BusinessWeek's Stephen Wildstrom is high on Tablet PCs after seeing how Vista has greatly improved the Tablet PC experience. In addition to covering some of the improvements, Wildstrom also covers the newest tablet pcs - the Toshiba R400, the HP TX1000, and Lenovo's X60.

It is good to see the mainstream columnists start to get the Tablet PC picture and actually know what they are talking about in regards to Tablet PC features and functionality. Good job, Stephen.

Here are a couple of quotes from Wildstrom. I'd encourage you to read the whole article.

The Tablet software, which lets you replace the mouse and keyboard with a pen and allows you to write or draw directly on the screen, gets two critical improvements in Vista. First, handwriting recognition actually works, meaning that you rarely have to resort to the clunky on-screen keyboard.

....I find that I mostly use these convertible notebooks with the keyboard, but there are chores—photo editing, to pick one—that are a lot easier to do with a pen. Now that pen support is built into Windows, I suspect a lot of laptops will become more useful by gaining Tablet features.

In addition to the Experience Pack for Vista, the Ink Desktop for Vista is also avaiable. I've just downloaded it and installed it. After only using it for 15 - 20 minutes, Version 2 seems to be much stabler and keeps ink in sync better when rotating. I'm going to keep this running over the next couple of days to see how it works longer term, though. I wasn't impressed with version 1, so hopefully version 2 for Vista works much better.

UPDATE: One problem I'm seeing with Ink Desktop for Vista that really bugs me - to use the Ink Desktop, you have to minmize all the open apps for the Ink Desktop to show up. it doesn't show up by default just by clicking on the desktop icon in the quicklaunch bar. That, to me, is a bug. Ink Desktop should show automatically when you click the desktop icon. I shouldn't have to minimize all my applications individually to get to the desktop just to see the Ink Desktop program.

It can be downloaded here.

GBM reader Fred Beiderbecke just pointed us to a bink.nu article about the availablity of the Experience Pack for Windows Vista.

The new Experience Pack for Vista contains the following programs and can be downloaded here. I'll be downloading this tonight to see how they look and run. Someone from our team will post some screen shots, too.

The Ink Desktop for Vista can be downloaded seperately here

There is supposedly a seperate download for the Ink Desktop that we'll try and find, too.

Media Transfer
Copy or stream media files from your home computer to your Tablet PC, so that you can enjoy your favorite music, videos, or pictures wherever you go.
Ink Crossword
Solve crosswords on your Tablet PC using your tablet pen. Twelve puzzles come with Ink Crossword. You can also download a free daily puzzle and purchase more puzzle packs online.
Equation Writer
Easily add mathematical expressions to your papers. Handwrite a math equation, and then convert it into a neatly typewritten image to paste into a report or a presentation.
Ink Flash Cards
Create flash cards to help you learn facts or study for an exam. Handwrite a question on the front of a card and put an answer on the back. Draw, insert graphics, and add text, too.

Thanks, Fred!

UPDATE: After installing, I'm not seeing much of a difference in the functionalit of the programs over the XP version, except that they don't require Tablet PC SP2 to install and run, and Media Transfer will recognize Vista with Media Player 11 to transfer files.

As I was preparing for my Best Buy demos, I ran across a great tip in regards to the Vista SideBar Gadget.

If you don't like using the gadgets in the narrow SideBar, grab the each of the gadgets to your desktop and they will run just fine floating over your desktop, too. In fact, depending on the gadget, it might look a bit better. For example, I've got the Remote Desktop gadget on my desktop for a quick way to RDP to a customer's server, in addition to a nice digital clock.

The one negative is that the gadgets are still tied to the SideBar, so they will only display when the SideBar is activated. I'd like to find a way for the side bar to always display when the desktop is activated, but have not found a way to do that, yet.

