Teresa P. Jones, Program Coordinator Mississippi Department of Education Office of Vocational and Technical Education P.O. Box 771 Jackson, MS 39205 Phone: 601-359-3932 Fax: 601-359-6619 Email: tjones@mde.k12.ms.us >>> "Karl" <karlspeech@earthlink.net> 01/14/06 08:41PM >>> In this issue: TABLET PCS/HANDWRITING/ONENOTE A. Bill Gates Speaks Out on Tablet PCs, Handwriting and OneNote B. Picking a Tablet PC C. Evaluating Memory Needs for Tablet PCs DRAGON TECHNIQUES D. The Nifty Medical Training Manual for Dragon 7.3 & 8 18) Replacing Digits without Adding Spaces 17) One-Step Voice Commands: Cut, Copy and Copy Note: If you have received this in error, received a duplicate copy, or wish to be removed from the list, e-mail info@SpeakingSolutions.com. A. BILL GATES SPEAKS OUT ON TABLET PCS, HANDWRITING AND ONENOTE (View an expanded version of this article with links at www.SpeakingSolutions.com/news.) At the International Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this past week, Bill Gates outlined Microsoft's new Windows Vista strategy. Windows Vista looks amazing! It may hit the market as soon as fall 2006. He took time to address tablet PCs, handwriting, and OneNote directly. Here are a few excerpts: "One of the special things we've been doing with Windows is creating a tablet version." "We've got dozens of partners building great Tablet PCs, they're getting better and better." "Now, we're investing a lot in this in Windows Vista. The investment is our research group, new ideas of how we adjust automatically to your handwriting style, and so as you use it, it will just get better and better." "With OneNote we have a new version of that that will drive this forward and let us do a lot better there. So driving that to the mainstream is something we're very committed to." >From http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2006/01-04CES.asp Microsoft is serious about tablet PCs, and so are many business educators. Everywhere I travel nowadays instructors are carrying tablet PCs. One colleague put it best: "You'd have to cut off my arm to get my tablet away from me." That's the way I feel. I simply can't live without the functionality of a tablet PC! Industry buzz has it that Microsoft has been working with computer manufacturers to bring the price of their tablet PCs down -- within few hundred dollars of a comparable laptop. The strategy seems to be working. Some models are now many hundreds of dollars less costly than they were just a year ago. And, both Toshiba and Gateway recently broke the psychological $1000 price barrier with quality tablet PCs this month. This represents a major milestone. Schools can now afford to buy tablet PCs instead of desktops for their students. Microsoft is also working with software manufacturers. At last word there are nearly 300 new applications written strictly for tablet PCs. For some examples visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tabletpc/experiencepack/overvie w.mspx. Additionally, there are other features in Microsoft Office and OneNote that only tablet PC users have access to. It appears certain that most future laptops will be tablet PCs. B. PICKING A TABLET PC First the disclaimer: everything you read in this article is a combination of personal experience, teacher comments, word-of-mouth and industry reviews. Contact your normal sources for product reviews before buying. But hopefully, our little list will get you looking in the right directions.. TOSHIBA: The top tablet for the last two years, the Protégé is still in high demand. With a 12.1 inch screen, it weighs about 3 pounds. This is the one I purchased for my daughter for college. Frankly, it's classy. It has historically been pricey, but since last year it has dropped down by about $500. Toshiba has two other tablet PC models: the Satellite and the Tecra. The lowest cost are the Satellite R10/R15 models. This is the one I bought for myself. I paid $1300 for the base model last December and I noticed it was $999 after the New Year. (Oops, I should have waited.) I did pay an extra $150 for 1 GB of RAM. I bought it because it was less expensive than the Protégé, has a built in DVD burner, and sports a lovely 14.1 inch screen. It's a little heavier than the Protégé, but it was a nice replacement for my super reliable Acer 300. GATEWAY: The new Gateway is so cool that even Bill Gates plugged it at CES: "Gateway is helping us lead the way with this new [CS200]. It's a great machine at very much a mainstream portable price." <http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2006/01-04CES.asp> Indeed it is. It is the first widescreen tablet PC ever made. It also runs the new DDR2 RAM -- to my knowledge the first tablet PC to do so. It is gorgeous. I came within inches of buying one before the holidays and switched back to Toshiba ONLY because we have a highly competent Toshiba repair center right in town. I also saw it online on the Gateway web site for less than $1000. LENOVO: IBM sold their ThinkPad laptop division to a Chinese company called Lenovo. Recently, they came out with a widely acclaimed tablet PC ThinkPad called the X41. All the reviews are superb, although I personally haven't seen one. FUJITSU: Reviews are also very strong for the Fujitsu tablet PC. I have used it and love it, and probably would have bought one had it not been a few hundred dollars more at the time than the Toshiba and Gateway tablets I described earlier. ACER: Acer made the very first convertibles. I have owned two Acer's and was very pleased with both of them. My most recent was the Acer 300, which was one of the most durable computers I have ever owned. I have talked to several instructors who have the Acer 300 who also enjoy this tablet PC quite a bit. And the price is extremely competitive. HP: The early HP tablet PCs were not very good. However, they improved their digitizing and pen technologies. Since then, I've heard nothing but good about them. Those that have them love them. MOTION: All of the tablet PCs described above are convertibles, meaning they convert from a laptop into a tablet PC as needed. Slates do not have keyboards. They are very useful in certain areas, particularly in the medical profession. Motion has dominated the slate market. I was able to see some of our outstanding Texas teachers use their Motion keyboard-less slates expertly. I was impressed beyond words. And the biometric fingerprint recognition login system is really cool. After that experience, I can definitely recommend that you take a look at Motion slates. APPLE: Now that Apple has switched to Intel CPUs, rumor has it that they are working on a tablet PC of their own. A tablet with an Apple OS? Who would've thought... Normally we hear complaints that Microsoft borrows ideas from Apple. I guess turnabout is fair play. C. MEMORY SPECIFICATIONS FOR TABLET PCS With Windows Vista and a new Office 12 hitting us probably in the fall of 2006, it's important that you have the capacity to add extra RAM to your tablet PC. Consider 1 GB of RAM to be a minimum for these new products when running speech recognition under Vista and Office 12. DRAGON TECHNIQUES: D. THE NIFTY MEDICAL TRAINING MANUAL FOR DRAGON We just finished the Nifty Medical Training manual for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8. (It will also work with Dragon 7.3.) Teaming with Barbara Tietsort, we tweaked the Beginner and Intermediate units and completely revamped the Advanced application unit. The new training manual includes 115 exercises. Projects include: * A Progress Note * A SOAP Report * A History & Physical Report * An Operative Report * A Pathology Report * A Discharge Summary * Medical Memos * Medical Letters * Several Medical-related Reports * Medical Outlines * Medical Terms and Abbreviations * Six Composition Exercises Addressing Medical Topics We are now working on a Nifty Legal training manual which will be available in a few months. To view a table of contents for the Nifty Medical, visit www.SpeakingSolutions.com/books, click on The Nifty Training Series Manuals link and choose (Click here to learn more and to find a table of contents). 18) REPLACING DIGITS WITHOUT ADDING SPACES How do you change a single digit number without adding an extra space? For example, what if you want to change the 2 to a 1 in this example: Exercise 2A Corporate Responsibility Learn how to accomplish this task in this advanced editing lesson. For a step-by-step lesson visit www.SpeakingSolutions.com/resources and choose the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Instructor Resources link. Jump directly to 18) Replacing Digits without Adding Spaces. 17) ONE-STEP VOICE COMMANDS: CUT, COPY AND COPY Because most of us learn to use word processing with a mouse, we are in the habit of selecting first before we cut or copy. With speech recognition software there is no need to do this. This set of tips can help teach students to avoid taking two steps to accomplish what a single voice command can do. Insert this exercise after teaching Exercise 62 Cut and Paste in the Nifty 58 and Nifty Medical. For this set of tips visit www.SpeakingSolutions.com/resources and choose the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Instructor Resources link. Jump directly to 17) One-Step Voice Commands: Cut, Copy.
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