If a Tablet PC is so good, what about a napkin PC?

Check out these design winners for the NextGen PC Design Competition. Pretty slick.

Rob Zelt, Neil Roodyn and others from the community had a roundtable luncheon with Bill Gates last week at TechEd. Think about this: How many executives from any tech company you can think of set aside time like this to meet with members of the community? Not many.

Rob Zelt has the best write up at this time.

According to Rob, the main topic of conversation was about education including a bit about Tablet PCs.

It’s great to hear on both accounts.

Bill Gates has been the leading public advocate of Tablet PCs. Just look at his last five speeches listed on Microsoft’s Presspass:

From TechEd: “We’ve also got the pen capability that we’re taking to a whole new level in terms of easy recognition, and how that is implemented in the hardware. I think of every student having a device that avoids the need for paper textbooks. The tablet device will let them take notes, record audio, connect to the Internet. It will be superior in every way, and yet it can’t be purely keyboard based. It has to have this touch and pen as well.”

From advance08 The Future of Media: “So that idea of seeing will have that in many places — your desktop in your office, you’ll be able to have things displayed and just point and expand the information, your whiteboard will be an intelligent whiteboard and you can navigate through information there. So it’s pretty spectacular when you get what we call natural interface. Likewise, being able to talk to the computer, talk to your mobile phone and say what you want or have a tablet-like device that you can just take notes on and those notes can be recognized or searched, sent off to other people. That is the combination of incredible processing power together with software breakthroughs.”

Microsoft CEO Summit: “The early uses of this, besides Surface, include things like the touch on some of the phones, including Apple’s, it includes the pen on tablet computers that are very popular in verticals like medicine, and we expect to catch on with students who want to take notes or people who sit in meetings.”

2008 Government Leaders Forum Asia: “I’ve got one last thing to show, and I previewed this earlier, and that’s related to the student Tablet. To me this is an important milestone, and Microsoft has been investing in this for a long time. We see lots of ways that we’re going to drive this into the mainstream. In fact, my own daughter goes to a school where she uses a Tablet PC, and it’s phenomenal to see how comfortable she is, how she learns better. She tries out her knowledge, she communicates with her teacher in a new way. It is completely digital. The Internet is there, the ability to create things is there.”

Japan Premium Forum: “This will be important in the office and it will be important at home, so it will touch computing everywhere. You’ll see on your phone, of course, we’ll have touch and the pen as well. You’ll see on the portable computer we’ll have a tablet-like device that will have touch and that’s where the pen with the ink and ink recognition comes in.”

Five speeches. Five mentions of Tablets. If I went further through the list of speech transcripts, I imagine the trend would continue. That’s the way Bill Gates has been.

I also like the fact that Bill Gates spent so much talking about education. Oh, how I wish I could have listened in. Early on while developing for the Tablet PC I began to see how ideal a device like it might be for education. I’ve been working on some eWorkbooks (or activity books) for awhile that I think will offer a natural way for students to interact with their learning material. Cancer was a bit of hiccup along the way and now I’m racing to pay off bills like you can’t imagine, so my work has gotten more splintered, however, my goals have not. I can’t help but get inspired each time I think about how education can be improved with the right technology. The time is right. The devices are getting inexpensive enough, mobile enough, connected enough, and interactive enough. Now we need the software and content packaged well to leverage these devices.

I hope you don’t mind a little self-archiving here as I re-post some of my eWorkbook “applications” that I’ve been working on.

These include a variety of components ranging from crossword puzzles, clock problems, coin counting problems, math problems, matching problems, reading problems, word search problems, coloring surfaces, connect the dots problems, and so on that fit together nicely in an eWorkbook format. In addition, each component supports both handwriting and keyboard input as well as most importantly interactive feedback:

And here are a mix of algebra problems:

And an eBook that reads aloud for beginner readers:

As well as a personal diary eBook:

And a music composition eWorkbook:

Technology wise, they’re all written with WPF and XAML with portions ported to Silverlight.

As I look back over these screenshots I get goosebumps.

Is the era of Apple underpromising and over delivering dead?

When you think about it, the last couple major Apple events have held few if any surprises. I’d go as far as to say they were on the edge of being boring. Maybe it’s inevitable as Apple moves more towards the IT market–you know, as Apple becomes more like Microsoft. Does this make Apple more predictable and dare I say boring? During today’s keynote, for instance, during the partner demos I almost had the feeling I was watching Microsoft partner demos at TechEd. Was anyone inspired by any of it? I wasn’t.

And as Ben Patterson points out, there hasn’t been a “One More Thing” the last couple events. Kind of interesting compared to what it seemed like Apple was able to deliver in the early 2000s. To be fair, it’s hard to exceed expectations once let alone twice a year. Yep, Steve Jobs and Apple are mortal.

In fact, I think Apple’s been doing a fair bit of backpeddling the last couple events too. Take the iPhone SDK as an example. First the message was that the browser was the phone’s SDK and developers didn’t need more. Then Apple announced the iPhone SDK seemingly in response to all of the jailbreaking. Along the way Apple announced the single spot for purchasing or downloading iPhone apps, which it received further criticism for. And then today, it added a couple additional ways to distribute iPhone apps. Looks to me that Apple is maturing with its growth, providing more options for more customers and partners.

