We're not sure why these haven't received any fanfare up to this point, but for those of you who like to get all touchy-feely with your notebooks, Dell's new Studio 1558 Touch and Studio 1749 Touch notebooks both beg to be groped.

Perhaps a press release is forthcoming, but for the time being, you'll find these models in Dell's online catalog. From what little we're able to lift, both come with a mobile Core i5 processor clocked at 2.4GHz, 3GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

"These Studio 1558 and Studio 1749 laptops put the fun in functional," Dell's catalog reads. "The touchscreens let you scroll, pan, and zoom within a variety of applications, manage and edit photos and videos with TouchCam, and indulge your artistic side with YouPaint, all with a simple slide of your fingertips."

According to the catalog, the 1558 and 1749 start at $999 and $1,049, respectively.

Image Credit: Dell

The current lot of PDAs, and perhaps their smartphone and Tablet PC stand-ins, are neat technology, but could you go to war with one? (Maybe even more relevant: could you afford to drop yours?) If what you need is something that will withstand a lot more abuse, AIS Industrial Innovations has something that might interest you: the Mobile Rugged PDA (RPDA37), with the looks and brawn that pair well with your cosplay Master Chief outfit.

The Mobile Rugged PDA is MIL-STD-810F/461F compliant, has an “ingress protection rating of IP67” and meets the IEC 60529 (IP65) international protection standard. It’s build to withstand extreme conditions, repeated five-foot drops, and thermal shock. And it has cool rubberized bumpers.

While that’s impressive, perhaps the internal specs aren’t. The RPDA37 has a Marvell PXA270 625MHz processor, 256MB RAM, and a base storage of 256MB Flash ROM. It has a 3.7-inch transflective TFT LCD that’s touchscreen capable. Resolution depends on the option chosen: either QVGA, 240 x 320, or VGA, 480 x 640. And for operating systems there’s a choice of Windows CE 5.0 or Windows Mobile 6.1.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are standard, but GPS/GAlILEO and GPRS/3G/3.5G are optional. Ports include two USB 1.1 Type A connectors, one USB 1.1 Type B mini connector, an RS-232 port, and ethernet port, headphone and microphone jacks, and a Micro-SD slot.

If you really got to have one you’re going to need to save. The base model will set you back $1,899.

Image Credit: AIS Industrial Innovations

The new Asus T101MT netbook tablet was spotted in an FCC filing back in December, but it’s now been made official. The systems comes with the familiar netbook internals including a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, a 10.1-inch LED-backlit screen (with touchscreen capabilities), and 1-2GB of RAM depending on which version of Windows 7 the customer opts for. Consumers will also have a choice between a 160GB hard drive, or a 320GB hard drive with 500GB of Asus cloud storage free for a year.
 
Of course, the real trick here is the rotating screen that swivels around to put the computer into tablet mode. The system is not obscenely heavy at 2.9 lbs, and will offer a reported 6.5 hours of battery life. As an extra added bonus the SD card slot will be able to read the new SDXC cards up to 32GB in size. No specifics on price or availability were announced, but we’ll keep an eye out. Does this sort of form factor interest you at all?

As the marketplace is pushing for smaller and smaller, Hewlett-Packard (HP) is bucking the trend with bigger. HP recently demonstrated a new design, which it has dubbed the “wall of touch”, built with up to nine 43-inch to 46-inch, 1.5-inch thick LCDs with 1080p resolution. It behaves like a really big TouchSmart computer.

The “wall of touch” is driven by a Z800 workstation, employs a standard touchscreen interface, as well as a gesture-capture interface. Gestures are picked up by optical cameras and a magnetic strip that detect when a user nears, and the movements of the user's hands.

The “wall of touch” is basically a really big TV. HP says the system can access cable and satellite, as well as download and stream media. It connects to social networking sites. And it plays DVDs and DVRs.

HP plans to make the “wall of touch” a mainstream product. HP says it will be available to consumers in 2011. The price tag, depending on options, will range from a couple thousand dollars up to $100,000 or more.

Image Credit: Hewlett-Packard

Sony has announced yet another product at CES. This one is a bit of a head-scratcher for us, though. The Dash Internet Viewer is a sort of touchscreen widget station. Think Chumby, but with a larger (and frankly, beautiful) 7 inch screen and sleeker design. As it turns out, that’s exactly what it is; the Dash runs the Chumby OS.

