COMMENTARY--For the past few weeks, I've been testing Microsoft's new Tablet PC technology. This is the next generation of what used to be called Pen Windows, which Microsoft has spent the last decade trying to perfect. While it is much improved, the search for perfection needs to continue.
Last month, I was given an Acer ultraportable, designed for Tablet PC, to review. Those reviews will start publishing today, timed to coincide with a Microsoft announcement at TechXNY (the show formerly known as PC Expo).
My prediction: Reviews of what is properly known as Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition will be all over the map. Why? Because the Tablet PC really puts the personal back into personal computing.
Personal, as in your experience will vary. Personal, as in some people are going to love this technology, some will hate it, and some will be left scratching their heads.
BEFORE YOU HIT those reviews, let me tell you that Microsoft forced us reviewers to sit through a day and a half of propaganda before it would hand over the test machines. The basic message of this indoctrination (which I understand the North Koreans could have accomplished in six hours or less) is simple: "Handwriting recognition doesn't matter."
Repeat that to yourself for a couple of days, and you'll be right where Microsoft wants you: Ready to accept a Tablet PC with way-less-than-perfect handwriting recognition but a vastly improved system for handling electronic ink on electronic paper. If this is enough for you--and it will be for many users--Tablet PC will make you happy.
If, however, you prefer to do what's sometimes called the "Newton test" of seeing how well the handwriting recognition technology handles your handwritten input, the technology is more likely to amuse and frustrate. (In one of my tests, CNET became "Satan"--make of that what you will...)
If you think of the Tablet PC as the PC equivalent of a legal pad, you'll understand the basic functionality. It comes with a special stylus that you use to "write" on the special screen. Microsoft is shipping an applet called Windows Journal with Tablet PC, which lets you scribble away to your heart's content, add pages as you need them, move text around, highlight it, erase mistakes and even--bring up the scary music--convert it to text.
THE COMPANY CLAIMS its handwriting recognition is the best in the industry, which it may well be. But, even in Microsoft's own demonstrations, the technology doesn't work very well. Among other things, it's hampered by the most awkward method of making corrections that I've ever seen. Try picking the word you intended from a long list of nonsense "words" that use the same letter combinations, and you have the general idea.
Microsoft's handwriting reco doesn't learn by doing, either, so it won't get any better at mastering your particular handwriting over time. As it is, you can change your handwriting for the recognition engine if you like--just don't expect it to change for you. And people (like me) who print are especially out of luck: The reco is intended for cursive script only.
But remember: "Handwriting recognition doesn't matter."
MAYBE IT DOESN'T. If you can content yourself with electronic ink, Tablet PC makes storing your notes easy. It even indexes them in the background (using the handwriting recognition in a way you never see), so you may or may not be able to search them.
Microsoft has vastly improved the performance of the electronic pen and ink over the pen computers of the past. I still found myself writing slower on the screen than on a pad, so the ink would stay with the pen. But doing so improved my legendarily messy handwriting. (I am an upside-down or "hooking" left-hander.)
You can also input text using something very close to the Palm OS Graffiti characters, use an onscreen keyboard, or even try speech recognition--which requires training and which I've yet to test.
But the ink itself really isn't bad, as far as it goes. Microsoft has demonstrated, but is not yet shipping, handwritten instant messaging. Handwritten e-mail is on the way--delivered as a graphic to people who don't have Tablet PCs. There are Tablet PC extensions for Microsoft Office, and third parties can add Tablet PC features to their apps as well.
THE IMPORTANT ISSUE here may not be whether or not you want this technology, which can be expected to become more useful over time, but how much it adds to the price of your next portable computer.
I wish I could give you an answer, but Microsoft's OEM partners haven't announced pricing. This group includes most of the usual suspects, all of them hungry for anything that might convince anyone to buy a new computer, especially a high-end model like this Acer TravelMate 100.
The best guess for that price premium that I've heard so far is "the low hundreds of dollars." I'll offer a number myself: $200. That's what I would be willing to pay for the Tablet PC features, provided I didn't have to buy a higher-end notebook than I would otherwise buy to get them.
Even if the handwriting reco doesn't work for me, the pen features add value and I enjoyed using them--but not enough that I'd pay real money, say $500, to get them.
Whether or not the first Tablet PC hardware meets my preferred price point, I believe that someday all notebooks will have these features and we will find useful applications for them beyond imperfect recognition.
Some people will use them to create and share notes in meetings--what Microsoft is calling "meeting productivity." The Franklin Covey people are coming out with a PC app that looks (and works) almost exactly like their paper-based planners, thanks to the addition of electronic ink. And all the traditional mobile pen-based applications, mostly used in the sales and service professions, will gain from Tablet PC as well.
But whenever you see one of these machines, remember the mantra: "Handwriting recognition doesn't matter." If you can only believe, everything will be just fine.
What do you think? Would you use a Tablet PC? How much extra would you pay? Is good handwriting recognition a must-have feature? TalkBack to me below.
