Thursday, 10 January 2013

TARGUS TOUCH PEN ENABLES TOUCH INPUT ON NON-TOUCHSCREEN LAPTOPS


With the Touch Pen for Windows 8, Targus has found a way to welcome old laptops to the touchscreen party.

The pen enables touch input on Windows 8 laptops that don’t have touchscreens. Users must clip a small receiver to the side of the laptop, then perform a one-time calibration to tell the device where the edges of the screen are located. After that, the pen can be used like a finger for tapping, scrolling or drawing on the screen.

The pen itself has a soft, almost brush-like bristle that’s designed not to harm the laptop’s display, and it can attach to a magnet on the receiver for storage when it’s not in use. It supports screen sizes up to 17 inches.

The Touch Pen had some issues in a brief demo. When scrolling across the Start screen, the system would occasionally fail to detect the entire pen stroke, which in turn caused Windows 8 to register a tap and accidentally open unwanted applications. And while the pen does detect the Windows 8 charms bar gesture, in which you swipe from the right edge of the screen to bring up a set of options, getting this gesture to activate usually took me a few tries.

Targus has some time to work out the kinks — it’s planning to launch the Touch Pen in the second quarter of this year — but at a price of $100, new PC buyers shouldn’t think of this as a cheaper alternative to a proper touchscreen laptop. The Touch Pen may be a good solution for older machines, but only if Targus can improve the gesture recognition and touch responsiveness before launch.

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