Archive for the ‘Tablet PC Software’ Category

Resource management is especially important on Tablet PCs where performance is balanced against weight and battery life. Many Tablet PC and UMPC users are left with a particularly poor experience when it comes to anti-virus software.

Over time Anti-Virus software has generally become bloated with features like link and search scanning, email filtering and anti-spam. Ultimately your Tablet PC can be come so weighted down performing all of these security functions that it runs like a snail…

Finally there is a decent solution direct from Microsoft called Microsoft Security Essentials. It is a simple, free anti-virus client that just does anti-virus. We have found that it adds very little overhead to your Tablet PC so everything runs much faster.

If you need features like anti-spam and email scanning we recommend that use a hosted service like MailGuard. With a service like MailGuard, the filtering of spam and viruses is done before it gets to your server or Tablet PC. It is much more reliable and it has many other benefits like increased security. That means that your Tablet PC is not bogged down performing those tasks.

You can download Microsoft Security Essentials for a faster Tablet PC here. If you have an alternate solution, tell us about it in the comments below.

On the 20th of October Barnes and Noble introduced the “nook” eBook reader to the US market. No doubt this move was designed to compete with the success of the Amazon Kindle which until now has not been available to Australian customers.

Australian readers are probably thinking, “great, another e-reader that won’t be available to us.”

But dedicated e-book reading devices aren’t for everyone (I personally don’t want another device to add to my collection 10+ Tablet PCs!), so the good news is that Barnes and Noble trumped Amazon by also releasing their e-Reader software for PC as well as MAC and iPhone. Only days later Amazon matched them by announcing Kindle reader software for PC and MAC too.

So if you enjoy e-reading, you now have some new alternatives for reading eBooks on your Tablet PC. Of course, there eBooks have been around for a long time now, and there are many places to buy them online for PC. We list a few below, but feel free to add your suggestions in comments.

I guess the question is, what is the best Tablet PC to start e-Book reading on? Here is our list of recommended Tablet PCs for eBook Reading:

1. Motion F5, Motion C5 or Motion J3400 with Hydis AFFS+ – These are the top of the line Tablets with the best screen technology available by a country mile. You simply will not  get a better eBook reading experience on a PC (Best viewing angle, contrast, outdoor visibility and power consumption). So if you can afford it, start here. If you can’t, read on…
2. Viliv X70 EX Premium Air – A fantastic small and lightweight slate device with inbuilt 3G. Weighs only 660 grams and has a 7” colour screen that is not much bigger than an average paperback. Perfect for eBook reading.
3. Gigabyte M1028 – Reading eBooks on a netbook is not really a comfortable experience. Enter the Gigabyte M1028 – a touch screen netbook with a 10” convertible (swivel) screen. It performs fantastically as a netbook, but swivel the screen around and you have a colour eBook reader. Price is great too at less than AU$1000.

We’ll have to wait and see what Amazon come out with when they release their Kindle app next month, but in the meantime you can already get your eBooks on Tablet PC from a variety of sources:

• Barnes & Noble – One million titles
• Zinio – Great software and best source for Digital Magazines
• Adobe Reader Titles – Available in Australia from Dymocks
• eBooks.com – For all eBook formats
• Sony eBook Store – Download the software to use it
• Google Books – For out of copyright titles.

Here’s a snippet from the introductory post from the Barns and Noble “Unbound” blog:

There’s no denying it: eBooks are revolutionizing the way we read—and fast. Literature is moving from our shelves to our screens, and with it comes easy, instant access to eBooks, anytime, anywhere.

Computers and handheld devices are swiftly becoming the mediums of choice for many bibliophiles who no longer find it feasible to store and carry all of their physical books. And as a new generation turns to computer screens and PDAs for their information, digital learning is playing an increasingly crucial role in our schools.

In the last month we have been able to give ten select software developers their first hands on experience with Tablet PCs. Without exception, the feedback has been something like this:

“Hey, this handwriting recognition really works!”

 
We love working with software developers because without them the compelling reasons for deploying Tablet PCs thin out considerably.

