Minority Report meets Avatar...

It's finally becoming a reality.

We've all read about touchscreen hardware on phones, computers and other applications, but they all relied on actually touching the screen.

Even my students are getting excited about the possibilities that exist with this tech.

Basically, Evoluce has developed the touchscreen concept beyond having to touch it. Within half a meter, you can interact with the screen with multiple touches/inputs.

My concept here? Combine this with the semi-transparent LCD screen, make a big honkin' tablet that'll flip up and have a centralized media center.

Obviously, the appications could be developed for hospitals, military, schools, and pretty much where something has to be displayed and changed on a regular basis.

I like it!

Shazam!

Joo Joo Blues, II

Damn you, JooJoo!

I knew you weren't going to do it, but I didn't want to believe it. I had hoped that you would put up a good fight, and you tripped walking up to the ring.

As you can tell by the picture, the only "advantage" is the size of the screen. Of course, this added size makes for a heavy lady. At nearly 50% heavier than the iPad, the Joojoo just doesn't do those certain things right.

engadget reports that as these two are now available, you can check them out yourself. Personally, at this point, it's pretty much a done deal. Sure, the Joojoo would probably beat the pants off of my M275, but that machine is nearly six years old. My machine works for what I want, but there is definite room for improvement.

We'll see what happens. The current scuttlebutt conspiracy theory is that Apple wanted to jump on the eReader/tablet bandwagon, had the iPhone/iTouch and super-sized it. I don't blame them; it works, so why not?

But do you want a super sized iTouch? Rhetorical, but...do you?

Shazam!

JooJoo Blues

In what I had hoped would be a better than decent review, the JooJoo failed to leave a strong positive impression.

Engadget's Paul Miller has the video walk-thru and write up.

I took the time to really listen to what Miller has to say, but some of what he's doing is a bit clumsy. I don't know if that's him or the actual pad.

Hardware-wise, the JooJoo is "quite speedy thanks to its 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM and 4GB solid state drive". SSD is quite nice, but even better is the reported 7 second start up. Rock and roll! But...2.5 hour battery life under normal usage with web surfing? Damn...

As for the interface, Miller makes this look quite clumsy. Again, without putting my hands on it, it would seem unclear if this is Miller making a first attempt, or if the interface is dramatically different (or wonky) when compared to Apple's iTouch/iPhone interface. Personally, give it a few weeks and then make a judgement there, especially after the learning curve.

As for the software, it's obvious that there are some issues, mainly little stuff. Sure it does Flash, but even then, it will attempt to "cheat" the process. Check the video; it'll explain how Youtube videos will utilize the file's original format. It's little stuff here folks. Little stuff that ends up annoying you to no end and simply pissing you off.

In the end, I was left with a feeling of "shoulda woulda coulda". Hopefully, this is something that can be addressed through some software upgrades or maybe even a substitute OS. As you can tell from earlier posts, I was rooting for this one.

Note, the key word is "was".

Comments? Bring 'em!

Shazam!