You can download more SideBar gadgets here

As the slowly increasing wave of applications tailored for running under Vista is released comes word that Phatware has released PenCommander 2.0. PenCommander 2.0 is a system utility application that features a powerful scripting technology, now enhanced to support Vista. Some of the new features include:

1. New PenCommander skins
2. Updated Scripting engine to allow for new user-level functions and improved performance
3. Ability to select a handwriting recognition engine, useful if multiple languages are used 
4. Commonly used keyboard shortcuts and PenCommands can now be assigned to single stroke gestures
5. New customizable user interface for Visual PenCommander
6. Input Panel can be made semi-transparent, for viewing other applications under the panel.

Here’s a link to the press release. Price is set at $29.95 and there is a $10.00 discount offered at this link.

Josh Bancroft of TinyScreenfuls links to news on the Origami Project blog from Dustin. Apparently the Origami/UMPC Team is moving in toto to a new secret project. Here’s a snippet of Dustin’s post:

On a completely seperate note, I wanted to formally announce that my entire team and I (with the exception of Jeremy) have been asked to move off of UMPC and go to work on a new secret project. The new Product Unit Manager (PUM) for UMPC at Microsoft will be Oscar Koenders. Moving forward you can expect to see some new faces from Microsoft blogging and responding to forum posts, but I'm sure Sears, Emily, myself and the rest of the team will still be checking in from time to time.

Very interesting.

Also of note in that post: A UMPC optimized version of Microsoft Reader will be available in February.

I've been hitting a few Tablet PC OEM sites today looking for vista ready tablets.

OQO has made Vista Business available for their Model 02 at no additional charge with their "Best" configurable option. Vista Ultimate will cost an extra $100.

Fujitsu has yet to update their products - T4215, P1610, or ST5100 with Vista OS an option.

Lenovo has the X60 avaialble with Vista Business - $20 cheaper than XP

TabletKiosk's new Sahara Slate PC will be available with Vista Business as an option. Interesting - I just noticed that TabletKiosk dropped the Tablet from the Sahara name. Instead of Sahara Slate Tablet PC, it is Sahara Slate PC.

Gateway has the CX210 Tablet PC available with Vista Home Premium

Toshiba's only Vista ready Tablet PC is the R400

Samsung Q1P ( thanks Danny )

Anybody finding other Vista ready tablets / UMPCs?

Paul Thurrott has posted more info on Windows ITPro about the nagging question regarding being able to install Vista as an upgrade. He also inlcudes a “workaround” for the issue.

Here’s a snippet from his post:

With a support note quietly posted to its Web site, Microsoft confirmed what enthusiasts have long feared: Users who purchase Upgrade versions of Windows Vista will not be able to perform clean installs of the operating system. Instead, they will need to first install their previous OS and then upgrade in-place to Vista.

"This problem occurs because Windows Vista [Setup] does not check upgrade compliance," a support note on Microsoft's Web site reads. "Therefore, you cannot use an upgrade key to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista."

And here is the suggested workaround:

1. Boot with the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD.

2. Click "Install Now."

3. Do not enter a Product Key When prompted.

4. When prompted, select the Vista product edition that you do have.

6. Install Vista normally.

7. Once the install is complete, restart the DVD-based Setup from within Windows Vista. Perform an in-place upgrade.

8. Enter your Product Key when prompted.

If you enjoy the New York Times reader, a Windows Presentation Foundation application, you are really, really going to enjoy this new WPF application  from the British Library - Turning the Pages 2.0. It'll run natively in Vista on the browser if your computer is premium ready. If you have XP, you'll need to install the application.

I just started playing with it and it is an awesome way to look at some ancient and historical books. Bill Gates demoed Turning the Pages 2.0 yesterday with his personal collection of Leonardo Di Vinci's notebook Codex Leicester. His collection is offered in Turning the Pages 2.0 as well as the Codex Arundel.

From PCPro.uk:

Researchers, academics, students and historians will soon have access to some of the most ancient and fragile historical documents and books hidden away in Britain's biggest and most important library.

The British Library has demonstrated a digital book application called Turning the Pages 2.0, that it has developed to run on Windows Vista, taking advantage of the enhanced 3D graphics capabilities of the new operating system.

The application can provide readers with a similar experience to reading a traditional and often fragile book. The book application contains exact scans of historical books and documents such as the Magna Carta.

