Microsoft has surely made a breakthrough with its new "Surface Computing" concept, which it unveiled last week. Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch interactive display set into a table form and it goes beyond the typical touch screen. The surface of the display recognises physical objects, allowing users to control content on the computer directly with their hands or other objects.Surface computing features four key attributes, Microsoft says at http://www.microsoft.com/surface, a wonderful site that gives you a feeling for the technology. The first key attribute is the direct interaction between the user and the surface. Users can touch the representation of some digital information with their hands, and manipulate it without the use of a mouse or keyboard.

It's a multi-touch and multi-user surface that recognises many points of contact simultaneously, not just from one finger like a typical touch-screen. So a number of people can interact with the surface at the same time. Think of the possibilities not only for gaming, but also for collaborative business projects at work.

Lastly Surface can recognise objects. Users can place physical objects on the surface to trigger different types of digital responses, including the transfer of digital content, such as from the computer to a cell phone. Wow! No more wires.

Microsoft initially will release Surface for use at hotels, retailers, restaurants and public entertainment venues. Look for it when you next sit at a table in a Starwood Hotels' lobby. The company is one of a number planning to install the new table top.

Microsoft will release a consumer version later this year for about $10,000.

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Another breakthrough that requires touch, digital paper, is now in its fourth generation, according to researchers at Mid Sweden University. Research teams at the Mid Sweden University say they are working on the fourth generation of paper products that can communicate with computers. The breakthrough will integrate paper with the digital world by combining paper with printed graphic codes and electronically conductive ink engineered to be sensitive to pressure.Digital information is then embedded in the paper, and when it is touched, the information comes out via printed speakers, according to a statement from the university.

They have already developed a large display board meant for marketing products. When the person touches a picture or text, he or she hears the audiovisual advertising message.

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The five most cited beefs about digital point-and-shoot cameras are: lagging shutter speed, dark backgrounds, blurry at maximum zoom, short battery life and a difficult to see LCD screen in bright sunlight.These are the top shortcomings of digital compacts listed in a survey of 13,000 Consumer Reports readers.

Of the five the most annoying is the time lag between when you press the shutter button and the actual shot.

I've got many photos where I've missed what Henri Cartier-Bresson called the "decisive moment": those where people are already walking out the frame or have simply turned away.

I use my Sony digital compact for lots of occasions when it is too risky to take my Nikon D80 about, and I have since learned to compensate for the time lag.

Consumer Reports notes that autofocusing is a major contributor to shutter lag. The magazine suggests users focus on a subject by holding the shutter release halfway down and when the desired moment arrives, press the release the rest of the way.

While we're on the current issue of Consumer Reports, I should note that another survey by the magazine's research centre found that independent computer tech support trumps manufacturer tech support. The results revealed that independent tech support services affiliated with major retail chains such as Best Buys' Geek Squad and Circuit City's Firedog, solved 84 percent of users' problems with Windows-based consumers.

But tech support provided by manufacturers of Windows-based computers was only able to solve 59 percent of readers problems.

The survey received 23,000 responses from computer users. About 69 percent of users who contacted any type of independent support said they were highly satisfied versus 42 percent of those who used manufacturers support. More than half the survey respondents who used independent services spent $100 or more. Apple and Lenovo (IBM) solved 80 percent of problems for those who had service contracts.

Free manufacturer support succeeded in fixing problems only 53 percent of the time.

Send any comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com.