However, in our experience, the majority of software developers assume that developing a user interface for a Tablet PC is the same as developing for a PDA. But it is not…

Developing an application for a Tablet PCs is not the same as developing for a PDA

With a PDA, you would use lots of drop down boxes, large tick boxes and radios and big buttons. Keeping it simple… You have to, because touch screens of all flavours are  not sensitive enough for fine input. Handwriting on a tiny little touch screen is nigh on impossible.

So keeping it simple is a great approach for PDAs with touch screens, but for Tablet PCs it can represent a lot of missed opportunities.

There are a couple of important distinctions about Tablet PCs that you should examine before you embark on your Tablet PC software project:

1. Unlike PDAs, digitizer based Tablet PCs allow for very fine cursor control – easily more accurate than a mouse
2. Modern digitizer Tablet PCs have little to no pen – cursor lag due to the speed of the current PC hardware
3. Handwriting recognition really works – particularly with Windows Vista and especially with Windows 7 – even with the worst handwriting! It is way more advanced than anything you’ve seen on a PDA
4. Digital ink and handwriting recognition capabilities can be easily built into your application making data input a snap for your end users!

The holy grail for Tablet PC development is integrating pen and handwriting input directly into your application. Here are a couple of ideas for functions that can be built in for Tablet PC:

• Search can be ink enabled saving your users lots of time
• Filling out forms makes a lot more sense if you can write straight onto the form
• Gestures for repetitive functions can easily be built in to your app (e.g. save, open, new, copy, paste, space, enter etc).

Adding features like this for your Tablet PC software can give your software a competitive edge. Talk to us to see some examples of these ideas.

If you are developing for Tablet PCs you really should be thoroughly familiar with the platform before you kick off. Fortunately we have several solutions for software developers.

1. We offer preferential pricing on Tablet PCs for your own internal development use – give them to your staff to use and get familiar with.
2. Our Tablet PC hire program was especially designed for software developers. Get hold of the latest Tablet PC models to test your software and demonstrate to clients for much less than the cost of a Tablet PC.
3. Partnering – Tens of thousands of people visit this website every month to find out about Tablet PCs, but the majority of them don’t have a software package or software developer to help them make it all work for them. We partner with a select group of software developers to promote their solutions to our customers. Whilst we do not develop applications, we have Tablet PC software development experience in house available to assist your team.

If you are a software developer, contact us on 03 9012 6602 or email us to discuss your needs.

We love our Tablet PCs here “down under" and we are proud to be associated with a brilliant software package for Tablet PCs (and regular PCs) called eNoteFile.

eNoteFile is developed right here in Melbourne in a partnership between Physiotherapist Bruce Cohen and Software Development Firm Kiandra.

Kiandra was recently awarded as the winner of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year Award 2009 for “Custom Development Solutions, Application Infrastructure Development.”

eNoteFile was described by Microsoft as:

“Onenote meets the mesh”

Companies and individuals who embrace Tablet PCs will benefit from the unique digital ink, note taking, visual search and web synchronisation capabilities of eNoteFile.

Australians will be familiar with organisations who have been using eNoteFile on Tablet PCs such as:

• The Melbourne Storm NRL Club

• The Geelong Cats AFL Club

eNoteFile is an essential application for your Tablet PC or Notebook, and best of all, eNoteFile is free! No strings attached. Download it here (Registration required).

From the Kiandra website:

Kiandra has been awarded the Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2009 in the category of Custom Development Solutions, Application Infrastructure Development, for our custom developed eNoteFile software and hosted server solution for eNoteFile Services.

eNoteFile draws on the exceptional skills of Kiandra’s development team to securely record, manage, search, synchronise and share detailed notations and related documentation, in an seamlessly online and offline desktop-based environment.

Watch this YouTube video below to get a quick preview of just one of the features that makes eNoteFile a great Tablet and Touch app…

Although eNoteFile was originally intended as a digital ink based paper and filing eliminator for physiotherapists and allied healthcare, it has found application in a wide range of applications such as:

• Construction
• Education
• Project coordination
• Personal note taking
• Team collaboration

As a product, eNoteFile is continually improving, so we will be keeping you up to date with the latest news on eNoteFile.

A commenter on our last post about handwriting recognition in Windows 7 asked if it only works in English. The answer from the Windows 7 MSDN blog is quite impressive, so we thought that we should post it.

