Melbourne, Eo, Hugo and them

It seems as though my Tablet PC travels have caught the attention of Bjorn Sstromberg, of the UltraMobileLife.com blog. When I did some exploration, and more interesting still, I found out that Bjorn is Employed by VIA Technologies, Inc and writes the UltraMobileLife blog as he keeps VIA's watchful eye over the Tablet movement. Thank you Bjorn for showing interest in Australia, and in what I do, and for running such a thorough blog yourself. In this post I want to describe just how much effort is going into this thing called "Tablet PC in Australia."

So Monday was a massive day. Both eo and I headed to the airport for a 6:30am departure with no intention of returning home until 11:30pm that same evening. Our destination, Melbourne, was still somewhat of a mystery to us both. As the lady in the terminal with the sweet voice bellows: "last call for all passengers flying to Melbourne," eo and I quickly finish our McDonald�s breakfast and make our way to Gate 49.

I land at the Melbourne domestic terminal and witness the runway crew performing a rather good impersonation of Antarctic Explorer's, rugged up and looking very concerned for their own well being; unfortunately I too was to receive a strong dose of the Melbourne climate. As the mobile staircase pulled up to my plane I made sure that my tie was tight, and my shirt tucked in...ouch! I really like Melbourne, a lot. Melbourne is similar in many ways to Europe in that its people are extremely multicultural. The weather, obviously, does its best to imitate the European winters, albeit not as strong. It�s the smell of the marvelous Melbourne cuisine that wins most hearts though�Oh! Tablets.

I picked up my hire care, as requested with Satellite Navigation, and made my way to the Central CBD. After catching up with a friend for breakfast (Jarrod Thomas of Centralite) I made my way across the road from the General Post Office, in the heart of the City. For appropriate reasons I will not disclose their name but lets just say this little store happily runs a staff of 20 plus in a premise that normally survives with 4 retail staff only. After my meeting we�d sealed an agreement and happily given eo a new residence in the heart of the city.

I then moved on to the outer skirts of Melbourne where a Distribution Company was eagerly awaiting eo and I, well, mostly eo. As I prepared in the car I let eo have a conversation with my 3G phone (Motorola A1000) and strolled into my meeting with eo now 3G enabled. As the Distributors looked over the device the questions quickly moved onto internet connectivity, to which I replied: �you�re already online.� To their amusement they opened IE and started surfing.

When it comes to broadband enablement with a device like an UMPC I�m starting to see the phone/UMPC conversation (via Bluetooth) playing a more prominent role than ever. I can�t see why we want to carry another plug in card, therefore depreciating battery life and increasing weight. Short of embedding 3G chips in the motherboard the phone/UMPC scenario seems most effective to me. Given that 89% of us (invented stat) carry Bluetooth enabled phones I can�t see why we would like more devices and more �bills� for internet connectivity.

So eo and I wrapped up this meeting to a resounding applause and made our way to the Chadstone shopping mall. Here I was met by a Malaysian man nmaed Ivan, a humble yet very knowledgeable counterpart. His presence is solid and very determined. He looked through eo, Sahara Touchscreens and even the Superna Control Box I carried with me. He had questions, I had answers, and overall a warm connection was made between us. His project, which I suffer from NDA regarding, is a very exciting one. It may see 1,000�s of UMPCs rolled out between now and the next 18months. Obviously we treaded lightly but both foresaw possibilities beyond our wildest dreams.

Back in the car, more addresses entered into Mr. GPS and I am off to the City again; this time with Mr. Randall H. Garrett, of Apex Software in the United States. We�d been chatting online for several months and connected on several geekish levels. We decided to sit together as his commitment to Tablet PC, and my focus, meant that our two paths were destined to cross. We drank coffee at Starbucks and enjoyed the company of Anthony Caruana, Freelance Journalist, and PDA Guy too, and Apex Australia�s Darrell Cann. This meeting was full of tales and tribulations, frustrations and talk of futurism. Between us we solved the world�s most burning issues of battery power, broadband internet connectivity and even Global Warming�mmmm. Maybe!

