- Warner Crocker

I can’t say I blame the folks at Gizmodo. They are trying to make sense out of the mobile scene this days what with UMPCs, ULCPCs, mini-notebooks, ultraportables, subnotebooks, and netbooks, all floating around out there and no one really sure which is what when it comes to naming and branding. They offer a primer on what they are thinking about the distinctions and most of that makes some sense. 

Of course we should all blame Asus for this. The took the market by storm with their triple vowel entry into the mobile space. But then it all went crazy from there. In my opinion, the folks doing the marketing and naming of all these things don’t have a clue either in the great rush to get these things into the market. The attempt to define a class by price with the ULCPC hasn’t proven successful. We’ve seen this latest class of devices still called everything but the kitchen sink. Of course the fun there is watching the price point. Remember HP said that their 2133 Mini-Note was going to be priced so aggressively that you wouldn’t think twice about picking one up. I’m not sure $849 fits that bill. I guess it all depends on your perspective, but 3K Computers recent entry into the space with the $299 Razorbook seems to be closer to that than anything. But I think the race to find a below $500 price is as much about protecting margins on full laptops than it is about low cost mobile devices. Make no mistake, the idea is to create a class of low cost, mobile devices that largely work out of the cloud, and can be used as by mobile professionals as a companion device, underprivileged children in third world countries, and basically anyone that can be sold on these devices.

The UMPC label is still hanging around and the confusion that the ultra-mobile PC concept caused contains more twists and folds than an Origami project. Many of the newer breed of mobiles get lumped into that category primarily because it was the early designation. 

So, with tongue occasionally planted firmly in cheek, here’s my primer on what we should expect from these categories and how we should label them.

Subnotebook: This device does its job even when submerged in water.

Ultraportable: The same as a subnotebook, but not submersible.

Mini-Notebook: This device has a keyboard so small that only small children or those with really small hands can use it.

Ultra-Low Cost PC (ULCPC): The cost of this device is under $500. Except when its not.

Netbook: Has a case made out of nylon or hemp netting. Ideal for web computing on the Mesh.

Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC): A mobile PC that you can’t fit in your pocket, requires considerable tweaking to get acceptable performance, and costs more than many laptops on the market.

- Craig Pringle

I just posted some interesting news on my blog, but I have to post it here, too.

...on Friday I got a call from the country manager here in Australia.  He tells me that Scott Eckert, the CEO of Motion Computing, is going to be in Sydney next week and asked if I would be keen to meet and talk to him.  Heck yeah!

Now it is no secret that I have long been a slate fan and that I've had a couple of Motion slates in my time.  My Motion LS800 is still one of my favourite devices and I've always wondered why there was never another in the LS line...  I've got plenty to things to talk to Scott about.  But then I'm sure some of you do as well.  So if you do have any questions, leave a comment here and I'll see what I can do.  I'm meeting Scott on Wednesday - Sydney time.

So let's here it - what do you guys want to know?  Leave a comment here of over on my blog and I will do my best.

- Warner Crocker

Wow. I blow out a knee and spend a portion of the day dealing with that and some real amazing discussions break out here on GBM. Rob has highlighted them both but I want to use them in a tangential way to springboard into this weekend’s discussion topic. There are two really fascinating and informative discussions going on in comments to previous posts here on GBM that are worth paying attention to. Yesterday Rob posted that The Tablet PC Is Taking Quite a Beating These Days and there are some great responses from a number of readers there. Rob’s also actively soliciting Bill Gates to come have a chat on Rob’s next trip to Redmond about Tablet PCs and how we move forward.

Two days or so ago, Rob put together a great list of possible multi-touch usage scenarios in response to the All Father of Tablet PCs, James Kendrick’s post wherein jk was looking for a multi-touch usage scenario that fit his own usage model. Again, some great thoughts and comments there. There are also some good comments on James’ original post as well.

Mark “Sumocat” Sumimoto has extended that latter conversation with a great essay on his blog, Sumocat’s Scribbles. It is quite a long read, but well worth it and it involves downloading a document to get the entire thing. (You can download the file here in Word format or here in PDF format.)