Windows Vista handwriting recognizers are available for 12 languages, including

• USA English
• UK English – Yes, the English recognisers are actually different and localised
• German
• French
• Spanish
• Italian
• Dutch
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
• Japanese
• Korean

So that’s what is already available now.

We are planning to ship new and improved languages for Windows 7, including:

• Norwegian
• Swedish
• Finnish
• Danish
• Russian
• Polish

That is what’s coming with the release of Windows 7 – very soon…and the list continues to grow!

In view of our last post about the handwriting recognition improvements in Windows 7 you might be wondering how good windows handwriting recognition is…

As an experiment, I’ll tell you to the story of my handwriting got so bad in digital ink with Windows Vista and I’ll show you the recognition results below:

And here is the recognised text version…

I was born in South Australia but grew

up in Victoria. So I started learning

to write at primary school in Victoria. The Victorian Education Department at

the time decided to change the

writing style taught from printing to cursive script.

In grade four, we moved from

Victoria to South Australia where kids

had always been taught cursive. When

I turned up, they decided to

switch to painting… And so, my

handwriting became a hacked up version of print and cursive…

One error… not bad!

Tablet PC users have been amongst the few friends of Windows Vista to date due to the significant improvements of handwriting recognition, pen and touch input from Windows XP.

Background: Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition, Microsoft Windows Vista and now Windows 7 all include sophisticated multi-language handwriting recognition software. They are capable of recognising even the worst handwriting. They recognise your natural freehand writing style (cursive script or printing) so you don’t have to print or learn a special way of writing.

Thankfully, as Windows 7 hits the market with much better mainstream acceptance, Tablet PC users will no longer have to apologise for their choice of operating system!

There are some significant improvements in the way that Windows 7 handles recognition, even after the leap forward that we had with Vista.

It’s all thanks to an enormous amount of work from the Windows Engineering Input team. You can read more about their incredible work here:

• Ink Input and Tablet PC
• Recognizing Improvements in Windows 7 Handwriting

Some of the features that you can expect to see in Windows 7:

• Inline text recognition – less mental power required!
• New correction gestures and options
• Improved support for East Asian Languages – Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese
• Math Input
• Easier web addresses
• Touch optimised keyboard.

Here are some video previews (bear in mind that screen capture programs don’t do well at following tablet input due to the graphics intensity, so the videos don’t do it justice… but you get the idea).

Handwriting conversion as you go:

New correction gestures and options:

Improved web address entry:

For Tablet PC veterans, some of the changes may take a little getting used to. Seeing your chicken scratch turn into nice legible words on the go is a little disconcerting initially.

It was only when I read the articles above and analysed my method of working in the TIP (Tablet Input Panel) that I realised how much concentration it takes to work that way. Windows 7 lowers the requirements significantly by converting your handwriting as you go.

Since in Windows 7 you can see the recognition results without moving your gaze far- up, down, across, etc – it takes much less effort to write and correct. Even a mac user could do it! ;-P (Please, it’s a joke! I love mac users and l even have an iPhone!)

As with Vista, Windows 7 recognition keeps getting smarter. You can train the recogniser to work with you particular writing style and the system also learns automatically from your corrections.

The correction methods are awesome in Windows 7 and it is very difficult to work on Vista now without them!

We can happily say that Windows 7 will be a big boost to your Tablet PC productivity.

Capitaleyes Business Technologies Helps Customers “Go Green” while Streamlining Business Processes

New Software Launch Provides Tablet PC Powered ‘Green’ Mobility Solution

CANBERRA, ACT – April 22, 2009 – Capitaleyes Business Technologies, a leading provider of document driven process improvement solutions, in conjunction with its strategic partner, www.TabletPC.com.au has announced the release of a low cost, high value software suite to the Australian market in support of Earth Day 2009.

The solution suite is centred on bridging the gap between the collection of vital information on paper forms and how and where that information is subsequently stored and then made available throughout the organisation. The use of a true Digital Ink e‐Forms technology, together with the handwriting recognition capabilities of a new generation Tablet PC or UMPC, provides a capability that not only does away with the need for additional data entry but also helps minimise a company’s environmental footprint.

