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First demoed at CES in 2008, Microsoft's Surface started as an idea for making it easier to interact with information, pictures, video, and other content. Imagine a touchscreen interface developed for a large display and you're just getting started. What makes Surface different from your typical touchscreens is that it integrates a full screen image scanning technology so that the device can "see" whatever you place on it. The result has the potential to radically alter the way people interact with technology, and Microsoft and Samsung have put together a couple of videos that show some of what is possible.

At the core of the technology is the object recognition capabilities, and Samsung is using a new type of touch screen technology that called Sensors in Pixel (SIP). The display basically has an infrared camera behind the LCD that allows it to "see" when objects are placed on the screen. Microsoft's Surface software keeps track of all of the objects on the screen and then passes this information along to the actual Surface applications, so ultimately it's up to the software to determine what to do with the screen interactions. That's obviously the biggest hurdle to clear, as we've seen with other new interactive technologies (e.g. Nintendo Wii, Sony Move, and Xbox Kinect all have varying levels of success depending on the particular app you're using).

It's one thing to demonstrate a closed, limited functionality concept and another entirely to deliver on the product, but Microsoft's Surface is now very close to shipping with the Samsung SUR40. This is definitely not a product for the casual home user, as the entry price is north of 00, but if it can gain traction in the enterprise sector and developers get behind the platform, long-term Surface's Natural User Interface (NUI) could replace the GUI as we currently know it and pave the way for sci-fi scenes from Minority Report and the like turning into real-world products.

While we can't really say much about how the product will end up being used, we can at least shed some light on the hardware specifications. The SUR40 will be available as either a standalone display or with a tabletop unit with stand (the latter being pictured above). Most of the new technology comes from the display, and the rest is pretty much PC hardware selected for use with the display. Here are the detailed specs.

Samsung SUR40 Specifications Overview

Display

40” FullHD 1080p (1920×1080)
Multi-Touch with >50 point of contact
1:1000 Contrast Ratio
300 cd/m2 Max Brightness
Gorilla Glass

CPU

AMD Athlon X2 245e (dual-core, 2.9GHz, 2MB L2, 45nm, 45W)

GPU

AMD Radeon HD 6750 1GB GDDR5

RAM

4GB DDR3

HDD

320GB / 7200RPM

A/V Connectivity

HDMI In
HDMI Out
Stereo RCA
SPDIF
(2) 3.5mm audio jacks

Communications

Gigabit Ethernet
802.11n
Bluetooth

I/O Ports

4 USB, SD Card Reader

Operating System

Embedded Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Operating Temp.

Max ambient 30C

System Management Tools

DMFT DASH Support

Weight – with stand legs

70.0 kg / 154 lbs.

Weight – standalone

39.5 kg / 87 lbs.

Pricing

00 MSRP for display only (Preorder)
49 MSRP for display with stand (Preorder)

The CPU and GPU hardware is obviously getting outdated compared to modern desktops, but the hardware has been in development for several years and the software is obviously going to be the bigger factor in whether Surface can succeed. With a customized Windows 7 Embedded OS and the right optimizations, the X2 245e combined with the HD 6750 GPU should be plenty fast–after all, we're looking at roughly 5-10 times more CPU performance compared to current dual-core ARM A9 solutions (based on a quick Sunspider run and a look at MIPS), and rougly two orders of magnitude faster GPU performance. Most of the cost is obviously in the R&D elements, plus the new display technology.

If you're looking for new ways to make your business stand out, or if you just have a ton of money and want to hang a bunch of multi-touch displays around your home, the Samsun SUR40 is expected to ship to customers in January 2012. I suspect we'll also see some interesting demonstrations at the next CES.

Curve Studios, the indie developer behind Fluidity and the newly-on-PC action-platformer Explodemon, have just released their retro stealth game Stealth Bastard for free.

Described as a mashup between Metal Gear Solid and Super Meat Boy, Stealth Bastard features 28 levels of 2D sneaking goodness. Even though you’ll occasionally wind up waiting for a robot or camera to turn away from you, the levels do move briskly. They’re also relatively short, which means having to retry one after failure rarely feels like a chore. And you’ll need to replay them several times if you want to nab a good spot on the leaderboards.

The slick SNES-era retro aesthetic suit the stealth-puzzle gameplay well, with bold lighting schemes dynamically transforming the levels as you progress. Instructions pop up on walls à la the most recent Splinter Cell, though they’re a bit more fourth wall-breaking than Sam Fisher’s inner monologue.

Stealth Bastard is a shockingly robust package for the low price of zero dollars. It even features a built-in level editor, and user-created levels are already available for download. The only major bummer is that its release is currently limited to Windows. That said, assuming you don’t mind seeing an ad for Explodemon upon exiting the game, you should give Stealth Bastard a try pronto. 

