Windows Experience Blog : Touch Technology

Windows 7 Wins Popular Science Award for Windows Touch

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:12:55 GMT

Today, Popular Science released their annual Best Of What’s New for 2009 which recognized this year’s top 100 innovations. Windows Touch in Windows 7 has won Popular Science’s Best of What’s New Award this year in the computing category. Very cool!

Speaking of Windows Touch – USA Today’s Ed Baig takes a closer look at Windows Touch in Windows 7 and multitouch on PCs in general. He suggests Windows 7 could spur multitouch adoption in PCs. I’ve been playing with the HP TouchSmart tx2 and have a couple of multitouch monitors on the way for my office here in Redmond. If you haven’t had a chance to experience Windows Touch on Windows 7, head to your favorite retailer and give it a spin.

Notes on the Windows 7 Demo from Today’s PDC Keynote

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:59:05 GMT

Just a few hours ago, Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President for Windows and Windows Live Engineering, did his keynote here at PDC2008 unveiling Windows 7 to the world for the first time. Steven asked Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Experience, to come up on stage and demo specific Windows 7 features that I think you’ll find very exciting. I’d like to take a moment and share some notes I took live here from PDC from his keynote about those features that they demoed.

It’s important to note that many of these features that were demoed during the Keynote were from more recent Windows 7 build and didn’t make it into the Windows 7 build being handed out to attendees here at PDC – but we wanted to show them off to you anyway.

Ok now on to my notes on the features demoed here from PDC (not in any specific order)! I also hope to try and add a little more context to the features that were demoed.

I’d like to emphasize all of these features that were demoed ultimately showcases that Windows 7 is being designed to make the things you do today faster and easier, and new things possible.

New Windows Taskbar in Windows 7:

The new Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 focuses on application “tiles”. These application tiles can be arranged or re-arranged anywhere on the Windows Taskbar simply by grabbing the tiles and moving them where ever you want on the taskbar. Users will be able to “pin” applications they use the most to the new Windows Taskbar via the Start Menu by simply dragging and dropping those apps from the Start Menu to the Windows Taskbar.

Another Windows Taskbar feature that was demoed was Live Previews. This lets users quickly see into the application window to see what’s there within the application window. When a user has multiple tabs opened in IE in Windows 7, when they move their mouse over the IE tile on the Windows Task bar – Live Previews will show all the tabs that are opened in IE (as seen in the above screenshot). You can even close tabs via Live Previews on the Windows Taskbar.

When users mouse-over each of the tabs they can “peak” into the each IE tab as it briefly appears on the maximized on screen. Sometimes the Live Preview via the taskbar isn’t enough of a preview.

The idea here is to offer users easier access to their most used applications and applications they have running.

Jump Lists:

Another feature that is also part of both the new Windows Taskbar and also the Start Menu is Jump lists. When you right-click on an application on the new Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 – you get a “Jump List” of options. In the demo, Julie right-clicked on Word and a Jump List appeared showcasing recent documents that have been worked on. If you recall, your recent documents you worked on in Word was usually accessible only inside Word. Jump Lists enable you quick access to options that might be deep within an application.

Here at PDC, we’re talking about how developers can take advantage of API’s that allow them to utilize Jump Lists.

The screenshot above is showcasing a Jump List for Windows Explorer within the Start Menu in Windows 7.

Windows Explorer:

Windows Explorer introduces a new Navigation Pane showcasing easy access to your Libraries and HomegGroup as well as your Desktop and Computer. Libraries allow users to have all their data (documents, music, photos, videos, etc) all in one place. We want network sharing to be much easier in Windows 7. And HomeGroup enable just that. HomeGroup is designed to seamlessly integrate and share computers and devices on your home network. Your HomeGroup is also searchable via Windows Explorer too.

Each Library can have “locations” of folders configured to be included into that Library. Local or network locations can be included in Libraries. In the demo – you could see multiple locations for one “place” or Library. You can add folders from other PCs in your HomeGroup to your Libraries too and they will show up whenever you connect to your HomeGroup.

