First of, it’s awesome to see Carnegie Mellon (my alma mater) getting some good press (or any press for that matter). CMU Researcher Chris Harrison has developed a device that can attach on your forearm, and using a built in pico-projector it can sense and use your entire arm as an input controller through taps on your skin. While the video is a bit on the dry side, I think the functionality and complexity of controls displayed is very impressive for what looks to be a early stage prototype/proof of concept. It would be great to see this technology miniaturized to the point where it’s just like any other arm band you would wear while working out or like the ones’ used to attach your iPod. (Found on Core77)

Enjoy this beautiful 3D rendered video of products that have culminated in the Apple iPad. Produced by the folks at Transparent House using 3DMax over a period of 10 days. So pretty   (Found on Neonpunch)

Is it practical? No. Will it make it to market any time soon? Probably not. Is it freaking awesome? Hell yeah! I mean, come on, how can you not be amazed by a see-through laptop LCD panel. Yes anyone at that meeting you’re at will know you’re chatting or on Facebook and not paying attention. Yes everyone at the airport will be able to see you’re watching some bootleg movie. But who cares! It’s FREAKING SEE-THROUGH!! Thank you Samsung for making movies like Minority Report and Avatar one step closer to reality with screens like this. (Found on Engadget)

I’ve been waiting for the perfect tablet. Be it Michael Arrington’s Crunchpad, or Apple’s mythical iPad/iTablet. But what’s this out of left field? News, pictures and videos have leaked about Microsoft’s Courier, and it looks amazing. The product you see here is supposedly a “late prototype”, and is being shown to outside agencies regarding design concepts. So here we have a real device, which is a booklet style tablet using two 7″ multitouch displays that are geared towards drawing, flicking and even writing with a stylus or your fingers. The entire device looks stunning, with its clean single-button Apple-eqsue hinged display. There are little things like wireless and battery statuses on the rim of the screen and a camera on the back, and even rumors of a inductive charging pad, a-la Palm Touchstone which would be ridiculously cool. (Found on Gizmodo)

Ohyeaaa…. Check out Mr. Jen-Hsun “Tough-Guy” Huang, Nvidia’s CEO. Ohyeaaa…..wait… what’s that in front of him? That sleek looking tablet looks an awful lot like one of those rumored Apple iPad/iTablets doesn’t it? One center button? Check. Camera in the middle a-la Macbook/Macbook Pro/iMac/Apple LED Display? Check. Black, curved, with nice rounded corners and back? Check, check and check. And not only that, he later went on to lavishly praise how awesomely awesome Apple is, because they are just awesome. So, could it be that he has an early Apple prototype? Or is it just an internal Nvidia thing? We can only wait and see. (Found on Engadget)

From the Windows 7 Liveblog. Wow it’s really thin! (Found on gdgt)

Barnes & Noble has come out of nowhere and taken the eBook Reader market and pulled an “Apple iPhone” on it. Sure there are plenty of great eBook readers on the market, with Amazon selling it’s Kindle and Kindle DX to great fame, Borders touting the Sony eReaders, and then iRex and Plastic Logic, who are sort of there. But with the “nook” Barnes and Noble has something really solid. As leaked earlier to Gizmodo, the reader is comprised of two screens, one eInk screen to read, and a smaller 3″ multitouch screen across the bottom for everything else. You can easily control your reader, type on the virtual keyboard, user a CoverFlow-esque book browser, and control your music through a great capacitive display. What’s more, all of this retails at a price point lower than Amazon at just $259. Gizmodo has got a great hands-on with the reader, while CrunchGear has a nice little comparison of the four major eBook Readers on the market. But what’s really interesting is how well thought out the nook really is. For example, you can lend books you own to friends and family for a 2 week period (just like real books!). Not only that, but they (and you) can read those books wherever you want: the nook, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, Blackberry, and (soon) Windows Mobile! The nook even remembers your place, notes, and highlights across all the different environments. The next “reading” feature is that you get to read one book free on the device each time you go to a Barnes & Noble store. You can even sample books on the reader to see if you like them before buying the whole book. Finally, it’s still got a great battery life at 10 days, 3G and WiFi, and the bottom screen runs Android so there are plans for apps to be developed for it in the future, possibly better utilizing the built-in 2GB memory and SD card reader? Videos anyone? Overall, this looks great, solves a lot of issues people had with browsing the Kindle store through a eInk display, and I plain love it.