“Since the dawn of the PC era, various companies have undertaken various initiatives to move computing away from keyboard and mouse-based input and towards the more natural interfaces of pen and voice. And while voice computing has seen some limited success, pen computing is set to explode with the introduction of Microsoft’s Tablet PC platform, driven by a new Windows XP version logically named Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.” The review and screenshots can be found on WindowsSuperSite. In related news, Microsoft today announced that “Mira,” the code name for new software technologies that will power a wide range of smart displays, will officially be named Microsoft Windows CE for Smart Displays.
WindowsXP Tablet PC Edition Reviewed
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Once upon a time, before Palms and iPaqs there were Newton. Newton is know to have the best HandWrite recognition around, even better than Palm Graffiti… And Apple is going to bundle this into the next MacOSX release, Jaguar.
So… again, it’s the Wintel world stealing old ideas from Apple, and making it look new and shine…
Oh, please. This is not an “idea” and it can’t be stolen. Hand write recognition goes on for decades now, it is just that we are now in a technological advancement and we have the CPU power that allows us to do it properly. Newton is more than 12 years old now. Duplicating the technology is possibly not a big deal anymore. And Microsoft had that technology for some years now, in their labs or on betas. Apple introducued InkWell only a month ago, even if they had it in their labs for some time.
For something like that, you just can’t say that one stole the idea from the other. It is not an “idea”. It is common sense to want to implement something like that for such devices.
And predating all of these (which also pushed MS to create their pen computing initiative) was Go Corp. I think that anyone interested in seeing how the barriers to entry in the computing marketplace should read a book called “Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure” about Go. There’s some interesting stuff about dealing with Microsoft and even Be’s (then Apple’s) very own JLG and Steve Sakoman get mention in it.
Anyone here ever use the Go’s device? How well did the handwriting recognition work in that? It was amazing what they built with the technology available at the time.
Thank you, Eugenia, for some common sense.
WINSUPERSITE writes: At the reviewer’s workshop I attended, Forbes columnist Stephen Manes precipitated a rather ugly moment when he demanded that Microsoft tell him, qualitatively, how well the speech recognition in XP Tablet PC Edition works. Alexandra Loeb, the VP for Tablet PC Division at Microsoft explained that the company didn’t have any relevant numbers per se, because the results vary from person to person. This didn’t satisfy Manes, and embarrassment ensued as his demands got more and more irrational.
Yes, yes, shame on Stephen Manes for not removing his undergarments as to allow a less restrictive path for the microsoft smoke to flow through his nether regions. How embarassing it must have been for poor Manes, requesting a qualitative (i.e. exceptional, good, poor) evaluation of the speech reco. Why he didn’t just sit there and accept what he was fed by Microsoft, I’ll never know. Oh wait I do know! He works for the *REAL* news magazine FORBES! Not the Microsoft Drone FUD peddling WinSuperSite.com
I guess there’s just something to be said for respectable journalism. How embarassing for windows supersite.
-Jason Stiles
Needs more than notepad / paintbrush.
The UI looks bogus! It’s identical to the PC UI.
The hardware looks clunky and heavy with WiFi PC cards sticking out.
They need hardware design lessons from Sony, Apple and Palm.
Palm should put out a much better tablet!
ciao
yc
Mosfet: Actually, your arrogance shines through brightly in your post. If you weren’t so stuck on bashing everything Microsoft does, you would know that the PocketPC handwriting recognition software is built upon the SAME EXACT software that was used in the Newton (which Apple did NOT develop). So therefore, commensense would tell you, the software in the Newton cannot be “better” than the software in the PocketPC.
re: yc
And? How does that make it bogus? The UI works, and works very well, it’s Windows on a tablet, and therefore has the Windows UI.
And again we see the drive to bash anything Microsoft does.
Microsoft does NOT make the hardware, Microsoft only makes the software.
ALSO, the only one that looks clunky with the WiFi card hanging out of it is the PROTOTYPE in the first set of pictures, if you actually look down (or went out and did ANY research on it at all), you would notice how the other (newer) devices aren’t like that.
And btw, I happen to beta test the TabletPC SDK, which includes sample apps that use the recog software, here is a small demo for you to look at to see just how good it is.