Source: Curve Studios

Alongside availability of the Galaxy Tab 8.9, Samsung also announced the availability of the Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0: Samsung's iPod Touch competitors. Both will be for sale starting October 16 for 9 and 9. Both players use 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird SoCs running Android 2.3.5. The two modem-less players primarily differ in displays and dimensions, otherwise they seem pretty similar at a high level. More info later tonight!

Samsung 2011 Tablet Comparison

 

Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0

Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0

Network

802.11 b/g/n

802.11 b/g/n

OS

Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread)

Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread)

Display

4-inch S-LCD WVGA (800 x 480)

5-inch LCD WVGA (800 x 480)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 3.0, Mini USB

Bluetooth 3.0, Mini USB

NAND

8GB, microSD slot (up to 32GB)

8GB, microSD slot (up to 32GB)

Battery

1200 mAh

2500 mAh

Dimensions

2.53 x 4.87 x 0.39"

3.07 x 5.56 x 0.46"

Weight

4.27

6.42 oz

Price

9

9

 

Originally introduced in January at CES, alongside the Transformer, Asus has quietly announced the availability of the Asus Eee Pad Slider. You'll recall, the Transformer maintained the traditional tablet form factor, while the Slider had a hardware QWERTY keyboard hidden beneath the screen, with a unique sliding mechanism that tilted the screen to a comfortable position for typing. The convertible is available now at leading e-tailers for 9 and 9 for the 16GB and 32 GB models, respectively. The premium over the Transformer nets buyers both the keyboard, as well as upgraded internals. The Slider features NVIDIA's Tegra 2 refresh, the Tegra 250 3D; this SoC bumps CPU speed to 1.2 GHz and GPU speed to 400 MHz. Maintained is the 10.1" IPS LCD screen, microSD slot and miniHDMI port. The addition of a full size USB port will be welcomed by users disinterested in carrying an Asus proprietary docking port to USB adapter. 

As productivity is the Slider's raison d'être, Polaris Office 3.0 is included on the device, along with Asus suite of cloud storage and streaming services and apps. In our review, the Transformer proved a competent Tegra 2-based Honeycomb tablet, that came alive as a productivity device when paired with the optional keyboard dock. Anand had lots of praise for the polish Asus put into making the 'Honeycomb netbook' experience appealing; far more than the Webtop experience of the Atrix. While the Slider's keyboard will not be nearly as capacious as the Transformer's dock's, the improved protability could make this the Android loving road warrior's device of choice. PR below, and we'll update when we've got our hands on the hardware.

MAKER OF EXPENSIVE PRINTER INK HP has announced that it will make cut price Touchpads available to its employees.

An email from Stephen Dewitt, SVP and GM of WebOS at HP, states that employees will have “one last chance” to buy a Touchpad through the Employee Purchase Program (EPP). The 16GB model will cost and the 32GB version will be priced at 9 with a limit of one per employee, according to Techcrunch.

Dewitt said, “I’m pleased to share that starting at 9:00am (Pacific Time) on Wednesday, September 28th, HP employees in the United States will have one last chance to buy an HP TouchPad through the Employee Purchase Program on a first come first served basis.”

Stock will be limited so it is unlikely that there will be enough units to go around. Even if employees don’t want a Touchpad, it will be worth their while getting one to then sell it on for profit.

After what has been something of a disaster with its tablet, it will only be available through the online EPP store and won’t be exchangeable for any other products.

Earlier this month we reported that HP was offering UK customers a refund to make up the difference for Touchpads and Pre 3 smartphones purchased at higher prices than the discounted amount. However, this offer did not include any purchases made by HP employees.

The move will “complete the process of clearing out inventories and winding down manufacturing operations,” said Dewitt. µ

Dust off your old-school shooter skills: a demo for the indie cyberpunk FPS Hard Reset is now on Steam.

Hard Reset comes from Flying Wild Hog, a Polish developer made up of talent from People Can Fly (Painkiller), CD Projekt Red (The Witcher) and City Interactive (Sniper: Ghost Warrior). You play an Army veteran tasked with defending humanity from a growing robotic threat.

In an effort to best serve their audience, Flying Wild Hog chose to make the title PC-exclusive and it shows. Their proprietary engine is capable of some truly stunning visuals, and the combat – full of circle-strafing and back-pedaling – harkens back to older id Software shooters. It also includes more modern weapon customization to keep things fresh.

Hard Reset releases at next Tuesday, but if the brief demo wins you over, you can save a little cash by pre-ordering for . 

