Crave

(Credit: Troll Touch)

Sick of waiting for an Apple tablet? Tired of watching Windows 7 users show off their multitouch touch-screen programs? Well, Troll Touch is here to save the day, though you'd better be ready with a big wad of cash.

The Valencia, Calif.-based company sells resistive touch screens that can be installed on select Apple products and Dell monitors. These devices slip over the existing panels and connect to the machines via a USB port to impart some multitouch love. For those who prefer a complete package, Troll Touch also sells machines with a touch screen already installed.

The latest products from Troll Touch include touch-screen systems for the new 21.5- and 27-inch Apple iMac desktops and 13-inch Unibody MacBook laptops--all slated for delivery around December 1.

Retail pricing begins at $699 for the MacBook conversion up to $1,699 for the 27-inch internal iMac implementation that requires factory integration. You can purchase these products by contacting Troll Touch at its Web site. In the meantime, here are a few videos of touch-enabled iMacs in use.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 3G S is tops in touch-screen phones.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Market research firm ComScore reported on Tuesday that touch-screen mobile-phone adoption is not only on the rise, it's growing at a rapid rate.

Touch-screen phone adoption grew by 159 percent between August 2008 and August 2009, according to ComScore. The firm also found that by the end of August 2009, there were 23.8 million users with touch-screen mobile phones in the United States alone. In August 2008, just over 9.2 million people were using touch-screen phones.

But it's not just the touch screen that's enjoying strong growth. ComScore also found that smartphones are gaining traction across the U.S. Between August 2008 and August 2009, smartphone adoption grew by 63 percent. There were 20.7 million mobile subscribers using smartphones in August 2008. More than 33.7 million subscribers had smartphones by August 2009.

Unsurprisingly, it was the iPhone that led the way during that period. According to ComScore, the iPhone was the top touch-screen device for users aged 13 and older, capturing 32.9 percent of the touch-screen market. The LG Dare placed a distant second, accounting for 8.7 percent of the touch-screen phones in the wild. That device was followed up by the LG Voyager, BlackBerry Storm, and Palm Treo, which captured 7.8 percent, 7 percent, and 6.5 percent of the market, respectively.

It's also worth noting that the average user of a touch-screen device is younger than those who use standard mobile phones. According to ComScore, 51.4 percent of smartphone users are under the age of 35. A whopping 57.7 percent of touch-screen users fall within that age range. ComScore also found that 20.6 percent of touch-screen users range in age between 18 and 24. Less than 5 percent of touch-screen users are 65 and older.

Do you fall in line with these stats? Let us know in the comments below.

The Maestro 5310's roomy 5-inch screen makes for much easier viewing.

(Credit: Amazon)

Shopping for a GPS? You can get one with a 3.5-inch screen for as little as $50, a 4.3-inch screen for under $100, or a 5-inch screen for--well, these models are relatively rare, so prices start at around $300 and rise sharply from there.

Not today. TigerDirect has a refurbished Magellan Maestro 5310 5-inch GPS for $129.99 shipped.

What's the big deal about a 5-inch display? That seemingly small amount of extra screen estate makes maps easier to view and onscreen menus easier to operate. Consequently, I'd say it's a safer GPS than one with a 3.5-inch screen.

The Maestro offers everything else you'd want in a GPS, too, including text-to-speech (i.e. it pronounces street names), 6 million points of interest, a windshield mount, and optional real-time traffic.

Even if you don't spring for a traffic subscription (which costs $60 annually after a free three-month trial), you can use the Maestro's SmartDetour feature to plot a route around suddenly slow or stopped traffic.

You don't get a lot of fancy frills like Bluetooth or a media player, but I consider that stuff fairly superfluous anyway. The big screen is the big attraction here, and the traffic option is icing on the cake.

CNET hasn't reviewed the 5310, but the handful of user reviews over at Amazon are overwhelmingly positive.

Because this is a refurb, the warranty expires after 90 days. As always, I think that's a potential positive: whatever problem might have existed has already been corrected.

