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Microsoft's Multitouch Coffee Table Display
longacre writes "Popular Mechanics takes the Microsoft Surface system for a hands-on video test drive. To be announced at today's D5 conference, the coffee-table-esqe device allows manipulation from multiple touch points, while infrared, WiFi and Bluetooth team up to allow wireless transfers between devices placed on top of it, such as cameras and cell phones. Expected to launch before the end of the year in the $5,000-$10,000 range, the devices might not make their way under many Christmas trees, but will find the insides of Starwood hotels, Harrah's casinos and T-Mobile shops."
Brought to you by the people who created such great products as Windows ME, and Windows Vista; we have the most expensive computer you've ever spilled liquid on! Seriously.. by the time this really hits the commercial market (I would say 2 years), the linux version will be better.
sorry but no. I saw this demonstrated 3+ years ago at MIT by a couple of EE and CS students (I forgot their names) working on multipoint touch interfaces. They created almost everything I saw in that example/demo video, except the mockup of the transfer to phone.
That are not innovating this, Students at MIT did this before them and they either hired those students, or copied their work.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Just to inform you, all you did there was sound extremely bitter, and quite frankly pathetic.
Are you going to come up with a real criticism of the tech, other than a lame 'durhur BSOD' joke and some awful conjecture about spilling photos and spam?
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
> "What is interesting is the application (implementation, and that anyone could write apps for it (as opposed to iPhone, for example)."
... that is only 4x the pixels of iPhone.
You may not have noticed, but iPhone has a full Web apps capable Web browser in it with Wi-Fi "n". It can run Flickr and eBay and Google everything as well as every other major site on the Internet.
In addition to that, you will be able to install software through iTunes same as iPod video. Get with the fucking program if you are going to spout propaganda. Fucking keep up. Read a bit.
> Apple is using multitouch as a gimmick to create buzz. It doesn't actually do anything useful.
On the iPhone, the multi-touch screen replaces the keypad. Instead of touching any of 12 places with any finger, you can touch hundreds of places. In a sense it is a keypad that can morph into any button arrangement. This is not only appropriate for a phone, it also bears mentioning that iPhone is a real product, you can buy 20 of them for the price of one Microsoft Surface which is not even for sale. That's the real gimmick.
> [Surface] use[s] a screen larger than a postage stamp (as opposed to the iPhone, for example).
In the first place, the small screen in the iPhone is considered a feature because it helps it to fit into your pocket, unlike Surface.
In the second place, the Surface screen is only 1024x768