touch screen

Acer president Jim Wong said touch-screen laptops will eventually dominate the PC market, although he also warned that Windows 8 may take a while to win over computer users.

Touch-screen laptops -- now just trickling into the market -- will eventually become the dominant laptop design, Wong said in an interview with Taipei-based Digitimes. For instance, he noted internal Acer research showing that after using a product with a touch-screen for more than 20 minutes, users naturally gravitate to touch.

"This indicates that touchscreen control is an irreversible trend," he said.

Wong also had some wry comments for … Read more

For some people, touching a touch screen is difficult, if not impossible.

According to Georgia Tech, more than 200,000 kids in the U.S. public school system have some sort of orthopedic disability that hinders them from experiencing the vast information that awaits them on a tablet or smartphone. Children with neurological disorders -- such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida -- can also have difficulty using touch-screen devices due to motor skill impairments.

The need to counteract this limitation inspired Ayanna Howard, a Georgia Tech engineering professor, and graduate student Hae Won Park to create Access4Kids, a prototype assistive device that could level the playing field.… Read more

Lenovo said today that it has added a touch-screen ThinkPad X1 Carbon model, as PC vendors continue to ramp up shipments of Windows 8 ultrabooks with tablet-like attributes.

The 14-inch ThinkPad now measures 20.8mm (about 0.8 inches) thick and weighs 3.4 pounds, slightly thicker and heavier than the non-touch model.

The display resolution and internals stay the same, though. That means a pixel-dense 1,600x900 resolution display and Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors.

And, true to its name, the chassis is made from lightweight carbon fiber, which allows Lenovo to keep the weight of its 14-inch laptop below 3.5 pounds.

Other specifications have not been disclosed yet.

But the price has: $1,499. Some of that extra cost is due to the high-resolution touch display, which comes at a premium. … Read more

This week Hewlett-Packard offered a few good reasons to consider a Windows 8 laptop over a MacBook.

Those arguments are embodied in an upcoming 3-pound HP EliteBook Revolve business ultrabook "convertible" that was announced this week.

The MacBook Air is a fine design (I use one every day) and the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro is an even better design. But the Apple way isn't the only way. Here are three features that the MacBook ain't got.

Built-in 4G: The EliteBook Revolve offers built-in 4G LTE or HSPA+. Wi-Fi-only MacBooks are getting a bit stodgy. It'… Read more

Demand for Windows 8 touch-screen PCs is strong, according to two analysts who spoke with CNET.

"Touch machines are actually selling above expectations," said Bob O'Donnell, a program vice president at IDC.

And that means supply shortages. "Some vendors are actually facing shortages because touch panels are in limited supply. Vendors are saying they can't get as many touch-based machines as they would like to meet the demand that they're seeing."

Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, echoed O'Donnell's comments. "We've talked to a number of PC makers … Read more

Payphones are a dying breed, which will probably make some people yearn for our simple past and others celebrate our tech-filled future.

New York City and two companies, Cisco Systems and City 24/7, announced today that they're officially commencing their plan to transform those endangered species into 32-inch touch-screen information kiosks, a.k.a. "Smart Screens," around the city, according to GigaOM.

The idea was originally introduced in April and the companies have been testing the pilot project over the last few months. Now, the Smart Screens are officially live and a handful of kiosks are … Read more

Qualcomm and Intel are in discussions with Sharp to invest more than $375 million, according to two reports.

Japan's Kyodo News reported today that Intel is in talks to invest between 30 billion and 40 billion yen (approximately $378 million to $500 million) in Sharp.

But a more recent report today from Reuters said the two companies may make a joint investment of about $378 million.

However, the Reuters report goes to describe the Intel investment as less certain than Qualcomm's commitment. The latter may reach an agreement with Sharp as early as the end of this month. … Read more

Lenovo expects the growing market for 7-inch tablets to compete with large-screen smartphones, not PCs.

During the company's second-quarter earnings conference call Thursday, Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said he had just read a report on Apple's iPad Mini and was encouraged about the trend in the tablet market.

"The market accepts the 7-inch [tablet] better than the 10-inch. That's a very strong signal, the tablet will not replace the traditional PC," he said during the conference call.

Yuanqing continued. "Probably, the tablet will compete with the large-screen smartphone rather than the PC," … Read more

The Microsoft Surface is more computer than tablet. If you favor keyboards, that's a good thing. But the Surface has a lot to offer touch screen fans as well.

Like a tablet, you tap and slide your fingers on the Surface touch screen to open apps and access settings. Like a PC, you can enter keystroke shortcuts on the Surface Touch Cover and Type Cover keyboards to reach those same programs and system options.

Get the best of both the tablet and computer worlds by using these handy screen gestures and keystroke combinations for the Surface. (Note that the … Read more