The Nokia Lumia 920 can be used with any gloves: it’s a miracle. But for the vast majority of other smartphones, that’s not the case, so there are a variety of sellers making touchscreen compatible gloves. Netherlands-based Mujjo was one of the first to try and make some that are actually stylish and durable, and they’ve been updated this year with a number of improvements. → Read More
As solid as modern touchscreens are, there’s very often an subtly apparent sense of disconnect when you try to use one. According to Paul Dietz of Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group, it all comes down to latency — he notes average touchscreens have a latency of a 100ms, which yields a noticeable bit of lag between a user touching a screen and the screen displaying a reaction to it.
Sure… → Read More
Some people complain about the direction of touch panels. Complaints about losing a physical keyboard are some of the biggest. Certainly typing anything larger than a page can begin to feel numb on a touch device.
So why not put the keys in the back? → Read More
Fax isn’t dead, at least not in Japan. In January last year, Panasonic introduced the “world’s first” paperless fax machine for the Japanese market. And today, the same company announced [JP] the KX-PW821, which is (according to Panasonic) the “world’s first” stylus-compatible fax/phone combo. In other words, it allows users to directly write messages on the 4.9-inch touchscreen and fax them with… → Read More
Joilcloud, is a Linux-based operating system for small devices (e.g. netbooks and touchscreens). The new version 1.0 now supports a long list of touchscreen devices right out of the box. Check out the video of it in action showing off the new HTML 5 interface. Looks pretty cool. → Read More
It was just a matter of time, but now Sharp has unveiled a 10.6-inch display [JP], which is 3D, can be used without glasses and is suitable for e-book readers, tablet PCs and digital photo frames. Just like with the 3D TV the company showed today, technical details are relatively scarce (both devices were publicly shown for the first time today). → Read More
Glasses-free 3D displays for mobile devices are nothing new. Hitachi, for example, started selling a 3D-enabled handset [JP] in Japan as early as last year. The Hitachi product didn’t make much of a splash, but Sharp’s new parallax barrier-based 3D display for mobile devices (which the company announced today) appears to be pretty cool. → Read More
We’ve told you about the iTable before, and PQ Labs. They showed off their latest stage in the development process at CeBIT this year, by installing the screen into a coffee table. The newest version can register up to 32 touch points and actually determine the shape of the object being placed on the screen. → Read More
Anyone remember Neonode? Apparently we do, but not very well. Anyway, these guys are back with a range of touchscreen panels called zForce. These pads range from 5 to 13 in. widescreen models, and are supposed to have plenty of advantages over current resistive and capacitive panel systems. Well that certainly sounds enticing, doesn’t it? → Read More
This strange app is a touchscreen interface that connects people, places, and things using “clouds” of items and people. It basically makes Venn diagrams of your contacts and allows you to share and explore content and messages.
This looks way too weird for the average user but clearly someone out there may want to move Sven and Nikola to a timeline and figure out which emails came from each… → Read More
With all the flaws that e-book readers have, they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. VTech, makers of fine educational electronics, are rolling out the Flip animated e-book reader, so now, your kids can get in on the action too. → Read More
If you have a friend who is a “serious” guitarist, you probably know how they love to show off their pedal collection. A dizzying array of brightly colored metal housings that more often than not, they don’t know exactly how they all work. Dave Verlee from the University of Illinois has cooked up a really cool virtual pedalboard using a wiimote and custom “toe-mouse.”… → Read More
Standard, boring LED screens: your days are numbered! Samsung announced today that it will begin mass producing AMOLED displays with touch functions built right in. The displays will be 3.3″ WVGA touchscreens that will be, thanks to the AMOLED technology, much thinner than your average touchscreen display on current phones. The beauty of this technology is that it produces thinner, brighter… → Read More
Kodak pretty much started the point and shoot camera market, but they’ve been behind for a while as far as innovation goes. In fact, this is pretty much an attempt to catch up with Nikon, Canon, and the other manufacturers who are using a touchscreen interface. → Read More
I’m not really sure if that’s something a lot of gadget freaks were waiting for, but here we go: TDK has found a cost-effective way to tint touchscreens. The company claims it can add color to transparent electrode sheets that serve as the basis of those screens. In the future, electrode sheets will be available in 13 colors, including red, green, blue, aquamarine, purple and black hues.
