Sheri and SuZan’s Real Women Show is available for download on The Podcast Network or iTunes.  The girls are getting really good at this podcasting stuff so give it a listen.  Their blog Celebrating Women is now famous as the New York Times referenced a post on the blog about the shuttle launch yesterday.  Way to go, ladies!

The Shared Spaces weblog is an incredible source of information that gives a lot of useful information to help anyone achieve greater productivity, particularly in the area of computing technology.  Michael Sampson is the productivity guru behind Shared Spaces and is an expert on team collaboration tools.  You may have seen examples of Michael’s work on Eric Mack’s blog as they teamed up in the digital sandbox a few weeks ago to have geek fun.  Michael has a Toshiba Tecra M4 just like Eric’s. 

Michael has published an excellent article on Shared Spaces titled "What Types of Business People can Benefit from a Tablet PC?".  The article lays out five types of business professionals that will benefit from the pen input of a Tablet PC and explains clearly why it is so.  Great article for anyone on the fence about incorporating a Tablet PC into their work style.

Checking through the RSS feeds this morning I found something that shows how hard it is to predict the future of a given technology:

TechWeb:  Tablet PC Faces Uncertain Future, Analyst Says

The article quotes the In-Stat report that has been mentioned this week on numerous web site that basically gives a fairly dim outlook on the future of the Tablet PC as a viable platform.  They mention that the entrance of an Ultra Mobile PC as demonstrated by Bill Gates at WinHEC could play a factor.

TechWeb:  Tablet PCs Headed For Broader Use, Study Says

I find this amusing since this article which has a very positive outlook on the future of the Tablet PC was written by the same tech media organization.  The study that is mentioned in the article, the same In-Stat study, predicts $5.4 billion in sales of Tablet PCs by 2009.  I happen to believe this article rather than the former.  I guess it’s how you interpret the numbers.

Register:  Tablet PC biz to see Vista-driven boom

This article in The Register, a site normally none too kind on the Tablet PC, claims that Tablet PC sales will see a boom when WindowsVista is released.  The really amusing thing about this article is it uses the same In-Stat study as the basis for this prediction.

PC World is reporting that Fujitsu has confirmed the launch of the LifeBook P1510 in August.  The P1510 is the mini-convertible with a 8.9 inch passive digitizer screen that can be used as a tiny notebook or as a slate with the screen swiveled around.  The original information I posted about the P1510 looks to be accurate and Fujitsu has asked the South Korean web site to remove the information they posted without permission.  Fujitsu says the P1510 will be released August 8 in South Korea and other countries, but would not specify which other countries.

I knew putting a shout out to the user community to come up with a fix for the ugly Outlook interface under the Energy Blue theme for the Tablet PC would yield results and jkOnTheRun reader and The Tablet PC Show listener Kunal Kundaje has come through for us all.  The fix is stunningly simple as I knew it just had to be.  Here’s the fix from Kunal’s web site:

There’s a really simple solution, actually. Here’s what you have to do – first, switch back to the default Windows XP style, and close down Outlook if it’s running. Then, open up Windows Explorer and head over to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Royale. This is where the Energy Blue theme is installed. Under the folder, you’ll notice the actual visual style file, which is also named Royale. All you have to do is rename this file to "luna" which is the filename of the default Windows XP style. Double-click this file and hit the Apply button in the Windows display properties dialog box that appears to switch back to the Energy Blue theme.

That’s all there is to it. Outlook is "fooled" into thinking you’re using Luna, and you can go back to enjoying it in all its colorful glory.

This works very well and there is a screen shot for comparison below.  One caveat- the fix did not work out of the box for me until I totally uninstalled WindowBlinds.  Thanks Kunal, you are my hero!

I already mentioned the free Education Pack Microsoft released today but Josh Einstein points us to a very good video demo that shows off the Tablet PC and the Education Pack for students.  Best demo of the Tablet for students I have seen yet.

TeleRead is a great source for ebook information and I check their site often since I read everything electronically on my Tablet PC.  They point out in a recent article that some ebook readers allow configuration for double columns which makes reading on a large screen like a Tablet PC much more enjoyable.  They point to two programs that allow this configuration, yBook and Bookshelf, and give instructions for setting up the reader.  If you are into ebooks like I am you might want to check this article out.

I have written about a bunch of products that come in a stick form, after all what is more mobile than something the size of a stick?  The Computer-On-a-Stick from Fingergear carries the tradition forward by putting an onboard operating system and a full suite of Microsoft Office compatible applications on a USB flash drive.  Throw in Firefox for web browsing, Evolution for email and instant messaging and you have a, wait for it, computer on a stick.  Capacities available range from 256 MB to 8 GB with pricing starting at $149.  Clever

Road warriors, or those I prefer to call "mobile professionals", who need a good external battery pack fix to provide some long hours of battery power should have a look at the Tekkeon MyPower ALL battery pack.  The MyPower ALL uses a Lithium Polymer battery that can be used to power cameras, MP3 players, camcorders, PDAs, CD players and also deliver 3 hours of extra juice to notebook computers or Tablet PCs.  Eric Mack should take a look at one of these due to the very small size and the price- $120.

Specs:

• Weight:  11.8 oz
• Size:  3.28" x 6.8" x .92"
• Output current: 4A max
• Charge time:  4 hours
• Voltages supported:  3, 4.5, 5, 6, 7.5, 9, 12, 14V
• Output power: 36 W

(via TRFJ)