In any case, this deal has been running all weekend, so there's a chance it'll be ending soon. If you're in the market for a nav system and you'd budgeted $100 or so anyway, I'd definitely consider paying a little extra for this big, beautiful screen.

(Credit: CNET)

GameSpot on Monday published a report from the Japan-based Nikkei news service saying that a new Nintendo DSi with two larger screens is slated to hit the market as early as this year.

Supposedly, the bump would increase the dual screens' size from 3.25 inches to 4.3 inches. While that sounds like a huge upgrade, there are a few reasons we're just not ready to believe this yet.

First of all, this new redesign would force the production of a brand new casing, something we're not sure Nintendo is ready to spend money on with the DSi still fresh in the market. Second, Siliconera got word from Nintendo PR saying the story is pure speculation.

Finally, we just don't think a 4.3-inch screen for a DS system makes any sense. Since DS games remain locked in a specific resolution, the larger the screen gets, the more likely it is the games won't look as good as they do on a DS lite or DSi. Not to mention a new DS would certainly be the ultimate slap in the face to those who just purchased a DSi.

After a streak of Wi-Fi portable media players this season, including the Sony X-Series Walkman, iPod Touch, and Zune HD, the Android-based Archos 5 Internet tablet is probably the last major portable media player we'll see before the year's end. It would make for a cute read if I said they've saved the best for last, but after a few days with the Archos 5, I'm still not exactly sure where it ranks among its peers.

Fortunately, now that Amazon has officially put the Archos 5 up for sale, there's nothing stopping you from ordering an Archos 5 right now and making up your own mind about its relative worth. With any luck, we'll have our full review up next week. To tide you over until then, check out our First Look video, photo gallery, and some unboxing action from this week's MP3 Insider video podcast.

Archos 5 Internet Tablet--photos

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

CHIBA, Japan--What do President Obama, robots, comic book characters, and solar power have in common?

Not much. However, they were all spotted (in some form or another anyway) at Ceatec 2009, Japan's largest consumer electronics show taking place here this week.

Click the slides below for views from the second day of the expo.

Photos: Ceatec Day 2--robot phones, 3D TVs, Hellboy

Kohjinsha's transforming dual-display notebook.

(Credit: Scott Ard/CNET)

CHIBA, Japan--This otherwise run-of-the-mill laptop from local PC purveyor Kohjinsha has not one, but two widescreen displays.

One of the 10.1-inch screens actually slides behind the other, so it's able to be closed like a normal laptop. When they slideout they form an admittedly odd-looking, but useful dual display setup.

Also inside the laptop: a 1.6 Ghz AMD Athlon Neo-MV40, 4GB of memory, Bluetooth, a TV tuner, and a biometric fingerprint reader. The OS will be Windows 7 Home Premium, graphics are DirectX 10 compatible, and the whole thing weighs about 4 pounds. More photos of the sliding screens in action after the jump.... Read more

The CNET Prizefight you've been waiting for is here: Zune HD vs. iPod Touch. Just like the Thunderdome (minus Tina Turner and the post-apocalyptic wasteland), two portable media players will enter the ring, but only one may leave.

And for the first time, dear CNET readers, our Prizefight page has been redesigned to allow comments. That's right, now all your catty flames, insightful objections, or outright whining can be preserved forever, right on the Prizefight page. Another upshot of the page redesign: it looks soooo much better than the old version.

So head on over to the iPod Touch vs. Zune HD Prizefight and dump all your disappointment/elation into that newfangled comments box. You'll feel better, really.

(Credit: CNET)

If the MP3 player market was a fault line, we'd have a boatload of busy seismographs on our hands. Certainly, two of the most exciting releases of the past couple weeks are the new iPod Touch and the Zune HD. Now, if you're curious how the two devices compare with one another, you could always read the deluge of articles available on CNET and around the Web, but we can certainly see how that might be a bit overwhelming. Soon enough, we'll pit the two players head-to-head in a knock-down, drag-out brawl (aka Prizefight). In the meantime, we've created a purely technical spec-to-spec comparison chart to tide you over.