News from category ‘Hardware’

Patently Apple reports that Apple filed for the 'magic trackpad' trademark. US Patent & Trademark Office published application on February 26, 2010. 'Magic Trackpad' likely refers to an external peripheral device for desktop computers or laptops plugged into external displays. There has been speculation about some sort of multi-touch "trackpad gadget" from Apple. Maybe Apple will provide desktop users a way to take advantage of some external multi-touch system.

The application requests registration in International Class 009 under a number of categories relating to computer hardware and software, as well as several types of peripheral devices:

International Class 009: Computers; computer software; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer hardware; computer peripherals; scanners; touchscreens; keyboards; computer mice; trackballs; trackpads; touchpads; light pens; joysticks; game controllers; graphics tablets; digitizers; cables and connectors; flash memory drives; USB drives; solid state storage devices; barcode readers.

Antonio De Rosa is creating something new every day. Today he shows us a new image and a 3D video which shows both the iPhone 4G and a new docking station called AluStand. There is also a new Remote Control with multi-touch surface.

Here's the video:

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Macrumors found interesting information in the latest Beta 3 iPad SDK. Apple's private framework which controls the camera, has 3 additional camera characteristics that are not found in the iPhone 3.x SDK:

It looks like Apple built in API support to test if your iPad had a Front Facing Camera, Zoom and a Camera Flash. The front facing camera could be used for video chat, while Zoom and Camera Flash are often requested features for the iPhone's back camera.

9to5Mac made further investigation and found the following icons which clearly show an interface to accept or decline a video chat:

The size of these buttons show that they will be used on the the iPad's screen rather than the iPhone.

It is still unknown, if these new features will be available in the first version of iPad. We hope to see them in future versions of the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Couple days ago Antonio De Rosa posted a very beautiful 3D concept for the future iPhone 4G. Now there is a video available. Take a look:

Here is one more iPhone 4G concept from Antonio De Rosa. It looks particularly beautiful. This is a 3D rendering and I advise you to zoom the images to appreciate the quality of the details:

The device has a new AMOLED screen, an aluminum body, a front camera and of course the iPhone OS 4.0.

There are so many iPhone 4G concepts created by different our users. Some show futuristic devices that are hard to create, while others are closer to reality.

Today we have an interesting concept designed by Francesco Maisano. It shows iPhone with more rounded design than the current one. We can also see some implementation of the future Firmware 4.0 - a special SpringBoard with Widgets for weather, calendar and clock. As for hardware there is a front camera, a flash for main camera, an intelligent Home button and much more. Take a look:

iPhone display is quite strong. As you can see on the video, the glass is completely shattered, but the touchscreen still works perfectly:

But if something like this happen, try not to use the iPhone with your fingers as you can cut with some small splinter.

TellTale Games finally released Tales of Monkey Island for Mac. One married couple creates armpockets with its own hands. From now on you can create and order your own customized case for iPhone. Location browser for urban discoveries is called Flook. To know more read the rest of the post.

TellTale Games released a Mac version of Tales of Monkey Island! The latter is a 3D adventure game that was released for PC and WiiWare in 2009. The game is available for purchase for $34.95 or you can download a free demo.

Telltale Games also announced the next games to release on Mac will be Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures, Sam & Max, and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.

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We're back on reporting about the apps and gadgets presented on the MWSF 2010. Now we'll talk about iV Plus - the solution to turn your iPhone into remote; FloTV - the service to watch TV in the USA; Square Up service to pay for everything you need only with your credit card and iPhone; and Wissair's USB DisplayDock Set will get the screen from your laptop to the HDTV-set wirelessly.

U-Socket turned to be out a very interesting solution, but FastMac was found to offer something more. The thing on the pictures below is called The iV Plus. It helps to manage a set of your home devices and consists of IR Remote, Battery Pack, Flash LED and case that wraps around the iPhone. FastMac will also provide free Universal Remote software to work with this creation. The iV Plus will be shipped expectedly in the second quarter of 2010 for $130.

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This time we talk about Algoriddin’s djay 3, new apps from Frog Design, 4iThumbs product and WebIS Pocket Informant organizer.

Algoriddin’s djay 3 is an excellent app with easy-to-use interface designed to allow you to mix and play music. The price is US 50$ in stores and on the website.

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Microvision presented its laser pico projector SHOWXX, Moodagent creates a Genius like playlists, ScreenGuardz Privacy app can hide your information from the neighbour and Verbatim presented their new line of usb-drives with the size of a fingernail. Look further for the details.

Laser pico projector SHOWXX designed by Microvision was presented on the MWSF. It has a size of the iPhone and costs US 500$. The picture shown by the device is so small that only one person can see it. Moreover, the battery time is only 2 hours, which is obviously too short. We can only say the technology still needs to be improved so that it could be interesting for customers.

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Box.net finally presented its services to iPhone users, Other World Computing created the fastest SSD on the market, HyperMac offers a new line of batteries for Apple devices, and Blue Mikey Microphone is a new recording sound solution for iPhone.

Box.net presented an iPhone app that connects to their services and allows quick accessing to all your stored files. Now you can also connect to the Box.net service with QuickOffice Connect Mobile Suite (US 9.99$). We can only imagine how comfortable it will be to use on iPad.

Other World Computing presented a few of their new products – USB 3.0 drive, new portable RAID array and (attention!) the fastest SSD on the market! It’s called OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD and loads Adobe CS4 applications in seconds, which looks really amazing compared to slow 5400 rpm hard disks.

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We're continuing to cover news from the MWSF 2010, and this time the talk will be about MacSpeech Scribe app, MusicSkins accesories, Kanex adapter and CarMD device.

MacSpeech is known for its MacSpeech Dictate program that allows user to speak to Mac and wind up with formatted text. At the MWSF company released MacSpeech Scribe (US 149$), which turns recorded audio into RTF-files (that are readable by any word processor). It doesn't create text with punctuation and you have to train the program by correcting its mistakes, but with the Nuance engine from the previous app it looks really impressive.

MusicSkins was also present at the MacWorld 2010. This time there were vinyl skins not only for Apple devices, but for any gadgets known (at least they say they add 5-10 devices to their roster per week). Company reps told us the accessories for the iPad are also ready to be printed, but before it’ll go to the market they want to make sure their production will work well and fit correctly to the device. At this moment skins for iPod and iPhone (US 15$) and for the Macbook (US 30$) are available.

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From now on sausages are not the only substitutes for human fingers; Electrorack presented an interesting rack enclosure for Xserves; Shake allows you to listen music without earphones; U-Socket solves a problem of USB-rechargable devices.

As you remember few days ago we wrote about sausages as the best substitutes of human fingers for iPhones. Well now it is not. Two companies at once presented their capacitive capable gloves that allow you to use iPhone even when it's cold. iTouch Gloves offered high end leather gloves (start with  $99.95, on the left side) and Telefingers offered thinner, less stylish and cheaper solution (for only $15, on the right side).

That really looks like oversized Mac Pro, but indeed this is a rack enclosure for Xserves and RAID configuration presented by Electrorack. The latter also offers a variety of other server racking solutions.

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US patent organization just granted Apple a patent filed back in 2004 on capacitive multitouch displays. Patent #7,663,607 describes a "transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time" by way of two sandwiched layers of conductive lines hooked up to an appropriate circuit, and also covers a specific type of multitouch display with a similar two-layer capacitive sensor made of glass.

There are other types of capacitive sensors on the market, but Apple's touchscreen is still the best. While the implications of this patent are still unclear, it's certainly gives hard times for many Apple's competitors.

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