Samsung’s Q1 is available on Expansys.Com for £800, which is about $1400. That is a high price, much more than most people will want to pay for a UMPC. Engadget, that $999 price for the TabletKiosk eo doesn't look too bad now, does it?

via Stuff

James Kendrick has just posted a demo video of Office 2007 where he focuses on the Tablet PC features . I’ve been using Office 2007 for some time now and I’d highly encourage you to check out his video.

Office 2007 has been given a total facelift over the previous version, and no doubt you've seen pictures and videos of the new "ribbon" interface. I have been using it for a few weeks and the more I use it the more I realize that a lot of the interface enhancements make the various Office applications much easier to use with the pen on a Tablet PC.  This video demonstrates how those UI changes makes my work on a Tablet PC more productive, and in the video I show how a lot of these changes will be a boon for Origami device owners.  Note that Office 2007 is an early beta and will likely change from what is demonstrated in this video by release time.

Josh Einstein has officially announced the availability of TEO 3.0 Beta 1. Download information and release notes are here. Support forums can be found here.

Josh had this to say on his blog:

No April Fool's joke here. TEO 3.0 Beta 1 is finally available. This is a very limited time beta. Another build will be released in the next two weeks that has an extended time limit. Please please please read the release notes in their entirety before downloading.

Also, I am not going to be replying to any TEO 3.0-specific email for the weekend because I promised Heather that once this milestone was hit, I would take a little downtime. So any questions you have must go to the forum. Anyone who knows me knows I'm going to check in from time to time anyway.

Note: TEO 3.0 Beta 1 is not currently supported in Office 2007.

-- Rob Bushway 

Are you looking for a light-weight, ink-enabled calendar application? Then you might want to checkout this InkShow. Tablet Calendar is the perfect solution for those who don’t need the full functionality of Outlook, but are still looking for a way to manage their calendar in digital ink. The current version of the application could use a little work and some bug fixes.

• Watch the InkShow ( 6:20, 3.63 mb)
• Visit the ComCul International website
• Read more about the features in Tablet Calendar 
• Download the trial

Pricing:

• $24.95-  15 day trial available

I’ve been pretty vocal in the past about PC Magazines consistent lack of tablet pc coverage, so I was quite pleased to see PC Magazine’s Michael J. Miller write about Toshiba’s M400 Tablet PC on his blog today.

Overall, he gives the M400 a good thumbs up, although he still prefers Lenovo’s X41.

For the past week, I’ve been trying out the new Toshiba Portege M400 convertible, Toshiba’s first small tablet upgrade in a long time.

I’m a big fan of both small notebooks and tablet computers.  I like my laptops light, because I’m a train commuter, and carry my laptop a lot.  And I like tablet computers mostly because I like reading on them (with the screen in a vertical position), and for occasionally annotating notes and documents with the pen.  Thus far, tablets have been mostly successful in vertical markets, such health care and insurance, where form-filling is very important, but lately they seem to be getting some traction in education as well.

The Seattle Times met up with Otto Berkes at Seattle’s Espresso Vivace Roasteria and grabbed some good shots of him using the Samsung UMPC watching TV over the Slingbox app. Not much there from an article standpoint, but the pictures are really good. 

Josh Einstein is telling us that he’s got a surprise coming for us all on Friday…..could it be the TEO 3.0 public beta?

Check back on Friday…..

-- Rob Bushway 

There is not a Tablet PC user alive who doesn’t come into contact with a PDF document at least once a week. Often times, we will get a PDF that needs to be signed and returned to the requester. How that gets done used to be a major source of frustration among Tablet PC users until PDF Annotator came along. In this InkShow, we take a look at PDF Annotator by giving a quick overview of its features and also go over how those annotated PDFs behave with Acrobat.

• Watch the InkShow ( 14:41, 18.12 mb)
• Visit the Grahl Software website
• Read more about the features and screen shots
• Download the trial

Pricing:

• $49.95-  trial available

Eric Mack has just posted that an OEM has been in contact with him about evaluating one of their new Ultra-Wide screen tablet pcs.

He is not at liberty to discuss who the OEM is at this point, but it is not Toshiba. I would also guess that Gateway is not the OEM either because they already have a wide-screen tablet pc. In addition, Eric seemed quite surprised at the who the OEM was….very interesting. His girls are on 24–hour Fed-Ex watch duty as he expects to get the Tablet PC any day now.

Unfortunately, Eric, I have not gotten wind from any other OEMs about a new Ultra-Wide screen tablet. I’ll Skype you later and get the inside scoop from you…

Omar Shahine has just released a new powertoy for OneNote: Send RSS to OneNote. This looks to be another one of those “must-have” powertoys that help keep data in OneNote. Well done, Omar.

I don’t think the powertoy works with OneNote 2007.

This is a cool little application. Basically you can launch it, enter an RSS feed (all flavors supported) and click download feed, select the posts you want and send off to OneNote.

I’ve also added a little context menu in IE (thanks for the pointers Greg!) that will launch Rss2OneNote and download the feed. Lastly, I added an option to create a new section based on the Feed Title and create a page for each blog entry.

BTW: If you find that the powertoy to be a productive tool, I’d encourage you to make a donation to Omar on his download page.

Daryl Burling has written on an excellent article on why he believes the UMPC will be successful. He touches on many of the same points I covered in my post, but goes into much more depth. He also gives some honest appraisals on issues that will give the UMPC some bumps along the road.

So the UMPC is about to hit store shelves.  Lots of people are wondering whether these devices will make any sense in the market and if they will sell at all.  Here's my take for what it's worth.

Looking at the platform design goals, there are four key advantages of the Ultra Mobile PC:

• Full PC and internet capabilities
• Location adaptability
• Anytime connectivity
• Ultra mobility

In this series I'll look at each of these and try and figure out why this advantage is compelling.

- Rob Bushway

 Dr. Neil Roodyn, a Tablet PC MVP from Australia, is in Redmond this week and will be doing a webcast today at 11:00 am (PT) on a topic dear to all of us: synchronization

Centralizing Data Synchronization
The new Sync Center in Windows Vista will become the hub for all data synchronization between the PC and applications, services, devices and other computers. Join Dr. Neil Roodyn as he takes a closer look at the development framework as well as the end user experience that Sync Center helps create.

If You have not participated in a Live Meeting before, I'd suggest heading over to the meeting link about 15-20 minutes before the meeting starts to ensure your pc is ready.

Looks like Toshiba is not entering the UMPC as previously speculated by us, Hugo, and others who read the article.

Matt Codington, Toshiba's Product Manager, who was interviewed for the APC Mag article had this to say as a comment on Hugo's blog:

You’ll know that Toshiba has a very strong partnership with Microsoft and will continue to push these boundaries to develop real productivity tools and easy to use consumer devices. I’m sure Dan will agree with me when I tell you that our discussion had many points of reference, and although a device like this is a possible extension of the next mobile platform, I’m not sure it meets a real need? Too heavy to carry in your pocket, and probably can’t be used for extended periods [outside battery life] with a 7” screen?

So…I hope I’m not going to disappoint your readers when I tell you that although Toshiba is going to continue to be at the leading edge of technology there are no plans to bring an ‘Origami’ type UMPC device to market. Having said that things are always in the works……

Eric Mack has posted a fascinating article on how he was able to achieve 14 hours on battery using his Tablet PC at a conference. Do you think I could get my hands on one of those, Eric?

I couldn’t pass up posting about the Richard Morton’s OrigamiCar software project. I was just talking to my wife, Kathi, about how cool it would be to have a nice touch enabled media app in the car. We’ve tried the LS800 and other tablet pcs, but it requires the pen, which is too much to hassle with in the car, especially while driving. As of right now, I use our iPod, which works out really well. But being able to easily touch the music I want would be really cool.

We’ll be following this closely, Richard. Looking forward to seeing a final product. From Richard’s blog:

OrigamiCar is a touchscreen application specifically tailored for playing music on your Ultra Mobile PC and has been designed to be easy to use, even when driving.

For the last couple of years, I have had an old laptop in my car, connected to a 7 inch touchscreen and that essentially has been my car stereo.

For the software on the laptop, I looked at all the free and cheap car media player applications out there and there are a lot of good ones, but none of them quite felt right for me. Many of them were great to use while stationary, but trickier to use when driving. In particular, I found most of them were slow or difficult to use when scrolling/navigating around large media collections.

So, long story short - I wrote my own!

via www.UMPCBuzz.com

Thanks to Mark Payton and his post on www.TabletPCBuzz.com, we now know of HP’s TC4400 Tablet PC. It looks like they are finally getting in to the Core Duo Tablet PC game.

