ForbesOnTech

Touch Computing Steam Roller Approaches--Microsoft says Touch Drivers to be in Windows 7

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer unveiled the iPhone-like touch-screen feature at The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference, calling it "just the smallest snippet" of the Windows 7 operating system slated for release in late 2009.more  here

 

When it comes to not quite nascent interface technologies, touch is something that’s overdue in mainstream computing. So far it’s been limited to convertible notebooks like those made by Acer\Gateway, Fujutsu, HP/Compaq, Lenovo, Toshiba and others. And on Palm handelds and those that run the Windows mobile operating system as well as all-in-one desktop computers ;like the HP TouchSmart IQ line.

 

Incorporating touch drivers in Windows could create hockey stick like growth in convertible notebooks and desktop computers alike. With current screen pricing, the price delta associated with digitizer screens could make touch-computing a mainstay feature. Touch computing interface technology could also drive innovation among software developers, making complex or feature-laden applications like image editing software much easier to use and perhaps cutting down on expensive customer service calls from users anxious to master such programs.

 

Touch computing (along with voice interface) is a technology that’s been percolating at Microsoft since the late Eighties. It’s about time that it came out of the shadows of research and development and was exposed to the bright light of mainstream personal computing. —Jim Forbes 05/28/2008.

 

 

Touch Computing Ready to Be Mainstreamed

    For the last 16 months, I've been deeply immersed and influenced by the concept of touch computing as a big part of my everyday computing experience.

I made "touch computing" part of my life in a big way when I began using a ThinkPad X41 Convertible portable and then stayed with it when I upgraded to a ThinkPad X60 -- which is among the finest portables ever made.

    A big part of my experience with touch computing has to do with the fact that in mid-life I became handicapped and lost fine motor control in my dominant left hand. In other words, at the age of 52 a stroke kicked my ass and ended a great career in journalism. That damn stroke closed one door but opened another. After moping around for more months than I care remember, I found my interest in touch interface technology and pen-computing was heightened.This happened because I was using a Palm Treo as a cellphone. I distinctly remember the day when the light bulb turned on. I had pulled over to the side of the road to take a phone call and needed to note a phone number. I my pulled out my pen stylus and wrote the number down on my Treo's notes screen. I then cut and pasted the information into my appointments file and continued on to a local college where I was going to speak to some fourth-year marketing students.

     That was my Aha! moment. I realized that although it was difficult to read my writing, I could use touch computing to enter data on my screen and then cu about t and paste that information into an appropriate program. And the company that enabled initial he discovery was Palm, the grandfather of touch/stylus-based computing.

     Portable computing technology and my interest in touch-based computing merged at roughly the same time. Lenovo let me review an X41 tablet computer and I was soon completely immersed in tablet computing, relying more and more on entering manipulating data using a stylus or even my finger and touching my notebook's digitizer screen.

     All that of that is to be expected from touch interfaces but I soon discovered another advantage that dovetailed with my life but more importantly helped me improve a skill lost to a stroke --but which as a reporter/writer I view as a defining skill that defines me-- the physical act of writing. Every morning for the first three years post stroke. I would practice writing on notepads designed for elementary school children. So, when I unpacked my first convertible notebook and booted it up, I found myself in a well designed application that helped train my notebook to recognize my hand writing.

     Voila! The bond between me and my pen-based, touch interface notebook  became cement strong. And, like good cement,this bond has become stronger over the last year and a half.

     My handwriting still sucks, and I've come to accept that I'll have this disability for the remainder of my life. but touch computing has become so important to me, that I think it should be a part of desktop computing as well. Enter the HP Touch Smart IQ all-in-one desktop. Paired with a fully functional all-in-one Touch computing is so compelling that my 90 year old mother, now a resident of my household is playing solitaire, after avoiding computers for the last 20 years.

     Touch computing is about to go mainstream, a leap that's long overdue. So far, this key interface technology has been limited to Apple, Compaq, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Palm and Toshiba.  I suspect that is about to change in the immediate future as Microsoft supercharges its R&D efforts into mainstream computing and other PC makers increase the bond between consumers and their brands with touch computing.

     And all of this comes at a time when computing technology is increasing rapidly and the price of such technology (including digitizer screens and memory) is plummeting. It's the beginning of a new era in personal computing and I'm glad I made it to the point where personal computing is indeed "personal"-- Jim Forbes 05/21/2008.

 

HP's TouchSmart All in One-- Upping the Ante for a Category

Building a great all-in-one computer is a much more difficult process than simply repackaging a notebook hull with a large screen and then stuffing every “wouldn’t it be nice” feature into the resulting desktop box.  The really good news is this: the all in one form factor is undergoing a renaissance now and hardware makers are paying close attention to what people want to and can do with new technologies.