I wrote this with my mouse.
http://65.32.168.97/Brian/recosample.jpg
Dude,
The handwriting recognition software for the newton was
developed wholly by Apple. Graffiti was used on the devices
as well, and that was largely before the last generation newtonOS.
It was completely in-house. Also, it’s the basis for inkwell, although the recognition routines are understandably a bit more robust in this iteration.
The Newton was released nine years ago, not twelve. At Macworld Boston IIRC – August of ’93. Still, a long time ago, so the statement stands. MS didn’t clone inkwell any more than IBM cloned MIT’s sphinx for speech recognition.
I’m generally quiet for the Apple/Mac OS X bashing, but I’ll genially correct any pure misinformation. Not that it was intentional, mind you – everyone makes mistakes. Just setting the record straight
Peace
Hand write recognition goes on for decades now, it is just that we are now in a technological advancement and we have the CPU power that allows us to do it properly
Maybe we have the power to do it properly, but from what I’ve heard, Microsoft *hasn’t* done it properly. Until somebody gets handwriting recognition right, things like the TabletPC are just toys or gimmicks, with limited usefulness.
> The Newton was released nine years ago, not twelve
Sure, but it was conceived in 1988, by JLG and Sakoman.
Counting from when it was conceived is dirty pool
We don’t know *when* it was conceived. Internal memos about it date from around ’91, but I’m counting when the product was released.
If we count from when it’s conceived, that’s pretty wild. Maybe JLG and Sakoman thought about it for a few minutes on a train in ’86. The hardware is older than the software, but not that much older.
Michael: Have you played w/a Newton 2100? The handwriting recognition was amazing. Worked well for first-graders, and their handwriting is almost as scattered as mine.
Where d’you get the ’88 number from, btw? I’m curious, ‘cuz I love anything about JLG that shows him as a successful visionary instead of an unsuccessful one. Be was just a few years too early for the IA market, apparently…
Peace
Wrong.
In the Newton OS 1 series of devices (OMP, 100, 110, 120), Apple used a HWR engine from ParaGraph. This engine, as many people remember, sucked hard. Fortunately, the ParaGraph HWR engine (aka CalliGrapher) has been developed over the years and is now the basis for CalliGrapher for PocketPC and PenOffice for desktop Windows. Microsoft licensed the CalliGrapher engine, and bundles it under the name Transcriber in PocketPC 2002 (it can be downloaded for PocketPC 2000). Although I’ve not done research to find this out, I would expect that Microsoft simply licensed ParaGraph’s desktop product based on this engine, PenOffice for use within Windows when Apple announced InkWell.
In the Newton OS 2.x series of devices (120, 130, 2000, 2100, eMate), Apple used it’s own, in-house HWR software. It ruled. It recognizes my handwriting with 99.9% accuracy.
I tried to switch from my trusty Newton 2100u to an iPAQ running PocketPC and CalliGrapher 6 and have used CG6 quite a bit. It has some convenient gestures which the Newton OS 2.x HWR engine doesn’t, but aside that, is generally almost as accurate as the Newton OS 2.x HWR engine. I’ve not tried PenOffice, but I imagine that it may be a little more accurate, spending more time analyzing due to higher CPU speeds. (most ‘modern’ computers have a CPU faster than the x86 equivalent to a 206 MHz StrongARM!)
One signifigant diference between CalliGrapher and the Newton OS HWR system is that the integration that the HWR engine had with the OS was a lot higher and more natural in the Newton OS than with CalliGrapher. The Newton OS was built from the ground up to accomdate pen input of this nature, whereas WinCE was not, and it can most definately show. This is of course of little surprise, considering Apple’s track record of integrated and slick solutions, and Microsoft’s history of falling short to get the product out the door.
So whether you choose a Mac or a PC running Windoze, you should have a capable HWR system. Of course, if you go with the Mac running Mac OS X, it’ll be a helluva lot cooler, and probably work a lot smoother.
Nope. I’m only *partially* wrong
Paragraph did the word recognition in the OMP. In the 100 and 110, there was character-based recognition, too. *Not* from paragraph. I’d give you the internal code name of the project, but then Jobs would send his attack-ninjas after me.
