Scoble breaks down, second by second, how word spread about the ultra-fantastic Tablet PC videos on Channel9.
Here’s a run-down of the videos:
1. Terrific overview of Lonestar by Tablet PC GM Peter Loforte.
2. Susan Cameron, group product manager, for the Tablet PC group, shows off a yet-to-be-released PowerToy for the Tablet PC that converts all the fonts used on the desktop to your own handwriting — she also shows off why the Tablet PC is better for people who are left handed.
3. Michael Tsang is a software design engineer on the Tablet PC team. What does that mean? He’s the guy who wrote the driver software for the digitizer. He also wrote the software that handles what happens when you push on the buttons on the Tablet PC (like the ones that make your page scroll up or down).
4. One of the questions the Tablet PC team gets a lot is “is it really ready to use with only a pen?” Robert Williams is the executive in charge of working with OEM partners. He does a lot of market research, and gathers feedback from OEMs and customers and knows just how hard it is to get people to give up the keyboard, and talks about some of those challenges here.
5. Burt Parker is the OEM Product Manager on the Tablet PC team and he shares the most interesting things he’s seen a Tablet PC used for.
As one commenter posted on Channel9: “This is the best thing Microsoft has done since introduction of the TabletPC!” Well done.
Hmm, while it’s nice the tablet team is talking I wouldn’t overestimate these videos. At least of the 4 which I’ve seen, the content is pretty mundane.
I watched the font Powertoy one just now–that was a little interesting. The video was too choppy to squeeze much out of though, beyond the headline.
Blogs or working with the tablet community would be a far more productive connection–like the OneNote team has done somewhat.
Yeah, a blog would be better.
Of the videos, I like Peter’s a lot.
Thadk: I agree that a blog would be best, but most of the guys I interviewed don’t have any interest in doing a blog. So, the video is a good way for you to know who they are and what they do.
They aren’t designed to impart a whole lot of content. Most of the videos I put up are only two minutes long. Doing real content requires an hour or so. That said, you’ll notice that many of the videos have interactive forum conversations underneath. That’s where we can really dig into something more in depth.
That font power toy looks promising, I saw the presentation again with the high bitrate version of the video (not embeded) and much much better. Not sure if it was a combination of the wireless network I was on and the low bitrate video or what but it was a terrible connection.
Also saw the “Mr. Wiki” Ward videos, very cool.