Amidst all of the multi-touch technology that is being produced and tested, one of the greatest achievements is the attempt at a multi-touch laptop. While Microsoft has been working with multi-touch capabilities on desktop computers, as well as smaller digital devices such as MP3 players and cell phones, this is one of their first attempts at working the technology into a portable laptop.

While this looks to be a very promising step in the direction of multi-touch technology working towards the mainstream, many have their doubts. One of the most common complaints is that the touch screen reaction time is too slow, and some say that you would be better off just using the old mouse and keyboard if you want to get anything done efficiently.

Another common complaint is that the more fingerprints and smudges you make on your touch screen, the worse it will perform. This is due to the fact that the surface on the new laptop does not use touch sensors, but rather uses digital camera technology to see when you are touching. This technology does have an advantage over the conventional touch screen, however, because it is capable of recognizing multiple touches at the same time, whereas a regular touch screen can only interpret one.

Despite all of the nay-sayers, Microsoft still hopes to be ahead of the game when it comes to releasing their multi-touch technology. There are also talks of creating whole multi-touch operating systems that could render the mouse and keyboard obsolete if they were to become mainstream and widely accepted. However, those plans are far beyond the current standings. We are still waiting for Microsoft to release a multi-touch computer that lives up to its hype. Hopefully in the near future, we will not only see the release of a multi-touch computer, but a whole line of multi-touch hardware to keep older computers updated.