            Apple has had the lead in this desktop category since it launched its new line of iMacs several years ago. But more recently the high flying iMac (which is available with screens as large as 24 inches) faces stiff competition from companies like Gateway and Dell, which are launching new all-in-ones which offer equivalent functionality but which also support integrated Personal Video Recording (PVR), a feature that an expensive option on Apple’s iMac line.

            But the latest entrant in this field, Hewlett Packard’s IQ775 TouchSmart PC fires a shot across Apple’s bow, while raising the table stakes needed to stay competitive in the all in one category.

            The “all-in” feature that wins the pot for IQ775 TouchSmart PC is its unique “touch interface” that lets you control programs and perform most features using your finger or the stylus that rests conveniently in its holder on top of the machine’s 19-inch screen.

            HP’s IQ775 come to the gaming table with a very robust configuration:  an AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core processor zipping along at a respectable 1.90 GHz, 2Gb of PC2-4200 of memory (but expandable to 4 GB of memory), a fast 7200 RPM 500GB hard disk drive, and a Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card to that drives a crisp 19-inch display.

            A 1.3Mpixel camera and array stereo microphones are built into the screen’s bezel. The audio on the IQ775 is first rate and this system comes with two 12-watt speakers but it will support six-speaker configurations such as those used in high end home theater applications.

            I really like how uniquely useable this system is. Setting it up and attaching to my home wireless network and cable TV took under five minutes. Once unpacked and plugged in I set about adjusting everything –including the viewing angle of this system’s 19-inch screen--so that it fits its my requirements precisely. The ability to position the components—system case, display and stowage tray for the keyboard enhances the IQ 775 TouchSmart’s functionality and ability to fit easily into any home, college dorm, or office.

            The use of a touch interface makes this one of the easiest to use systems I’ve ever seen. It’s so simple that I let my 90-year-old mother lose on the systems and grinned as she began playing solitaire. Eventually I got the system away from her long enough to finish testing it.  But not before I heard her asking me from her new quarters in the MaForbes addition to my house, “how do I record Gone With the Wind on this computer.”

            There are two approaches to PVR technology in desktop computers: it’s either built-in or the tuner can be added through the use of a separate controller. Of the two approaches, I prefer the one HP uses on it’s IQ775 TouchSmart PC—it’s built into the system.

            Although Apple gets the lion’s share of attention for gesture (read touch-based interfaces) it’s actually a relative newcomer to this interface technology, since HP has offered it since the days of its Touch monitors. Furthermore, gesture-based computing is sat the base of the Palm computing platform.

If you decide to buy this Windows Vista-based all in one, there is one addition I strongly recommend; the adding enough memory to bring the system up to at least 3GB (which improves both the performance of the operating system and the system’s overall performance.  Other than that, I can almost guarantee that if you buy n HP TouchSmart IQ 775, you’ll have a first tier computing experience.

            Now if I could just get this machine away from my Solitaire 90 year old mother.  –Jim Forbes m04/23/2008

Microsoft Expands DreamSpark Academic Evangelism Program--Wouldn't it be Nice if Others Joined In

Microsoft pulled another of its feet onto the academic computing bandwagon with the announcement this week of DreamSpark, a philanthropy program aimed initially at college students but which will eventually include high schoolers as well, according to the online version of PC Magazine.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates announced new details of the program during a speech at Leland Stanford Jr. University on the San Francisco Peninsula earlier this week. DreamSpark has already provided software to about 35 million students worldwide, Gates said, adding that the program will be enhanced to include more college and some high school students in the future.

click here for PC Mag's original story.

Some of the titles that will be given to students free of charge include the 2005 and 2008 editions of Visual Studio, 2005 Developer’s Edition of SQL Server and the Standard Edition of Windows Server, according to PC Mag. Students will also be given access to Microsoft X-box development tools and the company’s game developmenyt community, the magazine says.

While much of Microsoft’s philanthropic efforts have been aimed at individual colleges and universities, the company has a long history of academic evangelism and has been a co-sponsor with hardware maker Hewlett Packard of large academic computing grants in the past.

DreamSpark’s sheer size-- more than 35 million students have benefited from the program-- is astounding.

Academic evangelism isn’t limited to immediate gratification. In decades past, companies such as Hewlitt Packard and Techtronic helped create entire generations of equipment buyers and brand specifiers by exposing young students to professional-level test and measurement systems through academic evangelism programs. In the 1980’s Apple made significant inroads into academic computing through its conspicuous evangelism.

