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All posts tagged "touchscreen"


Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Olympus PEN Cameras Eagerly Anticipated

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 07:30 PM

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/03/ol...-pro-this-year/

"Olympus has been reported to be releasing new versions of its high-performance PEN cameras later this year or early next year. The first PEN to be released will be nicknamed the "Olympus PEN Pro" model - a high-end model with touchscreen technology. Another model to be released will be a mid-range PEN camera with a tilt screen and the third rumored model will be a PEN camera that's said to follow the original PEN EP-1′s design."

If you are in the market for what will almost surely be a high-quality portable camera, you may want to wait a bit and review one of these eagerly anticipated upcoming Olympus cameras. The folks over at the Ubergizmo website report that these cameras are expected to produce SLR-quality images in a nice compact format. While it is uncertain exactly which features will be included in each model, the touchscreen technology (if it is indeed included) is one feature I will be curious to try out.


Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Corel Paint it! touch Released

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 03:25 PM

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satell...20#tabview=tab0

"Corel Paint it! touch puts creativity right in your hands. Perfect for parents, kids and anyone who wants to have fun with digital art, this touch screen software brings new meaning to the word fingerpainting. Get in touch with your creative side by drawing or painting right on your touch screen monitor. Turn a photo into a painting with a just few quick finger taps and a lot less mess! You'll enjoy hours of doodling, sketching and enhancing images to make your digital art and photos come alive. Corel Paint it! touch-digital painting with your own special touch."

The only skill I have with my fingers is typing on a keyboard and playing bass guitar, so I'm not the target market for this program, but it's nice to see Corel investing resources in making touch-focused applications. Touch on a computer is a classic chicken-and-egg problem; the hardware guys won't invest in making touch everywhere until there's software to use it, and the software is slow in coming because there's not enough hardware out there. Corel has moved the bar forward a little with this new app - looks like fun!


Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t Reviewed By Engadget

Posted by Andy Dixon in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 03:00 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/10/...-s10-3t-review/

"Who says you have to pick between a netbook and the coming onslaught of standalone tablet devices? Okay maybe some (eh hem Apple), but Lenovo's trying to have it both ways with the IdeaPad U1 and the S10-3t. In clamshell mode the S10-3t looks like any old 10-inch netbook, but swivel around its capacitive mulitouch display and it turns into that slate device you've been dreaming of. That's not all: the S10-3t is one of the first netbooks (or netveritbles) that has the new Intel 1.83GHz Atom N470 processor. But can the S10-3t straddle both worlds and do it well? And perhaps more importantly, is it worth the premium $649 price tag? That's the question we've been asking ourselves for the last few days, so hit the break for some answers in our full review."

This netbook from Lenovo is a netbook with a touchscreen that can swivel to convert in to a slate, or netvertibles as they seem to be called. It has the new 1.8Ghz Atom processor from Intel, 320Gb hard drive, 2Gb of memory and the GMA3150 graphics, so in theory it should be a faster and snappier machine than the current netbooks. Unfortunately Engadget don't seem to think so, which is a shame, because I looked at the specs and thought this had the potential to be the netbook everyone would want.


Saturday, August 22, 2009

Nanovision MIMO 720-S Mini Touchscreen

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 03:00 AM

http://www.slashgear.com/nanovision...review-2053124/

"Back when we reviewed the first Nanovision MIMO USB monitors, the UM-710 and UM-730, we wondered whether price and niche appeal would see them a passing fad. The proliferation of roughly 7-inch USB display rivals in the intervening months would seem to suggest that fear was unfounded, and indeed Nanovision are back with their second generation of companion monitors. Now narrowed down to two units – the basic MIMO 710-S and the touchscreen MIMO 720-S – we’ve had the finger-friendly model on our desk for the past week."

Neat and potentially useful for both the desktop and as a portable, but at $230, I don't see the killer functionality. This needs to be sub $100.


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Tsera Invented The Touchscreen In 2003, Sues Everyone

Posted by David Tucker in "Zune News" @ 09:01 PM

"A company called Tsera has sued 23 electronics companies in federal court in eastern Texas for violating a patent on touchscreens. The suit, filed on July 15, cites Apple's iPod Classic and Nano products, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Zune digital media player, and several other popular devices as violating a patent, "Methods and Apparatus for Controlling a Portable Electronic Device Using a Touchpad," which was granted in 2003."

