As the next twelve to twenty four months goes on there will come more and they will be even more commonplace in portable computing devices than they are now.  Windows 8 supports more types of sensor than ever before too with technologies such as Kinect, NFC and more being integrated directly into the platform.  But what is this going to do for the prices of the computers that we buy and is it even affordable to do so?

The latest rumour is that ASUS is testing Kinect sensors built into the bezel of laptops.  This type of integration won’t come as a surprise to many people and it’s only to be expected.  This type of technology isn’t cheap however and integrating it into a laptop will come at a cost penalty.  This is also at a time when PC makers are telling us that the profit margins on PCs and laptops are now so tight that they’re beginning to focus on the high-end computing devices such as ultrabooks in order to get us to part with more cash.

My own laptop contains a four-point capacitive touch screen, 3G SIM card slot, drop-sensing accelerometer, fingerprint reader, TPM chip and GPS.  It’s a high-end model yes, but when you think about where consumers are now with technology it’s likely that people will want to get these types of devices, along with Kinect, already integrated with their new computers, monitors and laptops, and that PC makers will capitalise on this fact to hike prices and push people towards buying even more expensive computers that improve their profit margins and balance sheets.

To be honest I firmly believe that some of these sensors are pretty much essential for work in the modern age.  3G/4G is one such example with mobile broadband now so ubiquitous.  GPS is also something that’s extremely useful in a mobile device and security systems such as biometric fingerprint readers and Trusted Platform Module chips are now essential for any business laptop.

Then we have to face the fact that by the time Windows 8 launches or at least early in 2013, over 80% of new laptops will ship with a multi-touch screen.  Next year’s consumer electronics show will be full of such devices and laptops packed with sensors and NFC readers of all description.  Each will have a use, every last one will be justifiable, and all will be more expensive than they are today.

So what is your attitude to sensors and extra tech on PCs?  Do you already have a laptop that includes some of these devices and do you use them?  I might not use my laptop’s GPS a lot but the 3G module is used several times a week.  Are you happy that the prices of laptops seems to be steadily rising, at the same time as many are predicting the death of the traditional desktop PC with a tower that’s easy to upgrade and cheap to build.  Why not let us know in the comments below.

Now though the company has gone public with yet more product concepts that are even more exciting than the EXOdesk, is such a thing were possible and are now showing what the touch interfaces of tomorrow will be like.

EXO PC launched jujst over a year ago with their excellent Windows 7 tablet, the EXO PC Slate.  This machine was widely priased for fantastic build quality and I even got one myself for this reason.  The company though is primarily software-focused and now they’re returning to their roots developing and refining multi-touch interfaces.

The EXOdesk is still coming, and Viewsonic will have a prototype on their stall at the Consumer Electronics Show in January in Las Vegas.  Other products through include the EXOtable for your living room.  In the concept the company describes this as a device used to choose a movie, view and organise pictures and play a board game with your family.  Other uses include email and social networking as well as regular browsing.

Their productivity EXOtable takes things to a whole new level however with a draughtsman’s type workstation complete with 32 point touch screen.  If set to work with a variety of styli this desk would surely be the dream for any engineer, designer or technical expert.  It is a very clever and completely obvious use for multi-touch technology that is crying out to be put into full production.

The company’s last EXOtable is a throwback to the gaming tables of the 1980′s that came with PacMan and various other games.  This sit anywhere 32-point touch screen is perfect for groups playing games together.

All of these products are concepts for now, though I can believe they will be coming soon because the EXOdesk will already be shown off to the press and public just next month.  The price point for all of these will be low, which is what’s needed.  Microsoft’s Surface is still a very expensive technology because of the in-built computer.  With the EXOdesk and EXOtables, EXO PC are taking a much more sensible, practical and, I think, a much more long-term approach to the technology.

The products will live or die on the quality of the interfaces and apps available for them however.  I don’t doubt that app developers will clamour to write innovating new programs for these devices, but the price point is critical here to help get them in places where enough people will use them to get developers interested.

All in all though these are truly fantastic concepts and much closer to release than any similar technologies we’ve seen in recent years.  EXO PC is certainly a company to keep a close eye on.

For all of you out there who have used an iPad or an Android tablet you’ll be loving the finger-friendliness of the operating system.  People such as myself, using Windows 7 on a tablet are at a disadvantage.  Even Windows 7′s touch interface looks good though when you compare it to the average websites we visit.  This is because, small as they are, the buttons in Windows are still larger and easier to press than links or buttons on almost all websites.

The difference for iPad and Android users, who have extremely touch-friendly interfaces, will be even more pronounced when they start navigating around websites.  You can zoom in and out of websites using multi-touch, I can do this in IE9 too on the ExoPC, but why do we want to be constantly zooming into, out of and around websites when instead we should be just using websites that work?

The problem as it stands is that while the overall market for tablets and smartphones in Internet usage is growing exponentially, it’s still extremely small compared to the usage figures seen on desktop computer systems such as PCs, Macs and even GNU/Linux systems.

