Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Windows SideShow in a bag

  This is very, very cool, and I want one now . Imagine, as Kevin puts it, seeing e-mails, contact info or RSS feeds without removing your device from the bag. Simply awesome. The only thing that concerns me is that the Eleksen Wearable Display Module will apparently "offer a gigabyte of memory". Personally, I would rather something that communicated over WiFi and/or Bluetooth with Vista's Away Mode . Posted Jan 17 2007, 09:18 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Productivity, Tablet PC, Vista, Microsoft

• More Dell Tablet rumors - Spring 2007?

  We had rumors of a Dell Tablet back in July 2004, but of course those rumors stayed rumors. I said then that a Dell tablet was "obviously a big step in taking the tablet to the masses." It looks like those rumors have resurfaced again . According to GBM reader Kevin Bals, a Dell sales rep said "to look for a late spring release of a Dell Tablet." They said Michael Dell was very much against the tablet. Over time though he realized the tablet was a gateway into the school for other vendors. For example since the school had to go elsewhere for the tablets they ended up buying printers, desktops or projectors from the other vendor as well. They also said that Dell usually waits for a particular product to become mainstream and then they look to develop a product and own the market. Dell feels that since Vista will have the tablet features built right into the OS that the corporate world will embrace the tablet on a large scale. The reps said this will be especially true once service pack 1... Posted Oct 30 2006, 05:48 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC

• More details emerge on the Lenovo ThinkPad x60 Tablet

  After repeated delays , it looks like the ThinkPad X60 may indeed be coming. Rob at GottaBeMobile has a whole slew of information from an anonymous reader provided over the past week. First, we have some detailed specs . The big news for me is the optional high-resolution screen, which is a big reason I still have my m200. They've also added indoor/outdoor and touch-screen options - hopefully these are not mutually exclusive options, because I would love an indoor/outoor, high-resolution touch screen. According to this source, the machine will feature Intel L2400/2500 Core Duo ULV chips. I wasn't able to find benchmarks comparing these chips to the newer T5500/T5600 Core 2 Duo chips, but I will update when/if I can find a good report. Next, reports on the weight and battery times : 3.66 lbs with the 4 cell battery and a little over 4 lbs and up to 9 hours with the extended battery. Finally, and most importantly, dates : official announcement the 1st week of November with general availability... Posted Oct 10 2006, 09:07 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC

• Alex compares the ThinkPad T60 to his Toshiba M400

  Alex raves about the ThinkPad T60 , but can't live without the tablet functionality. He puts what I've long said about the tablet very well: "Once you expose yourself to the Tablet features, you will really miss them when you don't have them!" Unfortunately, we still haven't heard more about the rumored X60 tablet since it was delayed until the end of the year . After talking to Alex, it definitely sounds like this would be a killer device with a high-resolution screen. Posted Aug 10 2006, 01:23 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Gadgets, Tablet PC

• Is Vista ready? Maybe, but I still have 2 big issues

  Scoble agrees that Vista isn't ready yet . I'm still undecided. I'm not running the absolute latest (hopefully this weekend) on my tablet, though I definitely agree with Alex that recent builds are a vast improvement , even from Beta 2. His big complaint is driver support, and I'm not sure that means the operating system is not ready. Sean demonstrates just one example of what people might actually get excited about. The Tablet experience, especially when combined with Office 2007, is drastically improved. I've finally found software to mount ISOs within Vista . The performance is acceptable on my M200 (1.8ghz Centrino, 1.5GB RAM). There are two minor but very annoying bugs I'm dealing with now: I can't connect to my EVDO connection after coming out of hibernation. Vista occasionally "loses" my self-signed certificate on my home server, which prevents Outlook RPC over HTTPS from working until I go back and reinstall the certificate (which requires administrative... Posted Aug 02 2006, 09:09 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC, Vista, Microsoft

• ThinkPad X60 delayed to end of year?

  The ThinkPad X60 , which was rumored for April 6th , has reportedly been delayed again . James reports that it will be out at the end of the year. Some solace I guess for all those who recently ordered the X41. Unfortunately, still no mention of a high resolution screen. Tags: TabletPC , tablet , ThinkPad , T60 , Mobile Posted Jun 27 2006, 08:07 AM by Tim with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC

• Misbehaving Software: Zinio Reader

  Zinio Reader is a application that allows you to download digital magazines and view them in a magazine-like presentation, complete with turning pages. It is especially cool on the Tablet PC platform (indeed, it is preinstalled on many Tablets now). The only problem is that Zinio misbehaves when it comes to internet connection. You would think that software that is largely going to be used on the go, where one may or may not have a connection, would handle this situation a bit more gracefully. First, you get prompted because Zinio can't download, even when you've told it in the past to use the default IE settings. If you click ok, and don't have an active Internet connection, you are prompted with this message. Clicking Cancel isn't much better. What should have happened? Zinio should have tried to connect. If it didn't have a working connection, it should have silently logged it. If, like most AntiVirus software, it went x days without a working connection, notify me in an unobtrusive... Posted Jun 16 2006, 04:38 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Gadgets, Things that bother me, Tablet PC, Misbehaving Software

• Asus R1F, another Core Duo Tablet to be announced

  CoreDuoNews brings us news that the ASUS R1F tablet has been approved by the FCC and will be announced soon. This machine was rumored to have a 13.3" widescreen display , but it doesn't look like 16:9 from the pictures. The manual mentions a slot-loading optical drive, integrated fingerprint reader, support for express card, flash memory reader and integrated BlueTooth. I didn't find any mention of screen resolution, so we can only hope with these specs that there is a high-resolution option. Also, the hinge looks interesting - it looks like the entire thing swivels. (Look at page 5 on this pdf ). Posted May 26 2006, 08:20 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC

• No InvisibleShield for Tablet PCs

  The invisibleSHIELD is amazing - extremely durable, is virtually undetectable, and unlike most screen protectors actually stays in place. It's actually material that was developed to coat helicopter blads. I have one on my iPod Nano and for the screens on my camera and smartphone. I was hoping to pick one up for my m200, but it looks like they are not available right now even through custom orders. Thank you for contacting ShieldZone! Unfortunately, we are not processing invisibleSHIELDs for tablet pcs or laptops through the custom order process. We are still working on an invisibleSHIELD for them, but as of right now we are not comfortable enough to release any invisibleSHIELDs for these computers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Posted May 16 2006, 07:22 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC

• Please welcome Alex Parker to the Inkosphere

  Well, the waiting is over . Toshiba finally got the high-resolution screens back in stock and Alex has joined us in the world of Ink. His first thoughts : "[T]he Toshiba M400 is really in a class by itself. It is the only high resolution (1400x1050) Core Duo tablet on the market." I am very excited about this because, knowing Alex, he is inevitably going to do or find something that will change the way I use my Tablet. Posted Apr 24 2006, 07:38 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC