What Is New

The Workshop on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education (WIPTE) officially begins tomorrow. Of course, we had an impromptu gathering tonight.

Bob, Joan and I took the shuttle service from Indianapolis to Purdue University campus and as we waited for luggage to be unloaded, I started talking with someone who is also going to WIPTE. You're familiar with this person's work -- Rob Mancabelli from Hunterdon Central, which hosts a three day Tablet PC Academy for K-12 teachers, administrators and IT support. Rob will be delivering Thursday's keynote, "Tablet PCs: Gateway to Change."

Within a few minutes, a text message connected us with Jane Prey from Microsoft Research and we ended up meeting with Jane, Rob Reed from HP, Ed Evans from Purdue, Mark Payton formerly of Vermont Academy and now with King's Academy in Jordan, Charles Bostian from Virginia Tech, Zvi Ritz from UIUC among others, then later with Joe Tront also from Virginia Tech. What an amazing group and it's just the beginning because tomorrow is going to be a full day.

Rob Bushway is unable to attend our "From the Blogosphere" panel tomorrow. Rob, we will miss your company tomorrow and will be sure to remind people to join the community at GBM. Jim Vanides is going to web conference in. I'm looking forward to learning from attendees how they would like to see the community grow and how they can contribute.

At the same time Dad, Dave Berque from DePauw University, and Sam Kamin from UIUC will host "Increasing Learning through Feedback from Tablet PCs: What Features are Needed".

See the full schedule: Wednesday and Thursday.

I'm not being silent - I'm on Friendfeed and Twitter.

FriendFeed is a decent aggregator supplemented with community comments. Through friends of friends I'm exposed to more articles than I might read otherwise. Some I skim, some I "like." My FF is at  http://friendfeed.com/lora

From FF you can view my Twitter posts, if you're so inclined. It's a mix of family, travel, plus engaging the mobile PC community. Be warned - lots of comments about AJ, the treeing walker coonhound.

Are you on Friendfeed or Twitter? Let me know.

In the last few weeks, I've received several inquiries about the annual CES Tablet PC & UMPC Gathering. Correct, it'll still be actually at CES in January and it's only September. However, the feedback continues to be so positive and long lasting that people are already looking forward to the event! I'm pleased that it's continued to be so successful.

The industry is advancing and I want to make sure that the product interests represented are forward looking. Yes, I'm sure there will be plenty of Windows 7 chatter and hardware comparisons. A couple years ago we expanded the gathering to include mini-Tablet PCs more commonly known as UMPCs. Last year people interested in MIDs attended. My observation is that the common connection is an interest in natural input. Do you agree?

Following that logic, what do you think if Surface is included? What about... yep, I'll ask (gulp) -- iPhone? (Of course, Macworld may overlap, as the gathering has most recently been on the 3rd day of CES. So, it might just be like '08 where people are welcome to pull out their iPhones.)

And yes, then the gathering will need a new name...suggestions?

Previous sponsors of the annual Tablet PC Gathering include (in no particular order): Microsoft Tablet PC & UMPC teams, Microsoft DPE Channel 9 (compliments of Robert Scoble), Motion Computing, TabletKiosk, HP, Lenovo, Fujitsu, VIA, Mobile Demand, OQO, abletFactory, Etymotic, OtterBox, TechSmith, CaseLogic, Diskeeper, JKontheRun, TabletPC2, GottaBeMobile, TabletLawyer, Chris Pirillo Show, ActiveWords, ProvoLabs, and of course TuxReports & all the Microsoft Tablet PC MVPs.

(Steve at Boston Pocket PC posted photos from the 2008 gathering, if you'd like to take a peek at all that was given away.)

Warner shares a video preview of the upcoming Lenovo ThinkPad x200 Tablet PC. Great close-up shots and fair compare & contrast with the current ThinkPad x61 Tablet PC. 

• 12.1" Widescreen display: 1280 x 800 with multiple options for touch & EM combos
• CPU options including Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processor SU9300 (1.2GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 800MHz bus) and Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processor SL9400 (1.86GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz bus)
• Increased battery life
• Slightly thinner & shorter chassis

As an x61 Tablet PC user and someone who is right handed, I'm pleased to see even little features, such as the pen storage area located on the right side.

Of course, the increased battery life will be great for everyone. You can potentially configure a system to optimize for up to 15 hour battery life, depending on the processor and battery cell combination.

Look for additional information from Lenovo on September 23, 2008.

 Ideas of what might be and what may be coming are too good to pass up with Windows 7:

• Go to http://www.uxevangelist.net/ for actual screensots of the new ribbon in Paint and Wordpad. I'm very curious about the brushes button.
• Mary Jo Foley writes, "From what admittedly little I had a chance to see, Windows 7 does not look or feel like a major departure from Windows Vista."

If you're a longtime Hotmail user, like me, you'll want to access your account using your iPhone. There are several ways to do this, including adding Hotmail.com to the Home Screen and log in through the browser. If you'd like for it to be integrated with Mail, then one easy way is to use Windows Live Hotmail Plus to have access to POP3.

1. Sign up for Windows Live Hotmail Plus ($19.95/yr)
2. From your PC, log into your Hotmail account and create a folder(s). For example, I sort my saved email by year and topics. Move your saved emails into that folder. This will give you a clean start to reading email on the iPhone inbox.
3. On iPhone tap Settings
4. Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars
5. Tap Add Account...
6. Enter Name, Address, & Password. Description is automatically populated with your email address.
7. Tap Save
8. Mail will verify account information and add the appropriate settings. You can now read, write and send email from your Windows Live Hotmail account.