A few physical keys will still be there on the remote, but that’s not a problem especially when we compare it to previous remote designs. With the touchscreen, which is located at the top of the remote, you will be able to change the settings of the TV or search the Internet.

The voice recognition feature that’s coming with the device is basically the same one that was used for the company’s ES8000 Smart TV, which was shown off at CES 2012. You just have to speak into the remote’s in-built mic to change the volume and channel. This functionality will also be very useful when logging into streaming accounts. You will just have to say your user name and login.

And to make the interaction with the TV faster, the remote uses Bluetooth and infrared at the same time.

The touchscreen remote will be available with a smart TV that the company plans to release in the coming months. It will also be compatible with different set-top boxes and media players.

The new Olympus Opto-Digital Microscope DSX series was recently released in Japan.  It’s significance is that features a fully integrated touch screen monitor.  This technology will allow you to get “hands on” with your samples and microscopic samples. Closer than you would ever have before, its designed to be very user-friendly, all you do is place your sample on the stage and the rest of the operations are done via the touch screen display. This includes focusing, centering, and magnification. After viewing the sample you can even generate a report based on your findings.

The microscopes are only available in Japan and throughout Asia. While not yet in the US or Europe, Olympus has confirmed it does eventually plan to introduce them globally at a later date.

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Mobile phones are getting thinner and thinner, but can only be made as thin as the internal parts that are required to build them. Sharp has unveiled their latest product, a tiny 12.1 megapixel camera sensor, which appears to be paving the way for thinner smartphones.

The Sharp RJ63YC100 camera sensor is being claimed by the company to be the thinnest in the industry. The sensor measures in at a mere 5.47 millimeters high and is less than half an inch deep.

The new sensor is also capable of shooting full HD (1080p) video and features built-in image stabilization which will allow you to take good pictures in shaky situations.

The sensor is expected to end up in future smartphones, especially a new iPhone model. As you might know, rumors are already flying around that Sharp will be the touchscreen supplier for upcoming iDevices.

Although Sony is providing iPhone’s current camera, it certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea for Apple if they sign deals with a single manufacturer for touchscreen and camera sensor shipments. Of course more phone manufacturers may also jump in on the action as well.

Samples of the sensor have been shipped to phone makers around the world. We are expecting that it won’t take too long for interested companies to make an announcement that the new sensor will be used in an upcoming handset.

The sensor is expected to come with a price tag of 12,000 yen, around $154. That increases the possibility of a slightly expensive smartphone. What do you think?

To be available in stores starting on November 21, the MOTOKEY SOCIAL isn’t a smartphone. Instead, it’s a feature phone that is clearly geared toward the social networking fans in the audience. It comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen, as well as a full QWERTY keyboard that includes a dedicated Facebook button.

Clearly hitting the lower end of the pricing spectrum too, the MOTOKEY SOCIAL is less than 10mm thin and comes with a 3MP camera. The user interface features five home screens, two interface themes, and plenty of integration to Facebook, Twitter, and so on. You also get Opera Mini and an email client. It’s no smartphone, but it’ll do the job for many folks. At $89.99 on prepaid, it’s pretty cheap too.

The first generation Microsoft Surface seemed like such a novel product, but it didn’t quite get as widespread an adoption rate as some folks may have hoped. Well, the second Surface is now available for pre-order in over 23 countries and it brings some fun innovations to the table (terrible pun intended).

The Microsoft Surface 2 was a joint project with Samsung and it bears the model name SUR40. The fundamental concept is the same: it’s a table with a giant touchscreen on it and this touchscreen can recognize certain objects that are placed on it. However, much like the move in tablets and smartphones, the Surface 2 SUR40 is significantly slimmer and sleeker than its predecessor.

Rather than having a bulky pedestal to house its internals, as was the case with the original, the Surface 2 is able to get all of its components integrated into the 40-inch multitouch display. They used Microsoft’s PixelSense technology to slim things down, getting rid of the five camera array in the first Surface. The new Surface can track up to 50 touch points at the same time.

The release date hasn’t been announced yet, but they’re pegging the price at right around $8,400.

We already know that Windows 8 is going to be a platform that is simultaneously geared toward both tablets and regular PCs, but it has now been confirmed by Intel that you’ll effectively being able to get both in one package with touchscreen-enabled Windows 8 ultrabooks.