'For us the real bonus is the simplification of the digitisation and the presentation of the books. We can now accelerate our plans to offer digital access to our books - it is a major step forward for the British Library and it is a real opportunity to transform the way people interact with historical material.' said Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library speaking to IT PRO at the UK launch of Windows Vista and Office.

Thanks for the link, Loren.

We love evaluating Tablet PCs, especially those with OEM Vista Builds. Lenovo sent each member of Team GBM an evaluation unit of the X60 Tablet PC with SXGA+ running their OEM build of Vista Business. Vista Business is now available as an operating system choice for the X60 Tablet PC and it is $20 cheaper than the XP operating system.

Look for some insightful findings from each member of the team over the next couple of weeks to a month. We'll also be participating in the Lenovo forums with some Vista insights.

My first impressions: SXGA+ on the X60 Tablet PC totally rocks! The screen is beautiful and very crisp - the best on a convertible tablet that I've used yet - period. Aero runs really well, which I keep turned off as matter of preference. All of the built-in ThinkVantage utilities work very well and as expected. Battery life with Vista, though, is suffering. I was hoping things would be different with OEM builds so I've not talked much about it. I've noticed considerable drops in battery performance with an M400, Gateway CX2724, and now the X60. For example, I was getting about 5 to 6 hours with an 8 cell battery on the X60. I'm now getting about 4 hours using the ThinkPad default settings, about 5 hours on PowerSaver.

Here is the performance index on my x60 running 2gb of ram and a 100gb 7200rpm harddrive. The Intel 945GM Express Chipset brings the index for gaming and graphics down to 3.2 and 3.1 respectively, which should be the case on most convertible tablet pcs today.

Special thanks to Lenovo for sending us these eval units and letting us post about our experiences - both positive and negative.

UPDATE: People are upset at Lenovo that we received evaluation units while others are still waiting to get their SXGA shippments that were ordered back in November, and that is totally understandable considering the SXGA shipping issues. Lenovo is shipping SXGA+ units at this time, although not everyone has received their order yet. It might help knowing that the units we received to evaluate appear to have been used for QC testing. These are not machines pulled from the production floor. They didn't send us evaluation units instead of shipping customers their systems.

For those hankering for a UMPC with Vista preinstalled, take a look at the Samsung Q1P UMPC. Thanks to JkOnTheRun reader, Alan Pozner, you can now order a Q1P Vistagami on PC Connection.

As you find other UMPC units shipping with Vsta, shoot us a note and let us know. We'll help spread the good news.

via JkOnTheRun.

Microsoft's Chris Pratley, who headed up the OneNote team, has offered some good tps for beta users and those just getting in to OneNote 2007. I've included some of his suggestions below. You can check out his entire post here

Current beta users:

If you have decided you will keep using OneNote now that you've experienced the beta, and I am sure that is every single one of you, the simplest thing to do would be to go buy the full version (version 4518 in Help/About). You can uninstall the beta version and then install the final code of OneNote. All your notes will be there - no worries. I personally wouldn't even bother with a backup, but that is me.

OneNote 2007 trial users:

If you have the trial right now, when you buy the full version just activate your trial installation in Help/Activate Product using the product key of the final version. Don't bother to uninstall and reinstall because the code is the same.

Of course a better option than buying standalone OneNote is to get the Home and Student edition of Office 2007. For just a few dollars more than OneNote standalone you get not only OneNote but also Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 - and they rock.

I'm also hearing from people who recently got a computer that came with a trial version of OneNote 2003 installed (PC makers are still selling some machines with that installed). Obviously I suggest you not bother with that and recommend you go get the 2007 trial. Even if you have already started using the 2003 trial, just uninstall it and download the 2007 trial - it will pick up where you were, extend the expiry date, and no data will be lost.

some resources to follow ( in addition to GBM! ):

1. Dan Escapa, a program manager on the OneNote team has taken on the mantle of regular OneNote poster now that I am no longer an "insider". Go bug him and ask him questions. He is really great at responding. In particular, go ask him to create 2007 and 2008 calendar templates for OneNote (he did the 2006 ones).

