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Microsoft snaps up the technology behind the Surface Pro 3's pen
In love with the Surface pen? You're not the only one. Microsoft confirmed on its Surface blog this morning that it acquired the pen-sensing technology that helps power the Surface Pro 3 from the company that created it, Israeli tech outfit N-trig. If you're the type who pays attention to Israeli business newspapers, this whole thing might not come as a shock - Calcalist reported earlier this year that Microsoft was eyeing N-trig for a full-on acquisition that would see the company's 190 employees folded into the Microsoft mothership at some point. That's not the case anymore, though: We've been able to confirm the folks in Redmond just bought the technology, and not the whole company.
Microsoft reportedly acquires company behind Surface Pro 3 pen
Microsoft now owns N-trig, maker of the all-important pen included with Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, according to Israeli financial news site Calcalist (translation by Reuters). The deal is estimated at $200 million, and most of N-trig's 190 employees will transition to Microsoft Israel as part of a new research and development center, the site says.
N-trig release teases that Fujitsu's Stylistic Q702 will come with active pen support
Stylus maven N-trig has revealed that Fujitsu's Stylistic Q702 laptop/tablet hybrid will be the first to shop with the company's new G4 DuoSense pen and multi-touch digitizer. As such, it'll be able to use a new active pen stylus that the company, perhaps unsurprisingly, promises will provide a "pen-on-paper handwriting experience." Of course, we won't be able to judge that for ourselves until the units arrive on our doorstep some time after Windows 8 does next month, but rest assured, we'll be checking.
Oppo CEO says quad-core Find 5 will feature a 1080p, 441ppi display, forgets to wink at HTC
Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but recently Oppo Mobile CEO Chen Mingyong teased that his upcoming flagship phone, the Find 5, will again feature a non-removable but "certainly big enough" battery (for the sake of anti-counterfeiting and, consequently, safety) as well as a 1080p, 441ppi display. That's right, 441ppi! We're finally getting a phone with a display that's impossibly sharper than the 326ppi on the latest iPhones (up to 4-inch, 1,136 x 640), the 331ppi on the Nokia Lumia 920 (4.5-inch, 1,280 x 768) or even the 342ppi on the Sony Xperia acro S and the Xiaomi Phone 2 (4.3-inch, 1,280 x 720). Assuming Chen's talking about a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, a quick calculation based on these two numbers would give us a 5-inch screen size, which matches what LG Display announced back in May. Taking into account that a reliable source of ours got to see HTC's 5-inch 6435LVW phablet recently, this would make the Find 5 unofficially the second device to receive the same full HD panel. Still, there's a significant difference inside these two phones: Chen had previously mentioned that the Find 5 will be joining the quad-core APQ8064 party, while the HTC device appears to sport the dual-core, LTE-enabled MSM8960. Speaking of which, the same source informed us that much like the Flyer, HTC's 6435LVW will also feature N-trig stylus technology. Will Oppo follow in the same footsteps? And will it bring back the slide-out keyboard à la Find X903 (pictured above)? Go on, Mr. Chen, tell us more.
N-Trig pen tech whittled down to single DuoSense chips and sensors, shrinks scribblings to travel size
As much as N-Trig is an old hand at supporting styluses, it's had to focus on tablets and other larger devices due to technology limits: the HTC Flyer is about as small as the company has gone to date. A new version of N-Trig's DuoSense chipset family could be the ticket to going to much smaller sizes. The new 4000 series condenses both pen input and multi-touch finger gestures into a combination of one chip and one sensor, letting any entrepreneurial device maker stuff the two control methods into a handheld device with as little as a 5-inch display. Naturally, the chip line scales all the way to 15.6-inch panels for creatives poking at the screens of laptops and larger Ultrabooks. We're told that both Android and Windows slates will get N-Trig's tinier touch tricks before the end of the year -- whether or not that includes phablets with the same girth as the Galaxy Note or Optimus Vu, however, is left to our wild imaginings.
