OmarUddin.com - Visions of business, web, mobile and the future » Displays

Essential TabletPC tools and software

omar — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:15:03 +0000

So I’ve been yapping about touch screen technologies a lot this year (Apple iPhone, Microsoft Surface, Jeff Han’s Multi-touch) and you may have enjoyed the essential tools I’ve posted for Apple’s iPhone but I thought that my fellow TabletPC friends out there could enjoy some of the tools and resources that I’ve been enjoying on my TabletPC.

Also if you’re not yet a TabletPC lover and are thinking about getting a laptop PC in the near future, I recommend you review and compare the prices / features of your choice notebooks and also the top TabletPC’s out there. I own the Lenovo Thinkpad X61 TabletPC which I believe to be the best TabletPC out there by far in comparison to the others.

Now here are your tools. Enjoy!

My Favorite TabletPC Software

ArtRage – It’s free (limited features), and it’s amazing. Kids, adults alike have loved this application that I’ve had on my tablet they love the ability to be able to paint on a canvas just like an artist would do. You can create some AMAZING art with an organic quality I’ve just never seen on a PC. Try installing it now and use the “Load Tracing Paper” feature and show off your masterpiece to everyone
Microsoft OneNote – This is the most used tool on my TabletPC. I use it for meeting recordings and notetaking. I use it for brainstorming ideas, designing business requirements and workflows for my ventures. I love the ability to OCR anything (screen clippings from other apps or websites, and even what I doodle or jot down). The software allows you to organize yourself in hierarchical groups of tabs so you can organize your notes the way you want. Honestly I’m not trying to make a sales pitch here, but just try it out, whether you’re a student, a doctor, or engineer you’ll appreciate OneNote’s power.
Alias SketchBook Pro (now owned by Autodesk)- It’s not free, but it is different from ArtRage. The tool is more for penciling, concept drawings, sketches, illustrations, fine art, drawings, annotation, education. Check out what people are doing with Sketchbook Pro.
Mindjet MindManager Pro – MindManager software, a mind mapping tool that’s also optimized for the TabletPC, inspires people and businesses to align individuals and teams, engage and excites employees, accelerate business processes and win new business faster.

Here are more useful resources, blogs, news and software developer sites concerning the TabletPC. I recommend visiting all of these links!

TabletPC Software Directories

Microsoft TabletPC Powertoys – All of Microsoft’s Powertoys made just to take advantage of the TabletPC
TabletPC Post
TabletPC2.com Software Directory

TabletPC Enthusiast Related Blogs, News, and Forum Sites

Scott’s List of Great Tools for your TabletPC
TabletPC Buzz
Student TabletPC Blog and News Site – An excellent blog for students to keep up to date on the TabletPC world
TabletPc2.com –
The Place for Tablet PC and UMPC Comparisons, News, Reviews and Information

TabletPC Developer Resources

TabletDev.com – Essential information for Tablet PC developers and users.
TabletUML.com – A UML tool for Tablet PCs (that I highly recommend if you’re a software engineer or architect)

Multi-touch interactive display technology matured

omar — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 00:10:09 +0000

So any of you who have seen the movie “The Island” probably remember the amazing office desk of the administrator of the facility that the main charachters (the lovely Scarlett Johansen and Obi Kenobi — Ewan McGregor) resided. Well didn’t you wish you could have that table the first moment you saw the guy interact with it?

Well the technology has taken it’s merry time to mature due to issues with the idea of being able to touch multiple points on the screen at the same time. Thats why you see Microsoft Tablet PCs and PDAs with a stylus. And by the way Tablet PC’s are bad ass my wife bought me one for my birthday, so you know I’m happy! Apple is also releasing it’s iPhone in the near future featuring Multi-touch display technology.

In the last five years the software behind the multi-touch interaction technology has also matured to almost mimic what Tom Cruise was doing in Minority Report. A team has been developing camera based multi-touch table technology but it truly doesn’t match what was in The Island as you can see from this first youtube video is of the Blue Eye camera based multi-touch table technology.

The next technology closest to The Island table is the brainchild of Jeff Han, a researcher from NYU, who has designed one of the most compelling and visually stunning multi-touch technology because he’s built demo’s that truly show the benefits of multi-touch from a user interface perspective since it allows one to become immersed in the environment. Jeff Han and his colleagues have spun this off into Perceptive Pixel. Check out this presentation from Jeff et al.
Now enter Microsoft. Microsoft has been keeping a lid on it’s true multi-touch table technology that doens’t require an overhead camera to work. Microsoft has even combined RFID and PWC (bar codes) into it’s product to allow new creative ways of interacting with real objects that was not possible before. A recent BBC News article announced Microsoft’s official launch of it’s product, called Surface, to be intially sold to restaurants, hotels, stores, and casinos starting around $10K. But Microsoft has a vision for Surface to be applicable to almost every industry, including education and the home. Find out more information about Microsoft’s Surface technology at the Surface Product page.Tablet technology has improved my life in more ways than one, I wonder what flexible displays with multi-touch ability will do for all of us!

Flexible Display Technology Getting Close

omar — Sun, 27 May 2007 21:54:38 +0000

Sony has unveiled it’s razor-thin bendable OLED display technology at an academic symposium in Long Beach, California, for the Society for Information Display this week, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said. razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-colour video" /> OLED also delivers a bright 1,000:1 contrast ratio for the small screen area and provides near-instant response times for video. This all is achieved with a panel only 0.3mm (0.01 inches) thick at its bulkiest point, Sony boasts. The combination of Sony’s organic thin film transistor, or TFT, technology which is required to make flexible displays, with organic electroluminescent display technology yields one possibility for flexible display technology to become reality. This definitely marks a breakthrough since you could wear it on your wrist like a watch or on your clothes and you can even drop it without fear of it breaking.