2. If you have a support question about OneNote (not working right as far as you can tell), please ask your question in the newsgroup. I am of course happy to help if I can but like any good designer I only know what the product is supposed to do. People in the newsgroups can respond quicker and also tell you what the product actually does.

Nice overview of and upgrade install of Vista on a Lenovo x60t and Fujitsu LifeBook T4215 over on eWeek.  The title on the article says "Vista Shines as Tablet Platform".  They run thru the install and tell you what works and what doesn't.

"We installed the operating system on two Tablet PCs—Lenovo's ThinkPad X60 Tablet and Fujitsu's LifeBook T4215—and found that Microsoft has delivered a much more practical and smoother tablet experience in Vista."

One thing I am going to have to disagree with on the review is the following:

"Despite fears about Vista's power-hungry nature, we saw no noticeable battery performance degradation when running Vista on the notebook as opposed to Windows XP Tablet PC."

I have seen a drop in battery life under Vista  and it is being discussed in the forums - I'm not the only one...

Check out the article

This is interesting. Dr. Neil Roodyn, one of those prolific Down Under Tableteers, has discovered that the Origami Experience doesn’t run in portrait mode and wonders if that will change in the future.

Now considering Microsoft has been telling developers to build applications that work well in all resolutions and scale functionality accordingly this is an appalling oversight. The Tablet PC and the UMPC ability to switch between landscape and portrait easily is an important function for me.

He’s not the only one.

The BBC is reporting that superstore PC World will stop selling floppy disks when current inventories run out. The article has a rundown of the various stops along the way that have led the floppy disk to this point. The only time I use a floppy disk anymore is for a BIOS update. Even though there are other methods available for that know, I guess you could say I’m just old fashioned.

That said, in my industry, most control boards for stage lighting use floppy disks to save current lighting plots and cues for a show. Wonder when we’ll see those not inexpensive pieces of technology come standard with optical drives?

Well sort of. The link to download The Origami Experience is now live, but I haven’t gotten past the WGA validation as of yet. Those issues should be resolved soon, I’m guessing. Here’s the link.

And here’s a link to Matt Faulkner’s Inkshow of it running on the Asus R2H.

UPDATE: The download issues seem to be cleared up now.

The good folks at Bluebeam Software just notified me that Bluebeam PDF Revu 5.0 has been released. Bluebeam PDF Revu has built-in tablet pc suport for annotating PDFs.

I have not downloaded this latest release, but here is list of new features

• Rotate markups so you can place them exactly where you want
• Remove confidential and sensitive text or images with PDF redaction
• Add customized headers and footers with dates, page numbers, text and bates stamps
• Display the differences between two PDF drawings with the Compare Document option
• Quickly convert batches of Windows files to PDF with the newly revamped Bluebeam Stapler
• Use Revu's Markup list to create a Markup Summary Report in PDF, CSV or XML

They have an online tutorial / video that you can view here and down the 30 day trial here. According to Bluebeam, this is a major release. Current customers can purchase the new version at a discounted upgrade price. Customers with annual maintenance or purchased Bluebeam PDF Revu after December 1, 2006 will qualify for a free upgrade by emailing your serial number to upgrade@bluebeam.com

A post in the GBM Forums from Benjamin Ries sheds some light on the recent brouhaha over Vista Upgrades and possible restrictions. I’m copying the majority of Benjamin’s post here:

There have been posts across many sites regarding Microsoft's policy vis-a-vis new restrictions on installation options for Vista Upgrade licenses.

CTitanic just let us know that he and twenty other UMPC enthusiasts have put together the first magazine dedicated to UMPCs, called TodoUMPC. It has been released in Spanish and it is free. You can download it here. Way to go, Frank.

I'm sure this is going to be a great resource to evangelize the Spanish community in regards to Ultra-Mobile PCs.

I just got an email from the OneCare team announcing the official availability of Windows Live OneCare, which includes AntiVirus, Antispyware, Anti-phishing, Firewall performance tune-ups, and backup / restore.

You can download the 90-day free trial, for your Tablet PC / UMPC, here.

Well, my first day of demoing Vista and Office 2007 is over. As soon as 10:00 hit, I could see lots of folks headed back to the Microsoft Vista / Office 2007 software shelves to get their copy of Vista. Best Buy reps told me that the morning is normally not busy, but because of the Vista launch, they had gotten a lot more traffic.

I was surprised to see the Vista Ultimate Signature Edition on sale as well. I didn't expect to see it. I probably talked with 20 or so folks, most just wanting see what was different, and needing help figuring out the difference between Home Premium and Ultimate. As I demoed things like parental controls, Aero, 3d Flip, Word, etc, I heard the word "wow" a lot. After a couple of hours the main stocking shelves were completely empty of Ultimate and Home Premium. There was a lot of Home Basic left.

I even got to meet a GBM reader! After reading where I was going to be at Best Buy today, Danny stopped by to see Vista and talk Tablet PC and UMPC! Thanks for coming by, Danny!

Here are some more pictures:

Motion LE1600 and LS800 Tablet PC users will be happy to know that Motion has released drivers for Vista. (That little software thingie that got released by Microsoft today.) They also have a detailed “How-To” for upgrading. Check it out here.

Hat tip to Tracy at The Student Tablet PC

If you’ve followed any of my blogging  about Tablet PCs and UMPCs you know that my primary reason for using a Tablet PC is in my work as a theatre producer, director, and playwright at Wayside Theatre, where I serve as the Artistic Director. Sunday night we opened Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story, a tribute to the young rock and roller killed in an airplane crash on Feb 3, 1959. (You know the song lyric, The Day The Music Died.)

I’ve chronicled my process of using Tablet PCs in several series of posts (you can find them here, here and here.) But, for this show I went exclusively Ultra-Mobile PC. The goal was to see if the smaller mobile device would serve my needs. I picked up an Asus R2H back in December and that was my UMPC device for this process.

The bottom line summary is that the R2H does the job just fine, and with a few exceptions, it altered my process very little.

Note Taking

My primary work task is note taking in rehearsal. In the latter stages of the process when we are running the entire show, I  both sit and move around the theatre taking notes on what needs to be altered or changed. I move around to make sure the visual moments work from all angles in the theatre as well as listening to the sound. Sometimes I do so at a relatively quick pace. Tablet PCs have served me very well here in the past, primarily using OneNote 2007 as my note taking software of choice. I was a bit worried about using OneNote 2007 on the R2H because of the screen size and a poorly implemented screen rotation solution. (I’ve talked about that in this post.)

Using the highest resolution option available on the R2H, along with the full screen mode of OneNote 2007, I get as much screen real estate as I can and those concerns were largely put to rest. I’m not thrilled with the fuzzy screen at the higher resolution but it does the job. I did have to scroll more than before, but it was never an issue during this process and using the button controls make that a bit easier. The other big factor in making this kind of note taking (sometimes it can be a bit frantic) is the excellent touchscreen interface on the R2H. I say excellent interface because in a full week of rehearsals I had absolutely zero vectoring or registration issues where my hand or fingers would cause stray ink to spread inadvertently over the screen. This is a very good thing.

Battery Life

My note taking chores in most rehearsals are about 3 to 4 hours at a stretch, occasionally longer. I’m not working with the unit continually, only when things warrant. Using the 4 cell battery on the R2H, I was easily able to get through an entire rehearsal without an issue. I did have wireless and bluetooth radios turned off and the screen dimmed, and of course that does help. On days where we would rehearse both afternoon and evenings, I had the Battery Geek Portable Power Station at the ready and would charge up during a meal break. Using both the 4 cell battery and “the geek” I had no power issues whatsoever. In either case, sleep or suspend is my friend. I have discovered a weird anomaly though that happens randomly when I wake the unit up from a suspend state. The R2H will come back to life with the shift keys locked down, necessitating using the on-screen keyboard or the TIP to change that state. Weird as there is no rhyme or reason as to why this occurs.

