Multitouch Moves to the Big Screen: PCs

Tap doesn't look like the future of personal computing the first time you see it. A mindless little game that resembles an abstract version of Whac-A-Mole, it hooks otherwise rational people into touching colored dots on a screen in order to make them disappear. The dots come fast and furious, forcing you to use all your fingers to keep up—until you suddenly realize your fingers are no longer mere substitutes for a computer mouse. They are the basis for a much more natural way of working with objects on a screen.

Tap, part of a set of applications called Snowflake Suite from Swedish startup Natural User Interface, is designed to show off the capabilities of a new generation of multitouch displays. With the launch of Windows 7, major computer makers are introducing ­multitouch-enabled versions of laptops, all-in-one desktops, and monitors. I tested touch features on one of the first products to reach the market, the Lenovo (LNVGY) ThinkPad T400s (around $2,000, about a $225 premium over a similar model with a conventional display).