Next Page »

Spam spam spam…

We’ve had a recent increase in junk comments lately (30 comments in the last 12 hours) so I have increased the aggressiveness of our spam filter. I’ll be checking daily for false positives (your comments that have been wrongly junked) so please do not worry that your wonderful comments will be lost.

If you have comments that are not posted, feel free to send me or Tracy an email and we’ll get it posted as soon as possible.

Oh yeah! Big thanks to Josh Einstein and Mindjet!

I forgot to post a HUGE shout-out to Josh Einstein of Einstein Technologies for helping out with the contest!!! Both second and third place wanted TEO (Tablet Enhancements for Outlook) as their prize and Josh donated them to the contest without me even asking!

Thank you so much! Everyone should check out TEO just because the creator is such a great guy.

Mindjet also donated the copy of MindManager we gave out, which was awesome of them also, so check out our new ad for them on the right column if you get the chance.

Question: UMPC or “the Mini Tablet” for a student?

Before I explain my opinion of the two, I’d like to hear what the opinions of our readers are on the following questions.

Which provides more benefit to a student: the new UMPC’s (”Origami”), or the small tablets that have an 8-9″ screen size, such as the LS800 and P1500? Why? What do you think a student wants/needs and what do you think a student would pay?

I ask this because I have two very different scenarios in my head and I want to know what everyone else is thinking about the actual use of these devices in the student world. Apparently MS wants to keep students in mind with the UMPC’s and I’d like to know what everyone thinks of their vision.

Ooo, interesting…temporary “ideal” tablet configuration?

In my last article I described my ideal tablet with the basic configuration (read here for complete specs):

• Detachable slate that’s ~2 lbs
• A battery on the base to serve as functional weight
• Reliable way to connect the slate to the base
• Extras such as nice keyboard, CD drive, and a possible hard drive on base also.

After that article, I had a goal to fabricate one of my own, in concept, that I wouldn’t have to wait a year for someone to make. I think I found a neat little solution that includes the following items: Motion LS800, Motion Mobile Dock, ThinkOutside bluetooth keyboard, the Electrovaya PowerPad, and some velcro.

New STPC Software Links page/blog

This is a work in progress, however I hope you can look past what still needs work and enjoy taking a look at our new Software Links. Not only does it look a lot better than the old blog’s links page, but it also allows us to do a few other cool things:

• It’s in blog format, so you can subscribe via RSS to keep up with updates and new additions
• When we mention a program in a post, we can easily link to the individual blog post we have for it for the reader to find more info about the software.

Logitech Quickcam Deluxe for Notebook (or Tablet)

Woot has a deal on two Logitech Quickcam Deluxe Notebook Webcams. The package also comes with two microphones and two rather crummy headsets, but you could easily use the camera in class with OneNote.

If you are interested, the deal is good ONLY FOR TODAY (Woot: One Deal, One Day). So check it out => Logitech Quickcam Deluxe for Notebooks w/ Headphones and Microphone - 2 pack $59.99 + $5 S&H

My Stroke of Genius: The Perfect Tablet Concept

OK, so just follow me here:

Today I had the chance to play with the Motion LE1600 tablet and attachable keyboard and I had a couple ideas that would create THE perfect tablet (for me at least). I would buy the following concept tablet in a instant if ANYONE made one.

The Problem: I love laptops. They’re a wonderful idea and concept. I also love tablets. I want to use my tablet as a slate. I want both in one package.

Motion and a few others have tried to make this happen by making the screen detachable and the keyboard optional. So why don’t I feel complete with this concept? It sucks as a laptop. I don’t want a great tablet and a bad laptop, I want both. All of the ideas are flimsy, wobbly, and while both the TC1100 and the LE1600 gave it a good shot, there’s no wrist rest, no weight on the bottom to even things out, and no feeling of, “Yeah. This is just like my laptop.” I still feel like I’m tying on a dinky detachable keyboard.

My solution after the jump….

Master list of 220 submitted tips, plus some of Tracy’s favorites

Oh my goodness! It took forever and a day, but the tips are organized into some categories and edited to be fairly uniform and easy to scan.

When it was all said and done, I ended up with 220 tips I decided made the list (the ones I didn’t include wouldn’t have changed any rankings, trust me). I also kept some that somewhat sounded repetitive, but I’d rather have the little bit extra that tip provided than nix it for being similar to another.

Find the whole list in Word format here, or check out our forums for the same list and possibly some new, added ones.

Since I know it’s a huge list, I collected some of my personal favorites after the jump for those who don’t have time to read the whole 220 but want to catch a glimpse, although all the tips are great. Also, all the tips will at some point make it onto the Tip of the Day feed, so you can subscribe to that to get tips sent to you at a steady pace.

My favorite tip? I don’t even remember who this is from any more (though I can guess, heh), but I thought this was a neat trick!

• Most tableteers want one-touch access to their favourite programs, but don’t like to navigate through the Start menu or put the Quick Launch in taskbar to waste space. To solve this, enable a toolbar (Quick Launch, or create a new toolbar from a folder full of shortcuts) by right clicking on the taskbar when it is unlocked. Now, drag the toolbar onto the desktop, and then onto one of the sides of the screen. You can now right click on this new bar, click Always on Top, and customise it to your liking (e.g. auto-hide, small icons, etc.).

All my other favorites are after the jump!

NDA Details and OneNote 2007 Install

As promised, Microsoft has lifted the NDA for the client programs of Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, InfoPath, Access, Project, Visio and Publisher. This is from the top and is posted on the Beta place home page, thus it is 100% legit and legal. So ask any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer them.

After the Break: To get you started, here’s some screen shots from the install. I know it’s nothing to exciting, but at least it’s better than nothing.

OneNote 2007: Good News and Bad News

Good news everybody! Microsoft has released the Technical Refresh for Microsoft Office. This also means that the NDA has been lifted, in part (more on this later). Bad news is: I’ve having a butt of a time connecting to the Microsoft servers to download the files. I have no class tomorrow, so I should have some time to get everything straightened out and some stuff uploaded to the site…assuming I get the files downloaded.

Next Page »