IRISPen express

I generally sort out all spam without even looking at their content, and rather judging by the subject and header. You know, if the title is “All Natural” and the subject is “we can make yours 4 times bigger in just…” it usually populates the recycle bin after 2 seconds of subconscious influence on me (yeah right). This time however, The first email in the stack that I have to highlight so I can mass-select all others too, was an IRIS (OCR Hard- and Software producer) Newsletter that I had accidentally ordered a while ago. long story.

Apparently, what this highlighter-sized OCR pen does, it lets you scan a text, by running over a line of typed text, i.e. in a book or text document. It then instantly shows you the typed text on the screen. Feats are a USB 2.0 connection, multilingual interfacing (you can scan most other European languages) and several programmable pen buttons. I am excited about this, because If I had one of these, I wouldn’t have to scan all my books (running grand project, supposedly finished by fall vacation, more on that later), but I would take this thing to school, and then I could easily scan all pages to read, put them on my Tablet PC, and OCR all of it to take home. EVEN less luggage then now! I have requested a demo unit from IRIS Europe, but I haven’t yet gotten an answer. If I get it, I will post a review for sure. Well, if you are interested in the IRISPen, I recommend you follow this link:

http://www.irislink.com/c2-508/IRISPen-Express—p…

That’s it from me, type to U later!

//F2theD

UMPC Tips by thoughtfix

Just a quick note to all existing and becoming UMPC users: I found a great list of tips in how to accessorize and lifestyle (verb) your Ultra Mobile. Thanks for the post thoughtfix!

Dell is part of the Party!

According to one of my favorite German tech news letters, Dell has announced a new series of outdoor Notebooks Computers and Tablet PCs!

 Although I know most of my readers don’t speak German, here’s a quick link:

http://www.chip.de/news/c1_news_21985321.html

… And a translated version:

 DELL is planning the production of outdoor notebooks and Tablet PCs. This was Announced by Alex Guzen (General Manager of the DELL product group) on the “Technology Day” of his company.

According to him, the Notebooks (/Tablet PCs) will be based on the Latitude Series. This is supposed to make service regulations easier, as the “eWeek” published.

However, a final approval by DELL’s Corporate Management is yet to be released.

Where the pricing might be, is still unforeseeable, but it should be something like

DELL Latitude + Ruggedized (/Tablet PC) functions.

That’s it from me for now, here are some links about the topic I found elsewhere:

http://tabletpcs.engadget.com/2004/07/20/insider-s…

more coming up…

//F2theD

No Bluetooth???

Damn, I feel bullshitted! All of you CX2724 owners know, that there is a Bluetooth fn button on the [F6] key, right? and you all know what it does, right? – nothing. I was a little irritated by this when I first tried to connect my Motorola Cellular to the Convertible. Also, the phone didn’t find any bt device in range while lying right next to the Gateway. So what I did was check the User manual. And although you can clearly see the purple icon on the f6 key in some images in the manual, a full-text search for “Bluetooth” delivers no results. The next thing I thought of was the online chat with a Gateway technician. After 15 minutes of the usual chitchat, the Gateway person finally had the idea to check her own information. What he came up with was “According to my catalogue, your device does not include wireless Bluetooth connectivity”. Great. So of course I said thank you and all, grinding my teeth and at a last attempt checked the devices and hardware manager. Sure enough, there was no trace of any Bluetooth compliant hardware to be found. So, if you are looking towards buying a Gateway device any time soon, DON’T TRUST THE ONLINE SPECS!!! Check the Online chat support people, they are dumb enough to give you the REAL, valid information. I am now checking my Tablet for any other missing specs or stuff…

//F2theD

Fujitsu P1610

UPDATE: I fixed the links, they now lead to the Uber Tablet Article, from where you can watch the videos on YouTube. sorry for the inconvenience!

You may remember what I wrote about the Fujitsu P1510 Convertible Mini Tablet PC. Well, the 8.9″ dwarf has an improved sibling now, which still cuddles in your hand and gives you cramps from typing. The P1610 has the same casing as the 1510 did, but there are some major improvements right underneath it. So it is for example, that when the P1510 first hit the markets, the Case was just big enough to squeeze a few USB and standard slots under the hood. Now however it was possible to comfortably fit all that AND

-An SD Card Reader

-Integrated 3G wireless (with SIM card slot)

-a PCMCIA PC-Card slot for extended connectivity

-and a new integrated direct VGA out

Under the shiny black hood. These upgrades are huge, for especially the PC-Card slot were simply “Not possible 8 months Ago” (Hugo Ortega).

The 3G wireless is something nice that we all know from the very small and very expensive Flybook. It is very good especially when you have a Cellular flatrate, because you have general connectivity pretty much everywhere you ever go. To make use of this feature, all you do is undock the battery and slide in your SIM Card where it belongs.

However the greatest and most amazing of all new features and upgrades is the very special (very “crisp”) touch screen. While inking and taking notes on the Q1 or especially on the predecessor of this unit, the Fujitsu P1510, was an extremely difficult and hand tiring procedure, the P1610 lets you rest your hand on the touchscreen. That’s right- on the TOUCHscreen. As far as I know, this means you can still select icons and buttons with your finger, but when you ink with the integrated stylus, the new, smart Fujitsu technology recognizes only what’s relevant to you – the pen. The only compromises to this that I’m aware of are the Tablet Kiosk eo 1st gen UMPC with a 110 gram touch screen, and the OQO model 01+ with an active digitizer. However, these alternatives can’t cut it in the great connectivity and featuring of the Fujitsu P1610. I assure you – if I had the money, this baby would be the first device on my wish list to trade for my current unit.

In fact, I was right on buying the Fujitsu P1510, but when I came across the Inking problems I switched gears, and now call this Gateway CX2724 mine.

I DEFINATELY recommend you watch this video on YouTube. I haven’t yet received answer form Hugo on how he always gets the cool toys, though .

Well, I’ll find time for you guys later on again, so stay tuned on Ink+ !

//F2theD