So, I’m off by one unit (the OMP). You’re off by three and some years. What say we split the difference? The main point was that Eugenia was right – the stuff is old. Dirt old in the computer business.
I’d entirely forgotten about the Paragraph debacle. Too bad for them (all the negative press) as their later products have done well. Performance wise, that is. So it wasn’t all in-house – just over 90%, and that’s before the second generation.
Thanks for the (admittedly curt) correction. Notice how I’m being polite and nice? If you post something to me, could you try to be more civil? Doesn’t take much.
Peace
Well, I think we’ve established that there is excellent handwriting recogntion software :-). It is dfficult to tell how things will shake down, as it always is. Concepts and even products based on the concepts emerge, flop and then come back again. It seems to me that it is possible that pen tablet systems could become the third main input device. Or, in some systems, the only input device, but I’m thinking of computers as a whole. But, it is difficult to see it catching on as something unto itself – it seems to me it would have to start out as the third big input device. I have a Sony Pen Tablet P III with beautiful flat panel display. With the stylus, there are some programs where you can edit images by using it on the screen. It’s really a cool computer anyway. But that is what I can see in my mind – a Sony Pen Tablet type computer that goes much, much further, with outstanding image editing capabilities and excellent handwriting recognition capabilities. But, it’s hard for me to see something beyond that at this point. It would have to still be a “regular” computer too.
Micheal:
Did you even bother to have a peak at my sample of the hanwriting recognition software available in the TabletPC?
http://65.32.168.97/Brian/recosample.jpg
Have a look.
CPUGuy, why is that a screen shot of some other app, when you can look at Thurott’s site and see the actual MS software?
You know, usually, I’m the first to bash Microsoft for bone head ideas. Do I think that Apple, or the OpenSource community could produce something better? Yes. Do I think that the OpenBeOS Project should begin focusing (or create a port) on the TablePC platform (if thats the correct way to refer it…). Yes, I’d love to see the opensource version of the best operating system ever
on a device like the Tablet PC. Do I think that Microsoft, for once, is on the right track? Yes.
For someone that works in corp. America, I can see how something like the TabletPC, used as an extension of the desktop pc, could be of major benifit to companies. Imagine, everyone in your office has a TabletPC, wirelessly networked, and seemlessly interegrated to your desktop pc. Gets quite expenisive, I know. Barring recent accounting debacles, our society was on the track towards paperless. This is just an extenstion of that thought.
But Microsoft is heading in the right direction. I can’t believe that I am going to say this, but “I’m excited about a M$ product”.
Yes it is MS software.
It’s a sample app provided with the TabletPC SDK (which I beta test).
In PT’s article, he doesn’t show any hand-writing recognition.
Hey CPUGuy, are you a Microsoft Employee? I hear that Microsoft has dispatched employees on the web BBSes to try to salvage their deteriorating image.
>>re: yc
>>And? How does that make it bogus? The UI works, and works very well, it’s >>Windows on a tablet, and therefore has the Windows UI.
The Winblows desktop UI is not appropriate for a tablet or handheld, regardless of what Microsoft led you to believe. Stuffing a PC into a tablet is just Bogus! A tablet has a different purpose than a PC, different applications with different UIs.
The fact that clicking on a start button pops up a menu does not mean the UI works. It takes much more to have a good working UI. Microsoft never learned that and probably never will. I guess they’re too busy focusing on how to break the law there is no time to make a good UI!
ciao
yc
handwriting recognition aside, is there anything but minimal demand for these tablet PCs? I can see using in them for some limited sales and industrial/warehouse functions but so what.
The “tablet pc” concept has been tried many times before. It has never evolved into all that much. It looks like a response to the “expected” popularity of the web-pad that never really happened.
I agree that there will be minimal to no demand for MS tablet PCs for 2 reasons:
1. There is no necessity / “must have reasons” for corporations to buy them, no killer app.
2. With the recession in full swing, most big cheeses can not justify buying them as toys.
Microsoft will have to give them out for Free!
ciao
yc
This is a very very cool technology. However the bottom line of technology is to get things done faster and the best way to do that is with a keyboard. With a Treo, for example, you can easily enter information on the go in a pocketable device. With a tablet PC you have no place to stick it unless you have no problem carrying it all the time and it’s always slower to use a pen instead of a keyboard.