The passions and the thoughts being tossed about in both conversations remind me of the early days on Tablet PC Buzz when folks were discussing the viability, the attacks on, and the real possibilities of Tablet PCs and I think that is a fantastic thing. Microsoft certainly isn’t making its case for the Tablet PC platform these days behind its Sinofosky wall of silence, and beyond recycled Microsoft Surface demos on a Tablet PC as a teaser for Windows 7, it isn’t doing much to explain why multi-touch could be of much use either.

So, once again, it is left up to the community to do the case building, and perhaps left up to others (Apple? OLPC?) to help define the market. But let’s move on to the weekend discussion topic.

Let’s forget about specific devices and specific form factors. Let’s forget about limitations and marketing miscues. Here’s your chance to dream a little. In your scenario, what do you want and need to do with a mobile device? I’m not going to define mobile device here and I ask you not to as well. Let’s just call them a mobile device in this discussion. Think of the things you need and want to accomplish and spell it out in the comments.

Here’s my list to kick it off.

1. Be a note taking device.
2. Be able to search those notes.
3. Browse the web and be able to connect anywhere.
4. Write and read email.
5. Create documents.
6. Consume media.
7. Record media.
8. Share data with other devices.
9. Have GPS connectivity.

Oh, and by the way, keep those comments coming in those other threads.

- Matt Faulkner

I have been going over the TabletKiosk G840XT for a while now and have been pretty happy with what I have seen so far!.  The unit still feels really light for a rugged unit, that's for sure!  I didn't think I would like the 'number pad' at first, but after having it on the unit, it's a nice addition.  This InkShow is Part 1 of 2.  I needed to make sure I had a few shots of the device before I started to beat it up and break it right :)

In this InkShow I take the G840XT for an spin looking mostly at the software.   I add a couple of comments on the exterior that I didn't mention in the Shortcut I filmed a couple of weeks ago.  I go over some of the software that is specific to the machine and I also take it out on a quick GPS test.

- Rob Bushway

Much to chagrin of the mainstream press, Bill Gates has been nothing but persistent over the years with regards to the Tablet PC and his belief that natural input technologies, like ink, will one day be common place. Gates will enter his "retirement" by spending much of his 20% Microsoft time on pet projects like Research, Tablet PC, speech, vision, touch, and such. Gates doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would waste some of his most valuable resources, like time, on technologies that don't have long term viabilities. We happen to agree with him about the long term potential that natural input technologies have.

In many of the speeches that I've heard Gates give, including last year's MVP Summit, he frequently mentions the Tablet PC form factor. Lately, as Gates has been traveling the world, he has been spending a lot of time talking about putting a Tablet PC in the hands of every student. Tablet PC and touch was also a major talking point at this year's D6 conference. It is quite ironic, though, that the community which gives life to his passion has never heard from him directly in the almost six years that Tablet PC has been around. I can't recall seeing any interviews with Mr. Gates from TabletPCBuzz.com, TabletPCReview.com, TabletPC2.com, and yours truly, GottaBeMobile.com.

Mr. Gates, the community that is in step with your passion needs to talk with you - we want to hear from you directly about the technology we both care about, are concerned about, discuss, and believe in. Comments like these are indicative that there are some real issues that need discussing.

I'll be in Redmond in a few weeks meeting with your Surface team. I'd be happy to extend my trip by a day or two in order to spend some time talking with you about Tablet PC, touch, and mobile computing. Your Tablet PC team knows how to get in touch with me if you'd like to talk.

- Rob Bushway

Big shoutout to Motion Computing for winning CeBIT.au's 2008 award for Excellence in Engineering for their C5 Tablet PC.

Here is a little bit of info about the Excellence in Engineering Award:
The CeBIT.AU Excellence in Engineering Design award will showcase overall elegance of design in a hardware product sold in the Australian market and exhibited at CeBIT Australia. The judging criteria for the award will include the visual elegance and impact of the product, its simplicity, functionality and useability, and its broad appeal as a business product. The winning business technology product or service is one that possesses a "Wow-factor" that sets it apart from the crowd.

- Matt Faulkner

A couple of weeks ago I had posted that I might be moving to a regular laptop as my main 'work' computer (not personal mind you :) ).  I also said that I wouldn't mind checking out the HTC Shift to maybe use as a 'companion' device to that laptop.  Well, the good folks at Dynamism sent me a Shift to play around with for a few weeks.

