, if only to stop Microsoft making all the running in this most exciting of design spaces.  (Source: Clive Akass, Personal Computer World , Vnunet)

LG XNote C1 Tablet PC Video Preview

Here is a video preview on the LG XNote C1 Tablet PC. The LG XNote C1 supports HSDPA and Mobile WiMax and is powered by an Intel Core Duo ULV processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 80GB hard drive and the nVidia GeForce 7300 Go GPU. It offers also a 10.6 WXGA Wide LCD touchscreen, Bluetooth.
Video after the jump.  (Source Suz,: iTech Web Net)
Posted Thursday, February 22, 2007 by ChrisD
Rating: 2.7 (Rate it) 1 Lowest 2 3 4 5 Highest Comments (0)

Gates ensures his kids have firm computer time limits

His daughter uses a Tablet PC, and enjoys playing the Xbox 360 game ‘Viva Pinata’ – something previously reported as being a big hit in the Gates’ household.

Gates also said that his daughter “became very avid and discovered a lot of computer games, including one that runs on the Xbox 360 called Viva Pinata, where you take care of your garden. She could spend two or three hours a day on this Viva Pinata, because it's kind of engaging and fun.”  (Source: Alex Zaharov-Reutt  , ITWire)

PhatPad 4.1 Review

If you like taking handwritten notes on your PocketPC or Tablet, PhatPad is an excellent program for that purpose. For people who like to draw it makes a great doodle pad and you can save your work to a PC. Overall I am very impressed with PhatPad from PhatWare. Their web site has an excellent tutorial section on using their various products including PhatPad 4.1. If you have a Smartphone and want to view PhatPad notes you can download the Free PhatPad Viewer software for Windows Mobile Smartphone here.
Give PhatPad a free try. It is another excellent program from PhatWare.  (Source: Abatis, Mobile Gadget News)
Posted Thursday, February 22, 2007 by ChrisD
Rating: 2.66 (Rate it) 1 Lowest 2 3 4 5 Highest Comments (0)

UCSF nurses test tablet PCs

The $2,199 C5 is technically called a "mobile clinical assistant," but it's basically a small tablet PC redesigned for a hospital environment. Intel CEO Paul Otellini and Motion Computing CEO Scott Eckert showed off the device during an event here Tuesday. The C5 was first unveiled during last September's Intel Developer Forum.

"It allows work to be done where work gets done," Otellini said. The C5 looks like a small slate-style tablet PC with a handle at the top. It has been coated with a special material that can withstand the frequent use of disinfectant cleansers and that helps protect the device against falls.

Nurses at UCSF and other hospitals around the country currently measure a patient's vital signs with one medical device. But they have to manually transfer the data to one of several rolling notebook PCs--referred to as COWs, or computers on wheels--so it can be captured in a patient's medical history file and made available to other doctors.  (Source: Tom Krazit, CNET News.com)

Loud and Clear: Akustica Digital Microphones Showcase Voice in New Mobile PCs

AKU2001 CMOS MEMS Microphone Arrays in TabletKiosk Sahara Slate PCs

Akustica, Inc., pioneer in acoustic system-on-chip solutions, today announced that TabletKiosk's family of Sahara Slate PCs are shipping with an embedded "dual array" of its AKU2001 digital microphones. The Sahara Slate i412T, i440T, and i440D are the first tablet PCs using Akustica digital microphones.

The AKU2001 is a single-chip digital-output microphone manufactured using Akustica's patented Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The small form factor and digital output of the AKU2001 deliver the ideal microphone solution for enhancing the voice-input quality in a tablet PC.

"Akustica's digital microphones bring a new level of voice input quality to the Sahara Slate PC and ensure that users will never experience the irritating buzzing noises that traditional microphones often pick up from a nearby cellphone or even from the WiFi antennas and power supplies that are also located in the slate itself," said Davin Yuknis, Akustica's vice president of marketing and product management. "Our digital microphones have also enabled TabletKiosk to leverage the audio features available in the new Microsoft Vista™ operating system which use multiple microphones to further enhance input sound quality. The overall result is crystal clear voice input for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications and a higher degree of speech recognition accuracy."

