Always connected, part II

Just a quick note as a follow-up to the last (now ancient) post.

InfoWorld has posted an article on the state of online applications as replacements for desktop applications. Can Web-based applications outwit, outplay, outlast the desktop? It is an interesting read and approaches this topic pretty much strictly from the angle of how well the various web-based offerings compare with MS Office in allowing the writer to get his work done. Overall? After a week of web-only applications, his conclusion is not particularly well. The author indicates right up front, however, that your mileage may vary. It all depends on what you need.

While the capabilities of these applications is, almost by definition, in a constant state of flux and, one hopes, of improvement, they are constrained in ways other than just the unreliable state of Internet connectivity. Case in point on that, by the way: our ISP had problems yesterday that left a number of sites completely unreachable while others were agonizingly slow to load. This lasted pretty much all day. If we depended on a web based application for our work and it was at one of those sites we could have chalked the entire day up as a productivity loss.

His final lines supports my opinion about web-based applications in general.

Anyway, a quote from the end of the article:

Was the experience worth it? Definitely. Are the applications worth the trouble? Mostly not. Zoho is definitely the standout in the group. It’s the only one that not only offers most of the apps I need but also seems to have a clear vision of where it’s going. And it’s free. ThinkFree and gOffice are similar, but neither has the breadth of apps, features, or collaboration that Zoho does.

The rest seem to be offering these apps simply because they can. Google’s Writely and Spreadsheets are impressive examples of Web 2.0 technology, but neither can compete with a desktop app on its own. And neither takes enough advantage of the Web’s particular technologies as yet.

Plus, all these applications are hampered by their very foundations: the Web. Without a Web connection, you can’t use these applications. With a spotty Web connection (such as the one at Bryant Park), you’re dead. Locally installed applications are simply more reliable and feature-rich. No big surprise there.

Always connected or always available?

Maybe I'm just getting old… There was a time when I would jump all over any new technology with the starry-eyed optimism of any youth, or at least any young geek, thinking that this technology was the wave of the future and anyone who couldn't see that was just ignorant. (Oh wait, that attitude is what gave us the Dot-Com bubble, wasn't it? And the subsequent Dot-Com bust…)

But these days, more and more, I get the feeling that the world is full of starry-eyed youths who can't really see the future to save their lives, just the latest buzz-words and hype. I, however, in my maturity and wisdom see things as they really are…

Same hubris, opposite perspective I suppose.

Anyway, my cantankerous musings today stem from thinking about the issues of thin-client computer, desktop virtualization, software as a service, the "death of the desktop" and a number of other buzzwords that are zipping around the tech media today like flies on road kill in mid-July.

In their proper place, most of these technologies have huge benefits in terms of cutting costs (especially support costs), providing quality service, improving reliability, etc. But to hear the pundits pontificating, that proper place sounds like it is everywhere and for everyone and the whole world is going to come around soon.

I think the main thing that bothers me about these technologies, what makes me leery of them even when I can see real benefits to them, is that they all presume a constantly connected system. Even in this day of hotspots at every coffee shop, this is simply not the reality for most of us. Or at least not for those of us who really can and do use our computers anywhere. Sure, if I have to open up my computer and set it on a table before I can use it chances are I will be doing that in some place that will have a wired or wireless connection. But with a Tablet that isn't the reality any more. I use mine in the grocery store for shopping lists. I use it in the car (usually only when I'm not driving but I do keep directions on it), I use it for meetings at other people's houses, I use it in church. In short, I really do use it everywhere, and many of those places have no connectivity. And no connectivity means no data when that data is anywhere but on your computer. It will also mean no applications when those are provided by Google and hosted on Google's servers.

Now maybe that is just because I live and work in the rural northeast, but I doubt it. I think the reality even in major cities is that connectivity really isn't ubiquitous, it is just ubiquitous in most of the places where people actually sit down to compute. And I don't think that (always sitting down to compute) is the future. The future rightly belongs to those who will compute wherever and in whatever position they want.

Then you have airplanes, boats, cars, locations with secured wireless and all sorts of other places where a connection can't or won't happen. And laws that make it illegal to sponge off an open wireless connection. (There goes my ability to keep in touch with family while on the road!)

And don't even get me started on the reliability of Internet connectivity. We just went through four days of no connection at home owing in part to a leaky circuit box and wet weather and in part to a Comcast support screw up. Four days of no access to my data and apps? No way!

