Playing a keyboard — that doesn’t even allow multi-touch — on a Tablet PC is a sad substitute for making music with a real keyboard. $2,000 will buy you pro-quality keys. Heck, you can get Pro Tools Lite, USB interface and a PC notebook computer to record your jams for that much scratch. Rob writes:

"I’d like to see folks with regular laptops do this …"

My answer? What regular laptop user would want to?

I’m not knocking the fun/cool factor for an application like this, it looks neat, but I can’t see a person go out today and buy a Tablet PC because they want this type of application. Is it a gimmick or intended to be a useful music device? Is this a motivator to buy a Tablet PC for you? This doesn’t make me scream “I gotta be mobile.” Heck, it would be a lot less expensive for somebody to make music using the Guitar Hero controller. Don’t laugh, some folks already are. Isn’t there an iPhone musical keyboard application that does have multi-touch?

I don’t see anybody doing any serious music creation or live playing on their non multi-touch Tablet PC keyboard screen. Please somebody, anybody, prove me wrong. Not even in the next Revenge of The Nerds sequel. LOUIS! GILBERT!

Do I miss the tablet already? Yes. Will I be buying another one? Not one from Motion Computing and probably not a slate. Won’t buy from Motion again because they operate with too short a cycle retiring their older models. Have I switched to the convertible tablet crowd? If going with a full-size tablet as opposed to UMPC and as the Magic 8-ball might say: outlook is good.

Something smaller appeals to me as well, perhaps as a replacement to my aging Pocket PC. I’m leaning toward the UMPC but those never really came down in price as promised. Would also like something that works with my Sprint EVDO USB. What UMPC work with Sprint EVDO? I’ll have to do some digging.

My tablet ownership experience took a dark turn on March 4, 2006 when I started having some hardware problems. At first, I tried to work around the USB ports not working reliably any more, but eventually this frustrated me because there were times I needed to use my USB keyboard in my business. It was still a great sales illustration tool, but companies we deal with had put our applications in a format that almost demanded a keyboard. This would require me to carry two laptops on outside sales appointment which became awkward and cumbersome. A few months later I shelved the tablet and returned to using a traditional laptop.

Over the holidays I started thinking about how I missed using the tablet. Also it seemed silly to have spent a couple thousand dollars on a tool that’s gathering dust. So at the start of this year I began using the tablet regularly again, this time not for outside sales appointments but as a second PC at my desk. It was used almost exclusively for handwritten notes with OneNote and quickly discovered a rhythm that worked in our business. The good tablet experience times had returned.

And then we came in yesterday morning and saw that our office had been violated. Thieves broke in and stole the tablet from it’s spot pictured above.

I had been working on an after New Year’s resolution post of sorts that showed my new work area flow including the tablet. The keyboard tray was a handy place to store and use the slate tablet to take handwritten notes and the pictures above are the last photos taken of the tablet. I’ve always found it more comfortable handwriting notes from phone conversations versus typing. Quieter too as I’m a noisy typist.

According to the police officer who responded to the burglary call, the likelihood of getting the tablet back is small, so those pictures might be the last ones ever taken. The police have the tablet’s serial number but the officer told me the pawn shops aren’t required to and usually don’t check serial numbers.

My best hope of getting the tablet PC back is if it’s recovered as part of an arrest. Imagine, my tablet thrust into a world of trades for a quick drug fix. Or maybe sitting on a pawnbroker’s shelf with a sticker well below the value to me.

Sad.

Backups and after the burglary
When filing the insurance claim, we learned that another office like ours had been hit recently. I posted about the burglary to Twitter yesterday and was asked if there were backups? Yes, there were backups of everything except for OneNote. I know, stupid not to include a OneNote update to the regular backup schedule.

The files were all protected by fingerprint, but in case the tablet ends in the hands of a skilled cracker I changed passwords for anything associated with the tablet, including any passwords that would have been saved in the browser. Also changed FTP and SSH passwords.

Emotionally I went from mad at myself for leaving the tablet at our office over the three day weekend to angry at the thieves. Based on the investigation of the crime scene the policeman believed there was more than one criminal in play.

Lestat asked me if I LoJacked the tablet?

In fact your laptop has a 1 in 10 chance of being lost or stolen this year and according to the FBI, 97% are never recovered.

Bummer.

And unfortunately no LoJack, but that sounds like a worthwhile service. Lestat said his company uses LoJack for all their laptops. At 50 bones a year with a software refund if the laptop isn’t returned within 30 days of being stolen, I’ll strongly consider doing that with all future laptop purchases.

This morning I asked on Twitter if others had used LoJack service and their experience, if any. Took two messages to generate this non-serious response from mjkeliher:

Not very scientific, but perhaps most Twitterers I follow (and follow me back), aren’t into LoJack’s service? I remain curious how others are securing their laptops? I’ve never secured any of our laptops but now that I’m part of the 10% victim, I’ll be thinking about it more. I welcome your feedback in the comments below.

As for office security? We’re investigating options for adding monitored security. ADT is in the pole position although they seem a bit spendy at $40/month with $100 activation fee. I could buy a new tablet every three years with their service if the burglars didn’t return. In the almost 10+ years we’ve had an office in town, we’ve never been broken into before. One side of me says we should just add security cameras that monitor and record remotely.