I know this is old hat to some as they have been out a while, but it will be a new adventure for me as I am trying to find alternatives if I have to change the way I work and the processes I use.

Any questions you want answered as I investigate this little machine?  Anything you want me to try?

- Rob Bushway

There are some very insightful comments being made in my Tablet PC Failure article. CPChickie, a long time Tablet PC user and GBM reader, made this comment that echoes what I am hearing a lot these days. It also echoes what my wife said recently about Tablet PCs in this Lenovo U110 article.

Does this comment ring close for anyone? I think this comment, along with my wife's, speaks a lot about Tablet PC troubles. Microsoft and OEMs need to really be paying attention to what is being said.

My Tablets are all now laptops or docked desktops with "hidden powers beyond those of mere PCs"

Maybe Apple can do something to increase demand or usefulness of the Tablet PC. Or give us a better OS geared for the Tablet form.

I gave up fighting handwriting recognition, battery life, dropped wireless, lack of reliable N speed wireless, and I gaped in open-mouthed horror at all the convulsions caused by Vista as posted by the infinitely tolerant experts at GottaBeMobile.com.

I wish I could make my living convincing people to use Tablet PCs, but I make mine treating patients. They don't have time or patience to watch me reboot, change batteries, swap computers and try to get the TIP to recognize reliably. And neither do I. So now my office has a hardwired XP small form factor PC in each room with a 19" touchscreen LCD. Dull? Yes, but so much easier to deal with and I spend more time being a doctor and less being a PC tech.

I will keep following here because I think Tablets will someday go mainstream. I just couldn't wait any longer.

- Rob Bushway
Sumocat has been talking up a storm in our Multi-Touch Scenario article, and went a bit further and penned this fantastic essay talking about multi-touch possibilities in Outlook. Sumocat does a really good job strengthening the argument that multi-touch can indeed be a great tool for business users.

Sumocat wraps up his essay with this closing thought, which I am in total agreement with (emphasis mine):

Multi-touch is a great advancement in user interface technology, but the key words there are “user
interface”. Microsoft needs to explain how this enhances the existing user interface, not show us how it
works in new applications we’re not using. Making ripples in a virtual pond is fun, but I’m not using a
virtual pool now. I use stuff like Outlook. Show me how multi-touch can improve Outlook, then I’ll be
interested in seeing what else it can do.

- Rob Bushway

Good news! We are really close to announcing our new speech reco writer. He is someone that has spent quite a bit of time in the speech reco area and he'll have quite a bit of user experience to pass along.

Until then, you might want to check out this post from Carl Franklin, who talks about his success with Vista and speech recognition. As Microsoft's Rob Chambers mentions in this article pointing to Carl, the Speech Reco team just released MSR macros to help folks get things done a lot quicker using voice commands, so that out to make Carl even happier.

- Warner Crocker

Some folks are getting their hands on the MSI Wind and we’re seeing some early reports. Crave has put up a pretty thorough first look. Their opinion is that this could offers a signficant challenge to the Asus Eee PC. Intriguingly they can’t talk about the CPU yet, although they tell us it can be overclocked with a dedicated  button. Quite a few pictures and a video as well.

 

 

- Rob Bushway

Wow. I always knew the mainstream press hated Tablet PC's from the day they were announced, but the last few days have been pretty rough. With Bill Gates and Steve Balmer demoing Windows 7 multi-touch capability at the D6 conference, and Bill talking about his pursuit of a Tablet PC in the hands of every student, the Tablet PC jumped back in to the hot seat and has become quite the punching bag (just one example of the many stories floating around the past day or two).

From a marketing perspective, no one can argue that Microsoft has not done its fair share to trip up an otherwise awesome computing platform. We've been quite vocal about how Microsoft doesn't put its dollars and marketing effort where Bill's voice and passion is. Were it not for the active communities that rally around the tablet and natural input technologies, there would be no tablet platform at all.

What I don't understand is why the mainstream press continues to choose to hate the Tablet PC. I know the tablet platform isn't for everyone, but is there a reason to point to the Tablet as another one of Microsoft's failures? Is it a failure? You tell me, Tablet PC community? Talk it up amongst your sites, blogs, forums, etc.