I have a more in-depth blog post exploring the power of Libraries and HomeGroup in Windows 7 that should be posted shortly – stay tuned.

Searching for files is also easier in Windows 7. Search now includes Filters such as “Type” or “Tags”. When searching for a specific term – matching strings are highlighted. Windows Explorer also enables quick access to enabling the Preview window with an icon in the top right-hand corner of the Windows Explorer toolbar.

There is a consistent Windows Explorer UI across all of Windows 7 including Windows Media Player 12.

Media Streaming:

It just plays. Windows 7 makes it easier to play media on your home network (especially with HomeGroup). No more choices thrown at you when try to play media.

Windows 7 will let you stream any media to computers and devices on your network including Digital Picture Frames.

In Windows Media Player 12, you can play music to a specific device on your home network. When you stream music to a specific device (or “play to” a specific device) – a device player called the Play To player will appear letting you control playing media to that device. All Julie did was right-click on a device in HomeGroup and choose “Play to”. This works for not just songs but also videos and images and also can be utilized in Windows Media Center in Windows 7 too.

Device Stage:

Device Stage is an all-in-one view of a specific device on in your PC’s Printers and Devices Folder – a new folder in Windows 7. 3rd party hardware manufacturers can use Device Stage to give users all the options – or “Tasks” - they need and want to control their device whether it’s a printer or mobile device. The Device Stage experience is also services-enabled feature customizable for 3rd party hardware manufacturers.

In the demo, Julie shows off connected her Motorola phone to Windows 7 and being able to manage that device using Device Stage. Because the Motorola phone is a Plug-and-Play device, the device appears in the taskbar and Device Stage pops up on her screen when she plugged it in to Windows 7. Device Stage is designed to take advantage of mobile devices and offers specific tasks such as syncing media to a device, syncing contacts and calendar events from Outlook to a device, and creating and downloading ring tones. Custom phone makers and carriers can take advantage of Device Stage for their devices.

We’ll have much more to say about Device Stage in Windows 7 next week and WinHEC!

Personalization:

In Windows 7 – your desktop is YOURS. Windows 7 will ship with specific themes users can use for their PCs or customize and create their own. 3^rd parties can create custom themes for Windows 7 and let you download them. We’re looking to offer theme downloads straight off of windows.com for users to enjoy.

Julie also demoed the improved abilities to change the color of glass in Windows 7.

Gadgets are now built in to the desktop instead of being confined to a sidebar. You can place them anywhere you want on the desktop or “snap” them to the side like you did previously with Windows Vista’s Windows Sidebar. To add gadgets, people will simply be able to right-click on their desktop to do so.

System Tray Enhancements:

The Windows Taskbar also comes with System Tray enhancements that automatically hide all but a default set of notification icons. Hidden notification icons are put into an “overflow” menu which can be expanded out to view. For notification icons you want on your system tray, Julie shows that you can drag icons from the “overflow” menu to the system tray. If there is a notification icon you don’t want on the System Tray, simply drag it to the desktop and it disappears. Users can also change the order by dragging the notification icons in the order you desire.

The overflow menu has a Notification Icon Control Panel that lets you also manage which notification icons are visible and how they alert you etc.

Wireless Networking:

Directly from the System Tray, Windows 7 introduces a better way of quickly accessing and connecting to wireless networks. Find and discovering available wireless networks is much easier. When new wireless networks are available in Windows 7, the network icon in the System Tray gets a neat little yellow star icon. Users can click the network icon and expand the available networks and choose which one they want to connect too.

Action Center:

Action Center is the central spot for users to troubleshoot issues with their Windows 7 PCs, view reported problems (and report them to Microsoft), run maintenance tasks that can make your Windows 7 PC perform better. Windows Defender is also integrated with Action Center to minimize the amount of alerts users see.

