duosense
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HP replaces the Slate 500 with the Slate 2, adds Swype and cuts the starting price to $699
Until Microsoft gives Win8 the final seal of approval, the Windows tablet show must go on, right? Right. HP just refreshed its enterprise-friendly, Windows 7-flavored Slate 500 with the Slate 2, and took the opportunity to knock the starting price down a hundred bucks to $699. In terms of design, there's nothing much to see here -- it has the same 8.9-inch tablet and N-Trig DuoSense digitizer that allows for pen input. Only this time, HP added Swype, refreshed the CPU with Intel's Atom Z670 and proffered a smaller 32GB SSD option to appease the IT guys who are going to heavily lock these down anyway. Speaking of security, it also packs TPM circuitry and Computrace Pro for tracking lost or stolen laptops and then deleting the data remotely. It'll be available worldwide this month -- just in time for corporate to buy you a lil' somethin' for the holidays. %Gallery-137812%
HTC Flyer stylus on sale at Best Buy for $80, because matching gadgets should cost more (updated)
If you ordered the HTC Flyer because you're keen on scribbling notes and doodling over screenshots, well, today's your lucky day -- the stylus is now on sale by itself for a cool $80. That's fairly outrageous, given that you can buy the HP Slate 500's for well under that tally, and the Fujitsu LifeBook T580's for roughly $22... that is, if you lose the one included in the box. Plus, although these battery-powered pens won't complement your Flyer's aluminum chassis, they should still work with it, as all of these tablets use N-Trig's DuoSense pen / capacitive touch technology. And particularly with a dearth in apps that can take advantage of pen input, you'd better be the next J.K. Rowling if you're looking to get your money's worth. Update: We've gotten some incredulous comments and emails from folks who can't believe the Flyer doesn't come with a stylus. Well, just to settle that debate once and for all, we reached out to HTC's PR team who confirmed that the stylus is, indeed, sold separately. Sorry to be the bearer repeater of bad news! Update 2: HTC adds that the Flyer will only come without a pen if you get it at Best Buy.
N-Trig teaches DuoSense to write on Android screens, tablet to come in the first half of 2011
This one isn't much of a surprise -- considering N-Trig told us just a few months ago that "the most useful Android slates will be pen-enabled" and that it was working on Android support -- but today the Israel-based company has officially announced support for Google's mobile operating system. What does that mean? On a technical level, it means that N-Trig's DuoSense pen and capacitive multitouch solution, which is currently on tablets like the HP Slate and Dell Latitude XT, will work on top of Android slates. On a product end, it means that we're going to start seeing an Android slate or two that takes advantage of pen in 2011. According to N-Trig's VP of Marketing Gary Baum, one company is far along in developing an Android slate based on DuoSense and there are "several others that are coming along." Baum wouldn't give us any specifics on those companies, though he did tell us that we should see one product in the first half of the year, while the majority will be waiting for Honeycomb. We're still crossing our fingers for Honeycomb in the first part of 2011, so we don't want to read into that too much, but he also stressed that third-party software developers are working on applications that take advantage of pen and that some of them may be previewed at CES. We'll be digging as much as we can into what company's pairing pen with Android, but until then, we leave you with the full press release after the break.
N-trig's Digital Pencil plays pen and fingertip roles, claims mastery of both
It's hard to justify rolling into summer school with just an electronic wooden ruler, but pairing that with one of N-trig's new Digital Pencils just seems like a match made in detention heaven. The company responsible for pushing out that snazzy DuoSense technology back in 2008 is hitting back with yet another digital writing instrument, with this particular one designed to work with multitouch devices. Being a part of the DuoSense family, the battery-powered device can actually act as either a fingertip (you know, for those capacitive screens) or a digitizer pen, enabling it to play nice with a smorgasbord of third-party peripherals. The company claims that the two-pronged approach will give users far more flexibility, and the DuoSense software identifies the position of the Pencil and the pressure level, removing the need for an excitation coil within the DuoSense digitizer. Curiously enough, there's no public mention of a price, but we're guessing it'll sell for far more than you're willing to pay here in just a few days.
N-trig shows off pen input-capable DuoSense multi-touch display
It seems like there isn't a week that goes by these days that we don't see another multi-touch display (homebrew or otherwise), and you can now add one more contender to the growing ranks, with N-trig set to debut its new DuoSense system at the SID International Symposium in Los Angeles this week. This one adds pen input capabilities to the usual array of multi-touch features, as well as the somewhat unique ability for multiple people to use the display simultaneously, which N-trig says makes the system ideal for gaming applications. N-trig also boasts that the technology works on "large format displays," but that apparently maxes out at a not-exceptionally-large 22-inches at the moment. Head on past the break for a video of the rig in action.
