robwill's WebLog

Tablet Recognizer Pack released

2004-10-18T18:48:00Z

The new reco pack is now available for download at the following link. In addition to improvements with existing recognizers we now also deliver reco engines for Spanish and Italian. Below is a list of the reco engines available in the pack. Combined with the recent release of Tablet PC 2005 Edition and the pen and ink improvements in the SP1 release of OneNote we believe the Tablet PC value proposition to end users has been significantly improved. We hope you will agree.

The Tablet 2005 Recognizer Pack is now available for download at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=36081

It contains the following handwriting recognizers: English (US), English (UK), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), and Korean.

Tablet OS on the VAIO U

2004-08-04T18:21:00Z

JK has posted his review, it's very thorough. Thought I would provide a link for those who may have missed it. Too bad Sony hasn't figured this out and elected to preinstall the Tablet OS so that the general public can enjoy the experience. It's a natural fit.

http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2004/07/sony_u70_review.html

The VAIO U also serves as a multipurpose device. Thanks to Evan for sending me the following link:

http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-53.html

enjoy

Tablet PC Online Chat

2004-08-03T18:12:00Z

please join us

Tablet PC Online Chat [August 4 – 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time]

Join the Microsoft Tablet PC Team on August 4^{th at 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time as we engage in a fun and interactive online chat about Tablet PCs.}

Add to calendar: ^{http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/cal/Expert_Zone_Chat_TabletPC_Aug4.ics}

^{Chat room: ^{http://communities2.microsoft.com/home/chatroom.aspx?siteid=34000077}}

What is truth

2004-07-31T01:09:00Z

# re: Is it real, or is it Memorex? 7/30/2004 11:15 AM AndrewSeven

I'm not certain that "believe" is the right word, so I'll use "assume".

I assume that many people assume that you can arrive at the truth through concensus. Remove Comment 202409

Interesting comment. I used to do basic research in organic chemistry. In science consensus is what it's all about. One can demonstrate that a theory holds for a given experiment but can never completely prove a theory because the exception case always could be one experiment away. All it takes is one solid counter example to disprove a theory. So scientists are constantly testing theories and as more and more leaders in the field perform experiments and do calculations that refine the theory and/or fail to produce a counter example, a consensus of opinion emerges. This is as close as one gets to truth in science. An example is Newtonian physics. This set of theories and math (calculus) was thought to be sufficient to explain the physical behavior of objects until physicists started studying objects with very high charge to mass ratios, eg. atomic and subatomic particles. The existing theories didn't hold because they did not take into consideration the wave-like properties of such particles, so a new set of theories was developed called quantum mechanics. That was the new consensus for a period of time but now string theory and the like are being developed to explain behaviors that are not explained by quantum theory. And on it goes.

A couple of chemists named Woodward and Hoffman found a way around this conundrum. They advanced a theory called the Conservation of Orbital Symmetry. In their seminal paper on the subject they included a chapter titled Exceptions. What followed was a basically a blank page with the words “there are none“ printed in the middle. This was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Chemists all over the world immediately set out to prove these guys wrong, only to discover that Woodward and Hoffman had so carefully crafted their theory that all apparent counter examples, of which there were many, were by definition, outside the space defined by their theory. Clever guys those two. Could have been philosophy majors. Hoffman received a Nobel prize for this work. Woodward missed out because he died and Nobels are not awarded posthumously, but not to worry, he already had one.

If one seeks truth the path is most likely spiritual in nature, because it's predominantly a matter of faith, but you could be onto something here. It may be available in blogs :)

Have a great weekend

Is it real, or is it Memorex?

2004-07-30T06:27:00Z

re: Averatec on Engadget 7/29/2004 9:45 PM David Mealo

Actually, Peter from Engadget was not speculating - his statement was based on an article (http://blog.sagetechnology.com/techsage/archive/2004/07/22/201.aspx ) whose source (linked in the article) was Silicon Strategies saying: "Averatec's new C3500 line will carry an AMD 2200 + (1.8GHz) processor (in October, this system will be available with the 64-bit AMD Athlon processor)."