End of line?
This could be my last post as a Tablet PC owner for a little while. I’m going to hold some hope I’ll get my tablet back, yeah, even if there is only a 3% chance. You never know. I stopped the counter on the blog home page. Frozen in time on January 22, 2008 Day 1135.

As far as our computer owner history goes, the desktop machines don’t last very long. Either they are obsoleted (we buy mostly cheap desktop hardware) or break, but I’ve only purchased a few laptops through time. The Sony VAIO I bought back in 2000 (for over $2,000) still gets a little use from time to time.

The Motion M1400 specs, despite being dated, are still relevant and I believe would have run Vista. After reading through my history above and below as well as current needs (primarily interested in digital notetaking with OneNote), which tablet PC or UMPC would you buy?

History of Tablet PC Ownership
July 26, 2003 - December 15, 2004: Chronology of tablet indecision (pre-tablet ownership)
December 19, 2004: First full week of ownership complete
February 13, 2005: 60 days after buying a Tablet PC, was it worth it?
March 3, 2005: Day 78 bought external CD-RW drive
May 3, 2005: Day 140
June 27, 2005: Day 196 incompatibility of EVDO Kyocera cards
August 12, 2005: 241 days of Tablet PC Ownership
September 1, 2005: Day 261: Tablet PC sales projections being downshifted by market researchers
September 15, 2005: Day 276 Current office main configuration includes Tablet PC, 3 PCs, Mac
October 12, 2005: Day 302 as Tablet PC owner: email, chat and gaming
December 13, 2005: Day 365: looking back at one year with a Tablet PC
January 22, 2006: Day 405: Dual monitor on Tablet PC alert!

Hardware problems begin
March 4, 2006: Day 445: Tablet I/O board problems
May 5, 2006 Day 508: 10% broken and easy to forget about Bluetooth
Day 577: New Tablet PC purchases being caught in the Vista waiting game
Feb 2, 2007 Day 780: The amazing disappearing wire smell act
January 22, 2008 Day 1135 (R.I.P): Office burglary, Tablet PC stolen.

Here comes another attempt to challenge print books. This one from the internet’s (world’s?) largest bookseller.

Newsweek has an article spanning seven pages on Amazon’s new e-Book reader gadget called Kindle. Unless it’s Tuesday 11/20/07 Monday 11/19/2007, don’t expect to find it anywhere on the Amazon website yet, but the article goes into some depth about what Kindle will do. It also manages to stay away from providing some additional, important details.

Rafat Ali of Paid Content seems miffed over honoring a Kindle embargo that Newsweek seemed to have broken (with permission?) and outlines key features.

- price: $399
- weighs 10.3 ounces, about the size of a book with a 6″ screen and doesn’t get hot, according to Bezos
- e-books will cost $2-$10 with 88,000 at launch and the Kindle can hold 200 books
- comes with EVDO-style always-on network functionality (a service called Whispernet) and can function independent of the PC. You can shop directly from the device for new books. Pricing is not mentioned for Whispernet. Is it free?
- provides 30 hours of reading time and two hours to fully charge
- can also subscribe to some newspapers, magazines and “select” blogs at $0.99 - $1.99 a month
- can follow links on blogs, perform Wikipedia and Google searches which suggests there will be some type of handicapped (?) browser built-in (Opera?)

Gizmodo has a picture of Kindle which looks like a white, thin version of See and Spell or a wafer-thin fax machine. Some are already calling it ugly, without benefit of holding it in hand, which caused the writer of Newsweek piece, Steven Levy to write that it’s not “beastly.”

Scoble has a post that starts with “I’m held by NDA until tomorrow” and then he goes onto talk about how Bill Gates wanted to do something like this badly with the Tablet PC and then adds:

All I’ll say until tomorrow is you gotta try this device. It’s not perfect, but for long-form reading it is a wonderful device. I am going to buy one of my own.

Rob Bushway wonders if anybody is going to try out the Kindle. I’m somewhat interested in the device, although I don’t like the price point or the fact that it’s yet another eBook DRM scheme. Haven’t they learned from the DRM in music that people don’t like DRM?

I asked the person in our family who reads the most, my wife, what she thought of Kindle? She said she wouldn’t use it. Why not? She likes books that she can hold. Perhaps she’d change her mind once she actually saw one?

Too many unanswered questions.

Funny seeing Spider-man on a cell phone. Who does Spidey call for server help? The Geek Squad? Incredible Tech Support? Wonder Admin?

To help sell the experience to an audience unaccustomed to paying for content, Marvel will offer a free sampler of 250 titles. Asked why people would pay for superheroes when newspaper websites have been unable to charge for content, Buckley says, “You can get the news anywhere. We’re the only ones who have Spider-Man.”

Caveat: when we can handle the load. Seriously, being a fan of Iron Man and Incredible Hulk comics, I’ll be coming back to check this out. Would like to see how this looks on the Tablet PC in particular.

As someone who switched his main machine to Vista literally within the last few days, I’m getting a greater appreciation and understanding of the Windows Vista experience. Is the response ‘wow’ as they had promised? Umm, not really. It’s not a moan and groan though either. There are some things I do like better about Vista than its predecessors.

