As we wait for the Windows 7 code to get locked down, take a tour of what Microsoft's highly-anticipated operating system will offer for touch-screen users. Don't have one yet? Don't worry, they're coming--even to affordable Netbooks.
We get a lot of e-mails from folks asking us when to expect a Netbook from Apple. Let's make something absolutely clear: despite all the previous rumors, we have no idea if, or when, such a product will exist. But we will let report to you when a new (or recycled) rumor pops in the blogsphere.
The latest: the Mandarin-language publication Chinese Times is reporting that Apple will release a Netbook in October. We tend to put a question mark on our rumor headlines, but there doesn't seem to be any question mark in the reporting here--at least … Read more
Netbooks are helping boost the PC market as it continues to slide with the economy, but it's only a matter of time before something precipitates a market upturn.
Thanks to the announcement of the Archos 9 PC Tablet on Wednesday, there's even more evidence helping fuel speculation that touch screens can transform the Netbook experience from basic computing into multitouch bliss.
Touch screens are undoubtedly popular in the mobile market, but they have yet to break through in the computing space. Will they be as revolutionary for PCs as they have thus far been for smartphones? … Read more
Though Apple isn't saying whether it's working on a touchscreen tablet, the company may have shown its hand at its Worldwide Developers Conference last week.
Of course, the Apple tablet has become the Apple press corps' version of a Bigfoot hunt. Some believe the evidence is overwhelming. Others are, well, underwhelmed. And Apple doesn't discuss products before it's ready to.
However, based on the features demonstrated at the developer conference last week, the newest version of the Mac operating system, OS X 10.6, dubbed Snow Leopard, could turn out to be the most touchscreen-friendly Mac … Read more
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900 is one of those cameras that you pay more for because of its coolness. A camera so small you'll likely forget it's in your pocket, yet it has all the latest "auto" features Sony has in its point-and-shoot arsenal, a 12-megapixel resolution, and captures 720p HD movies.
The T900 may be a good, fast snapshot camera that's very attractive and extremely compact, but its battery life is a little short, its touch screen won't please everyone, and some will find the photo quality unworthy of the camera's price tag. … Read more
A new touch-screen tabletop computer display brings together the unlikely combination of technologies popularized by Apple and Microsoft.
It's called the Scalable Multitouch display, and its touch technology is similar to the iPhone, but it would scale up from handheld device size to dimensions more like those of Microsoft's Surface. The prototype measures just 19 inches right now, but it aspires to cover an entire 50-inch tabletop one day.
The Scalable Multitouch has been in development at Moto Labs in San Francisco for the past two years, and on Tuesday the company released an updated video (below) as a peek of what it's working on.
Like Microsoft's Surface, the Scalable Multitouch display is intended to be used as a group workspace where information on the screen can be manipulated by hand. But Moto Labs CEO Daniell Hebert says what his company is doing is different than Microsoft and others because it does not use cameras or projectors underneath the surface of the display to project images. And by nixing the inner camera/projector, it allows the display to be thin--perhaps some day as thin as the LCD screen you're likely reading this on.
The display instead uses multitouch technology--which means you can use more than one finger as an input device. Moto Labs likes to say that you can use as many fingers to control the device as you want, and that you're only limited by the number of fingers you have on each hand.
The device also employs capacitive touch--same as the iPhone--in which a finger touching a sensor grid (just below the screen) causes a change in signal. That relays exactly where on the screen the finger is. But while the iPhone uses a solid solution known as ITO (indium tin oxide), Moto Labs employs a grid of super-thin wires that pick up on the signals from each finger.
The thin-wire grid is used right now in single-touch displays, but has yet to be used on multitouch, and that's where Moto Labs' work on the inner electronics and the software to take advantage of multitouch comes in. … Read more
Correction: The previous price listed was incorrect. This post has been updated to reflect the correct price of $599.
The company famous for its stylish, small Linux desktops is trying its hand at touch screens.
The Shuttle X50, an all-in-one desktop with the low-power Intel Atom processor, is now available in the U.S. and Europe, the company announced Thursday. The X50 was first announced at CES in January.
It sports a dual-core Atom processor, 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP Home Edition, 5.1-channel audio, a Web cam and built-in microphone, 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11 … Read more
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Artificial Muscle believes that when you touch your computer or phone, it should touch back.
The Silicon Valley company is working on putting haptic feedback in a variety of devices, from laptops to touch-screen phones. Though forced feedback isn't a new concept, the way this company is going about it is different. It showed off some of its technologies at the Interactive Displays 2009 conference here.
Instead of using the vibration motor in a phone to give feedback from a screen, the company has developed and patented an electroactive polymer that expands when it receives an … Read more
Rumors of a new touch-screen Walkman were already making the rounds on the Web before its official announcement and, sure enough, Sony unveiled its latest X-series portable multimedia player at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas back in January. We had the chance to sneak a prototype into our Labs recently to run it through its paces.
Upside A few things we like about the X-series Walkman: It has a nice, solid feel, plus the rough granite edges add a unique and contrasting touch to this multimedia player with a 3-inch OLED wide-screen display. The 432x240-pixel panel is half an inch smaller and has a lower resolution than the one on the second-gen iPod Touch, but is just as responsive as the latter.
Vertical scrolling through the album art to select songs is also a dead ringer for Apple's Cover Flow interface. The speed at which scrolling accelerates depends on how fast you swipe your digit across the screen. With a quick sweep, the album art races either toward or away from you at an angle. This has a pseudo 3D effect and makes it seem like the covers are a pack of cards a la credits rolling style from "Star Trek".… Read more
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