Hmmm. So as long as someone wrote it somewhere it's not speculating, it's a fact? One of the characteristics of blogs and forums is that people frequently pick up opinions and misinformation and perpetuate it as fact, without much thought to the original source or the accuracy thereof. Everyone cites everyone else and soon it looks like the facts of the case are thoroughly documented and referenced, the readers become excited, politicians start making impassioned speeches, the public is demanding action......but it all originated from one, possibly inaccurate source, like my blog :). Mostly it's harmless and/or amusing, but not always. Blogging and forums are real time and often are a stream of consciousness without a lot of effort to verify the information and separate facts from opinion. Personally, I subscribe to the highest journalistic standards for accuracy and verification of sources, within the limits of my capabilities and the 20 minute time limit I set for myself when authoring a post :).

Who knows, perhaps I am wrong and we will see that 64 bit tablet in October??? Wouldn't be the first time.

Peter, this is not about you or the authors of the original article. I read the article. It was well written with lots of good information and editorial comments, with the possible exception of the “exhorbitant price “ reference, which is both hyperbole and inaccurate :). Just poking fun at blogs and bloggers, myself included.

Averatec on Engadget

2004-07-29T05:50:00Z

There is a lot of Tablet PC hardware news on engadget.com. http://tabletpcs.engadget.com/ Some of it appears to be very well informed and some of it is wild speculation, but it's all interesting to read. Of course, I am not going to go into detail and sort out one from the other in this blog but I will make a few comments.

The new Averatec C3500 was featured on engadget this week. The product hit the streets last week and is creating a lot of buzz. Averatec is still filling the channel so availability may vary by store and by location but one can buy them today at our local Costco for $1279. That's a very compelling price for the feature set and according to our carefully crafted, scientifically proven, market research (eg, we asked the Costco sales person standing in closest proximity to the display unit), the initial sell through is much better than expected. Probably the most interesting feature of the unit is the integration of a DVD/CDRW drive into a 12” display package. Gateway and Acer are already out there with 14” models but this is the first 12” model, giving a choice to those that prefer a smaller form factor with their DVD drive. We will see other 12” convertibles with integrated optical drives later in the year, as well as new 14“ models. Tablet PC hardware continues to evolve and diversify to provide a value proposition to a variety of end users. Many thanks to our hardware partners.

In the original posting, which appears to have changed, Peter speculated that Averatec was planning to release a 64bit version later this fall. Don't hold your breath. It's a big leap to connect the fact that the unit is powered by an AMD processor to the conclusion that a 64bit version is soon to follow. 64bit tablets will happen but it's not the near term direction. It's just not clear that the cost/benefit equation makes sense for the majority of tablet users today.

Back on line

2004-07-07T06:37:00Z

Took a few days off over the Fourth of July holiday. Went backpacking with my sons and the dog while my wife and daughter visited old friends in New York. We covered some tough miles with a lot of elevation gain, some route finding required, hot, dusty, and no available water for long stretches, but it was worth it as the trail we picked was sufficiently difficult as to discourage most hikers, including us if we had known what we were getting into :). Only saw one group of two people on the first day. That's relatively unusual unless one is farther from the road than the 11 miles we covered that day. Neither one of them was carrying a Tablet PC so we talked about the bugs and the best spots to camp. They were setting up camp well short of our destination. We ended up completely alone with no one around for several miles, no WiFi, no email, no internet, no blogs. It was a nice break. Didn't see any significant wildlife but there were reports of a bear on this trail a couple of weeks ago so we took the usual precautions with the food, etc. Seattle is excellent habitat for outdoorsy types. We have large tracts of wilderness area within a one hour drive from my house in the burbs.

It's annual performance review time at Microsoft and I have a lot of writing to do so blogging time will be adversely affected. At the suggestion of David I will try to post more frequently, but the blogs will probably be shorter. I welcome feedback so please feel free to tell me if you prefer one style or the other.

Response to selected reader comments:

Rob, sorry you can't find the screen off button option for your M200. I checked and you are correct. It's not there. Microsoft provides this in the OS and it is available with most tablet PCs but apparently not the Toshiba. I had not yet discovered this until your comments caused me to investigate. Some OEMs choose to remove certain of these features and replace with their own bundle of utilities for managing power, WiFi, display output, etc. I was aware that Toshiba provided their own utility for many of these functions. That's OK. It's an opportunity for value added differentiation for the PC manufacturer. OEMs like to provide these utilities across their product lines to create a consistent, branded experience. However, I wish Toshiba had at least left that option available in the control panel. We did all the work to make it available, it's useful, so why block it? That's disappointing. I have not had time to investigate the utilities you posted but I will give them a try.