The product demo page contains some really good close up product images, very little spec info except for mentioning Core Duo, and nothing else looks to have changed much cosmetically. I did notice that they added a fingerprint reader, an optional outdoor display, and an ambient light sensor.

No word on availability or pricing. Stay tuned.

As most of you may know, the UMPC comes bundled with a new game via the Touch Pack: Sudoku. Well, thanks to Microsoft and Steven Toub, it is now available for us all to enjoy on our Tablet PC.

Microsoft is making the Sudoko application and sample source code available in order to provide some examples on how to design and program for the pen and touch. Download it here.

After downloading it, you will want to extract the zip file to some folder on your harddrive. Then, navigate to the bin/release directory within that folder. You will find sudoku.exe. Have fun!

From the Microsoft download page:

Via Eric Lam

Tim Marman ( via CoreDuoNews) points us to more news of the Thinkpad X60 Tablet PC - this time it is showing up for sale on Graphiland.fr, a French hardware / software site. They show it being available on April 6. If this is true, I'd upgrade to the X60 in a heartbeat.

Specs ( about $2600):

Intel Core Duo Processor T2400 (1.83GHz, 2MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC OS
1GB of memory
12.1″ XGA Display (1024×768)
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
100GB HDD
Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g)
up to 7.5 hours battery time

Kevin Tofel has been pursuing the rotation issue on the Samsung Q1, and an eagle eye reader found evidence that it does in fact support rotation. As I’ve mentioned before, rotation on the UMPC is inherently supported since it has Tablet PC functionality built-in, but the ability to do it is dependent on the video card that the OEM puts in. The word I got from Microsoft was that none of the OEMs were shipping UMPCs that supported rotation. Now that doesn’t appear to be the case.

On the specs page for Samsung Q1, they list the 915 GMS Internal GFX graphics card, which is the same card that my LS800 uses, which supports rotation all the way around. In addition, on the features page, they have this to say:

Use portrait orientation for taking notes, just like you would write on a pad of paper. Use landscape orientation to view presentations, graphs, or charts..

My guess is that all of the product shots we see of the Q1 were with a graphics card that didn’t support rotation. It would appear that they have now decided to go with the 915 GMS card that does support rotation – and they might be the only UMPC OEM that will be supporting this out of the box. They need to update their product shots to include this functionality That is a very good thing and it will be another feature match with the LS800. I love using portrait mode, and the UMPC is a perfect device for viewing documents and books in portrait mode.

Update: Engadget points to the FCC listing of the Q1, as well as the PDFs of the user manual ( Part 1, Part 2)

-

I tell you, sometimes this techno stuff just gets to be unbelievable. I mean, are there some sick people out there or what? I picked this tidbit up off of Engadget,

I see things sometimes and say, "Why in the world would someone pay money for that thing?". This is an example of one of those things. As mobile people we have needs, and since we have needs, there is usually someone out there who wants to fullfill those needs with a product they would like us to part with our money for. I fall for it --a lot. But if you are falling for this one, then I hope there is a "Techno Anonymous" chapter near you.

At first glance this looks pretty normal -- just another flash drive, right? Ahh, but pay close attention - this little rascal is 64 GIGABYTES -- yep gigabytes. That's 64,000 megabytes. Huge storage in a small device. Wow -- pretty cool, huh? So that little "buy myself one" urge starts to fire up in me, and I say to myself, "Wonder what one of them puppies would set me back........"?

WWWWHHHHHHHOOOOAAAHHH!!!!!!

Five grand? Are ya kiddin me? What in the world would possess me to spend 5 G's on a flash drive? No way. Period. I suppose if you were an international spy transporting a huge chunk of stolen data, this may make some sense, but I doubt there is a very big market for that. Now don't get me wrong, I like to see this kinda stuff expanding, but it just gets to me that someone would actually put up a product for sale like this, and actually try and talk people into buying one. If you are interested on one though, you can pick it up here.

Wish I could see their sales numbers on this one, as well as who bought them. I have a little swampland in Florida available for less. But I guess at that price, you don't have to sell many.

I still want one though . Yeah, I know. Maybe if they get that thing down to around 3G's......

-

There are so many great useage scenarios for Tablet PC's that have yet to be explored. I have seen over on TabletPCBuzz.com a few small plane pilots talking about how effective their tablet has been for them in their flight planning and monitoring tasks, but this is the first time I have seen a tablet being put into one of the "big boys".