As I left the Apex/Journo combo I remembered just how much fun it is to be a nerd. Not only am I entitled to lots of coffee but also like-minded friendships too. And when I say like-minded I mean one-eyed, maniacal like-mindedness that comes with Geek Pride (is that weird???).

As I wave good-bye, we wish each other the best, and I make my way to another location. There I catch up, for the first time (although we�ve been talking for a long time), with Adam Turner, another Freelance Journalist. I hand him the eo and wish him luck. We don�t really get to spend much time together as it turns out he�s wife is rather pregnant; interesting, there must be something in the water?

�seeya Adam, good luck!� I turn the car to the main road and make my way to a nice Pizzeria in around the corner. I walk in, power up my slate and start to surf the news of the day. The sun has gone down on the day and my nervous system is flooded with Coffee. I decide to order a black tea and a double mozzarella pepperoni pizza. As I eat and reflect I decide that the day has done far more than I expected it to. The meetings have shown UMPC to be, if anything, of interest, and Tablet PC to be in the front of people�s mind; and that can�t be a bad thing for me.

As I made the 90minute journey back to the Airport I but on the heater, turned up the radio and began to unwind. It�s now 9pm and all is done. Thank you Melbourne, you put on a great show! Can�t wait to get to bed at around midnight tonight.

eo gets 3G & GPRS via Bluetooth

The last few days have been an absolute marathon. Not matter how "household" we believe the terms "Bluetooth" and "3G" to be it seems that getting the pair to talk is not that easy, especially when you throw-in an eo and the Motorola A1000. As I hang up the phone with my sixth Support-Staff member he whispers to me: "so how did you get it to work?" Little did I know, three days ago, that this simple task would turn into a revolution in computing terms?

I'll post a video soon but here is what I've done:

• Motorola A1000 phone talks to eo UMPC via Bluetooth, connects to 3G pipe via Three Mobile.
• Sony Ericson T610 talks to eo UMPC via Bluetooth, connects to GPRS pipe via Vodafone Network.
• BlackBerry 7290 talks to eo UMPC via USB cable and BlackBerry Desktop Manager Version 4.0.0.30, connects to GPRS pipe via Vodafone.

I can't wait to tell you all about it. Hopefully this little task can serve as reference to you all soon.

David Wallace reviews Acer C200

If I�d typed a post using a stick shoved in my mouth as the pointing device I�d expect you all to read it; if that same post, written by Lifekludger�s Dave Wallace, is insightful and enlightening, then it should be considered obligatory.

It seems that our favourite wheelchair bound geek is at it again; first with his review of the Sahara Slate PC, and now the Acer C200. Tablet PC Review Spot has run with the article and given Dave the real time-of-day he deserves. If David has a post then it's definitely worth tracking, his dis-ability gives us the ability to gain insight. I�m a big fan of what David brings to the Tablet PC community and a staunch supporter of his commitment to his own progress.

Thank you Dave, you�re a star.

Submitted by Barry J. Doyle on Thursday, May 25, 2006

Snipping:

It was then I found something interesting in the way I was operating the Acer. The lack of trackball/easy way move cursor meant often resorted to keyboard shortcuts that I normally wouldn't do. As moving the cursor with the Trackpoint' device was possible I found it a bit hard on my teeth and would, when possible (that is, in reach) drag stuff on the screen or tap' the screen rather than stretch back to click the mouse button.

Double-click was difficult for the same reasons. So I often found myself doing strange combinations between screen/keyboard, like tap screen'- hit enter key' to open things. And drag screen'- scroll wheel' to move up-down a page. Odd combinations as a work around for not being able to reach everywhere easily -- I was Lifekludging on the Acer.

So the experience reminded me of a definition of accessibility I read from him years ago by Joe Clark which has driven much of what I do -- it goes something like "Accessibility is about accommodating characteristics a person cannot change by providing options". And so I found myself using the options a touch' screen provides to get around accessing the Acer. The screen adds another option for input.

UMPC Next Stop Canberra

In June I've been invited to talk to the "Canberra Windows User Group." For those of you overseas, Canberra is Australia's Capital City, and home to a large group of our politicians. For those of you that are in Australia, yeh, Canberra, oh well, beats going to Adelaide (jokes).