Mark, your comments about standby (S3) and hibernate (S4) states are right on target. We are focusing on improving this functionality for LH. There is a major power saving, battery life extending opportunity there but the state transitions are not as routine and reliable as they should be and managing power profiles is not sufficiently discoverable or intuitive for the average end user. I think it's safe to say that most people still use only two states: full power (S0) and off (S5). We have a major opportunity for improvement in the power management experience in the next release and we don't intend to miss it. I also enjoyed your comment that many people referred to your tablet as a giant PDA. The typical comment I got when using one of the original MS prototypes on an airplane was “gee, that's the biggest Palm Pilot I have ever seen.“ For a Microsoft Tablet PC person this was a cruel, double insult. At least if they had called it a giant Pocket PC (ok, it's an oxymoron unless one has giant pockets) I would have felt a little bit better. I also liked your most recent post about HW requirements and sales. I'll get to that one next blog.

JK, let us know how the tablet OS works on your Sony U-70....but don't just tell us how great it is (as you have predicted even before you tried it), give us both the good and the not so good. That's useful information as we go forward.

Mary, I agree with you. Lonestar is a major improvement in the tablet pc experience. I would be glad to evangelize what I believe are the most significant end user benefits but I don't want to turn this blog into a sales pitch. Let's see what others think.

David, Rob, Mark, JK, Mary, thanks for the good FB.

Everyone else, if you take the time to write it I'll take the time to read it. FB always welcome.

Baseball

2004-07-01T23:42:00Z

Writing this blog on the plane. Up at 4am this morning to catch a 6am flight. Arrrgh! Gotta love this job J. Went to the Mariners game last night with my sons and caught a rare win. Inspired by the Mariners, we are going with a Boys of Summer theme in this post.

The first pitch:

Dave P, writes that tablet pc is not for the road warrior, it’s for the cubicle warrior. It goes to meetings, replaces paper for note taking and organizer functions, ensures background documents are always with you and at the ready, supports annotating Power Point slides in presentation mode, virtual whiteboarding, etc. In other words, for Dave it’s not as much a notebook replacement as it is a paper replacement and a new way of working. Dave, we totally agree with your analysis. Much of our market research, field trial observations, and focus group research pointed to these scenarios. A key focus of our initial evangelism and positioning for tablet pc was as a tool for the corridor warrior (our term for your cubicle warrior). A corridor warrior may or may not also be a road warrior. It’s a highly mobile professional where mobility is defined as not chained to a desk or a single physical location for the majority of the day. The scenarios you described in your post are almost exactly the ones we targeted as our entry into the highly mobile computing space.

Dave, I score this as a triple into the gap. Nice piece of hitting. You nailed the exciting V1 scenarios. I would give you a home run if not for the fact that you recommended requiring a detachable KB. While dedicated tablet enthusiasts like you, and esp those that are also poor typists like me, prefer a slate or detachable KB to maximize portability, there are many users that absolutely cannot give up the KB. Without the convertible option to ensure the KB is always there when one needs it, these users would not take the plunge into tablet computing. Unfortunately, I have to give us only a single on this one. We had the scenario visions that you describe, so we get credit for a base hit, but the fact that our marketing and positioning is perceived to be aimed at the wrong people is disappointing. We were aiming exactly at the people and scenarios you describe. Thanks for the feedback.

Seventh inning stretch:

One of our guiding principles in V1 was “first, be a great notebook.” One can argue whether we succeeded or not but it gave us clear direction when making HW and SW decisions. We had to deliver a notebook plus more, not force the users into a compromised, either/or decision. Our research told us this was a major shortcoming of many previous attempts at tablet computing. That is one of the major reasons we elected to build our OS on the XP Pro code base. However, we deliberately abstained from form factor requirements to allow OEMs and ODMs the maximum opportunity to innovate and differentiate with their designs. This was a difficult decision for us because we had some strong design opinions on the team and we did not want PC manufacturers and end users to miss out on the benefits of our “wisdom” J. Instead of loading up on requirements, we published and evangelized our POV as recommendations, but did not make them requirements. IMHO, this turned out to be a good decision. The market was rewarded with slates, convertibles, and detachables at the V1 launch, rather than a series of reference design clones differing primarily in color and badge. No single design captured the market. End users embraced the HW design that delivered to their particular set of scenarios and needs. There are a lot of really clever designers out there. Better to encourage them to be creative than to box them in. End users will tell us what works.

