marc orchant and vista

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The Vista productivity debate rages on

Well I seem to have hit a nerve or struck a chord at least with a lot of people with my recent post about the decidedly mixed reaction to Vista. It's the most heavily trafficked and commented post I've made here at ZDNet and reading through the comment thread reveals...

Tags: Uncategorized, Vista, Windows, Software, Productivity

Blog posts 2007-08-01

Vista is taking body blows

I've been on a bit of a blog and RSS hiatus the past couple of days and have been working my way through tales of destruction and distress (the 365 outage, not Lindsay Lohan's latest episode), news, and views. In my reading, there's a recurring theme that beats louder all...

Tags: Microsoft, Productivity, Software, Uncategorized, Vista, Windows

Blog posts 2007-07-25

Is Vista stupid (or is it me)?

OK â€" brief rant here. Why is it that when I'm using a USB memory stick, Vista is apparently incredibly stupid about removing the device when I'm finished working with it? First, the OS refuses to allow me to safely remove the stick if a window is open. How dumb...

Tags: Vista, Windows

Blog posts 2007-07-12

A cautionary Vista story - steep curves ahead

Chris Shipley, the executive director of and impresario behind the DEMO Conferences is hardly a technology lightweight. Every year, she and her team evaluate hundreds of emerging technology companies and products and cherry pick the best and brightest to appear under the DEMO microscope for their legendary six minutes of...

Tags: Windows, Vista

Blog posts 2007-06-13

OnTheRun with Tablet PCs podcast #38- all about the Lenovo x61 Tablet

Listen here ( MP3, 21.3 MB, 62 minutes) orSubscribe to the show with this link RSSJames Kendrick and I have both recently picked up Lenovo ThinkPad x61 Tablet PCs and in show #38 we discuss the x61 from stem to stern. James has the SXGA+ (1440x1040) screen while...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Tablet PCs, Software, Productivity, Podcasts, Hardware

Blog posts 2007-06-10

Parallels 3.0 a worthy upgrade

I've been using Parallels Desktop on my MacBook for some time to give me access to certain applications for which there is no counterpart on the Mac and have been generally quite pleased with the performance and usability of the virtualization software. I run a Vista Ultimate virtual machine and...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Mac

Blog posts 2007-06-08

Interesting fix for UAC aggravation

If you are getting weary of Windows Vista User Access Control UAC popping up confirmation dialogs but like me are reluctant to turn it off since a lot of what it does is actually good, this might be just the ticket. I found this via Brad Linder at DownloadSquad this...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Software

Blog posts 2007-06-04

Lenovo X61 details emerge

Lenovo appears ready to give its ThinkPad Tablet PC offering a boost with the imminent arrival of the X61 model which features a Core 2 Duo processor, better connectivity options, enhanced displays, and a reported 12-hour battery life with the now-standard 8-cell battery. More info at GottaBeMobile.com. Apparently my fellow...

Tags: Hardware, Tablet PCs, Vista, Windows

Blog posts 2007-05-31

Quantifying the "Microsoft Tax"

Eighty dollars. That's the number at least for Vista Home Premium according to this comparison from Coding Horror of the price delta between identical Dell systems configured with Vista and Ubuntu Linux. The hardware is essentially identical. We can infer that Dell's price for a Windows Vista Home Premium license...

Tags: Hardware, Software, Vista, Windows

Blog posts 2007-05-25

Mossberg likes the new Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC

Well, he likes it more than he did the first-generation Ultra Mobile PC from the Korean electronics giant. Although he still thinks the UNPC form factor is rife with too many compromises to meet broad mainstream adoption (and I'm certainly not going to argue with that), he finds the next-gen...

Tags: Gadgetry, Hardware, Mobility, Tablet PCs, Vista, Windows

Blog posts 2007-05-16

FlipStart handheld PC now available from Dynamism

FlipStart, the handheld PC released a couple of months ago, is now available from Dynamism, a reseller of high-performance mobile gear. Previously, the tiny PC was only available directly from the company. A number of accessories including batteries and a port replicator for use on the desktop are also available....

