iBUYPOWER just announced the latest in their gaming notebook lineup, the Battalion CZ-11. The CZ-11 features a 15 inch screen, as well as the new Intel Core i7 processor. iBUYPOWER has also loaded the CZ-11 with 4GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon 5650, and a 500GB drive.

The CZ-11 is a refresh of last year’s CZ-10, which was the first multi-touch screen gaming notebook. iBUYPOWER put in a faster CPU, more RAM, a better video card, and added the option of getting a Blu-ray drive. The CZ-11 starts at $1100, and the goes up depending on the options you choose at checkout.

From the press release:

El Monte, CA – March 30, 2010 – iBUYPOWER, a leading innovator in gaming PCs, is excited to announce availability of the new multi-touch gaming notebook – Battalion Touch CZ-11. Launching on the heels of the highly successful Battalion Touch CZ-10, the CZ-11 is second in a line of new multi-touch notebooks from iBUYPOWER. iBUYPOWER Battalion Touch Notebooks are the only multi-touch gaming notebooks currently available anywhere in the world.

“Multi-touch is one of the fastest growing PC gaming interfaces,” said Darren Su, Executive Vice President of iBUYPOWER. “Pairing those capabilities with a Core i7 processor, high definition LCD and graphics card allows the CZ-11 to meet the mobile gaming needs of almost any user.”

The Battalion Touch multi touch gaming notebooks are perfect for Real-Time strategy gaming titles like R.U.S.E from Ubisoft, which is available in Beta now and due out on June 3 of this year. The beta has already been downloaded by well over 1 million gamers worldwide.

iBUYPOWER’s newest 15-inch multi-touch gaming notebook features a Full HD 1920×1080 LCD with DirectX-11 capable graphics and the powerful new Intel Core i7- mobile processor. The CZ-11 also features 4GB of DDR3 memory, an ATI Radeon HD 5650 DirectX 11 graphics card, 500 GB hard drive and an optional Blu-ray drive. Starting at a gaming-ready configuration for just $1,299, the Battalion Touch CZ-11 can be customized to meet your needs for as low as $1,100.

Customers with more specific gaming needs can configure a fully customizable gaming PC at www.iBUYPOWER.com. All iBUYPOWER systems come standard with 1 year limited warranty and lifetime technical support.

There really isn’t too much to say about these Lenovo monitors. To be honest, I never even knew Lenovo made monitors till now. Speaking of monitors, I sure would to find one that’s not incredibly expensive, has a 1920×1200 resolution, and has a headphone jack. I’m a diva.

The highest end of the three monitors just announced today—the L2261, the L2361p Wide, and the L2461x Wide with multi-touch—has multi-tiuch. The name did give that away, but I needed to mention it to help pad this random story about random monitors.

All of them are a mere 1080p, which isn’t exactly anything to brag about in the realm of computer monitors. 1920×1200 or bust, I say.

Oh, price: $Lots. The L2461x Wide with multi-touch commands a $549-$580 price. I suppose if multi-touch if that important to you…

When the Nexus One was announced, many folks were questioning Google’s game plan and why it would release such an amazing device shortly after the Motorola DROID. If that wasn’t enough to make some DROID owners envious, the Nexus One received a multitouch update last week which allowed pinch-to-zoom gestures within Google Maps, the Android browser and photo gallery. What could possibly quell all this Nexus One envy?

Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch>>

Everyone with eyes in their head can see the bright future of multi-touch displays, but the huge variety of technologies out there makes it hard to place a bet. Will capacitive film rule? Or will it be the IR overlay? Or will Microsoft’s foresight in nurturing the Surface project pay off once they reveal their new, flatter display? Well, there’s one more competitor joining the already-crowded field, and they’re coming in heavy with $18 million in funding.

FlatFrog doesn’t appear to offer any revolutionary features, although they claim to be the only current solution for large-scale displays (40″ and above). This video demonstrates that the display, which is 10cm thick all-inclusive, can handle multiple touches (up to 24, we’re told) and seems reasonably precise and responsive. It’s an in-glass solution they call planar scatter detection — which I’m choosing to understand as detecting interruptions of infrared light suffusing the glass (like the FTIR mouse). The best news is that a FlatFrog device is supposed to be rather cheaper than a Surface, probably because it uses more traditional display tech.

The lack of major differentiating features (that it works is the most important feature anyway) doesn’t seem to have discouraged investors, however: FlatFrog has raised $18 million in funding from Promethean and Invus, with Sunstone Capital participating in the round. According to them, the money is for R&D and commercialization:

These systems will initially target the education, gaming, hospitality and digital signage markets. At the same time, FlatFrog is accelerating the development of high-performance optics-based multi-touch kits and subsystems designed for smaller form-factor, high-volume consumer electronics products such as all-in-one computers, notebooks and tablet/slate devices.

The question now is whether FlatFrog will be able to distance themselves from the pack. With money they can build a substantial suite of programs and promote their product, but there’s a lot to do if they’re to outpace Microsoft, which just last year put $24m into touchscreen startup N-trig and continues to invest heavily in the project. There are no visible results yet, but I feel confident that the money is not going to waste, and MS may actually surprise us in this particular corner. If FlatFrog is smart, and I’m thinking they are, they’ll put some of this money towards serious usability research; MS has done thousands and thousands of hours of work on foolproofing and streamlining the Surface interface, and that’s something that will need to be matched either with careful design or through user feedback.

Patience is a virtue, but as tech fanatics who lap up the latest in hardware and software, we’ve not enirely familiar with that concept. So when we heard that it could take up to a few days for the Nexus One Android OTA update, it was a little disheartening. We want it now! And thanks to some clever folks over at Android Forums, we can get it right this moment. It just takes some simple tinkering and you should be good to go.

Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch>>

Need ammo for your next trivia competition, formal or not? What if someone asks you “What’s the world’s largest multi-touch screen?”* The answer: a massive 4574 square-foot display at Nürburgring, known to Formula One enthusiasts as the venue for the German Grand Prix.

Drool-worthy specs follow:

The two-piece wall consists of a huge LED media facade (at the top), and a multitouch information-wall (at the bottom), and impresses by its physical size, as it totals a surface of about 425 square meters, equaling more than 6000 computer displays.

The interactive interface emerges out of 34 million pixels generated by 15 high definition projectors, supported by sound produced by 30 directional speakers. The multitouch capturing itself is based on laser technology, also called Laser Light Plane Illumination (LLP). This means more than 80 users can simultaneously get informed about news and activities around the ringworld.

What does all that hardware provide? Apparently a dynamic information kiosk for anyone wanting to learn more about what’s up at Nürburgring. To be fair, my source doesn’t conclusively declare the display as the largest multi-touch screen in the world. And I couldn’t find any information on how user-friendly and responsive Nürburgring’s display is. So, for those who were lucky enough to visit the venue, or know of any larger multi-touch display, feel free to hit the comments below.

Source

*As of December 2, 2009

Post from: The Gadget Blog