Microsoft’s anti-ghosting claims were recently put to the test by the good folks over at Tom’s Guide, and if you’ve been holding off on pulling the trigger to make sure it really lives up to the hype, you can finally cut loose and part ways with your hard-earned Greenbacks — maybe, anyway. For those unaware, Microsoft designed the SideWinder X4 to handle up to 26 key presses at once (it’s a “pro gamer” thing, we’re told), but it also allows for macro recording and profile / mode switching. According to the critics, the X4 is a step backwards in terms of design, particularly when compared to the flagship SideWinder X6 (which can be had for around $40 right now). Essentially, they could only really recommend it for those that actually do have ghosting issues when gaming, though they confess that said crowd is a relatively tiny one. But hey, don’t take our word for it — hit the source link and discover the truth for yourself.

Microsoft’s SideWinder X4 reviewed: a decent choice for the budget gamer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The US Patent & Trademark Office just published Apple’s latest trademark application for “Magic Trackpad“—and, looking at a bit of history, we think it could be one of two new products.

Possibility #1

Back in July 2009, Apple was granted a patent on their multi-touch Trackpad. However, many elements of the patent were left out, including advanced infrared imaging and optical emitters which could, in essence, make your Trackpad know when you were trying to type or trying to gesture (while opening the door for all sorts of other gesture tracking possibilities across much of your laptop’s work surface).

So the Magic Trackpad could be the next Trackpad for MacBooks.

Possibility #2

But the other, more enticing rumor, was one sourced from John Gruber back in October—that Apple could be introducing a “Wildcard I’m-Not-Sure-I-Really-Believe-It-Myself Out-There Rumor…Some Sort of Mentioned-Nowhere-Else-But-in-This-Very-Headline Multi-Touch Trackpad Gadget for Desktop Macs.”

Not so long ago, another Apple trademark was uncovered called the “Magic Slate”—many believe it to be the Gruber-described device. After HP and Dell both started coining the term “slate” around CES, I wonder if “slate” fell out of vogue, meaning the “Magic Slate” became the “Magic Trackpad.”

Taking a look at the actual Trackpad trademark filing, we must admit, the longshot standalone desktop trackpad feels like a decent fit:

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.

One thing’s for certain, if a device could actually cover every one of those categories in full, it most certainly would be something magical. [Patently Apple via Macrumors]

Palm CEO John Rubenstein sent out a note to his staff yesterday,
following the release of the company’s disappointing earnings report. The note,
while maintaining the obligatory positive outlook, acknowledged that “the news is
difficult to swallow.”

According to Rubenstein’s letter, the company recently met
with Verizon Wireless in an attempt to “accelerate sales.” One possibility is
the recently launched Project JumpStart, which is employing Palm “Brand
Ambassadors” and Palm employees to train Verizon sales reps on Palm products. The
move has reportedly helped to increase sales of Palm products on the network.
Palm has also increased billboard, bus, and subway ads.

“Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve,”
wrote Rubenstein, “but I am still confident that our talented team has what it
takes to get the job done.”

Sick of the iron fist of censorship Apple wields over its App Store? Feel it’s unfair that there’s no way to get applications onto a non-hacked iPhone without submitting them to Apple fickle fiefdom? We have good news, in the shape of web-apps. What?

Ibis reader is an e-book reading application that does everything that you’d expect an iPhone e-reader to do, with one big difference: It doesn’t come from the App Store. The app runs on any iPhone or iPod Touch and offers full offline access to your library of books, and is as fast and responsive as a native iPhone application. It manages this through the magic of HTML5, which is supported by Mobile Safari and – crucially – offers offline storage for web-sites.

To install Ibis you navigate to the page in Safari. You will be asked if you will grant the site 50MB of storage space. After agreeing, you hit the “+” button and add the app to the home-screen. Now, when you hit that button, you are launched directly into Ibis, not just a tab in Safari, and because it stores both itself and your downloaded books locally, it’ll even work with an iPod Touch out of Wi-Fi range.

The controls are similar to Stanza or Kindle for iPhone: tap either side of the screen to flip pages and touch the center to access more settings. You can browse for public domain books from Feedbooks from within the app, and even add books from the URL of your choice. Anything downloaded is stored for you in a local library, and if you opt to sign up for an Ibis account, you can read, fully synced, across multiple platforms.

Like Stanza and Apple’s upcoming iPad app, iBooks, Ibis uses the ePub standard format, and you can even upload these files to your account from your desktop web browser, from where they will automatically appear on your mobile device. And because Android uses Webkit for its browser, it too can install and use the app offline.

I have been playing around with Ibis for a little while and it really does behave like a local application, although sometimes it is not quite as fast when flipping between different sections. In fact, there’s only one thing that really gives it away: scrolling is a lot slower. Whereas in a native app you can “throw” a page and it speedily scrolls up or down, the “elastic” holding the pages of web apps is a lot stronger. It’s not just Ibis. This is a problem with all non-native applications on the iPhone.

As a full-featured e-reader, Ibis is surprisingly good. As a proof-of-concept for non-approved, non-App Store applications, it is straight-up amazing.

Ibis Reader [Ibis]

What are you, Crave readers, using to connect to the Interwubs these days. Cable? Fiber? Laser beams from tethered balloons? Vote in our poll.