We’ve owned a Windows Vista machine since February 2, 2007 (pictured above) which was unpacked and the Gateway GT5405E specs detailed. It was originally planned as a bedroom computer and backup if something should go wrong with our other two systems in our home office (three if you count the Mac, but that’s another story). Also planned to use it to test what software I used regularly would work and for gaming/entertainment. The graphics card was the first to demonstrate problems as shown in Hmmcast #57.

Didn’t take long to realize that the games I wanted to play required a higher Windows Experience Index. How does one do that with a new machine? Spend more $$ on RAM and graphics card. The graphics card and memory manufacturers must a serious love-hate relationship with Microsoft.

Unfortunately the computer came with two 512MB RAM sticks instead of a single 1GB DDR2 RAM so I needed to buy 2x 1GB RAM DDR2 to upgrade to 2GB. The graphics card it came with wasn’t powerful enough, so I upgraded that to the Ge-Force 8500 GT with 512MB of RAM. This drove our Windows Experience up to 4.7 where it currently sits at a cost of nearly $250 additional.

Played a couple times casually and then we got new furniture in our bedroom and moved things around. Never even plugged in the Vista machine or used it for over three months. It gathered some dust in the corner of the bedroom pretty much until a wind storm knocked out power last Thursday 10/18/07. Even though we’re using UPS with surge protection my existing Windows XP has been acting a little strangely for awhile and whatever happened during the storm, it didn’t come back the same.

An error message appeared during bootup saying something to the fact that the system fan wasn’t working properly and the machine could overheat. Decided instead of replacing the fan — for better or worse — to give a serious attempt to moving to Vista.

Going through the list of 100 reasons
That brings us current to today yesterday and news that Microsoft is running out a new promotion showing the 100 reasons why everyone’s so speechless about Windows Vista.

Speechless, really? They must not be covering the tech blogs which show exactly the opposite about Vista.

I decided it would be worthwhile to read through the list and match against my own customer experience and decide how many of these 100 items truly left me speechless and barring that, left me at least interested.

Since Microsoft breaks the list into groups of 10 reasons, I’ll do the same in sections that follow. If the reason is in red, I strongly disagree as it being a good selling point and in green I strongly agree. When there are missing numbers, it means the feature didn’t mean enough to me to comment and didn’t feel it was a Vista selling point. Readers will probably feel differently about certain features that I skipped over so feel free to use the comment section as always to bring anything noteworthy to my attention.

Reasons #1-10
What Microsoft says is bolded, BTW, my comments aren’t. Legend:

Green = strongly agree
Black = neutral but noteworthy
Red = strongly disagree

1. It makes using your PC a breeze. Not my experience so far. Maybe this should come with caveat: if you get everything configured and installed that you actually use? I spent several hours finally getting the Zune software to work on Vista. The onboard microphone and line-in jacks didn’t work and ditched the config and installed a Soundblaster Audigy card instead. Do I blame these issues on Gateway or Vista? Not at all a selling point.

2. Because all of your music is just a remote control click away. — unless you use Zune and have trouble getting the Zune software to install. Not a selling point.

3. It’s the safest version of Windows ever.. Too early to tell for this customer. Not a selling point yet.

4. See your world in a whole new light.. Windows Aero is mostly eye candy, not really a feature that would make me buy the OS. So far Microsoft is 0 for 4.

5. It can find your stuff. Remember the old Microsoft search dog? Somebody call PETA because that’s cruelty to animals. Prior Windows search was that bad. Vista search is improved but there are still some searches that don’t work well. For example, I needed to use the Windows Task Manager. Try putting “task manager” into the Windows search. It doesn’t find it on my machine. Does it work on yours? If I put in the file name however, ‘taskmgr’ it works.

Who is going to remember the filename? Ok, I just did — but that was one, real world experience where I had to open a browser and hit Google to get the answer. BTW, you can launch the Task Manager with the keyboard combination: CTRL+SHIFT+ESCAPE.

No, not a selling point.

6. Because you’re always on the run.. Finally, something I can color positively. The mobile features, particularly what used to be ActiveSync is a big improvement. I didn’t need to do anything special with my Pocket PC beyond visiting the built-in Mobile Center to make it work with Vista. Huge selling point for mobile users.

7. Because you can freeze time.. Being able to tag photos locally in Vista is something I haven’t tried yet. Does it write the tag data into the photo headers or is it something if I head over to the Mac with these photos the tag and rating data doesn’t go with me? If that’s the case, it’s not a feature. I’m not criticizing here, just need to do more research on this one. This could be a good selling point if it includes the tag data in each picture so competing OS can read.

8. Your PC can take care of itself. I can’t wait to see this happen. I’ll be back in a few months to answer this one. Let’s just say I’m more than a little bit skeptical here. Not a selling point.

10. Surf more safely. I’ve already switched to Firefox as my regular browser. The few times I’ve used IE7, it has seemed OK. Not a huge improvement over IE6 and I miss the plugins. I know IE7 has a plugin structure now but it feels like too little too late. Not a selling point.

Reasons #11-20
A number of things involving television in these 10 items which, since we gave up TV in our household some 489 days ago don’t apply to me. These TV features might be selling points for you, so again, check out what’s missing here.

13. Because you need to know who the bad guys are. Of course the first thing I did was install Firefox and McAfee SiteAdvisor, third party products. Neither of which mean I’m relying on IE7 and their Phising Filter IE7. Not a selling point.