Research

I do a lot of research for any show, but when your are doing a show about a historical and very well known figure you need to intensify that a bit. We downloaded any song by Buddy Holly to capture the exact style. We also took a look at any videos we could find to capture his performance style and demeanor. These were easily played back on the R2H when the occasion warranted. As a media device the R2H works like a charm.

The Coolness Factor

Most of the good folk who work with me on a production are used to me pulling out the Tablet PC. But the size of the R2H caught their attention big time. I got more questions about it than I ever did using a Tablet PC.

Worth It or Not?

For my needs the answer is an unequivocal yes. The R2H is very easy to tote around in rehearsal and fills all of my needs in that work environment.  There is nothing I did before in rehearsal with a Tablet PC that I can’t do with the R2H. At the moment I see it becoming my primary rehearsal tool while the Lenovo Thinkpad X60 becomes my workhorse in the office, where occassionaly the processing tasks require a bit more oomph. The only hesitation I have at the moment is the very lousy implementation of the screen rotation. It is just poorly done. By the time I get to the next show, I will have installed Vista on the R2H and decided yea or nay as to whether that will work or not for these needs. Here’s hoping.

The next big R2H test will be at the UPTA Audition Conference in a couple of weeks. We’ll see how that goes using the R2H as a primary work tool.

Well, Dennis and I are headed out to different retail markets in different parts of the country to demo Vista and Office 2007, on behalf of Microsoft, to prospective buyers - Dennis in Georgia and I'm in Colorado. It'll be interesting to gauge the interest from the public. I'll see if I can grab some pictures and post them up later today.

I wasn't able to make it to some of the midnight launch events across my city and state, but the local news did pick it up. Media coverage seems fair, with a slant to "finally here after a long, long wait".

Robert Scoble is jumping up and down promoting a new product from his sponsor Seagate. D.A.V.E. is  portable wirelss HD, small enough to fit into your pocket with WiFI, Bluetooth, and USB connectivity. On release in May there will be 10gig and 20gig models and the cost is projected at less than $200. Scoble is trumpeting this a real boon for mobile uses who need and want extra storage for media to play or work with on their mobile devices. It sure sounds interesting. Of course there’s a video. It sure sounds interesting.

Put us on the review list, Scoble!

There has been lots of confusing info on what currently shipping Ultra-Mobile PCs are or are not Vista certified. CTitanic reports (via an Aving link) what looks like good news for Samsung Q1 owners. Apparently at a launch event in Korea, Samsung intro’d a Vista-Certified Q1 SSD. Since not many have bought a mortgage for the flash disk based system, the good news is that it was running the original Q1 celeron processor. CTitanic speculates that perhaps Samsung owners won’t have to wait long for Vista drivers.

With Vista now launched, Microsoft has revamped the Ultra-Mobile PC site and the slogan. It is now: Your Life. At the touch of your finger.  Not only is the new site spiffy, (say is that an Asus R2H I see on that picture?) it seems like Microsoft is trying to further define just what is an Ultra-Mobile PC. Under Hardware requirements you'll find the following listed:

• Windows Vista Home Premium OS
• Approximately 7” diagonal display (or smaller)
• Minimum 800 x 480 resolution
• Approximately 2 pounds
• Integrated touch panel
• WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled

Vista Home Premium as a minimum requirement? Of course things have been loosey goosey around those kind of definitions from the viral days but that is certainly interesting on a number of fronts. Look for the download for the Origami Experience to be available soon. The site also inlcudes a handy little touchscreen demo of the Origami Experience.

Unless you’ve been in a cave, under a rock, or doing a Rip Van Winkle over the last year or so, you know that the consumer release of Microsoft’s Vista and Office 2007 has finally occurred or is about to depending on your time zone.

We’ve already seen reams of digital and conventional ink written about Vista and Office 2007, good and bad. I’m sure over the next few months we’ll see much more, good and bad. We’ve experienced release delays, bad info, good info, corrected info, betas, Release Candidates, silly naming conventions (no I still won’t use the small ‘s’), and the ever increasing cry of “Where are the drivers?” There has even been a Vista Song. It has been quite a ride. Intriguingly in the immediate run-up to the release we haven’t seen that much Office 2007 coverage as the bright spotlight seems to be on Vista.

