There's a reason the first thing in Windows 7 that Microsoft chose to show publicly was its support for touch input.
That built-in ability to use two fingers to rotate, scroll, and zoom offers tangible proof that the operating system is different from its predecessor, not to mention being something not found on a Mac.
However, many say that comparatively few Windows 7 PC owners will actually be reaching out to touch their screen. That's because, to use one's fingers in such a manner requires a screen that can support the technology--something that often adds $100 or more to the cost of a PC.
As a result, many expect touch-capable computers to be just a tiny fraction of the market for desktop and notebook computers, even after Windows 7 arrives on store shelves on October 22.
"We're thinking like 5 percent to 10 percent of shipments for 2010," said IDC analyst Richard Shim. And Shim said that, unless circumstances change, the rate isn't likely to climb significantly in the coming years.
Part of the problem is that there really isn't a killer application for touch on the PC, despite the fact that putting ones fingers on the screen has become the de facto measure of cool in the cell phone market.
It's not that there isn't interest in selling touchscreen devices. Hewlett-Packard introduced its TouchSmart all-in-one in 2007. The company now has several touch models, including both desktop and notebook machines. Dell has a Latitude notebook aimed at businesses and has also added an all-in-one with a touchscreen option.
And once Windows 7 hits the market, others will no doubt follow suit, particularly since Microsoft has done a lot of the work. Shim said he expects nearly all the major PC makers to have at least one touchscreen model when Windows 7 launches in the fall. Monitor makers are also expected to offer touchscreen displays that can plug into standard PCs.
"Touch will roll out," Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview last week. "We'll see it in all-in-ones and we'll see it in some laptops and you will see it across the different PC markets."
But just how many of these models will actually get sold is another matter. Some reports suggest that the low-cost Netbook market could actually see things pick up fastest, given their smaller (and therefore cheaper to touch-enable) screens and the fact that people are often using them on the go, without a mouse.
Although Microsoft offers a standard interface for gestures in Windows 7, there are actually several different technologies that computer makers can use to build a touch-capable computer.
New Zealand-based NextWindow uses an optical technology in which tiny sensors are mounted on the top corners of the display and allow the fingers' positions to be captured. It is the company behind the technology used in the all-in-ones from HP and Dell.
Israel's N-Trig, meanwhile, uses capacitive resistance, the type of technology used on the iPhone to read finger input. It combines this with a second technology to also allow input from a stylus. Its technology is employed in HP and Dell laptops, and N-Trig has also received funding from Microsoft.
N-trig's dual-mode digitizer allows for both pen and touch input and is used in laptops from HP and Dell.
(Credit: N-trig)NextWindow's technology doesn't require a special coating or film on the glass, so its screens can look as bright as non-touch displays. However, because it adds a certain depth to the screen, it isn't as suited today to the notebook market.
Touch is actually not entirely new notion for Windows, although Windows 7 is the first to support using two fingers at the same time. In the early days of Vista's development, when it was still code-named Longhorn, Microsoft envisioned the tablet PC market expanding to include touch-enabled devices.
"I'm not sure that it ever delivered on that promise," said NextWindow CEO Al Monro. "There really weren't any of the (software makers) that got behind it."
Although that continues to be a challenge, Monro notes that the market has changed considerably--most notably with the introduction of Apple's iPhone.
"That really brought touch into the mainstream," Monro said.
It also broke down a psychological barrier, Monro said, the notion that computer screens were something to avoid getting one's fingers on. NextWindow has its origins making large touchscreen displays for things like retail kiosks. Not too long ago, he said, the company had to put signs near its installations that said "I'm a touch screen. Touch me."
"You had to really scream it out," he said. "Now people just expect it."
The question now is whether software makers on the PC side will embrace touch interfaces in the way that those who design software for the iPhone have done.
As is often the case with new technology, it's sort of a chicken-and-egg problem, Monro acknowledges. Software makers don't take the time to adopt touch interfaces because not enough touchscreen PCs are sold, while the PCs are a tough sell because there is not enough software.
Monro said he still doesn't have a good feel when that cycle will break. "People aren't going to buy touch screen unless there are a range of things (they can do)."
For its part, Microsoft has done a couple things. By supporting touch at the operating system level, most applications should allow touch control of at least basic functions such as resizing windows, scrolling, and moving the cursor.
The company has also created a "touch pack" that computer makers can include on their systems. The software collection includes some casual games as well as small applications that have proved popular in Microsoft's other multitouch computer--its tabletop Surface machine for restaurants, hotels, and attractions.
Monro also disputes the idea that there needs to be one killer application. Rather, he said, what the industry needs is for a variety of software makers to take the plunge. Mapping, painting, and even social networking can all be better, he said.
"There are just going to be a variety of things that are easier to do with touch," he said.
While we've heard a lot about Windows 7, we haven't heard too much about the software and hardware that will take advantage of the new operating system.
That's starting to change.
This week, touch-screen maker N-trig is showing off a variety of third-party software programs that take advantage of the multitouch features of Windows 7. Meanwhile, Microsoft's hardware unit said it is also building support for Windows 7's new taskbar and thumbnail previews into its line of keyboards and mice.
Microsoft said beta versions of the drivers for its products are available now, with final versions set for release at the end of next month.
On the software front, N-trig is showing off a number of multitouch Windows 7 applications at a display conference in San Antonio, Texas, this week. Microsoft has also announced its own package of free touch programs for Windows 7, including three casual games and three programs ported over from Microsoft's Surface tabletop computer.
"There's lots of stuff going on," N-trig Vice President Lenny Engelhardt said in a telephone interview. Among the applications N-trig is showing is a photo browser from FingerTapps and a multitouch 3D design program from SpaceClaim. Corel also said it will have multitouch-enabled programs later this year, but didn't give specifics.
"Windows 7 and Windows Touch are giving Corel's software designers an incredible opportunity to enhance how consumers experience creative software," executive vice president Joe Roberts said in a statement.
Getting compelling software is key to transforming multitouch from a curiosity into something that consumers are willing to pay for. A touch screen adds on the order of $100 or more to the cost of a system, depending on screen size.
"In this current economic climate, to get people to buy new hardware is going to take some real nice, compelling applications," Engelhardt said.
HP and Dell have started shipping multitouch machines ahead of Windows 7, but Engelhardt said he expects all the major hardware and software makers to support touch at some level once the new operating system hits the market in October.
"None of these guys wants to be left out," Engelhardt said.
Although touch will remain a small part of the total PC market, Engelhardt said he sees it expanding from where it is today, with a few desktop models as well as a handful of convertible tablet laptops.
"A lot of those notebooks are going to be larger than what you have seen," he said. "There will be computers with 14- and 17-inch screens."
Multitouch will also reach the Netbook sector, though that market is harder to predict, he said.
Engelhardt said that multitouch has the opportunity to do the same thing for Windows PCs that the iPhone did for mobile phones--take a task that everyone was already doing and make it fun.
A video from N-trig shows some other possibilities for where touch can go in Windows 7. In the video (embedded below), N-trig shows a number of gaming scenarios, including the ability to play Guitar Hero using several fingers touching the screen. Although the makers of Guitar Hero haven't announced such plans, Engelhardt said the option is entirely technically feasible, with his engineering team having created a working demo.
Thus far, Engelhardt said, the consumer area appears to be ahead of the enterprise software market, but over time he expects more touch-enabled business applications as well.
For its part, Microsoft said it is happy with the level of touch support it is seeing from developers.
"We are pleased to see how quickly our partners are developing multitouch applications on Windows 7," principal group program manager Ian LeGrow said in a statement.
One of the features of the Zune HD is its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)CARLSBAD, Calif.--As D: All Things Digital wrapped up Thursday, I got a quick chance to play around with the Zune HD that Microsoft plans to ship this fall.
The software maker announced plans for the product on Tuesday and released a photo, but this is a product I was curious to see firsthand.
The most striking feature from my brief look was the device's striking organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display.
I got a chance to see most of the features, but not the one I am most curious to see--the Internet browser. I'm told it's based on Internet Explorer 6, as is the Windows Mobile browser, but the real question is whether Microsoft has made the interface better than that on its phones.
I'm also curious what Apple does with the iPod Touch in time for this fall. If they add a camera and a bunch of new goodies, it could give the Zune's HD Radio and other features a run for their money.
Anyway, without further ado, here's a quick video look at the Zune HD. (Sorry, the video trails off a bit at the end, but hopefully you get the idea.)
As my colleague Donald Bell notes, Gizmodo and Engadget have Zune HD hands-on looks as well.
Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed its plans to take on the iPod Touch with a new, touch-screen Zune that will be able to surf the Web, play high-definition movies, and tune in to digital radio.
The Zune HD, which will be available in the U.S. only starting this fall, features an HD Radio tuner as well as an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen, Microsoft said. It is based on Windows CE and will use a version of Internet Explorer customized for its touch screen, Microsoft said.
The software maker did not announce pricing or capacity, though it said the device will use flash memory and attempt to take on Apple's high-end iPod models.
"This device is created to go head to head with the iPod Touch," Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Microsoft Zune, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Zune buyers will also be able to play HD content on their TVs via a dock, Microsoft said.
The software maker also said that at next week's E3 trade show in Los Angeles it will announce details on a new Zune-branded video service for the Xbox that will replace the current Xbox Live marketplace for TV and movies. The company didn't announce details or specifically say that content will be playable on both Zunes and the Xbox.
Currently videos purchased via the Xbox can't be played on a Zune, although both stores use a similar back-end infrastructure to serve up content. Over time, Stephenson said the goal is to move toward a world in which content purchased once can be played on a variety of devices.
Microsoft plans to offer the new Zune video service in a number of European markets, in addition to North America.
Microsoft's Zune HD will be released this fall in the U.S. The software maker has not announced pricing or capacity.
(Credit: Microsoft )As for the Zune HD, Microsoft is doubling down on its bet on a radio tuner as a distinguishing feature. Stephenson noted that the current Zune's FM radio is its second most popular selling point. Adding support for HD Radio, a free over-the-air digital radio technology, represents both a risk and opportunity.
... Read moreSAN JOSE, Calif.--The success of Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPod have shown the consumer appeal of devices that respond to human touch and movement, but a quick glance around the San Jose Hilton showed just how young the industry is.
While this week's RSA 2009 show fills the Moscone Center a little ways up north in San Francisco, the Interactive Displays 2009 conference barely fills a mid-size ballroom here. Its show floor more closely resembles a science fair than the glitz of a big-time trade show.
But if you used one of the interactive displays here to show a heat map of this industry, it would glow red hot. That's because touch displays, for years relegated to kiosks and industrial uses, are quickly becoming mainstream. Hewlett-Packard and Dell already have touch-capable machines, while Microsoft is set to make gesture input standard with Windows 7.
And while the show is small, the 270 attendees are more than the show's organizers had expected, leading to a shortage of dishes, but an abundance of energy.
Speakers at the conference include big names like Microsoft and multitouch pioneer Jeff Han, while the small show floor serves as a showcase for start-ups, along with those that supply the base components needed to power touch screens and other interactive displays.
Among those young companies is a San Jose-based outfit called 22miles. Like many of the companies here, its core business has been one-off projects for hotel displays. But the company is also hard at work on technologies that go way beyond powering an interactive directory.
With a swipe of his finger, CEO Joey Yu Zhao pulled up a prototype interactive TV application. A video of a basketball game started playing. Zhao used a finger to pause the game and then swiped his finger to play in slow motion.
With a two-finger swipe, the video played faster and with three fingers it played faster still. Zhao even did his Mike Fratello impression, circling one of the players in red with another swirl of his finger, much as the "telestrator czar" does on TV.
In another corner of the cramped hallway that serves as the show floor, Canada's GestureTek showed some of its wares. On the floor is the kind of display that has become common at malls and other places, while another setup featured a driving game that can be controlled with nothing but a user's two hands, gesturing in mid-air.
It's intuitive, but tricky to master. One uses their hands as a steering wheel, spreading their hands out to accelerate and bringing them together to slow down. (As the video below shows, I'm not very good at it, but the idea is quite fun.)
On stage, speakers discussed both new areas for exploration as well as the key hurdles the industry still faces--issues of cost, size, and accuracy.
As far as what's in the future, one interesting topic had to do with displays that themselves can mold or "deform" themselves in response to touch.
Such technology is not here today, but is probably not more than three to five years out, said Christophe Ramstein, chief technology officer at Immersion, a company known for its force feedback technology. Ramstein said he is talking with a lot of large companies about the potential of that area.
"It's a big area," Ramstein said. "They are interested."
In his speech, Han talked about what he and his company--Perceptive Pixel--are up to these days. Although a lot of the company's business is in the industrial and government space, Han noted that his company has become best known for the touch wall systems it has sold to broadcasters like CNN, which used them in its election coverage.
