Touchscreen

TouchType has now transferred its touchscreen typing smarts from smartphones to the big screen, bigger than a smartphone anyway. The company has launched a new tablet version of its SwiftKey typing app to coincide with the release of Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and the launch of the Xoom tablet from Motorola. The app is claimed to make touchscreen typing more intuitive thanks to an improved version of the Fluency predictive text engine and easier thanks to optimized keyboard layouts and multi-language support.  Read More

Over the past decade, touchscreens have risen to dominate mobile phone and other mobile consumer electronic device interfaces – and their popularity shows no sign of waning. Capacitive touchscreens, the type most commonly used in consumer electronics, usually use a conductor made of indium tin oxide (ITO). This material is well suited to this purpose due to its excellent conductivity and its transparency in thin layers. Unfortunately there are few deposits of indium in the world, which has prompted a search for alternatives. One such new alternative are touchscreens containing carbon nanotubes, which researchers claim offer comparable performance to ITO, but are much cheaper.  Read More

With the popularity of Apple’s iPad it’s easy to forget that most tablet computers used to be laptops with a hinge that allowed the touchscreen display to be swiveled around and folded down over the keyboard. Such designs are still available today but have had their thunder (and much of their market share) stolen by the touchscreen-only designs like the iPad. Recognizing that there’s still plenty of people who prefer the functionality of a full QWERTY keyboard, Dell has introduced the Inspiron Duo with its new flip-hinge design that allows users to switch from touch to type mode with a flip of the screen.  Read More

Researchers from the Nokia Research Center in Tampere, Finland, have turned a wall of ice into a huge interactive touchscreen display. Using infrared emitters and detectors to determine hand location and movement, the team projected images onto the blocks of ice so that users could see flames behind their hands. Happily, users didn't need to worry about catching a chill from icy fingers as the setup managed to keep track of gloved as well as ungloved hands.  Read More

Differentiating between the model numbers that make up the HP Mini lineup can be tricky, perhaps even more so with the competing Inspiron Mini series from Dell out there. The new HP 5103, however, does have a lot under the lid to make it stand out.  Read More

Spanish consumer electronics manufacturer Energy Sistem has set a pre-Christmas release date for its new Android-based, 5-inch touchscreen tablet computer. The Energy Tablet i504 is powered by a Rockchip processor, can render video in 720p high definition, is Wi-Fi-enabled and has both internal storage and expansion opportunities. To the side of the display is a built-in webcam and an optical trackball.  Read More

Panasonic's newest addition to its LUMIX Micro Four Thirds camera range squeezes a host of new features into a frame that's a good deal lighter and smaller than its predecessor. The company has given the DMC-GF2 a more powerful image processor, increased its sensitivity, and added touchscreen interactivity. Like the model before it, the camera has a built-in flash and high definition movie recording, although users now get a choice of 720 progressive or 1080 interlaced.  Read More

TomTom has announced a couple of new additions to its GO range of satellite navigation devices. In addition to offering multi-touch control courtesy of a capacitive glass screen, the GO 2405 TM and GO 2505 TM feature voice recognition capabilities, instant and continuous routing, hands-free calling capability, a new easy mount system and a slim redesign.  Read More

If you've ever tried to create a work of digital art on an iPad then you may have suffered the frustration of not being able to see exactly what's going on directly beneath your finger. Even a stylus can't offer an ideal view of the exact edge of those thin outlines. Looking somewhat like it should be in the hands of a dentist, the oStylus solves this by giving tablet artists a porthole to the screen beneath. There's no need for cables or driver software, the capacitive screen for which this device was designed simply registers the flat disc at the end as though it was a human digit.  Read More