Then there are the development costs incurred by businesses in making their websites touch friendly.  You can almost immediately discount drop down menus, multi-choice options of any kind in fact become problematic.  Text links, which still make up 90%+ of website navigation controls, are the biggest culprit, being placed too close together and too close to other clickable items to be of any use for touch control.

There is absolutely no sign yet though that web developers are looking to update these websites to make them ready for the boost in touch access that will occur in the next few years.  Instead we see the main websites including Amazon, eBay, Gmail, Twitter and Facebook all putting their money into mobile apps.  There has been a huge flurry of activity here in the last year with all the main platforms having apps developed for them at significant expense.

This makes sense to a certain degree as apps can be faster than websites and the user interfaces can be far friendlier.  These apps are now able to do things that the traditional websites have never been able to achieve.

Now though the current crop of Browsers, which will be complete with the formal release of Internet Explorer 9 tomorrow, all support HTML5 which allows for much greater flexibility and control over websites, and which also enables websites to look and behave far more like the apps that have followed them.

While it’s an easy sell though for companies to devote time and money to platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows Phone for app development, which in the grand scheme of things have user figures in the low 10′s of percent of overall web users, redeveloping their websites to support HTML5 when few people have the latest browsers is a much harder proposition to accept.

This is because when you develop an app, you will know that every single person who owns that platform will be able to access it even if that number is relatively small, say just a few million.  With three billion people online around the world though and with regular visitor numbers in the hundreds of millions for the big websites, it’s an expensive gamble to spend time currently developing an HTML5 version of your website that will support touch, or even multi-touch, knowing that this will only be seen or used by around 1 or 2% of your overall user base.

This gives people using the iPad and Android devices a significant advantage over Windows tablet, PC or Mac users.  If the rumours of a multi-touch Mac this year are true this will compound the issue even more.

This all leads me to wonder if the future of the web doesn’t lie in the websites themselves but rather in software, that is more powerful, more flexible and more visible to users.  We could instead find that while existing websites are maintained, any future updates will be merely include finger-friendly links to appropriate apps.

The advantages here are that apps are more secure, provide better functionality and with an app store already available for the Mac and one due next year for Windows, everywhere.  From a marketing standpoint an app also gives you a permanent advert, via an icon, on the user’s screen.  This is something that websites currently can’t do (we can discount IE9′s ability to pin apps to the Windows 7 taskbar as something that will be used by small numbers of users only).

So while companies will still have to maintain back-end web systems, we could find that the future of the web is in front-end apps rather than the websites themselves.  I would say this is a good future and one to welcome.  It will be interesting to see which way the big companies decide to jump.

Modbook has been treating Apple users to tablet PC’s for ages (mainly because of Apple’s lack of plans to bring a tablet Mac to the market), but to be honest there has been no real players in the tablet Windows field. Most tablet computers have some type of keyboard attached and that makes them kind of bulky. The idea of having a tablet PC for use on the go is an amazing idea that Archos is just beginning to catch onto.

All the former models of the Archos line have been Linux powered and carried little to none productivity capabilities. That will all change when the Archos 9 Tablet goes on sale later this year in the UK (a US date is yet to be decided). A tablet like this would fit very nice into a carry on bag or handbag and could easily be used to check up on emails, weather, stocks as well as providing the whole entertainment pack while waiting for the bus, train, plane or any other situation where a keybaord is not practical and a cellphone is just too simple.

That said, the Archos 9 tablet features an 8.9-inch 1024×600 pixel resistive touchscreen display. While there have been rumors of multi touch support, that has not been confirmed by Archos as of yet and frankly from what I know, it seems pretty unlikely. The device is only 16mm inches thick and carries a host of features such as Bluetooth, 1GB of RAM, 802.11b/g WiFi, an 800MHz or 1.2GHz Atom Z515 processor as well as a SIM card slot for WLAN. Hard drive space is either an 80GB HDD or 160GB model. So far no word on an SSD option but as we all know that would be an arm and a leg.

So far from demos and FAQ’s the system seems pretty capable to run a stripped down version of Windows 7, but it would be a lot nicer if we could get a Core 2 Duo option. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to be able to play WoW on the go or test out Photoshop while miles in the sky. Secondly we’re hearing that it will be fitted with the integrated graphics thingy from Intel. There is no need to go over the fact that NVIDIA’s Ion platform would have been a much better choice.

According to Archos the device can be navigated pretty well VIA the touch of a finger but for some tasks the included stylus would be a better choice. For this reason I doubt it carries multi-touch.
Recently Archos released the pricing for the system. For the 80GB version it will run you £449.99 which is the equivalent of $735 USD. The doubled hard drive space (160GB) will run up the cost to £499.99 or the equivalent of $816 USD. The launch date is set for September. That’s nice and all but this comes in direct conflict with the October 22nd launch of Windows 7. So unless Archos is cutting a special deal with Redmond, or that date is for pre-orders, we think someone at Archos French HQ has their facts wrong or it’s a typo.

In any case, the idea of a full tablet PC without a keyboard that carries the processing power of a netbook is a nice one indeed. My only concern is if the price tag will be the biggest hurdle the Archos 9 has to jump.

I found a video on youtube demonstration how powerful this way of image editing is. Enjoy the show.