The two companies in today’s market that have active and high profile academic evangelism programs are Hewlett Packard and Microsoft. Both companies have dedicated staff members who run their companies programs in this category.

The pay-off associated with academic evangelism isn’t immediate. Rather it happens years later when former students enter the job market and begin buying IT or engineering test equipment on behalf of their employers.

However, I believe there is at least one category of computer technology that could reap an immediate benefit from academic computing evangelism. That category is pen-based computing. And, looking out over today’s landscape the one company I hope jumps directly or indirectly on this bandwagon is Demo 2008 standout Live Scribe,

here

makers of the Pulse Smart Pen. -- Jim Forbes 02/19/2008

Technologies To Help Prevent Remodel Madness-- What Really Works

The best use of a technology comes about as the result of unintended consequences. At least that’s been my experience in trying to manage a large remodel project that’s now about 50 percent complete here at my house on a small mountaintop in rural northern San Diego.

            The purpose of the remodel/addition is to provide housing for my 89-year old mother. She’s lived virtually all of her life in the tiny town of Azusa, CA, and for the last 30 years, she’s lived alone. I’m somewhat handicapped and I knew I had either the time, patience or ability to undertake the addition/remodel on my own. I spent about one-half of last summer planning MaForbes’ new space and compiling rough checklists of tasks that needed to be completed before the end of the Summer of 2007.

Some additional background: My specific handicaps are the permanent effects of a stroke I had six years ago this week. I am left-handed and the stroke wiped out the fine muscle control needed to write legibly. Another lasting effect of my stroke has to do with my abilities to stay on subject for extended periods.

Mid-summer  last year, I started using a Lenovo ThinkPad X60 tablet computer to keep track of the myriad details associated with my remodel project. I couldn’t have picked a better machine for the job. The X60 is lightweight, very rugged, has above average battery life, and most importantly supports pen-based computing and has a screen that can be swiveled around.

One of the big factors continuously reinforcing my decision to use a tablet computer for this project id the widespread adoption and use of the .PDF format by municipal building and planning departments. The first time you pull up and navigate a .PDF file using a pen/stylus you will immediately grock how important a convertible computer can be to a complex remodeling project in a city with burgeoning building codes. Moreover, watching an inspector or department supervisor pick up a pen, scroll over to a relevant .PDF page and highlight a section is absolute proof of the importance of tablet computing for applications such as the building trades. And the ability to swivel the screen so that someone else can see the display is icing on the cake.

The one downside to .PDF is that many contractors and design firms still want home owners to print out and sign plans and then return the signed files to their offices.  Try as I may, I’ve not been able to get my design firm to accept my electronic signature on an approved .PDF file.

Another technology that’s been a Godsend in my remodeling project has been USB flash drives. My plans, correspondence and other files are carried on a series of 2GB flash drives that I keep on a sturdy beaded chain. Each of my several flash drives are numbered and I maintain an index of their contents. The use of flash drives cuts down “waiting” time to locate and pull up a required file.

I also bought and installed an external hard disk for my home network. I use it to back up my remodeling related files every day. Because it’s eliminated my worrryies about lost files, it may be one of the most important technology assets I’ve acquired specifically for my home remodel.

Skype is one of the most important programs that I’ve loaded on my X60 tablet. I keep a headset in my notebook bag and use Skype on a daily basis when I’m working with the contractors working on the addition.

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I am absolutely convinced that the best-designed notebook computers are those that integrate Bluetooth, high speed 802.11 WiFi and integrated cell data modems. I’ve also upgraded my home WiFi network to 802.11 (n) technology. I bought a new wireless router and a dongle for my X60 because 802.11 (n) has the extended range, signal saturation and big bandwidth I need to stay connected and reliably transmit large files across my network in the blink of an eye.

My one technological disappointment in the remodel has been finding an appropriate project management program. As of today, project management software for home remodelers doesn’t really exist, although some is under development now.

Home remodeling doesn’t need to be exercise leading to insanity and some of the current technologies go a long way to tame this complex process. And besides, I’ve only had two major meltdowns requiring personal timeouts since I started my remodel last summer. And very soon, I’ll get my bedroom back. That will be a very good thing indeed—Jim Forbes 02/13/2008

Mom's InLaw, New Year's Review-- My List Half Completed; Yeah!!

For the first time since I started the current remodeling project here at Rancho Bizarro South I’m beginning to feel slightly more at ease with the process and its eventual outcome.