This confirmation comes by way of Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Ultrabooks are barely out of the gate with their sleek and slim profiles, but adding touchscreen capabilities would also add cost to an already premium product. Ortellini says that they need to “get touch to a lower cost. This is particularly important, as we move to the launch of Windows 8. The iPad and the iPhone have made touch a paradigm.”

He wants to see the touch-based ultrabooks down to the $699 level. “Starting with Windows 8, you have a mainstream operating system incorporating touch. Our view is that in the ultrabook lines, touch is a pretty critical enabler. When users see that new Windows interface, they’re going to want to touch it. If the screen does nothing, you have disappointed [the] consumer.”

This makes sense. To this day, my favorite Android tablet is still the Asus Eee Pad Transformer and a big part of that has to do with the keyboard dock. I get a laptop-like experience, but I still get the touchscreen of a tablet. Here, you get a real Windows machine too, but I have a feeling that $699 still isn’t cheap enough. Starter laptops can be had at $299 and the Eee Pad Transformer with dock can be had for $499.

Because we never use the same part of our finger when we play with our touchscreens, some researchers have developed a way to enhance the interaction options by simply adding a microphone to the screen.

Carnegie Mellon Universities have found a way to distinguish between the tap of a fingertip, the pad of the finger, a fingernail and a knuckle. What’s the use of it, you ask? Well, TapSense makes it possible for making room for more content on the screens, because by using another side of your finger you could switch between functions.

For example, you could switch to capitalized letter by using a fingernail instead of a finger tip, or switch to numerals, rather than toggling a different set of keys.

The way it tells the difference between the part of your finger is by classifying the sounds they make when they touch the screen. So, an inexpensive microphone could turn your device into a – literally – multitouch screen, as they say the mics already built in the phones aren’t designed for capturing the sounds TapSense needs.

Let me preface this by saying that I am largely a traditionalist. For me, the best kinds of video games are the ones where I can slump into my couch with a regular controller, letting my thumbs do all the work on the control stick, d-pad, and face buttons. However, I still want to be able to see the screen.

And that’s the fundamental issue against the Fling mini by Ten One Design. Now shipping, the iPhone accessory is designed to provide you with tactile control for those touchscreen games. You get a dual thumbstick-like configuration with actual thumbstick-like controls, rather than swiping your finger around virtual circles on the screen.

The trouble is, as you can quite clearly see, it obscures about half of the screen. For me, that has always been one of the pitfalls of gaming on a touchscreen. Too many developers are trying to implement conventional-looking controls on a clearly non-conventional platform. And that’s why games developed specifically for touchscreens, like Angry Birds and Fruit Slice, work so much better.

If you absolutely must have a physical knob on your iPhone or iPod touch, the Fling mini is shipping now as a two-pack for $24.95.

Earlier this week, a cheaper Barnes & Noble Nook Touch was revealed to the world. Now, it looks like the Kobo wants to do the same touchscreen thing with the announcement of the Kobo Touch Edition. And they got there one day earlier too.

You won’t get a full color touchscreen like how you get with the iPad or Nook Color; instead, it’s an e-ink touchscreen. The interface is pretty much what you’d expect with swipes to turn pages, for example, as well as the ability to highlight text, take notes, and bookmark. They’re also including an on-screen virtual keyboard for ease of text entry.

They’re also noting that it’s not the capacitive technology that you find on most smartphones and tablets today. They’re using an “infrared touch technology” instead, which allows you to use any object to touch the screen.

And it’s ten bucks cheaper than the Nook Touch too. The Kobo Touch Edition went on preorder on Monday for $129.99, dropping the regular Kobo down to $99.99 in the process. What’s interesting is that Amazon has yet to release a touch-enabled Kindle, despite being at the top of the heap when it comes to dedicated e-readers.

Last month, the ad-supported Amazon Kindle was revealed at a paltry $114. Even if you do away with the ads, an entry-level Kindle is still only $139. Well, now you can land yourself a Nook from Barnes and Noble for the same $139, except this one gets a touchscreen.

No, it’s not really the same as the more expensive (and Android-powered) Nook Color, but the lower-cost Nook e-reader still gives you a touchscreen interface on its 6-inch display. It’s also 35% lighter than its predecessor. If you want to go cheaper, the original Nook is now $119, though B&N has stopped making them.

The Nook is second only to the Kindle when it comes to the dedicated e-book reader market and this cheaper touchscreen option should help with that growth. Not everyone wants to spend $499+ on an iPad, you know. In any case, the new touchscreen Nook is available now through the B&N site and will show up in retail stores (including Best Buy) next month.