What would you like to be doing of your tablet that you can't today?
I would like it if Adobe would allow you to write with ink. Microsoft should develop better software for their Microsoft Office Suite.

Which existing applications would you like to be tablet aware?
Adobe and Microsoft Office.

How would you like to be using ink in those applications?
I would like to use Adobe to create PDF files, and Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft products should have more ink functionality. For example, Excel should allow you to easily write in cells without requiring you to use the tip panel to enter letters or numbers.

What tasks would you like to be using your tablet for if only you could find the right application?

I would like to use it for scheduling tasks, as a gps system, and for web development.

On the non-software side, I think the expansion of the eBook business could be a big boost to the TPC. Lightweight screens + a pen = perfect combination for reading and annotating. I think that would really help out with Bill Gates' vision that every student would use one. Condense the set of textbooks a student is using down to the size of one computer they have anyway and boom.

Slightly unrelated but I wish the touch-screen of tablets were detachable - that would make reading ebooks a lot easier while you are in bed.

I would just like my tablet to perform as advertised. HP Compaq touted a lot of features that were in development or only worked in the labs. Out in the real world, my tablet is unable to come through as promised. I still use it for my writing business, writing/editing/proofreding my novels, research and keeping in contact with family/friends, transferring pictures, etc. Tablets are a step in the right direction.

I would like to see something like ritepen built into the OS but implemented better... seems like I have to fiddle for minutes at a time to get ritePen to start inking... OS update should be so easy to ink it would be like writng on paper... circle words one way and get ink to text... circle other way and get macro....

As far as applications... I would love it if LOGOS would build inking into their Bible software (highlighting and notes)... for that matter add INK Highlighting as a highlevel service to the OS so all applications could use and store it in a common format... Imagine being able to scribble notes in Micosoft Reader by clicking a standard icon that brought a 95% transparent window onto the screen that you could scribble on and associate with that location in the parent document...press the icon again and it become 100% transparent except for the ink... press a third time and it disappears

I would like to be able to use the pen features without ever needing the keyboard. When one needs to press shift or ctrl in photoshop for example. I would also love to see a UI designed around pen/touch interactions and not something in between like what is done nowadays (sorry Vista is better than XP but still not 100% penenabled!!!)

I'd like to be able to write in vista's start menu search (and I want the option to move the search bar back to the task bar so I don't have to open the start menu).

I'd also like to be able to write on my calendar in outlook.

Never considered tagging photos the way you described before, but I like it.

I think we've all wanted a "quick ink to text blogger" and application aware flicks. As an outlook junkie, I've wished for the same tasks functionality, as well. I wish Outlook was as great as OneNote with the whole ink thing in general.

I'd love to see Digsby work ink in, but I can see that being pretty problematic.

What would you like to be doing of your tablet that you can't today? Small tablets should have always-on telephone capability. If tablets don't do this, iPhone equivalents will claim this space.

Which existing applications would you like to be tablet aware? Windows Mail should include Grab and Drag type capability. (Windows Live Mail is not functional on small tablets.)

How would you like to be using ink in those applications? The TIP needs to be semi-transparent so it doesn't obscure interface elements underneath.

I don't have a Tablet PC, exactly. I have a Samsung Q1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Q1), which I purchased as a portable terminal to be used by my clients in mobile situations. I'm a CART provider (Academic Stenographer); I transcribe university classes on my steno machine in realtime for the benefit of Deaf students. Usually I use a full-size laptop set on a tripod, but in studio classes, presentations, or one-on-one conversations, the student often doesn't want to be tethered to one area of the room, so they take my Q1, linked wirelessly using a program called Teleview, and every word spoken in the room is transmitted right to the palm of their hand, allowing them to interact naturally with their professors and classmates. Sometimes they need to send messages to me as I'm transcribing, asking for clarification or making some other request, and right now they have to tap it out using the tiny on-screen keyboard and stylus of the Q1, which is incredibly ponderous. If they could use a program that allowed them to hand-write their message and then send the image automatically to another computer on the network, that would be incredibly useful.

Oh! I should mention one more thing I'd LOVE to see in a Tablet PC somewhere down the road: a multi-touch custom keyboard designer. I've been (slowly) making it my mission to bring ludicrously expensive stenographic technology ($4,000 software, $1,000 to $5,000 hardware) into the open-source geek community, and something like this would be my sine qua non killer ap. I've been trying to assemble ideas for a free steno program (http://ploversteno.blogspot.com/), though I'll need a lot more programming experience under my belt before it can get off the ground. But enough people enjoy creating custom keyboard layouts that a program of the kind I'm imagining -- which will allow you to define, drag, and drop areas on the screen and then bind them with particular keystrokes or commands -- could have applications beyond steno-dabbling. Haptic feedback would be extremely welcome, of course, but I think even a plain multi-touch interface would be workable. The traditional steno keyboard layout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype#Keyboard_layout) would be simple enough to emulate on a full-size Tablet touchpad, wouldn't it? 225 WPM to the masses!

A tablet pc that can read my mind, so when I use my messy handwriting, it knows what I am saying....

A program that can use the modifier keys programmed into commands. As in Photoshop Shift+(hold), Ctrl+(hold) click

The closest program I've found is Quick Buttons.
You can program it to Ctrl+V, Alt+D, etc.
However, it won't hold down a key

Many cases, it's faster to just use the key board than peck out commands on the tiny on-screen keyboard.

A hand tool in One Note is imperative.