The Sahara Slate PCs are TabletKiosk's new series of slate-style computers designed especially for business users in retail, restaurants, casino operations, warehousing, control systems and healthcare. Users can input data directly on the tablet's screen with either a digital pen or a touch. Additionally, the tiny microphone arrays, neatly embedded in the bezel of the tablet's 12.1-inch thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display, provide a high quality audio input solution that lets users speak into the computer -- an important element because the tablet PCs do not have an integrated keyboard.

"Embedding AKU2001 microphone arrays in our family of Sahara Slate PCs ensures that users will have the ability to make voice annotations and internet-based phone calls that sound cleaner and better as well as do dictations using speech recognition applications that are more accurate than ever before," said Gail Levy, TabletKiosk's director of marketing. "This technology is a competitive advantage for us -- and for our customers in vertical markets with an emphasis on productivity."

Where to Buy

Manufacturer's suggested retail price for the Sahara Slate PC i440D starts at $2,295 with an Intel Core Duo L2500 processor, 1.0 Gigabyte (GB) memory, 80 GB hard-disk drive and Windows Vista Business.

TabletKiosk is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sand Dune Ventures Inc., a privately held technology incubator. The company produces slate-style Tablet and Ultra-Mobile PCs marketed through an authorized reseller channel and directly through the company website. For more information, visit www.TabletKiosk.com.  (Source: Press Release)

PhatWare PenCommander InkShow

Ever need a way to quickly launch applications?  Do you ever Ink the same thing to convert to text??

Pen Commander to the rescue!  Pen commander is an application that sits on your desktop to help you launch applications, enter text, navigate or just about anything else you want it to do!  At first I didn't think I would really use this type of application, but after using it for the past few weeks, I have really started to use it more and more.  It's nice to be able to do multiple things by only writing a small command!!  (Source: Matt Faulkner, GottaBeMobile)

Photos and Info - New C5 Mobile Clinical Assistant Tablet PC from Motion Computing

The Motion C5, the first product in the new mobile clinical assistant (MCA) category of PCs, integrates durable design elements with key data capture technologies to simplify workflows, increase productivity and improve overall quality of care. Designed based on input from thousands of clinicians, the C5 brings reliable, automated patient data management directly to the point of care. Get a handle on patient care with the C5. It’s highly portable. It’s lightweight. And, it’s ready to work for you.

(Source: Linda A. Epstein, TabletPC2.com)

Construction field finds relief in tablet

The pursuit of a solution resulted in Fast-Cat – a tablet-style computer that contains portable construction documents.

In today’s computing world, the Fast-Cat’s hardware is not impressive – it is built upon a 1.1 GHz Pentium processor and comes with either 512 megabytes or one gigabyte of RAM, with a hard drive of either 40 or 80 gigabytes. Its real value lies in the software, which was developed at Carnegie Mellon University.

It allows field superintendents to navigate from one set of drawings to another, for instance from a electrical drawing to one that shows a building’s plumbing. The superintendent can use a stylus to create mark up drawings on the Fast-Cat’s 9-inch screen. The device also sports a wireless card that allows workers to update drawings via e-mail, as well as to request information from other members of the project team.  (Source: Elwin Green, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette)

Review: Fujitsu Lifebook P7230 Tablet PC

WIRED Extremely handsome in solid black or pure white, free of the usual distracting trim flash. Despite shrunken size, keyboard is surprisingly usable. Nearly three-hour battery life on standard pack.