And especially don't get me started on the whole security angle of all my data stored on someone else's server with the data of 1,000,000 other people making one very fat, juicy target for someone hell-bent on identity theft or corporate espionage or just plain mischief. Think that is far-fetched? Then you're not reading the papers. They regularly tell us about the very large number of big data bases that are attacked and cracked just to get the personal information of a significant number of people. And those are just the ones that are acknowledged.

OK, I feel somewhat better getting that off my chest. Maybe I'll head on out to the field by the stream out on the back part of campus, relax, and read some of the books I've got on my Tablet. And because they are there and not somewhere else, … I can.

IMHO...

As a starter to what I hope is a renewed period of activity on this blog, I wanted to share my thoughts on the "perfect" Tablet PC. Perfect, at least, within the current bounds of the technology.

First a quick update on what we are using at Vermont Academy. (We are just now beginning to look at options for next year, though we won't be making a final decision until March or April.)

Our standard model Tablet PC this year was the HP TC4400. We opted for the high-end model with all the bells and whistles, most importantly an indoor/outdoor screen. It is a pretty sweet computer and I am pleased to be using one as a secondary Tablet PC and development computer. It is running Vista Ultimate (from MSDN) quite happily and I am VERY pleased with Vista. Now if I could just get the HP drivers to enable the buttons and a few other odds and ends like the microphone… Maybe after the consumer release of Vista…

But my primary Tablet is still my trusty and aging TC1100. Much as I like the horsepower, bigger screen, outdoor viewable screen, etc., of the TC4400, the form factor of the TC1100 is still closer to "right" in my opinion.

So, without further ado, my specs for the perfect Tablet PC. HP (or anyone else), feel free to claim these for your own. Just let me be a tester for you.

Size and weight: The external dimensions should be barely larger than the screen. The weight of the keyboard-less Tablet should be under 3 pounds, preferably around 2 pounds. NEC had a 2.2 pound Tablet years ago. One half, perhaps three quarters of an inch thick, but no thicker. The keyboard weight is discussed below.

Screen: 12.1" is the sweet spot here. Large enough to be useful, small enough to carry around conveniently. Indoor/outdoor viewable. Wide, wide viewing angle. No extra bezel around the keyboard beyond what is necessary. TabletKiosk seems to have this down well.

Memory: 2 Gig standard, max of at least 4 Gig. USER ACCESSIBLE! All the Tablets I've seen hide one of the chips, so an upgrade that requires the replacement of the internal chip is not possible by the end user.

Keyboard (and ports): It must be both detachable and secure when connected. The Tablet should be able to fold over the keyboard face up or face down. The small clips on the TC1100 are a weak point and we have seen many a keyboard bite the dust when the hinge broke when dropped. Why do we have to have inserts into the Tablet from the keyboard? How about a connection that actually grasps the outside of the Tablet itself enough to hold it securely? If the electrical connector is designed right, the Tablet could go in either way and there wouldn't even need to be a pivoting hinge. (I'm not 100% sure of this, so make sure I get to see those early prototypes, OK?) Weight of the keyboard is not a key factor! In fact, I would prefer a keyboard that actually weighs as much or more than the Tablet itself. Put a second battery in the keyboard. Heck, put a huge battery in it. My TC4400 has a couple pound battery attached that gives me many hours of usable time. Stick that inside the keyboard. Put an (optional) optical drive in the keyboard itself. Put most of the connectors (several USB, modem, etc., maybe even the Ethernet connector) into the keyboard. The only regular ports I really need on the Tablet itself are a couple of USB ports, audio and microphone, SD card slot and (probably) a PC-Card slot. Maybe the Ethernet, though I find that when I use that I am generally on the keyboard anyway. The advantage of a heavy keyboard is that you won't carry it when you don't need it (and generally this is also when I don't need most of the connectors). You can offload some weight from the Tablet itself this way. When you do need the keyboard, it is heavy enough to make the system stable, not top-heavy like the TC1100. Oh, and make it a decent keyboard to use. While I love using a Tablet in slate mode, I am a touch typist and I want a real keyboard… Last thing on this point: make sure that the keyboard latches securely when closed. I find it very unpleasant to hold a tablet with the keyboard attached (convertible or hybrid) and feel that movement between the two pieces. It's a common complaint.

