Quick Start
Introducing Tablet PC 2005
Install Service Pack 2 on your Tablet PC, and you get more than
a firewall and security updates—you also get updated and much
improved handwriting recognition softwareThe release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP heralds the first update to Microsoft’s
Tablet PC software. At first glance, the changes appear no more than cosmetic, but
in fact Microsoft has made significant improvements to the way the OS recognizes
handwriting. Here’s what to look for!FUN-SIZE NEWS
LEGISLATION INDUCES VOMITING
Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy
(D-Vermont) recently proved that idiocy is indeed
bipartisan by sponsoring the Inducing Infringement
of Copyrights Act (also known as the INDUCE Act).
Under this sterling piece of legislation, it would be
a crime to aid, abet, or “induce” copyright infringe-
ment. Although the Electronic Frontier Foundation has
pointed out that this rather broad bill would make the
Apple iPod, Toshiba’s miniature drive in the iPod, and
even a review of the iPod subject to criminal penalty,
Hatch cheerfully promises that the bill is only intended to go after the “bad
guys,” such as the makers of file-sharing applications. If you believe him,
don’t call him at 202.224.5251, or Senator Leahy at 202.224.4242.SEAGATE CRANKS UP WARRANTIES TO FIVE YEARS
While other hard drive manufacturers are trimming the warranties for their
products, Seagate is moving in the opposite direction. As of June 1, any drive
made by Seagate is guaranteed for five years. This covers what Seagate
anticipates to be the expected “service life” of the drive. This doesn’t mean
that the company expects its drives to keel over after five years, but instead
represents the extreme upper-end of the amount of time most people will findthe drive useful in speed and capacity.READY FOR THE BD-ROM?
The Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) has put its stamp
of approval on BD-ROM, the read-only disc specifica-
tion intended for high-definition movie distribution that
uses Blu-Ray technology. Sony Pictures Entertainment
is the only major studio that has pledged support for the
standard, which isn’t surprising considering that Sony
is leading the charge of this nascent technology. BD-
ROMs will soon be going head to head with three other
specs: HD-DVD (High Definition DVD) promoted by a group called the DVD
Forum, FVD (Forward Versatile Disc) from Taiwan, and EVD (Enhanced Video
Disc) from China.NAME THAT FERRET
If you hurry, you can make the September 30 deadline to go to
http://www.playitcybersafe.com, where you’ll be able to vote on a name
for the “copyright-crusading” ferret that’s used by the Business Software
Alliance to teach children about “the importance of protecting and respect-
ing copyrighted works.” Sounds good to us, but shouldn’t the organization’s
mascot be an elephant, who never forgets about fair use rights?6 MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2004
1. Correcting your mistakes
If the tablet misidentifies
one of your words, you can
click on the word in the
input panel and make any
corrections. In this panel you
can also add any words that
arent in the dictionary to
your custom dictionary, which
3. Recognizing one word at a time
4he new writing panel—where you can
write sentences in normal handwriting
for the tablet to recogniZe—gives you
immediate feedback regarding your
entry. %very time you write a word, the
tablet displays its interpretation of the
word underneath your handwriting.
4. Popping up all over the place
/ne of our favorite new features is the popup
input panel icon. Anytime you put your cursor
inside a boX where you can write teXt, the input
panel icon pops up. 4ap it, and your preferred
input panel pops up right at your cursor.
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4. Popping up all over the place
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2. Taking a page from the Pocket PC
/ne of our chief complaints with the original 4ablet P# software is
that it completely ignored many of the features that make inputting
teXt on the Pocket P# Quick and easy. 4he new improved character
recogniZer makes it easy to write characters one at a time to ease
manual input of hard
to
recogniZe words, characters, or numerals.
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