Check out the new Tablet PC Experience Pack

Hey, Adam Curry, the Tablet PC Team today is releasing the Experience Pack.

I tell ya if Steve Jobs had this he'd have the Mac fans eating out of his hands. Check out the UI in this Channel 9 video I took of Dustin Hubbard, group manager on the Tablet PC Mobile Platform team.

The demo starts at about four minutes into the 27-minute video.

Video Table of Contents (a downloadable version will be up on Channel 9 by end of the day):

4:10 Energy Blue Theme and Skinned Media Player (designed for pen input)

4:59 Ink Art (new version of Art Rage, drawing program designed for pen usage).

8:44 Ink Crossword Puzzle.

10:55 Ink Desktop (turns wallpaper into inkable surface).

13:18 Media Transfer to take videos/audios from home or Office PC with you.

18:40 New snipping tool (a must have for Tablet PC users).

scobleizer wrote:

Hey, Adam Curry, the Tablet PC Team today is releasing the Experience Pack. (Adam Curry, famous podcaster, today revealed he's using a Tablet PC).

I tell ya if Steve Jobs had this he'd have the Mac fans eating out of his hands. Check out the UI in this Channel 9 video I took of Dustin Hubbard, group manager on the Tablet PC Mobile Platform team.

The demo starts at about four minutes into the 27-minute video. We'll have this video up on Channel 9 for downloading later today.

Seeing as you're cross-posting blog entries, I'll cross-post my comment.

I haven't heard the latest DSC yet, but did Microsoft have any involvement in getting him the Tablet PC as well (as the PMC)?

The comments on that DSC post complain about the sound quality, hopefully that'll get fixed.

I don't know. I'll try to find out. I do know we sent him a Portable Media Center a week or so ago, so I wouldn't be suprised to hear someone sent him a Tablet PC as well.

I'm not sure what the audio settings are. My Toshiba gives a lot better audio quality than that.

1. Why don't we (normal xp users) get new Windows themes?
2. Are those applications made with .NET?
3. Scoble, how many people have you persuaded to buy a tablet pc?

Edit:

1. Who is DSC and why does he get free stuff?

scobleizer wrote:

So I wouldn't be suprised to hear someone sent him a Tablet PC as well.

I only ask because do you not think it is a little disingenious to send someone some hardware, and then proclaim they've switched when they then try it out? Just my perception.

scobleizer wrote:

I'm not sure what the audio settings are.

Listening to it now and it is not a good advert for the audio abilities of whatever Tablet he is using. It is terrible.

Having said all of that I just watched the video, and it looks quite nice

1. Why don't we (normal xp users) get new Windows themes?

I don't know, but maybe because they were funded by the Tablet PC team. Microsoft internally works like 200 separate companies, so when one team funds something they often do it only for their own product to make testing costs lower.

1. Are those applications made with .NET?

I'm not sure, I'll ask Dustin if any of them were.

1. Scoble, how many people have you persuaded to buy a tablet pc?

Not enough.

Who is DSC and why does he get free stuff?

Adam Curry is a former MTV Vjay who has been a key podcaster. He is quoted in tons of press articles and has been on the BBC several times.

Lots of influentials get free stuff, by the way. The MVPs, for instance, get thousands of dollars of free stuff every year.

I just installed the pack. Very nice new theme. I like the gradients and the different view of the tops of the windows (Caption area).

Need to check out some more of the features, though.
I really like the new, software look in the menus, etc. Much better than the traditional grey. Hope this keeps up and Microsoft can make it a "branding", consistent look and feel.

On that note, I think that Microsoft needs to make these gradients, appearances, etc. Much more accessable to the end developers, or at least formalize and document the recommended look and feel. This would give users a much more consistent experience, regardless of application used. Or does something like this already exist?

I'm convinced in buying a Table PC for a long time , but I actualy lack the funds to do so.
Any donation would be welcomed

I'm in love with the Toshiba M200.

It's what I use (Portege M200). It's a relatively nice machine. I am not 100% happy with it, as it is a beast for development. I am getting a bunch of page faults, so I guess I should get more memory. Funny thing is that my desktop with the same configuration (except OneNote) didn't seem as bad.

Still digging it, though. The convertable form factor is really nice. Good battery life, compared to older Toshiba (I had a Tecra that, on a full charge, lasted 50 minutes).

Good luck in your quest in getting one.

I was so much looking forward to it. And now I have to see it's English language TabletPCs only. Why's that? And is there any not-only-American version planned?

Is anyone able to rip out the Windows Media Player skin (check for a .wmz in C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Skins) and host it somewhere? Or is that a no no (hope not)?

If not.. can someone point to a proggy that can extract files from a .msi?

scobleizer wrote:

1. Scoble, how many people have you persuaded to buy a tablet pc?

Not enough.

I was sold a long time ago. Trouble is I've got a decent laptop and a 64-bit desktop that barely gets used so it's pretty difficult to justify buying a new machine right now.

I need to spill coffee on my Vaio or something...

Stebet wrote:

If not.. can someone point to a proggy that can extract files from a .msi?

msiexec /A <filename> would probaly do it.

Failing that, maybe Orca from the platform SDK?

AndyC wrote:

msiexec /A <filename> would probaly do it.

Failing that, maybe Orca from the platform SDK?

Thanks a lot. msiexec /A got me on the right track. A great looking skin to use with the new theme. Both work very well on my Windows XP Pro machine, and should work on all Windows XP machines.. regardless of what edition it is. I won't make any guarantess though

scobleizer wrote:

1. Why don't we (normal xp users) get new Windows themes?

I don't know, but maybe because they were funded by the Tablet PC team. Microsoft internally works like 200 separate companies, so when one team funds something they often do it only for their own product to make testing costs lower.

so if the windows community decided to fund the Windows XP team to make some new themes would it happen?

i don't see why we should, does the windows team not love their product enough, does the tablet team love their product more. 

Jaz: the Windows team is funding the mother of all new themes: Aero for Longhorn. Wait til you see THAT!

Ok, I've just spent the last hour (I should of been working) playing around with the Tablet PC XP Pack.

I like the Media Transfer really cool, nice UI. No more messing around copying files over and waiting, just pick and choose and go, Will have to try a few Pod Cast’s, as scoble suggested in the video.

Ink Art has just saved me the cost of buying an art package for my other half, as she enjoys designing dresses using the Tablet PC.....

Snipping tool, Godsend!

My views on the Toshiba M200. Overall I really like it.

The battery life is good! I do have a problem with the sound quality it's just too tinny, I have to put this down to it having just one speaker.

The screen automatic orientation adjustment is very poor, unless I’m doing something wrong! It changes when you simple move the tablet and then suddenly changes back. I’ve disabled the auto change orientation and manually change it.

I do think you should be supplied with (at least, due to the price £1300.00 [approx.]) a USB DVD/RW as there is no easy way to recover your tablet if you want to re-install the OS. I'm yet to try a generic USB device, check my blog in the near future if you interested to see if this works or not.

What I did think was interesting when I was trying to decide which tablet to purchase, I went looking in the high street stores here in the UK and not a single one of them had a tablet on display and even when I asked I received a blank expression. This wasn’t that long ago (September last year).

Tablet PC Platform Rocks!

Stebet wrote:

Is anyone able to rip out the Windows Media Player skin (check for a .wmz in C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Skins) and host it somewhere? Or is that a no no (hope not)?

If not.. can someone point to a proggy that can extract files from a .msi?

http://www.forgetfoo.com/?blogid=2650

I'm not sure about the WMP skins, but this link shows how to get the Energy Bliss on WinXP.