You can also use Action Center to access the UAC Control Panel…

UAC:

Enhancements to UAC put users in control of how UAC communicates with them.

Touch Capabilities:

Windows 7 spots huge investments in Touch capabilities. Julie demos quite a few of these features using a new HP TouchSmart PC. You can read two of my posts on HP’s TouchSmart PC line here and here. She first demos access Jump Lists with touch and also rearranging stuff with touch. She also showcases Gestures which make using touch-capable devices with Windows 7 pretty slick.

Touch in Windows 7 will be incredibly useful especially when browsing through your photos as Julie also demonstrates. She “flicks” through photos using her finger.

With touch and the enhanced Paint that comes with Windows 7 with the Ribbon UI introduced in Office 2007, Julie demonstrates choosing a paint brush and using touch to draw in Paint.

After Julie was done were her demos, Steven Sinofsky came back to stage to discuss a few things such as Software + Services with Windows Live and IE8. I’ll be diving deeper into those topics in later blog posts.

There you have it – a pretty sweet preview of what’s coming with Windows 7. In the future, expect us to continue to talk about Windows 7 and of course look to our new Windows 7 Team Blog for announcements related to Windows 7 including information about the Windows 7 Beta (which Mike Nash talks about here). I’ll also be talking about my Windows 7 experiences too.

HP Announces New HP TouchSmart PCs

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:01:33 GMT

Several weeks ago I had blogged about HP’s all-in-one PC with amazing touch capabilities – the HP TouchSmart PC. Specifically, I discussed the IQ500 series HP TouchSmart PC models (the IQ504 and IQ506). The IQ500 series HP TouchSmart PCs were considered the 2nd generation HP TouchSmart PCs. The original HP TouchSmart PC made its debut in January of 2007. Just recently, HP has announced the IQ800 series HP TouchSmart PCs – the IQ804 and IQ816.

So what’s new with the IQ800 series HP TouchSmart PCs? The IQ800 series HP TouchSmart PC is 25 ½” versus the IQ500 series models which were 22”. Just like the IQ500 series HP TouchSmart PCs, the IQ800 series sports ambient lighting that shines on your keyboard. This can be very useful in low lighting. However the IQ800 series allows you to change the color of the ambient lighting. The IQ800 series also comes with a pocket media drive bay for user’s portable media (the HP MediaSmart Connect has a pocket media drive bay so you can take media between the two devices). The IQ800 series (both the IQ804 and IQ816) come with built-in TV Tuners for Windows Media Center awesomeness.

The IQ800 series HP TouchSmart PC is also wall-mountable as well!

There are some differences between the IQ804 and IQ816 HP TouchSmart PC models. The IQ816 comes with a Blu-ray drive for HD movies. The IQ804 comes with a 500GB harddrive while the IQ816 comes with a 750GB harddrive. The chipset and graphics for the IQ816 is a bit higher than the IQ804. If you’re looking to maximize your investment in the HP TouchSmart PC – the IQ816 is top-of-the-line.

The IQ800 series makes a worthy addition to the HP TouchSmart PC Family. I hope to blog more about the HP TouchSmart PC this fall!

Get in Touch with your PC Experience with the HP TouchSmart PC

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:44:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, John Obeto published a very extensive review of HP's 2nd generation TouchSmart PC. The new HP TouchSmart PCs are a follow-up to the 1st generation HP TouchSmart PCs which were released in January of 2007. The 1st generation HP TouchSmart PC was one of the first consumer PCs that took advantage of features in Windows Vista such as Windows Media Center. John's review goes from unboxing and OOBE (Out-Of-Box-Experience) to several testing scenarios. While the HP TouchSmart PC is a consumer PC - John also discusses the "unintended" use of the HP TouchSmart PC for the Small Business.

