Touch Screen Gadget

Gigabyte UMPC priced from $556

Posted by sawaru | Category: Tablet PC & UMPC

Now it appears that pricing and OS for three versions of the touchscreen notebook will be available, the M912V running Vista and the M912X and M912M both running XP.

All three models will use a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and have an 8.9-inch display.  The M912V will apparently be priced at around $656 and come with 1GB of RAM, both WiFi and Bluetooth, and use a 1,280 x 768 panel.  The M912X, meanwhile, will be priced at $620 for the same specs, while the M912M loses both Bluetooth and pixels, thanks to a mere 1,024 x 600 panel, to hit a $556 price.

The M912 measures 235 x 180 x 28~42mm and tips the scales at 1.2kg; there’s no optical drive, but there are three USB ports, audio, D-SUB video and an SD card slot.  Storage is courtesy of a 160GB hard-drive standard to each model.  Maximum battery life is quoted at 4hrs from the 4400mAh Li-ion pack.

Source

Faster touchscreen controller speed up process

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

The new STMPE811 from STMicroelectronics is a four-wire resistive touchscreen controller featuring autonomous functionality to minimize demands on the host processor. For embedded designers, this frees valuable CPU cycles to ease pressures on performance, power consumption and response times.

Built-in features include an internal 12bit ADC for high resolution as well as 128 x 32bit FIFO data buffers for smooth position tracking. There are also features for accurate position identification and a window-masking function to support multiple sense windows. Special low-power design features achieve active current below 1mA, idle current less than 1µA, and an ultralow-power 150nA hibernation mode.

By combining these functions into a 3mm x 3mm QFN-16 package, the STMPE811 saves footprint and extends battery lifetime in portable applications such as PDAs, mobile phones, GPS receivers, game consoles and POS terminals.

The STMPE811 is the latest member of the company’s S-Touch range of touch-sensor controller solutions optimized for high sensitivity, high integration and low power consumption. The family also includes the STMPE1208S and STMPE821 capacitive touch controllers. Further new product introductions are scheduled for later in 2008.

The STMPE811 is sampling at 95 cents in quantities of 10,000 pieces, with mass production forecast for this quarter.

[ eetasia ]

Touch-screen usage soars across industries

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone, Tablet PC & UMPC, Trend Watch & News

The use of touch screens on mobile phones is already soaring, and the introduction of a new line of small computing devices designed to connect people to the Internet is also fueling their use, a manufacturing executive said Thursday.

The touch screen market will grow to a value of US$3.1 billion this year from $2.78 billion last year, said Kevin Chuang, an executive at Swenc Technology, at a conference in Taipei.

Three trends are driving the market, starting with the iPhone craze, he said. But what really boosted volume handset sales was a chip developed by Taiwan’s MediaTek that made it easy for companies to put touch screens on handsets. MediaTek’s main customers are in China, and the chips have been used in scores of handsets there, he said.

A new category of devices is also coming out that is increasing touch screen use, known variously as ultramobile PCs (UMPCs), mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and a growing list of names.

"Most people buying iPhones today are using them more for accessing Internet content than even for phone calls," he said. That’s a sign ultramobile PCs and the like will probably find a place in global markets.

Swenc Technology is a producer of touch screen components. Chuang was speaking at a DisplaySearch conference in Taipei.

[pcworld]

Tablet functions coming to Intel’s Classmate

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Internet Device, Tablet PC & UMPC, Trend Watch & News

Intel have published their preliminary specifications for the 3rd-gen of the Classmate PC, which should drop into the $300-$450 range and appear before the end of the year. Tablet features appear in the specifications along with a standard netbook processing platform based on Atom.  I’ve snipped a copy of the info from the PDF. Click the image on the right to enlarge.

The information, along with more detailed information about the 2nd-gen platform, is in the public PDF entitled CHLS002 on this Intel web page.

Moreover, UMPC caught the following information in an Intel PDF from the Intel Developer Forum: the third-generation Classmate PC is expected to offer touch Tablet capabilities. The device is slated to appear late this year in the price range of $290 to $440 and of course will be powered by Intel’s Atom processor.