TIRED Graphics are a no-show, causing big stutters on DVD playback. Speakers are weak and nearly inaudible when the loud fan kicks in. Core Solo CPU can't hang with the big boys. 60GB hard drive needs a big upgrade. Minuscule mouse pad and buttons. Only two USB ports  (Source: Christopher Null, Wired Magazine)

Will o' the WISP Lite

Windows Mobile 6 contains a new API for Ink input and gestures based on the Tablet PC WISP (Windows Ink Services for Pen Windows Ink Services Platform, that's what the Tablet PC guys call it). It is a reduced set of features for a PDA/Phone device form factor (hence the Lite) . Why are we doing this? Well, to be inline with our bigger brethren and to ensure handwriting is consistent in all Microsoft platforms. Ink stored in Ink Serialized Format (ISF) will be viewable and modifiable on Windows Mobile.   (Source: lokeuei, Backstage at MED Blog)

Rapidly Growing North Texas Community Selects MobileEyes(TM) Fire Inspection Software

TROY, MI -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 19, 2007 -- The volunteer fire department in the largely residential community of Fairview, Texas is planning ahead for a big wave of commercial and residential construction. With growth in mind, the fire department recently purchased and installed MobileEyes™ software that runs on a tablet PC to perform local fire inspections.

The software, developed by TradeMaster, Inc., has been installed in an increasing number of fire departments of all sizes throughout the country that are taking advantage of new technology to enhance their capabilities and customer service.

Fairview will soon break ground for a new "lifestyle" center that will encompass one million sq. ft. under roof, including three large anchor stores, 200 retailers, a 10-story hotel, convention center, and residential living on approximately 200 acres, explained volunteer Fire Chief Dick Price. "We can create our fire inspection database now, before construction begins."

The town's population is expected to expand from its current population of 7,000 residents to more than 16,000 over the next few years. According to Price, that translates into lots of building and fire inspections.

Price describes MobileEyes™ as a very user-friendly tool, which includes handwriting recognition capabilities that make note-taking as easy as writing on a yellow pad.

Volunteer Fire Marshal and Inspector Jeff Bell appreciates the ability that MobileEyes™ gives to provide a hard copy record of the inspection on-site and also to transmit an electronic copy by email to the building owner to let them know whether they passed inspection.

By accessing MobileEyes™ software via the Internet, inspectors no longer have to do double entry of information or rely on memory. "I can easily access fire codes online, including the ones that we've amended to meet the needs of our community," said Bell.

Fire Chief Price noted that for greater fire safety protection they've tightened the requirements for sprinkler systems in Fairview's residential and commercial buildings. "With MobileEyes™ software, we can customize the program to meet our town's needs," added Price. "We also have a lot of people in our community who welcome the benefits of this technology."   (Source: Press Release)

Tablet PCs and Roger Waters Bring The Dark Side of the Moon to the Hollywood Bowl

How did they control the sound for the most anticipated concert of the 2006 season? With Tablet PCs!

In the years I have been going to the Bowl, I've never seen so much equipment or so many people getting ready for a show at the Bowl.  There is no question that those holding tickets for the 3 Dark Side of the Moon shows that Roger Waters did at the Hollywood Bowl couldn't wait for the show to begin.  But what was different, is that the people inside the Bowl seemed to have caught some of the fever that is surrounding this show.

The aura of anticipation and excitement in the Bowl was running high as equipment crews and sound engineers prepared for the most anticipated concert of the 2006 season.  Roger Waters was performing Dark Side of the Moon at the Hollywood Bowl, on October 5th, 7th and 8th 2006.   (Source: Linda A. Epstein, TabletPC2.com)

Return to sender - RCS students will not receive Gateway Tablet PCs

Students at Rogersville City School will not be receiving individual Gateway Tablet PCs this school year.

City school board members voted Tuesday to return the laptop computers, which have not yet been distributed to students, and terminate the lease agreement because of the company’s inability to provide maintenance as specified in the contract.

Brandy Shelton, RCS technology director, told board members under the terms of the warranty Gateway was to handle repairs and maintenance “by the next business day.”  (Source: Bill Grubb, The Rogersville Review)