15. Because your PC remembers to back up for you. I like the idea behind these features. I need to spend some more time with this one. Backing up is extremely important. It’s the reason I didn’t have any data loss after that wind storm. Awhile back I switched to a workflow that doesn’t hold me hostage to what’s installed on the built-in hard drive of any of our machines. Still, this IS a selling point to me.

17. It’s like having your own personal anchorman. I like the Windows sidebar gadgets but have found that my preferred screen orientation with the new HD monitor is portrait, which leaves less room for stuff on the side where I prefer gadgets. I realize they can be relocated to anywhere on the screen, but gadgets are better on the side for me. However, like #15, this IS a selling point.

18. Create your own personal archive, scheduled and network backup.. Wait, didn’t we cover this in #15?

20. Set up your home network in a flash with Network and Sharing Center. Found it a bit annoying that the external hard drives I attached needed to have sharing setup for me to be able to access from the same machine. It didn’t take very long but the third party program I was using, Notetab++, wasn’t giving me a “no permission” error. Not quite Vista’s fault, but not exactly in a “flash.” The network itself, however, process was fairly smooth. I’m leaning toward this being a selling point over not being one.

Reasons 21-30
These start out in a place close to my heart: games.

21. Put more playtime in family time.. There is much better emphasis on gaming in Windows Vista particularly the way it comes with a number of fun casual games and the whole Windows Experience Index which is a useful system for determining how a game will work on Vista. Definite selling point.

22. See everything you’re working on at a glance. Windows Flip 3D is not in the Home Basic version, but since I have Home Premium it can be activated how? The search, grrrr, doesn’t tell me the magic key strokes. Fortunately this Windows Flip 3D how-to page does, in summary:

CTRL + WINDOWS KEY + TAB
or
Click on the button with 3D windows next to the start window

Man, I didn’t even know that button was there — doh! This looks neat, but, it’s not a selling feature.

25. It works with the software, hardware, and services you want. So far I’ve been able to get every piece of software — that has Vista software — to work. Not easily in every case which is disappointing, but work, yes. There were more software problems, perhaps a bit understandably, when Vista first came out. But we’re a good nine months past that now, no more excuses for Microsoft and vendors not to be on the same page.

As for hardware? Printer? Yes. Pocket PC? Yes. Zune? Yes. Cameras? Yes. D-Link Skype Adapter? Not yet, still working on it. I think it has something to do with the problems with the microphone and line-in jacks. As mentioned above, today I installed a sound card. Will see how Vista behaves with this tomorrow. Bottom line: this would be a selling point if completely true, but it’s not for me.

27. Because your computer can keep up with you while you’re on the go. Another mention for the Windows Mobility Center. One feature, three different mentions, and counting.

29. Take the handwritten approach. A huge selling point for Tablet PC fans, but if you don’t have a tablet screen or device this feature is a non-event.

30. Restore your PC in an instant. Another mention of the backup and restore option. Starting to see some repeats, the list is getting lamer.

Reasons 31-40

31. Because your PC lets you know if something’s wrong—and helps you fix it. Vista has added some alert features which are supposed teoll you when resources are low. Here’s the good news since I’ve been using it regularly, two business days now (weekend doesn’t count, limited usage then), I’ve seen no notices of resources being low. In fact, Vista is running very snappy. I’m impressed on this front. Is this a selling point that they will tell me when something is wrong and how to fix it? Yes, but I found the Zune installation error a bit vague and still needed to use Google to find the solution. Overall, not a selling point for me — yet. Need to come back later.

33. Preserve a lifetime of memories. Another backup mention (#4).

35. Because you’ll know it when you see it. Faster search results. For some search results, yes there are more immediate results like on the Mac. Selling point? Yes, if only there weren’t third party search services that have been offering better search on Windows for awhile.

37. Keep your info under lock and key. This would be a handy selling feature, but it’s only in the Vista Ultimate Edition. This is the only feature so far that makes me wish we had Ultimate edition.

40. Because you love what you do. This isn’t subjective at all, is it — not! I think this is a half-hearted attempt to make the Vista experience seem like the cult of Mac. Using a Mac and using Vista are still different from an aesthetic standpoint. Not a selling point.

Reasons 41-50

41. Because your PC will stay up to date, automatically. I like what Vista has done with the Windows Update feature. It gives you more information — still not enough in some cases — but is a better interface than in past Windows version. Updates are a major factor with software so this is a good selling point.

44. Because you have a need for speed. This was of the most anticipated features for me, the ability to supercharge Windows with extra memory using a thumb drive. Oddly, I’ve never used the feature yet to see how well it works, but it remains a strong selling point.

49. Take your workspace with you. I’m already using the Sync Center with my Pocket PC and love it. Great feature. If you need to share and sync data, it works good. Strong selling point

50. Get more out of the web Tabbed Browsing. Not to sound elitist, but the 30-45% of the rest of the world already using Firefox has had this for years and it didn’t require paying to upgrade an OS. Not a selling point.

Reasons 51-60

51. Because you live to play. Another mention of the Windows Games features, this one specifically targeting Windows Games Explorer which neatly lists games and their suggested and required Windows Experience Indexes. Repeat.

