touch-screen

Tactus touch screen sprouts keys and buttons

We've gotten used to touch screens always being flat. Get ready for that to change.

Silicon Valley start-up Tactus Technology has designed a touch screen that grows 3D buttons and knobs where and when you want them.

Smartphones, tablets, game consoles, and kiosks equipped with the technology would sprout physical controls like QWERTY keyboards and knobs on demand. The controls would recede into the touch screen surface after they've served their purpose.

3D controls are often easier to maneuver than today's flat touch-screen controls, as you can use them without looking. Getting the best of both worlds means marrying physical controls' higher accuracy and ease of use with touch screens' elegance, simplicity, and dynamic nature. The physical cues are especially important for people who can't see well or who have trouble with fine hand movements. They also make it easier to control your cell phone when it's in your pocket.

The trick to making a morphing touch screen useful is fitting it in a smartphone. The Tactus design calls for sandwiching a fluid between touch-screen layers and pushing the fluid around with a series of tiny valves. The top layer is flexible, so pushing the fluid to one part of the screen raises the surface there. … Read more

Hands-on with new Nook: Better than the Kindle?

Note: CNET's full review of the new Nook is up now.

The day after Kobo served up a new $129.99 touch-screen e-reader, Barnes & Noble, as expected, unveiled its own touch-screen e-ink Nook, which it's branding as "The Simple eReader."

We had a very good idea what the new device would be prior to the launch, but before we get to the initial impressions, here's a quick rundown of the new Nook's key specs:

Touch screen with Neonode "responsive" zForce infrared touch technology 6-inch Pearl e-ink screen (same screen as Kindle'… Read more

Hands-on with the Asus Eee Slate EP121 Windows 7 tablet

We've been testing and reviewing Windows tablets for many years, the latest being the new Acer Iconia Tab W500P, but have typically found them lacking--both in comparison with more powerful Windows laptops, and with other tablets, such as Apple's popular iPad.

One Windows tablet that we've been eager to check out after seeing it at CES 2011 is the Asus Eee Slate EP121, a high-end touch-screen tablet with a separate Bluetooth keyboard. Asus is, for the uninitiated, most responsible for the (now faded) popularity of low-cost Netbooks, and the company is now pushing the boundaries of what … Read more

McDonald's hires 7,000 touch-screen cashiers

"Welcome to McDonald's. My name is HAL 9000. May I take your order?"

McDonalds recently went on a hiring binge in the U.S., adding 62,000 employees to its roster. The hiring picture doesn't look quite so rosy for Europe, where the fast food chain is drafting 7,000 touch-screen kiosks to handle cashiering duties.

The move is designed to boost efficiency and make ordering more convenient for customers. In an interview with the Financial Times, McDonald's Europe President Steve Easterbrook notes that the new system will also open up a goldmine of data. McDonald's could potentially track every Big Mac, McNugget, and large shake you order. A calorie account tally at the end of the year could be a real shocker.

The touch screens will only accept debit or credit cards, adding to the slow death knell of cash and coins. This all goes along with an overall revamp of McDonald's restaurants worldwide aimed at projecting a modern image as opposed to the old-fashioned golden arches with a slightly creepy (to my taste anyway) clown guy hanging around the french fries.

This puts McDonald's one step closer to opening up its first Alphaville location. At least our new computer overlords will be nice enough to serve us a Filet-o-Fish. Maybe they'll even throw in an iPad with the Happy Meal one of these days.… Read more

Panasonic announces Lumix FH7 ultracompact

If the only thing stopping you from buying a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH5 was its lack of a touch screen, you're in luck. Along with the announcement of the considerably more interesting Lumix DMC-G3, Panasonic announced the FH7, a 16-megapixel ultracompact with a 3-inch touch screen.

The photo above spells out all its features for you, but if you want to read more about it, you can hit up Panasonic's global site (which is ridiculously better than the U.S. site).

No release date or pricing was announced, but since the FH5 is $150, I'd put the FH7 … Read more

Play your favorite hits on the touch screen

Smule's Magic Piano for iPhone brings the fun and beginner-friendly piano app to the small screen. Already a popular music-app pick on the iPad, Magic Piano offers up a unique touch-screen music experience, letting you play both classical and pop music hits by following and touching beams of light on the screen. If you don't like following along in Song Book mode, you also have the option to play freestyle in Solo mode, which lets you configure the keyboard into interesting shapes (circular, spiral, and other layouts) to add to the fun as you play.

Part of what … Read more

Rumor: BlackBerry Orlando on the way

Aside from rumors of the BlackBerry Monaco/Monza and Curve Touch, we've heard that RIM is also adding a couple of regular Curves to the mix just in time for BlackBerry World. They're code-named Apollo and Sedona, and supposedly are for GSM and CDMA, respectively.

To make things a bit more interesting, this leaked photo on Boy Genius Report is apparently a picture of the BlackBerry Orlando, which is just like the regular Curve except it has a touch screen (unlike the Curve Touch, this phone has both a touch screen and a physical keyboard).

This is strictly rumor territory, of course, and it makes us a tad suspicious that the handset's code name happens to be the same as the name of the venue for BlackBerry World next month. Still, this might be good news to BlackBerry fans as it would provide the best of both worlds.… Read more

Netpulse platform might make gyms more bearable

It's about time gyms started playing catch-up with our gadgets. No more should patrons have to argue over which episode of "Glee" to watch or which Beyonce album to blast. (Shoot, if it were up to me I'd run my heart out to the Sex Pistols while watching "Doctor Who," the combination of which would surely empty most gyms.)

A platform released as a separate add-on screen by Netpulse in 2010 may just help those of us who don't know what we want figure out how to get it. (OK, I'll stop … Read more

Meet IRIS, Asus' incredible shape-shifting gadget

One day, you might be able to turn your watch into a tablet--by stretching it.

At the CeBit tech fair in Hannover, Germany, Asus is showing off IRIS (Inspirational Research for Immersive Space), its vaporware concept for the next generation of personal computing devices.

IRIS can be whatever you want it to be, such as an alarm clock, watch, cell phone, e-reader, tablet, or gaming device. You simply slide the edge of the flexible display outward or inward. My favorite thing about this futuristic adaptive device, aside from its incredible style, is that it aims to eliminate the need to carry multiple gadgets. As smartphones, tablets, and other devices evolve, it seems more obvious that they will eventually converge while somehow maintaining portability. Zach Morris would so have this in "Saved by the Bell: 2040." … Read more