Out to give the rumored MySpace MP3 player a run for its money, Elton John has launched his own iPod nano lineup, raising money for a charity close to his hearts and our own — the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Taking his cue from the classy ‘n’ sassy Swarovski crowd, the players are bedazzled in the aforementioned crystals, and are available in black, green, orange, pink, purple, red, silver, or yellow. Available at Goldgenie and Selfridges, the 8GB version is going for £399.99 ($566) while the 16GB model will set you back a cool £449.99 ($638). Be sure to jump on this soon, as each color is only offered in a limited edition of 100. And if that weren’t enough, Goldgenie is throwing in “Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits CD” with every order. More pics after the break.
I installed Windows 7 Beta on an HP TouchSmart PC over the weekend, getting cozy with the new touch and multitouch features, then loaded up a sweet two-handed Air Hockey demo. Have a look:
The basic touch and multitouch actions found native to Windows 7 are nothing to oooh and ahhh over, but there are a lot of little intuitive moves and conveniences that work well, even in the beta stage. More importantly, developers in and out of Microsoft are now getting all touchy, and we plan to track that pretty closely. But first, here’s the starter menu of touch and multitouch maneuvers:
Tap: The quick screen touch doesn’t reveal an arrow cursor, but the screen ripples outward, like water, plus there’s a tiny crosshair where you are actually tapping. The TouchSmart makes a beep (and when you tap with a second finger at the same time, that touch emits a higher-pitch beep).
Tap and hold: The “right-click” behavior is very well constructed: You tap and hold, and a circle swirls around your finger. Let go to reveal the right-click menu.
Flick: When you enable flicks, you can swim through longer pages and menus a lot faster, both vertically and horizontally. When you reach the end of the menu or screen, the window recoils a bit, indicating the termination.
Type: There’s a surprisingly MacBooky on-screen keyboard lurking just off frame in Windows 7. You tap the screen’s edge for it to stick out just a bit; tap it again and out it slides to center screen, sizable to your fat-fingered liking.
Zoom: In spite of new concerns over multitouch patents, this zoom behavior is pretty much identical to the one seen in Apple products (and on Microsoft’s Surface as well). You put two fingers on the screen and move them together to zoom out, and separate them to zoom in. I will note that this was easier to do with two hands—one-handed pinching was probably too micro for the TouchSmart screen.
Rotate: Same as zoom, this is straight out of the basic multitouch playbook. Just move two fingers in a circular fashion, and the photo rotates. And again, it was easier to use two hands than one. (I found that amazing bee shot in the video on Flickr—it’s by a user called aussiegall who has some beautiful nature close-ups.)
Draw: Two-fingered drawing is a multitouch phenomenon I don’t fully understand, but that’s probably because I’m not much of an artist. It’s cool to show off—and at this point, it’s the epitome of the finger Paint interface, because three or more fingers is still apparently taboo—but it seems to be a function awaiting a purpose.
The Windows 7 Media Center touch interface is really cool, especially if you’re using MC in a cramped dorm or kitchen, where the “10 foot” remote-control experience just ain’t happening. I ran the following video back in November, showing pretty much the same experience I can now pull up on the TouchSmart I have here, only they had more content, so it looks cooler:
A multitouch interface designer called IdentityMine created, among other things, a simple two-person multitouch Air Hockey demo to run at PDC 2008. Since it’s still available for download, I grabbed it and challenged my wife to a duel. We’re both out of shape, hockey-wise, but man was it a bloodbath:
In case you were wondering, I installed Windows 7 Beta in two ways on the TouchSmart PC, both which had different advantages. First, I upgraded from Vista, keeping all the drivers, etc. intact. Though I was able to get going quickly, the experience was hampered by touch software that HP ran on top of Vista. To get at the control that come native in Windows 7—which I highlight above—I had to partition the drive and do a clean install. Though I had to gather up some drivers and install them manually with some trickery, I got the more honest Windows 7 touch and multitouch experience.
I am happy that HP is pushing its TouchSmart platform to consumers with such enthusiasm, and I’m happy that Microsoft decided to weave touch into the fabric of its OS. One day we may even take it for granted, like keyboards and mice now. The real question is, what will developers do? I’m going to spend the next few days investigating more touch and multitouch applications and interfaces, because while Microsoft and HP should be praised for supplying the capabilities, the goodness will come in what developers do with them.
We’ve seen plenty of semi-portable mashups from modder extraordinaire Bacteria, and now he’s back with another luggable system that turns a PSone into a fully integrated handheld. The system is naturally made from a PSone console itself as well as a travel screen, a third-party controller, custom case, and, most importantly, a lot of skill and patience — roughly 100 hours worth. You cay buy the tangible bits in a kit on eBay for £49.99 (about $70 US), then follow Bacteria’s stupendously comprehensive instructions to build your own. Or, you can just watch the video below and live vicariously.
This article was written on August 19, 2008 by CyberNet.
Mygazines is a site that could turn out to be too good to be true. It allows users to share magazine articles by uploading them to the site. This then allows for anyone to view those magazine articles free of charge. It is very easy, and possible, to read an entire magazine right on the site. The folks running Mygazines say that they, “take great pride in providing a platform for people and businesses to share articles and magazines in an interactive and fun format.”
