Assorted musings

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

SAN FRANCISCO--Long Zheng has had what would be a pretty impressive last couple of years for anyone at Microsoft.

In one 24-hour period last April, the 22-year-old built a version of Bing that offers instant results quite similar to the instant search results that Google introduced last week. He also created Metrotwit, a slick Twitter client for Windows using the Metro styling used in Windows Phone 7. All the while, he has maintained a well regarded Microsoft blog, I Started Something.

But Zheng doesn't work for Microsoft. He's a hobbyist. His impetus for building Metrotwit was that he … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--It's a little hard to write more about the movie "Catfish" without spoiling its thrilling twists, but I'm going to try, because really, who likes spoiled catfish?

The documentary that tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family. It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work. Schulman also starts an intense cell phone, text message, and Facebook relationship with Abby's older sister, while conversing with … Read more

A Windows machine crashing just after launch wouldn't ordinarily be a news story, but in this case the machine was actually Redmond's entry in a glider contest.

Project Phoenix, created by eight members of Microsoft's Windows team, was one of about 35 human-powered flying devices entered in this past weekend's Red Bull Flugtag event in Long Beach, Calif.

Unfortunately for Project Phoenix, the glider only made it a few feet past the pier from which it was being launched.

Ben Rudolph, a blogger on the Windows team and a pusher of the glider said that the … Read more

I've been a fan of pen technology for a while now, so I was more than a little intrigued by Sharpie's recent introduction of the Liquid Pencil.

It's sort of a hybrid between pen and pencil (and I'm a fan of things that cross boundaries once thought to be immutable.) That said, it can be kind of hard to wrap one's head around Sharpie's new creation, at least until you pick one up.

Although it looks like and writes like a pen, it uses liquid graphite and erases much like a pencil.

On the plus side, it writes smoothly, doesn't break or need new lead and it is even less smudge-producing than a standard pencil and far less smear-prone than any pen.

Its erasability varies based on a bunch of factors from the type of paper to how hard you press. In general though, it erases quite well soon after writing, which tends to be the only time I would want to erase anything anyway. It's supposed to get more permanent after the first 24 hours, but will remain somewhat erasable long after that.

Engadget has soured on the liquid pencil over the fact it doesn't become truly permanent. Sharpie responded that it might have overstated things when it said in a blog post that writing from the Liquid Pencil becomes permanent like a Sharpie.

Indeed, if you are signing a contract, writing a will or what have you, I'd definitely grab a pen. But, for those who want a pencil that won't accidentally disappear over time, I think you are probably safe with the Liquid Pencil. … Read more

I was already planning to spring for an Xbox 360 and Kinect add-on, when it comes out this holiday season. I've even been trying to figure out which messy room in my house is best suited to give me the space I need to move around.

I've been wanting something like Kinect since I played with an early precursor a few years ago and used GestureTek's setup early last year. I love sports and games, but am not much for having to map natural actions to a couple buttons on a controller. Traditional console gaming held little … Read more

While the upcoming "The Social Network" movie will offer one view of Facebook, another big-screen release may do a better job of showing both the power and pitfalls of the social network.

Catfish, which played at Sundance earlier this year and debuts in several cities next month, is a documentary that tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family. It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work. Nev, the … Read more

Adrian Mercado credits Mr. Gates at Microsoft with turning around his life.

No, it's not Bill Gates--although Microsoft Office did play a starring role in Mercado's transformation from wayward youth to motivated future worker. Rather, it is Kevin Gates--a dreadlocked, African American Microsoft employee, who Mercado said really inspired him.

Mercado, 17, was one of more than 50 teenagers and young adults who competed this week in a global competition to determine the world's most proficient users of Excel and Word.

More than 115,000 people--mostly students--entered the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office, with the best of … Read more

TRUCKEE, Calif.--HP Chief Technology Officer Shane Robison said that the company's acquisition of Palm will influence a range of products including slates and other computers, smartphones, as well as next-generation printers.

"What Palm gives us is a modern, Web-oriented, connected operating system," Robison said, speaking at the Techonomy conference here.

While HP has said that before, Robison suggested the degree to which WebOS will affect the product line is perhaps greater than some people think. For example, Robison said that most of the company's printers will soon be Web-connected and able to print without a … Read more