Air New Zealand is putting Toshiba M200's in the cockpits of some new B777 aircraft for a thrid pilot to use. Check out this article from Scoop Independent News in New Zealand. Here is a blurb from the article:

"The New Zealand office of Toshiba (Australia) Pty. Limited Information Systems Division (ISD) today announced that Air New Zealand has implemented Toshiba Tablet PC technology for use onboard the flight deck of their new B777 aircraft during long haul flights. The Tablets are to be used by a third pilot on board each craft to monitor fight plans and procedures within the cockpit. Each of the eight new planes in the 777 fleet has two pilot crew stations with in-built computers and technology for pilots to use during flight. The addition of the Toshiba Tablet PCs allows a third pilot to effectively monitor flight progress and performance independently from their crew seat."

There is also some mention of other tablets flying high:

"Callum Eade, New Zealand Country Manager for Toshiba ISD, said he was excited to see Toshiba Tablets being used by Air New Zealand for this type of application. "Tablets are a very versatile tool and perfectly suited to this environment where space is at a premium. Already the Life Flight Trust, (operators of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in Wellington) and the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Foundation use Toshiba Tablets and Moving Map software. They have proven their reliability, have excellent screen visibility under various lighting condition and good battery life. They can also power directly from the aircraft's power bus."

This all just makes sense to me. It also shows that Tablet's are finding new homes!

Can you do this with your 14 inch laptop from Dell?

TabletKiosk has officially announced the EO UMPC, prices starting at $899, available for ordering now, shipping last week in April.

I love the name - and the price and specs look really impressive , too. That white one with extended battery support has my name written all over it.

 TabletKiosk™, a leader in Tablet PC and exhibit centric computing solutions, announces the much anticipated launch of their new Ultra Mobile PC, eo™ which will begin shipping the last week of April 2006.

eo™ represents the new generation of mobile computing. Measuring 9”W x 5.75”H x 1”D and weighing just under 2 pounds, eo™ is the most portable and convenient Tablet PC device for taking handwritten notes, accessing the internet, instant messaging, listening to music, viewing movies and playing games. eo™ enables you to connect, communicate and accomplish any task anywhere, any time, and be entertained and informed wherever life takes you.

eo™, named for the Latin word meaning to go, advance, or progress, was developed to meet the ever-changing needs of today’s highly mobile individuals by combining the power and compatibility of the full version of Microsoft® Windows® XP with a lightweight “carry-everywhere” hardware design.

Mark Gibbs, NetworkWorld, has done a nice little writeup on the OQO. If you are considering the OQO or something similar, you might want to take a look.

The OQO is an outstanding piece of engineering but is a pricey $2,000 considering its performance and the fact that its physical user interface doesn't live up to what we'd expect. That said, your CXOs will want one. It is that cool.

BTW: We will be featuring our own reviews of the OQO in the next couple of weeks.

I upgraded the ram on the LS800 this past Friday. In between the two hours it took me, I also called John Hill of Allegiance Technology Partners and asked him to help me figure out how get the back off without cracking it. I don’t recommend that you do this upgrade.  It is not meant to be user-servicable and it will void your warranty.

I did it because I was cheap and didn’t want to spend the extra $300 for a gig of ram that I could buy from Crucial for $150. It took me about two hours to do the upgrade, though: remove the back of the tablet, swap out the ram, and reassemble it. I was sweating the entire time, scared that I was going to crack the plastic. It is that delicate of an operation.

It is not meant to be a user-servicable upgrade, but it should be user servicable. With the next release of the LS800, Motion needs to fix that. Give us a plate to unscrew off the back and let us swap out the memory - easily. While we are on the subject – why in the world does Motion spec out a 256mb LS800? Are they honestly going to sell one of those? Listing a 256mb LS800 is like listing a convertible sports car with square wheels for sale at a cheap price – you can buy one cheap and it’ll run, but you won’t be able to go anywhere in it.

I’ve noticed a growing trend in forum and blog posts since the UMPC / Origami was announced – the number of people who have said: I’d get one because I just don’t take my Tablet PC with me to the places I really need it – which really means “ I don’t take it to the places I really need to take notes, because it is just too big and clumsy and I’m not utilizing it fully for what it is intended.”