BillZilla- I'm glad you mentioned the search field in the Start Menu! That is something I'd love to see as well.
In fact I started an app to do let you search with Ink.

http://www.pringle.net.nz/blog/PermaLink,guid,55e3cc16-a9c0-4177-b5bd-b8a4eed260fd.aspx

I never got it to a point where I was happy with it though.

I would like symbols and equations to be recognized... and converted to LaTeX or to input that can be fed to Maple or Mathematica.

I would like ink to be freely rotated.
I would like ink to be edited (e.g. handwriting and geometrical figures smoothed and simplified) automatically or with a script. I'd like to write a script (say, in ImageMagick) that can generate or simulate ink. (Can I convert my handwriting on plain paper to ink?)

I would like a new interface that effectively gives me a huge virtual desktop (a huge virtual blackboard)... maybe something along the lines of the "Scalable Fabric". Multi-touch and multi-pen capabilities (for collaborative discussions).

Of course, I always wish for better battery life and lower cost.

I'd like to see write anywhere come back. That way in programs like Microsoft Excel just select where you want to enter and then start writing. The same thing would work in the start menu.something like rite pen except with better options for correcting mistakes.

Gordon

I wish all programs were inkable, anywhere on the screen.

In the short run, I would settle for WordPerfect and AskSam.

Handwriting recognition still has a long way to go--and it should be possible to use more than one language at a time. I have to mix German and English all the time, and some French and Polish sometimes creep in as well.

Finally, even highly ink-aware programs like MS Word still have their rough spots. I am a professor, and correct papers with ink. But the wronk gesture or slip of the pen can shift all the ink in a document a little, making all my corrections useless. (and if it is the student who later moves things, I have to explain why they don't understand my remarks.) Why can't ink stay put?

Customizable buttons on the pen.

A virtual workspace around the main windows of each app for all floating windows would be nice. A small line with text button for recall each of them when we need it (or a decated floating button) . Some years ago a company do something like that for Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.... It shoud be right for each software menu to go away on small device. Look at Inkseine. Upper menu and lower page numbers are using near 1/4 of the available screen space on my Samsung Q1 with 7'. Anyway to ask them: Go away ! So stupid ! And the writing toolbar is on the writing space ! So when writing on the small space, you are always moving this toolbar from corner to corner. Stupid too !

Why in Vista Explorer disapeared buttons for Cut,Copy,Past,Delete, Properties, so easier for direct click with finger or stylus on a Tablet PC ?
With QTTabbar freeware and a plugin, Explorer is again fitted with these icons. And QTTabbar is a nice way to work with Tab directories in a single Explorer Window. It could be a native function like a true Virtual Desktop. For that, i use Virtual Dimension (a freeware) with a sticky small white tab on the edge of the screen (like Writing pad).


Microsoft is not the champion of ergonomy !

Origami Experience 2 is less good than first version for Program Launcher, and not really usefull. Nice gadget, but so gadget in real life.

I would like to see Origami become its own OS but fully custemizable. Just like windows but Origami central will replace windows explorer.
and ofcouse ink anywhere is a must.

What would you like to be doing of your tablet that you can't today?

-Use ink contuously. Right now many apps are but little ink enanbled.

-Improved conversion of lots of ink to text. Right now ink to text recognition is ok, but still fails too often to convert 100%. I still have to correct a lot of converted in to text manually with a keyboard.

- Be able to write faster in ink without problems of ink recognition to text. Right now I have to slow down my writing speed a lot to improve ink recognition.

Which existing applications would you like to be tablet aware?

-Office, specifically: Outlook
-video editing software: among others movie maker
-Internet Explorer
-Online bank account

How would you like to be using ink in those applications?

-Word: becomes an integration of journal, inkseine and Onenote, whilst still being able to type in text. With better ink recognition, pages instead of smaller ink blognotes can be written and effortlessly be translated to text, without loss of mark-up.
-Excel: being able to write numbers in in the fields. Being able to write formulas in ink, effortless translated to text (also the algebraic ones). Defining fields in ink which can automatically, faultlessly be translated to text. Option of fields in ink with hidden recognition and performance in text.
-Outlook: more tablet input friendly with pen or touch (bigger buttons, buttons arranged differently for easier pen or touch interface). As above being able to write freely in ink, with option automatic recognition to text. Improved TEO with better ink recognition for the callendar. Being able to annotate and ink your e-mail better, with richer ink, easy snipping of your e-mails, tablet user friendlier scrolling in Outlook. Searching with an in, ink. Lasso tool for integrated ctrl+c, or+v or +x or + a for easier e-mail handling without the use of a keyboard
-video editing: I already use the tablet mode a lot in video editing because it's easy to use the pen to drag-and-drop pictures and video around in the storyboard. The adition of effects is a matter of selecting items (again with the pen or finger) or altering the effect with a slider bar. Shortcomings are in the use of text (titles, end credits, undertitles, titles). Option of ink or ink to test recognition would be a plus.

-Internet Explorer: more tablet friendly, many text fields replaced by ink enabled fields with the option of recognition to text. Automatic ink recognition to a certain website in the adress bar. Freely applicable full ink anotation on web pages. Free or shaped snipping tool integrated with internet explorer. Form filler ink enabled.

-Internet bank account: being able to fill in forms and amounts in ink which will automatically be recognized correctly to text. Digital secured signing in ink.

What tasks would you like to be using your tablet for if only you could find the right application?

Quite an open question.

All of the above! The solution in my opinion is better ink recognition. Let's start with that.