            Last night—New Year’s Eve, I reviewed my task lists and went to bed satisfied that I’ve completed most of the critical jobs that go into the front end of a remodeling addition project. For me the most troublesome things have all centered around getting the necessary permits.  At times I wanted to just run away from my local city hall screaming. After other meetings I left celebrating winning “neener points” – those little battles you fight knowing you’re in the right andd believing the city will come around to your view. Eventually.

            What I thought would be the hardest battle, getting my aged mother to agree to move out of the small town she grew up in and move to my place here in rural Northern San Diego County turned out to be a cake walk.

            After 89 years in Azusa. Ma is ready and anxious to move.

            I’ve tried to make the process of bringing MaForbes into my house easy and fun.  Along the way, I’ve accumulated about 45 pages of One Note files on real and imagined living space requirements for an aging parent. High on my list has been providing housing that encourages her to feel she’s still independent while at the same time helping to realize that she’s an integral part of a family.

            Although MaForbes is still able to walk around her house and has a very good memory, I don’t assume she’ll always be mobile.  That explains the big doors, wide hallways and some of the features of her new en suite bathroom.

Coming up on her 90^th year, Ma is still going strong and still very much an inquisitive naturalist who laughs at special needs sparrows, mocking birds that establish territories near her doors, and the dumbest cat I’ve ever been around.

            In planning Ma’s new living spaces I’ve made sure she has a balcony with a view of my peach, apricot and citrus trees and that fresh fruit is seldom more than a couple of feet away from the edge of her balcony.  Ma’s new digs has several large windows with views to the Pacific on the west, and of the sandstone hills that mark the edge of the Cleveland National Forest to the east of my hill.

            The bonus feature for Mom will be the morning breeze, carrying the delicate Spring scent of orange, lemon and tangerine blossoms,  one of her favorite memories of growing up in sleepy little Azusa.

            The next most important category in the MaForbes One Note files is hooking her up with a new primary care physician at Kaiser. That happens on Ma’s next visit.

            In planning her new living space I’ve made sure that everything is handicapped accessible, especially the bathroom. Overall, this stage of the proposed remodel was greatly simplified by a designer that works for my contractor.  Also, a series of conversations with another designer who is the partner of Jonathan Blackwood, a colleague from Windows magazine specializes in living space for the elderly, helped me focus in on some of the needs my mother may have in her new living quarters.

            I began this project thinking I could build a place for MaForbes for under $150,000.  I assumed that because I have the acreage, construction and the permit process would be straightforward.  Boy was I ever wrong.

            The price for this remodel will top out well in excess of $200,000. Gulp!

            MaForbes is taking an active role in her move, which makes me very thankful. And, in talking about this project with high school friends, I’ve discovered I’m just one of many baby boomers now grappling with the issue of providing living space and care for octogenarian parents.

            An extensive remodel that involves cracking concrete flooring to add new plumbing and using multiple layers of plastic sheeting to keep out the weather and the infrequent (I kid you not!) curious coyote is incredibly disruptive and it’s not a process I hope I will ever go through again. Tonight three large storage pods take up all the space in front of my boat port and garage driveway apron and all the clothing I absolutely need is hung neatly on portable clothes hanging racks from Ikea.

            The storage pods go away tomorrow morning and won’t return until the addition is done. And, after looking at over one Gigabyte’s worth of data, more than half of my task lists are now completed. When I started this project I chose to use a convertible computer and Microsoft One Note to manage all my tasks. I recommend convertibles such as the Think Pad X60 line because they are rugged enough to use around construction sights and because its swiveling screen let’s me show .PDF files related to this project to city officials and my contractors.  Since contractors get a bit miffed when I unplug their corded equipment, my X60 tablet’s battery life is a big bonus. In conjunction with the swiveling screen my convertible helps me score the neener points I need to remain sane during the remodel.

            And so, on January 1, 2008, about six hours after a stroke kicked my ass and forced me into early retirement I find myself thankful that I can provide a nice living space for my soon to be 90 year old mother, and having gained the confidence I need to manage a complex series of interrelated tasks. In the last two weeks I’ve gone from living in a space with seven rooms to sleeping in what is supposed to be my den. It’s two adults and three domestic pets. My dog doesn’t mind, my youngest cat is mostly stoned on antidepressants and I’ve learned an important lesson: People on three to four milligrams of blood thinners should not tease a dominant kitty. My bleeding left hand proves this point.—Jim Forbes 01/01/2008

Demolition Starts, New One Note Files Get Created, Getting Started on Ma's New Digs One Gigabyte at a Time

Honest, when I retired five years ago, the thought of becoming a construction superintendent and building project manager was an idea that would have made me laugh.