Battery: Until I had the external on the TC4400, I thought carrying a second battery and hot-swapping was just fine. I was wrong. It is good, and definitely the internal battery should be hot-swappable, but having that external battery is great! It needs to go on the back of the system and attach in such a way that the unit doesn't sit at a funny angle when on the desk. It should also not negatively affect the carrying of the unit like some do. They change the balance point or extend to one side or another and, for many users at least, make carrying the system more awkward. (To be fair, with both the TC4400 and the Lenovo systems, some users actually like the extra ledge the battery creates and find it an aid to comfortable carrying.) Eight cells is good, twelve cells is marvelous! A really nice feature of the HP 12 cell is that it can be independently charged and comes with its own power block.

External buttons and indicator lights: Besides the standards in the Tablet PC spec, several programmable buttons should be on the system (and make sure you include something akin to HP's excellent Q menu). These should all be located on the side (when held in portrait mode) and positioned centrally on the side. In this way, both left- and right-handed users will find them convenient. I'm right-handed, so I am just speculating here (left handed users should chime in on this), but I imagine that a left-handed user would want to set the standard portrait mode into the secondary portrait position so that the buttons are accessibly more easily with either the hand holding the Tablet or the writing hand. Rotating my TC1100 this way puts those buttons down in the lower part of the screen where they are awkward to reach. Additionally, wireless on/off, mute, and maybe volume (perhaps by using the jog dial cleverly). Power, wireless, charging, hard disk activity lights at a minimum. Small and discreet, please, but easily visible.

Docking station: There is plenty of room for improvement in almost all docking stations I've seen. The TC1100 dock is good. It allows the tablet to rotate and to be positioned at angles between nearly vertical and nearly flat on the desk in either orientation. This is critical. The TC4400 "dock" is really little more than a port replicator. Useful as such, but I do most of my work in portrait which means I only get to see part of anything I've worked on when docked. I've thought for a long while that a wireless dock would be a great option and it looks like that is becoming a reality now with Toshiba's new R400. (More on this unit in a bit.) That is brilliant! I have so often wanted to hold my Tablet and write on it while looking at something on the external monitor. The TC1100 dock sort of allows this since I can lay the Tablet down, but wireless would be the perfect solution.

I could go on and on (in case you couldn't tell…), but these are some of the key features I would look for.

All that said, the new Toshiba R400 could up the ante for convertible Tablets. It is a svelte, attractive unit. It has the wireless docking station. It has a great looking display and seems to have a reasonably well attached screen. Still about 4 pounds, though. I hope to see one when we evaluate computers for next year. For now, it's worth looking at the video of it from CES that the GottaBeMobile guys have posted on their web site. It doesn't answer every concern but it looks to be a definite step in the right direction in a convertible world.

Back in the saddle again...

(Does anyone remember the old Firesign Theatre sketch with that song in it?)

After a lengthy hiatus, I am hopeful that I can get back to a more regular schedule posting here. It is certainly not a lack of activity that has kept things so quiet. Quite the contrary.

That said, I'll start with a post I've been mulling over for a long time...

Just Moodling around...

As anyone who works at a boarding school knows, the time around the start of school is always hectic and tiring. Make that exhausting. Then we add Trustees/Alumni Weekend less than a month into school, and Parents' Weekend three weeks later and it is a wonder we make it to Thanksgiving in one piece. This year was especially rough, but I'll save the whine about that for another time.

I do want to grab a few minutes to briefly mention a piece of software we have implemented at Vermont Academy. It is worthwhile in itself, but it bears special mention now because of my previous post.

A year ago we switched from a commercial, and very expensive, course management system to Moodle, an open-source system that is coming on very strong in this arena. Why does Moodle bear mention now? Because it beautifully handles the switching between portrait mode and landscape mode! You can see our site for yourself at http://moodle.vermontacademy.org. It is a very young work in progress, but it is getting fleshed out over the course of this semester. Play with the width of the window or switch between portrait and landscape and see what I mean. Other varied and more complete sites can be seen at http://moodle.org/sites/.

I would encourage any school looking for course content management software to consider Moodle, but especially those schools that are using or looking at Tablet PCs. The price can't be beat. The feature set is solid. Development is active and well-managed. There is good support from the community. You get the source code so you can tweak it. The folks at Agilix (makers of GoBinder) are working on an interface between Moodle and GoBinder, so there are even better things coming.

Like all the other course content management systems, it is a web application, which automatically means that pen support is poor to non-existent. (Anyone know PHP and want to tackle better pen interface issues?) Nevertheless, these apps fill an important place in a school's academic support arena and I am able do most of my work with Moodle with the pen. Moodle is a good system; it looks great on the Tablet; and the future is bright for it.

