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Watch Synaptics' touch-sensitive space bar in action
Earlier today, Synaptics announced its SmartBar technology that adds a touch input area -- enabled by a sub-0.2mm-thick PET film -- onto the space bar, which then lets you perform certain tasks without having to touch the mouse or trackpad. We went over to the company's show room at Computex to check this out, and we came away impressed. In the first demo, we looked at how you can quickly select text while typing by simply swiping to the left on the space bar. We were then shown how you can scroll with two fingers on the space bar: hold down one on the left and swipe with another on the right for vertical scrolling, and vice versa for horizontal scrolling. This will take some getting used to, obviously. You can also zoom in and out by swiping both fingers inwards or outwards -- a bit like pinch-to-zoom but on a space bar.
Synaptics' touch-sensitive space bar speeds up your writing
Your smartphone's keyboard has loads of shortcuts that help you write faster, but the keyboard on your big, brawny PC doesn't. Seems illogical, doesn't it? Synaptics doesn't think it makes sense, either. The input firm is launching SmartBar, a technology that turns your keyboard's space bar into a touch-sensitive surface for gesture controls. You can swipe your thumb to select text, pinch to zoom in and program five "logical buttons" that perform macros, such as formatting text or building units in a favorite real-time strategy game. This might only save you a couple of seconds reaching for your mouse, but Synaptics is betting that those little time savings will add up.
Smart Bar from eAccess combines Gingerbread with traditional numpad for old-school enthusiasts
Well, you don't see this too often. A new phone dubbed the Smart Bar is set for sale in Japan on September 22nd that combines the retro styling of a candybar with a modern 3-inch touchscreen. We're undeniably intrigued by the numerical keypad (for obvious reasons), and the WVGA display sports an admirable pixel density of 311ppi, although the rest of the specs are decidedly mundane. The handset is manufactured by Huawei and features an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 SoC, 512MB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera and Gingerbread. There's also support for 802.11n (which allows tethering for up to five simultaneous devices), Bluetooth 2.1 and IrDA. It features 3G support on the 2100 and 1700MHz spectra, along with tri-band 1900 / 1800 / 900MHz GSM capability. The Smart Bar will sell for approximately ¥29,800 ($385), where fans of vintage fusion may select from black, white and brown variants.
