The typical UMPC is too small for many people, particularly in screen size, while the typical Tablet PC is too large for some purposes (e.g., industrial and medical applications). So, along comes Tatung with a sort of hybrid (my term, not theirs) between a UMPC and a Tablet PC, the WebPad TX-3000: 10.4 inch screen, AMD LX 800 processor, 1GB compactflash card (serves as main memory?), wireless, USB, a PC Card slot, and the lot. I can see this bridging the gap for a number of people, but no word on whether they’re releasing it beyond Thailand. And no idea on pricing.

That might not seem fair, but I swear: I was in a furniture store the other day and saw an ottoman that looked just like Sony’s new VAIO TP1 HTPC. Which might be on purpose, because this thing certainly won’t fit in any A/V rack that I know of. It’s also not the most well-equipped HTPC on the market, with neither an HD optical drive nor CableCARD capability. It does have a Core 2 Duo running at 1.83GHz, 2GB RAM, Intel 950 integrated graphics (yuck!), 300GB SATA HDD, standard dual-layer DVD, and a TV tuner. So, nothing to write home about, but maybe it’s made of soft leather and will let you take a load off. Pricing is $1,599.99 and up.

This chair absolves the use of traditional notion of a separate chair and desk set, by putting them together into the perfect office chair. Instead of being rooted upright, the chair rests at a reclining angle with the screen resting at eye-level.

Arms, legs and back are supported with cushy pillows and adjustable arm and footrests. And while extremely aesthetically pleasing, the chair does cost a pretty penny (3,200 Euros). I would suggest cutting back on the soda intake just to be able to afford this.

This ultra-cheap Zonbu desktopios a Linux based, environmentally friendly, ultra-small, ultra-cheap PC launching this month. It is based around a Via chipset and has no internal storage, except for 512MB of RAM and a 4GB flash drive used for the OS. The $99 computer is meant to be used in with a $12.95 per month service (on a 2-year plan), and provides 25GB of storage space on Amazon’s S3 servers.

True cost is $99 plus a $12.95-a-month online storage subscription commitment for two years, or $249 outright. $12.95 fee includes only 25GB of storage.

PCMAG

As if our current range of computer mice weren’t enough, Apple in works to create the Multi-Touch Mouse. Depicted by the rather vague looking diagrams above, the mouse activates commands by sensing the position in which you hold your fingers. Therefore, this eliminates the need for buttons or the need to move the mouse in order to navigate on the screen. This is done through an "illumination source" found on the underside of the mouse shell, as well as a camera that records any images when illumination source is activated.

While this product is certainly in discussion, there is not much info available as of yet. However, Apple has released another patent statement for the touch sensitive bezel around electronic device, so it looks as if multi-touch technology might just be the next big thing.