"We actually didn't think broadcast was an area for us," Han said. "They found us at a military trade show."
He also showed a clip of the "Saturday Night Live" parody of the election coverage, saying it makes an important point. "It's a really fine line for us between something that really works...and falling into a gimmick," Han said.
Han also took the crowd on a bit of a journey back in time, reminding folks that while the multitouch business is young, its technology roots stretch back decades.
For his own part, Han said he was inspired by seeing a PBS documentary in the early 1980s that showed Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton, then at the University of Toronto, using multitouch to compose music on a computer. The computer itself was a green screen with an ancient processor and little memory, but the key underlying concept was already there.
"Sometimes it takes that long for these things to marinate and gestate," Han said.
And while things are now taking off, Han urged the crowd not to forsake quality in the rush to take advantage of a hot market. "That will ruin it and mess it up for all of us, and that would be a real shame," Han said.
Microsoft has already gone into plenty of detail about the touch features in Windows 7. In fact, touch was the first thing that the company shared when it came to how Windows 7 would look and feel.
But for those that really want to go deep, the company on Wednesday posted an even more detailed look at the thinking that went into building touch into Windows 7.
The company also noted that it continues to tweak the way gestures work as it gets more feedback from the beta version of Windows 7 that was released in January. For example, in its earlier incarnation, the recognition engine was missing many quickly performed gestures.
"We tuned the gesture detection engine with sample gesture input provided by real people using touch in pre-release builds," Microsoft said in the blog posting. "These tuned gestures are what you will see in the (release candidate) build."
The company also notes which touch-capable machines already in the market support the pre-release versions of Windows 7, namely HP 's TouchSmart All-in-One PCs (IQ500 series & IQ800 series), its TouchSmart tx2 Tablet PC, and Dell's Latitude XT or XT2 Tablet PC.
The blog goes into a lot of detail on how the gestures work and how the company tests the features. Because it's sometimes easier to see something in action, I've included two videos--one that I did last fall and another that Microsoft posted on Wednesday along with its blog.
Here's our earlier video:
and Microsoft's:
When I misplaced my Kindle last year, I not only lost the device, but also any means of reading several e-books that I was in the middle of.
That all changed on Wednesday. My Kindle is no closer to home, but by downloading the new Kindle app for the iPhone (which also works on my iPod Touch), I was able to recover access to my virtual library. Not only that, but thanks to Whispersync, I was able to start reading right where I left off. Whispersync is Amazon's technology for keeping one's place in a book across multiple Kindles or cell phones.
Although I don't think the "I lost my Kindle" crowd is the target market, I must say it was very satisfying to wake up Wednesday once again having access to books that had seemed lost.
The experience highlights both the pros and cons of the "digital locker" approach taken by Amazon with Kindle content. Although some have criticized the fact that one can't resell or give away their Kindle books, the site does provide other aspects of true ownership. In this case, I didn't need to re-buy anything and as soon as I entered my account information, I had access to every book I had purchased for the Kindle. (Periodicals don't work on the iPhone or iPod Touch.)
As for reading on the iPod Touch (or iPhone), I found it quite acceptable for my 15-minute public transit commute to work. The iPod's small size makes it easy to read on a crowded train. One can even hold the iPod and flip pages in one hand while hanging on to a handrail with the other hand.
Ina Fried's Kindle is still among the missing, but thanks to the new iPhone/iPod Touch application, she was reunited Wednesday with her electronic library.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)That said, I'm not sure I won't go out and buy a Kindle 2 eventually. The iPod Touch reading experience, while fine for short bursts, isn't the easy-on-the-eyes phenomenon I had with the Kindle. It's harder to buy books and I can't read newspapers or magazines. Also, I suspect it will do a number on my iPod's battery.
At the same time, I won't be deleting that iPod app even if I do replace my Kindle. The option of reading on my iPod will help for my commute to work and for those trips where I can't bear to carry an extra device.
Ultimately, the end result is likely to be that I will just be reading (and buying) more electronic books. And, in the end, that's exactly what Amazon wants.
REDMOND, Wash.--At Microsoft's TechFest, it takes a little imagination to see how the research technologies might eventually come to market.
