Thought Stream

Tablet PC users rejoice!  Josh Einstein has finally released a beta version of Tablet Enhancements for Outlook (TEO) 3.0 into the wild!  If you’re not familiar with the product, basically it enables Microsoft Outlook for tablet in a way that even Microsoft doesn’t.  I’ve just downloaded it , and haven’t installed, but it looks pretty sweet!  Check it out here.

So, the last few months I’ve been volunteering some of my time to help launch a brand new film festival in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has a fairly large Asian population, one that is active in many community activities, but until recently the disparate Asian groups haven’t had a unifying event to call their own. With the inaguration of the Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival, that will soon change. The brainchild of several motivated, and creative, Asians, Silk Screen is beginning to take a life of its own. The festival plans to become an annual event, eventually expanding to a range of arts beyond film. As a volunteer in this effort, and casual observer on the dynamics of putting together this huge effort on a shoe-string budget, I’ve been very impressed by creativity of the sponsors and patrons of the festival. Take, for example, the team over at Wall-to-Wall Studios, they have put together an amazing website , and associated collateral material.  They just released a film trailer that will run at all of the festival venues. Check it out here.  Pretty cool stuff, right?

Late last night Microsoft announced that it would delay shipping the highly anticipated Vista operating systems for consumer use until after the holiday season.  That was pretty surprising, given that all indications were for Vista to be selling in time for Christmas ‘06.  Apparently this delay has also forced the hand of Steve Ballmer to do an internal re-org, and place a long time Office division veteran on top of the Vista hierarchy.  The WSJ is reporting the details here.

Last year’s dubious purchase of Skype by eBay for an ungodly sum is looking even more foolish today.  Yesterday Yahoo! released the beta 7.5 version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.  This update allows Yahoo!IM users to buy phone numbers, call out, call in, and generally function in a world similar to Skype without having another IM environment to deal with.  Om Malik fills us in with some more details here.

Leave it to the guys at Engadget to snag the internet’s first quickie review of a real Origami machine.  Their first thoughts – um, nothing special.  The Samsung model they played around with was a pre-production unit, so there still may be some changes in store, but overall it didn’t come across as being revolutionary.  Of course, that has been the general concensus since Intel broke the first official news of the UMPC-Origami.  As I looked at those first pictures on Engadget, I didn’t see anything that impressive either, but I can see where this platform is heading.  Depending on price, this still may be on my ‘might buy’ lists, but I’ll need to test drive one before I make that committment.

Today it was Intel’s turn to take the covers off of the UMPC platform. James Kendrick uncovered this page on the Intel website that begins to fill in the missing pieces to the puzzle. The Intel UMPC website reveals even more with four videos showing use cases for the UMPC here. The second video, “Mix work and pleasure” is the one that got my attention. Two of the other videos feature the device pictured here in action. Cool stuff!

UPDATE:  This link to a PDF brochure has some interesting UMPC facts that confirm many of the rumors floating about.

The last few weeks, rumors have been running rampant on the blogosphere (really, the entire Internet) about a brand new device that will be loaded with a Microsoft operating system. Whether or not Redmond is orchestrating this buzz is beyond me, but the speculation up to this point does have me very interested. Code named The Origami Project, Microsoft has created some of this hype with a cryptic web-site which strings us along for another week before making a ‘formal’ announcement. Others have found a ‘missing link’ to Microsoft’s hints that pretty much seals the deal, provided by the other half of the Win-tel relationship – Intel. Origami, or UMPC (or whatever you want to call it) looks like a very intriguing new approach to mobile computing. If the rumors prove correct, then this new gadget will essentially be a more mobile Tablet PC (running Windows XP for Tablets) and have multimedia capabilities. The leaked commercial developed by Digital Kitchen validates as much. While there are other small tablet driven computers out there, as Dennis Rice reminds us, this one would truly be aimed at the broader consumer market. Again, if the new devices live up to the hype (and projected price range of approximately $700), I think Origami has huge implications for a lot of folks beyond the assumed target of college age users as the early buzz portrays. The possibilities beyond that core target market seem a bit vague at the moment. What I hope it doesn’t become is a modern day version of the Apple Newton.

So what can Origami do for me?

As many of you know, I switched to a tablet PC (the Toshiba M200 convertible) about two years ago and now can’t imagine working without the capability to ink. Along with a regimented approach to scanning documents into Microsoft OneNote and note-taking in the same application, I’ve been able to slim down my mobile experience substantially. No longer do I carry around folders full of handouts and notepads, with the rare exception of a backup Moleskine notebook. All-in-all this has been a very nice arrangement, but in recent months I’ve begun to rethink my approach a bit. One of the ideas I’ve been toying with is replacing my convertible with an even smaller slate type computer (the Motion Computing LS800 comes to mind). The logic goes like this: I’ve got a powerful desktop computer in my office, an even more powerful one at home, and when I’m on the move, I’m more apt to use my convertible PC in tablet mode than with the keyboard exposed. My Toshiba is great in this mode, but I’d like something more portable…something that could rival the size of the Moleskine. This would not serve as my primary computer, at the same time it would give me greater capabilities than my Treo 650. This device should have enough computing power that I could run the Microsoft Office suite, while remaining compact enough to carry around like a medium-sized paperback book. The LS800 surely fits the requirements, as does the OQO, but I couldn’t imagine spending $2,000 for a portable tablet. The Origami device is being pitched at a more palatable price range. From what Scoble is hinting, Origami will be an entirely new category of devices. Could this be the device that I’ve been hoping for? Well, we’ll all learn on this Thursday….stay tuned.

GoBinder 2006, one of the best note-taking solutions out there for the Tablet PC has finally shipped.  For those who aren’t familiar with the product, GoBinder is essentially a digital notebook and PIM for students…although it is a really powerful tool that can be used by just about anyone.  This update to GoBinder was very ambitious, as Agilix decided to make GoBinder more of a platform than an application.  That slowed down the beta process substantially, but this transformation was worth the wait.  Now you can synchronize notes, build your own forms inside the platform, amongst other things.  Although GoBinder is no longer my primary capture tool anymore (MS OneNote 2007 – beta has become that), it is certainly a top flight product.