Extra innings:

JK writes: “Convertibles will continue to merge tablets with laptops, a trend I fear will kill off the tablet. Tablets should differentiate themselves from other form factors, and instead I see them converging.” Sorry JK, I gotta give you a swing and a miss on this one. Tablet features will converge with laptops, but this will help ensure life for the tablet, not kill it. Tablet is probably a poor choice of name for what we are trying to achieve. It’s too easily associated with a single form factor. So we also get a swing and a miss. Tablet PC is all about a highly mobile, always available, natural user input, computing paradigm. Note: I’ll try not to overuse the p-word in my blog, but it works here so I went with it. I don’t mean to imply that we are driving to a single convertible form factor exclusively. In fact, the opposite is true (see above). However, we are not taking a purist approach and limiting our focus to slates with pens and no KB. That approach significantly narrows the market, and consequently, our opportunity to bring in a broad range of partners and work with them to impact mobile computing in a major way. Sounds ambitious? You bet. Sounds challenging? Absolutely. Gotta have something inspirational when that alarm goes off at 4am.

NDA

2004-06-27T00:05:00Z

Sorry for the flat tire Layne, NDAs are not going away. I know it sounds like a convenient excuse to be vague but an NDA also serves a very useful purpose. It allows partner companies to freely exchange ideas without fear of having to defend them publicly before the thinking is solidified, or see them appearing shortly thereafter in a competitor's product. Maybe I'm too proud but I would rather have one or two partners tell me I'm stupid than have the entire world telling me. Also, marketing an idea or a product before it is ready can lead to unfortunate financial consequences. Look up Osborne Computers for a famous example in our industry.

BTW, a Flat Tire is not always a bad thing. It's also the name of a very good US microbrew made in the Belgian style. I used to live in Belgium and they make excellent beer. It's almost worth a trip to Belgium just for the beer. My favorites are De Koninck, Palm, Hougaerde (Hoogies), Duvel, and Trappist (but watch out for the Triples). Next time you get a Flat Tire I hope it's the good kind :)

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OK, thanks to several astute readers I should make sure everyone knows that the name of the beer is Fat Tire, not Flat Tire. However, I will not back off from my statement that's it's good brew :) The astute readers seemed to agree with me on this point.

Power Mangement

2004-06-26T23:44:00Z

Mark, the tablet team agrees with you. One of the things we learned with V1 was that the enhanced mobility enabled by Tablet PC exposes a lot of work we need to do to make power management better. Laptops are used mostly as station to station desktops, rather than as truly mobile devices like PDAs and SmartPhones. Of course, this is not uniformly true, but if you observe a significant number of laptop users you will find this to be the norm. As tablet started to push in thedirection of increased mobility we became increasingly frustrated with the limits of power management in today's HW and SW. Hence the new name of our division, Mobile Platforms Division. As we described at a high level at WinHEC, we are focusing on power management improvements as key enablers for tablet and mobile PCs in the Longhorn release. There are defined physical limits wrt today's batteries and transistors. While technologies like fuel cells look promising, they are not yet ready for prime time in a portable computing device. Until we are able to “cheat” the laws of physics we have to get smarter about how we manage the power budget within the parameter space defined by current technology. Better power management capability enables users to configure and use power management features like display dim or off, S3, S4, etc so that the effective battery life is much improved, and not at the expense of device availability. Ambient light sensors connected to a display brightness control are an example of improved HW/SW power management. There are many others.

One tablet user tip I learned from Chuck Thacker, the designer of the original MS tablet PC prototype: Whenever I set up a new tablet I immediately reconfigure one of the buttons to control screen off. I don't use buttons for launching Journal or TIP, esp with the in place TIP in Lonestar, so I am always ready to sacrifice those button actions. When I am using my tablet in a meeting or at home on the couch I just activate the button whenever I pause to think or actually engage in conversation with another human, possibly even a family member (yes, it does happen from time to time). A tap of the pen on the screen turns the display back on. In Chuck's prototype the screen was 4 watts out of a nominal 10 watt power budget so just this simple discipline greatly extended the battery life. It's almost half way to S3 without any resume issues or delays. The savings might not be quite as dramatic with other tablets but still significant.