June 4th, 2009

Apple has promoted a technology from an innovation to an absolutely necessary feature on mobile devices with its iPhone, so people will be able to toss through pictures with a flick of a finger or make a document larger by pressing two fingers against the screen and extending them.

Hence, personal computer manufacturers and software makers today hope to do more with touch on larger devices by giving people a 10-fingered go at their screens, even we do not have to operate our TV with two fingers because we will need more than two fingers in order to feel really natural.

The PC industry hopes the feature spurs sales, as PC makers like Hewlett-Packard and Dell have been clobbered during the recession as struggling businesses drop laptop computers upgrades to the bottom of their to-do lists. Consumers have shown more interest in new machines, but they are buying cheap, tiny laptops rather than decked-out goliaths.

At the same time, HP, Dell, Intel and Microsoft expect that when companies and consumers increase their spending, touch technology will be one of the things that nudge them to upgrade. Computers with the special screens will probably cost consumers about $100 more than standard machines.

HP has been selling a PC with an early version of touch technology. The TouchSmart PC which is priced at US$1,150 has been popular, the company says, particularly in kitchens as a family computer. But outside of science-fiction films, touch computers have been met with lukewarm reactions. Tabletlike computers that ship with plastic pens for marking on screens remain a niche in the overall PC market, as do pure touch machines. Mr. Ben-David said that about two million of about 300 million PCs sold last year were touch computers.

Even the company has been pushing touch technology to large businesses. It sells a custom touch interface for both desktops and laptops. Customers can turn these machines into bespoke kiosks for, say, ordering merchandise at a sporting event or flipping through a menu while waiting at a restaurant.

Another hand-held PlayStation Portable console is set to be launched by Sony this fall, in a bid to regain its leadership in the fast moving video game market.

Called the PSP Go, the new version which is smaller, lighter and more expensive than the current, is scheduled to be introduced in the United States and Europe in October at price of US$249.

The previous iterations of the PSP have played games stored on small optical discs, but the PSP Go is aimed at downloading games and storing them in its internal memory. The bottom of the console slides out from the main body to reveal game-control buttons.

Sony said the company will continue to manufacture and support the former PSP-3000, though it is aimed the new version at consumers who are familiar with Internetand prefer to shop for their entertainment online.

For the company, Sony said, the strategic picture is that sales of its latest home and portable game machines are lagging far behind offerings from the company’s chief Japanese rival, Nintendo. Nintendo has sold more than 100 million of its hand-held DS machines, roughly twice as many units as Sony has sold of the PSP.

Likewise, Sony’s flagship PlayStation 3 living-room console has been far surpassed in popularity by the Nintendo Wii, which has appealed to a much broader audience by focusing on nonintimidating, easy-to-play games rather than the complicated, violent fare more common to the PlayStation franchise.

Recognizing that many potential players are confused by traditional game controllers, which are often festooned with buttons, triggers and sticks, Sony also unveiled an early prototype of a motion-sensitive game controller that appeared to be similar to the controller on the Wii.

Microsoft “Project Natal” conference Xbox 360 at E3 2009 show the Nintendos Wii A motion capture sensor camera hightech lazer device from outer space for the Xbox 360.