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For some reason many PC laptops ship with touchpads that are quite customizable but include customized drivers that disable much of the functionality and customization that the hardware normally supports.

If your PC laptop has a touchpad made by Synaptics (which many do) you may be able to get multitouch scrolling by downloading the latest driver from here. Even if you have an older Synaptics device that doesn't support multitouch you should still be able to set up a "scroll zone" at the edges of the pad which allows you to scroll using a single finger. I have done this on many Dell and HP laptops and it works great.

Reminded me of http://www.synaptics.com/solutions/products/flexpad keyboard-touchpad rather than touchpad-keyboard.

When I first saw the IPhone, I was reminded of the Onyx concept phone which I believe pre-dates it a bit. They have some fancy touch sensitive technology which they are licensing out. Their transparent thin film not only detects position, but also pressure. You can expect to see loads of phones which are just one big touch sensitive screen before long, probably with some kind of low power OLED screen.

Apple is a company that has a tremendous brand presence, one that influences brands in many other industries and has a "following" more unique and devoted than say Nokia or Motorola. People will be clamoring to dig up FCC filings on Apple's first foray into cell phones... but how many people are clamoring to find out what Motorola's next whiz-bang product is going to be? This is perhaps why the author didn't understand just how critical it is for Apple to come out and set the expectation. And that's another thing... The FCC filings put information out there that may be ambiguous and not set the proper expectations for consumers and developers. Apple was smart to take a lead on this and set the expectation according to what they want people to know about the upcoming product.

That being said, iPhone is not a strategic product. It's a tactical product in a much larger strategy. And this is something the press doesn't seem to grasp at all.

Yes, iPhone lacks this and that but do they need to "test the waters" to know the demand for 3G or other features they have yet to incorporate? No, of course not... there's plenty of industry data for these existing features. What they ARE testing that NO phone manufacturer yet has is multitouch capacitance sensors. This is a key to Apple's larger strategy, in my opinion.

Based on a closer examination of the technology (Synaptics Onyx Concept phone, Multitouch Demo at TED) it's clear that iPhone is only scratching the surface of what multitouch can do... and they have only begun tinkering with the UI, gestures, etc.

Note how everyone pissing and moaning about the lack of tactile contact is ignoring something critical in Apple's redefinition of the UI. One of the first things I noticed about the early iPod interfaces was that the scrollwheel seemed to possess both acceleration and some momentum... i.e. fast scrolling will keep up momentum for a second when you let go of the wheel. There's more feedback received by your senses than just tactile sensory input.

When you touch an object and move it with force, you expect momentum. You also expect to see the result of momentum... an object continuing to move once you let go. Also you expect proportional momentum... push harder, retained momentum is higher. Multitouch capacitance sensors have velocity, pressure and acceleration sensitivity and a smartly designed UI will mimic the physics of these behaviors. The end result is that the 2D simulation of 3D space behaves more as you would expect it to if it were a space of real objects. This is also feedback... except it's many layers of feedback telling you where you should expect objects to be, how much force you need to apply to achieve a given result, etc. A keyboard offers only one layer of feedback. And this puts most PDA's not just five years behind, but as far behind as typewriters in their ability to tell you something more substantive about the work space.

But most companies don't think this far. Apple, however, does. Apple's designers don't look at other PDA's and think "Hey, they have keyboards, people put up with them enough to buy them... let's make a physical keyboard." When people tell you they want feedback, they're not saying they want a tiny keyboard. They're saying they want feedback... but your combined sensory input gives you much more information about where you are in space and time and subconsciously what your brain needs to do to achieve certain results.

So what Apple's designers tend to do when faced with this is they will go to the root of the issue and research how people receive and perceive sensory input... and what that combination of

The iPhone is just the beginning of a much larger revolution in computing, in fact probably the biggest revolution since the birth of the graphical user interface. Not sure what I mean? Look at the submitter's link to the TED demonstration, and also take a look at the Synaptics Onyx Concept.

Put it this way... if you still haven't guessed where Jobs' head is right now, the iPhone with its arguably limited feature sets is a way of not showing your best work up front. In fact, Apple I think has something much bigger in mind... for which the iPhone is really just a loss leader.

When you see what multipoint capacitance sensors can do, it should become evident that Apple's probably already researching how to redefine the user interface of the home computer... and eliminate the mouse and physical keyboard entirely, but simultaneously give us a user interface far more advanced than a mere 2D touchscreen. A touchscreen tablet strips away some of the advantages of a keyboard and mouse, but a tablet PC with a multipoint capacitance sensor opens up new dimensions of desktop navigation and application control.