Source: Steam

In an ironic development following months of public squabbling over digital distribution practices, Electronic Arts is now offering Valve games through its Origin service.

EA is running a buy-two-get-one-free special this weekend, and three Valve titles are included: Counter-Strike: Source, Left For Dead: Game of the Year Edition, and Left 4 Dead 2. The Valve games (each priced at .99) are boxed retail copies, and the free games available are downloadable copies of select EA titles.

The promotion is raising eyebrows after EA announced last month that its flagship shooter Battlefield 3 would not be available on Valve’s Steam platform, citing “a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content.” EA issued similar statements after removing Crysis 2 from Steam following Origin’s launch.

Without offering any concrete solutions, both sides have expressed a desire to resolve this dispute. Valve president Gabe Newell recently told Develop, “We want EA’s games on Steam and we have to show them that’s a smart thing to do.” EA’s Jens Uwe Intat told Eurogamer last week that the company isn’t planning on making its games Origin-exclusive. “Competition and choice go hand in hand,” he said. “So the fact we will only distribute our own games on our own platform, I don't see that.”

Neither company has issued a statement regarding the promotion. EA does hold the distribution rights to retail copies of some Valve titles, so this may be less of a sign that the two companies are newly cooperating and more of a message from EA saying they’d like to cooperate.

Source: Origin via Joystiq

COMPUTER MAKER HP has announced that its Touchpad tablet with HP’s own WebOS operating system will be available from 1 July.

Before you get too excited the availability date for the tablet only applies to the United States, France and Germany. HP annoyingly has not mentioned a date for the UK, saying instead, “The Wi-Fi version of HP Touchpad will be available in the UK from mid-July.”

There will be two versions of the WiFi only Touchpad, one with 16GB of internal storage and one with 32GB. They will cost £399 and £479, respectively, and will be available directly from HP as well as other retailers.

We’ve not heard much from HP, which has been vague about the date for UK availability. The only date we can find online for the device is on Amazon.com, which states that the device will be released on 17 July.

You might say that HP is a bit late in joining the tablet market, which is already full of various devices of different sizes running various operating systems. What HP has that is unique is its own operating system, WebOS, for which HP has released an SDK free of charge.

It hopes that this will provide an alternative to the other tablets on the market, which often have the same software. Android 3.0 Honeycomb springs to mind.

Jon Rubinstein, SVP of the Palm global business unit at HP said, “The platform’s unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use.” µ

MOBILE PHONE RETAILER The Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that it will stock the Blackberry Playbook a day early at selected stores.

The Playbook will be available at a few Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK a day earlier than in its online shop and at other retailers on 15 June. If you’re desperate to get the tablet 24 hours earlier then you can head to Selfridges store on Oxford Street, Westfield shopping centre, Manchester Trafford Centre, Bluewater and Bristol Cribbs.

The maker of the Playbook, Research in Motion (RIM) today said that it will launch the device in 16 more countries including the UK over the next 30 days. The list includes India, France, Germany and Hong Kong along with 12 other nations.

The Playbook is RIM’s first tablet and it comes with its own Blackberry Tablet operating system and a 1GHz dual-core processor. The Carphone Warehouse has the Playbook priced at £399 for the 16GB model. Double the storage to 32GB and you’ll have to pay £479, and the price for the top of the range 64GB version is £559.

It is unclear how well the Playbook will sell in the UK after initial reports that it’s been struggling in the US and Canada.

Our first impressions of the tablet were good, so we think it’s got a chance, with a special appeal to Blackberry phone owners because of the tethering features. µ

MOBILE PHONE RETAILER The Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that it will stock the Blackberry Playbook a day early at selected stores.

The Playbook will be available at a few Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK a day earlier than in its online shop and at other retailers on 15 June. If you’re desperate to get the tablet 24 hours earlier then you can head to Selfridges store on Oxford Street, Westfield shopping centre, Manchester Trafford Centre, Bluewater and Bristol Cribbs.

The maker of the Playbook, Research in Motion (RIM) today said that it will launch the device in 16 more countries including the UK over the next 30 days. The list includes India, France, Germany and Hong Kong along with 12 other nations.

The Playbook is RIM’s first tablet and it comes with its own Blackberry Tablet operating system and a 1GHz dual-core processor. The Carphone Warehouse has the Playbook priced at £399 for the 16GB model. Double the storage to 32GB and you’ll have to pay £479, and the price for the top of the range 64GB version is £559.

It is unclear how well the Playbook will sell in the UK after initial reports that it’s been struggling in the US and Canada.

Our first impressions of the tablet were good, so we think it’s got a chance, with a special appeal to Blackberry phone owners because of the tethering features. µ