Until internet speeds were fast enough to make it feasible to share jpegs or GIFs, ASCII art—images created from text—served as a decent substitute. And while they seem antiquated now, the folks at Teehan+Lax Labs have breathed new life into the artform with this wonderful real-time display that uses simple segmented displays like you’ll find in any alarm clock.
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Arguably the most notable characteristic of the iPhone 5s is the TouchID fingerprint sensor, which lets you unlock your phone and authorize app purchases simply by resting a pre-authenticated fingertip on the home button. It turns out, however, that Apple might’ve had plans for the technology that go far beyond just that. According to a patent application filed with the World International Property Organization, the Cupertino company may use TouchID’s sensor technology to transform the Home button into a trackpad, similar to the ones on BlackBerry’s older line of Curve handhelds. Indeed, the patent filing describes how users could navigate the phone by “revolving” or “twisting” their fingerprint on the button’s sensor. Additionally, the sensor could measure the length of time and amount of pressure that is placed on it, which might lead to more interesting use-cases in apps or games.
What’s even more intriguing, however, is that the document goes on to describe how the entire display can be used to read your fingerprints. This sounds like a crazy idea at first, but if implemented, the phone would then know exactly which finger of which hand is on the screen. This could lead to certain actions mapped to specific digits — perhaps a long-press of your index finger could launch Maps, while a pinch of your pinky and thumb could open up Messages, for example. A few diagrams from the patent application show how screen-wide fingerprint recognition could be used for playing a piano or touch-typing on the virtual keyboard. If you’re concerned that this could lead to serious battery drain, the patent even addresses that, stating that the phone would be smart enough to recognize when it’s in moments of fingerprint recognition (i.e. “enhanced sensitivity”) or when it’s normal everyday use, otherwise known as “reduced sensitivity.”
Further, it seems that enhanced sensitivity could just be restricted to small screen areas so that only certain apps — like banking or email perhaps — would be cloaked in that extra layer of protection. Of course, just because such functionality is filed away in a patent application doesn’t mean we’ll see this in real life. However, taken with the promise of Apple’s recent acquisition, we’ll admit we’re very interested to see how the iPhone 6 will turn out. Those interested in patent minutiae can go ahead and peruse the rather lengthy 612-page document in the link below.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
Via: Unwired View
Source: WIPO
Coolpad isn’t exactly a household name here in the States, but the outfit is otherwise known for its budget-minded offerings. Today, it is introducing the Flo, a 4.5-inch smartphone running Android Jelly Bean — the company tells us this is the first Coolpad device with 3G capabilities to hit North America. (Sorry, folks, no LTE.) Aside from that, the Flo also sports an undisclosed dual-core, 1GHz Qualcomm chip, 4GB of onboard storage (expandable up to 32GB) and a decent 1,880mAh battery. Customers using T-Mobile’s GoSmart prepaid service can snag one now for $99, which isn’t too bad if you’d like to save a few bucks during your holiday shopping.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Griping about air travel is about as fresh as in-flight coffee, but there are a ton of ways to tweak the details and make flying genuinely enjoyable. If you could do anything to improve the flying experience, what would it be?
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There have been jokes about creating smell and taste for television for many decades. Well, now that dream is coming true — well, sort of. It isn’t the smell part, and it isn’t the television. Researchers at the University of Singapore have discovered that they can replace four of the five basic tastes by delivering a small dose of electricity to the tongue. So they can match flavors to what you see on your computer screen — and no, you don’t have to lick your computer screen to get the job done either.
Xbox Live’s “Major Nelson” (Larry Hryb) has posted two handy cheat sheets for the Xbox One‘s Kinect voice and gesture controls. The cheat sheets detail some of the more fundamental voice and gesture commands you can use at any one time, depending on the context of the task at hand. The resolution is a bit […]
They’re not designed for those with emphatic penmanship, but Porsche Design’s lovely new Shake Pens will definitely appeal to those who like a perfect balance of form and function. Sure, the two designs might be a little on the chunky side, but that’s easy to forgive, since they house a mechanism that allows their ballpoint tips to retract and extend with a simple shake of the wrist.
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Possibly the worst part about being a traveling musician is lugging all of your equipment around. So long as you’re not playing to a stadium, you really don’t need an entire sound system. However, you do want to be loud enough for others to hear you. If you don’t have the money for an amp, then you’re going to want to find an alternative that will allow your song to carry through the streets.
The Yaba X is a vibration speaker that also can act as a guitar amp. It is one portable package that you can place on all matter of objects, and the richness and strength of the sound will change depending on what the item is made of. This will play nicely with pretty much anything that has a 3.5mm jack. This means your smartphone, tablet, or even laptop can be used. It has 3 bicolor LED lights that will indicate what the device is up to, and you only need to hit the button to power it up.
Paying $90 will get you the Yaba X, three feet of audio cable, 1/4” to 3.5mm adapter, a 3-foot USB charging cable, a carrying case, and of course, a manual. It will last for about eight hours on one charge, and is small enough to be tossed in your bag. As a bass player, this would be great for practicing as it’s always a bit rough to hear the notes aside from differentiating one rumble from another as a pitch.
Available for purchase on ThinkGeek
[ The Yaba X is a portable surface vibration speaker that will amplify on anything copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
If you felt like the Apple Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 5s wasn’t enough, that you’d like so much security in your Apple products that it’s easier to get locked out than get in, you’re in luck. There’s a set of patent applications out there this week that show how Apple’s Touch ID system […]
Performance-minded PC users frequently want both a fast solid-state drive for crucial apps and a regular hard disk for everything else, but that’s not always feasible in the tight space of a laptop. Western Digital is making that two-drive option a practical reality through its new Black2. The design puts both a 120GB SSD and a 1TB spinning disk into a single 2.5-inch SATA enclosure, offering more speed and capacity than you’d find in a typical hybrid drive. It’s potentially an ideal blend for gamers and small form factor PC builders, although they’ll pay for the privilege — WD is shipping the Black2 today for $300, or roughly as much as the two drives by themselves.
[Thanks, Metayoshi]
Source: Western Digital
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