Detroit Free Press (MI)
October 18, 2005
MICROSOFT HAS A WINNER WITH TABLET PC OPERATING SYSTEM
Author: MIKE WENDLAND; FREE PRESS TECHNOLOGY WRITER
Edition: METRO FINAL
Section: NWS; NEWS
Page: 2A
Index Terms: column
Estimated printed pages: 3
Article Text:
Not to be a name dropper, but when Bill Gates spotted me last week at a news conference in Ann Arbor his face broke into a big grin and he greeted me with something to the effect of "Hey, Mike, my favorite reporter!"
Alas, it wasn't my journalistic skills that brought the compliment. It was the machine I was using to ply my trade: a small, slate-like computer using the Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC operating system.
Gates absolutely loves the Tablet PC system. He thinks it's one of the most innovative and useful things Microsoft has ever invented, even though it's been slow in taking off.
It was the second time this year that Gates and I had a face-to-face and the second time he noticed me using a Tablet. The last time we met, back in April during a visit to Dearborn, he was so taken by my use of the Tablet that he mentioned me by name a few days later during a speech in Seattle. So when Gates saw me last week again using a Tabl! et, he once again beamed approval and later, when I asked him about technology that personally excites him, he mentioned the Tablet PC.
"I'm staking my reputation on it in a very big way," he said.
The Tablet PC I was using last week is the LS800 from Motion Computing, one of a dozen or so computer makers who put out Tablet versions. Some tablets look just like laptops. The screen swivels around to cover the keyboard and, with a stylus, you can take notes in handwriting right on the surface of the screen.
If you want a keyboard, swivel the screen up and around and it works like a regular laptop.
The LS800, like all of the Austin, Texas-based Motion's models, is a slate tablet, meaning there is no attached keyboard. The whole computer is contained in the box that makes up the screen. Most of the work is done in your own handwriting - which can be translated back as text or stored as you would notes on a pad of paper. The unit will also work by wireles! s Bluetooth with an optional detached keyboard.
The LS800 is the tiniest of the slates made by Motion, weighing just 2.2 pounds and about the size of a thin paperback book - 8.94 inches by 6.60 inches by 0.87 inches thick. A button lets you have the screen appear in vertical or horizontal formats.
It has built-in Wi-Fi and runs the Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC operating system. That means it's just like the Windows XP program you are used to with the additional ability to do the on-screen note taking and drawing, which Microsoft calls "ink."
On the unit I've been testing, though, is what I think is the single most useful piece of software I have ever used: Microsoft's OneNote.
OneNote lets you take handwritten notes on a Tablet PC and simultaneously record an interview. Afterward, when you want to hear what was said, tap the screen next to the notation or mark you made in your note taking and it plays back what was being recorded at that precise time.
The LS800 and all Tablets come with a built-in microphone. On! the LS800, though, is a multidirectional array microphone design and configurable acoustics software called Speak Anywhere that maximizes the sound quality. I recorded the news briefing with Gates, for example. He was two seats to my right around a conference table and the mic picked up every word just fine.
I'd make some of his comments available as an MP3 file for you to hear online, but Gates' handlers said audio recording could only be for individual use and not rebroadcast or podcast.
The LS800 lists for $1,899 with a basic configuration of 256 MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive. The unit I tested had upgraded memory (512 MB), a 30 GB hard drive and an optional software package that included preinstalled Microsoft Office and OneNote applications, and cost $2,338.
You can get OneNote as a stand-alone product for about $80 online.
Battery life ran about three hours for me, using the OneNote application to record Gates and then, as I wrote the story ! of his news conference, to transcribe the interview.
Personally, though, I prefer the larger Motion 1400 Tablet that I bought about a year ago. When I'm not using it for interviews at work, I carry the 15-inch tablet around the house to read the Web and handle e-mail.
Contact MIKE WENDLAND at 313-222-8861 or mwendland@freepress.com.
MEMO: TECH TODAY
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