Saturday, September 13, 2003

Why Pen Computing May Not Put You Out Of Business Excellent overview on "Why pen computing may not put all of us out of business after all after all" - from [Tabula PC].  Excerpts: Interestingly, I asked whether tablet-based pen input would be popular for Chinese, given the graphical nature of the language, but learned that everyone in China and Taiwan strongly preferred a keyboard to generate Chinese-language text. This is done with phonetic input, typing in the equivalent of the sound on an English keyboard (there are only 1,300 phonetics), and then selecting from a choice, which is usually at or near the top of a list. So even the Chinese are more productive with a keyboard! Was Microsoft's market research all for nothing? Was all the effort to develop a decent handwriting recognition engine - especially the foreign versions - completely wasted? At least the Tablet PC offers several choices when it comes to your input preference, but it still doesn't look good. Still, if even the Chinese - with their complex pictorial languages and dialects - aren't immediately excited by the Tablet PC's capabilities, Microsoft may be facing a tougher sell than it expected - to any customer. 6:16:26 AM    comment []

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What's New/Anti-Glare Screens For Tablet PCs Having experienced "screen washout" from being outdoors when trying to take advantage of the mobility of my Toshiba Tablet PC - thought this might be an interesting product to try.   Ordered it today from Strong Engineering - great price point (if it works as advertised).   Cost = $5.85 (Shield) + $4.00 (Shipping) price tag.   6:03:14 AM    comment []

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