touch-screen

In the competition between native applications for mobile phones vs. Web applications, hardware support often makes native apps an obvious choice for programmers. But the World Wide Web Consortium is tackling one area, touch-screen support, in an effort that could help Web apps catch up.

The W3C published an editor's draft of a new touch-screen standard for Web apps today. The draft specification is designed also for devices such as drawing tablets that don't have a screen, but today's hot market for smartphones makes touch screens the more important focus.

A standard--if designed well and adopted--would make … Read more

One of the best parts about Panasonic's higher-end touch-screen ultracompacts is that they feature brighter than usual lenses. In the case of the FX78, you get an f2.5-5.9 24mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with a 5x zoom. That's not as nice as the f2.2 on its predecessor the FX75, but it's still good.

Its other key specs include a 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD and a 12-megapixel high-speed CCD sensor. The sensor is a new design and it's paired with Panasonic's Venus Engine FHD processor. This combo allows for high-speed burst shooting--full resolution at 3.… Read more

Every manufacturer should really have a touch-screen pocket camera in its 2011 lineup and Kodak's is the EasyShare Touch. It's a 14-megapixel ultracompact with a 3-inch touch screen and a 28mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with a 5x optical zoom.

Beyond those basic specs you get 720p HD video capture with a one-touch record button, so no fumbling with switching modes; HDMI output; automatic photo organization that sorts by people, date, keywords, and videos; artistic effects for photos and videos; and, of course, Kodak's Share button for quickly tagging your shots to be sent off to e-mail addresses or … Read more

A couple months ago a tech demo called Epic Citadel hit the App Store showing off Epic Games' Unreal III graphics engine on an iOS device. There wasn't much action to Epic Citadel besides walking and looking around at an intricate castle landscape, but the graphics were nothing short of jaw-dropping for the iOS. Epic promised that games were coming soon using the esteemed graphics engine, and iOS gamers everywhere waited to see what Epic could come up with that would work on a touch-screen device.

Infinity Blade, Epic's first game for the iOS, is finally here and … Read more

Microsoft could be looking to give touch screens more of a tactile feel.

A patent filed by the software giant in 2009 and published last week details a light-induced shape-memory polymer display screen. In a nutshell, that means a touch screen that has a real texture and tactile feedback to it, making people feel as if they're touching an actual object.

Invented by Erez Kikin-Gil, the screen would be coated with polymers that could change or hold their shape when different wavelengths of ultraviolet light hit the pixels from underneath, according to an article in New Scientist.

The screen … Read more

Check it out. Nokia did something cool with a touch screen. I did not see that coming.

We're not sure why researchers from the phone maker would do what they did (other than that they were probably going stir crazy during the long Nordic winter), but they did. So this exists: possibly the world's biggest touch screen, which is made of ice.

The Fins stacked ice blocks together and fused them with a heat gun to make an ice wall. That itself isn't that awesome, but then they added a projector behind it that shot the back of the ice wall with infrared light.

When people touch the wall--which is about 6.5 feet long, 5 feet tall, and 10 inches thick--their hands reflect the infrared light back, and a sensor feeds the data into a computer, which in turns projects visible light in response to the users' touches. Thus it becomes a giant touch screen.

Right now all the chilly ice screen does is make an interactive light display, which is fun. But I want to play Angry Birds on a wall. Nokia, can we make that happen? Check out the New Scientist video below.… Read more

When Sony's latest e-readers were introduced recently, a lot of people wondered whether the touch-screen interface would be improved after previous attempts met with complaints of screen glare, contrast issues, and only so-so responsiveness. We expected it would be better, but were surprised by how well the touch-screen technology worked. So, what's the secret sauce?

Well, what's interesting is that Sony didn't use its own technology but actually licensed it from another company called Neonode. We're not saying that Sony never does this, but the company does take a certain pride in developing products with its own proprietary technology.

The latest Sony Readers, including the Pocket Edition PRS-350 ($180), Touch Edition PRS-650 ($230), and Daily Edition PRS-950 ($300), use a customized version of Neonode's optical touch-screen technology.

Neonode says its patented touch-screen technology, zForce, "supports high resolution pen writing in combination with market leading finger navigation including gestures, multitouch, sweeps and much more. zForce uses no overlay (like resistive and capacitive touch screens) on top of the e-ink display thus creating a 100 percent clear window free from reflexes and parallax effects and produces a true paper like experience."

The company also adds that its zForce technology is energy efficient and reduces the power consumption for so-called "low-power consumption" mobile electronics devices.

Neonode is a Swedish company that's been around for a while and even made some mobile phones, including the Neonode 2 in 2007. Back in 2008, the company filed for bankruptcy and many thought it had died but it's now become solely focused on licensing out its infrared-based touch-screen technology. … Read more

The oStylus is a stylus for capacitive touch screens. At first glance, it looks more like something your dentist would use, but it's actually quite a cleverly designed contraption.

A swiveling donut-shaped tip lets you hold the oStylus at an angle you like, and the hole in the middle of the tip allows you to see what you are drawing. To prevent scratches on your screen, the tip has a vinyl film so the metal doesn't touch your device's glass. Watch the demonstration video below to see how it works.

Creator Andrew Goss is shipping the product internationally from Canada. The oStylus costs $37.50 before freight, and a signed, limited-edition $75 version is also available. Don't want to pay so much for a capacitive stylus? Well, you can always use a sausage. Just remember to eat a hole first so you can see what you are drawing. … Read more

If you're still not satisfied with the selection of Android tablet options on the market (well, aren't we picky?) the fine folks at ViewSonic are throwing two more options into the ring.

The first is a 7-inch Android 2.2 tablet with the fitting name of ViewPad 7. Due out in late November, priced at $479, the ViewPad 7 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 512Mb of integrated memory and a microSD slot for your own supply. The device pulls the Internet down over Wi-Fi (b/g), but includes 3G capabilities if you want to supply your … Read more