Dennis mentioned that he doesn’t take his 12” M200 with him alot in and around a client site because it is just too bulky. Warner would consider getting an M280 and supplementing that with a UMPC. Marc Orchant has said the same thing in the On The Run with Tablet PCs podcast – he loves his M280, but doesn’t take it anywhere. When I go to church or to a friends house, I typically leave my x41 behind. I’d seriously consider a powerful desktop with a companion UMPC / LS800.

With all the talk about Tablet PCs being personable, take anywhere devices, are they really? Where do you take your Tablet PC? Do you take it everywhere that you really want to? Are you really getting the notetaking productivity out of it that you were promised? I was talking to my mother in law this weekend. She loves her Gateway M280, but she doesn’t take it anywhere. She held the LS800 and said “ Now that is what I really want”.

I know of several people that are “not allowed” to take their convertible tablets with them – can you say “ significant other?” Even a 12” slate is considered too big and “noticeable”. The TC1100 was the closest to getting to be that “perfect size” – until the LS800 came along.

I’ll be brutally frank here – I’m enjoying this LS800 more than I really ought to and I don’t know that I am going to want to sell this when my review is finished. It is with me just about everywhere I go. Why? It is small enough not to be a nuisance, powerful enough to be what I need it to be when I want it to be, and it contains everything that I need. Plus – it feels soooo good in my hands. It honestly feels like what you envision a Tablet PC should be – personable, everything within a pen or button away, fits in your hands, and small enough to not be a distraction. Microsoft and Intel have isolated a “sweet spot” in regards to mobile computing with the UMPC. Thank you, Motion, for leading the way.

I believe the future of mobile computing is: a cheap, powerful notebook / desktop and a UMPC device. Sound familiar? Looks just like the classic desktop / pda combo, doesn’t it? The big difference being that you will finally be able to take a full computer with you and it be a workable, syncable, productive solution that also recognizes your own handwriting.

I’m not being “Pollyanna” here. Those of you who have followed me over the years know that I have been through the Tablet PCs and I try to call things as I really see them. The X41 still remains my favorite convertible notebook, but as far as Tablet PCs go, I think I’m beginning to see the future with the LS800 and the UMPC. A year from now, I see a UMPC type of device in my hands and a powerful desktop underneath my desk.

Lora and Loren have posted a video of the Founder UMPC over at UMPCBuzz.com

The Founder MiniNote Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) was used in the Car & Driver Magazine WPF demo, so it received quite a bit of attention once it was brought into The Sandbox. It is the thinnest and lightest UMPC that we've seen so far. The Founder has a mat black finish with red highlight and the buttons are very close together for quick thumb action.

0-30 sec - Fits in the palm of your hand. Watch people use the touch screen DialKeys to enter information.
40 - 60 - See the red highlight around the unit.
56 - Volume Control
1 min - power button and vent
1:06 - stand
1:16 - built-in camera and thumb keys. The round button in the middle moves the cursor position
1:34 - Closeup of USB ports that are hidden below rubber
1:47 - Sudoku game that is included with Touch Pack
2:04 - Who appears but none other than Tablet PC Guy playing with the built in camera.
2:22 - Time to watch movie trailers and a movie.

I’ve inquired in the past about how our readers are using their tablet pcs in the day to day of work -moving from client to client, inking in meetings, being deskbound, etc.

Since we are at the weekend when most of us are not working, I’m curious as to how you use the tablet when away from work. Give me some examples of what you are doing this weekend and how the tablet pc does play / does not play a part.

Me?

• I’m spending all day Saturday helping a friend build a swing. I’ll take my LS800 with me. It’ll primarily stay in hibernate mode. I’m bringing it “just in case” . I won’t have a real need to use it with a drill in my hand.
• I’ll do some work on and off this weekend, pimarily working on some writing assignments for a writing class I’m taking. I tend to map it out using MindManager first, then get Word out and stop typing.
• We attend church on Sunday. I usually try to take my tablet pc with me to take notes with. Carrying a 12” convertible tablet makes that less desirabl, though, so I have not been taking much lately. However, the LS800 is the same size as my bible, so it blends right in and is less distracting and easier to use than a Pocket PC based Bible and note-taking tool.
• Since I’m self-employed, I still end up using the weekend to work some. Most of that work is done with a keyboard, either at a recliner or in bed.
• While the kids are watching Saturday morning cartoons, I’m in the recliner browsing the news.

