Tech Trend

The Trend
Multitouch screens, which can register more than one finger-press at a time, will let computers trade keyboards and mice for simple strokes and pinches. The models shown here are just the start. Nearly every major PC maker will introduce touch-y designs of various shapes and sizes in the coming months.

Why Now

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Suddenly electric-car prototypes are everywhere. We’re not talking about the dubious concept cars that have long been a staple of the big international auto shows. These are actual, drivable electric vehicles (EVs) built by major automakers and assigned honest-to-God production dates as early as late next year. Their arrival suggests that this latest, much-hyped electric-car revival might just happen after all. Here’s a look at what’s coming.

Chevrolet Volt

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The Trend:

Web sites and programs now let you alter videos almost as easily as you edit photos, making it possible to cast yourself in starring roles.

Why Now:

Better image-analysis methods identify people and objects more accurately, even when moving, so programs can extract them from or insert them into films.

How You'll Benefit:

You can see yourself onscreen, doctor movies and even earn cash by pasting ads onto filmed walls.

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Games are beginning to exploit the computational muscle of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to generate characters and environments that follow the rules of reality, not just preset sequences.

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A few years ago, most digital cameras took a second or more to snap a single picture. In the same amount of time, Casio's new Exilim EX-F1 takes 60 six-megapixel photos or up to 1,200 frames of video-stretching that single tick into a 40-second movie. At that rate, you could pick out the feathers on a hummingbird's wings. It wallops even the fastest professional still camera, which takes 11 photos per second, and rivals industrial-grade, high-speed video rigs that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

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