52. Take control of game time.. There is a lot of focus on parental controls that I’ve skipped over. Our kids are all teens now and don’t use the computers as much as their Xbox 360 so not a lot of need for parental controls on the computers any more. Only one of our three teens is a regular computer user at home and he’ll be 18 in March. If we were going to use parental controls on his computing now, it’s probably a bit too late. He’s getting A’s and B’s and looks to be on track to graduate so I don’t see this as much use. Parents with younger children may find these features good selling points. Not for us.

53. Because you can get more done when you work together. Windows Meeting Space is another feature I need to try out. Allowing friends or colleagues to work on projects over internet assuming we both don’t need Windows Vista Premium or higher (yes/no?) is a good idea. There are a number of web collaboration programs I’d likely use first instead of this option. Seems a little late to be adding this feature.

57. Because you don’t need a PC to watch your home movies. As a test I just inserted a DVD to see if it played without asking me to buy a codec like past versions of Windows and it did. This feature is toting the built-in (Vista Premium and Ultimate only) Windows DVD Maker program. Not sure how much I’ll use this feature. Not a selling point although I like that it plays DVDs.

60. Because you want your video memories to stay true to life. An upgraded version of Windows Movie Maker that supports HD cameras, but will it support mine? I already bought Sony Vegas. I need to test this feature out but generally speaking I like Windows Movie Maker. Is Vegas more powerful? This is a selling point

Reasons 61-70

62. Because it remembers what you like to do—and helps you do it faster. Another mention for Windows SuperFetch, the innovative technology that uses the memory on the USB drive as swap space. Give them a pass for mentioning this one twice, it’s a unique feature.

63. Help is always available. Takes all the way to #63 to mention the upgraded help system? Must say the Mac help system seems better designed, although I think what Vista has done is an improvement. Selling point? Not for me. You expect that software you pay for should have a good help system but sadly a lot of it out there doesn’t.

64. Keep your files confidential. Another benefit for only those with Windows Vista Ultimate edition. This is one of the biggest problems with Vista, too many versions. The Mac is coming out with Leopard this Friday. How many versions? One. Multiple versions are not a selling point. Make it one price in the middle of the highest and lowest and stick with it, now that would be a great selling point. Microsoft marketing doesn’t seem to understand these simple things.

66. Because everyone goofs sometimes. The Shadow Copy feature is also only for Vista Ultimate edition. Bummer, because I like the idea of saving restore points along the way but I don’t see myself going out and paying to upgrade to the ultimate version just to get that feature. Am I looking at this wrong?

Reasons 71-80

71. Keep your favorite things at your fingertips. With Search Folders you can save searches based on frequenly used keywords and file will automatically show up. This is handy to hold say one master file for any .mp3 file anywhere on the system. Yes, this is very similar to smart folders on the Mac. Both OS copy each other, we should be used to that now. Good selling point.

79. Let your music collection grow with you. It’s puzzling to me, one of the growing number of fans of the Zune why so much emphasis in this list of 100 is put on Windows Media Player and nothing in the list on the Zune in the first 80 items. Should those of us not in the Microsoft collective read anything into this?

Reasons 81-90

83. It makes your desktop come alive. Does Windows DreamScene come with my machine or not? I just searched and received nothing. Following what the footnote ‘c’ says, I’m still confused:

Not all Windows Vista features will be available for use on all Windows Vista Capable PCs. All Windows Vista Capable PCs upgraded to Windows Vista will be able to run the core experiences of Windows Vista, such as innovations in organizing and finding information, security, and reliability. Some features—such as the new Windows Aero user interface—available in certain editions of Windows Vista require advanced or additional hardware.

Why don’t you have built-in search results for the features? Maybe it’s because some of these features weren’t actually given names before the Vista shipped maybe? Or am I just not searching in the right place? Somebody throw me a bone.

86. Archive your media library. Sheesh, another mention of the scheduled and network backup feature. And #87-89 are game repeats.

90. Check your e-mail without booting up your PC. This sounds like a great feature and is part of the Windows slideshow but it’s only for portable computers with a secondary screen, it’s not for desktop boxes. Bummer.

Reasons 91-100

96. Access your desktop wherever you go. I’d like to be able to use the Remote Desktop but it’s only for Windows Business edition and Ultimate, not Vista Premium. Drats.

Summary: 6 out of 100
After the first 30 or so reasons that I would be speechless, I was getting bored with the list. The only reason I finished it, in fact, was to write this blog post. Why didn’t Microsoft split the list up into categories and list the features within each category? The javascript page got screwed up every time I clicked back on the browser. And in the list there seemed to be an inordinate amount of reasons that were duplicated at worst and very similar at best which makes it look like they didn’t think this list through very well.

You can just count up the greens to see how many out of 100 this customer saw as selling points. Real world reasons that I would consider buying Windows Vista totalled 6 out of 100. If I had television and Windows Ulitmate version, you could probably kick that number up to 15. It’s a far cry from the total 100 reasons.

And of all these features only one leaves me even remotely close to speechless: SuperFetch. I think that feature is probably the coolest thing to come out of Vista and the most innovative. Certain to be duplicated by the Mac in the future, unless it is patented (and probably is).

How about you? How many of the 100 are reasons you’d want to buy Windows Vista?

