OTHER TECH

Yes, friends, I'm talkin' Touchscreen Takes Over Tabletop - that is, "surface technology" mates with a traditional piece of household furniture. Brought to you by home-entertainment-and-automation company Savant, the Rosie Coffee Table Touchpanel Controller basically has an Apple computer inside of it and runs on Savant's programmable Rosie control system. Naturally, it works in conjunction with all of the Rosie in-wall touchpanels. (Who exactly is this Rosie? Meet her at savantav.com.)

Just touch the icons, and you can access iTunes content, download photos from your digital camera, operate your home theater system, and handle house control - all from the 40-inch interface. So, to your old coffee table littered with handheld remotes, you can now say, "phooey." This table is both functional and fun.

If this looks at all familiar to you, it might be because, earlier this year, Microsoft touted a 30-inch tabletop-computing concept called Surface, which several people can use simultaneously. Microsoft's product is reportedly going to be showing up in commercial establishments, such as hotels (Starwood has already signed on) and restaurants.

Which means that, if you want a killer coffee table of your own, you'll have to wait for the Savant. It isn't scheduled to be available until early 2008 - and the price hasn't been set. But expect to shell out a whole lot for Rosie.

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