Put it another way... Have you seen the Pre-Crime computer in Minority Report? Now you've got some idea where Apple's research is very probably currently focused.

iPhone not meeting expectations, not living up to the hype? Pfeh... I guarantee you Steve Jobs and company are already thinking another five years ahead to the day when the desktop GUI framework will undergo the first systemic metamorphosis in 20 years.

Apple doesn't own the scroll wheel technology, Synaptics does (http://www.synaptics.com/).

http://news.com.com/2010-1041_3-5375101.html

This is part of the genius of Steve Jobs. He is better then anyone for taking credit for someone else's ideas. Really worse then MS, just doesn't have as big of a company.

Anyways, interestingly enough, according to you, apple's biggest selling point isn't really apples'.

See http://www.synaptics.com/technology/cps.cfm or http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5512416-1.html for more info.

I actually like the touchpad in my HP laptop. It's a good Synaptics pad which uses capacitance instead of pressure. The control panel has lots of knobs, including adjustable palm check which nicely prevents movement while typing. Theres also stuff like tap zones: I have it set for tap in the upper right corner for a right click, or in the upper left for maximize. I always tap; I never use the buttons. There's even a GPL'd driver for XOrg and XF86 that has all the features.

After a little practice, I can use it just as well as a mouse for controlling a cursor. It does suck for FPSes, though.

My Dell laptop doesn't have a scroll wheel. Instead, a userspace part of the driver software tracks drags along the right and bottom edges of the touchpad and translates the movements into movements of the scrollbar. You can also "throw" the scrollbar down (release while still moving) and it'll keep scrolling until you put your finger back down still.

I find it even better than a scrollwheel, so much so that I installed the software on a friend's non-Dell laptop (as illegal as that probably is) so that she could do the same thing. Of course, this software doesn't work on a Mac, but I'm sure someone could create a similar thing for MacOS if they wanted to.

In case anyone is interested, the touchpad and software is created by Synaptics. They seem to have a generic version of the driver software, although I can't say whether or not that'll do everything that Dell's customized version does, or whether it'll work for non-Synaptics touchpads.

Emacs's Calc (the full one) Is basically motivated by the HP 48G series of calculators. It's all a high schooler would need to do calculus, graph equations, basic stats, and numerical solutions. Graphing requires gnuplot.

It includes a lot of functionality and it's generally accessed by key combos, so reading the manual is necessary. in particular inputting algebraic formulae requires typing the quote key first.

it will do symbolic and numeric integration and differentiation, and solutions of matrix equations. I use it all the time for basic homework type problems in engineering.

Other software that might be appropriate is maxima, octave, and R. R is especially good for data analysis and statistics.

I don't recommend axiom for high school level, but it is quite good. (type system adds extra complication for high schoolers though).

In order for induction to work, you would have to have a large quantity of metal in your finger.

So unless you're Wolverine, you're probably out of luck.

That's an interesting idea. According to this article, Apple did not invent the iPod scroll wheel though. Apparently it was designed by Synaptics.

Apple does, however, have a patent that covers mice with a rotary dial.

This is probably not quite what you had in mind, but if you can come up with a display for it, perhaps you could build your own off of one of the gumstix computers.

Hmmmm...anyone know if there is anyone making external versions of synaptic's cPad unit? Might work as a combo display/input device for a gumstix unit.

Sure, a Sharp Zaurus is probably a better match for what you need (heck, I know *I* want one), but SOMEBODY has to suggest something else in this thread...

You can get more information on the geeky side from http://www.synaptics.com/technology/cps.cfm

The company that designed the scroll wheel is Synaptics. They have another product called the Fingerprint TouchPad that is basically a tiny fingerprint scanner/authentication device. I've always thought that this kind of device would be great if it was integrated into something I have hold to use, such as my cell phone or mouse. Biometric security isn't absolute security, but it can be one level of security that is nearly invisible if implemented correctly. Neat stuff.

The company that designed the scroll wheel is Synaptics. They have another product called the Fingerprint TouchPad that is basically a tiny fingerprint scanner/authentication device. I've always thought that this kind of device would be great if it was integrated into something I have hold to use, such as my cell phone or mouse. Biometric security isn't absolute security, but it can be one level of security that is nearly invisible if implemented correctly. Neat stuff.

actually you don't http://www.synaptics.com/products/touchpad_faq.cfm

If you use emacs you might like:

calc(scroll down the page a bit).

Calc does RPN, symbolic math, graphing, and more, all from within emacs. If you are using emacs 21.1 you need to apply a patch to the calc source before compiling. the patch can be found by doing C-h P in emacs and searching for "calc" in the displayed problems file.

Wouldn't be too hard to make a program to turn a touchpad into a Morse key, Windows users could use the code interfaces here, but there's also (of course) board-level specs for the necessary Linux drivers, as I don't think the (third-party) Synaptics Linux driver provides such direct interfaces, I can't speak to the Mac. *shrug*

Some of these might have actually got a pull from /. in getting the award. How about pulling one of these open source challenges as well? There seems to be a lot of interest for a Linux API for the Synaptic cPad for example - still it missing.

The Toshiba 5105 uses the Synaptics cPad, a touch sensitive LCD screen as a touchpad mouse. I haven't been able to find any information needed to create an open source device driver, though Synaptics web site does document the Windows API. I've wanted to use this device for various information displays in Linux (like Gkrellm, but so far requests to Toshiba and Syntaptics have been fruitless. :-(

Synaptics has a new touchpad for notebooks called the cPad. It has a B&W LCD under a (mostly) clear touchpad that can be used as a secondary display. It has it's own API, and looks pretty neat - it saves valuable screen space and I hope I could move the task bar down there. I've only seen it on the Toshiba Satellite 5100 series, but I'm sure Synaptics is agressively marketing it to other laptop manufacturers.

I think this is it: http://www.mudlib.org/~rassilon/p2c/

The folks over at Synaptics (the touchpad company) wrote a Theremin program for Windows - the link is here. It's a cool little toy that kind of gives people an idea of what the instrument is about.

- -Josh Turiel

The touchpad on my Dell Inspiron 7500 has these so-called "hot spots" (although Synaptics, the company that makes the touchpad, calls them "tap zones"). It has umpteen other features, too. And there's even a Linux driver for it. These touchpads are in Dell, Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Acer, HP, and Winbook notebooks, among others.

Synaptics also makes a product called the TouchWriter, which is a touchpad that can use either a finger or a stylus.

Another fine Apple innovation, in the tradition of the mouse and the GUI. =)

The touchpad on my Dell Inspiron 7500 has these so-called "hot spots" (although Synaptics, the company that makes the touchpad, calls them "tap zones"). It has umpteen other features, too. And there's even a Linux driver for it. These touchpads are in Dell, Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Acer, HP, and Winbook notebooks, among others.

Synaptics also makes a product called the TouchWriter, which is a touchpad that can use either a finger or a stylus.

Another fine Apple innovation, in the tradition of the mouse and the GUI. =)

The touchpad on my Dell Inspiron 7500 has these so-called "hot spots" (although Synaptics, the company that makes the touchpad, calls them "tap zones"). It has umpteen other features, too. And there's even a Linux driver for it. These touchpads are in Dell, Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Acer, HP, and Winbook notebooks, among others.

Synaptics also makes a product called the TouchWriter, which is a touchpad that can use either a finger or a stylus.

Another fine Apple innovation, in the tradition of the mouse and the GUI. =)

While not in common use in the US, touchpads of various sizes that work with stylii are being sold with Chinese character recognition.

As an example, Synaptics both has a touchpad-based Chinese character recognition system and a touchpad whose standard driver includes configurable hot spots.

-j

- most OCR programs, such as the ones that now come free with your scanners,
use neural networks for at least some of the steps to recognize
characters. See, for example, Caere OmniPage and Ligature,
which uses them in its "ocr-on-a-chip" that goes into its
handheld "Quicktionary" pen.

- data mining programs used NNW's to analyse
transactions for unusual patterns, e.g. credit card fraud. This is
now a big time business. See, for example, HNC Software, co-founded
by Robert Hecht-Nielson, a famous NNW guru at Univ. of San Diego.

- Sensory Inc. uses them in its voice recognition chips.
They've sold millions of such chips, which recognize just a few words
but with speaker independence, high background noise, and for low cost.
See the recent article at EE Times: "Toys that talk..."

- Synaptics , co-founded by Carver Mead, uses analog hardware
neural network techniques in its Touchpad that is used in many notebooks.

Have I convinced you yet? Most of these applications are at the
infrastructure level and don't get much PR, often for proprietary
reasons. Calera for example, was using NNW's in its OCR already
in the late 80's but didn't say anything about them until Caere started
bragging in ads in 1992 that it was using NNW's.