Tablet PC Lives On, According to Raikes

NEW YORK --- Jeff Raikes, group vice president of the Business and Productivity Systems group at Microsoft Corp., sees worker productivity doubling over the next decade, with the help of Microsoft technology. Raikes will outline Microsoft's forthcoming information worker productivity innovations - and announce a handful of new tools - in his keynote address later this morning at the TechXNY PC Expo here.

On the hardware front, Raikes will announce the November 7 launch of Microsoft's Tablet PC, which the company has been touting for at least the past year.

Prototype Tablet PCs with the beta version of Microsoft Windows XP will be deployed at several customer sites in the next 30 days. The prototype resembles a laptop but with an electronic version of a yellow legal pad on instead of a top cover. That panel can neatly pivot to face the user when the keypad is in use.

The prototype boasts writing recognition technology that 'learns' users' handwriting for better deciphering of written text, which can be formatted into computer text and manipulated like any Word document, including word search functionalities. (During a demonstration however, four out of five handwriting examples were mis-identified by the Tablet when, for example, Renee Ferguson became Renee Lyn).

For the remainder of this story, including discussion of the latest version of Microsoft Office, please click here.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.