Coolest gadgets and technologies
March 4th, 2005 | Published in blog
Current technologies. Whats hot, cool, useful, but also easy to use. I’m not going to mention any iPhones or MacBook Air’s in this article, because this article is about useful gadgets, not just fancy designs.
Microsoft Surface. You probably haven’t heard of this yet. As you can tell Microsoft makes this beast of a gadget. Basically, it is a giant coffee table. But it does more than providing you with a leg rest. On the top of the table, there is an enormous screen that you can use just by reaching out with your finger. Surface will currently be aimed towards retail stores and entertainment lobbies. Right now you may be able to find one at a T-Mobile store or a Sheraton hotel. But more will definitely be coming to stores near you. Why is this simple product going to be such a hit in retail stores? Because, it is not that simple at all. Underneath the screen, there are infrared cameras and projection lights that process up to 50 simultaneously touches on the screen, allowing multiple users at one time to interact with Surface while using all 10 fingers at one time.
So what is this Surface going to do?
Currently, Surface has a decent variety of programs written for it, including some fairly useful ones. First, they have their entertainment side of the Surface. With the Paint application, multiple users can draw with all of their fingers on the screen with virtual paint. You can also use real world items such as paintbrushes for real world effects. Then there is the media part, which makes managing your music fun and very visual. You can slide through all of your albums and then select ones you want. Then virtually turn the album over to view the songs. To add them to your Now Playing list, you just drag the song to the Now Playing sphere. And if you want to view and share music from your Portable Media Player, you can place your Zune down on the surface, (yes, only Zunes will work, and a Zune is basically Microsoft’s version of an iPod) the Surface will automatically connect with it wirelessly with no configuration needed, and the albums will fly out from your Zune, waiting for you to interact with them. Also with pictures and a Wi-Fi enabled camera, you can simply take a picture, and then place it on the Surface, and the picture you took will pop out of your camera, wirelessly. Interacting with pictures and videos has never been easier. Just like in real life, you can push around your pictures, but you can also resize them just by pulling your fingers