The first thing I thought of was the Tablet PC when I saw Sketchcast as a delicious popular post in my RSS reader this morning. With Sketchcast you can share drawings with or without voice all through a pen-friendly Flash interface in the browser (Firefox or IE). I made a mockup of Hmmcast #174 entirely using Sketchcast. Unfortunately it’s not available in HD or as a download so I don’t think this will be the ‘official’ Hmmcast #174, which is one disappointing aspect of Sketchcast. Accordingly, not releasing this at the 4:20 publish time.

Here’s what my very first effort — complete with a few errors — looks like (if you can’t see the object embed in your reader, clickthru on this post to view from the website):

The Sketchcast fine print
Also, it’s only for personal use licensing unless written permission from Sketchcast is obtained per the Sketchcast Terms of Service:

(v) You agree not to use the Website for any commercial use, without the prior written authorization of Sketchcast;

Delving deeper into the Sketchcast TOS we learn what rights you give up with anything produced using Sketchcast:

For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting User Submissions to Sketchcast, you hereby grant Sketchcast a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, and display the User Submissions in connection with the Website and any of Sketchcast’s, and its successors, assigns and affiliates, business and operations, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.

So basically, Sketchcast can take your work, no matter how long you’ve worked on it, and use it to promote Sketchcast without any additional permission needed from you, the publisher. This isn’t too unusual in the video world these days (publishers, check your favorite video site for similar language). The licensing goes further though, allowing anybody to remix and mash anything you publish through Sketchcast:

You also hereby grant each user of the Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms and Conditions. The above licenses granted by you in User Submissions are perpetual and irrevocable.

Not terribly useful for groups desiring privacy
It’s too bad Sketchcast couldn’t allow publishers to choose the licensing of their choice. I’m curious if more fun type sketches and less serious ones will fill the site? Looking around at what’s there so far, it’s a mixed bag. In general, I like it, and it could be useful for quickly sharing ideas — just not very private ideas, unfortunately — with others. If they add a private groups feature, it would be handy for sharing sketches with project ideas that groups aren’t ready to share with the whole world. Then again, I think there are a few whiteboard apps out there for other programs.

Haven’t written about my Tablet PC experiences as much in the third year of ownership and recently passed the 1,000 day mark as being a Table PC owner. However, it was nice this morning to see an online application where the Tablet PC shines — in Firefox too, another rarity of sorts.

Author John Scalzi writes of his experience autographing books electronically using the LongPen:

I had fun with it—it’s cool to fiddle with new technology and see how people respond to it, and I did my best on my end to be personable and chatty so that the folks whose books I was signing would feel like it was an overall positive experience. Now, given a choice between this and actually being where fans are, I’d prefer to be there live, personally; I think there’s value in being there, and I think people would prefer an author signing in their presence as opposed to via an Internet connection.

How big a part of the draw of getting an autograph doing it in person? For me, the memory and experience of the face to face meeting is more important than the signature itself, but maybe I’m in the minority. I know from a tangible financial value standpoint, my memory isn’t as valuable as the signature itself to others, but we all place our own value on memories.

I see a day where most business meetings will happen through videoconferencing and deals are signed through the computer — I’m sure in some businesses that’s already happening today — but despite the technology being available today a lot of people prefer face to face meetings. Some captive insurance agents from companies like State Farm and Allstate were concerned about the internet taking their business in the late nineties, but by and large that hasn’t happened yet. People seem to prefer if they are paying for an agent to deal with the agency in person. Relationships with the level of personal and confidential information being shared seem to be something more people are comfortable with offline.

Smiling at somebody through a videocamera isn’t the same as shaking somebody’s hand and smiling at them in person. I don’t think it ever will be, so technology may not have limits, but actual usage of that technology will.

Speaking of the Tablet PC, I spilled some beer on it yesterday afternoon. Good thing it wasn’t plugged in and it wasn’t a significant amount of spillage over the unit. Mostly spilled on the glass desk which needed to be cleaned anyway. As I think about it now, there was actually more beer spilled than drank, so it wasn’t spillage on the account of beer buzz, it was due to sausage hands.

I yanked the battery out right away as well. The tablet has been christened now. A Budweiser-scented Tablet PC, nice.

I’m watching the excellent video at All Things Digital from the D5 conference with Steve Jobs from Apple and Microsoft’s Bill Gates on stage together for the first time in years. Geeks will love this interview. After the first part, what plays? A Google ad! Priceless.

