Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s oft-leaked multi-touch trackpad is now on sale. The Magic Trackpad is a multi-touch tablet-style pad which is either a bigger version of the trackpad on the MacBook, or a smaller version of the iPad’s screen.

Like every other Apple touch-device, it is made from glass, and the panel is set into an aluminum base. The batteries that power it (the unit is Bluetooth) sit in a tube at the back, and it looks like nothing more than Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard, chopped in half and with the keys removed.

The pad works with swipe and pinch gestures, and even has the “momentum-scrolling” familiar to iOS users as well as owners of the latest MacBooks. It’s not going to replace your Wacom Tablet, as there is no pressure detection, but it will replace a mouse on a desktop Mac. The price? $70, and available now.

Magic Trackpad [Apple]

See Also:

• Apple Files for 'Magic Trackpad' Trademark
• Rumor: Apple Multi-Touch Tablet Photos Leaked
• MacBook Pros Get the Multitouch Magic; But Where's the Redesigned …

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

If you’re using both hands to play a musical instrument, the last thing you want to worry about is turning the pages of sheet-music as you play. The traditional solution was to make somebody do it for you, or to quickly reach up and do it yourself.

Tech has helped. These days a laptop with a USB foot-pedal is the way to go, but there have been all manner of spring-loaded and hydraulic contraptions invented to turn actual paper pages. These were, as you might expect, less than reliable.

Airturn, maker of sheet-music-reading software and hardware, has come up with a solution for the iPad. Apple’s tablet would seem to be the perfect device for reading music: it’s big enough to replace a piece of paper, whilst still slim and light enough to put on a music stand. Combined with Airturn’s new Bluetooth foot-switch, it makes a reliable, wire-free and practical solution.

The BT-105, as it is called, has a pair of switches, one to page forward, and one to page back. The switch doesn’t just work with the company’s own software, either. The video demo shows it controlling a third-party app with a zoom feature. In this case, the switch can tell the app to flip half a page at a time or, more accurately, to show the second half of the page before it flips to the next one.

The switch is in development right now, but should be available in the last quarter of this year.

iPad Bluetooth page turner footswitch prototype [Airturn. Thanks, Hugh!]

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

It’s the convenience of a Bluetooth headset without something electronic sticking out of your ear. It’s a way of freeing yourself from your cell phone and any possible radiation damage. It’s as fashion-forward as a “Dick Tracy” cartoon. It’s the Bluetooth Wristband Speakerphone, and it’s arrived. Wear it at home, in the garden, or anyplace else where people can’t see you.

The wristband offers audio caller ID, voice activated commands for placing calls and answering the phone, and both vibration and sound alerts. It lets you roam up to 30 feet from your cell phone and even beeps when you go out of range. On one charge, it’s good for up to 4 hours of talk time or 160 hours of standby. You can even use it to stream music. If you’re sold, head over to Atomic9’s Web site where you can get it for $99.99 in black or white.

If you carry your sheet music in a laptop, AirTurn’s got a USB dongle for that, but if you’ve migrated your musical cues to an certain slate, never fear, Bluetooth is on the way. The AirTurn BT-105 will bring the company’s page turning technology to iPad, using a transmitter that attaches to standard professional footswitches, allowing you to turn full pages and half pages of sheet music while keeping hands firmly affixed to your instrument. Though there’s no word on price, we imagine it’ll cost close to the existing 2.4GHz version, which runs from $40 for a dongle to $100 for a package with two Boss pedals, and when it surfaces in Q4 of this year, we’re hoping it will extend bicycling input to all the other wild and crazy apps you dream up. PR and video after the break.

Continue reading AirTurn’s BT-105 footpedal is a real page turner (video)

AirTurn’s BT-105 footpedal is a real page turner (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Engadget en Espanol  |  AirTurn  | Email this | Comments

Outside of Samsung’s Wave, we’re having a hard time thinking of a meaningful device that has shipped with Bluetooth 3.0 onboard. Kind of crazy when you think about it, being that the protocol offered some pretty promising stuff when it went official in April of 2009. Fast forward to today, and it looks as if the Bluetooth SIG is storming forward regardless, as the Bluetooth 4.0 core specification has now been adopted with “low energy technology” as the standout feature. This step means that companies can begin to work towards integration of BT 4.0 in actual end-user products, and if the SIG has its way, the tech will begin to show up in minuscule devices that haven’t been able to take advantage of Bluetooth thus far. In fact, they want this stuff in applications “not even possible or imagined today.” Looks like someone better get those imagination gears turning, ’cause Q4 2010 certainly isn’t an eternity from now.

Continue reading Bluetooth 4.0 specification gets official, devices expected by Q4 2010

Bluetooth 4.0 specification gets official, devices expected by Q4 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Scoop, Unwired View  |   | Email this | Comments