Sony is pushing the app angle hard, because well, isn’t everyone? The Chumby OS already has over 1000 apps available, and Sony will be making some new ones of its own. The Dash will have Wi-Fi so you can use it to pull down data for those data-hungry apps. There is no internal battery, so don’t confuse this with a tablet device as some already have.  Is this something you need? If so, the Dash will be shipping in April for $199.

It seems the world of computer hardware is becoming just a tad pervy of late. All the new hardware being released wants you to touch it. A good example is HP’s new Mini 5102 netbook, which comes with a touchscreen option.

HP’s CES announcement follows one by Leonovo for its first touchscreen, the Lenovo C310 desktop, and Dell’s Latitude 2100 netbook, introduced last May. The Mini 5102 will feature an Intel Atom N450 processor, a 10.1-inch LED display (either WSVGA or HD), a webcam, and face-recognition (let's hope the bugs on that are now worked out). Options include Broadcom HD video (allowing 720p and 1080p HD playback), and a carrying handle.  Price is set at $399, and it will be available this month in black,blue or red.

The Mini 5102’s touchscreen will be capactive, same as on the iPhone and iPod Touch. But, it won’t have much to do at first, as there’s little software yet available to take advantage of touch technology. The touchscreen version will cost an additional $50.

Also in HP’s announcement, the TouchSmart tm2, and update to the tx2, a convertible notebook that doubles as a tablet. The TouchSmart will be in stores January 17, with a price of $949.

Image Credit: Hewlett-Packard

Touchscreen digital cameras are all the rage (just ask any teenage girl who's seen Ashton Kutcher pimping a Nikon Coolpix), and while that isn't new territory for Samsung, the company's upcoming CL80 boasts a few new tricks.

Electronista describes the CL80 as "Samusng's first real connected camera," which points to the model's Wi-Fi connectivity to upload photos to Facebook, Flickr, Photobox, and Picasa without having to sync up with a PC.

The CL80 will also sport a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with haptic feedback, a 14MP sensor, a 7X wide-angle lens, and hardware image stabilization. And of course it will come ready to take H.264 videos at up to 720p.

No word yet on price or a projected release date, both of which are likely to be revealed during CES next month.

Image Credit: electronista.com

Thanks in part to native support in Windows 7 and falling LCD panel pricing (price fixing allegations notwithstanding), the time is right for touch technology to really take off on the desktop. Enter Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), the Taiwan-based panel maker who just launched a 21.5-inch projected capacitive touch panel.

Details remain pretty sparse, but according to Wolf Chen, VP of CPT, the 21-5-inched panel is currently being validated by clients. But that's not all the company has been up to. CPT said it has also started shipping 10.1-inch projective capacitive touch panels and 3D panels.

The company isn't putting all its eggs into one capacitive basket, however, and is also developing touch panels using two other technologies, including optical touch and in-cell photo sensing. Panels built around these two technologies will start shipping in early 2010, the company says.

Image Credit: Susie Pan, Digitimes

If you thought Apple's iPhone and Motorola's Droid were slick, wait until you see what the smartphones of tomorrow might be capable of. That is, if Synaptics' FuseTM concept take off.

FuseTM is a collaborative mobile phone concept that integrates "for the first time" multiple interface technologies, including 3D graphics, capacitive multitouch, haptic feedback, and force, grip, and proximity sensing, Synaptics says.

Some of the technological tricks the company envisions is grip sensing by way of capacitive touch sensors on the sides of the phone, which would streamline certain controls such as pan and scroll; 2D navigation from the back of the phone, which Synaptics says enables single-handed control without blocking the display; and 3D graphics with haptic effects.

"Consumers have many options when it comes to choosing a smartphone, and though many phones are loaded with applications to simplify one's life, they often accomplish just the opposite," said William Stofega, research manager for mobile device technology and trends at IDC. "Synaptics partnering with innovative industry leaders to deliver an intelligent concept device that has the consumers' lifestyles in mind will help showcase the true potential of the smartphone."

You can view a short YouTube video demonstration of the Fuse concept here.

If even the concept for a product exists, a modder out there will try and build it. That’s what’s happened with the vaporware Microsoft Courier. A wily user has managed to ditch the keyboard and attach a USB touchscreen display to his Dell Mini 9. The USB powered display is used for typing and writing on, and the original Dell Mini display is used for reading.

Windows 7 makes the whole affair moderately useful with its integrated handwriting and voice recognition. The mod is still unpolished and incomplete though. There’s not really a hinge attaching the two halves at this time. But still, you don’t see Microsoft showing an actual Courier around.