Of course, some of what might be going on here is timing plain and simple. If Apple wanted to release an Intel Atom based MID-like device, for instance, it could announce it but not ship it until around the Fall when the chips reach the market. Apple, I guess, could announce their forthcoming products, but since they are tied to Intel’s release dates like everyone else and considering that they are a secretive company, it might indicate that we watch for announcements around Intel product launch times.

So who knows, maybe there is One More Thing….it’s just that it’s not quite time yet. Stay tuned.

Despite all the tweets from the community, no Mac Tablet was announced at Apple’s WWDC event today.

I’m a bit surprised that Apple didn’t surprise us with a Tablet or more likely a smaller MID-like device. Wouldn’t a grown up iPod Touch or iPhone make sense? Bigger screen. Similar connectivity. Doubles as a reading device with content accessible through iTunes. Remote control and viewing of Apple TV content.

Maybe the rumors will come true some day, but the longer it takes, the more time we’ll all have to remember that Microsoft and its partners are the lead innovators when it comes to Tablet and Tablet-like technology.

Compare the handwriting recognition. Apple’s InkWell is so much the lagging technology–whether it came from the Newton or not. And touch? You think Apple’s in the lead here? Not exactly. Look at how much further Microsoft is taking multi-touch in the UI with its TouchWall and Surface initiatives. And then there’s the form factor itself. Who’s taking more innovative technology to the market? Apple? I think not. And what about education? And the arts? Shouldn’t computers be offering people even more than what you can type on a notebook or cell phone.

It disappoints me. I think Apple would make some awesome “Tablet” products.

Right now I’m kind of down over the lack of a Tablet announcement, but I look forward to the fall and the next Apple conference. Just think of all the Tablet rumors between now and then!

What better place to hide something than in full view. So it was with great curiosity that I’ve been digging through some photos taken at Moscone–home of next week’s WWDC event.

I wondered: Might there be hints in the numerous banners going up as to whether Apple will be releasing an Apple MID or Tablet? Hmmm. Not that I can tell.

I even decided to dig into one photo behind the registration counter that purports to show a MacBook Air and an iPhone. But is that really an iPhone? Or might it be something else? A MID perhaps??

I decided to dig further. First, I corrected for the perspective in the image and then knowing the width of the Air to be 12.8″ I calculated out the width of the “iPhone” in the image.

Rats, it came out to 4.5″ x 2.4″ the exact dimensions of the currently shipping iPhone. Oh well, no secret clues here.

Forbes is spending too much time in the bushes trying to track down the latest scoup on what might actually be shown at WWDC next week.

After extensive reporting it appears that there are “mysterious” boxes making their way around the bay area. Hmmm.

Could these be some Tablet- or MID-like device? Who knows. I’ll take an iPhone MID thank you very much too. Where do I stand in line?

I guess we’ll find out Monday.

Although it would have been cool for at least once for Bill Gates to use a Tablet PC during one of his keynotes, he at least doesn’t fail to mention them. In his final keynote as full-time Microsoft chairman at TechEd, Gates talks of Tablets and education:

“I think of every student having a device that avoids the need for paper textbooks. The Tablet device will let them take notes, record audio, connect to the Internet. It’ll be superior in every way and yet it can’t be purely keyboard based. It has to have this touch and pen as well.”

In case you’re wondering, he didn’t say much more about Windows 7 other than referring to the multi-touch demoed last week at D. He did add:

“We’ve also got the pen capability, that we’re taking to a whole new level in terms of easy recognition and how that is implemented in the hardware.”

Not sure if he was referring to Windows 7 here what’s currently available in Vista. My guess is the latter, but it’s hard to tell.

I was glad he finally is mentioning vision in more detail. This has been a very lacking aspect of Microsoft’s interaction strategy if you ask me. Surface, TouchWall and the like are all beginning to use cameras, though there’s lots more than can and should be done. I’d like to see a whole new vision processing capabilities added to the .NET Framework.

Today Microsoft announced that it would be extending the lifetime for Windows (XP we presume) for netbooks. It had already done so for ultra-low cost PCs, such as the Eee PC.

This leaves the UMPC and similar Tablet-enabled devices even further out on a limb as UMPCPortal points out as they are becoming even more expensive relative to other similar featured devices. I think Warner over at Gottabemobile hints at the product confusion too and reflects on how this all may shake out in the end.

Here’s the problem as I see it: Despite the fact that these low-cost devices are in part being targeted to students, there won’t be ink. There won’t be touch. There won’t be handwriting recognition. All of which make lots of sense for students. These great Tablet features are not included in XP Home, which is what Microsoft is giving breaks to OEMs on.

Now fortunately there’s Silverlight and I guess handwriting recognition can go through a server for these low cost devices, but this is not the ideal situation.

It’s disappointing to see Microsoft’s licensing shifts–that are clearly needed I know–potentially hurting Tablets/UMPCs in the education market at a time like this.