If you thought for a moment that this doesn’t sound like it’s particularly legal, that’s because it’s not. They are encouraging their users to infringe on copyrights. There are all kinds of issues involved here and magazine companies like Time Warner, who publish Time Magazine, are looking into having the site shut down.
When you visit Mygazines.com, you can can view a drop-down list of all of the different topics that they cover. Essentially any popular magazine is available, plus some not-so-popular ones as well. Remember, it’s the users that provide the content so they may not have every article from every issue available on the site.
Despite the legal issues that surround the site, it may be hard for anyone to shut them down. CNET points out that the site is registered in Anguilla, down in the Caribbean, and that it is hosted in Sweden by PRQ. PRQ happens to be owned by the same crew that runs The Pirate Bay . Given this, we imagine Mygazines could potentially be around for a while.
We don’t know anybody who seriously relies on biometrics — except, of course, those of you who rushed out late last year to pick up your very own BioMirage Coffer — but if this is your bag, take note: Sony has just announced Mofiria, their new high speed, compact biometric solution for mobile devices. Similar to Fujitsu’s PalmSecure, the technology uses near infrared LEDs and a CMOS sensor to capture a snapshot of your veins. Apparently, vein patterns vary from person to person and from finger to finger, and don’t change throughout a person’s life — making them perfect for use in authentication. Of course, passwords should also vary from person to person, and computer to computer, but Sony won’t ever be able to charge extra for a secure password. And that’s really what all this is about, isn’t it? No word on a price yet, but this bad boy should roll out sometime in 2009. PR after the break.
Move over, $200 netbooks. According to a recent report by The Times Online, India’s government is currently in the process of developing a 500 rupee ($10) laptop.
Set to make its public debut this week, the computer was designed to bridge the massive “digital divide” between the country’s classes. The notebook follows the development of a $2,000 car and a $10 phone.
The development of the super-cheap notebook is being regarded as a response to OLPC’s $200 XO Laptop. According to developers, the current machine actually costs closer to $20, but the price would be halved if the computer were mass-produced.
We’re not quite sure what’s up with Garmin, a company known almost exclusively for its navigation technology, releasing watches that lack GPS, but it seems to be a trend on alternate years. Back in 2007 there was the receiver-less Forerunner 50, then the happily GPS-enabled Forerunner 405 made made an appearance last year, and now we have the FR60, new but again bereft of any ability to tell you where you are. It sounds much the same as the older 50, including wireless connectivity with ANT+ devices to monitor heart rate, running pace, cycling cadence, and cycling speed, as well as the ability to sync automatically and wirelessly with a PC or Mac. New is the slim and (debatably) fashionable package — that’s the men’s above, women’s model in lovely lilac shown below. No word on availability or price, but we certainly hope the company won’t charge a premium for a styling tweak and a shorter name.
Update: Looks like they’re up for pre-order at $129, shipping next quarter.
My phone’s camera is, I believe, 1.2 megapixels. Heck, even my camera caps out at 7.1. At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, however, Samsung is apparently getting ready to break the camera phone megapixel glass ceiling with the with a 12MP handset.
The report comes from various Korean publications–other details on the handset are fairly vague–though you can probably put money on the fact that we won’t be seeing this thing any time soon. The phone is set for mass production by the end of the month, with distribution beginning in Europe.
Samsung was also the first company to release an 8MP phone.
We thought that Virgin might allow its most loyal patrons to exchange frequent flyer points for trips to space, and now it looks like they hope to jump-start the process with a seriously stacked contest. In Australia, the company is now counting ‘Velocity Points’ as entry to a drawing where you could win 25 million frequent flyer miles — or exactly the amount you need to get yourself a space flight for two. Oh, and if you have no interest in ever looking like that chap pictured above, Virgin will also let you exchange them for a pair of Alfa Romeo vehicles, the chance to explore the planet “how you see fit” or a $170,000 shopping spree.
Update: We got this story a little turned around initially, as you can see — this is for a contest to win 25 million points, not an offer open to anyone who has 25 million points (though it’s assumed if you’ve got those kinds of numbers, you can head to space too).
Crackulous is a new application for jailbroken iPhones (iPhones which have been hacked to run non-App Store software), and it has a fairly nefarious purpose — to strip the copy protection from bought applications and render them free to distribute. In short, it’s a piracy tool.
If you have a jailbroken iPhone, you’ll know how to install it. Just go to the Cydia application and find it in the directory. Launch Crackulous and there will be a list of the applications on your iPhone. Choose, click and wait. The stripped version is placed in a separate folder on the iPhone ready to be distributed.
We’re pretty much against this. Although Apple’s FairPlay DRM was pretty onerous when applied to music, it seems a fair way to protect developers of applications — after all, while purchased music should be playable on any device you want, these apps only work on your iPhone and iPod Touch. All of them. Once bought you have no limit on how many of your own iGadgets you can put it on.
And before you think this is all an innocent experiment, wait until these cracked apps start showing up on BitTorrent and can be simply dropped into iTunes for installation on any iPhone. Apple legal team, start your engines!
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