Eat your heart out, iPhone. Samsung’s recently unveiled Anycall Haptic has a 3.2-inch wide touchscreen display similar to Apple’s device, but the display also includes 22 different kind of sensations depending on how you use it. When the volume of the radio is changed, for instance, the phone simulates both the sound and feel of the “clicks” of an old-style volume knob on a real radio, according to the company. The Anycall Haptic (model numbers SCH-W420 and SPH-W4200) phone has a 2-megapixel digital camera, full Internet browser, Bluetooth 2.0 and terrestrial digital TV reception. It will will likely cost US$700 or so, and I don’t know when it will ever reach Canada, but I’m already picking up good vibrations.
I won’t completely give up on tablet PCs until I’ve put my hands on the latest from Glacier Computer, which includes a specially-designed heater that protects a touchscreen from retaining moisture when you move it from a cold environment to a warm environment, which, in Canada, sounds like a likely scenario. The heater sits right under the screen and consumes 18 watts of power. The PC can withstand between -30