            Well, now that I’m into my second and biggest project, I’m laughing. Hysterically. And crying.

            But for anyone who’s ever done a big house remodel or addition project, this isn’t exactly news.

            Beginning the week before Christmas, my days have been filled with meetings with contractors, building department officials and the platoons of people you get to meet and hire when you’re involved in a seemingly simple project like adding a full bedroom with an en-suite bath for your 89-year-old mother.

            The madness of t his project hit home this afternoon as I emptied my home into the last of the three storage pods lining my driveway. So tonight I find myself living in what amounts to a studio apartment with a separate bath and kitchen.  My dining area use to be my kitchen counter, and my bed is in the middle of what use to be my den.

            My three domestic pets are freaked. One of my cats is on an anti- depressant, My dog just discovered the bed has moved from a back bedroom to the den and the wild beasts have returned to my back yard.

            Part of what use to be an exterior wall in the back of my house is now two sheets of heavy plastic. It’s raining and I’m reasonably sure that somewhere just north of me, icy blue glaciers are creeping down California.

            And someone just told me “to chill out.” 

            Chill out my butt!  My doc put me on a new med, I blew up my right knee moving a convertible sofa bed and the fist construction project unearthed and activated a veritable army of small venomous scorpions nestled all warm and snug under the foundation of my house. 

            I’ve tried to be methodical in my approach to this remodeling project. I’ve become a journeyman user and true believer in Microsoft One Note—a software product I can’t live without. I use it everyday on my convertible notebook to track the myriad details that make up my construction punch lists and milestone notes.

            I’m reasonably sure Microsoft probably never thought One Note would find a practical use in the building trades, but hell, I really didn’t want to kill entire forests to printout the miles of Perk and Gantt charts that Project Management software produces.

            So everyday I boot up my little notebook, unsheathe its stylus. and go over my One Note files and lists of projects associated with this infernal remodel. And, when I have to run down to the city hall, the notebook and my key ring filled with neatly labeled USB drives stays  in my sweaty right e hand as I prepare to do battle or become enlightened in the secret ways of building codes. I’ve always had a lot of professional pride in my note taking ability so you can imagine how victorious I feel when after a frank discussion with building department people, when I highlight a section of text that includes the time and date of a particular conversation and cross references to PDF files the city and county hands out swivel my notebook’s screen, and archly proclaim “There! Right There! Do you remember now, Sparky?”

            Demolition has only just started on the project. Next week, the sledgehammers, crowbars, wheelbarrows and tiny tractors start work.  One of the first things on the project list, after they frame the new approximate 1000 sq foot bedroom is breaking the cement flooring and check the grade in what use to be my master bedroom to tie in the plumbing for MaForbes’ new bath.

            And the only notes in my large construction project file related to this are the three Golden Rules of Plumbing:

            Always wash your hands before eating

            Payday is Friday

            Shit flows downhill.

            But that’s not exactly true. You see the contractor reminded me this morning that I have to pick out and order Ma’s new bathroom fixtures. Honest to God! I had no idea faucets, sinks and drains cost thousands of dollars. Well now I know and my contractor tells me that once I’ve made a decision he can get the physical dimensions he needs directly from the manufacturer. Thank God for COD shipments and the Internet.

            So, for the next three months, unless I go absolutely nutso, buy a FEMA trailer and runaway to the gold county in northern California I’m living in the most costly flat in rural northern San Diego County. Jim Forbes 12/29/2007.

Using a Convertible Notebook to Streamline Construction Approval--MaForbes' New Digs

For the last several weeks I’ve been blitzed by a new task; trying to find a way to build a second dwelling unit on the same one acre-plot of ground as my house.  Of course this begs the question; isn’t one house enough for two people, two useless cats and one crazed Chihuahua?

            The answer is “yes,” but the problem is that I’m moving my 89-year old mother from her ancestral home in Azusa, CA to my place here in rural northern San Diego County.

            I’ve tried t o approach the problem in a fashion that guarantees I remain cheerful, open-minded and at least somewhat sane.  Hell, putting up a cottage for MaForbes should be a simple task.

            Or so I thought before I entered the Alice in Wonderland World of Building codes, land use laws, Planning Department regulations and meetings with contractors, architects and modular kit home suppliers. I started the process of building a home for MaForbes, by collecting the requisite paperwork at the Planning Department in Escondido.  I instantly went from a 20-page stack of forms and regulations, to a three-inch collapsible file filled with meeting notes, suggestions, building drawings and of course more forms.

            The problem I have with forms is that I’m handicapped and have limited use of my dominant left hand, fine control of which fell victim to a stroke several years ago.

