Microsoft researchers have come up with a way to make devices sensitive to touch input through fabric — for silencing a phone or even entering text without taking the device out of a pocket or bag.

PocketTouch uses a custom sensor on the back of a smartphone that can detect multitouch gestures even through heavy fleece or a jacket pocket. The The first prototype is complete and we would see a demonstration sometime soon.

Microsoft uses “orientation-defining unlock gesture” that essentially tells the device which way is up, thereby removing the problem where device can be in a different orientation inside pockets. Grid of touch sensors can detect finger strokes through cloth and hence make it possible to have a specific unlock gesture that reorientates the screen each time you use it – avoiding the need to flip your phone upside down before using the interface.

OmniTouch

OmniTouch makes any surface touch compatible. OmniTouch uses a a pico projector and a depth camera (like Kinect) to let people interact with programs projected onto their skin or other surfaces. Users can define the size and location of their own interfaces, or let the system decide the best choice of display.

The researcher calls it a “mega Kinect hack” and an extension of his previous device which could only work on skin. While the prototype device is quite bulky, soon it would be possible to reduce the size of the equipment to the size of matchbox.

Both systems are being presented this week at the User Interface Software and Technology symposium in Santa Barbara, California.

We write latest and greatest in Tech Guides, Apple, iPhone, Tablets, Android,  Open Source, Latest in Tech, subscribe to us@geeknizer on Twitter OR on Facebook Fanpage:

MagicPrefs lets you create custom gestures as well as override existing ones to add new Multitouch gestures to your Macbook trackpad or Mac Pro trackpad. The custom Multitouch gestures hence added are powerful  and precise that make the experience nuisance-free.

MagicPrefs can take upto five fingers and support all types of taps, clicks, touches, swiping, rotating, and pinching actions. You can make trackpad perform all the tasks like start Exposé or Dashboard, initiate Quicklook, and run AppleScripts, launch apps, zoom in-out, anything. For a better experience, the options lets you define the sensitivity of a gesture.

You can choose to disable gesture when specific apps like games are running.

Go ahead and tryout MagicPrefs, its free and full of customizations.

We write latest and greatest in Tech Guides, Apple, iPhone, Tablets, Android,  Open Source, Latest in Tech, subscribe to us@geeknizeron Twitter OR on Facebook Fanpage:

Apple is listening its users and thats why they are now introducing new Multitasking gestures in upcoming iOS 4.3. With Four finger swipes, you can switch between tasks. This would be amazing for iPad, but looks awkward (at least for now) on a smaller screen of iPhone, iPod Touch.

Youtube user anotninygaard has given a video presentation of how Multitouch Multitasking Gestures are supposed to work in iOS 4.3.

For more Tech, iPhone, iPhone apps, Android, Gaming, Tech News, catch us @taranfx on Twitter.

Microsoft has announced a brand new Microsoft Surface at CES 2011 featuring all new windows 7 based surface that runs on a regular desktop config and is much thinner, and portable than before. “. The absence of the cameras, makes it thinner. One of the most amazing things about the new Microsoft Surface is its “Pixel sense“, a technology that lets the large surface screen to see things placed over it.

Microsoft Surface 2 Demo at CES 2011

The SUR40 comes equipped with pedestals and mounts in order to maneuver and position the 40-inch, 4-inch-thick, 1080p screen and make it less of Microsoft Surface 2 and more of Microsoft Computer Monitor 2. The device sports a 2.9 AMD Athlon II X2 processor and a Radeon HD 6700M graphics card, runs Windows 7, and has Windows Phone 7 support. The Samsung SUR40 also employs the use of Gorilla Glass, a type of glass that can withstand more abuse than regular glass.

The SUR40 costs a cool (uncool) $7,600 at the moment, which is hilariously cheaper than the $12,500 original.

For latest Google, Open Source, iPhone, Android, Tech news @taranfx on Twitter or subscribe below:

Ubuntu has announced that full multitouch gesture-based support will arrive in Ubuntu 10.10, the next major version of the popular Linux distribution. Multitouch will be coree component of Unity UI (the netbook distro).

A new software framework called uTouch has been developed intended on simplifying gesture handling. Some of the common grammar of gestures that will be incorporated in Ubuntu 10.10 has been demonstrated in an early draft.