On my recent visit to Disneyland to see the Innoventions Dream Home, I was able to play around with the new 2nd generation HP TouchSmart PC courtesy of HP. At the Innoventions Dream Home, today there is a mixture of 1st generation and 2nd generation HP TouchSmart PCs. HP hopes to replace all the 1st generation HP TouchSmart PCs with the new 2nd generation TouchSmart PCs at the Innoventions Dream Home in the coming months.

So what is the HP TouchSmart PC exactly? It is an all-in-one PC with a 22 inch widescreen display that has built in touch capabilities. That means you can essentially touch the screen and utilize applications that take advantage of the built in touch features. HP ships a suite of TouchSmart applications that take advantage of touch but more about this in just a bit.

The new HP TouchSmart PC ships with the following specs (complete list of details specs are listed here in this PDF):

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5850 (2.16GHz)
Chipset: Intel GM965 Express Chipset
Memory: 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM SATA
Optical Drive: Slot-load SuperMulti DVD Burner
Video Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9300 M GS HD with 256MB Dedicated Video Memory
Network: 10/100/1000 BaseT network interface
Wireless Connectivity: Integrated Bluetooth / Wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n) with built-in WLAN antenna
Audio: Integrated High Definition Audio with High-performance 2.0 Speakers
TV Tuner: Dual-format NTSC or over-the-air ATSC High-Definition TV Tuner
Remote Control: HP Media Center Remote control with IR (infrared) Receiver
External Memory Port: 5-in-1 memory card reader

You'll notice the system ships with 4GB of RAM. Because of this - the HP TouchSmart PC also ships with Windows Vista Home Premium x64 to take advantage of the full amount of memory. The HP TouchSmart PC also ships with Windows Vista SP1 installed as well.

There are 2 models of the HP TouchSmart PC today: the IQ504t and IQ506t. The biggest difference between the two models is that the IQ506t is the model that ships with the TV Tuner built in.

The design of the 2nd generation HP TouchSmart PC is quite a bit different than the 1st generation. The main PC is a much sleeker design. HP describes the design as a "sleek piano black design with elegant espresso side-panel highlights". The unit also comes with a HP Ambient Light that allows users to see their keyboard in the dark. The keyboard is also conveniently able to be tucked under the unit when needed as well which is nice especially if you would like more room.

While the design of this all-in-one PC is impressive, equally impressive is the HP TouchSmart Suite that ships with it. The TouchSmart Suite consists of the following applications:

HP TouchSmart Music
HP TouchSmart Video
HP TouchSmart Photo
HP TouchSmart RSS Feeds
HP TouchSmart Browser
HP TouchSmart Calendar
HP TouchSmart Notes

These applications take full advantage of the touch capabilities of the HP TouchSmart PC. Navigate through your RSS feeds with the touch of a finger. Go through your calendars by simply touching the screen. Play music, view photos, watch videos - all by touching the screen. In using these applications you can see that HP has invested a great deal in touch capabilities for this PC - which is very exciting. In my own experience trying these applications out myself - I found everything responds elegantly to the move of my finger on the screen. No lag, not hiccups what so ever. It was certainly a "wow" moment for me. If this PC was sitting in your kitchen or living room, to use it all you would need to do is walk up to it and touch the screen - no keyboard necessary.

Side-note: I'd like to note because this PC ships with Windows Vista Home Premium x64 - the TouchSmart Suite of applications work fully under 64-bit.

HP has invested quite a bit in touch technology for the PC. The HP TouchSmart PC is a culmination of 25 years of HP touch technology design and development. HP first brought a PC with touch technology to the market in 1983 with the introduction of the HP 150 PC.

For more details on the HP TouchSmart PC - check out HP's TouchSmart Website at www.hp.com/go/touchsmart. There you can view a demo of the HP TouchSmart PC's impressive capabilities. You may have also seen their ad on TV as well. If you want to check out the HP TouchSmart PC out yourself in person - the HP TouchSmart PCs can be seen in a variety of stores such as Best Buy, Fry's, and Circuit City. You can also see them, as mentioned above, at the Innoventions Dream Home at Disneyland.