            Three days and two trips to City Hall later, I realized that I had the technology on hand to organize and efficiently execute the entire process.

            That technology is my ThinkPad X60 tablet computer, which makes showing plans to city officials and reviewing with second, third and even fourth parties the hundred or so regulations I have to deal with a simple process.

            So now, I use the X60 on a daily basis. I boot it up in the morning and keep it on throughout the day, being careful to back up my data to a flash drive every three or four hours. I’ve also discovered that most of the material I need is available from a website maintained by my city.  I’ve quickly used nearly 1gb of storage on the X60’s hard disk drive but I have a lot more space that’s available to me. More importantly, I keep all of the files pertaining to this task on two 2GB flash drives that I keep securely stored away when they’re not needed.

            Like a lot of people who think about convertible tablet computers, I recognized how important the technology can be for specific vertical applications, like medicine, law enforcement, forms-based business and other usage models. But it wasn’t until I started planning on moving MaForbes down here that I had my epiphany: my tablet was so versatile that it had transformed not only how I accomplished a task, but more importantly how I viewed the task and how I shared my work with others.

            The beauty of this form factor for the task at hand is that construction is a forms-based task and a multi-path communications channel.  It also involves a lot of check box items and where I live (in Escondido, CA) architectural drawings.

            I began the process by reading state and local regulations about the construction of Second Dwelling Units (also known as “granny flats” and “in-law cottages.”) Thanks to a chance conversation at my 40^th high school reunion, I learned that the State of California had passed legislation designed to make the construction of said dwellings easier. It was my extreme luck that the person who told me about this was a chum from high school who was about to retire from the San Diego County Planning Department.  And even more fortuitous for me, his mother ha moved into his house recently.

            One thing led quickly to another and I soon found myself having lunch in San Diego with my buddy. I brought along the various pertinent regulations, which he kindly highlighted so that I could better understand what I could and probably could not do.  He also suggested that I ask the clerk at my city’s planning office to give me copies of all building permits for Second dwelling units that had been approved by the city. Those files were online and available as PDF’s and they also provided me with the names of contractors and architects who had successfully built legal SDU’s.

            Over two days, I assembled the data I needed and stored it on my tablet computer. My goal was to use my X60 tablet throughout the permit and building processes.

            The first couple of time I showed up at City Hall, unpacked and turned on my notebook and brought  up the files I needed, was an incredible experience.  I asked the clerks and inspectors for guidance on the highlighted regulations. They quickly understood the pen tablet interface and I was in and out of the department in minutes.

            But the real surprise to me has been the impact of the hinged screen, which tilts and swivels, thus enhancing the viewing experience. Anecdotally, I believe this capability enhances communications between parties. I’ve noticed that the officials I deal with are quick to adjust the screen so that they and other coworkers involved in my transactions can more easily read the on-screen data.

            Although I’ve seen this before in study groups at a local college, the immediate effect of this feature in settings where I need feedback on a regulation is quite dramatic.

            I’ve had the same experience in my dealings with contractors who want my construction project.

            The lesson from my experience is simple:  convertible computers incorporating pen interfaces can and do facilitate communications.  They turn what use to be one-way, one person at a time, communications into multipath broad communications channels.

I'm now conbvinced that any of the current tablet PCs made by HP, Gateway, Fujitsu a well as Lenovo, could fit nicely into the construction business. COnvertible computing, it's not just about medicine, insurance; law enforcement and academic computing, it's the important next step in personal and business computing.

But back to MaForbes’ new home:  In the end, it’s going to be a lot cheaper to bump out one side of my house, widen the doors in case Mom needs to use a wheelchair than it is to put up a second dwelling unit with associated plumbing, water and electrical connections. It will also take a lot less time and involve far fewer permits.

            Or at least that’s what the contractors and my spreadsheet says. And, the remodel will take only five to six weeks. And in the end, MaForbes won’t be alone, and that’s good.  Lois and Boardie’s son, Jim Forbes on 07/30/2007.

The Absence of In-Service Education for Pen-based Computing Hurts Brands, Consumers and Sales People

   I went whopping this week with a friend, intent on buying  a convertible notebook for his college-bound daughter. My buddy is an occasional reader of FobesonTech and a friend of some 40 years. Having gone through the-buy-a -notebook-for-the college-bound-child experience twice myself, I thought the trip could turn out to be a great buddy bonding experience.

   It was, right until our third stop of the day at a just-opened Best Buy store in Glendora, CA. My friend's kid told her dad she wanted to use the notebook to take hand written notes in class, as well as for entertainment purposes in her dorm room. Right off the top, I made sure my buddy happened to walk by a shiny new HP tx100 portable that was near an end cap.

