I haven't seen this tip before just now.  Lifehacker has posted a tip on how to use multiple cores during the boot process of Windows Vista.  Kind of cool if it works.  Mine was on the defaulte set at 1 and I have changed it to 2. I can't reboot right now, but it's ready for the next time I can shut down.  Give it a shot and comment below if you notice a difference during your next boot.  This could potentially be a great tip for some of the slower Dual Core Tablet PC's out there - but on the other hand - if you're on battery, I wonder how much the extra CPU cycles during boot will drain the battery.

This is a really cool tool called Retrievr sent in by GBM reader Chris C. it searches Flickr by sketching in a box on the sidebar.  I've been playing with it since last night and I personally think it's amazing.  I find it works best when drawing simple shapes and lines, and wow does it work great!!

Below is an example of the tool in action - Look at how it picks out the same type of photos as what I had drawn in the box.  Make sure you have some time before you follow the link - it's addictive!!

As a corporate user valiantly trying to upgrade to Vista, one last hold-out was my iPassConnect account. With the new iPassConnect version 3.60, iPass has finally launched the long-awaited support for Vista. iPass allows seamless connection to a myriad of WiFi hotspots, including all T-Mobile, so I can browse at any Starbucks I want. (Maybe I can go on a Coffee Break with jkOnTheRun) I've used iPass to connect in hotels, coffee shops, and many other places without being charged - just pay the iPass bills and get access at thousands of hotspots around the world. Although regular users can get iPass accounts, it's mostly aimed at corporate users whose companies pay the bills.

And now, only a year after Vista launched, iPassConnect supports Vista. Now, if we can only get them to support Windows Mobile 6 as well...

I have had many times when traveling when I have had no WiFi access on my computer, but I have had a desperate need to open/read/edit an office document. My Cingular (AT&T) 8525 retrieves my email quite well, but doesn't always read those docs in the best way. My "solution"? I save the file to my micro-SD and then use an SD card adapter and reader to access the file on my computer.

Now Kingston Technology has a solution for everyone else so that they can do the same thing. The new Kingston DataTraveler Micro Reader is a ReadyBoost enhanced USB flash drive with up to 4GB capacity, but it also includes an expansion slot to read microSD, microSDHC, or Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) cards.

With this device, you can have a nice ReadyBoost USB device that will also allow you to transfer files quickly and easily from your phone, camera, or other device with micro SD. Great option for the gear bag!

The 1GB version should ship this month, followed by 2GB and 4GB models. Price points are quite reasonable with an MSRP of $19.25 for the 1GB up to $42 for the 4GB. The full information on this new device isn't up on the Kingston site yet, but you can read the press release here. The previous generation, the DataTraveler Reader, looks pretty similar but it's slightly larger and doesn't support ReadyBoost.

One of the things people struggle with when moving to a pen-based system is the lack of buttons on the pen for Ctrl, Alt, etc. Well, Ken Hinckley has come up with an interesting, and quite amusing, solution, something he calls the IntelliScroller. The more I think about it, he might be on to something, here.

Better get those Post-It notes ready.....

Every year, Yahoo! hold a survey that includes the Yahoo! readership on the best gadgets of the year. This year's award winner at CES was Eye-Fi, which Warner covered on GottaBeMobile before. The Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card allows you to transfer your digital photos directly from your camera over a wireless network, to either your computer or the on-line service of your choice.

Other contenders should also be pretty familiar to the GBM readership:

• ASUS Eee PC 4G
• Fujitsu's U810 WWAN is an ultra-mobile PC with state-of-the-art connectivity.
• Verizon LG Voyager cell phone
• Dash Express is an Internet-connected GPS device that gives real-time traffic conditions based on data transmitted from other Dash users. Users can also receive up-to-the minute notifications via Yahoo! Local about everything from movies to gas prices.
• Sansa TakeTV offers a simple and less expensive way to move downloaded TV programs around the house. Using a cradle with standard RCA and S-Video plugs, your TV media is stored on the USB memory stick.
• iRobot's iLooj is a robotic gutter cleaner that will clean a stretch of gutter (60 feet) in ten minutes.
• Toshiba's TDP-EW25U wireless DLP projector can produce an image that casts 41 feet or 1.6 feet, create a 60-inch picture even when it's positioned 2.4 feet away, and accommodates high-definition video.
• The Logitech DiNovo is a wireless keyboard that fits in the palm of a hand and makes it simple to navigate media when a user connects a PC to a TV screen.
• Electric-Spin's Golf Launchpad Tour is a unique golf simulation input device that allows users to play golf in the convenience of their home, with their own clubs. 

