Getting to know more about InkSeine
InkSeine is probably designed solely for pen; every single thing is completely new world of controlling; you won’t find it easy if you are not using with the pen. Imagine that you almost don’t have to click, just tap and drag. I’m really exciting waiting for try in person.
Here the samples come:-
> Twelve Days of InkSeine by Ken Hinckley@Microsoft Research, today there are up to day #3 but they are all coming soon.
> GBM InkShow: InkSeine – you will get tons of idea what Inkseine is. Very good show indeed.
I can’t wait for Feb 15! Nevertheless, I really hope InkSeine would have a notebook tab organization like we used to have in OneNote. That’s going to be awesome.
Popularity: 3% [?]
InkSeine will be available after Valentine’s day.
We’ve got a good news from Microsoft Research community; The tablet centric program will be ready for download from Microsoft Research on February 15, 2008 after it’s only beta for full-time Microsoft employee for a while. If you don’t know what it is, take a look at this.
It looks really promising program for Tablet PC or UMPC, we’ll see what it can do. I’m very happy to see the tablet-related program coming after the great OneNote 2007 Stay Tuned!
For more information: InkSeine: Find Your Stuff With Ink,
Popularity: 3% [?]
Onenote printer missing after updating Office SP1
I don’t know this sort of problem happening really; but it’s really suck since this virtual printer is so valuable.
If you do update this, you will suddenly find that you are not able to print anything to OneNote again and it’s not just easy adding printer, and you will get it.
Unfortunately, the solution is much easier–repair the program via add/remove programs.
- Control Panel >> Add/remove program (or Program and features in Vista)
- Choose Microsoft Office 2007, then click change
- Click next, next, …, until it’s done.
- after all, you have your OneNote printer back, easy?
it’s easy to fix; nonetheless, the truth is this shouldn’t happen ever :-X
Popularity: 3% [?]
Macbook Air is another sub-notebook eventually
This is almost the same spec as Macbook but whole lot thinner and lighter that Apple had never achieve in the notebook line before.Briefly specification:
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6-1.8GHz (Merom, I guess)
2GB of DDR2 SDRAM onboard
13.3″ Screen — 1280 by 800 native resolution
80GB 4200rpm P-ATA [1.8" I guess] or 64GB SSD
802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1
Backlit Keyboard
5hr Battery Life
1 USB port/1 mini-DVI port
optional USB SuperDrive $99
optional USB Ethernet Port $29
Height: 0.16-0.76 inch (0.4-1.94 cm)
Width: 12.8 inches (32.5 cm)
Depth: 8.94 inches (22.7 cm)
Weight: 3.0 pounds (1.36 kg)
Damn! it looks so good on the paper, but until now there is no word on price, maybe we have to wait for Steve Jobs’ KeyNote ended first. However, I found that Mac dealing with non-CD notebook so good. They just use CD Drive on another Mac and share to Macbook Air. Although it’s the basic thing we always do, most people just can’t do this on their own. Nice job, Apple.
From the spec (plus Apple logo on the lid), it won’t cost less than 1.5 grand for sure; it’s just too far to reach since Thinkpad X61s will cost you only $800 after promotion/coupon and it’s lighter (but thicker) and faster than this baby.
updated: this baby will cost you $1,799 and $3,098.00 respectively by hard drive configuration–ooh, 2-3*Thinkpad X61s and about same price as Macbook Pro.. No more word
Popularity: 3% [?]
Only one thing that exacerbates eBook market is tons of DRMs out there. Even though you have such a great device like e-Ink device (Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle), or Nokia Internet Table (which has very nice screen, 220dpi), or even your PDA or notebook, you still have very huge obstacle in order to read because most devices have their own backing, and they mostly accept only one DRM.
good e-book store and good device are parallel; You may think unlike me since MobiPocket.com, eReader.com, etc. offer many platforms like Mac, Windows, Palm, PPC, and Symbian. That covers almost all devices people use this day. Nonetheless, sadly, none of them are suitable for reading e-book. Since PDAs have such a low resolution and too small screen, thus you will end up with your eye pain after several pages. Any notebook or sub-notebook to date is too large to consider as portable, then you will find you couldn’t read any time you want or it won’t last long to the book ended.
Suitable devices I could find all have the problem with DRM one way or the other. Firstly Nokia 770 or N800 series could be a good e-book reader device since they are portable and have decent screen, enough battery life, and great e-book reader program I could find–FBReader. But then again it doesn’t support any protected e-book. Also, Kindle and Sony Reader are too strict to their own DRM and the bad part is their stores don’t have the large resource as other stores.
About the store, MobiPocket and eReader are the websites who really strict on their DRM while Fictionwise offers various formats–support wide range of devices, both DRM and non-DRM. I won’t say it’s better than others, but I just hope there will be one provider who has bunches of e-books and provide a program for all e-book platforms really. As you may know, it doesn’t that much, only a few more platforms left. Or actually Fictionwise + eReader could release their e-Ink or good enough device; that solution could be nice since they have enough resource to build up the community already.