    The extremely polite salesman swooped right over. I asked him if the HP tx1000 "was a convertible tablet PC?"

    He soon had the screen twisting, dipping, jinking and jiving, which apparently some people in the Eastern Los Angeles County town of Glendora think is the primary hallmark of a tablet PC.

    My buddy knew what requirements were paramount for a notebook that would be used in college classrooms. "How long will the  battery last and is this suitable for use in the uneven lighting of lecture halls."

   I couldn't resist adding, "I see this uses an AMD processor."

    The salesman told us that the battery was good for "several hours" adding that many  "high performance desktops use AMD processors." It was very apparent that the salesman didn't know squat about tablet computing. Furthermore, his ignorance turned a potential customer into someone who will most likely never shop at Best Buy again.

    I thought this might have been a "one of" experience so on Friday i went to a nearby Best Buy store in northern San Diego county and stopped to look at, heft and type on the HP tx1000 prominently displayed on a counter top. In the material the store was displaying adjacent to the unit, the words "tablet computer" jumped out. The salesman quickly explained to me how the screen could swivel and tilt so that I could use the machine comfortably in just about any circumstance. (which outside of it's use in tablet computing would be useful if my eyes were coaxially controlled like a chameleon or sitting on top of stalks like a snail)

    I asked the question, "How do I write on the screen?"

    The salesman told me that I had to "download something from HP for that feature."

    "Really?" and "HP is going to send me a digitizer screen that will automatically eject from my the drive bay?," I wondered.

    So I requested that the salesman find out how much the HP tx1000 equipped with a digitizer screen would cost. Off he went to a store system and 20 minutes later he was back with the correct model number and a price of about $1,400."

    I continued walking around the portable computer dept, noticing how much Toshiba had dropped the prices on their Satellite line and thinking, "damn the Satellite is a sturdy looking portable, I should review one soon."

    But at the end of my little shopping expedition, I walked out of Best Buy thinking it would be a cold day in hell when I ever bought there, or recommended the store to a friend.

But the real victims in the true life tale of tablet computing shopping gone wrong are:

1. HP, the salesman did such a bad job and was so uneducated about the product that he didn't even know the model number of the HP tx 1000 family that had the digitizer screen. Furthermore, they didn't even have that model in stock. For this category to take off, tablet computers makers need to develop and deploy in-service education programs.

2. The category of tablet computing; My friend came away from this experience somewhat confused.

3. Best Buy; I don't know that I can trust them to sell me the right computer for a specific task.

4. The salesmen; they hadn't been trained or seen the correct product appropriately demonstrated.

    I feel sorriest for HP. Although it has the most active tablet computing evangelism staff in the industry, its efforts are aimed at adopters, not retailers. And HP's attempt to bifurcate the tablet computing segment into high and low ends is a sound strategy that could be replicated by other companies, including Lenovo, which has it's own house and ThinkPad brands.

    My buddy and I had a blast shopping. We ended the day kicking tires at Toyota and Dodge dealerships, eating InNOut burgers outside under an awning and feeding plump sparrows pieces of french friend potatoes.  Oh, and we wandered around Fry's Electronics for about 30 minutes and found a young sales associate* who not only what a tablet computer was, but also knew how to use and demonstrate the technology. My buddy walked out of the store with a lightweight, relatively inexpensive, Fujitsu convertible notebook that should serve his daughter well.

   Although it may not have the entertainment bells and whistles of the HP tx family, my friend's daughter already has an iPod or two and huge library of movies and music. She's good to fly away to college. But I don't envy my friend's Ikea bill when she gets settled in her first apartment.

   Been there done that, twice.

    Hey, a little retail therapy never hurt anyone.Besides when its for a loved one, it can turn into a great mitzvah.  Cast your bread upon the waters, throw your french fries in front of a legion of ravanous sparrows. It all comes back.

    Or so it seems, writing from my outside office,next to my best-ever garden, under a thatched palm leaf roof, in rural northern San Diego County.--Jim Forbes on 06/30/2007. Only four more days till Kaboom time.

*ever the reporter, I found out that the sales associate at Fry's went to Foothill College, one of the schools that has benefited from HP's educational computing evangelism program. Like I said, cast your bread upon the waters and see what happens.

(mandatory disclosure: In the 1990's I served as an unpaid member of mobile and personal computing advisory panels for IBM, Toshiba, and Hewlett Packard)

   

Gateway's E-155C Convertible--Good Features, Solid Construction and Moderately Priced

One of the axioms of tablet computing is: good things come in small packages.