A Narrow View

It has long been a pet peeve of mine that very few web sites look good on a Tablet when it is in portrait mode. Not even the major Tablet PC sites seem to take this into consideration. To me, portrait is the natural orientation on a Tablet PC and web sites dedicated to Tablets ought to at least accomodate this, if not be designed specifically for it. But most aren't. Why is this the case?

Here is a site that I think shows some real intelligence. (In the formatting, not necessarily in the content!) I offer it to the Tablet community as an example to learn from. When you've got it open, maximize the window then switch between Portrait and Landscape and watch what happens.

8/30 update: As so often happens to me,^* the day after I posted this I found one site that does seem to make a serious, and mostly successful, effort to address this. The Student Tablet PC web site does indeed shift into narrower and wider display versions based on screen orientation. Kudos to Tracy, Trevor and Andrew. I say only mostly successful because wide links in the page can't break and still force horizontal scrolling, but it isn't required to read the text of the page itself. That and the artifacts on the left and right all fit within the display area of the page. Very nice!

^*The surest way for me to find something I've been looking for or to remember something I've been trying to recall is to ask my wife. As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I find the thing.

The Vermont Slate - Act II

Well, as I've said before, the slate is dead. I'd like to follow that by saying, "Long live the Slate," but unfortunately I can't.

Since the TC1100 is no longer in production, we have had to select a new model Tablet PC for use at Vermont Academy. This was far from an easy task. We have finally made our decision, but before I reveal our choice, I would like to do a nickel review of the various models we tried out, and what we saw as some of the plusses and minuses of each.

Our selection pool consisted of two slate models, the Motion LE1600 and the Sahara i213, and three convertible models, the Lenovo X41, the Toshiba M400, and the HP TC4400. (Our demo model was actually a TC4200, but the TC4400 is on essentially the same chassis but with updated insides.)

Students and faculty had a chance to spend time with each machine and try it out, giving us feedback on their likes and dislikes for each one. We had some pretty interesting results, but in the end each machine had its proponents and its detractors. The basic minimum specs of each machine were very similar for our evaluation: 512 meg of RAM, wireless b/g networking, 12.1 inch screen, multiple USB 2.0 ports, etc. Pretty standard stuff for Tablets. We also were interest in models that offered an outdoor viewable screen, integrated fingerprint reader, wireless a/b/g, Bluetooth, docking stations, 3 year warranty, and an accidental damage insurance policy. Not all models offered all of these options.

The Motion LE1600 is a pure slate, but it does come with an optional "convertible keyboard" which we also evaluated. It is quite light weight (3.13 lbs) since there is no keyboard in its normal configuration. It uses a Pentium M processor running a 1.5 GHz (a Celeron model is available) and an Intel 915GMS chipset. The default 30 gigabyte drive is small, but a 60 gigabyte drive is available. Maximum memory is 1.5 megabytes. It claims 3+ hours of battery life, but offers an extended battery for longer battery life. Motions have a terrific docking system, letting the LE1600 dock in portrait or landscape, and an excellent internal microphone setup. The case is very attractive and rugged, being made of carbon fiber and magnesium alloy, and feels good in the hand. There is an option for an outdoor viewable screen. I will confess to being a long-time fan of Motion Tablets, and this model is a very nice addition to their line. The keyboard is another story. During our evaluations, this model got good reviews as long as we didn't include the keyboard. It was universally panned by our students who tried it out when the keyboard was attached.

The Sahara i213 is a little-known sleeper in the Tablet arena. It is a beautiful Tablet and looks like what I would picture an Apple-made Tablet PC looking like. Nice lines, a screen that goes almost edge to edge, keeping the external dimensions as small as the TC1100, but giving the larger workspace of a 12.1 inch screen. It uses a Pentium M processor running at 1.3 GHz, the slowest in the group by spec, but not really noticeable in use. Base hard disk size is 40 megabytes, with larger units available. Maximum memory is a rather paltry 1 megabyte. It comes with 802.11b/g and no Bluetooth. It, too is quite light (3.1 lbs), the lightest model we examined. While we didn't receive an evaluation unit, the docking station looks great and allows the i213 to dock in either portrait or landscape mode. It's a bit pricey, though. Sahara does not offer any kind of attachable keyboard, nor does it support Bluetooth, so an RF or tethered keyboard is the only option, the former through use of an adapter. There is no outdoor viewable screen option. The plastic case is an off-white color, though our evaluation unit was actually a special run pink color. This was a huge hit with our females (both students and faculty), but unfortunately, the color was not available to us for purchase. For myself, I liked the style of this unit enough that I would consider it as a likely replacement for my TC1100 if it were based on the newer Centrino Duo chip and had an outdoor viewable screen.

