This is nothing new, this behavior of the CMOS transistors in the subthreshold region of operation has been known for years. I actually wrote a paper 5 years ago on a circuit using transistors in the subthreshold mode of operation. As always, there are trade-offs, and the main one is that the frequency of operation is a lot lower than if the transistor would have worked in the normal region. The main advantages of running the transistors in this operating region are low power and the fact that the current vs. voltage law changes from the quadratic law in the regular operating region, to exponential here, i.e. I ~= e^[n(VGS-VT)/kT] (see Sedra&Smith's or any other reference electronics book). So don't dream of your next low power processor using this technology. This is more suited for analog applications (one of the first ones that I remember is current multipliers and low-power current-mode analog circuits) and this is how these guys at IMEC seem to be actually using it.

How about Alice (http://www.alice.org)? Form their site: "It is an 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience." From what I've seen, it is specifically targeted at kids.

Yes, these companies have skilled employees, but that is because those are *industrial* printers and terminals for AS/400 systems which are not exactly end-user stuff and cost pretty much. This means: 1. you pay a higher price which incorporates better support 2. usually the client is also a tech, not a clueless Joe SixPack and is a lot easier to do a tech to tech talk.