A new video from Microsoft shows in an elegant, if utopian way, what it might look like if all of those gadgets came together several years hence. Earlier on Friday, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop showed the video in a speech at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
As I noted in my interview with Stephen Elop, the hardest thing for me to imagine wasn't that in several years time, all our walls will be displays, but rather that Microsoft will have become so efficient in getting all of its product groups working together.
Ian Sands, who works on future-related matters for the Microsoft Business Division, showed me the video earlier this week. The work, he said, brings together about 12 different projects that his unit is working on as part of Microsoft's long-term planning, a system known as Quests. Sands said that Microsoft is looking not just at the technological challenges, but also the organizational ones.
"It's forcing us to look at those issues," Sands said.
In any case, it's a pretty cool future tech video (I've embedded a somewhat shortened version below). The full version that Elop showed at Wharton earlier today included future implementations of a number of technologies that were on display at TechFest. It was pretty cool to see that someone is already looking at how those different things might interact together.
Among the TechFest projects that are evident in the video are SecondLight, a technology that allows a surface computer to project multiple displays, NanoTouch, a means for creating touch input on the back of a small electronic device, and a computerized receptionist.
"In concert, these things could have a broad impact," Sands said.
LOS ANGELES--In addition to getting to spend a few minutes playing around with Windows 7's new desktop, I had a chance to play around with its multitouch gestures.
The brief look came on a machine running a later build than the one Microsoft handed out to developers last week. More similar to the version that was shown onstage Tuesday, the machine I used had the new desktop featuring the Aero Peek and other features.
I thought it might help to show some of the features in a short video. (It was me holding a Flip video camera, so apologies for the jitters and less-than-ideal sound.)
Along with the gestures themselves, Microsoft has tweaked the desktop to support touch, doing things like spreading out menu lists to make the operating system easier to navigate with just a finger.
To scroll through a Word document, for example, users can run their finger anywhere in the Word window (not just in a narrow scroll bar). It has also added some visual cues, such as making a window bounce when one has reached the end or beginning of a document. That helps, because it can be a little hard at first to figure out which way to flick to head down a window.
The key question is going to be how much software developers take advantage of touch and how many computer makers include the necessary hardware in their laptops and displays.
In general, Microsoft has aimed with Windows 7 to provide features that don't require third-party support to light up. But touch is an exception. If you don't have a machine that supports touch, you get none of the benefit.
Many programs will have support for basic gestures, such as scrolling, but what will also be interesting is seeing programs that truly take advantage of the technology.
Microsoft's approach with Windows 7 also highlights a key difference with Apple. The Mac maker has focused, at least thus far, on expanding the touch abilities of the laptop trackpad. Microsoft, meanwhile, seems aimed at touch on the screen itself--though trackpad makers such as Synaptics have added support for gestures that XP and even Vista laptops can take advantage of if their makers' wish.
One Windows PC maker, Hewlett-Packard, has been branching out on its own, adding its own line of touch-screen computers ahead of Windows 7. It has updated its TouchSmart PC a couple of times and is also targeting the technology for laptops. Last week, HP also opened up its TouchSmart interface to developers.
During his keynote Wednesday at the CEO Summit, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates shows off TouchWall, a 4-foot-by-6-foot touch-screen computer prototype.
(Credit: Microsoft)It's one step removed from the Midas approach, but Bill Gates wants to turn nearly everything we touch into a computer.
Speaking to a crowd of CEOs gathered in Redmond, Wash., Gates showed off prototype technology he said will allow home and office walls to become computers.
While Microsoft's Surface computers are currently shipping for about $10,000, Gates said the hardware costs for such products need not be that high. Within a few years, it could be in the hands of individuals.
"We're saying it will be absolutely pervasive," Gates said. "When I say everywhere, I mean the individual's office, the home, the living room."
What Gates showed on Wednesday was a 4-foot-by-6-foot prototype called TouchWall. Among the things that appealed to me was the idea that presentations might shift away from the sort of robotic slideshows enabled by PowerPoint.
Along with TouchWall, Gates showed off the software that accompanies it, known as Plex. TouchWall itself uses infrared and laser technology to sense touch input, Microsoft said.
In his speech, Gates also proved why TouchWall is still in the prototype stage.
"Whenever I go up and touch it, the software will notice it," Gates said, in kicking off the demo. When nothing happened, he added the qualifier "theoretically."
The screen did come to life a few minutes later.
