Today’s kids are digitally adept. That much is very clear to anyone with a toddler and an iPad. They seem to have a natural ability to take a gadget that is touch-driven and make them do magical things, often at a level higher than adults. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? The good parts are clear. Education, imagination, and integrating with today’s world are easy components with which to make arguments for the use of touchscreen devices by children. The good comes with bad components as well as the infographic below depicts. Here are some of the repercussions of having children so engulfed in the use…

The technology that Microsoft has been envisioning for the future is astounding, realistic, and will give us the opportunity to be more productive. That much is true. What’s not true is that they say these technologies will help bring families together. Judging by the recent history of technological advances, that’s the exact opposite effect of the technologies they describe in their video, “Microsoft’s New Envisioning Center: Live, Work, Play.” Take smartphones, for example. They are technological wonders that allow multiple methods of communication from face-to-face video interaction…

There’s a connection between what we see and what we feel according to recent experiments with tactile sensations and how visual stimulation affects them. In essence, seeing is touching if the research is correct. Most videos that come to us from DigiInfo are very compelling and highlight cutting-edge technology. This one is lukewarm and the science behind it is dubious, but the technology used in the experiment is pretty nifty. Using glasses that display an image of either fire or ice 30 centimeters in front of the viewer, they’re able to simulate sensations of hot or cold. The applications…

Play Angry Birds with chop sticks. Browse web pages without a mouse or touchscreen. Sign a document within 1 centimeter with pinpoint accuracy. These are just the tip of the possibilities iceberg for Leap Motion, the gesture-control technology unveiled today in the video below. The San Francisco startup says you can “Say goodbye to your mouse and keyboard.” The accuracy of the device may make that claim a reality for some considering that it’s reportedly 200 times more accurate than anything on the market today and can track the movements of all ten fingers inside a 4-cubic-foot space down to…

Touchscreen technology has changed the way we do many things in our lives. The electric connection created by our fingers and other items makes mobile devices and large touchscreens easier to use in many cases, particularly for web browsing. It makes it possible for insects to surf as well. This video of a fly surfing Reddit shows two things: the screen is sensitive enough to detect the current as it travels through the fly’s small legs and the fly itself has good taste. …

Once upon a time, Steve Jobs said that Apple didn’t want to get into touchscreen desktop computing because it was unnatural to use a vertical touchscreen for extended periods of time, and that it ultimately led to fatigue. Of course, Steve typically knows his interaction design well enough that you don’t mess with him when he makes such a proclamation – and if you’ve ever used a vertical touchscreen yourself, it isn’t long before you realize he’s right. Vertical touchscreens suck. Enter HP, who have clearly taken Steve’s words to heart and unveiled a new line of PCs that needn’t give you Carpal Tunnel…

This is intense. Are you seated? Of course you’re seated, that’s a stupid question – who stands around in their laundry room reading tech news? Anyway, if, in the unlikely event you are not seated, you would like to be, please take this opportunity, because I’m about to let fly with some totally rad shizz all up in your eyeballs, or something, and I’d hate for you to, like, fall and break your wrist on the awesome I just spread all over the floor. What a mess of an opening paragraph. Anyway, seems Microsoft is taking the concept of ‘touchscreen’ to its logical conclusion with a new patent, which will allow…

One of the deciding factors that made me go Blackberry instead of picking up an iPhone 4 was the tactile keyboard. I’m sorry, but there’s just no replacement for real buttons. I don’t care how swiftly you tapdance around that onscreen keyboard – the fact remains that it’s a f***ing screen. But maybe if I’d held out just a little longer, I could have gotten the tall glass of water in the iPhone desert that is this wicked rad flip out keyboard from ThinkGeek. The TK-421 (catchy name, guys) needs no explanation, so I won’t insult you by giving you one. Just bask in its rad, maybe put on a little music. It’s Bluetooth…

Though still successful, Blackberry is no longer the must-have gadget for the mobile crowd. What do they need to do to reclaim their position of leadership? Once upon a time, not so long ago, to own a Blackberry wasn’t to simply own a smartphone – it was to possess a symbol. Carrying around a Blackberry meant you were a successful, busy person, often ahead of the curve and definitely on top of your game. Oh my, how times have changed. While you could hardly argue that Research in Motion, the makers of the Blackberry, are doing poorly, it would be equally mistaken to say Blackberries are still the symbol…

Analysts Gartner have churned the waters of their scrying pool and apparently decreed that by 2015, at least 50% of people under the age of 15 who have computers purchased for them, will be recipients of touchscreens. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here typing on an ‘old school’ keyboard and feeling like a total dinosaur. The good news for me is that apparently 90% of business computers by the 2015 projection will still be old, reliable mouse-and-keyboard units. Which is dandy, because frankly, I’m not buying this whole touchscreen ballyhoo just yet, even if it is hip with the kids. Especially if…