Here’s another problem: it is very hard to write standing up with one hand grabbing the tablet and the other to write with. Your handwriting will probably look very different compared to your normal handwriting.
My belief is that the Web-pad and Internet Appliance market never really took off because the modern Internet has so many applications that are platform – centric.
You can’t install file-sharing applications, instant messengers, Internet Scrabble/etc games on most Webpads because the software makers dont provide versions for QNX, Epoc, etc.
Windows for Tablet PC is a full Windows XP platform and presumably binary-compatible with all windows applications. thats where the difference is.. ( although try instant-messaging with a stylus on a screen 😐 )
No, I’m not an MS employee, why is it that MS-bashers always say that when someone defends MS.
If you think that it’s bad, then you simply don’t know what makes a good UI, today.
Why don’t you quit bashing everything MS does (because it makes you look very stupid) and do something that is actually productive.
ooohhh, bashing the MS basher are we?
The tablet still sucks and I think you know it!
The tablet UI should be different than the PC. The Windows XP UI sucks even more then the Win2K UI. Slap it on a tablet and you have an absolute disaster.
Compare a Palm device UI to a WinCE device UI. See the difference?
Try repeating:
Thy shall not stuff a PC in a handheld!
Thy shall not stuff a PC in a tablet!
The Winblows XP UI sucks to begin with!
ciao
yc
yc:
Again, you have pure opinions on something you’ve never seen or used before (and therefore is FUD) and make a bunch of stupid statements without backing them up at all.
CPUGuy:
I have tried Tablet PC, Pocket PC, Palm HandHeld, BeIA devices, Apple Newton etc…
I actually own a Palm M505 currently and I love it!
I think the tablet PC SUCKS!!
Please keep repeating:
Thy shall not stuff a PC in a handheld!
Thy shall not stuff a PC in a tablet!
The Microsoft Tablet PC sucks!
ciao
yc
I can tell you right now that you’ve not used any of those except mayber your Palm.
In fact, the ONLY thing that Palm has over PocketPC’s is battery life (14-16hrs on PocketPC’s is darn good though), in every other category, the PocketPC is FAR ahead.
And you keep making yourself look even more stupid/pathetic with each comment, I suggest you come into the real world.
It’s really funny, because this topic has come up just about every three-four years, usually shortly after a new OS release. Anybody else remember the PenPC’s running Windows 3.1 that IBM used to sell bundled with TPW 1.5?
Same @#$%, different manufacturer.
And don’t feel bad CPUGuy, I get the same #$% from people all the time. I used to be a rabid MS basher, pretty much since 95A came out (I was a rabid promoter pre-95A), but they’ve won me and a good number of other people back with XP, which is what I think really scares the die-hard holdouts. Despite having both Linux (mandrake) and BeOS on my machine, for the past four years up to the release of XP I was still spending most of my time using Windows 98. Why? Because it was the only OS that actually supported my hardware. Because over a quarter of the Web pages out there only view properly using IE. Because 80%+ of the software I use on a daily basis only runs on Windows. Yes it was flaky, Yes it was extremely unstable, but it worked. Now that I’m using XP, I haven’t even booted into Be or Linux in three to four months.
The one thing I have noticed about people with XP problems though, is they all seem to be the ones running an upgrade and not a clean install. I hear your anti-windows people complaining about the upgrades being unstable all the time. I usually have to tell them to ‘Shut the H3!! up’, since have you ever seen linux be stable when upgrading between major kernel revisions? How about different distros? Don’t complain about $#!+ that your supposedly superior OS can’t do.
Besides, the real reason Linux types really hate WinXP is it boots faster than the newer Red Hat or Mandrake releases do. (mein gott, Red Hat is turning into a meg heavy pig).
Of course, the real trick with Windows NT/2K/XP is to make DAMN CERTAIN none of the server services are installed at all, and don’t use Outlook or Messenger. If you want to use it as a server or for e-mail/messaging, use third party software and you’ll never see it fail. That truly is Windows NT/2K/XP’s biggest problem, is separating the fairly decent OS from the really crappy applications and services with security holes big enough to fly a BUFF through.