Big News Week

POSTED AT 16:15 on 31st May 2007

Wow a lot of tech news this week. Here’s a quick roundup if you have been living under a rock.

Microsoft Surface
Microsoft announced a new table-top computer with multi point touch technology that does away with a mouse and keyboard.

Surface is the result of years of research in multi point touch technology and works with the use of two cameras that focus on the glass surface and can triangulate objects on it.

I’m sure everybody is familiar with Jeff Han’s TED presentation of a similar interface and Scoble also interviewed Andy Wilson who is a researcher behind this technology.

It will only be available to corporate customers such as hotels, casino’s and restaurants to begin with and will cost around $5,000-$10,000.

Apple TV
Apple have announced that they are going to integrate YouTube with the Apple TV. The update will be software based and is due to be released in mid-June. They also announced a new 160GB version which is available today.

Google Gears
Google announced the open source browser extension gears that allows developers to create web applications that run offline. They have integrated this new extension with google reader allowing you to use the application offline for upto 2000 feed items.

Last.fm Acquired
The UK based music social network last.fm has been acquired by CBS for £140 million in an all cash deal. This is great new for the UK startup industry and should hopefully bring more UK companies into the spotlight.

Jobs and Gates
Jobs and Gates got on stage with each other at the All Things Digital conference to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg. They were both very civil and praised each others work in the industry. More info here, here and here.

More 24 hour camera shows
Justin.tv has launched its new channels including everybody’s favorite web media girl Justine. Allowing you to enjoy even more 24/7 streaming of other peoples lifes.