You can read about the Last Gadget Standing competition on Yahoo!.

If you are looking for a new on-screen keyboard, then check out this new offering from Comfort Software. The Comfort On-Screen Keyboard is multi-language and supports multiple keyboard templates, so just about any need can be met. Several of the templates are standard keyboard layouts, but they also have some customized for UMPC use. Check out the corner version below. From their website:

• Displaying the icons of shortcuts in Windows® and popular applications.
• Displaying characters actually typed in any language, which allows you to type text without a localized keyboard.
• Customizing the keyboard appearance (the position, size and number of keys, the color and the skin) with the possibility to select it from a large number of available templates (without having to buy a new keyboard )
• Color areas for fingers (if necessary) in case you learn to touch type. It is convenient because when you press a key, you can see it pressed on the on-screen keyboard!

Now, myself, I'd really like this combined with a capacitive touch screen, particularly if it had the tactile feedback like Apple patented a while back. Then I would have the best of both worlds - a slim, slate style Tablet PC and a good typing experience. Now that would get my vote for a WOW device.

via jkOnTheRun

We’re all looking at solutions for getting juice to our devices and anything that avoids power bricks would be a plus. So, how about a tablet that grabs juice from the sun? Treehugger is featuring an article on the Sun Table that apparently can pull in enough power to juice up your laptop or your TV. In full sunlight it will charge up in 3 hours and store 13 amps.

via Gizmodo

Firefox 3 is now in Beta and of course every Firefox user knows that this means a number of your favorite extensions might not work until they are recoded for the new version. Well, good news for Tablet PC and UMPC users is being reported by Sumocat. It looks like on the portable edition of the beta the GeckoTip extension is working, at least as far as the Floating TIP is concerned. Sumocat is testing this on XP and wants to know if any Vista users have had the same luck. I’d like to know as well.

UPDATE: Ok, the good times just keep on rolling. Apparently Firefox 3 now supports the TIP natively. That’s a good thing.

Ok, I thought I had successfully avoided the urge to buy a Wii. But this looks like that might change my mind. (Of course finding one to buy is another story.) Johnny Lee has come up with a hack that allows you to use a Wiimote to bascially turn any surface into a whiteboard. The video explains it all. If you watch the video all the way through, there is some interesting multi-touch action happening on a Toshiba M200. Also check out the video on tracking your fingers with a Wiimote. Fascinating.

Via The Student Tablet PC

For those who like to write on paper with an ink pen, EPOS has been producing a very interesting USB based pen solution. They've just upped the ante, though, with their new Digital Pen & USB Flash Drive combo unit. The idea is that you can position the oval USB device at the top of your paper and write with the pen just like normal. Once you're done, you plug the USB device into you computer and upload the data. The pen can use either regular ink or you can swap out for a stylus and be able to write on anything, even your desktop.

Way back more than a year ago I got to play with some really early models of EPOS pens, back when the receiver was still tethered to a laptop. I was very impressed with how well it worked and, at that point at least, it worked with my Tablet PC just fine. The system technology is actually sonic - the pen and receiver communicate using ultrasonic waves - so it has the understanding of the pen location in 3 dimentions. Yes, you can "hover". Also interesting is that every pen has it's own sound, so a receiver can distinguish between multiple different pens. They picture the possibility of using EPOS technology in Tablet PCs by using the EPOS pen solution. Could be a replacement for Wacom? According to EPOS, in Windows Vista, this can turn any system into a Tablet PC, including the handwriting recognition and pen flicks.

The new design looks pretty attractive. I could imagine having one of these in my pocket for emergency pen input when I don't have my Tablet PC with me.

via CrunchGear

Seeing the release of the Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card excited me a short time ago and now that I have it in my hands, it still does. Although, there are a few caveats. The Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card allows you to transfer your digital photos directly from your camera over a wireless network, to either your computer or the on-line service you choose. (There are plenty to choose from.) I thought the 2GB card would be a handy accessory for my Canon SD1000 camera and it is. It is simple to set up, you basically give it your network information and the info for your on-line service, snap the pictures you want, and as long as you are in range of your WiFi network the Eye-Fi card does its thing. The Eye-Fi Card actually works in three modes: Upload to Web, Upload to the Web plus your computer, and Upload to Computer, so you have some flexibility there. If you're just doing some uploading to a web service, you don't even need to have your computer turned on, it'll upload straight through your router.

But that's where the caveats come in. It won't work with just any network, so doing this on the road with hotel or coffee shop hotspots won't work for you. You also need to be aware that you can't control the resolution or size of the pictures you are uploading, so if you've taken a large batch of photos at high res (the Canon SD1000 is a 7.1 megapixel camera) it can take awhile. That can also drain your camera's battery pretty quick.