- Rob Bushway
OQOTalk.com forum members JT and Troy lit the mobile blogosphere on fire when they demoed an OQO Model 02 running Mac OS X. They have now posted complete instructions on how to do this yourself. Be sure you purchase a license of Leopard before going down this trail - you definitely want to remain in compliance with all the legalese. We do not recommend violating any license agreements in order to get this going.

Here are some more instructions on getting a TRIPLE boot into Ubuntu, XP, and Leopard.


via OQO's Dennis Moore

- Warner Crocker

Back in January at CES, we got to spend some time with the folks from DeviceVM who were behind SplashTop, the software package that gives any computer Instant-on access to the Internet. At the time they told us that Asus would be shipping this on new computers. Well, it looks like that time is here. Asus will be calling their variant of SplashTop Express Gate, and beginning in June will come installed on Asus motherboards. Expect a lot of talk about this at Computex as well. In the meantime check out the video below, and also the video we showed you at CES.

Via Crunchgear

 

- Warner Crocker

Remember the Storm Trooper? No, not from the movie, but the Fujitsu U1010/U810 UMPCs that had that black and white color scheme that prompted us to beg Fujitsu to call it the Storm Trooper, and then the Darth Vader, when it morphed into all black? Well, it looks like Fujitsu is continuing down that Star Wars path with the new Amilo 3000 Series of laptops.

And no that’s not a picture of the plumber sent to fix the broken toilet on the International Space Station.

Via Engadget

- Rob Bushway

Akihabaranews.com has all the details on a new DIY (Do It Yourself) Tablet PC from Ripple, a company in Korea. The specs on the TN120R look pretty common with other Tablet PC's ( Core 2 2.1 ghz, 120 gb hdd, 1280x800 res), with a notable exception that it includes an integrated DVD burner. This is the first time I've seen a DIY Tablet PC.

Check out this link for more pics.

Thanks for the link jkkMobile!

 

- Warner Crocker

It is raining ultra-portables and mini-notebooks these days, with hints, teases and product annoucements seemingly falling out of the sky. Hopefully sooner or later some of these small wonders will land in the hands of consumers.

In any event, 3K Computers has joined the mini-notebook storm with the announcement of the Razorbook 400. Yes, the specs sound very similar to some others we have heard about, but the price is the distinguishing factor here. How does $299 grab you?

 

- Warner Crocker

Yesterday it was Michael Dell himself unveiling a brief glimpse of Dell’s mini-notebook. Today we get to see some pics of Acer’s Aspire entry into the ultra-portable class, called the Aspire One. No real specs yet, and word is we’ll probably see more info on this at Computex.

Via UMPCPortal

- Warner Crocker

Oh, great. Another chip name change to keep track of. VIA Technologies has re-christened the Isaiah chipset to Nano, as it aims squarely at Intel’s Atom chipset for market share on the official launch. The Nano is a 65–nm processor and comes in two flavors: U for ultra-portable and L for desktop and laptops. The power ratings are listed as ranging between 5W to 25W. The theory goes that we’ll be seeing these in devices in Q3.

Via PC Perspective

 

- Warner Crocker

Phatware has released PhatPad 4.5, the next generation of their note taking and organizing software for Tablet PCs and Windows Mobile devices. The new version is comptabile with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Mobile 6.1, contains two new UI themes and a Windows Taskbar icon, and also allows you to take a picture with your mobile device and set it as a background image.

For existing users of PhatPad 4.x this is a free upgrade. Users of earlier versions can purchase it at $24.95. To purchase it new runs you $39.95 and there is a 30–day free trial.

 

- Rob Bushway

James Kendrick says he has yet to have anyone give him a single usage scenario where multi-touch on a normal sized device, like a Tablet PC, makes sense.

