HP TouchSmart IQ506: the touch revolution comes to the living room.(REVIEWS: THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE PRODUCTS)(Product/service evaluation)

TOUCH TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN AROUND for ages, but only since Apple released the iPhone last year has it been available (or attractive) in any real way. HP'S new line of TouchSmart all-in-one PCs, including the $1,499 IQ506, could well further hasten its assimilation into our everyday lives.

The exterior is black, the shiny finish well in keeping with the look of HP'S line of regular desktops, and the ultra-glossy 22-inch integrated display screams home theater. But what most defines the new TouchSmart is the eponymous software it uses.

After booting into Windows, press the house-shaped TouchSmart button in the lower-right corner of the display to enter the TouchSmart interface. Though it's little more than a front end for activating common PC functions like Calendar, Music, Notes, Photo, and Video, the interface is an unusually elaborate one, and one thoughtfully conceived to satisfy its target everyman audience.

Everything works just as you'd expect: Rifle through your photos or your music collection with a flick of your finger, write or record notes in just clicks on digital Post-its, and move icons around by dragging them wherever you want them. We found the touch screen a little finicky, but for the most part, it did just what it needed to do, when we wanted it, and we feel pretty certain that even someone otherwise intimidated by computers would feel right at home around the TouchSmart IQ506.

It's not for power users, though--the hardware (a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo T7400 mobile processor, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, and nVidia GeForce 9300M GS integrated graphics) won't satisfy diehard users or anyone who wants to play intense 3D games. Families, however, are another matter. The TouchSmart was made to put the simplest media-oriented tasks at their fingertips--a TV tuner and roomy 500GB hard drive are also included, though a Blu-ray drive isn't an option on this fixed-configuration system-and at that it succeeds.

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