This may have not gone unnoticed by Gateway, which just introduced a new convertible notebook called the E-155C.

There’s a lot I like about the E-155C beginning with its size, which is quite alot smaller than the company’s previous line of convertibles,--notab;y the M210 which were based on a larger (14-inch screen) and heavier hull.

            This is a very functional notebook with an above average feature set and a design that should satisfy tablet purists. At less than two inches deep and weighing only 4.5 pounds, it nests quite comfortably in your hand if you’re accustomed to using a tablet computer like a paper notebook.

I like the digitizer on the E-155C, which is versatile enough to accept finger-based input. The 12.1-inch wide view screen is bright enough to be used in dimly lit lecture halls without undue eye strain. I also liked the responsiveness of this convertible’s screen which I believe to be above average.

            Gateway supplied me with a preproduction Vista-based machine. It was equipped with 2MB of system memory (the minimum required for an experience that’s optimized for Vista’s Aero interface), A 1.06 GHz low power Intel Core2 Duo processor and Intel 945 chipset. An 80 GB hard disk drive was included in the system I tested, which costs $2,073.  Larger hard disks drives are available with the E-155C.

            Like most of today’s tablets, the E-155C has three USB ports (two USB1.0 and one smaller, USB 2.0 female recepticles. Other external connections include a local area network port, external video, and audio jacks. An optical CDRW/DVD drive is included with the 155C. So is a 6-in-one card reader and an open Type II PCMCIA slot. It also ships standard with a finger print reader.

I put the E-155C through its paces over a five-day period that included two four-hour sessions in college classes. One of my classrooms has a well-deserved reputation of being a ”wireless vampire” (because of all the steel rebar contained in its walls and because the wireless access point aren’t strategically located). Having said that, I had no difficult y finding, attaching and staying connected to the network from a seat about 150 feet away from the access point. I was also able to connect to the campus WiFi network from my favorite bench underneath a California live oak, near the student cafeteria. Indoors and outdoors, the E-155C worked flawlessly and it’s wide screen, 12-inch panel has the power and contrast to make help this convertible earn the sobriquet of a “use anywhere  anytime” notebook.

            I also think the fit, finish and construction of Gateway’s newest convertible contrtibute to this sobriquet.

It’s single screen hinge has the stiffness and durability I think is required in a convertible notebook. It’s solid enough to keep users focused on lectures and keep them from fiddling with its screen position.  Once I adjusted the screen –in keyboard or tablet mode--or while watching videos, it never strayed from that position.  No hinge creep whatsoever.

            Overall, I was impressed with the E-155c’s throughput, the responsiveness of its screen and it’s solid basic feature set and it’s price.

There are a couple noteworthy points I need to bring up in my review of the E-155C.  First, battery life could be better. The four-cell battery pack only gave me 2.5 hours of power when optimized for power conservation. Also, I think the keyboard used on this notebook feels, “soft,” although I don’t mind pounding on it hour after hour.  The upside of the keyboard is a soft vinyl palm rest and the position of its trackpad, (offset enough to avoid accidentally sending the cursor to places unknown by carelessly positioning a thumb when you’re typing on its keyboard.  Finally, the internal speakers and audio volume leave something to be desired (although the headphones and small external speakers I carry in my back pack solved that problem and it passed my “Freebird” subjective audio test quite handily).

Except for the three minor  noted points the E-155C is robust enough for just about anything I could throw at it. Based on my experience, I recommend buying the optional six-cell lithium battery pack with this system, which adds $40 to the price. An additional $59.00 gets you an extended service plan, which should calm any Nervous Nellies.

            As convertible user, accustomed to near continuous connectivity, I used Google spreadsheet and docs, as well as I-lighter as my primary applications on this machine. As long as I could make t an Internet connection, I was able to access my apps and drive-in-the sky data. This strategy saves me money, and although it’s dependent on connectivity, it works very well for me, even on slow speed dial-up. My experience with the E-155C succeeded here.

            With a travel weight of just over five pounds, and rock solid construction, The Gateway E-155C is a great yeoman’s convertible notebook. It’s light enough to be toted in a backpack on or off campus and versatile and inexpensive enough to meet the requirements of students, teachers or anyone who needs the functionality of a tablet computer that can be used for keyboard or pen input and may be on a budget. The company that made cow patterned shipping boxes popular has come through again.—Jim Forbes, 04/30/2007

Gateway's E-155C is moderatly priced, offers a usuable feature set, and appears to be quite solid.

Photo courtesy of gateway