Lora has posted a video of her niece using the TabletKiosk UMPC.  It is very interesting to see her interact with this device. Notice how she uses the word “origami” and "small tablet pc" to describe it…

Mix06 has ended and I've returned home to Prescott. My 12-year old niece latched on to the black and white Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC or Origami) by TabletKiosk. I followed her around while she was playing with it, and then later in the afternoon asked her a few quick questions on video. Kim played with it on a bench, on a rail, while sitting on the runners on the car, while perched on a rock, and eventually at a more conventional place -- a dining table.

More news on the Toshiba front: I’ve been checking the Toshiba site daily to see if they’ve added the SXGA option back to the M400 Tablet PC, and what do you know…it is now available! ( click on the Customize option )

If you’ve been waiting for the SXGA option to appear before placing your order, now is your time.

Rob Bushway

I did a little bit of checking on Hugo’s Toshiba UMPC article where he talks about an upcoming article in www.apcmag.com regarding a Toshiba UMPC. I checked with a source of mine at Toshiba and he had this to say:

Sorry, but my inquiries with product planning are coming up blank. Nobody knows what he is referring to... wish I could help.

• Dan asks Matt if this “mysterious device” is going to compete with the Nokia 770. Matt admits that they have a project underway, it is nothing like a PDA, it will support tablet pc functionality with a strong focus on a much “more natural user input.”
• The device will have loads of connectivity options
• That devices smaller than 7” are difficult to use all day every day.
• That the devices like the one they are working on will need to handle rich digital multi-media.
• Dan asks him if it is another Tablet PC. Matt tells him that there will be support for pen input, but wouldn’t want to classify it in the Tablet PC category.
• He also says that it will be different in terms of weight and form factor.

The context of the article, the direct questions and direct answers, all point to an upcoming Toshiba UMPC.

The biggest struggle I’ve had with slates is the keyboard. I’ve tried the ThinkOutside Bluetooth keyboards, but they are just too small, have no dedicated number keys, not a good solution for typing in bed, and tip back and forth when you type on them. As much I like my X41 Tablet PC, I have really grown to appreciate the keyboard. My typing experience on it is sooo much better than the Toshiba M200. The M200 keyboard felt like I could rip the keys off if I wasn’t too careful. Wouldn’t it be great to have a portable ThinkPad keyboard?

So, imagine my surprise when I happened upon this thread by TabletPCBuzz.com forum member TerriBlue where she talks about the Lenovo USB Travel keyboard. According to her, it is very light and also comes with a case. It features a trackpad and trackstick, along with a comfortable place to rest your wrist while typing. Lenovo currently has them on sale for $79. I ordered one and am going to give it a try.

Skura Corporation has announced the availability of a tablet pc application targeted at the pharmaceutical sales industry: SFX Viewer. Here is a snippet from their product page, and a link to their press release. This appears to be a product that integrates into Siebel.

SFX Viewer is a tool that allows your sales force to leverage all of the information in their CRM application to deliver an optimal physician call using a tablet PC. Message level detail about the call is tracked by SFX Viewer and returned to head office. Product Managers then have the opportunity to measure message impact and make adjustments to the electronic detail aids accordingly. All of the changes are delivered directly to your sales force through SFX Viewer. Each physician segment will receive a unique message allowing for true Closed Loop 1 to 1 Marketing.

What I found interesting in their press release is how they are marketing this app with the tablet pc:

It is the combination of the relatively large viewing screen of the tablet, the doctor being able to take the stylus and do the navigating, and a more flowing presentation including video clips that makes it more appealing.

If you follow Warner Crocker’s blog at all, you know that he is one creative guy. When he is not blogging about Tablet PCs, he is operating as the Theatre Director for the Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Va.

Warner has written a great article on how he uses the Tablet PC as a staging tool. Well worth checking out.

A director has already made many decisions before rehearsals start. Most of these start in production meetings where the design concept takes shape. Once a ground plan is decided upon that fits all the requirements of the play, the focus moves onto blocking or staging the scenes. I use my Tablet PC with a scanned in ground plan of the set and one of my favorite tools, InkyBoard, by Charlie Cassidy. Inkyboard is a simple white board application that allows you to take notes, or in this case overlay any image and annotate what is already there. You can adjust the transparency or opacity of InkyBoard to aid in this work.