Tags: Gadgetry, Hardware, Mobility, Productivity, Vista, Windows

Blog posts 2007-05-15

Another Parallels-Vista success story

Ive been evaluating the Nokia N95 (review coming shortly on this power-packed device and its perfect companion, the N800 Internet Tablet) for about a week now and have been fighting with Nokias PC Suite on the Lenovo X60t Tablet PC trying to get a just-released firmware update performed. No dice....

Tags: Windows, Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Software, Mobility, Mac, Hardware, Gadgetry

Blog posts 2007-05-09

Grahl releases PDF Annotator 1.5

Just received word from Grahl Software Design that they have released version 1.5 of their PDF Annotator application that is one of my must-have applications on my Tablet PC. From their announcement:With the help of lots of users test driving our beta releases (thank you!), we have now finished PDF...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Tablet PCs, Software, Productivity

Blog posts 2007-05-09

A surprising switch back to Vista from Mac OS X

I must admit I was more than a bit surprised to read this post by Nik Cubrilovic of OmniDrive this morning. Seems his Mac OS partition vanished but the NTFS partition he had set up for Boot Camp on his Mac survived the gremlin attack. Nik installed Vista and describes...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Software, Mac

Blog posts 2007-05-07

OnTheRun with Tablet PCs #37

Listen here ( MP3, 19.6 MB, 55 minutes) or Subscribe to the show with this link RSS James Kendrick and I hit the ground running in show #37 and device reviews are the order of the day as we discuss the HP tx1000...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Tablet PCs, Software, Productivity, Podcasts, Mobility, Hardware, Gadgetry

Blog posts 2007-05-06

What's in your Tablet PC?

Fellow Tablet PC MVP and GottaBeMobile.com contributor Warner Crocker wants to know what software applications you consider essential on a Tablet PC or UMPC. Hes posted his list here. My list has some overlap with Warners but diverges a bit based on the different ways he and I use the...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Tablet PCs, Software, Productivity, Mobility, Microsoft Office, Hardware

Blog posts 2007-05-03

Is there any "wow" left in the Tablet PC?

Rob Bushway at GottaBeMobile.com wrote a thoughtful piece the other day pondering where the "wow" has gone in the Tablet PC segment. Its a well-balanced look at what he sees as a mature product segment lacking in significant new innovations that are likely to drive large numbers of new adopters...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Tablet PCs, Productivity, Mobility, Hardware, Gadgetry

Blog posts 2007-04-29

Turns out the best PC I own to run Vista on is...

Turns out the best PC I own to run Vista on is... my MacBook. Thats as good a definition of irony as I can come up with.Now before anyone reading that gets too hot under the collar, let me add the following qualifications to the statement above:I didnt say fastest,...

Tags: Tablet PCs, Software, Mobility, Microsoft Office, Mac, Windows, Vista, Productivity, Hardware

Blog posts 2007-04-11

A cautionary OneNote tale

I received an urgent voice mail message from my friend Eric Mack last night. Apparently his daughters had been working for hours on a script in OneNote and cut the text to paste it into Word. Then it vanished. Ctrl+Z Undo didnt work. The Clipboard Manager (a badly behaved piece...

Tags: Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Software, Productivity, Microsoft Office

Blog posts 2007-04-03

OnTheRun with Tablet PCs #36 is now online

OnTheRun with Tablet PCs #36- the shout-out show!Listen here ( MP3, 17.4 MB, 50 minutes) or Subscribe to the show with this link RSS James Kendrick and I are back with show #36 and shout-outs are in order all around with the shipping of my...

Tags: Windows, Vista, Utilities and Add-Ins, Tablet PCs, Software, Productivity, Podcasts, Mobility, Microsoft Office, Hardware, Gadgetry

Blog posts 2007-04-01