Some other noteworthy moments (sorry, no Google permalinks capability)
- Jobs cuts off Gates and audience laughs (part 1)
- a funny quote remembered by Jobs coming from former Apple CEO Gil Amelio: “Apple … is like a ship with a hole in the bottom leaking water. And my job is to get the ship pointed in the right direction.” (end of part 1)
- Bill Gates explaining how the Xbox 360 was using a processor path that Apple was going away from and why both decisions made sense. Watch the look on Steve Jobs face. He looks like he is going to jump out of his jeans and Gates quip: “Steve is so known for his restraint.” Jobs smiles widely (part 2, 6:05)
- Jobs says he has regrets for Apple but he doesn’t want to look back, he wants to look forward. “Let’s go invent tomorrow.” (part 3, 1:45)
- more five year predictions from Gates, remember he doesn’t have a stellar prediction record, but he thinks we’ll have more than one device we’re carrying around. Ouch, I would like to have one device that does what I need. When will we solve that? (part 3, 11:00)
- of interest to Steve Jobs happening now include how to navigate to life more easily (part 4, 4:20) and he believes we’ll see more productivity enhancements going forward
- “We’re not great at search so we try to partner with people who are great at search.” - Steve Jobs (part 4, 7:10). Jobs indicates that Apple isn’t trying to be the best at everything. Gates says they are “niche areas” where Microsoft doesn’t want to enter. Jobs closes the part 4 video with: “It’s really hard for one company to do everything.”
- Walt Mossberg: “Bill discusses all his secret plans, you [Steve Jobs] discuss none of them” which prompts Jobs to reply: “I know, it’s not fair.” (part 5, 9:30)
- Steve Jobs joking of relationship with Bill Gates: “We’ve kept our relationship secret for 10 years now.” (part 6, :40)
- well deserved standing ovation from the crowd in part 6, 3:36. It’s clear from this video that the public “battle” is really more media hype than reality. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs genuinely like each other and they’ve worked together on more things than apart over the years.

Part 7 - audience questions
I strongly encourage readers to watch the entire interview, perhaps over lunch, it’s one of the best tech interview videos I’ve ever seen. Good questions from the hosts, great answers from Gates and Jobs. While I could have included every video in this post for convenience, I’m going to embed part 7 which made up the audience questions. There are some really good ones in there and I think this is the era we are in now with blogging, social networks and the like: audience participation.

Seeing a complete interview like this at a conference the day after it aired is something that would not have happened 10, maybe not even 5 years ago.

Think I’m going to miss Bill Gates being the day to day guy at Microsoft when he retires. I’m sure he’ll go on to do great things in his role as philanthropist. I’m sure Microsoft isn’t going to fall apart with Gates in a lesser role, definitely not with the billions they have in the bank and the commanding OEM market penetration with Windows, but their other bread and butter: Office, is taking on water.

Google has laser focused on an area where Microsoft and Apple haven’t concentrated on enough. This could usher GoogleOS into being the true third option for consumers. I don’t think the path will lead through the modern day browser (perhaps a next generation browser?), but that appears to be at least the starting point. Don’t say Linux because Linux despite being great for servers (98% of the websites our company operates are on Linux server) just doesn’t have the sexiness of a Mac or the widespread adoption of Windows. Maybe some version of Linux will overcome this and break through and lord knows there are plenty of very good Linux GUIs. I guess the Mac is already essentially that stylistic front end and look how much market share it’s captured.

As for Jobs and Apple? I’m still not convinced the iPhone is going to be anywhere close to the success of the iPod and I don’t need to see one in the stores to predict that. It’s possible that Apple will continue to develop on the concept like Microsoft is promising to do with the Zune and in a few more iterations we’ll see the iPhone be a more compelling option for consumers.

And finally, the Mac. I’ve been a Mac user now since 2004. In my own experience the Mac brings something good to the table but hasn’t done enough to drag me away from Windows yet. In October it will be three years and I’m still doing most of my day to day work on Windows machines. It hasn’t been for a lack of trying, that’s for sure. I do understand better why Mac users are so passionate. It’s a great machine for creative people. I’m a creative person and yet I can’t seem to shake my Windows fix for using the Mac regularly. I’m still trying, believe me.

Here’s what we do know about five years from now: Bill Gates will be in a different role than he is in now and Steve Jobs? Don’t know. The Google honeymoon will be over. It’s already over really, and they are trying to extend the tentacles (Google Gears, deals to get their software packaged into new computers by default, etc) beyond search. If they lose sight of the ball (search) and spend too much time trying to eat competitor lunches, that will expose them to smaller, more nimble companies like they once were.

This video in a way feels like the end of an era for computing and the dawn of a new era. I’m really excited to see where things go over the next 30 years, health willing.

While I’ll admit that email spam has improved a little bit, it is far from gone. In 2004 he also predicted the death of the password. I’m still using passwords, how about you? Then there was Gates prediction that we’d see a $500 Tablet PC for students and speech recognition will be “there” in 2-5 years. Hmm.

For those keeping score, Gates doesn’t have a good batting average making predictions. So what does he do? Make more predictions!

The Seattle PI points to four new predictions by Mr. Gates that will happen within the next five years. His predictions are bolded, my comments are not.

1. All reading will move online as device form factors reach a tipping point in size and simplicity. While I’d agree that this will eventually happen, we’re not going to be there until it’s as easy and friendly as folding a magazine or book. Baking in the sun with some hard to read in direct sun electronic device isn’t going to be welcomed in large numbers — and hasn’t — for longer than five years.

2. Thanks to Internet delivery, TV viewers will see individually targeted advertising. As part of a family that hasn’t had television service for 324 days and have been watching DVDs and games and TV shows through the (legally) available networks online, this one seems possible, however there are way too many television sets out there to become dust magnets in the next five years. There are plenty of people who don’t want to login to watch an episode of American Idol.

There is also a bandwidth quality issue. While I understand we’ll continue to get bandwidth upgrades and the quality of the streaming picture will improve and someday match cable, satellite and over the air networks this isn’t going to cause people to mass exodus for internet TV. I think it might be more like 7-10 years. Sorry Bill you’re close on this one, call it a foul ball. Strike two.

