Can't Afford a Tablet PC? Try This!
Pages: 1, 2
Using the Windows Journal
The strength of the Tablet PC no doubt lies in the Windows Journal. The Windows Journal is an application that acts like your notebook (in the literal sense), allowing you to scribble notes and drawings. You can also perform searches based on your handwriting, something that is truly impressive.
To be honest, I am skeptical of handwriting recognition technology. While Microsoft demos always seem perfect, I really wanted to see for myself if the technology works for me. So, with skepticism, I powered up the Windows Journal:
|
| Figure 6. Launching the Windows Journal |
And so I started scribbling. As you can see, my handwriting is really terrible. With all these years of using the keyboard, I don't have much chance to use a pen for writing. And with this tablet setup, writing is not very natural for me.
|
| Figure 7. Scribbling on the Windows Journal |
Windows Journal allows you to save your notes as Digital Ink. Or you can convert it to text. So I tried to convert my hand writing to text. Surprisingly, it was recognized correctly. It evens suggested some word replacements. Now I am impressed.
|
| Figure 8. Converting the handwriting to text |
You can also highlight your writings with a highlighter. If you make a mistake, an eraser is always on standby:
|
| Figure 9. Highlighting with a highlighter |
Reading on the Tablet PC
Zinio Reader is an e-magazine reader that allows you to read a magazine on your computer, much like reading a paper copy. You can download the free reader from Zinio.com. You also have the option to download a sample Business Week magazine.
With my pen and tablet, I can draw on the magazine itself:
|
| Figure 10. "Drawing" on the magazine |
Or write notes on it:
|
| Figure 11. Pasting a note on the magazine |
I actually like the idea of reading an electronic magazine on my computer, as long as the computer is light and easy to handle. Imagine purchasing all your favorite magazines, downloading them to your computer, reading them anywhere you like. It not only lightens your load, it's also environmentally friendly.
Final thoughts
Just to recap why running the Tablet PC OS on a conventional notebook or desktop isn't a crazy idea, here's why you might want to do this:
- You want to test drive how the tablet PC actually works, but are unable to get your hands on the hardware.
- You want to develop applications for the Tablet PC.
- In a larger operation, you might not be able to supply all of your developers with the new hardware, so a reasonable alternative is to get each developer a graphics tablet and a copy of the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
Have fun!
You must be logged in to the O'Reilly Network to post a talkback.
Showing messages 1 through 14 of 14.
-
Great
2003-09-22 10:40:03 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
I advice you to see the movie Antitrust. Wish to thank you for your article.
-
HP 600-700 series sized "Tablet"
2003-07-28 14:15:24 foxesfarm.com [Reply | View]
As a freelance online manuscript editor, I have loved using the 4 HP Jornada clamshells I've bought over the past 10 years. OK, it's a bit heavy, but I've carried them in my inner jacket pocket for years now. I love the full size text that spans a whole standard page without scrolling side to side, and the 75% keyboard is great for typeing larger corrections. But, what I would really love is something that will run the full version of windows 98/xp compatible software, such as Microsoft Office XP and StyleWriter. This would be so cool! With the huge leaps in compact flash memory availible, having windows xp and drivers in built in ROM would be a reasonably priced, low power consumption beastie. Oh, yeah, and if you added GPS and cell phone reception, both my husband and I would carry them 24/7. But I suppose that that's dreaming a bit too much.
-
What about the SDK?
2003-07-20 01:23:57 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
It's a great concept to add a (Wacom) tablet to a desktop running WinXP, but the problem is how to get the "tablet" features of the OS (like Windows Journal). Anyone know whether the SDK will fill in the void?
Too bad Microsoft doesn't offer a Tablet Pack for users with digitizers & tablets. There's probably a bigger market here than they might imagine (enough, even, to entice end users to upgrade from 98SE or W2000 to XP).
-
Anybody try this with touchscreen overlays?
