Next Generation Computing: Touch

The touch screen revolution is upon us. From the Apple iPad, to Android cell phones, to Microsoft's brilliant Surface table, multi-touch interfaces have given us the power to control computers with simple hand gestures in ways that were mere science fiction just a few years ago.

Thanks to recent technological advances, touch screens are only now becoming mainstream. But the idea is nothing new. Think of the old pen-based graphics tablets for the Atari 800 and Apple IIe in the 1980s, or early stylus-based handhelds like the Apple Newton and the PalmPilot in the 1990s. Those latter devices contained pressure-sensitive resistive screens, which consisted of two separate layers and worked best with a plastic or metal stylus.

Contrast that to today's Apple iPad and the Motorola Droid X, which feature large, single-layer, glass capacitive touch screens. Capacitive screens allow for greater control than what you'd find on an ATM or older car navigation system. They respond accurately to the lightest fingertip touches, and support multi-touch gestures like two-finger zoom and rotation. Some product vendors have added haptic feedback, which couples each touch with mild vibrations in order to give physical resistance to each key press. 

Touch screens have also finally come to desktop PCs, most notably from HP—albeit with mixed results. Ergonomic issues render desktop touch screens a dubious proposition: who wants to keep an arm outstretched all day long? One stellar exception is the Wacom Cintiq 21UX, a 1600-by-1200-pixel, highly configurable drawing surface for artists, photo editors, and graphic designers that doubles as a multi-position LCD monitor. And if you've watched cable news recently, you've probably seen Perceptive Pixel's giant Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, which lets anchors flip between images and zoom into maps with hand gestures as they deliver the latest breaking news. 

Blue Optics Light Touch

The Blue Optics Light Touch interactive projector employs holographic laser projection to turn any nearby surface into a 10.1-inch touch screen.

PrimeSense

The Tel-Aviv-based PrimeSense, the company that makes the chip powering Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360, is already working on ways to let users manipulate on-screen objects using simple hand gestures.

Hitachi Displays

Hitachi Displays has developed a projection-based electrostatic capacitance panel that works with a plastic stylus or even through gloves.

Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall

Perceptive Pixel gained fame in 2008 when CNN first began using the "Magic Wall," properly known as the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, a $100,000, 88-inch 1080p high-definition display that supports multi-touch gestures. (Image credit: Perceptive Pixel)

Wacom Cintiq 21UX

Desktop touch screens typically aren't ergonomic enough, but the Wacom Cintiq 21UX is an exception—and it's a stellar drawing surface for artists, photo editors, and graphic designers.

Motorola Atrix 4G

The Motorola Atrix 4G is an Android-based touch screen phone, with a glass capacitive touch screen; you can dock it and turn it into either a desktop or a laptop PC. 

PalmPilot

Early touch screen handhelds like the original 1996 PalmPilot required a stylus, since the individual interface elements were too small, and the resistive screens required too much pressure to use without one.

Next Generation Computing: High Definition

Finally, it's a high-definition world—at least in the tech industry. By now, most consumers have replaced their old analog televisions with ones capable of receiving and displaying HD digital broadcasts. Two of the current crop of game consoles—the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3—debuted back in 2005 and 2006, with full high-definition graphics capabilities. And Blu-ray won the bitter disc-based format war, and is finally picking up steam in an otherwise stagnant home video market.

HDTV and home theater projector prices have also come down—way down. If you're not particular about owning the absolute latest technologies, you can pick up a 50-inch plasma or LCD HDTV for under $1,000. Most support 1080p, meaning that each panel has 1920-by-1080-pixel resolution. That's far more than earlier 720p panels, which varied in exact resolution, though none were as sharp. The newest models also include multiple High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) ports. Each lets you replace five component cables with a single digital connection to your Blu-ray player, DVR, or game console.

There's plenty of high-definition programming now, too. For example, many broadcast television channels are available in HD. The latest Blu-ray players deliver over two million pixels of resolution and much faster disc load times than before; some can even receive audio and video over Wi-Fi. Netflix has recently begun streaming more movies and TV shows in high definition. While home theater PCs and media center extenders have failed to gain a foothold in the living room, self-contained game consoles and set-top boxes—from the PS3 to the Apple TV—are doubling as easy Netflix and YouTube portals.

Over the past half-decade, we've seen HDTV manufacturers adopt greener, more energy conscious designs, especially the latest one-inch-thin models that employ highly efficient LED backlighting. That said, two new trends have emerged. The first is a slimming of the bezel, or the visible frame around the TV; some vendors are working on making this as small and unobtrusive as possible. The other is a push toward "Smart TVs," which include built-in Internet connectivity that supersedes the need for a separate box.

That brings up an important point: it has become quite complicated to figure out how to watch your favorite shows and movies. Standard cable TV subscriptions still exist, and still offer access to hundreds of channels. But with the advent of on-demand, DVRs, Netflix streaming, and online content portals, consumers now expect to watch their favorite shows and movies on their terms. As a result, they've begun to rebel at cable TV's high monthly costs and inflexible channel packages.

Unfortunately, the studios aren't playing ball. Thanks to a complex series of deals between cable and broadband providers, TV and movie studios, advertisers, and what's left of the home video rental market, it comes down to a case-by-case basis whether you can watch a specific program with a specific gadget. Expect to see some pretty ugly battles as everyone involved fights to retain a portion of the revenue. Sadly, these conflicts often take years to resolve; look how long it took for Toshiba's HD-DVD format to lose to Blu-ray, for example.

