touchscreens

While CES isn't always a hotbed of computer news and product announcements, there's always enough new stuff to keep our attention, especially as the competition between traditional laptops and tablets heats up. These are some of the trends and stories we expect you'll be hearing much more about in January.

New laptop and desktop CPUs Unfortunately, some of the products we were most excited about from CES 2010 never actually saw the light of day, leading us to be a bit more skeptical about laptops that look too good to be true (we're looking at you, … Read more

Microsoft could be looking to give touch screens more of a tactile feel.

A patent filed by the software giant in 2009 and published last week details a light-induced shape-memory polymer display screen. In a nutshell, that means a touch screen that has a real texture and tactile feedback to it, making people feel as if they're touching an actual object.

Invented by Erez Kikin-Gil, the screen would be coated with polymers that could change or hold their shape when different wavelengths of ultraviolet light hit the pixels from underneath, according to an article in New Scientist.

The screen … Read more

editor's notebook The future just keeps getting closer and closer these days. Not only do we have iPhones with FaceTime--which, when combined with the iPod Nano (as I'm sure they will be before too long) will come pretty close to creating a mass-market version of Dick Tracy's two-way wrist TV--we've also got robot cars and, ahem, robot journalists (which I'm trying to keep at bay by way of this terribly sophisticated and never-ending sentence--apparently the roboscribes have trouble with such Proustian gymnastics: Quick! They're coming for our jobs! Hand me another semicolon and an … Read more

Check it out. Nokia did something cool with a touch screen. I did not see that coming.

We're not sure why researchers from the phone maker would do what they did (other than that they were probably going stir crazy during the long Nordic winter), but they did. So this exists: possibly the world's biggest touch screen, which is made of ice.

The Fins stacked ice blocks together and fused them with a heat gun to make an ice wall. That itself isn't that awesome, but then they added a projector behind it that shot the back of the ice wall with infrared light.

When people touch the wall--which is about 6.5 feet long, 5 feet tall, and 10 inches thick--their hands reflect the infrared light back, and a sensor feeds the data into a computer, which in turns projects visible light in response to the users' touches. Thus it becomes a giant touch screen.

Right now all the chilly ice screen does is make an interactive light display, which is fun. But I want to play Angry Birds on a wall. Nokia, can we make that happen? Check out the New Scientist video below.… Read more

Dell has captured the imagination of a tablet-crazed public with a handful of recent photos and details about a new convertible tablet called the Inspiron Duo. A prerelease sample has turned up in the CNET Labs for a hands-on test drive, and we're generally impressed with the design and concept, if less so with the performance.

Unlike traditional convertible tablets, which have screens that rotate 180 degrees horizontally, the Inspiron Duo screen flips 180 degrees vertically--hinged in the middle of the lid. When the screen is flipped over and the lid closed, the system launches a touch-friendly interface for interacting with photos, videos, and music (and returns to the basic Windows desktop when the transformation is reversed).

The flipping motion worked well on our demo unit, although the hinge felt a little loose. You have to take care to turn the screen only in the correct direction, essentially pushing the top of the screen back through the lid. Also, the screen occasionally collided with the keyboard with an audible thunk if we weren't careful about opening the laptop body wide enough for proper clearance. … Read more

Barnes & Noble announced today that its new "reader's tablet," the $250 touch-screen Nook Color, has begun shipping slightly ahead of schedule to customers who preordered the device. Some may even receive their units as early as today.

As for us, well, we picked up a review unit the other day at the company's headquarters in New York and put it through its paces over the last few days. While we still think Barnes & Noble has some work to do with adding more apps, all in all, the Nook Color is a very capable e-reader … Read more

TomTom continues to update its line up of GPS navigation devices. This time, it has announced the two newest models of its top-tier GO line of GPS navigators, the TomTom GO 2405 TM and the GO 2505 TM. These models feature a new external aesthetic, an updated user interface, and the promise of faster routing.

The GO 2405 TM and GO 2505 TM differ from one another only in screen size (4.3 inches for the 2405 and 5 inches for the 2505). Both units feature glass capacitive touch screens that allow users to swipe and pinch their way around the TomTom interface. There's also a new metallic chassis with an asymmetric rear-panel design and a suction-cup mount car cradle that holds the GO unit in place with a strong magnet for easy attachment and release.

One area where TomTom has typically struggled (at least in our eyes) is its menu structure and graphic user interface (GUI). The TomTom GUI saw marked improvements with the entry-level TomTom Ease and further refinement with the XL 350 and XXL 550 software update. The new GO models feature a further evolution of TomTom's interface with dramatically improved graphics and reduced aliasing on the map screens, vibrantly colored icons in the menus, and easy-to-read text throughout. The new screen is a gem, and the updated interface really shows it off. … Read more

We expected it for months, we heard rumors of its existence, and now photos have appeared seeming to confirm that a PlayStation phone is real. Such a device could simultaneously revive the flailing PSP platform and inject a truly gaming-ready smartphone into the Android ecosystem capable of competing with Apple.

We have our wish list of features we'd like to see, but based on what we've seen thus far, details are scarce. Some tech specs have been reported, but beyond that, there's a lot we still don't know. Among the many uncertainties, several unanswered questions come … Read more

Currently Apple offers only the newest generation of the iPhone, in one form factor, as well as one version of last year's model. A new report from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu suggests Apple may be looking to diversify its iPhone offerings.

Wu's supply chain checks have reportedly revealed that Apple is sourcing a variety of touch-screen options, both smaller and larger than Apple's current 3.5-inch offering, though the report does not mention what specific sizes those would be.

Some feel that Apple must diversify its iPhone lineup due to increased competition from Android-based phones, citing … Read more