Article Image

Touchpad gestures will become smarter in Windows 10

In a WinHEC session led by Miron Vranjes, Microsoft revealed new touchpad features that will be coming to users with Windows 10. Multi-finger gestures will give users the ability to navigate features ranging from Cortana to the Notification Center.

Miron Vranjes, senior program manager of the Windows 10 User Experience team, held a session at WinHEC on March 18 that revealed new gestures that will be coming to precision touchpads.

During the session, “Designing Great Hardware for the Windows 10 UI,” Vranjes focused on how the hardware and software of the new Windows operating system will relate to the overall user experience.

As it turns out, Windows 10 computers will include a wide range of gestures. For example, swiping down with three fingers will show the desktop and minimize current windows. Using four fingers at once will open the Action Center, and swiping down from the top edge with show a hidden title bar in Metro apps. Previous Windows 8.1 gestures will be included as well.

“There are a number of exciting improvements to the overall user experience coming in Windows 10, many of which require tight integration with the hardware to successfully light up for customers,” Vranjes detailed in his presentation.

Multi-finger gestures will give users the ability to navigate various features ranging from Cortana to the Notification Center. Edge gestures will also be incorporated into the touchpad. This means that users will be able to swipe from any four sides of the pad to gain quick access to the desktop or open apps.

Vranjes’ session was a part of the Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) event in Shenzhen, China, which is being held to provide technical training, information on new Microsoft products, and connect partners and customers.

In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.

So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?

Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.

Tired of typing the same details into every form?

The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.

The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.