Copied/Pasted directly from Tabula PC (thanks Peter…)

Wait ’til they see the new TIP …heh heh heh. We will win them over! See his crappy handwriting? Just like mine. Reco is pretty damned good and where it can’t recognize, we still have our ways! Ummm – do you think the context tagging might impress those luddites?

Peter Loforte – great job! Thank you.

Oh, did I catch your interest? You looking for a link? HERE

Holy Cow. So MANY MANY tablet posts today – Robert Scoble (and many yesterday, too), Peter Rysavy, Loren, Layne and Lora Heiny. It’s all because eweek said the tablet is dead. Go read read read.

And if you are going to TechEd and are curious why we all think tablets are so great, I am leading a Birds of a Feather Session on Tablets and there should be a bunch of tablets there to look and touch and talk about and play with and we can talk about developing applications FOR them and even ON them.

My session was scheduled for Wed. at 8PM but it is going to be Tuesday at 7:30 pm instead.

This did not come in through the RSS feed, so thanks to Robert Scoble for  pointing it out.

Mary Jo Foley lists the many problems/points of confusion with  the message Microsoft is sending about TabletPCs and wonders what the future holds (and what we think).

Robert says that if the Tablet Team was blogging, this problem would not exist (or not be as bad). I’m not sure I agree with that. The IPOD isn’t successful because of Apple’s computing.

Loren Heiny, Layne Heiny, and Peter Rysavy are frequently analyzing this in their weblogs, which, if this topic interests you, I would recommend subscribing to.

Whatever the problem, whatever the reason – it is a huge shame that this is the public perception.

Mary Jo has a great quote in her article:

One user said it best: “The irony is, people love Tablets and it’s a great technology. End users love it once they see it. It’s the most viral thing ever. A gold mine. And they (Microsoft) are committing suicide.”

Don’t forget the TabletPC Tour is starting up! Today in Denver, tomorrow in S.F.

Full schedule and registration are here www.tabletpctraining.com.microsoft

(see time & location below)

This free course provides an overview of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition features for developers, architects, systems integrators, and solution providers. Plan to spend a few hours with us and we’ll teach you what you need to know to get started. The sessions will cover:

• Tablet PC Platform Overview
• The Tablet APIs, Object Model, and available components and controls
• Complete coverage of the new features available with Windows XP Tablet PC 2004 Edition
• Code samples and demonstrations across all the main features
• Discussions around designing and deploying Tablet PC Applications
• Q & A time for more in-depth questions
• Each session will be delivered by Microsoft Tablet Employees or a Recognized Tablet PC Expert from the Leszynski Group. This is an opportunity you don’t want to miss. Register soon, as space is limited.

————————
DENVER
Date: Wednesday, May 5 2004
Start Time: 2:00 PM
End Time: 5:00 PM

Brown Palace Hotel
321 17th St
Denver, Colorado 80202
United States
Room: Ballroom (A/B – TBA)

SAN FRANCISCO
Thursday, May 6 2004
Start Time: 2:00 PM
End Time: 5:00 PM

Hilton Downtown San Francisco
333 O’farrell St
San Francisco, California 94102
United States
Room: Continental Parlors 1-3

Peter is absolutely right in describing my affection for my Acer. Perhaps this might be a smart thing to think about when marketing it. Perhaps it might be a good idea to ensure that the manufacturers continue to design them with these form factors. Unfortunately, that’s probably also going to mean “fashion covers” like they have for cell phones.

What’s really sad about the fashion cover link is that I just out of curiosity googled “barbie cell phone cover” and found that instantly!

Wow lots of tablet events sweeping the country in the next few months. Grabbed ths list from Loren and am adding my own comments.

Mobility Road Show
http://www.chrysalisevents.com/tabletroadshow/
About 20+ cities. 8:30am to noon  Targetted at end users

Tablet PC Demo Days
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/demodays.asp
Major retailers (mostly Circuit CIty, Best Buy and CompUSA). For 12 straight weeks, each store will have one afternoon per week to come in an play with tablets.

Microsoft Tablet PC Developers DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS Tour 2004 FREE FREE FREE
http://www.tabletpctraining.com/microsoft/
(I added those extra developers) Full day of Free training on using hte Tablet PC APIs to develop applications for tablets that will do a lot more than just leverage the built in ink capabilities of the tablet o/s.

Tablet PC Campus Demo Tour
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/campusdemo.asp
Wow – over 50 campuses around the country. Each campus will have a whole afternoon to play with Tablets and an opportunity to win one, too.

Student Mobility Tour 2004
http://www.mscampustour.com/
But wait there’s more! This is tablets, smartphones and pocketpcs. From 10am – 2pm at a number of college campuses. This is half over already.

Peter Rysavy ponders his blog schtick as he notes a one year anniversary. I think Peter does a great job of keeping everyone honest and asking questions about Tablets and is really instrumental in pushing developers. I have learned a lot and been totally inspired thanks to Peter’s writing. Now if only he can invent some time for me to finish my little blogging ink app. Peter also has the SpotBlog

Okay, another one out of the closet. Heh heh. Not really. Jay’s been doing pen based computing for 10 years and has a hot new Toshiba M200.

And here is the power of a developer who is “one with the tablet” – his company is rolling out 7,000 tablets (early 2005).

So from a guy who knows what he’s talking about to those of you who say “huh???”:

The biggest argument that is heard is that I can type faster then I can write. Well no kidding. Anyone that spends 15 hours a day in front of a keyboard should be able to type fast. Ink and speech are called “alternate” input, not the only input. Ink is just another way to interact with your computer. If you look at in that way, then you can start to see some of the advantages.

Jay – if you are going to TechEd, would you like to help me lead the Tablet PC BOF?