The uTouch wont do all this on its own. Unless and until you have a kernel that’s touch aware, user experience will suffer. That’s why Ubuntu’s multitouch relies on some of the recent improvements in the Linux kernel, the Xorg display server, and the Gtk+ toolkit. Multitouch X Input Extension is the heart of all these improvements that would enable multitouch-enhanced user experience on the desktop.

However, there is still a lot more work to do before touch will be a first-class input mechanism for the platform. The standard applications that are included in the GNOME desktop environment are not particularly touch-friendly and will need some significant user interface refactoring.

“In Maverick, quite a few Gtk applications will support gesture-based scrolling. We’ll enhance Evince to show some of the richer interactions that developers might want to add to their apps,” Shuttleworth wrote in his blog. “The roadmap beyond 10.10 will flesh out the app developer API and provide system services related to gesture processing and touch. It would be awesome to have touch-aware versions of all the major apps—browser, email, file management, chat, photo management and media playback—for 11.04, but that depends on you!”

Another problem would be to overcome hardware compatibility. Initially, it plans to support convertible notebook/tablet devices such as the Dell XT2 and HP tx2. But the Canonical, founder of Ubuntu assures this would be taken care over time as they plan to cover all touch devices including laptop touchpads and devices like Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Canonical’s multitouch efforts could make Unity an appealing option for users to lookout for Linux and Open source projects.

We write about Latest in tech, Apple, iPhone, Android, Tablets, Gadgets, Open Source, Programming. Grab them @taranfx on Twitter or below:

Multitouch brought revolution to mobile devices, and will soon have its magic spread over to notebooks, other gadgets. Multitouch will even spread its wings over Music creation, extensively. We have seen a Multitouch guitar that can do far more than a conventional one.

The Future of DJing has alot better things to come with. Token multitouch is a futuristic DJing device which is nothing but a clear sheet of glass that beams out video from your computer and accepts touch inputs in return. It uses a rear projector for its video

The Token can work well with popular DJing software Traktor Pro controller called Emulator, turning a few intelligent finger swipes into a kickass light-and-sound show.

via pablomartin

We write about Gadgets, Open Source, Music/Audio, Tech news. Get them all via @taranfx on Twitter

Basically, Magic Trackpad is a MacBook Pro touchpad on steriods. With 80% more surface area for all those nasty gestures, it’s  a possible mouse replacement that itself acts like a one big button. Some of the popular gestures would include: two-finger scrolling, pinch to zoom, fingertip rotation, and three- and four-finger swipes, all of which can be enabled or disabled in Preferences.

Wireless

The bluetooth functionality allows you to operate the it from up to 33 feet away.

Magic Trackpad runs on two AA battteries, which comes with six AA batteries accompanied with charger, which Apple claims to be the Greenest Charger. The AA batteries that ship along with are designed to last for hundreds of charges.

Suits your Design

The Magic Trackpad gives you the same feel as of Apple’s wireless keyboard — same design and angles as Apple’s wireless keyboard.

Magic TrackPad Pricing

It’s available now at $69, worth the price, provided you appreciate the value it adds.

We write about Latest in tech, Apple, iPhone, Tablets, Gadgets, Open Source, Programming. Grab them@taranfx on Twitter or below:

Though, there are several apps in the App Store that let you tickle around the iPad with some great drawing apps, none of them promise you near Real-drawing experience as iPad lacks pressure sensitivity. The iPad’s IPS panel is NOT pressure-sensitive that’s why you would not get that experience,  but with some clever software and a special capacitive stylus, the folks at Ten One Design built a convincing proof of concept that works in practice.

Stylus producer Ten One Design – best known for their Pogo stylus, that works with the capacitive touchscreens used on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad – has demonstrated an app which would allow iOS based devices to respond to pen pressure.  Like on a professional graphics tablet, that would allow iPad artists to adjust line-thickness depending on how hard they pressed.

How Pressure-sensitive drawing works: The idea is simple, when the  stylus is pressed down, the soft tip of the stylus expands like a brush, generating a “larger press” that can be detected by the algorithms written in the app. They also have plans to make this library open source for people to re-use and innovate on it.

Watch it in action:

via slashgear

We write about apple, iPhone, iPad, Open Source and latest in Tech @taranfx (Twitter) or subscribe below:

The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 was first introduced last May as a series of 6 applications that were designed to showcase Windows Touch in Windows 7 and to help people learn touch gestures. The features were limited to OEMs with devices having multitouch. But now the Touch pack allows users to use it with any 3rd party touchscreens.

The Touch Pack is a set of six multi-touch consists of 3 casual games, and 3 Microsoft Surface applications that have been created for Windows 7.

Download: Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7

What’s Inside Touch Pack

1. Microsoft Surface Globe uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a 3D  Earth. Using multi-touch, you can navigate to different regions, get local information, and “pin” your favorite locations. You can even “fly” around 3D models of buildings in some cities.

2. Microsoft Surface Collage: A photo collage app that arranges photos in the way you want.

3. Microsoft Surface Lagoon is a screensaver that you can interact with using multi-touch.

4. Microsoft Blackboard, A puzzle game of physics that uses nifty machine on a virtual blackboard. Use gestures to rotate and resize gears, fans, seesaws and more to move balloons and balls toward the light bulbs – and victory.

Other Games:

5. Microsoft Rebound

6. Microsoft Garden Pond

The apps gives you basic multitotuch experience on Windows 7 but clearly shows how immature this platform is as far as Multitouch is concerned when compared to a native device like iPad. This is the reason why HP’s Slate is a bad idea.

But would multitouch apps appear on Windows 7 Marketplace? We’ll have to wait to see it.

We write about Tech Guides, Open Source, Programming, Web, Apple, iPhone, Android and latest in Tech @taranfx on Twitter or by subscribing below:

Google announces that Nexus One users will now be able to receive an over-the-air (OTA) software update on all phones. the current update provides some great new features and bug fixes:

Pinch-to-zoom functionality (MultiTouch): devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications.

Google Goggles: Available directly on device by launching it from your All Apps menu.(Google Goggles Visual Search)

Google Maps: Update to Google Maps 3.4, which will include:

• Starred (Favorite) items synchronized with maps.google.com
• Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history
• Night mode in Google Maps Navigation

3G Fixes: Finally, 3G issues are taken care of.

How to Upgrade

You will receive a message on your phone’s notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set.

Note: This update is being rolled out gradually over the week. It might reach you anytime.

We write Tips N Tricks for Android, Nexus one, iPhone, Tech Guides and the latest in Tech, get them all @taranfx on twitter or below:

Here’s how you can do it.

Step 1: Root your Nexus One (if not already).

Step 2: Download all the mentioned files for:

http://n0rp.chemlab.org/android/nexus/Browser.apk
http://n0rp.chemlab.org/android/nexu…od.android.xml
http://n0rp.chemlab.org/android/nexu…od.android.jar

Step 3: To add these files, run the following commands:

adb shell stop
adb remount
adb shell rm /system/app/Browser.odex
adb push Browser.apk /system/app
adb push com.cyanogenmod.android.jar /system/framework
adb push com.cyanogenmod.android.xml /system/etc/permissions
adb shell reboot

Step 4: You’re done! Reboot your nexus one, and launch the all new Multitotuch browser.

The video below demonstrates the multitouch on the Nexus one Web browser:

We write Tips N Tricks for Android, Nexus one, iPhone, Tech Guides and the latest in Tech, get them all @taranfx on twitter or below:

Misa Digital have come up a with a  unique, first-of-its-kind state of the art multitouch guitar. The body, is well finished with ABS. The player puts theirs hands in the same places you would on a guitar but the lack of strings and presence of multitouch makes it something different.

But wait a minute. Why do we need it?

Here’s what the founder has to say about traditional guitars

Guitars by their very nature have limitations. To create sound you need to hit a string, so that the sound at its most intense point is always the beginning of the pluck. The left hand controls what notes to play, and the right hand controls when to play these notes and the intensity of the notes. Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time. Even in the (rare) case that controls are mounted on the guitar, the hand needs to switch between strings and controls. This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently – good luck with that.

Basically, the fret is emulated by 144 sensors spread over 24 fret positions, six lying in each. Ofcourse you don’t strum with your right hand but rather uses the multitouch screen to control the inputs.

Touchpad controls:

• Digitizer filter
• note velocity
• pitch

The UI looks solid, something that can’t be explained in words, you wil have to see it for yourself:

The Concept:

The Misa digital guitar software is open source, and powered by the Linux operating system. This means programmers have the flexibility to modify how it works, and even change the interface to provide specific functionality. This is important because collaboration from the users themselves, experimenting and innovating in their own ways, will further improve the instrument.

The Misa digital guitar is a MIDI controller. It must be plugged into a MIDI capable sound module. The sound of this instrument is limited only by what you connect to it.

Specifications: Linux kernel 2.6.31 (Gentoo); 24 frets; touchscreen;

It is powered by  AMD Geode processor. That means this is open source waiting to see your own innovation. Other specs include MIDI out; Ethernet; and SSH server.

Get on, start writing code to get that beat.

We write about Gadgets, Open Source, Music/Audio, Tech news. Get them all via @taranfx on Twitter

There had been lots of rumors on iPhone 4G and Apple Tablet aka iSlate. Luckily, new patents reveal that adds fuel to the craze of what apple had been innovating under the hood.

The US Patent and  TM Office published a patent application from Apple’s work on multi-touch screen technology that will power it’s next generation devices.

The  patent has more to do with displays with capacitive elements of the pixels — the system that generates an image on the display also form part of a touch sensing system that senses touch events on or near the display.

The patent focuses on displays including pixels with dual-function capacitive elements that translate into fewer moving parts and/or processor steps that could deliver thinner, brighter displays.

Without going much in detail, here’s alist of things this patent claims:

1. Dual-Function Capacitive Elements: “Touch screen having regions of pixels with dual-function capacitive elements that operate as LCD elements and as touch sensors according to embodiments of the invention”.  Till date most devices use separate screen/surfaces — One for display and one for Touch. This patent makes it possible to do it via one surface, efficiently.
2. Touch Screen with Metal Traces for Key Devices: Metal traces running in the border areas of the touch screen according to embodiments of the invention. The new touch screen technology that includes pixels with dual-function capacitive elements is idle for Apple’s iPhone,  Apple’s MacBook trackpad and display.
3. In-Plane Switching LCD using Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon: IPS or in-plane switching LCD display using (LTPS) low temperature polycrystalline silicon according to embodiments of the invention.

In-plane switching was developed by Hitachi Ltd. in 1996 to improve on the poor viewing angle and the poor colour reproduction of TN panels at that time. The magic comes into play when you add LTPS. LTPS provides more than a 100 times faster TFT mobility than the amorphous silicon technology.

Follow us on @taranfx for Live Apple, iPhone, iSlate updates

[via patentlyapple]

Designers and developers can now build rich Web content for the browser when running the Flash Player on the desktop and mobile alike. Final releases of Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 are expected in the first half of 2010.

The big features in AIR 2 are: Support for USB mass storage devices, support for multi-touch and gesture-based input, improved support for local peripherals and native application processes, improved performance, and peer to peer and UDP networking.

Adobe officials are excited about the mobile capabilities of flash player:

“As we are bringing Flash Player to multiple devices, this is the first beta release,” said Tom Barclay, Adobe senior product marketing manager for the Flash platform. “What we’re announcing now is really the full Flash Player. Everything that the full Flash Player can do on the desktop we trying to take over to a mobile device,” Everett-Church said.

The earlier Adobe’s Flash Lite software had limited potential for the mobile users, the new Beta update brings desktop capabilities to the mobile platform. Flash 10.1 supports multi-touch, gestures, accelerometer and mobile input models which will bring rich Flash interaction to mobile platforms. Going further, however, it also adds support for screen orientation changes, sleep mode, adaptive frame rate streaming, and graphics hardware acceleration.

Clearly, they’re trying to basically create one version of the software, a common foundation across different platforms including desktop and mobile

The Flash Player 10.1 browser runtime is based on efforts of the Adobe-driven Open Screen Project to provide a Flash-based unified runtime environment for devices. Version 10.1 features media delivery using HTTP streaming and content protection from Adobe Flash Access 2.0. Also, version 10.1 can leverage hardware decoding of H.264 video [based on GPU] on Windows PCs and devices, thus conserving battery life and offering smoother video playback, Adobe said.

Flash Player 10.1 features availability for a range of devices, including smartphones, netbooks, and other Internet-connected devices, Adobe said. Content can be delivered across different OSes and devices. Also, SWF files can be deployed on devices with limited processing power.

“What’s happening now is in the process of bringing Flash Player 10 features and eventually AIR features as well to mobile, we are now working on a single code base and single environment,” said Aaron Filner.

Both AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 support multitouch and gesture-based applications on touch screen devices. The beta releases are available as free downloads from-

Adobe Labs: Download

Mobile Devices supported include Android, Windows Mobile, Palm webOS, and Symbian S60. The AIR 2 beta is offered for several Windows OSes, including Windows 7, as well as for Mac OS and Linux. As we already know, there is till no hope for Flash on iPhone, thanks to Apple’s closed policies.

What do you think, is this a good move for the mobile platform? What happens to iPhone?

The Apple’s new Magic Mouse doesn’t have anything on the surface. Instead of buttons, it has a aluminium-based smooth multitouch panel. I wonder how strange it might be to use in the long run.

It features a number of gestures that are, surprisingly, different from Macbook Pro trackpad.

The touch-sensitive surface can either be single- or multi-button –  can be configured easily on need basis – and is ideal for scrolling through long documents and webpages. You can  scroll with two or three fingers, move them up and down. You can also “swipe” to go back and forward through lots of web pages or photos.

The idea sounds great but what happens when you put it to practical use?

I’m sorry Apple, it could be just me, but after using it for a while, I felt, I’m better off using a normal mouse. I felt as if I’m using a super sensitive gadget that catches my every move. It’s normal for a user to touch mouse with fingers randomly, even when we don’t intend doing anything,  and this intelligent thing tries to match a gesture from it -whooops! May be if they would have made some way of restricting capturing all touches, it would have been more fun. If I want to continue using this mouse, I have to be nice to this mouse at all times by not touching him randomly while something makes me wait on the screen.

Design: Physically, the mouse is beautiful, and feels great. It is one seamless touch surface, and, logically, there is no Mighty Mouse scroll nipple.

The surface can also simulate the left and right buttons. Unlike in previous Apple’s mice, the two buttons work perfectly. This time they also added physical feedback, so when you click the buttons, you actually get the entire surface to click—like the original clear Apple mouse.

Installation: When you unpack and first flick the mouse, easily it would be spotted over Bluetooth on your regular Mac, but it only works with tracking and single click, it will need a software update to work fully with multitouch gestures.

Battery: It runs on AA batteries, and Apple claims 4 months of use per set. I guess it would be some time till we can actually test that.

Pricing: You can get it with the new iMac or pay $69 separately.

Watch the video to get idea of gestures:

Subscribe to Twitter updates, or RSS, join Facebook fanpage for more Tech updates.

The PC supports all major MultiTouch gestures a pro user will expect — Panning, zooming, multitouch drag-drop,etc.

Unlike HP’s Multitouch PCs, the functionalities work throughout the OS, whether it’s Browser or your favorite Image viewer. In other words, it natively supports Widnwos 7 Multitouch. But compared to Dell’s 19-inch all-in-one PC, Sony does well over the specs.

For the PS3 owners, there’s more good news. The Display has an HDMI input where you can plug in your PS3 and get all the fun on this new screen.

Specs: It has a Core 2 Duo processor up to 3GHz, 4GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce G210M graphics processor, an optional Blu-ray burner drive, new and speedy 802.11n Wi-Fi, 500GB drive for your apps and for DVR recordings through Windows 7 Premium.

Set at $1,300 price tag, it looks a bit expensive. Anyways, watch the video:

As per the latest news, a new Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse have arrived at the FCC, and they’ve got new model numbers of A1314 and A1296 — the current wireless keyboard is A1255.

image credits: engadget

BumpTop’s multi-touch running inside it’s 3D desktop environment, is unique of it’s kind. Though this one may find  a way to good entrainment, still, It will not find application in daily life, but it will definitely accelerate the development of further utility applications.

Watch the Video:

Now, Google has made the latest Android SDK available, introducing a complete view of all the new features that “Donut” (Android 1.6) will provide.

Google had been revealing future plans as they proceeded, this is the first time they have been presented to the public bundled into a single package.

What’s New – Feature Breakdown

Android donut search home screen

New Android Market- This update, as mentioned earlier, completely redesigns the Android Market. It features new Top Apps pages, adds screen-shots to app descriptions, adds more intelligence to searches, thereby  improving the overall shopping experience.

Custom Gesture Support – A new tool in the SDK called GestureBuilder gives the developer the power to create entire libraries of new app-specific gestures. This will encourage developers to leverage Full MultiTouch int he new applications.

Better Camera App: The native camera app has been overhauled in design and get’s new features. User can now switch between still and video camera modes easily, and look through the gallery. Additionally, it’s faster, camera launches 39% faster, and there is 28% less time lag between consecutive shots.

Text-to-speech API- A multi-lingual speech engine called Pico made by SVOX is included in Donut. This was one of the earliest features shown off for Donut at Google I/O this year.

Previously, Google had removed the support of gesture control on Apple’s request. But now as they became offical Rivals, it’s here to compete.

CDMA networks- The CDMA mobile stack is now supported, in addition to the previous support for GSM. iPhone seriously lacks on this.

Universal Quick Search Box- Quick Search is like the iPhone’s “Spotlight” OS 3.x search. Quick Search Box framework lets users search through the phone as well as the Web, pulling up browser history, bookmarks, music, contacts and other data along with results drawn from the Internet.

Battery “fuel gauge”- This new feature lists the battery consumption of each running application and service, letting the user fully streamline his battery consumption.

VPN support- Google finally thought about Enterprise. Users can configure and connect to L2TP/IPSEC pre-shared key-based or certificate-based VPNs, L2TP only VPN, or PPTP only VPN. This is agreat move for Enterprise corporate customers.

Minor Kernel Upgrade: The Linux Kernel has been updated from 2.6.27 to 2.6.29, the OpenCore 2 media engine is now supported, as are a greater number of screen resolutions such as QVGA and WVGA, and new accessibility plugins such as tactile or aural feedback.

Google‘s Xavier Ducrohet today said, “You can expect to see devices running Android 1.6 as early as October. As with previous platform updates, applications written for older versions of Android will continue to run on devices with Android 1.6. Please test your existing apps on the Android 1.6 SDK to make sure they run as expected.”

It is probably the highest resolution interactive display outside of the military: Obscura Digital’s newest, longest multitouch wall, uses three projectors to handle 100 hi-res images and videos simultaneously in realtime.

Watch it in Action:

The display is the world’s highest resolution interactive display available to the public.

The basics are 3 HD projectors behind an 18 foot multi-touch wall. The difference here is that the whole thing is one 6000 ( it is actually 3×1920 projectors) pixel plate, with over 100 4K-6K images/videos being displayed at one time. . Also unique is the way it scales across GPUs seamlessly.

The display intelligently allocates room for up to 6 users, but if only one or two are using it, they each get half. if a third steps in, the workspace is dynamically allocated.

Users can search by genre of music, type of item, year, type of music and location of the actual piece of memorabilia.

source: interactive-vision

The Pixi, WebOS based smartphone,  is the thinnest ever phone from Palm. It’s 10% thinner than iPhone 3G S and 20% thinner than Pre.

Like the Pre, it also has a full QWERTY keyboard but rather than sliding, it’s bare open body. Other specifications include 8GB of onboard storage, a 2 megapixel camera equipped with flash, AGPS, a 2.63 inch capacitive display with a 320×400 pixel resolution, 3.5mm headset jack, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and…no WiFi.

Features include MicroUSB port (both data and charging), proximity sensor, light sensor, accelerometer, ringer switch, and the same 1150 mAh battery as found in the Pre. The Pixi uses a brand new Qualcomm processor: the MSM7627. The exact specifications of this chip are as of yet unknown. RAM figures are unknown too.

The Pixi comes in the candybar form factor, which makes it incredibly small, thin, and light: it’s 10.85mm thin, 111mm tall, and 55mm wide, and weighs in at a mere 99.5 grams.

The screen is capacitive multi-touch, smaller than that of the Pre (3.1″ 320×480) or that of the iPhone (3.5″ 320×480). The multitouch part extends below the screen into the gesture area (a prerequisite for the webOS, it seems), but the centre button of the Pre has been replaced by a gesture area tap. The lower resolution is no problem for the webOS and its applications, as it was designed from the start to handle different resolutions. The multitouch also appears to be slightly more responsive than on the Pre.

Design: video

It’ll also come in many different colors and designs as part of something called the Palm Pixi Artist Series, which will offer a selection of limited-edition back covers for the device. As far as price goes, since Pixi is Pre’s younger brother, it’ll probably be lower than $149.99 which is how much Sprint is currently asking for the Pre.
In a move reminiscent of the Pre launch, Palm has unveiled its second webOS mobile phone today, ahead of Apple’s music/iPod event. The Palm Pixi is a candybar incarnation of the Pre, but is clearly positioned below its big brother; smaller screen, and more worryingly, no wifi.

The keyboard sports better tactile feedback.

The Pixi will be available before the holidays… But only on Sprint for now. So, here we are, two webOS phones, tied to Sprint, and only available in the US and Canada.

But No WiFi and a smartphone? Some one is joking.

Here is what will leave you amazed — Scratch Input – it could become a way to answer your phone, silence a call or turn up the volume.

Scratch Input, a computer input technique developed by researchers at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, uses the sound produced when a fingernail is dragged over the surface of any textured material such as wood, fabric or wall paint. The technology was demonstrated at the Siggraph graphics conference this year.

“It’s kind of a crazy idea but a simple one,” says Chris Harrison, one of the researchers on the project. “If you have a cellphone in your pocket and want to silence an incoming call, you don’t have to pull it out of your pocket. You could just drag your fingernail on your jeans.”

As researchers study how people can interact in simpler and more innovative ways with computers and gadgets, going beyond the traditional keyboard, mouse and keypad has become important. Earlier this year, Harrison and his team demonstrated a touchscreen where pop-up buttons and keypads can dynamically appear and disappear. That allows the user to experience the physical feel of buttons on a touchscreen.

Scratch Input is another way to explore how we can interact with devices, says Harrison. Harrison, along with a colleague Julia Schwarz, and his professor Scott Hudson started working on the idea a year ago.  Scratch Input works with almost any kind of surface except glass and a few other materials that are extremely smooth.

“With this we can start to think of every flat surface as an potential input area,” says Daniel Wigdor, user experience architect at Microsoft and curator of the emerging technology demos at Siggraph. “Imagine a cellphone with a mini projector. You can now turn an entire surface into a screen for the projector and use the surface to control it.”

Scratch Input works by isolating and identifying the sound of a fingernail dragging on an area.

“All the sound happening in the environment like people putting coffee cups on the table, cars going by or children screaming, we know what frequencies they are in,” says Harrison.

A fingernail on a surface produces a frequency between 6000 Hz and 13,000 Hz. Compare that to voice, which is typically in the range of 90 Hz to 300 Hz, or noise from a refrigerator compressor or air conditioning hum, which is in the range of 50 Hz or 60 Hz.

“It makes it easy for us to throw away all the other acoustic information and just listen to what your nail sounds like,” says Harrison.

Harrison and his team used that principle to rig up a system for Scratch Input. They attached a modified stethoscope to a microphone that converts the sound into an electrical signal. The signal is amplified and connected to a computer through the audio-input jack.

“If mass produced, this sensor could cost less than a dollar,” says Harrison.

Scratch Input also supports simple gesture recognition. Tracing the letter ‘S,’ for instance produces an acoustic imprint that the system can be trained to identify.  The idea has its limitations. For instance, many letters that are written differently, sound very similar such as M, W, V, L, X or T. Scratch Input cannot accurately distinguish between these gestures. But still Harrison says the system can respond with about 90 percent accuracy.

Another problem is that the system cannot determine the spatial location of the input, says Wigdor. “For instance, with volume control, it can hear your finger spin in the appropriate gesture but the system can’t see it so sometimes it does not have enough information to react.”

Despite the limitations, the technology holds enough promise to make it into the hands of consumers, says Wigdor. “It is exciting because it is so low cost,” he says. “This idea has the potential to go beyond just a research project.”

Check out this video demo of Scratch Input:

Photo: Chris Harrison

It appears that Dell is trying to encroach on HP’s TouchSmart family of PCs’ territory. Geared towards folks who are looking for a communal counter-top PC, a productivity PC, or a simple PC for the kids, Dell’s Studio One 19 all-in-one Desktop PC is a compelling new offering that may soon find a place in your home. Starting at $699, the multi-touch, all-in-one comes with a 18.5-inch 16:9 touchscreen, Intel Pentium E5200 Dual Core processor, 2GB DDR2 memory, NVIDIA GeForce 9200 integrated graphics, a 320GB hard drive, a slot-loading DVD drive (upgradeable to Blu-ray), 1.3MP webcam, integrated audio / stereo speakers / mic, Ethernet, a 7-in-1 card reader, and a bevy of USB connectors. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi is an optional feature that will cost you an extra $20 for 802.11b/g or $40 for 802.11n.

Available Colors: Solid Pure White, Tuscan Red, Navy Blue, Powder Pink and Charcoal