NVIDIA gets big names to embrace DirectTouch tech in Tegra 3 devices (video)
Synaptics, Atmel,N-trig, Raydium, Cypress and Focaltech -- big names in the field of touch-based devices -- have all agreed get on board with NVIDIA's DirectTouch platform. The tech offloads some of the work needed to track and process finger input from the controller to the Tegra 3, improving response and battery life. We were first introduced to the architecture at CES, but wasn't clear that others would embrace it. With two of the biggest makers of touchscreen controllers, Synaptics and Atmel, throwing their weight behind the project, though, things are looking up for NVIDIA-powered tablets. N-trig is even leveraging the processing power to improve the response of capacitive styli by combining DirectTouch with DuoSense (the tech behind the HTC Flyer). For more info check out the PR and video after the break.
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 touches down at T-Mobile, Scribe pen not included
US Cellular's got one and so does Sprint (albeit under a re-branded banner). So, where's the Magenta-friendly HTC Flyer we saw creep up at the FCC this June? Well, it appears T-Mobile's been offering it for some time to business customers only, but that exclusivity's come to a close. The 7-inch Gingerbread slate with AWS bands is curiously absent from the operator's own online site, but you can still snag it from HTC for $299 with a new mobile broadband plan or $454 with a contract extension. Sadly, neither party's tossing in the HTC Scribe pen gratis, so you'll have to make due with your own digits for navigating or just pick it up separately. If this is the Sense-laden variant you've been holding out for, now's the time to hit up the source and get to ordering.
HTC Flyer review
Over the past couple of years, HTC has rapidly built up an enviable reputation (and bank balance) in the smartphone space with a succession of feature-rich, smartly designed, and innovative handsets. The HD2 introduced us to the 4.3-inch form factor, the EVO 4G ushered in the era of 720p video recording, and the Legend wrapped itself inside a never-before-seen aluminum unibody enclosure. Today, the company's Android assembly line is turning out yet another groundbreaking device, though this one's closer in size to the Athena than the Aria. Yes, we're talking about the 7-inch Flyer, the most unique of this year's Android tablet offerings, opting for a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a sturdy aluminum construction that doesn't even try to compete in the race for extreme thinness, and a Magic Pen to make you forget it's running Gingerbread and not Honeycomb (yet). Also set for release under the EVO View 4G moniker on Sprint in the US, this tablet is the sum of a set of bold choices on the part of HTC. To see how well those decisions have come off, click past the break for our full review. %Gallery-123656%
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.
Switched On: Pen again
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Last week's Switched On discussed how some next wave notions from a decade ago were trying to reinvent themselves. Here's one more. Surging smartphone vendor HTC is seeking to bring back an input method that many wrote off long ago with its forthcoming Flyer tablet and EVO View 4G comrade-in-arms: the stylus. A fixture of early Palm and Psion PDAs, Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile handsets, slim, compact styli were once the most popular thing to slip down a well since Timmy. Then, users would poke the cheap, simple sticks at similarly inexpensive resistive touchscreens. After the debut of tablet PCs, though, more companies started to use active digitizer systems like the one inside the Flyer. Active pens offer more precision, which can help with tasks such as handwriting recognition, and support "hovering" above a screen, the functional equivalent of a mouseover. On the other hand, they are also thicker, more expensive, and need to be charged. (Update: as some have pointed out in comments, Wacom's tablets generate tiny electromagnetic fields that power active digitization, and don't require the pen to store electricity itself.) And, of course, just like passive styli, active pens take up space and can be misplaced. The 2004 debut of the Nintendo DS -- the ancestor of the just-released 3DS -- marked the beginning of what has become the last mass-market consumer electronics product series to integrate stylus input. The rising popularity of capacitive touch screens and multitouch have replaced styli with fingers as the main user interface elements. Instead of using a precise point for tasks such as placing an insertion point in text, we now expand the text dynamically to accommodate our oily instruments. On-screen buttons have also grown, as have the screens themselves, all in the name of losing a contrivance.
