Torres Talking: Tablet PC

OQO

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:28:20 GMT

At the Naked Conversations party last night, some dude had one of the nifty new OQO PCs. I got to take a look at it (Tablet enabled!) along with a bunch of tricked out Sprint PPC-6700s and Cingular 2125s. I think there were almost as many Windows in the house as on the house.

One of the clear benefits of the OQO is that you don't have to deal with synchronization - your mobile PC is the same as your office PC and maybe even your home PC. You don't have to worry about not having your critical documents, contacts, calendar, music, or email with you all the time. You don't have to struggle with synchronizing your OneNote notebook with multiple PCs like I do. It sounds a lot like nirvana. One of the reasons I haven't turned on the desktop PC in my office in over a year is because I loathe the synchronization problem. It's the same reason I use Bloglines and not a client application; I need my feeds to be "synchronized" on my mobile device and on my Mac [caveat: I am trying out NewsGator again today]

But one thing that struck me about the OQO after reading up on it a little bit is that for every usability problem it solves, it introduces entirely new ones. It isn't the best desktop PC you could buy for the money - it's underpowered and only has a 30gb hard drive. Try ripping your CDs, working with Photoshop, or playing games on this pup. It isn't the best laptop or tablet PC you could buy either; the screen is too small and a thumb keyboard just won't cut it for real work. And it surely isn't the best form factor for a mobile device; I'd be surprised if this thing fit in your pocket, it doesn't include phone capabilities, and it isn't optimized for one-handed use.

In all cases you're trading off what's great about dedicated devices (desktop: power, laptop: utility, mobile: pocketable/functional) just to solve the synchronization problem. All because maintaining multiple PCs (including Pocket PCs/Smartphones) is just too much work these days.

My hope is that Windows Vista and it's built-in Sync Manager takes care of this for us so we don't have to make this trade-off... we'll see.

Tablet PC Experience Pack

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 20:23:12 GMT

There are a bunch of cool Tablet PC enhancements out today as part of the new Experience Pack. My favorite one so far is Media Transfer which uses Windows Media Connect to locate PCs on your home netwok with shared media and allows you to simply transfer or stream music, video, or other media across the network.

You can watch a demo of this on Channel 9.

This would have been great for my recent trip to San Diego for ETech. I wanted to watch The Contender on my Tablet (I recorded it on my Media Center PC) but copying the file turned out to be a huge pain. Windows networking and file sharing is still far too tedious for me (i.e. why do I have to share the folder AND set permissions on the folder/file?)

This tool will make it much easier. But you have to wonder why we (as in Microsoft) always release cool new tools and then limit the distribution by only promoting it to a particular target audience. Yes, this is a nice Tablet PC tool, but it would be great to have on ANY laptop. One of the biggest complaints I have heard about Windows Media Connect is why it only works with devices and not the most ubiquitious device out there; the laptop.

The other tools are fantastic in their own right - especially Ink Art, the Snipping Tool, and Ink Desktop. There are obvious reasons why these only make sense for the Tablet PC.

Funny what Scoble said in that Channel 9 video about Steve Jobs. Couldn't agree more. Some of this stuff really can be game changing...

Check out the Experience Pack and the video... you just might like what you see!

Tablet PCs & Kids

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 21:04:21 GMT

As a Tablet PC user, I am constantly switching into portrait mode to read documents on the plane, in a meeting, or while lounging on a chair in our café here at MSN. I am a huge fan of not having to rest a hot laptop on my thighs just to read and annotate documents/presentations, or to take notes via OneNote (hands down the best new Microsoft application). Instead, I just use the buttons on the screen to navigate, and use the pen instead of the keyboard/mouse. It also helps my repetitive stress injuries - no more tingling in my right hand from typing all day!

What I had never really considered is just how much fun the Tablet PC can be for kids as well. I am spending this weekend with my new family (my wife’s family) and our adorable niece (5) and nephew (3) are entranced by my tablet! They love coloring in Windows Journal with the highlighter, and flipping over the pen to erase things on-screen. I installed the Art Tool Tablet PC PowerToy which lets them color in all sorts of fun images (duck, truck, motorcycle, etc.)

I also installed ArtRage just to see how they will like it. You actually use paint, markers, mix colors, add water (!), draw with crayons, etc. It is just absurd how cool this thing is for kids. (Yes, I realize they could actually use real paint and crayons just as easily. But that isn't the point!)

I think I just lost my computer for the weekend! Which may have something to do with the fact that I am posting this from Starbucks - if I were back at the house, I wouldn't have been able to :) The amazing thing is just how quickly they pick this stuff up. Switching colors in Windows Journal isn’t the most intuitive thing for a 3-year old (or so I thought) but after watching me do it a few times, he is now a rock star at it!