Well, here we go again. Is it even remotely surprising anymore when an unknown company with no products that I am aware of digs up a years old patent and sues, well, everyone? No, I didn't think so either. Its hard to say what will become of this suit. Tsera seems to be going especially hard after Apple's iPod and they do indeed hold the patents they are suing over.

According to the Information Week article, there could be some hope in the future. There is apparently legislation in Congress right now to make it more difficult to find courts that will be friendly to this type of litigation. Hopefully that will help but I really think we need to see some sort of reform for the patent process. The patent office can't be expected to identify a potential problem in a patent when its issued but it seems that before these lawsuits are allowed that the patent itself should be given a much closer look.

Someone might want to send the judge a memo that the touchscreen has been around since quite a while before 2003.


Thursday, July 16, 2009

Touchscreen Printing from Lexmark

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 03:00 AM

http://technologizer.com/2009/07/13...creen-printing/

"However, Lexmark is using its touch technology–which it’s calling myTouch with SmartSolutions (not to be confused with T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G phone)–for quite different purposes than HP’s. The Lexmark printers, unlike HP’s consumery model, are designed for use in small- and medium-sized businesses. Lexmark’s screens are Web-enabled (they let you scan documents and e-mail them without a PC being involved, and include a simple RSS reader) but don’t let you print Web content directly in the way that HP’s does. Instead, Lexmark mostly uses the screen to simplify tasks that you’d normally accomplish with the dedicated plastic keys that most printers have. And the SmartSolutions part of myTouch with SmartSolutions is a nifty-looking feature that lets you save multiple custom sets of settings for use by different people–potentially pretty handy in offices where folks share a printer."

I'm a luddite when it comes to printers, I just have a really basic black and white laser printer. Sure I print photos, but Costco costs $0.13 a print and is a minute away from my house. But, I do find these features pretty compelling for the office. In fact the scan/e-mail function is something I use quite often on our workgroup printer at work.


Friday, May 1, 2009

Dell's New Touch Screen All-In-One

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 05:00 AM

http://www.dell.com/content/product...s=19&l=en&s=dhs

"Reach out and explore the Studio One 19’s 18.5" display with optional multi-touch screen functionality on a choice of 4 color fabric trim options or Solid Pure White trim border. Crystal clear 16:9 widescreen flat panel HD display. User-friendly touch applications with optional multi-touch screen. Powerful NVIDIA® graphics with up to an Intel® Quad-Core processor. Optional wireless keyboard and mouse and optional built-in WiFi."

Wow, a very sexy design from Dell! Well at least the white one is. The other colors do look a bit ugly to me. Touch screen models start at $799. I like touch screen on a mobile device but I just don't see them being very ergonomic in this configuration.


Friday, March 28, 2008

Panasonic's Latest Point-And-Shoot Camera - Now With 100% More Touchscreen!

Posted by Tim Williamson in "Digital Home News" @ 12:00 PM

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0803/0...asonicfx500.asp

"Fans of flexibility will be bending over backwards to grab a glance at the latest offering from Panasonic. The FX500 features a 5x optical zoom that starts at 25mm (in 35mm terms), featuring the company's O.I.S anti-shake system. The FX500 is also the first Panasonic to feature a touch-screen interface, which can be controlled using either fingertips or the included stylus."

This camera definitely would have been a contender in my recent search for the ultimate compact point-and-shoot camera (I ended up with a Canon SD870IS which I'll be putting through the paces the next couple weeks while on vacation in Washington DC). It's pretty unbelievable that Panasonic has managed to fit a 5x optical zoom plus a 25mm equivalent ultra-wide-angle lens in such a compact body. The touchscreen interface is a feature I'd need to experiment with before I'm sold (I typically like tactile feedback), and I'm not too sure I'd want to be fumbling with a stylus while trying to frame the perfect shot. It looks really good on paper, but I'd wait for some photo samples and reviews before jumping on the bandwagon.


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