Those caveats aside, I like what I see with the Eye-Fi card and hope they continue to develop this down the road. Follow the Read More link to see the video ShortCut.

If you're like me, you are constantly looking for ways to improve the battery life of your Tablet PC. Even 4-6 hours just isn't enough sometimes. In steps a small application called Vista Battery Saver. This lightweight, free application will automatically tweak your Vista system profile when you unplug to a more battery efficient profile (and less processor intensive, too). You can customize exactly what happens, but key components are turning off Aero and Sidebar only when on battery. It claims to save "up to 70%" of your battery usage which would truly be remarkable. I plan on trying this out over the weekend to see exactly how much it can help my battery usage.

via Chris Pirillo

How many external USB drives do you have installed? I had to use both hands to count the ones attached to my server. But what's that got to do with mobility you ask? Well, nothing. However, most of us have at least one USB drive attached to your system for backups, storage of media files, etc. This how-to will show you how to milk every bit of performance out of your external USB attached disk drive.

Another interesting new Silverlight application is entering beta! For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Popfly, it allows users to easily create web applications without programming in APIs and without having intimate knowledge of Javascript. From the Popfly informational site:

Popfly is the fun and easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, and Web pages. It’s made up of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups and a social network where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

This will be great for people who want to add a little jazz to their website, Facebook page, etc, but don't have a programming background. With more of a drag and drop style, people can quickly create applications by pulling "blocks" from other sites and linking those blocks together.

You can read a review and perspective on this interesting new app at Ed Dunhill's Blog.

Check out Sketchcast.com - play around for a little while - it's simple, but cool!!  It records your Ink as Flash and gives you an embed code to put on your blog or anywhere else.  Could make out to be an interesting new type of Ink Blog???

VIA Makeyougohmm

Folks are always finding better ways to personalize their notetaking experience in OneNote - from notebook and section organization, to scanning, to using templates, etc.

David Rasmussen, of Microsoft's OneNote team, has passed along a good tip for creating a page template from a picture, and then making that page template a default for a given section.

One of the fun and productive things I've done to speed up my tablet pc notetaking in OneNote, was to create a template based in ink on how I prefer to take notes for given meeting types. To do this, I started with a blank template, inked all the basics: title, regarding, attending, and created some ink based vertical separation lines for general notes and important things I needed to follow up on. Once I was happy with the layout, I saved it as a template by going to the New Page drop down, More Template Choices, and chose to save current page as a template. From there, it is now available to me to set as a default template for sections, or apply as a template on-the-fly.

Using David's tip and my tip from above, the flexibility exists within OneNote to create custom templates for the kind of notetaking you are doing at the moment or for a given template: set one style for taking notes in college, set another for taking notes in church, and another for general meeting notes.

I'm prepping for my Amtek T770 InkShow, so this new rotation utility from todoUMPC member hal9000 should come in very handy - definitely on my install list.

Via CTitanic

Josh Einstein, of Tablet Enhancements for Outlook fame, recently became a 2710p Tablet PC owner. Frustrated by the fact that the screen only rotates in "Primary Landcsape" and "Primary Portrait" modes, he set out to fix it - and fix it he did. In addition, he was able to hack the Q Menu to apply the Secondary Portrait and Secondary Landscape rotation choices to the Q Menu. I tested it out last night and it works wonderfully. The only thing that doesn't work quite right is the pen button rotation - it still only does the primary rotations. Josh is currently working on that one, so it shouldn't be too long. In addition, the camera doesn't recognize the secondary rotations.

To apply Secondary Portrait and Landscape rotations to your 2710p, follow these two posts:

1) Instructions on downloading and installing the latest Intel 965 GMA drivers

2) Copy and paste the reg code from this post into a .reg file. Save it,, Run it, and it will modify your registry ( back up your registry first, of course ! ).

Good work, Josh! Can you hack the 2710p to add a Scroll button ?

This how-to hits close to home. Do you own a UMPC such an my OQO Model-02 that does not have a disk activity LED? If you are like me, occasionally I find myself asking why couldn't manufacturers find a location for and install a 20 cent LED? We all have times when for a variety of reasons we would like that visual queue. It's reassuring sometimes isn't it?  I was recently installing a piece of software for demo on my OQO when I could not tell if the program had locked up, or if I was just impatient. Turned out that several CTL+ALT+Deletes later, I was just being impatient. Today's How-To will walk you through setup of a neat utility (an oldie but it still works in Vista (yea!) , XP, and even W2K). Check this out...