Quicknav is a sidebar shortcut application that allows quick and convenient access to things like the integrated camera, video and voice recording functions via a touch friendly interface.

On the CL900 it can comfortably replace the ExTouch software that ships with the device for a couple of reasons:

• Easier access to camera functions
• Full access to the camera’s full 3Mp resolution
• Easy selection of front or back camera
• Geo-tagging via the CL900’s inbuilt satellite based GPS
• Camera based barcode scanning function.

Dialkeys has actually been around for many years now. I first encountered it on the Samsung Q1 UMPC device about 5 years ago. It has come along way, but some features like the alternative onscreen keyboard still work great with a touch screen device like the CL900.

Barcode Reader

Quicknav offers users the ability to capture barcodes using the devices inbuilt front and back cameras. This feature should not to be confused with the CL900s upcoming inbuilt barcode scanner option.

Capturing Barcodes with an inbuilt camera is only for very occasional use and cannot be compared to inbuilt dedicated barcode scanning hardware. If you need to scan more than about 5 barcodes a day you will want to go with a dedicated barcode scanner as the camera method is too slow and fiddly to use.

Number Pad

On the input front, the on screen Number Pad function is fantastic for entering data in places like Excel spread sheets. You’ll find that the number keys are big and easier to use with touch. The keypad seems to be fixed to the right hand side – sorry Leftys!

Camera

As mentioned above, the camera functionality of the Quicknav software allows you to easily access the full 3 megapixels of the inbuilt front and back webcams.

You can now also geo-tag photos taken with the inbuilt camera. Geo-tagging takes GPS coordinates from the inbuilt GPS on the CL900 and adds them to the properties of the photo. A time stamp can also be added as well as an arbitrary text stamp.

Download Quicknav here:

http://www.motioncomputing.com/drivers/CL900/CL900_Motion_QuickNav_v1118_RN.htm

It’s currently in Beta, so don’t be surprised if you find a bug here or there!

More information on the Motion Computing CL900 here.

To launch the newly created software section of our online shop, we prepared the video below to show you how the Motion Computing CL900 tablet can be used with Bluebeam PDF Revu on a building site.

Bluebeam PDF Revu Launch at US Dollar parity!

Taking advantage of the strong Aussie dollar, we’ve launched all versions of Bluebeam PDF Revu at US pricing. We’ve even worn the GST!

In the meantime the Aussie Dollar is plunging, but we are holding back the pricing as long as we can. Get in while it lasts folks!

For more information and pricing, click on the links below:

Bluebeam PDF Revu – Standard

Bluebeam Revu Standard – PDF Creation, Editing and Markup Tool – Includes Plugins for Microsoft Office

Bluebeam PDF Revu – CAD

Bluebeam Revu CAD – PDF Creation, Editing and Markup Tool – Includes plugins for Office, AutoCAD, Revit and Solidworks.

Bluebeam PDF Revu – eXtreme

Bluebeam Revu eXtreme – PDF Creation, Editing and Markup Tool with Office and CAD Plugins, OCR, Form Creation and Scripting Tools.

As Tablet PC resellers, we have helped many, many Mac users switch to the PC platform. The best kept technology secrets (Windows 7 Tablet PC with OneNote) once discovered are so compelling that even the best of Apple’s marketing machine can’t compete.

The ability to take handwritten searchable notes on a powerful PC platform – once discovered – outguns the slickest, shiniest gadgets that the market has to offer.

Don’t believe me? Then read this from a Tablet PC teacher who wrote in to John Guin’s OneNote blog:

From: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/johnguin/archive/2010/12/16/a-nice-letter-from-a-teacher-using-onenote.aspx

This is reminiscent of many of our experiences in switching Mac users to the Tablet PC.

I hope folks high up in Microsoft and their hardware partners take note of comments like this. Many companies like HP, seem to have swallowed the rhetoric on multi-touch and have become blinded to the untouched market for real productivity Tablet PCs (Perhaps why the are jagging around with the HP slate 500).

Fortunately, some companies are alert to the power of Tablet PCs with touch AND pen (Running OneNote!) and you’ll see a number of new tablets emerging shortly into a new age of accessible Tablet PCs for the mass market!

Cheek out the OneNote Facebook page to see how many Mac uses are begging for a Mac, iPhone and iPad version… it’ll never happen of course. Ok, so onenote for iPhone is out now in the US only which will be a big bonus for the masses of PC based iPhone users, but still no sign of Mac and iPad versions…

Most Tablet PC users agree that Microsoft’s best kept secret is OneNote. It’s a brilliant tool for a regular PC, but when you use it on a Tablet PC with digital ink it reveals it’s genius.

Here are a couple of OneNote highlights:

• Digital note taking with background handwriting recognition
• Searchable handwritten notes
• Automatic synchronization to web, network shares or USB key – Auto backup
• Powerful heaper linking (down to paragraph level)
• Automatic saving – never lose unsaved work again!

OneNote Resources for you!

To help you get started with Microsoft OneNote, you should check out the OneNote Facebook page. Note the number at Mac users pining for OneNote for Mac, and feel the satisfaction of using it on your tablet PC!

You should also keep tabs on this blog which is the most informative OneNote blog l have found. Don’t let the name mislead upon, although its author John Guin is in the OneNote testing team, this blog offers many helpful tips, power, toys and solutions for regular OneNote users!

Happy Inking!

Dolphin software of Darwin created a software solution that takes advantage at the MCA features of the C5 such as the integrated camera and 2D barcode scanner to gather information without the need to re-key data or scan documents.

See the video below with an interview of Dolphin software’s Peter Burwell.

For more information on the Motion Computing C5 see our product page here.

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.

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.

“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 9999 1601or email us to discuss your needs.

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.

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!