I can give him plenty that don't involve the traditional picture zooming:

• Math - interacting with clocks, manipulating objects for counting / sorting
• Modeling scenarios - cars, clay modeling, CAD, 3-D animation
• Practicing music where two or more notes need to be played at the same time to form a chord - guitar, piano, trumpet, etc. A person could practice the notes on a trumpet without having to put one to their lips. Heck, a 5" - 8" screen would be perfect for this. Think about holding an OQO in your right hand, with the three keys on the trumpet displaying, and being able to practice some music.
• Writing music and then wanting to test it out quickly on the screen with your fingers.
• Game playing with two people - play dough type of games for younger kids would be awesome. Take two fingers across the screen to form a string, then twist it with two fingers. Imagine the things kids could build. What about Legos - grabbing two or more pieces and putting them together, then manipulating them with your fingers. Picking up a bunch of Legos with your hand and moving them to another spot.
• Geography - manipulating maps . Imagine putting your hands on a map, then pulling your hands a part like you are digging in to the picture to see more depth of what is underneath- multiple pressure points could allow that.
• Science: grabbing several types of digitized chemicals with different fingers and joining them together to make something or form a different substance.
• Painting - mixing colors from two or three different palettes
• Imagine multi-touch that sensed torque, leverage, etc, from multiple points, and the kind of learning scenarios that would encourage around physics
• What about engineering possibilities- roads, buildings, etc where moving things with multiple fingers, or activating pressure points on objects caused events to happen to test fault tolerances.
• What about role playing for insurance - reenacting accidents with cars ( manipulating two cars with fingers on different hands ).
• What about cartoon manipulation for artists
• What about mirroring a common action for paper note-takers: you are inking a note in Journal or InkSeine, when you decide that you hate the idea that you've been working on. You take your hand and scrunch up the piece of "paper" in to a ball and throw it away. That brings the experience of note-taking even closer to mirroring real life, thanks to multi-touch.

These are all usage scenarios I could imagine conducting on my 12" Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC or even smaller devices like an OQO Model 02.  The potential of multi-touch on a laptop / tablet pc screen is huge in the education space, and I think it is one of the most exciting things to develop in a long time.   The 12" screen is perfect for all of these scenarios because they allow the student to take the device with them and use it a home, school, the lab, etc. Usability possibilities around multi-touch and laptop screens abound.

- Rob Bushway

Thanks to BetaNews.com, we just learned that Microsoft's newly unveiled PDC 2008 web site features some special sessions geared just for Windows 7. It looks like Microsoft has decided to begin talking about Windows 7, after all.

There are four Windows 7 sessions listed that will be of interest to a lot of developers, and folks generally interested in learning more about Windows 7.

Of particular to interest to our readers is a session geared toward touch computing and their API support.

I think I need to be planning to attend PDC 2008!

Windows 7: Touch Computing

In Windows 7, innovative touch and gesture support will enable more direct and natural interaction in your applications. This session will highlight the new multi-touch gesture APIs and explain how you can leverage them in your applications.

 

Here are the other Windows 7 sessions being offered:

Windows 7: Graphics Advances

Windows 7 enables you to advance the graphics capabilities of your applications while carrying forward existing investments in your Win32 codebase, including GDI and GDI+. New enhancements to DirectX let Win32 applications harness the latest innovations in GPUs and LCD displays, including support for scalable, high-performance, 2D and 3D graphics, text, and images. Also learn how to leverage the GPU's parallelism for general-purpose computation such as image processing.

Windows 7: Optimizing for Energy Efficiency and Battery Life

A single application can reduce mobile battery life by up to 30%. Windows 7 provides advances for building energy-efficient applications. In this session we will discuss how to leverage new Windows infrastructure to reduce application power consumption and efficiently schedule background tasks and services. 

Windows 7: Web Services in Native Code

Windows 7 introduces a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code. This session will discuss the programming model, interoperability aspects with other implementations of WS-* protocols and demonstrate various services and applications built using this API.

 

- Warner Crocker

Brian Lamm of Gizmodo got an exclusive at D6: All Things Digital. After his interview, Michael Dell showed him what he was toting at the moment. Turns out it is the Dell Mini Inspiron, which I’m assuming is Dell’s entry into the ultra-portable and ULCPC market. I guess red is the new black these days when it comes to ultra-portables.

More pics at Gizmodo

- Rob Bushway

I've been having the weirdest trouble with my Dell Latitude XT the last month or so: weird pen issues that show up after coming out of stand-by, some wireless network connectivity troubles, etc. For example, the pen would begin activating things while hovering after coming out of stand-by. Tapping a lot on the desktop clears it up, though. My wireless card would suddenly turn off for no reason. A reboot is the only thing that would turn the wireless back on.