It�s important to note that Microsoft inspired User Groups are an infectious affair with oodles of geeks and bags of gadgets, the Canberra User Group being no different. Since a great chunk of the attendees will be from the Government sector you can always rely on lots of gossip and plenty of tales. If you�re in the area pop-on over and enjoy some Pizza at half time, and more. I have been asked to run two sessions as listed below and for your convenience I have pasted a snipping from our hosts' group-email sent out earlier today.

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Canberra Windows User Group - June Meeting Invitation Group runs Tuesday 13th June 2006 Microsoft Canberra Office
Level 2, 44 Sydney Ave Barton
RSVP David.Mackie@synergistic.com.au
Two Sessions 16:00 � 17:30 and 18:00 � 19:30
Both sessions meet together @ 17:30 for Pizza and refreshments

David Mackie:

"I was hoping that the UMPC was going to make my need to carry a laptop in the truck obsolete but not to be sadly. I need 3G and I also need a phone with no camera of course it needs to run Windows Mobile too, so Bluetooth is not an option.

So I am a really fussy consumer as you can see and I still think I might get a UMPC and hope the second generation Origami will make my Compaq Evo look like this:

This is what I really want PCMCIA socket or a USB 3G Card so I can really leverage mobility solutions that make sense for me this month Hugo Ortega (The Tablet Guy) will be in town taking about tablet PCs and mobility in general, he will have a UMPC with him so you can get a look at one up close.

I am sure that this will be an informative and very worth while session and we can continue the theme forward with mobility sessions in the Infrastructure optimization of the fictitious company now renamed to HappyTime again so we can protect the innocent. We can help make their infrastructure fly as the weeks go on."

Hugo Ortega reviews Fujitsu T4020 Tablet PC

Last night I set myself the fortunate task of reviewing the Fujitsu T4020 Convertible Tablet PC. Although the task is somewhat becoming more familiar to me, on this occasion it was combination of some nerves and lack of sleep that turned a simple task, into a two day affair.

Fujitsu sent me the T4020 to use as my preferred blogging device during my role as CeBIT Blogger; I�ve been the proud holder of the device since May 10th and have found it to be quite an asset. While this is my first formal video review of a Tablet PC I think the results may provide you with an insight into the T4020�s look, feel and performance; one day I�ll put together a �bloopers� reel of this review, it�s so funny.

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Sit back and enjoy as Hugo Ortega reviews the Fujitsu T4020 Tablet PC�after this effort he has a new found respect for other famed video bloggers like Rob Bushway and James Kendrick, you guys rock!

Watch it here, or here:
[9 min/33MB]

Tablet PC is great in 2008!

If you follow Craig Pringle's blog you may have seen an article titled "Now is the time for Tablets." Not only was the article very cleverly written but it did what all good articles should do, it inspired thought! Some of the famed responses were:

• Warner, with Craig Pringle: Now Is The Time For Tablets
• Then Layne with The Cosmic Forces of Mobility, which then caused Rob to:
• The year of the tablet? Wrong question (GottaBeMobile)

While I didn't join in on the debate I did find the topic, and everyone's input, rather intriguing. If you look at all the articles it isn't difficult to see that we're actually all sharing one very important common thought, i.e. Tablet PC is on the rise and not vice versa.

Today I thought I'd wade in on the debate as a friend decided to forward me a hardcopy of an article written in "The Australian," titled: "CIOs struggle to keep staff". While the article itself is of little consequence to the Tablet PC space it was interesting to note one omission from the online version of the article. When I received the attachment I found a small survey, conducted by IDC Australia, titled "Forecast For Management Survey 2006". As part of their finding IDC chose to look at Hot Technologies to 2008 of which the findings therein reminded me of the Pringle Affair... So what did IDC find?

