News tagged ‘multitouch’
HP Unveiled Its New Tablet And 2 Smartphones
This Wednesday HP announced its three new webOS-based devices - the TouchPad tablet and two smartphones named Pre 3 and Veer. Before they were unveiled general manager and senior vice president for the Palm Global Business Unit at HP Jon Rubistein told that the company is at the beginning of new epoch.
"Today we're embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the best mobile experience available. The flexibility of the webOS platform makes it ideal for creating a range of innovative devices that work together to keep you better connected to your world."
HP’s Latest TouchSmart PCs Rips Off Apple Touchscreen iMac Patent
The new Windows PCs both, HP’s latest TouchSmart series, look exactly like Apple’s multitouch iMac. Some Apple’s patents over the past year suggest that the company has been experimenting with multitouch-capable iMacs with pivoting displays that pull down to a more appropriate horizontal orientation when a user wants to interact with on-screen elements directly. HP’s multitouch computers feature a pull-down design that drops the multitouch display into a horizontal position to reduce arm fatigue. Just like the Apple’s patent!
Apple investigating 'no-look' gestures for iPod nano
The new patent recently revealed by Apple tells us that the company is looking into multi-touch gestures that can be performed without looking at a device, which would address concerns about the multi-touch redesign of the sixth-generation iPod nano.
Five years of Apple: 2005 iBook to 2010 MacBook Air
Five years ago, Apple was selling the iBook G4 which evolved from the original iMac. The iBook released mid 2005 got 1.33 or 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 processors, 12.1 inch or 14.1 inch display, weighted 4.9 lbs (2.2 kg) (smaller version) or 5.9 lbs (2.7 kg) (larger version). Both models had 1024x768 screen resolution and were 1.35 inches (3.4 cm) thick.
Apple's latest laptop, the 11.6 inch MacBook Air, is equipped with 1.4 or 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, weighs just 2.3 lbs (1.04 kg) and is only 0.68 inches (1.7 cm) at its thickest.
Apple was also interested in the Kinect technology
Last week Cult of Mac reported that Microsoft wasn't the first company that was really interested in the Kinect technology.
The history actually begins with Israeli military engineers, who developed Kinect camera and infrared sensor. According to the report, after inventing the technology they hired PrimeSense CEO Inon Beracha so he could "shop it around Silicon Valley and find partners to commercialize it".
Read the rest of this entry »
First Look: Apple's new Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
As already known, the new Apple’s Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is planed to be released next summer. New operating system will adopt some iOS features. Now Apple works to bring many of its mobile innovations into the next version of Mac OS X 10.7. So, Apple will add the following the mobile-optimized features to the Mac from iOS:
Live from Apple's "Back to the Mac" event (constantly updating)
Found an early prototype next-gen MacBook Air
Last week Engadget posts a single shot of a prototype MacBook Air. The prototype device is labeled "K18". On the picture they found USB plugs on the left and right sides of device, Mini DisplayPort and an SD card reader on the left, and a power plug on the right. The prototype on the picture is the same size and style, has the same "large single mouse button", same 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo SL9400 processor and 2GB of RAM as the current model of MacBook Air. Engadget’s source claims that the shot was made early in April. Moreover, а new SSD Card storage is rumored to be installed in upcoming MacBook Air. It's possible that such SSD Cards will resemble a stick of RAM.
CNet Video: First Look at iPod Nano 6G
CNet shows the new iPod Nano 6th generation:
The good: The iPod Nano (sixth generation) is nearly half the size of the previous model, uses unique multitouch screen navigation, and includes a built-in clip.
The bad: Many features have disappeared, including video playback, camcorder, microphone, speaker, games, calendar, contacts, notes, and alarm clock. The touch-screen interface is overkill, requiring more attention than the time-tested click wheel design without delivering many practical benefits.
The bottom line: The sixth generation of the iPod Nano is the smallest yet, but it comes at the expense of valuable features and practical controls.
