Recent Comments:
Microsoft takes in $60b, sells 180m Vista licenses since launch {Engadget}
Jul 21st 2008 12:42PM @nick
Okay, I'm looking. I see XP, losing marketshare, and Vista gaining marketshare faster than any other OS. What exactly were you trying to point out?
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpdt=1&qpct=4&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=90&qpnp=25
Xbox 360's overhauled Dashboard: the gallery {Engadget}
Jul 15th 2008 8:12AM How come so many people are complaining about losing their precious shitty blade interface and avatar icons, when MS has already said you'll have the option of keeping them both?
Dell's Latitude XT tablet goes multi-touch with a free upgrade, offers 128GB SSD for $649 {Engadget}
Jul 14th 2008 8:57PM @tobryan
The n-Trig digitizer is pressure sensitive, which is evident in the TIP, although I can't figure out how to get it to work in Photoshop.
Dell's Latitude XT tablet goes multi-touch with a free upgrade, offers 128GB SSD for $649 {Engadget}
Jul 14th 2008 8:51PM Um... I'm not sure where you're getting your information but Apple holds no patents granting them exclusive use of multitouch gesture-based interfaces. In fact, multitouch and similar multimodal interfaces have been in use since the 1980s. Fingerworks had no exlusive rights to multitouch and as such has not transferred these no-existant rights to Apple.
This laptop uses a capacitive touch digitizer manufactured by an Israeli company called N-Trig, who do own patents for their integration of capacitive touch sensors and an active digitizer in a self-contained unit.
Ask Engadget: What's the best Tablet PC? {Engadget}
Jun 5th 2008 10:21PM I guess that would explain why their marketshare saw 100% gains last year and is on track to see similar gains this year.
http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Tech-Analysis/Time-to-Talk-About-Tablet-PCs/
At 7% marketshare, I guess Tablet PCs are as dead in the mobile market as Apple is dead in the desktop market.
Dell Latitude XT stripped bare {Engadget}
Apr 12th 2008 2:37PM yeah, you're the only one. Typical drives are designed to operate between -40C and 85C, which is well within the range of temperatures it should experience at that point in the unit. This is evidenced by the fact that the unit has been out for 5 months and no one is complaining about temperature or drive failures. The XT is another machine that runs consistently cool.
Dell Latitude XT stripped bare {Engadget}
Apr 12th 2008 2:29PM The XT isn't semi-rugged; it's a normal Tablet PC.
Video: AT&T's Surface makes comparing phones, transmitting illnesses a breeze {Engadget}
Apr 2nd 2008 8:09PM @Clak
"That version of multi-touch won't work without five big azz projectors beneath the glass, so no, you still won't see the Surface's version of multi-touch in laptops."
The Surface SDK just uses .NET and WPF. It will work on any Windows Vista computer. I don't know the details of the SDK, but given how capacitive screens work, the only thing you won't be able to do with the Latitidue XT is detect objects. None of this matters anyway because you're not going to have 5 guys sitting around a 12.1" screen, only a single user with 10 inputs at most. When you have a screen as big as the Surface's, it's okay that the touch implementation isn't scalable to pocket sizes.
Video: AT&T's Surface makes comparing phones, transmitting illnesses a breeze {Engadget}
Apr 2nd 2008 8:00PM @Clak
Do you honestly believe Microsoft engineers sat down and said "Let's design a handheld multitouch phone" and this is what they came up with? The Surface is NOT a phone. It's not supposed to be a phone and no matter how much you want to, you can't compare it to the iPhone. The ONLY thing they have in common is the interface. Do you also make comparisons between desktop PCs and pianos? They both have keys, why not?
That's great. You have an iPhone. You like it. It serves its purpose. There's also things it can't do, including:
Display information on a screen larger than 3.5 inches.
Run faster than 620MHz on an ARM CPU
Process graphics on a state of the art, top of the line graphics card
Detect 52 points of contact
Associate these points with individuals
Recognize objects placed on the screen and respond to them
Seamlessly and wirelessly interface with portable electronics
Use .NET and WPF as a coding environment
If you need to do these things, you don't go to the Apple store and buy an iPhone. You obviously don't need to do any of these things. Great, you're good to go. Now shut the fuck up, kay?
Video: AT&T's Surface makes comparing phones, transmitting illnesses a breeze {Engadget}
Apr 2nd 2008 7:42PM @Clak
Microsoft uses cameras in the Surface not for finger detection, but for finger and object detection. You can't detect objects through a capacitive touch screen like the iPhone's. If you wanted to scale the surface technology down to a laptop or phone size, you can always buy a capcitive touch LCD. N-Trig makes a 12.1" capacitive touch LCD with an active digitizer for pen use. It's already shipping in the Dell Latitiude XT (although N-Trig is taking their sweet time with the SDK, the tech is there).
Also, there's a Microsoft Labs video somewhere, I think on Channel 9, of a multitouch implementation using infrared mounted on a Dell laptop. Right now it's big, but it's a proof of concept that can easily be scaled down to fit in the bezel.
