Microsoft wants to lead technology march
Published: 19 Nov 2002 17:33 GMT
Using a tabbed interface at the top, OneNote can be like 10 composition notebooks in one, with each tab representing a category of notes. In addition to accepting text and ink, pages in OneNote can have virtually anything dragged onto them including content from a Web page or a slide from a PowerPoint presentation. When data is imported in this fashion from another source, OneNote remembers where it came from so that the user can easily go back to that source with a click of the button. Like the Journal application that comes with Tablet PC, OneNote can search through all notes that a user has taken, and reveal the results of that search in much the same way that Web-based search engines such as Google and Yahoo! reveal their results.
After playing with Journal on the tablet PC, and then seeing OneNote, I wondered why Microsoft didn't accelerate the development of OneNote and include it with Tablet PC. During a private showing of OneNote before Gates' keynote, Jeff Raikes, group vice president, productivity and business services, admitted that once he started using OneNote himself, he wouldn't consider going back to Journal. OneNote doesn't require Tablet PC and is likely to be available for the plain vanilla versions of Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but the company has not said whether the software will be bundled with Microsoft Office, or if it will be sold separately.
On the "we delivered" side of the equation, Gates talked about Microsoft's progress on the Web services front and proved his point by showing how Microsoft Windows can now print to any Kinko's location through an XML-enabled architecture -- a new service called "File, Print, Kinko's."
The demonstration, which Kinko's president and chief executive Gary Kusin called "the longest printer cable in the world," showed how a user can pull up a print dialogue that uses a mapping utility to find the closest Kinko's, and send the document to that Kinko's for mass printing. Then Kinko's will ship those copies to a specified destination. The demonstration was performed by Microsoft's director of .Net strategy Neil Charney, who explained that the entire application --- the connection to Kinko's, the mapping utility, and the subsequent feedback that tells the user the instructions were successfully received by Kinko's --- was strung together using XML. Charney went on to say that there was nothing that prevented other developers from leveraging the same XML interface that Kinko's exposed to Windows.
Another newcomer technology that was demonstrated at the keynote and that will be available on 8 January is Microsoft's Smart Display technology. A Smart Display is basically the display of your computer, but its means of connection to the computer is through a wireless Ethernet (WiFi) network instead of a VGA cable. The idea is that you can take the display anywhere you want (within a certain distance of the computer), and work remotely through the touch-sensitive display.
Most Smart Displays can have a keyboard and mouse connected to them if need be. During the Smart Display demonstration, Microsoft officials said that people could move up to 150 feet from the computer they are controlling, which, in my estimation, is a bit of a stretch. I've rarely seen a WiFi network work at those distances. But, as I discuss in my column about the technology, the real issue will be cost. Initial entries for the technology are going to start at about $1,000 and go up from there (depending on size, additional functionality, and accessories). Microsoft is targeting consumers with Smart Displays, but I can't imagine a lot of consumers parting with that kind of cash for something that isn't a must have.
As evidenced by Gates keynote, and the many demonstrations contained within, technology is marching on. And, to some extent, Microsoft is dictating the direction. But when you look at cost and practicality, the bigger question may be whether we're willing to follow.
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