Just so you know, I’m one of Fictionwise and MobiPocket customers, but not eReader. And I have heard that eReader is so good to allow your e-book, which encrypted with your own credit card number, to put in many devices as you want. IMO, It’s a better way comparing to MobiPocket that allows you to use with only 4 (or 5?) devices at a times–you may add/remove devices as you want, so you could count it as any devices, but it’s just too much effort.
Briefly, I however just don’t care how it works. All I care is having the better device for reading and I am able to use that to read books I want without any trouble or effort. I bet there are people like me a lot and that’s the main reason why they are still reluctant to buy e-book reader and e-book for the time being. Perhaps we just have to wait an iPod-like e-book reader–the one that’s good enough to rule them all. I hope merging of Fictionwise and eReader could do some impact to an e-book landscape rather than they just want to gain more profit themselves.
Popularity: 2% [?]
A Trend of Notebook in Year 2008, fashionable notebook maybe?
Since there are tons of new CPU/GPU in the market now, most of them are over-performance of what we really need now. Joe and Jane folks, we all use computers mainly for surfing the Internet, checking e-mail. You may argue that you are kind of gamers, graphic designers, or whatever bla bla bla… But you may know, you are minority.
Ever since I have computer at the age only 1-digit, I mainly use computer for gaming, and learning something inspiring me until now. But at that time, notebook or portable device is just too expensive for everyone, only business use, I bet. These days, I guess kids still do the same as me, but, because of computer getting smaller, lighter, and more importantly cheaper so that they could bring their new tools (& toys) to school for lecturing. That’s why the word *fashionable* is coming to this world in order to increase “wow” factor and let buyer take the money out easier.
I guess Apple should be named as the first who brought this word to the electronic world really from iMac G3 up to now. But, this year, I bet you will see lots of fashionable notebook going to town. First, unfashionable Dell was starting to color their popular Inspiron line, though it was a first take which was not quite impressive since there are complaints about wearing out of the color. However, from what I can see, they are selling quite well comparing to other models. I guess it’s just like something extra on top, no reason why you wouldn’t get it?
That just was the start; the upcoming is not only plain color anymore, it’s getting more style. For Dell new Inspiron 1525 series, you will see choices of unique patterns like strips or waves.
But the most impact model of Dell is XPS series, m1330 and m1530, they are just so appealing in a way Dell customers couldn’t ever imagine. Not only did Dell do this, others are on the way as well. HP gives you such a variety of very cool choice like this:-
Also, Lenovo who doesn’t seem to care much about their consumer line is going to release the small notebook in Chinese red suit and its siblings named ideaPad U110, Y510, and Y510.
Don’t get me wrong, fashionable doesn’t have to be colorful, though colorful is preference and easier to present. Some notebooks like Macbook and Asus Eee PC are good examples of fashionable notebook without color (color version comes later on anyway.) They have lots of wow factor in itself much more than many models in the market.
All in all, these are just the example of upcoming notebook. And you know all these notebooks haven’t had any kind of horse power hardware. Thus, year 2008 is going to be the year of fashionable notebook indeed. We’ll see!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Is a format war over? Blu-ray eventually?
I just have no idea really because I haven’t had any chance to have any Hi-Def disc drive myself. However, I thought this war already ended up months ago. Now I just sit reading news and surprising why people are still whining about this again and again…
The previous format war is recordable DVD standard, DVD-R or DVD+R. This ended up peacefully by hybrid drive which is able to handle both of them. With the same scenario, I thought the release of Samsung BD-UP5000 1080p HD-DVD Blu-Ray Disc Combo Player is great ending–no compromise, and fully compatible with both. It was about $1049 in Q4, 2007, and now, only a week of 2008 it’s only $799. No doubt, there will be bunches of Combo player like this coming very soon (now LG) and, surely, the price will go deep down rapidly over time like you had seen with other previous formats–DVD, VHS, or else.
The question is why? why do people still talk about this war? here, here, and here. Warner will go for Blu-ray exclusive and is that it? I don’t think so. Even though Blu-ray has more capacity (dual-layer: 50GB) per disc comparing to HD-DVD(dual-layer: 30GB), the price is higher as well. For example, Amazon sells Blu-ray and HD-DVD around $19.95 to mostly $27.95 and mostly $19.95 respectively. From what I have seen, the price is going to be real vital factor which consumers decide to get. Like me, I still prefer burning with single-layer DVD (20-40c/disc) to dual-layer DVD ($1.25-?/disc) because of the price solely. Nevertheless, I still prefer to see this war ends with whatever you choose, we can play.
In short, all I hope is both of them become cheap so that we all can take the advantage of them.
Popularity: 2% [?]