Watch the video:
Apple event live blog (finished)
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Concept: Magic iRemote for iOS Apple TV/iTV
Dan Wineman’s concept, above, for an iOS-powered Apple TV/iTV remote that’s essentially an iPod touch without the screen, is interesting. Same accelerometer/gyro, same multitouch, same home button.
Such remote is gesture-based. Tap to pause, swipe left to rewind, swipe right to fast-forward. Slide up or down to adjust volume. Home key to exit to the menu, which you navigate by flicking and tapping.
John Gruber still isn’t sure if any intermediated device could work (though given you’ll be sitting 10 feet away, one certainly will have to). But the idea is pretty interesting. And if Apple does go for something like this, however, you just know they’d call it Magic iRemote.
Apple files a New Patent for iMac Touch
Recently we’ve talked about the rumors that Apple is planning to release a new iMac with multitouch display, which will run on iOS 4 over OS X to use sensory capabilities. It seems that we’ll finally see the touchscreen computer from Apple. A new interesting patent has just been spoken about, which shows the iMac with multitouch display called "Apple iMac Touch".
Now Apple says nothing about this device, yet it is only a patent, so we do not know exactly how much time it will need to start producing it.
Samsung’s iPad killer Will Have the iPad’s Processor
According to official twitter of Samsung South Africa and Korea Times, the device is called Samsung Galaxy Tab (previously known more as S-Pad). It will have a 7-inch multitouch display with “high resolution” and 5 mega pixel camera. Moreover, 9to5mac also found the dimensions of the device - 64.2X122.4X9.9mm and only 118 grams of weight. Among other features:
- runs Android with TouchWiz user interface;
- has a front-facing camera;
- has 3G;
- has “Phone” icon, which means it may make calls;
- has 3,5mm headphone jack.
What most interesting, according to Fortune, Samsung Galaxy Tab will use Intrinsity-built Hummingbird S5PC110, which is the same processor as the one used in the iPhone 4G and iPad.
Dell Showed Its 5-inch iPad Competitor
Yesterday Dell officially announced its first 5-inch Android tablet. The announcement was made on the company's official blog.
So the device is now called the Streak. Previously it was shown at Consumer Electronics Show 2010 as a concept and called the Mini 5. The tablet has a 800x480 pixel capacitive multitouch screen, 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, VGA front-facing camera for video chatting, 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash, removable battery, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and MicroSD-card support. The Streak runs a customized version of Android OS with multitouch support and "Dell UI enhancements". The system allows accessing to 40,000 apps in the Android Market, navigation with Google Maps, support for Google Voice and Microsoft Exchange Connectivity.
Blogger from the Round Rock company in Texas Lionel Menchasa thinks the Streak may be very perspective:
"I've been at Dell for 16 years, and I don't think there's ever been more buzz around a single Dell product than this. In my view, that's for good reason. Hardware and design-wise, this thing impresses. Add the ever-increasing capability that Android brings to the equation, and you've got a mobile device that offers a ton of flexibility while looking cool in the process."
The device will be shipped to the UK on June 4 and will be exclusive to the O2 network. Still there is no information on prices, data plans and American partners, but Menсhasa said everything will be soon announced.
In a video above one of the device developers Kevin Andrew tells and shows how useful the Streak may be in the everyday use.
20-years Old Xerox Report Predicts Devices Bigger Than iPad
Almost twenty years ago Scientific American posted an article of Xerox PARC. Its authors were thinking about the future technology and decided the next stage of it will be the ubiquitous computers.
"Ubiquitous computers will also come in different sizes, each suited to a particular task. My colleagues and I have built what we call tabs, pads and boards: inch-scale machines that approximate active Post-It notes, foot-scale ones that behave something like a sheet of paper (or a book or a magazine), and yard-scale displays that are the equivalent of a blackboard or bulletin board.”
They were right - tabs are the iPhones and iPods Touch and pads are iPads. But does it mean that we can expect from Apple something really huge like big-screen hubs? Such devices have already been developed (the best example is Microsoft's Surface table, the other one is Samsung MultiTouch Board shown on the picture), but they are still too expensive because of a flat-screen TV components.