Take a look at the video recently posted by Apple. It shows how to make a multi-touch iBook with iBooks Author.
Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps.
Today, during the education-focused media event Apple announced iBooks 2, an updated version of its e-book program for iOS devices. This update is a part of Apple’s move into sphere of interactive digital textbooks, performed in cooperation with several major publishers.
According to Reuter’s report, Taiwan-based company Elan Microelectronics has announced a settlement of a patent dispute with Apple related to multi-touch technology. Elan states that Apple has agreed to cross-license some patents and pay $5 million to avoid future disputes regarding said intellectual property.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office published on Tuesday that Apple won a core multitouch patent that describes how touch events are recognized by a touchscreen device. The patent blog Patently Apple also noted that this patent was one of the "200+ Patents for new inventions" Jobs lauded when the iPhone first debuted in 2007.
The newly granted patent focuses on the oscillator signal and circuit of a touchscreen-equipped device, an integral invention directly related to how users interact with their multitouch products.
Apple states in the filing: "In general, multi-touch panels may be able to detect multiple touches (touch events or contact points) that occur at or about the same time, and identify and track their locations."
One way to record multiple touches is to generate an oscillating signal circuit that can power and clock inputs over a substrate as in a capacitive touchscreen display. But it is difficult to create a precise circuit-based oscillator. According to Apple's patent, the solution to capacitive touchscreen problem is to calibration logic circuitry which compares the signal oscillation against a reference signal and tunes the clock frequency accordingly. The invention provides for an accurate capacitive display that can not only sense multiple touches, but also detect hover or near touches which are also recognized as "touch events."
Recently Facebook introduced a new functionality for profiles called Timeline, which, as shown on the company’s promotional video above, places all you interactions, photos, status updates and more on a timeline starting from the opening of your Facebook account.
Yesterday Apple released the promised update of the iOS 5.0. The iOS 5.0.1 should fix battery life issues found on devices upgraded to the iOS 5, as well as on new iPhone 4S. Apple publicly said the battery life bugs affected a small number of users. In addition to addressing battery life issues, the update also brings new multi-touch gestures for the first-generation iPad.
This update contains improvements and other bug fixes including:
Fixes bugs affecting battery life
Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation
The update also includes security improvements, as well as a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on a device even in low storage situations.
iOS 5.0.1 is available for iPhone (4S, 4, and 3GS), iPod touch (third- and fourth-generation), and all iPad models. The update is now available to all users through iTunes, and will be soon available as an over-the-air update.
Today Amazon announced their tablet called Kindle Fire. It has 7" IPS display, custom android OS, weights 413g, has 8Gb of storage, Wifi. Unfortunately it does not have 3G. The price is attractive though - $199. Shipments start November 15.
We are not sure that this device can be a real iPad killer. However it will definitely compete with other Android tablets, like Blackberry Playbook, HP Touchpad and others.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has denied an Apple’s application for a trademark on the term Multi-Touch, applied by the company on January 9, 2007, the day the iPhone was introduced. Receiving deny, Apple appealed to the Appeal Board. The board also refused to grant the trademark, noting that the term "multitouch" has taken on generic meaning, being used by a wide variety of publications to describe the touchscreen technology on Android phones, tablets, and notebooks.
Thus, from the foregoing, we find that “multi-touch” not only identifies the technology, but also describes how a user of the goods operates the device. Based on the evidence discussed above, as well as other evidence in the record, we agree with the examining attorney that MULTI-TOUCH indeed is highly descriptive of a feature of the identified goods. We now consider whether applicant has submitted sufficient evidence to establish acquired distinctiveness of this highly descriptive term.
The new OS X Lion includes not only many improvements but also side-effects. Adobe has found issues in new OS related to its applications and posted a list of them in knowledge base article last week. The list is rather long, but the main issue is the absence of hardware acceleration for Flash Player in new Lion.
The release of the Mac OS X Lion is nearing and Apple has just invited registered Mac developers to submit their applications for OS X Lion to Mac App Store. But it’s unclear how many apps the Review Team could manage to approve before the rumored Lion launch.
OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, will soon be available to millions of Mac users around the world. Submit your Lion apps for review now so they can be on the Mac App Store when Lion ships this month.
OS X Lion provides developers with new features like full-screen mode, push notifications for apps, new Aqua controls including iPad-inspired popovers, auto-save and versions, as well as sandboxing and multi-touch gestures. Lion is expected to be released any day this week as Mac App Store exclusive.
After Microsoft less than a year ago managed to catch up with Apple’s three year leading position and released up-to-date, multi-touch operating system in Windows Phone 7, it needs to do it again.
It has been known for some time that TiVo is developing new companion applications for devices based on iOS and that they already finished free iPad application for the Premiere box. The issue of CEPro magazine in June sheds more light on the company's plans by citing Bard Williams, head of channel and retail marketing for TiVo: Read the rest of this entry »
Mac OS X is almost 10 years, but it still continues to evolve and as Phillip Schiller claims "not because of hardware, but because of software." During yesterdays keynote Apple unveiled only ten of 250 new features in Mac OS X Lion.Some of the new features include Windows Migration Assistant, a new version of FileVault, built-in FaceTime and more.
Lion will be available only through App Store as a 4 GB download for $29.99. So you pay ones and may install the new software on all your machines. Little bit strange but App did announce an exact date of MacOS X Lion release.
"New" features that were announced during keynote, include: