Macopinion

Why Apple Needs A Tablet And Better Handwriting Recognition In OS X

In last week's The Road Warrior, I disputed the notion that the advent of powerful smartphones like the iPhone and RIM's newer Blackberry products portend the beginning of the end of the personal computer era.

Reader David Walker wrote explaining why he prefers the iPhone to carrying a portable computer. You can read our conversation thread in yesterday's The Road Warrior Mailbag.

I didn't intend to my argument to imply a slam against the iPhone, only that for me, at least, I'm not ready (and probably never will be) to give up the comprehensive features set and input facility of a notebook computer for mobile use. However, that doesn't mean there's no room for a advances and innovation in this context, such as tablet computers.

By coincidence, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald's technology columnist Pat D'Entrement's piece on Sunday was about how he has converted to using a PC tablet computer to consolidate all of his note-taking and other office computing needs on one machine that functions as a regular laptop for traditional computing tasks, but also morphs into a tablet computer capable of accepting handwritten input on its screen using a stylus.

D'Entrement says that Windows' handwriting recognition is amazingly accurate even with his self-described "atrocious" handwriting, and that handwritten input combined with Microsoft's OneNote Software (part of Office for Windows) has revolutionized his data input, storage, management, and retrieval habits.

Apple needs capability like this, but has thus far shunned the tablet computer category. It's not that there appears to be any daunting technical roadblock to development of a tablet Mac. Indeed, the only new "Mac" hardware introduced had Macworld Expo in January, was a third-party tablet device, based on the MacBook, the Axiotron ModBook, designed by a California based team of German and American engineers, to be marketed exclusively by Other World Computing.

However, ModBook does have a pedigree in Apple engineering, since Axiotron's co-founder Andreas Haas was part of Apple's Newton PDA team prior to the company terminating Newton sales and development.

Both the ModBook's top shell and the interior display frame are built from top grade, aircraft quality magnesium alloy, giving the ModBook superior structural strength for almost every situation. Its satin textured top shell plated with chrome over a set of copper and nickel layers provides for a scratch resistant and attractive finish, while also offering effective protection against oxidation.

Both the LCD panel and the built-in iSight camera are protected by replaceable screen covers made from chemically strengthened ForceGlass. Compared to cheaper non-glass-based solutions found in most tablet computers, Axiotron ForceGlass provides superior optical and aging properties as well as far improved scratch resistance.

The display screen cover is treated on both sides for optimized optical properties. The LCD facing (in)side features an anti-reflective coating to increase the light transmissivity for a brighter image. The user-facing (out)side has been acid treated to achieve an etched surface, carefully calibrated to match the display resolution. This is claimed to provide a crisp, "paper-like" writing feel, while keeping perceived haze and glare to a minimum.

The Axiotron ModBook is built using digitizer technology from WACOM, and supports the following performance specs.:

• Speed - 133 position updates per second
• Accuracy - 20x display resolution
• Sensitivity - 512 pressure levels
• Efficiency - No batteries required

The included ModBook Digitizer Pen stylus features 2 programmable side buttons plus an eraser, and ships with 3 different types of replaceable pen tips, which if used on the acid etched surface of the Axiotron ForceGlass, offer a wider range of drawing styles and sensations. The Pencil Nib, the most durable nib, is most commonly used in pen tablets and TabletPCs and is designed to provide a hard and direct drawing feel. The Studio Nib is the default tip in the ModBook Digitizer Pen and essentially a spring-loaded variation of the Pencil Nib, offering a different feel in controlling the 512 pressure levels. The Felt Nib's marker-type material maximizes friction on the ModBook's acid etched ForceGlass surface, resulting in a paper-like drawing experience.

Users will also be able to write with their hand resting on the screen. This technology also allows the cursor to be controlled while the pen is hovering over the screen, providing for an intuitive, mouse-like interface with a zero learning curve.

In a nutshell, he Axiotron/OWC ModBook takes a standard MacBook and adds true pen input, a new 13.3" wide screen LCD and an optional Global Positioning System in a tough, satin chrome plated Aircraft-grade magnesium top shell, while retaining all the powerful features of the MacBook base system, complete with Mac OS X and its built-in Inkwell handwriting recognition, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Apple's integrated iSight camera and a CD/DVD combo drive or optional DVD SuperDrive.

Mac OS X has actually supported handwriting recognition since the release of version 10.2 Jaguar. Apple's Inkwell technology, based on software originally developed for the late, lamented, Newton PDA, allows OS X to accept a handwritten (or at least hand block capital - it can't read cursive script efficiently), and convert it to editable computer text, provided you have a graphics tablet such as the several products manufactured by Wacom, or of course a ModBook. Inkwell also facilitates extended control of the system through gesture recognition.

The concept of tablet computers has long intrigued me, partly because I battle flare-ups of typing pain, while I find longhand writing much less aggravating to my nerves and tendons than typing. I've experimented with OS X Inkwell using a Wacom tablet and stylus, but I find writing on the tablet with output on the computer screen clumsy and counterintuitive. I also have a scrawly hand, and often find it a challenge to decipher my own script, which is not the best for longhand inputting of computer text. Unfortunately, Apple has pretty much ignored Inkwell after adding it to OS X 10.2. My results with Inkwell have been "mixed" to say the leas, compared with Pat D'Entrement's reported high satisfaction using a PC tablet computer and Windows' superior handwriting recognition support.

By the way, if Inkwell is an OS X feature that has eluded your notice, that's because the Ink preference panel only appears when a graphics tablet is connected to the computer.

ModBook is offered in 2.0 Core 2 Duo and 2.16 C2D models at $2,279.00 and $2,579.00 respectively. Specifications include all the standard MacBook stuff, plus:
• AnyView 13.3" Wide Screen
• ForceGlass Screen & Camera Cover
• WACOM Penabled Digitizer with 512 Levels of Pressure Sensitivity
• Axiotron Digitizer Pen
• WAAS enabled GPS (optional on 2.0 GHz model)

ModBook will also be available as a Mod-kit for converting your standard MacBook into a tablet computer. Since both the kit and assembled products are strictly speaking after-market conversions which void Apple's standard warranty, Other World Computing includes a one year warranty that can be extended up to three years,

Unfortunately, nearly eight months after it was announced, the ModBook is still not shipping, and OWC currently estimates shipping, originally slated for April, then moved back to June, and later July, will now commence in 4th-Quarter 2007. For more information, visit:
http://www.macsales.com/modbook

As near as I can evaluate sight unseen, I think I would very much like using a ModBook, and I wish Axiotron and OWC well with their venture, and it sounds like it will be an attractive and capable tablet solution for determined and patient Mac OS fans, it will still be hobbled by OS X's mediocre handwriting support, and the Mac OS platform really needs an Apple-developed convertible notebook/tablet with improved Inkwell handwriting recognition software comparable to the The Microsoft handwriting-recognition engine in Windows XP and Vista.

In Windows Vista, instead of having to print or change your handwriting to get better handwriting recognition results, you can train the handwriting recognizer to recognize how you write characters and words. You can provide handwriting samples to teach the handwriting recognizer about your writing style and specific recognition errors to target. Using the handwriting recognition personalization tool increases the likelihood that your handwriting will be recognized correctly by Input Panel and by programs for the Tablet PC that use handwriting recognition.

Vista's automatic learning feature also enables the handwriting recognizer to learn your handwriting style or vocabulary by collecting data about the words you use and how you write them. The personalization occurs behind the scenes, without user interaction. OS X Inkwell supports nothing close to this level. For the full skinny on Vista's Tablet PC support, visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/tabletpc.mspx

As for other software support for tablet computing, Microsoft has not seen fit to include one note in the MS Office for Mac software suite. The Atlantic Monthly's technology columnist James Fallows also gave OneNote an enthusiastic thumbs up in the the June, 2007, issue observing that it can handle almost any kind of information - Web clippings, PDFs, audio or video files, straight text, - and index it for quick retrieval, as well as having "an elegant feature that make the capturing information utterly painless. When something you want to save is on your computer screen, you can press a button to" print" that blog posting - or photo, or e-mail, or online receipt - to your OneNote file. It's like storing paper documents in folders, except that it's faster, easier, and more reliable when you look for the material later on."

Sounds great, tablet or no tablet, but Fallows says the nearest thing he can think of supporting the Mac is the new research and writing application, Scrivener, which I haven't had an opportunity to check out yet.

Am I seriously tempted by tablet computing on the Windows side? Not really, I detest Windows, but one has to concede that tablets and handwriting recognition are another couple of things Windows PCs do better than the Mac OS. Pity.



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cmoore@macopinion.com


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