Here at GottaBeMobile.com we’ve been experimenting with the various releases of Vista and Office 2007 and most of the team has been running Vista on one machine or the other since RTM last fall. We’ve left a lot of blood on the bleeding edge. Along the way we’ve produced a number of Inkshows of the various Tablet PC and mobile features. We’ve also written quite a few posts regarding our thoughts.

Here is a list of the Vista and Office 2007 related Inkshows, as well as some of the posts that I find intriguing as I look back.

Enjoy!

Inkshows

• Vista and Tablet PCs-A Pen Flick Inkshow
• Vista TIP Software Inkshow
• Vista Handwriting Personalization Inkshow
• Vista Snipping Tool Software Inkshow
• Adaptive/Multi-Touch Hardware Inkshow
• GBM Inkshow: Taking The Vista Flip
• OneNote 2007 Beta 1 Inkshow
• OneNote 2007 Import and Search Inkshow
• Audio Inkshow with Chris Pratley
• On The Road with OneNote Mobile

Posts

• Improving Handwriting Recognition in Vista
• Vista and Ink – a missed opportunity
• What I’m loving about Vista
• Beginning To Fall In Love With Office 2007 On My Tablet PC
• Vista Speech Recognition Redeemed
• The Windows Vista Song
• Vista Power Profiles – Great for the Tablet PC
• Rob Chambers gives answers on the speech reco resolution issue
• Vista’s UAC: Is The Cure As Bad As The Disease?
• A Look at the Mobility Center
• Vista Speech Recognition Ups The Volume
• Vista Tablet PC Tips from the Tablet PC Team
• Vista and Office 2007 to be available for download, new upgrade prices
• Office 2007: Where Did That Command Go?
• The Office 2007 UI Bible

If you have Vista Ultimate and do a Windows Update you’ll find that a few Windows Ultimate Extras are now available. Bitlocker and a game of Texas Hold ‘em are now available for download.

The Vista and Office 2007 launch is in full swing. Here’s a video of some of the shenanigans taking place in New York with a series of dancers doing their thing on the side of a building. Who thinks up this stuff?

CNET takes on the Asus R2H Ultra-Mobile PC and finds both good and bad things to say scoring it a 6.3 out of 10. Of course the usual “missing a keyboard” statement is there (I think it has become boilerplate language for UMPC reviews.) I agree with many of the findings in the review, even though I think it is really an incomplete look at the R2H based on my experience. I note that they run down a list of included features but don’t comment. For example I am thoroughly unimpressed with the included web cam. Not that I plan on using it much, but the camera performance is very weak (probably related to the Celeron processor more than anything else) and the included software is just awful. There is also no mention of the abundance of bundled software (somewhat unique to the R2H) which for some could be a blessing but for many is just CRAPWARE. You can tell they never really explored the review unit. I rate the review I for incomplete.

Read the review here.

This news seems to be shaking some folks up. In Microsoft’s attempts to control how their new OS is installed on machines, they have done away “compliance checking” in the way we have come to know it.

Basically compliance checking requires you to have either the current OS installed or, if you are doing a clean install, the original install disk that would be inserted during the install process to verify your compliance. Now, according to reports like this one from Ars Technica, you’ll no longer be able to use the earlier OS disk to prove you are actually upgrading.

This is an issue that is going to affect power users more than others, as the bottom line is you’ll no longer be able to use a product purchased as an “upgrade” to do a clean install.

I’m not so sure why folks are so exorcised about this, as an upgrade price is different than a full product price. Sure, it is better to do a clean install, (I always do), but then you have to pay the freight to do so. The arguement that I already own the previous version qualifies me for an upgrade makes sense logically of course and that’s where the brouhaha comes from. It will be interesting to see how this plays out from a PR perspective.

UPDATE: See this post for an update on this info.