After spending a lot of time with Dell troubleshooting various possibilities and driver updates, finding some patterns, etc, we determined that I have an early production unit with some quality problems. This was also evident in my early reports with the gridding trouble on the screen. The quality problems were addressed some time ago, but apparently I got one of the early builds before those issues were caught and addressed.

So, Dell is sending me a replacement unit that should be here tomorrow. Per my request, they are replacing my unit with a LED screen, so I'll be able to take some comparison pictures between the LED and the DLV ( screen angles, size, indoor / outdoor, etc).

I have to say that Dell has been superb in their dealings on this. Their follow-through with me has been excellent, and they rank far and above my tech support experiences with other OEMs.

Suggestion: if you are experiencing weird pen behavior after coming out of stand-by, contact Dell Technical Support.

- Warner Crocker

D6 isn’t the only place where some form of touchscreen is being demoed. Turns out at Google I/O there is a demo of Google’s Android cellphone touchscreen being shown on the HTC Dream. Guess everyone wants to have their touch stuff out before Apple releases whatever they are going to release.

More videos can be seen at the Android Community.

 

- Rob Bushway

Ok folks, the last of the HP HDX Dragon contests are upon us, with yours truly hitting the stage on June 1.

21 May - 28 May www.geek.com
22 May - 29 Mau www.lockergnome.com
23 May - 30 May www.planetx64.com
24 May - 31 May www.thegreenbutton.com
25 May - 01 Jun www.istartedsomething.com
26 May - 02 Jun www.bleepingcomputer.com
27 May - 03 Jun www.hardwaregeeks.com
28 May - 04 Jun www.geeknewscentral.com
29 May - 05 Jun www.geekzone.co.nz
30 May - 06 Jun www.thetabletpc.net
31 May - 07 Jun www.gearlive.com
01 Jun - 08 Jun www.gottabemobile.com

- Warner Crocker

Keyboard size and type-ability has certainly been a subject for discussion around here lately. Mostly that’s related to the smaller size form factor of the new class of mini-portables and ULCPCs. Now, along comes a small form factor BlueTooth keyboard from Japanese manufacturer I-O Data, targeted at mobile phone enthusiasts who might want to do a little typing, and who also have very tiny hands. This also looks like it will only be available in Japan, but then during the discussions we’ve heard some interesting rumblings that smaller keyboard form factors are better received in Western Asia than they are here in the US.

In any regard, this will debut at a price of $153 on June 13.

Via Akihabara and CrunchGear

- Warner Crocker

After getting a lot of pushback on last week’s announcement that Sprint was going to follow Verizon and AT&T’s lead and impose a cap on wireless data plans, Sprint has issued some clarifications on this.

• First up this applies to those using a connection card and phone as modem plans.
• Going over the limit will not cause a card to stop working. Going over occasionally is apparently going to be an OK thing as Sprint is going to look at this on a rolling three month basis. Customers would have to exceed the limit in two out of three consecutive months.
• Users will be able to monitor their usage after June 8.

Fair enough to a degree. Here’s my usage scenario. I do most of my travel during the months of December through April, and this is when I use the data plans on my Sprint device the most. So, let’s say next year is like this one, where I use it extensively in December, January, and February, again in April, but don’t use it that much the rest of the year. Answer me this Sprint? Got a solution to keep me happy with that kind of usage scenario.

For more on this check out Crave.

- Warner Crocker

Intel has confirmed that there will be a delay in getting the Centrino 2 chipset (Montevina) rolled out as scheduled. “Minor issues” supposedly turned up in final testing resulting in a delay until August.

"There were two minor issues we found during final testing – one with our integrated graphic chipsets, which we have found a workaround for but need to re-screen our parts, and second around our wireless wi-fi chip, which was a paperwork and certification mistake we made," said Bill Kircos, a spokesman for Intel, in an email.

"Both of these led us to establishing a launch date for our mobile processors and discrete chipsets of the week of July 14th, and taking a couple of weeks to get the right readiness and volume for the rest of our components," Kircos added. "We're looking at early August for that."

Look for some changes in launch schedules from OEMs.

