Multitouch

Steve Jobs may not have endorsed this, but if the Table Connect for iPhone takes off, it could give Microsoft's Surface a run for the money. The only thing holding this gigantic 58-inch working iPhone desk back is the need to hook up a jailbroken iPhone to the "table" via a 30-pin dock connector.

Still, the idea of multitouch on steroids--Cupertino style--should get Apple fanboys salivating to get their mitts on one. According to Engadget, the magic begins when the iPhone is docked and the entire contents of the screen get projected onto the full-HD capacitive LED … Read more

When it comes to the future of technology, Jeff Han literally has his finger on the pulse.

Han, best known for creating the giant touch-screen "Magic Wall" used by CNN, has been a pioneer in touch technology since his days at NYU. His 40-person company, Perceptive Pixel, is hardly a household name, but the company has carved out a niche for itself selling the kinds of touch wall systems used in defense, government, and medical-research markets.

"We're trying to understand how multitouch is useful to the knowledge worker (to) get real work done," Han told CNET. His comments come just as Perceptive Pixel has landed a new wave of funding, including an investment from products giant 3M. It's the second round of funding for the start-up, which now has offices in New York, Palo Alto, Portland, and Washington, D.C.

While Apple and Microsoft focus on the consumer and retail end, Han has zeroed in on the upper echelon of the business. His only real consumer play was a brief appearance in the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog back in 2007.

Although Han is focused largely on large-screen touch interfaces, one area he is also eyeing is the intersection between touch screens and "Minority Report"-style in-air gestures. On their own, he said, the in-air stuff is fairly imprecise, largely useful for games and entertainment--much the way Microsoft is using it for Kinect. Combine those gestures with a touch screen, though, and things get a bit more interesting, he said.… Read more

A few months ago, we wondered how iOS could make its way into OS X. Apple was clearly thinking the same thing, because the summer 2011 release of OS X Lion looks like it's going to make Macs very iPad-like indeed.

First and foremost, an App Store will be hitting the Mac "within 90 days" according to today's Apple keynote, with software updates and much of the same look and feel as what exists on the iPad. It looks as if the Mac App Store will focus on Mac-specific apps, but it can't require too … Read more

Smart Scroll is a handy preference pane that can give you much more flexibility with trackpad, mouse (and Magic Mouse), and keyboard scrolling, including coasting iPhone-style scrolling.

Smart Scroll works in the background, but its settings interface gives you extensive control over its five primary features: the iPhone-style "Super Scroll" that lets the content of a window continue scrolling even after you let go of your trackpad or mouse (you can easily control the speed and amount of "coasting," stop with two fingers, and even reverse the x and y axis to match the iPhone); the &… Read more

The next version of Ubuntu will get multitouch interface abilities, catching the Linux operating system up to Windows and Mac OS X in at least one domain.

"Every single major PC manufacturer has been asking for a touch story on Linux. This has been one of the major missing points for Linux in the PC ecosystem," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the company called Canonical that develops and supports Ubuntu. But multitouch support will arrive in the next version of Ubuntu, 10.10, aka Maverick Meerkat.

Adding multitouch isn't easy, particularly in the open-source world of Linux … Read more

Support for multitouch on Windows 7 computers and cross-platform improvements to how the browser handles JavaScript were the biggest changes brought by Mozilla to the third beta of Firefox 4, released Wednesday. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Firefox 4 beta 3 doesn't make any changes to the interface but does make some important adjustments to how the browser handles JavaScript, an essential component of modern browsers.

The new beta adjusts how C++ represents JavaScript, which will allow Firefox to run numeric-heavy code more efficiently. In a blog post announcing the new version, Firefox said the end result of … Read more

With the Apple Magic Trackpad creating ripples regarding the spread of touch across all Apple devices, it's important to regard a product that visited this territory last year, and perhaps even attempted it more ambitiously. The Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch, a combination multitouch trackpad and pen-based tablet that theoretically offers a killer alternative to the Apple's pad for one reason alone: its versatility.

After reviewing the Magic Trackpad this week, I realized that a Bamboo was still in a drawer in my cube, and I pulled it out to revisit. How did it compare with Apple's sleek square? And, more importantly, are there any areas where it's even better?

First off, the Bamboo is larger than the Magic Trackpad. The extra-wide Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch I have is a lot larger. It's similarly colored to Apple's tiny device, but made of a less sturdy-feeling plastic that's prone to scratching. The Bamboo Pen and Touch is a also a USB-wired device, unlike the wireless Magic Trackpad. It's also more expensive: while a $69 model offers only pen or touch input but not both, the combination pen and touch-pad combo that most users would want costs $99. The extra-large version we reviewed, the Fun, costs $199. The not exactly cheap $69 Magic Trackpad comes off as a relative bargain. … Read more

Apple's new Magic Trackpad is a clear sign the company is serious about multitouch and gesture as the future of personal-computer navigation. And it might be right.

Almost all modern smartphones incorporate a series of swipes and taps as their interface. MacBook users have been using multitouch on their trackpads for a few years, and the Magic Trackpad is clearly an extension of that experience.

But a lot of people are making noise that the Magic Trackpad--and it's sure-to-follow imitators--heralds a mouse-free future. This being the Internet, there's an opposing camp calling them all idiots.

So … Read more

Apple seems to be in the later phases of a touch revolution as of late--or, at least, it seems to be trying to complete the loop. In a movement started by the iPhone and continued in MacBook multitouch trackpads, the Apple Magic Trackpad extends multitouch to non-laptop Mac owners who might feel left out of the pinch-to-zoom/multi-finger swipe party.

Touch is hardly an Apple-only trend--in fact, many desktop Windows all-in-ones already incorporate touch-screen environments. Apple does, however, seem to be keen on possibly phasing out the mouse from its plans and working a common language of touch gestures across all Apple products. Could this portend iOS creeping its way into OSX? That's still unclear, but the Magic Trackpad does offer some possibilities all its own, whether or not iOS makes a Mac debut.

As a compact square slab, the Trackpad could ideally do things that a regular mouse just can't, including be a lap device for living-room use. While we found the Magic Trackpad to work well and do what it advertises, it really could go a lot more places in the future. Right now, the Magic Trackpad isn't really "magic." But it could be, in the future. Here's what we'd like next: … Read more