Having used touch-screen Tablet PC devices for the past two years, I’m wondering about the whole idea. I’m all for promoting Tablet PC technologies but will the experience be positive or negative for the target audience? Students and other end-users might end up abhorring the vectoring issues we’ve experienced and could possibly equate that to all Tablet PCs, which would be a tragic inaccuracy. The picture in Steve’s snip shows a swivel screen to provide an an optimal writing experience, so my hopes are high, but we’ll have to see how this develops. This could all be a moot point if the 3rd-gen Classmate will contain both a touchscreen and an active digitizer, but at these prices, I really don’t think that’s the case.

One other question: it’s clear that will likely qualify as a ULCPC or Ultra Low Cost PC, and therefore Windows XP would be allowed on it. Does the Tablet Edition of XP have a stay-of-execution until 2010 also, or will the Tablet features be something from the Linux world?

Everex touch Japan Market

Posted by admin | Category: Laptop & Notebook, Tablet PC & UMPC

Everex CloudBook which is FIC manufactured has made its way to Japan which may be exciting to some but the most interesting part of this news is that the ultra-portable 7-inch Everex CloudBook has Bluetooth and touchscreen.

Other features include 802.11a to augment the existing b/g WiFi, the other specs basically remain the same for example 1.2GHz VIA C7-M proc and 30GB hard disk.

The question is, is the price right? A tax-inclusive price of ¥59,800 which is around $600 which is a lot more than the normal one without touchscreen for $399.

The release in Japan is supposedly March 22nd.

[impress]

Cloudbook Easy XS20 easy as it get

Posted by admin | Category: Laptop & Notebook, Tablet PC & UMPC

Known as the Everex Cloudbook in the US, the EasyNote XS20 was released soon after the Eee PC. Though it had the same dimensions and weight as the ASUS model, the Packard Bell UMPC had a whopping 40GB of harddisk storage, internal Bluetooth and, get this, a DVI output instead of a more conventional VGA port. Unfortunately, its price tag was more than a little steep, commanding a premium of over S$1,200 (US$789.47) in stores.
The units in Japan, however, are learning a new trick. Instead of a conventional 7-inch LCD, the display has been upgraded to a full touchscreen. This is, in our opinion, a strange move as the design is a straight-up clamshell and does not convert to a tablet PC. Moreover, the additional 50 percent premium over the non-touchscreen edition does not make this model any more attractive.
No news if the touchscreen edition of the XS20 will be carried by Packard Bell in this region, but we’re not really holding our breaths for it.

[cnet]

Get stylish with Asus R2H but wait

Posted by admin | Category: Laptop & Notebook, Tablet PC & UMPC

The ASUS R2H is an ambitious little unit which has a whole range of features packed in, but eventually it fails to work well due to poor memory and processing power. If you’re willing to accept very basic functionality in exchange for excellent portability at a price tag of $1,699, then this may be the device for you.

Cosmetically, the R2H is very attractive and portable; weighing in at just 900g without its power supply. The brushed aluminium front panel matches the silver plastic backing nicely, giving the whole thing a very professional look. This wouldn’t be out of place in any boardroom or briefcase.

Read the rest of this entry »

Apple dual translucent screen, iUMPC?

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

In some embodiments, Apple said the touch-based array element would be completely translucent, so that the display element of a handheld device and the array element may be configured with respect to each other, possibly including a configuration where the array element lies over a traditional display screen so that the display screen is viewable through the array element, in effect forming a touch screen.

The real world implementations of this concept become more apparent from the illustrations provided by Apple as part of the filling. For example, the company portrays a notebook-like device whose internals are tucked away behind a traditional LCD screen, and whose base/keyboard component has been replaced by a framed, dual-sided translucent touch-screen.

While in the “open” position, the side of the touch-screen facing upwards would serve as a sprawling multi-touch input surface capable of receiving input from a virtual keyboard, “finger or stylus.” During this time, the opposite side of the translucent touch-screen (facing down) would be immune to input. When in the “closed” position, however, the active side of the touch-screen would be reversed, with the side previously facing downwards now serving as touch-based window to the notebook’s traditional LCD component, effectively morphing the closed notebook into multi-touch tablet

Given that the touch-screen element would be completely translucent, Apple suggests several methods of displaying keyboards, number pads, and controls on panel while in the “open” position. These include using a “polarized light source so as to be slightly visible when lit” or displaying the controls through the use of minuscule LEDs embedded in the translucent touch-screen element.

For more information here:

AppleInsider is offering an unedited copy of the filing here: [3.1MB PDF].

[appleinsider]