In migrating from traditional paper to electronic business processes, organisations can generate numerous benefits and significant return on investment through more efficient digital workflows and reduced costs. The adoption of electronic processes to exchange information both internally and externally decreases and often eliminates paper, reducing the impact organisations have on the environment by conserving land and water resources as well as decreasing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

For example, an employee filling out 20 paper forms each month (10 pages each) during site visits could save the following each year by converting just half of these to electronic transactions:

“Enabling streamlined business process through migration from paper to electronic is a central component of the value we bring and is a common theme across our entire product and service portfolio,” said Kevin Burdette, Principal of Capitaleyes Business Technologies. “By deploying our solutions, organisations can leverage mature technology to drive environmentally‐friendly business practices, lower their carbon footprint and achieve their environmental and business goals.”

About Capitaleyes Business Technologies

CAPITALEYES BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES provides software and consulting services to improve the outcomes of an organisation’s business process improvement strategies through the use of mature, innovative information exchange technologies. Founded in 2008, CAPITALEYES BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES is headquartered in Canberra with partners in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the USA. For more information, please visit: www.capitaleyesbt.com.au.

The out of the box experience of multi-touch in Windows Vista will be limited to third party software at this stage, but Windows 7 takes multi-touch the whole nine yards.

The following demos from Gizmodo are of the HP TouchSmart desktop PC, but you can expect the same experience from the HP TouchSmart Tx2.

Windows 7 Touch and Multitouch on HP TouchSmart PC from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

As you can see, the multi-touch experience is built into the system from the ground up… it’s even in good ol’ paint.

Multitouch Air Hockey in Windows 7 on a TouchSmart PC from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Air Hockey on a Tablet PC! Now that will be something special! We’re excited just thinking about the possibilities of multi-digit, multi-hand and multi-user interaction…

Do you get the feeling that Windows Vista has a bit of an image problem? I have to say that I have even heard Windows Vista compared to Windows ME… now that is low.

As a Tablet PC user though, I just can’t go back. Despite the trials that Vista occasionally throws at me, I just love the new features for Tablet users.

If you haven’t upgraded yet, in Windows Vista Microsoft added a few subtle but powerful visual cues for Tablet PCs including:

• Left click ripple
• Pen: Right button press cursor
• Pen: Right click ripple
• Mouse ghost for touch screens to enable easy right or left clicking

Vista is pen flicks which are a great time saver.

But the thing that I can’t live without is the upgraded recognition engine. The new engine does a much better job of identifying numbers, email and web addresses.

Unfortunately these new features don’t come without the Vista annoyances. For me, the two main culprits are:

• Speed – Vista is so slow!
• User account control – Could it be any more annoying to be prompted so often?

Speed

Tablet PCs are usually designed around a Low or Ultra Low Voltage processor. This facilitates the light weight and extended battery life, but it sacrifices some processing power.

Unfortunately Windows Vista is power hungry. However, there is a simple way to speed up Windows Vista on your Tablet PC:

Turn off the funky transparent window theme.

1. Click Start
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click on Appearance and Personalization
4. Click on Change the Theme
5. Select Windows Classic

It’s a simple thing to do, but you will be surprised how much faster everything runs!

Of course it doesn’t look all Apple Mac sexy, and you don’t have those pretty taskbar window previews but your graphics card and your watch will thank you!

User account control

User account control (UAC) is that thing that prompts you to approve things like installing a new program.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that UAC is good in principle… but the implementation of it in Vista would have to be one of the most poorly implemented features that I have ever seen.

Not only is UAC annoying, it also slows your computer down significantly too. So to speed up your Tablet PC, you can turn UAC off.

** Important Note: There are reasons that UAC could be useful for your computer, and this is only recommended for advanced, experienced users **

You must be an administrator to perform these steps.

1. Click Start
2. Click Control Panel
3. Type UAC into the search box
4. Click on Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off
5. Un-tick the Use User Account Control box
6. Click Ok
7. Reboot

Now you’re free!

These simple changes will speed up your Windows Vista Tablet PC and allow you to benefit from the good Tablet PC features without the crashing and slowness!