Hot Technologies to 2008/Forecast Growth

• Voice and voice over IP: 179%
• Tablet PCs: 87%
• Sales force automation tools: 84%

As I perused the attachment, and looked back over Craig's article, I must admit that 2008 felt more representative of my conclusions, more so than 2006 does. Since the release of UMPC I've fielded 10 - 4 0 phone calls per day on Ultra mobile PC (and therefore Tablet) as a productivity tool. Not only have I had to explain the idiosyncrasies of UMPC but more interestingly still I've had to educate most of these callers primarily on what is Tablet.

Today we're living in a world where the number one feature that makes callers� pickup a telephone and enquire about UMPC is its size/processor ratio. While I too see UMPC as a great tool for software, wanting hardware, "bigger than a PDA and smaller than a laptop." What I find disconcerting about most callers is that too often they overlook the power of digital ink.

What I'd like to do today is ask anyone considering UMPC to also consider the power of digital ink; we must always remember that the ability to take handwritten notes, therefore allowing them to be printable, emailable, shareable, erasable and editable, is also the ability to empower free thought. While most companies find it difficult to understand this concept (mostly because they're focused on UMPCs� size) I think the easiest way to describe this concept is by looking at the "additional comments" box found on most paper forms. Giving people the ability to ink additional thoughts, or diagrams, gives your software the power of free-speech. Never underestimate the ink!

So why do I think 2008, and not 2006?

I believe that between the time it takes a company to research the implementation of a new product, design/redesign software for it, roll it out, rework the software, re-rollout, rework and rollout again, we will definitely see ourselves stroll past 2007 and therefore well into 2008. Look at the EO and Samsung for example; the eo, with late deliveries on all orders, and the Samsung, still trying to decide where and who to sell to, are both prime examples of time rolling by. We're in late May 2006 and the key players are still the OEMs and the Software Developers. Until the key player in this space becomes the consumer the whole Tablet-thing won�t generate enough attention for anyone to deem it a success. Right now we�re in the hands of the Software Developers as they work on that one killer-app that will take UMPC from a clever idea, to a household/executive necessity.

My only advice would be to start sewing Tablet seeds now, because when 2008 rolls around it will be too late for anyone not already involved. I'm cuddling and hugging lots of new Partners so that my 2008 end of year party can raise my champagne glass to Tablet, and not spend the night grumbling about it as another great idea that lost its place in the world.

Hugo Ortega plays with Fujitsu T4020

I announced several posts back that I�d been handed a Fujitsu T4020 Convertible Tablet PC. Today, although not intended as a full review, I decided to posts some thoughts.

I must disclose that my original purpose for having this device was somewhat selfish. Since I�d been handed the role as blogger for the CeBIT Australia Fair I knew that my primary dilemma in accomplishing this task would be my love for the slate pc. I hunted and looked through my piles of Tablets to only realise that I have a rather refined Slate fetish; the only convertible/hybrid I own is a HP TC1100 which would definitely be under-processed and under-sized for the task.

David at Fujitsu answered my call rather enthusiastically with the delivery of a �Brand New� T4020 Convertible Tablet PC that had been sitting in the office and designated as a �Emergency Only� Tablet� I peeled open the boxes, and layers of insulation, to find what at first site appears to be a rather good attempt at post-modern Tabletism. The reason I term it post-modern is that Fujitsu�s design team has gone to considerable effort to create a funky machine; with its rounded edges and two-toned grey/silvers it seems that Fujitsu colour coordinators have definitely done away with PC Beige as a preferred hue.

Booting the T4020 quickly gives the Tableteer a glimpse of great things to come�speed (impressive for an Intel� Pentium� M Processor 750 1.86GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB) ! As we all know faster is better, right? In this case absolutely, positively better. From the word GO this Tablet screams. Gone are all the proprietary software bits that make very good computers run like dogs, i.e. infamous with IBM and Sony VAIO. When I first booted this device I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in the Windows environment well before many more fabled machines. One Windows Mobile fanatic friend of mine pointed out a very ironic little quirk in this device just recently: �stupid isn�t it that the fingerprint scanner is located on the body of the computer and not the screen? What if I want to swipe my finger when in Tablet mode?�

All-in-all the keyboard feels great and the weight/functionality ratios are all tipped in the favour of the T4020. I like it so far but stay tuned for a more comprehensive Video Review later next week.