2003-03-23 13:15:00 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
I have seen several laptop touchscreen overlays in the 150-200$ range. Anybody try to use them with tablet software? I know there are plenty of laptops that could be oriented in your lap as a large open notebook with the LCD screen in portrait mode. The touchscreen could be slipped into a "bookcover" type of arrangement.
-
BIG Vs. little
2003-03-13 06:53:24 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
I feel that the only reason that the proces are soooo expensive is the old addage "Boys and their Toys!!!!" however I also feel that none of the big corporations are out there for the little guy they are after the big bucks... Have you ever noticed that once the BIG GUYS loose interest then us little guys get the chance to play with the leftovers... I would just once like to have the chance to try something out BEFORE the BIG GUYS......
-
I think its worth trying the idea!
2003-02-14 06:48:24 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
I am not ready to buy TPC yet. As if I buy a convertable one, the setting for laptop is not attractive. To buy a slate one, then I don't have a place to find app to play. The price is not fair too.
Thus I like to try this idea put in this article. Partically for me to learn how to program in TPC.
-
Completely useless
2003-01-30 00:22:58 madrider [Reply | View]
Well I do own an older pen tablet Fujitsu ST3500 that came with an W2K Pro. I am trying to upgrade to XP Tablet edition, but unfortunately MS told me that this version is not available for purchase. The only option that is offered by this article will cost me minimum $699. Now, if I spend that much doug, I can sell my tablet and buy a new one.
-
fair and balanced
2003-01-20 16:37:03 itasara [Reply | View]
I thought the article was okay. I would like to see the equivalent tablet for the mac, as I have no desire or plans to get into pc's.
-
Disappointed
2003-01-19 18:02:09 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
The beauty of a tablet PC is directly interacting with the screen.
I was hoping this $100 solution would show me a way to overlay a wacom or other tablet across my existing monitor (or even a portion of it.)
Good overview for the article, annoying teaser title. -
Disappointed??? What about...
2003-06-24 03:03:49 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
You could invest in a set of HUD (Heads Up Display) Goggles that project the screen output onto specially coated optics where the "lenses" of the goggles would normally be (like what they use in fighter planes, less the Oxygen feed!)
Then, when you look at your plain old white tablet (BTW, Wacom's "good" tablets aka Anything that is not a Graphire series kick serious butt once you get used to them) you would see the display. It would be a simple matter of aligning your field of vision in the same place when you used it. The benefits???
I envision a single splindle (aka Ultraportable) notebook one would purchase from eBay (for example) that had a smashed display but had the display housing. Then just cut out the right sized hole in the back of the housing to access the tablet surface, and the old front bezel of the no longer present LCD module would hold it in. A little dremmel action to allow the cord outside the housing to allow it to plug into the USB port, and viola! You could probably power current HUD glasses via the USB/Parallel/PS2 mouse port power output that most of these units would have and even the HUD+Tablet would probably pull less juice than the LCD module. If you need to use the keyboard, open it up and do so, just look at the back of the tablet for your "screen" or look wherever! You could use the trackpad/trackpoint/whatever is built into the keyboard on any laptop in leiu of the tablet while using the keyboard.
Seriously, thought, the really cool thing on these tablets is that you can access the BIOS from the tablet, enter power on passwords thru an on-screen virtual keyboard, etc. Also, the HP/Compaq one shown uses a Transmeta Carusoe 1GHz processor and gets like 5 hours of actual usable life on a charge with reasonable power management settings. And it runs cool and hardly even needs to use the fan. My friend got one and let me play for a day with it. I'd probably rather spend that kind of cash on a Cintiq from Wacom if I had it to burn on a toy. (The Cintiq is a integrated large format, high resolution tablet and large LCD display that plugs into any VGA+USB desktop (Mac or x86 class) and sits in your lap or on your desk while you work on it.
Food for thought...
i bought a tablet pc from xoticpc.com but it didnt come with an OS i desperatly need windows xp tablet edition. please help if you can i will make it worth your while via paypal we can work somthing out ... i have searched and searched for a copy and no luck i'm not a msdn subscriber please contact me via email billyislame@hotmail.com thanks alot steve