synaptics

Good keyboards are a valued asset in the laptop world, and they're starting to become a major factor in the tablet landscape, too. The iPad has its Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover; Microsoft Surface has its Type Cover. Perhaps Synaptics should get into the Windows 8 tablet keyboard landscape, too. … Read more

Gearing up for the shift to Windows 8, Synaptics wants PC makers to switch to an entirely new kind of touchpad, called the ForcePad. We recently met with the company in New York to take this new touch interface, which eliminates moving parts and adds pressure sensitivity, for a test drive.

Synaptics invented the touchpad in 1995, and since then, touch has become an increasingly important part of our interaction with technology (and the company now makes touch screens for phones, tablets, and laptops as well).

But laptop touchpads have also been a frequent pain point for consumers, with laggy … Read more

For all the advancements laptops have made, the humble touch pad has been essentially running the same hardware and software for years.

When you get right down to it, laptops only consist of a few key parts as far as user interface is concerned. Keyboard, screen, speakers--and, of course, the touch pad. With multitouch tablets and smartphones changing the interface landscape drastically, it's quickly becoming a multitouch world, and computers are the devices playing catch-up. Synaptics, makers of most multitouch touch pads used today, have a next-generation clickpad in development that hopes to close the gap quickly. Called the … Read more

If you thought tilting and swiping your iPhone was the future, just take a look at the Synaptics Fuse. It's a concept phone that points to how we'll be fingering, tilting, and even squeezing our phones in 2010 and beyond. We're lighting the fuse on this innovative concept and standing well back.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based touch-screen and trackpad manufacturer Synaptics has headed up a coalition of interface experts to produce what it calls a "next-gen mobile phone concept." It packs a 94mm (3.7-inch) WVGA AMOLED touch screen with a cool interface, rolling icons … Read more

Touch screens that track two fingers will soon seem basic. At least if you compare them with the multitouch-sensor ClearPad 3000 Series, recently announced by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Synaptics.

The transparent sensor tracks up to 10 simultaneous finger touches--we assume that should cover most uses--making possible complex multifinger gestures such as closing an application by "crumpling" it with several fingers, or playing polyphonic sounds on a virtual piano keyboard.

Apple made multitouch popular with its iPhone, which debuted about four months after Synaptics introduced its currently shipping two-finger sensor, ClearPad 2000, in August 2006. Though widely speculated that Apple is using Synaptics' technology, that has not been confirmed.

One phone that does use the sensor is the T-mobile G1 by HTC, and manufacturers such as Samsung and LG are also confirmed customers.

The new sensor features an accuracy of plus/minus 1 mm, is 0.3 mm thick, and is available in sizes up to 8 inches diagonally.

That supported screen size, and the speculated relationship between Synaptics and Apple, makes us wonder if this sensor is what Apple's been waiting for to launch its much-rumored tablet. … Read more

We're very happy to welcome you to our 1,024th episode, which as we know means we will no longer to count the shows in binary on two hands. But that's OK. We will still be doing shows. Because we have more hands. And our 11 finger listeners can still count on two hands. We also have a date for Windows 7. He's nice. They'll like him.

When will you get Windows 7 RTM?

Microsoft confirms Family Pack for Windows 7

iPhone, Mac sales continue to propel Apple forward

Apple can't seriously be "very happy" with ATandT relationship

ATandT to Power Upcoming PlasticLogic E-Reader

Google Wave public beta rolling out in September

"Vanish" makes sensitive data self-destruct

Artists find backers as labels wane

Disney to offer films on microSD cards, consumers to pass on by

Synaptics' ClearPad 3000 touch screen does 10-finger capacitive multitouch, other forms of dark magicks

Robo-Ethicists Want to Revamp Asimov's 3 Laws

Sam Raimi to direct Warcraft: The Movie… Read more

AT&T is expanding its cloud-computing efforts with its new Synaptic Storage as a Service offering for enterprise customers, announced Monday. The service will let business users save and access their data via laptops, smartphones, and other Web-enabled devices.

With cloud-based storage, businesses can tap into their data as a service without having to set up their own equipment. They pay a monthly fee for storage as they use it. AT&T plans to offer the service on a limited basis starting this month, with its eye on a larger rollout to its U.S. Internet data centers … Read more

Apple is betting that the iPhone's breakthrough in the way we interact with mobile phones will transfer over to notebooks.

The new MacBook Pros and MacBooks introduced Tuesday aren't all that much different from the ones that were on sale yesterday. Sure, they've got Intel's new Penryn chips, and more potent configurations, but for the most part, it's the same laptop. That is, with one notable exception.

Apple brought the gesture-recognition technology first introduced on the MacBook Air over to the new MacBook Pro systems, which will likely ship in much larger volumes than the … Read more

From the moment I played with the iPhone and Microsoft's Surface tabletop computing technology, I have been waiting for pinch-zooming and other motions to make their way into mainstream PCs.

The wait is essentially over.

Although it's the MacBook Air that's been getting all the ink for adding such gestures, Synaptics announced at the Consumer Electronics show last week a version of its touchpad for Windows notebooks that will also support a range of gestures, including methods for continuous scrolling, zooming in and out, and trackball-like movement.

And that's just the start.

"There will be … Read more