I think part of the problem here is that Microsoft sees the Tablet features more as a premium experience. Like the licensing issue with XP themselves, it needs to drop this and get over it. Tablet features aren’t premium. In fact, Tablet features should be mainstream, native features that are cross platform even (Silverlight, Messenger on the Mac, Office on the Mac). If Silverlight can inch this direction, I’m perplexed why Windows can’t across all its SKUs.

Here’s my plea for Microsoft: If you could just transfer the responsibility of ink and handwriting recognition from Windows and put in under the management of the .NET Framework team, I think developers, customers, and OEMs would all be better off.

Yeah, this is part of my continuing campaign to see Windows as having the core responsibility of saying “No” as part of its objectives of being more stable and secure and the .NET Framework, et al, as our path to the future. Move all the good stuff to .NET so we can get on with it. It’s the new API.

Someone is saying something somewhere, because there’s plenty of blog chatter this morning about “will Microsoft saying anything about Windows 7.”

The talk started with this CNet interview with Steve Sinofsky of Microsoft where he said Microsoft was taking a measured approach with Windows 7 communication.

I think Robert Scoble’s response sums up the thoughts of many on this: If you’re not going to say anything, I’m going to look elsewhere for something interesting.

Then on the Microsoft Windows Vista Team Blog, Chris Flores explains Microsoft’s lack of Windows 7 talk further, by explaining that indeed Microsoft is talking with software and hardware partners and that they simply didn’t want to overpromise.

But that’s not the end of it. No sooner had Microsoft said it wasn’t going to say anything, than some are suggesting that Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer will be presenting some features of Windows 7 at the D6 Conference, which starts today.

Mary Jo Foley runs with this rumor and predicts that Microsoft will be talking about aspects of Windows 7, including touch.

Larry Dignan chimes in too with a bucket load of skepticism about Touch and Tablet PCs.

My take? Who knows what we’ll be seeing at D6 tonight (6:15PM Pacific Time). With both Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates on stage at the same time, I’d expect to see something very, very cool. Maybe a prototype of the consumer version of a Surface computer? Hmmm. Or maybe something that’s incrementally grown over the years within Microsoft? We’ll all be tuning in. From the D6 website it doesn’t appear that there will be a live video feed (where’s Scoble and his N95 when you need him???), but there is a page on the conference website for videos, so this is probably a good place to monitor.

Mary Jo Foley: “I’m hearing buzz that if Microsoft can manage to gag and tie temporarily its Chief Secrecy Officer Steven Sinofsky, the company might show off at D6 the touch technology that Microsoft is building into Windows 7.

As I and others have reported previously, it’s not just Windows Mobile 7 that is adding touch support; it is Windows 7, as well. There have been more recent leaks corroborating Microsoft’s plans to add touch support to Windows 7….

As I’m still not much of a Tablet PC fan, I must admit Microsoft’s desire to add touch to Windows is a bit baffling. Even one former Softie working to help evangelize the Tablet form factor noted that PC makers were none too keen on creating Windows machines optimized for touch.”

People aren’t interested in touch?? Heard of the iPhone?

This is a note to myself to add the Tablet PC Nursing blog to thredr.

I also need to rework the clustering algorithm for the Tablet PC topic. There’s not enough linking going on right now even though there are plenty of posts.

Likewise, in the Apple space just about everyone uses partial RSS feeds so I need to scrape more of the web pages directly.

I agree with Sumocat: the larger Wacom pens are nice to hold and use. The downside? They don’t fit anywhere to the case of the Tablet PC.

Jason O’Grady over at ZDNet is blogging that a Tablet Mac is to appear this fall. I’ve been hearing similar rumors for awhile too. But nothing has hit the market yet. Is the time coming soon though? I hope so. I think the market needs a little more shaking up. Competition is good.

Jason writes:

“A little birdy tells me that Apple will announce a 12 or 13-inch tablet in the fall of this year. Most likely in the September or October time frame. It will run the full Mac OS X and have a slot loading SuperDrive, an “iPhone-type” GPS chip and an Intel Core Duo processor, presumably Intel’s Atom.”

The size is consistent with one rumor I heard, although it doesn’t quite make sense since I’d expect an incremental step up from the iPhone. I’m thinking of something with a 5 to 7 inch display.

Jason doesn’t seem to have any hint as to the OS, which might be suggestive of the size. He says, “Whether it’ll be a based on the iPhone or MacBook form-factor remains to be seen.” A smaller device is more likely to have the iPhone OS versus a larger one. A larger device, though, might have an embedded OS if we’re talking about something super thin, such as a companion display with a built-in digitizer for your desktop or notebook. That might make a lot of sense. Apple’s been pretty good with creating well engineered products. Something thin would be another Apple wonder.

Oh, how I long for thinner Tablets. Could Apple be teaching the Tablet world how to make a slate?

Engadet is pointing to this Xentex dual hinged 13.3 inch “Tablet PC.” Wild. What will people think of next?

jkontherun has the news: MindJet, the makes of MindManager, have acquired project management company JCVGANTT. The big deal here is that both companies have been producing excellent Tablet wares.