News tagged ‘touchscreen’

As stated previously, case images for the upcoming iPod nano have leaked on the Internet, and they show that it is going to be a very small square device with a touchscreen.

The cases for the next generation of iPod touch and iPod nano models were manufactured by a Chinese company X-Doria, and the images were obtained from a Chinese website.

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iLounge states that the Chinese website has new cases for iPod touch and iPod Shuffle. We have already seen retina cases for iPod touch with a hole for the camera, but it seems that new cases for iPod Shuffle/Nano show us that they are ideal for 1.8-inch screen devices by Apple.

According to iLounge, 1.8-inch screen will be touchscreen and on its sides or back panel we can find control buttons.

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.

In America, you’d go in, sit at the counter, order your food from a waitress and get it delivered to you a few minutes later. In Japan, though, it is handled with what can seem to be an absurd level of detachment from your server: orders are placed through a touchscreen or ticket machine, where you pay for your food. That ticket is placed, without a word, upon the tray of someone working behind the counter, who later — and just as silently — brings you your food.

It was really interested, then, to see this iPad self-ordering system pop up on Japan Probe. Designed by Sharp Systems Products, it allows Japanese diners to order from a menu on their iPad, completely obviating the need for the aforementioned touchscreen ordering systems or ticketing machines. It’s a more feature rich implementation too: for example, you can pinch to make a picture of your food bigger, or drill down for ingredients.

Apple could be planning to introduce touchscreens to the iMac by way of a hybrid interface, a recently discovered patent application suggests. The company notes that despite the usefulness of a touch slide off-screen interface, a mouse- and keyboard-based one is still better in some circumstances. To switch between the two, Apple proposes a design in which a computer's display would be upright for the mouse interface, but slanted down and back for touch.

To make the transition possible an iMac would need a flexible display stand, and a sensor to determine when to change. For the latter Apple proposes several options, such as an accelerometer, a rotation sensor in the stand, and/or a special touch sensor at the place people would want to grip the display. Past a certain input limit, a computer would automatically switch between interfaces.

Notably, elements of Mac OS X such as the Menu Bar, the Dock and the mouse cursor could be made to slide off-screen during the handover. Apple has not specified what the touch interface would be, but it could be iOS.

After iPad's appearance in late April many Apple's competitors decided to release their own tablets. Almost four months had passed since that moment and now we decided to study the market of iPad's rivals and write down every one that worth attention.

But before we start the list it is important to note that we chose the tablet devices that satisfied next criteria:

1. No physical keyboard;
2. Availability for purchase;
3. The screen must be at least 5''.

Let's go!

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Taking into account the rumors about iPods from Apple, some people all over the world have found out that in UK there are many retailers who decided to slash their prices for the iPod nano and iPod shuffle by nearly 40%! The result of this action is that these media players have been already in various places, speculating that Apple is going to introduce a new version of the iPod nano and iPod shuffle very soon. Some guys are even thinking that the new iPod shuffle will feature a miniature touchscreen. It’s quite interesting till the device price haven’t yet risen to the stars.

Today ChangeWave Research revealed the results of its survey on iPhone 4. 213 new handset owners were questioned in a few weeks after the launch of the latest Apple's smartphone, between July 19 and 28. Here is a list of facts that were revealed:

• In June 6.3% of iPhone 3GS owners experienced dropped calls, in July only 5.2% of those who use iPhone 4 had dropped a call at least once. ChangeWave Research's vice president Paul Carton says that means that iPhone 4 is quiet better at making calls:

"Despite all of the issues surrounding the antenna, in actuality iPhone 4 owners reported experiencing fewer dropped calls on the average than iPhone 3GS owners".


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This Tuesday Adobe revealed its new digital viewer technology for creating e-magazines that can be viewable on touchscreen devices like Apple's iPad.

The technology was first demonstrated when the iPad version of Wired magazine was introduced. We wrote that Adobe had to rewrite the software in Objective-C for Apple to approve it. Since the release iPad Wired edition stays near the top of the App Store sales chart with its price $4,99.

Here's what the vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe David Burkett said about new technology:

"We aim to make our digital viewer software available to all publishers soon and plan to deliver versions that work across multiple hardware platforms. It's safe to say that if you are already working in InDesign CS5, you'll be well on your way to producing a beautiful digital version of your publication."

Judging by the Wired iPad edition, new digital viewer technology can offer integrating videos, 360-degree rotatable images, slide shows and more directly into the magazine.

Famous anchorwoman Ellen DeGeneres had to apologize to Apple after airing a fake iPhone commercial that scoffed at the device's finical touchscreen.

Ellen said Apple just didn't find it funny - and it's a common thing for a company with reputation of being extremely protective of its brand.

"I just want to say that I'm sorry if I made it look like the iPhone is hard to use. It's not hard to use. I have an iPhone. Portia has an iPhone. I just learned how to text on an iPhone. It’s the only phone I can text on. I love it. I love my iPad. I love my iPod. I love iHop. So everybody at Apple - Steve Jobs, Mr. Macintosh. I apologize. I'm sorry. I love this stuff."

Recently Oprah Winfrey declared herself a fan of iPad in the front of millions of TV viewers. She called the device "amazing" and said that its hardware will "change the way kids learn." TV host admires its backlit touchscreen and thinks it has great opportunities for reading, playing games and sharing photos.

Some time ago Oprah has been promoting Amazon Kindle on TV, and once the sales of this device were boosted so strong the company had problems with keeping up with demand. When she has been speaking about iPad she also mentioned Kindle in the past tense, like she "HAD a Kindle". But later her spokesperson said she still uses both devices.

Oprah's Book Club may be viewed in iBookstore for iPad, and its books may be purchased for a standard fee.

Some time ago we posted an article about shocking popularity of the iPad among physicians. Well yesterday PCWorld posted an article about first institution which is looking forward to use this device. It is a Kaweah Delta Health Care District in Visalia, California. Its director of technical services Nick Voloshin says healthcare workers need a device with a long battery life while moving from location to location, and iPad is a great choice not only for usual everyday tasks, but also for looking at EKG results, X-ray images, and for other purposes that can be easily delivered with Citrix virtual desktop. He has already bought three iPads to test it and have plans to deploy more than a hundred for hospice and health care workers, pharmacists, dietitians and nurses in a next two months.

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MOTO Labs conducted a new touchscreen test with a number of the most popular smartphones: Apple iPhone, HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid, Google Nexus One, Palm Pre and Blackberry Storm 2. The results were expected - iPhone has a first place and is followed by Google Nexus One.

The test was made by 7mm and 4mm robotic fingers for accordingly medium and light touch imitation. Moto Labs reports iPhone screen to have straight and accurate lines but with weaknesses at the edges of the panel. Nexus One with Droid Eris has a "solid performance". The results are almost the same because both of the devices are manufactured by HTC. As you remember, Apple filed a lawsuit about infringing their touchscreen-related patents earlier this month.

The results for the other smartphones can be seen on the picture below.

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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.

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.