The stylus isn't dead: more pen-based tablets and apps coming this year
HTC may have unleashed a completely unique Android tablet with an active digitizer and stylus yesterday, but more are on the way. At least that's the word from N-Trig, the company responsible for the screen and pen technology in HTC's Flyer as well as other convertible tablet PCs. According to the company's VP of Business Development Lenny Englehardt, 7-, 9.7-, and 10-inch pen-equipped Android slates are coming in the next year from major manufacturers (sadly, he couldn't share which ones). We went over a bit of the hardware technology yesterday and dug a bit into HTC's pen-optimized Scribe software, but the big question on our mind has been third party Android applications that take advantage of the stylus. Well, it turns out there are quite a few of them in the works from the likes of Adobe and others. And yes, one of them includes handwriting conversion! We got a look at three of those forthcoming apps on N-Trig's Tegra 2 development kit, which has the same screen / pen hardware as the Flyer -- hit the break for our impressions and a video demo. %Gallery-116829%
A closer look at the HTC Flyer's screen, stylus, and Scribe
This morning HTC announced its 7-inch Flyer tablet, and unlike the hoards of Android tablets we've seen in the last couple of months, it's got something that frankly reminds us a bit of Microsoft's original tablet push... a stylus! The Flyer doesn't come with just any old capacitive stylus, however -- HTC has worked with N-Trig, the company that has made digitizers for convertible PCs like the Dell Latitude XT, to implement a much more accurate writing or doodling experience. And well, it basically makes it unlike any other Android tablet on the market right now. We spent some time with N-Trig and the Flyer today, focusing quite a bit on the new stylus and "Scribe" software, as HTC calls it -- hit the break for some details on both the software and hardware and a short video of how that pen actually works when put to the screen. %Gallery-116783%
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: 'the most useful Android slates will be pen-enabled'
Sure, N-Trig's DuoSense combined pen / capacitive touch technology has become a household name when talking about Tablet PCs, and most recently has popped up in the HP Slate, but as you may expect the company is planning on pushing into other tablet territories. N-Trig's VP of Marketing Gary Baum told us earlier today that the Israel-based company will certainly support other operating systems (flavors of Linux, such as Ubuntu, etc.) and is in fact working with hardware partners on Android tablets. That means those latter slates would have capacitive touchscreens that support both pen and finger input -- something we haven't yet seen on any other non-resistive Android tablets. It's certainly a differentiator, and Baum wasn't shy about stating that "the most useful Android slates will be pen-enabled." (Funny enough, he told us the guys at N-Trig call the other contenders out there "JAAS," or "just another Android slate.") However, like us, you're probably thinking: what about the apps? Considering there are very few (if any) Android apps that take advantage of pen input, it's an question mark, and though Baum wouldn't comment on any specific upcoming stylus-optimized programs / software, he hinted that they'd come. Curious about availability and partnership? We hear ya, but unfortunately, that part of the equation is still missing.
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 demos advanced N-act multitouch gestures, coming to laptops and tablets later this year
N-trig has made a few multitouch advances in the past, and it's now trying to push things a bit further once again with its new so-called N-act hands-on gesture vocabulary, which promises to open up a new range of four-fingered, two-handed multitouch gestures. That includes new tricks like a three-finger side sweep gesture to scroll between windows, a three-fingered tap to display all open windows (just hold to cycle through them), and the ability to select something by making a rectangle with four fingers, to name but a few options. What's more, N-trig says that at least some OEMs have already committed to shipping laptops and tablets using the technology later this year (Windows 7 only), although it's unsurprisingly staying mum on any specific companies or products. Head on past the break for a quick demo video.
Multi-touch display giving Dell Latitude XT users fits?
Dell's Latitude XT is a pretty special piece of equipment, namely because it boasts multi-touch capabilities while being a Tablet PC. Unfortunately, it seems that quite a few users are growing increasingly frustrated with the touch-lovin' screen, with GottaBeMobile going so far as to call Dell out to remedy the myriad issues with its N-Trig digitizer. Among the problems are "digitizer not found" errors upon restart, a digitizer that won't work properly without a few reboots and a nice selection of applet loading errors to top things off. It seems the readers of the aforesaid site aren't faring too well either, with the forums filling up with folks eager and willing to yell "amen!" and "me too!" Are you also experiencing wonky N-Trig problems? Are you fed up with Dell's public silence on the matter? Or have you figured out a solution that you've been keeping all to yourself for the past seven months? Chime in down below.
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.
