After two decades when touch- and pen-based computing never broke through into mainstream use, the Apple iPhone has given PC makers another chance. HP’s new TouchSmart tx2z is the latest attempt, using features already built into Windows Vista
From our better late than never dept: HP has followed up its multi-touch desktop PC with a multi-touch convertible Tablet PC, the HP TouchSmart tx2z. This lets you manipulate onscreen objects with your fingers, as with an Apple iPhone or HTC Touch etc.
HP first started selling touch-screen PCs running MS DOS back in the early 1980s, but the TouchSmart isn’t based on HP technology. It’s based on N-trig’s DuoSense panel, which fits in front of any LCD. (DuoSense means both pen/stylus and touch/multi-touch.) Although Microsoft has said it will add multi-touch features to Windows 7, N-trig’s is designed for Vista. The company says:
Windows Vista boasts unprecedented support for pen and touch input — separately and simultaneously — making it a natural fit for N-Trig dual mode technology.
Since N-trig’s DuoSense digitizer requires only a standard HID USB driver, there’s actually no need for additional drivers to enjoy native support for pen and touch in all Windows Vista applications. However, to ensure that N-Trig users enjoy the full range of pen and touch functionality, Windows Vista includes a pre-packaged (“in the box”) native N-Trig UART driver.
In fact, our commitment to helping make Vista the OS of choice for mobile computing is such that Windows Vista also includes intelligent palm rejection algorithms developed in conjunction with N-trig.
Vista also supports pen operation and “flicks,” and includes handwriting recognition.
The TouchSmart tx2z has a 12.1 inch screen, 2.1GHz AMD Turion X2 dual-core mobile processor, 3GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive $1,149.99. Systems will be available in the UK in January, starting at £799.
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