Via PCMag.com

- Rob Bushway

Interesting development from Anoto Pen, announcing an integration point for their digital pens with Blackberry phones.

Read the press release here, and their case study here.

A new software package from PaperIQ will make it easier for end-users to combine the benefits of two of the most popular productivity tools, BlackBerry® smartphones and Digital Pen and Paper (DPP).

The Anoto Digital Pen Integration Kit for BlackBerry provides everything required to integrate Anoto’s digital pen technology with a BlackBerry smartphone application or enterprise system.
As it is an ‘out-of-the-box’ solution that requires little development, the integration kit will make it easier for channel partners and in-house IT departments to create combined BlackBerry® and DPP applications. The kit also enables any existing paper-based forms – for example a patient record form – to be printed with the Anoto pattern, so that they can be used with the digital pen.

The combination of Anoto’s digital pen with BlackBerry smartphones enables mobile workers to electronically capture and transmit data when away from their desks. The Anoto digital pen records what is being written onto a form printed with Anoto special dot pattern. This data is then transmitted back to the office via a BlackBerry device for further processing – without the need to type up notes.

 

- Rob Bushway

Truc Bui continues his fantastic Screen Protector Shootout series, turning his focus to BoxWave's Crystal.

 

 

- Truc Bui

 

Summary:

Pros:

· Only screen protector so far that maintains the brilliance of the Fujitsu screen.

· Excellent coverage. Corner to corner coverage is on par with NuShield. The entirety of the protector adheres to the screen.

· Probably the best solution for standard notebooks if you want to add an extra layer of protection over your LCD screen.

Cons:

· Scratched very easily. It was as bad as the ProtecT for scratch resistance. Basically, once you ink, you’ll scratch.

· Price point is on the more expensive side at $40 for one and $70 for two.

· Application process is prone to picking up debris since the entire protector is adhesive. Be sure to work in a very clean environment. Lint-free gloves are recommended.

For the second part of round four of the Screen Protector Shootout, I take a look at Boxwave’s Crystal Clear screen protector. Unlike its anti-glare brother, the Crystal series is completely clear and boasts a 99% transmittance level. Adding on this screen protector should not affect image quality in any way. I’m having high hopes for this screen protector. If the AG film was any indication, Boxwave has a winning one-two combination that addresses the needs or wants of the tablet PC segment.

Initial Impressions:

The Boxwave Crystal film came in a nicely packaged envelope with clear instructions on the back cover. There aren’t any unnecessary frills. In the package are a cleaning cloth, an applicator card, and the screen protector itself. The screen protector had a great feel to it right out of the envelope. The protective backing that covers the adhesive comes with a tab that allows for easy peeling and installation. Additionally, another layer of protective plastic overlays the screen protector itself so the crystal clear properties will be protected. Installation should be on par with the AG screen.

Installation:

Having experience with the AG screen helped tremendously. Instead of fighting with the included applicator, I went straight for the wide width 3M squeegee. Since most people won’t have access to a 3M applicator, a decent replacement can be had with some thick poster board or matte board.

Preservation of Luminosity:

Optical quality with the Crystal line was phenomenal. It was like not having any screen protector on at all. The Crystal moniker is truly deserving here. I’ve almost forgotten how wonderful the native screen is with all the AG protectors I’ve used.

Writing Feel:

Where the AG shines, the Crystal falls flat. Smooth writing with just the right amount of resistance is now a catchy, squeaky unpleasantness. To top it off, the screen scratches. After a night’s worth of inking and browsing in slate mode, the screen protector introduced visible scratches even when the screen was on and impeded viewability.

Outdoor Viewability:

Due to the scratching, outdoor viewability was skipped. The video shows how much of the scratching you can see with the screen off. Taking it outside where the light intensity is greater would only exacerbate the problem.

Screen Protector Removal:

Removing the screen protector was relatively easy. The trickiest part was getting a corner to come up. Since there is no adhesive layer to increase the thickness of the protector, it took some careful prying to get it to release. I couldn’t find my roll of tape to see if removal that way would have worked.

Conclusion:

At $40, the Boxwave Crystal is pricey, especially considering it is prone to scratching. For non-tablet notebooks where inking is not involved, the Crystal is an ideal solution. If you’re at all an inker, I recommend the AG instead.