That said, there's plenty to look forward to. At CES 2011, Vizio introduced a cinema-like 21:9 HDTV with 2560-by-1080-pixel resolution, in both 50- and 58-inch varieties; each can display CinemaScope (2:35 to 1) movies without black bars at the top or bottom of the screen. Bose has unveiled the $5,349 VideoWave, a 46-inch CCFL-backlit LCD TV with a built-in, almost completely hidden home theater system that consists of six woofers, 10 tweeters, a "Wave Tunnel," and an audio signal processing unit.

The latest high-definition tech isn't just about the living room, either. ATI's Eyefinity lets you hook up multiple HD monitors to a PC. This way, you can display a first-person 3D game's view so that it envelopes your peripheral vision—tripling horizontal screen resolution in the process. (And that's just with three monitors!) Meanwhile, Panasonic has just unveiled the VC500, a high-definition, 3D video conferencing system that can display medical procedures and computer-aided design schematics with genuine depth of field.

And speaking of 3D, despite what consumer electronics vendors will tell you, its outlook is still uncertain. To get the proper home 3D experience, you'll need a compatible TV, Blu-ray player, and extra pair of glasses for each person watching. Glasses aren't compatible between brands, there isn't much 3D content to watch, and 3D also has a minor detrimental effect on picture quality. As a result, most viewers are taking a wait-and-see approach. A few vendors—notably, Toshiba—are working on glasses-free 3D televisions, although early prototypes made it clear that this technology is a few years away from maturing.

Still, we've only begun to scratch the surface of what's possible with high-definition video. As they say in television, stay tuned—because it's only going to get more impressive from here. 

Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim

Inexpensive consoles like the Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim (pictured) and the Sony PlayStation 3 have brought high-definition gaming to the masses.  

 

 

Samsung UN40B7000

LED-based HDTVs are usually just about one inch thick. They're also more energy efficient than plasma and even LCD-based HDTVs, and often come with Internet connectivity for streaming video.

 

 

Bose VideoWave

The $5,349 Bose VideoWave is a complete home theater system; contained within the 46-inch display's housing are 16 speakers, some acoustic plumbing, and an audio signal processing unit. 

 

 

Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc Player

Blu-ray players have come down in price, with some low-end models nudging the $100 barrier; this high-end Sony is closer to $400, but it comes with Google TV, audio and video streaming, and top-notch Blu-ray playback.

 

 

Panasonic VC500

Panasonic's new high-definition, 3D video conferencing system is designed to show depth of field for critical medical imaging, CAD, and other applications where regular video conferencing isn't detailed enough

 

 

AMD Eyefinity

AMD's Eyefinity system lets you plug three—or more—monitors into a PC for a giant, expansive high-definition desktop that encompasses your peripheral vision. 

 

 

Vizio Cinemawide 21:9 LCD

At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Vizio unveiled two 21:9 aspect ratio, 2560-by-1080-pixel HDTVs that can display 2:35 to 1 CinemaScope movies natively without black bars at the top or bottom.

The 10 Best Desktops

Desktops have come a long way from the boring, beige boxes of old. Now, you can get something as sleek as an all-in-one desktop or as flashy as a boutique gaming box and even a compact (and cheap!) nettop. The price for desktops these days start as low as $250 and as high as, well, $5,000 and maybe more, but a powerful desktop can be had for about $800. The editors of PCMag.com test hundreds of systems each year to help you find the best desktop. In this story, we help you narrow your choices by collecting the top 10 desktops on the market today.

HP TouchSmart 310-1125y
The HP TouchSmart 310-1125y's great touch-screen interface and sub-$750 price tag combine to give us a great entry-level all-in-one touch screen desktop PC.

Dell XPS x8300-5215NBK
The Dell XPS x8300-5215NBK desktop PC brings the power user champion belt back to Round Rock.

Lenovo IdeaCentre K330-11691AU
The Lenovo IdeaCentre K330-11691AU has the power to keep your family computing speedily for the next 5 to 7 years. 

 
Asus All-in-One PC ET2400IGTS-B008E

Is the Asus All-in-One PC ET2400IGTS-B008E the all-in-one desktop to best the Apple iMac 21-inch? It doesn't approach Apple's totally integrated ecosystem, but it's one of the best-equipped and powerful Windows 7 touch screen PCs out there. 

Digital Storm Black Ops Enix Edition

The Digital Storm Black Ops Enix Edition's price tag indicates that is among the high-end category of gaming desktops, but is it hard-core enough to be the best? All signs point to yes.   

 
Dell Inspiron i580-8139NBC

The Dell Inspiron i580-8139NBC entry-level desktop is fast, expandable, and has great bang for the buck, with the right mix of features and value. 

 
Lenovo ThinkStation C20

The Lenovo ThinkStation C20 should be at the top of your list if you're looking for an ISV-certified Windows 7-based workstation. It costs a pretty penny, but if you're working on multi-million dollar projects, the system's speed and serviceability make it a great choice. 

 
HP Pavilion p6727c-b

HP Pavilion p6727c-b is one of the best bang for the buck desktop PCs; just be sure to budget an afternoon to uninstall all the extra bloatware. 

 
HP Compaq 4000 Pro

Though it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of one of those Sandy Bridge desktops, the HP Compaq 4000 Pro desktop has just about all the things your small to medium-sized business needs, at a fair price. 

 
Maingear F131 Super Stock

The Maingear F131 Super Stock is an overclocked beast for the game grid. It has stratospheric performance, but better yet it doesn't have a stratospheric price tag.