The Lenovo X41 shows all the hallmarks of its ThinkPad heritage: a slim, sleek black case with a terrific keyboard and integrated TrackPoint pointing stick in the keyboard. The model we tested had the 8 cell battery, claiming 5+ hours of battery life, and bringing the unit's weight to about 4 pounds--still quite light for a convertible. Some users liked the small ledge created by the extended battery as a hand-hold, others did not. (The optional 4 cell battery is about an inch shorter than the 8 cell and does not stick out beyond the back of the unit.) This model is powered by a Pentium M running at 1.6 GHz. It had 512 meg of RAM with 1.5 meg max, a 60 gigabyte disk, wireless a/b/g networking, Bluetooth, and integrated fingerprint reader. There are several docking station options, but none of them allow for rotation of the screen to portrait mode. There is not an option for an outdoor viewable screen.

The Toshiba M400 has the Intel Centrino Duo processor running at 1.6 GHz, an 80 gigabyte disk, 512 meg of RAM (2 gig max), 802.11a/b/g wireless, Bluetooth, a 6 cell battery (claiming over 5 hours of battery life), an integrated fingerprint reader, and an internal DVD/CDRW drive--the only model tested that contained an internal optical drive. It weighed in a a solid 4.5 lbs. Toshiba offers several port replicator options, none of which allow for rotation of the display to portrait mode while docked. The case is rugged and there is built-in protection for the hard disk in case of a sudden drop of the unit. The unit includes a touch pad pointing device. Toshiba also has some very nice custom software on the unit, particularly the wireless management tools. Unlike the rest of the models considered, the screen on the M400 was a softer plastic that showed tracking on the surface for pen users with heavy hands. There is no outdoor viewable screen option.

The HP TC4400 was not physically evaluated, as it had not yet been released by Hewlett-Packard. However, the release date was scheduled early enough that we wanted to consider this unit since it was the only model other than the M400 that ran on Intel's newest chip. Because it is externally the same as the TC4200, we evaluated that unit for look and feel, recognizing that performance would be slower than the TC4400. The TC4400 we considered has the Intel Centrino Duo processor running at 2 GHz, 1 gigabyte of RAM, an 80 gigabyte hard disk, 802.11a/b/g wireless, Bluetooth, a 6 cell battery, and an integrated fingerprint reader. The keyboard includes both a touch pad and a TrackPoint pointer, either of which can be disabled if desired. Several users commented on the perceived ruggedness of the unit. An outdoor viewable screen is an option. It weighs in at 4.6 pounds as configured. The docking station, just as with the other convertibles, does not permit rotating the screen to portrait mode.

It was a tough decision, with a lot of good comments both pro and con on most of the units. In the end, there were a couple of factors that drove us in the direction of our final choice, the TC4400. First, we couldn't see standardizing on (and asking families to pay a comparable price for) Pentium M based systems when the Centrino Duo was already out. This left only two units to be considered. (Lenovo has the X61 scheduled for shipping in November of this year, too late to be considered, and neither Motion nor Sahara would state whether or when they were releasing updates incorporating the new chips.) Second, price was a major factor. We requested quotes from all of the vendors on the configurations we evaluated. Surprisingly, the two slate models came with the highest price tags and the vendors moved the least from their list price. The HP handily won on price alone, even though it was the most powerful model examined and even when we added the outdoor viewable screen option. Plus, we already have a good, established relationship with a warranty center, so sticking with the same manufacturer minimized problems in that regard.

Finally, we actually did consider many other matters as well, a few of which I want to mention.

Being able to rotate the docked Tablet to portrait mode should be standard practice with docking stations. That no convertible manufacturer's docks allow this shows a significant lack of understanding of Tablets on the part of convertible makers. This was a big strike against the convertibles.

The keyboard is a crucial tool for students, even those that do use the Tablet function extremely well. Neither slate model had a particularly good keyboard option, though both had excellent docking stations. All of the convertible models had very good keyboards. It is unfortunate that they are just dead weight when in Tablet mode, though. This was a critical point--students need good keyboards and they need them to be convenient even when away from their desk.

Nevertheless, given the interest that the pink case had for the girls at Vermont Academy, we might well have supported the Sahara i213 as an optional choice if we could have gotten it in that color. This evaluation was the first time that I have seen many girls actually excited about a computer. (Manufacturers, are you listening?)