3. Consumers will be the ultimate winners as the old business models for newspapering and print advertising collapse. It’s bad enough that bloggers cover this story ad nauseum, now Gates is filling barf bags. I don’t think we need to wait five years for this to happen, it’s already happening today. Newspapers are going out of business, merging and/or being forced to intensify and improve their web efforts.

But.

The major newspapers like The New York Times will still be here in five years and still printing, still serving happy subscribers. Similar to my response in #1 there are a lot of people who prefer to read news in print, particularly seniors. We’ll call this one a foul popup, Bill.

4. In five years, the number of people consulting the printed Yellow Pages will drop to “near zero.” I laughed out loud when I read this. The Yellow Pages are still very powerful and I don’t see five years breaking that down for people searching for businesses. When the internet is everywhere and everybody carries around devices perhaps then the Yellow Pages usage will drop to “near zero” but Bill is again being too anxious.

There’s a common misbelief that technology adoption moves fast. Sure, technology itself moves fast, but adoption moves slow. Look what’s happening with console video games. The new systems come out but take a couple years to takeover the prior generation systems. Sony is still releasing new PS2 games because much to their chagrin the PS3 isn’t selling as well as the PS2.

Remember how we were all supposed to be using HDTVs? Ha. Do your own self-study and ask your friends how many HDTVs they have and use. We have two HDTVs and four regular TVs. Adoption is slow.

Bill Gates will be stepping down from his post at Microsoft to spend the next phase of his life focused on philanthropy. I hope we don’t keep reading geriatric Gates predictions that never happen. Cannot diminish Gates being a smart man but he can no more tell the future than your nearest 1-800 psychic.

Tired of tapping away at the keyboard? Those with carpal tunnel will be nodding, but there hasn’t been a new version of the PC in dozens of years. I hadn’t realized and pondered in depth how long it’s been this way until this morning when reading Betanews article:

“We’re still using the keyboards to enter data, to write out letters, to send an e-mail,” [IDC’s David Daoud] remarked. “It’s pretty old, isn’t it, if you start looking at the technology that we have? Think about that, for a moment. We have had for a long time this concept of the tablet PC, and no one has been able to crack that market. Why is that?

Easy answer: availability and pricing! Remember Bill Gates dreaming that we’d see $500 Tablet PCs? He also said that in “2-5 years” we’d see speech recognition that was there. That was 2005, so it could be as early as this year or as late as 2010. I’ve tried to use speech recognition several times, both with my Tablet PC and with Dragon Naturally Speaking. We’re definitely not there yet. Has it improved? Yes, but it’s still not where it makes sense to cast aside the keyboard.

But availability and pricing are neither of the reasons Daoud gives (emphasis mine):

Because no one has been willing to do the same thing that Apple has done for the iPod: own that market, take it to the next level. Think of it. We’ve had the speech recognition as an input interface for a long time, and yet no one has really taken that into consideration.

Owning the market should be easier now that Vista is here with the Tablet OS. We should be seeing Tablet PCs or at least convertible tablets in greater supply, yes? So far at least in our local retail store area the answer is a resounding no. Take a tour of your the retail stores in your area, what are you seeing? The ratio of traditional laptops to tablets around here is like 20:1. There might be a tablet hanging around in some dark corner display at Best Buy gathering dust. I’ve seen one of the new touch screen PCs and those look intriguing but are they practical at the price ($1,700 USD)? Nope.

Techdirt notes that to date Microsoft’s Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) has pretty much been a dud. Same problems there: availability and pricing. I’ve said this repeatedly: you can’t sell to the masses expensive technology over the web. People want to walk into local stores, see the product, feel it, talk to salespeople about it. The internet is a wonderful place but it isn’t tactile. Yet.

Perhaps the next version of a PC is an integrated internet that is tactile.

My guess for the next version of the PC
In our bedroom we have a close version of the next version of a PC. Doesn’t have a keyboard but one could be added via USB. It can download and play movies, TV shows and videos in HD quality. Chat with text or voice? No problem. Comes with a hard drive and more storage can be added. The major omission is an internet browser but I suspect that’s coming. Broadcast TV through the internet (IPTV) is coming too. Along with that we’ll have PVR functionality built-in. How many devices does this get rid of? cable/sat box, PVR, game machine, DVD player … yowsa.

Yes, I’m talking about the Xbox 360 Elite we just bought. We have a computer in our bedroom too, a Microsoft Vista powered machine. Which “PC” do you think is getting used more? We have a PS3 too in there which has internet browsing, BTW.

I realize the Xbox is still considered a game machine, but let’s not forget how Microsoft is making it a development box with the Creators Club. This is the place where using speech recognition to control PC functions would be a good fit. This could become the nerve center of the home.

Will things go this way? Not sure, but wouldn’t rule it out. At least in terms of Microsoft, the Xbox is more successful than the UMPC and Tablet PC. I wouldn’t be surprised if Google gets their talons in here somewhere. Maybe they already are with YouTube. And Apple shouldn’t be counted out either, although AppleTV isn’t a disruptive force yet. If they get cozy with Nintendo then it’s time to rumble.

What do you think will be the next version of the PC?