The… → Read More
Your iPhone or Zune HD has nothing on this. It’s the Ring Wall, the world’s largest touchscreen interface. It was designed by Sensory Minds, and it’s sitting real pretty in Nuremberg, Germany. → Read More
Oh my God is that the HP Pavilion dv3, complete with a fancy touchscreen? Oh my God it is! And is that the Engadget watermark? Oh my God it is! Man those guys are crazy! → Read More
In Japan, Sharp has been known for their ultra-mobile Zaurus for quite a while now, and today, the company added a new mini device to its line-up of mini laptops, the PC-Z1 [press release in English]. Marketed as a “Mobile Internet Tool”, the PC-Z1 comes with a tiny 5-inch TFT LCD (a touchscreen) and measures just 161.4 x 108.7 x 19.7 ~ 24.8mm (weight: 409g). → Read More
Fujifilm yesterday announced [JP] the FinePix Z300 for the Japanese market, a digital camera that lets users snap pictures by touching the target object on the LCD screen on its backside. The Z300 can focus the shot by itself so that even beginners can make decent photos. → Read More
Wow, hats off to some of the eggheads at Carnegie Mellon. They’ve developed a touchscreen that can actually produce tactile buttons by using latex, acrylic, and a little air pump. Imagine a touchscreen-only phone that pops up little keys when you open the on-screen keyboard. It’s like haptic feedback on steroids. → Read More
Potentially bad news for Apple coming from Asia. A Taiwanese company called Elan Microelectronics Corporation (who?) has filed a patent suit against Apple (the news release is in English) a few days ago, saying they own two patents for multi-touch panels currently used in the MacBook, iPhone und iPod Touch. → Read More
In two to three years we will have the next gen. Surface. It will feature a second projector that will project images above it’s screen allowing to overlay images on each other. Infrared sensors will let you control the Surface without touching it. → Read More
There’s an episode of Seinfeld (“The Slicer”) where George and Jerry discuss the merits of skin care and the skin care industry. Neither of them think very highly of either—at one point, George tells Jerry that all you need to do to take care of your skin is “wash it, dry it, move on!” That’s how I’ve always felt about remote controls: there’s no need to complicate the celebrated… → Read More
Those eggheads at MIT are at it again, this time creating a “sixth sense” gadget. It’s basically a combined scanner and 3D projector (with a touchscreen-like surface). Say, for example, you’re at the store looking at different boxes of cereal. You scan the box of Lucky Charms with the gadget, which then scans the internet for, I don’t know, nutritional information and a history of the… → Read More
Microsoft is spending quite a bit of money to make sure you are going to be able to use their Surface technology with Windows 7. They are the major partner in a venture funding investment to a company that makes touch screen hardware. → Read More
Round two of eliminate the fluff, Samsung edition! This time, we’re looking at the Korean corp’s P3 portable media player. This time around it’s got a touchscreen, with haptics thrown in for good measure. → Read More
Smart-Leaf is the latest company shooting for the casual PC user that needs a space saving designed ‘puter. The company seems to think that a touchscreen model with fold-out keyboard would fit-in nicely into your kitchen. Maybe they are right. I kind of want one. → Read More
Nokia, the world’s most ubiquitous cell phone company, is showing off the new 6208c phone in China, which sports a pen for easy input of Chinese characters. → Read More
While I can’t say I agree with the color scheme (Orange and black? I can’t decide whether it looks like a Halloween toy or a cheap pair of Reeboks), it looks like Samsung has managed one hell of an engineering feat with the just-leaked S8300. According to DailyMobile.se, this thing comes packed tight with a 2.8″ WQVGA AMOLED touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera with autoflash, GPS… → Read More
After blatantly boasting about how well they’d managed to keep the N97 off the radar, you’d think that Nokia would be incredibly wary of letting on details of future handsets. That is, you wouldn’t think they’d slide a shot of an unannounced touchscreen handset into a presentation in New York yesterday. Well, if this thing turns out to be legit, that’s exactly what… → Read More
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