Hasta La Gadget!

If you ordered the HTC Flyer because you’re keen on scribbling notes and doodling over screenshots, well, today’s your lucky day — the stylus is now on sale by itself for a cool $80. That’s fairly outrageous, given that you can buy the HP Slate 500’s for well under that tally, and the Fujitsu LifeBook T580’s for roughly $22… that is, if you lose the one included in the box. Plus, although these battery-powered pens won’t complement your Flyer’s aluminum chassis, they should still work with it, as all of these tablets use N-Trig’s DuoSense pen / capacitive touch technology. And particularly with a dearth in apps that can take advantage of pen input, you’d better be the next J.K. Rowling if you’re looking to get your money’s worth.

Update: We’ve gotten some incredulous comments and emails from folks who can’t believe the Flyer doesn’t come with a stylus. Well, just to settle that debate once and for all, we reached out to HTC’s PR team who confirmed that the stylus is, indeed, sold separately. Sorry to be the bearer repeater of bad news!

Update 2: HTC adds that the Flyer will only come without a pen if you get it at Best Buy.

HTC Flyer stylus on sale at Best Buy for $80, because matching gadgets should cost more (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, would you look at that. Earlier this year there were rumors about Apple ditching the physical home button on upcoming iOS devices, and now we have what appears to be a new iPod touch prototype matching such description, courtesy of CrunchGear via Mr. Blurrycam. According to its About screen, this “DVT-1” (a late milestone) device packs 128GB of memory — twice as much as the largest available capacity option right now (remember that 64GB iPhone 4 prototype in Hong Kong?) — as well as a model number “MC550LL” which isn’t far off from those of the fourth-gen iPod touches (“MC54xLL”), though this similarity doesn’t help prove its authenticity nor indicate whether it’ll make it to the market. Still, if Apple does go ahead with this grubby device or at least its capacitive home button, we might see new touch or gesture controls for the bezel area below the screen à la webOS, as suggested by an earlier patent. But hey, let’s not take this too seriously for now — all this could turn out to be just a much belated April Fools’ prank, right?

iPod touch prototype with capacitive home button leaked? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this week’s Microsoft promotional bonanza, otherwise known as TechFest 2011, a team of researchers debuted a rather shabby looking capacitive stylus that switches between functions based on your grip — an interesting addition to a rather stagnant market, sure, but there are still a few kinks to be worked out. The multi-purpose tool enlists capacitive multi-touch and orientation sensors to respond to how you hold the thing, allowing you to perform a number of different tasks with a simple repositioning. A demo video of the stylus at work shows a disembodied hand switching between a pen, an airbrush, a compass, and even a virtual flute with ease, but while the project stresses the “naturalness” of the experience, we’re pretty sure nobody sketches quite like that. Check out the video after the break to see what we mean.

Continue reading Microsoft researchers show off intuitive stylus, don’t know how to hold a pencil (video)

Microsoft researchers show off intuitive stylus, don’t know how to hold a pencil (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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French sensor manufacturer Fogale Nanotech — historically more of an industrial supplier than a consumer-facing one — was demonstrating its non-contact capacitive sensors at CeBIT this week and how they might be used for the most consumer-facing application of them all: smartphone interfaces. Fogale had two stations set up, PCs running Windows Phone 7 emulators with the sensors attached out front (oriented like you might place a trackpad on a desk). Though they didn’t have any actual phone prototypes on hand with the technology integrated, it’s clear that they’re trying to drum up support with a manufacturer partner or two; in the meantime, you can get a sense of what’s going on by waving your hand over the phone-shaped sensors at the stations. We found that as long as you’re within about half inch of the pad, the on-screen cursor flys by in perfect harmony with your finger. Of course, there are plenty of unanswered questions here: deciding on the best user experience for actuating taps is key… but perhaps more importantly, we’re not certain that you need your hand waving slightly above your phone while using it anyway. Don’t get us wrong, it’s super cool — but are you really that worked up over smudges? Follow the break for a quick video of Fogale’s recorded demos plus some time at the live kiosk.

Continue reading Fogale Nanotech takes the ‘touch’ out of ‘touchscreen smartphone’ at CeBIT

Fogale Nanotech takes the ‘touch’ out of ‘touchscreen smartphone’ at CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were quite bedazzled by the HTC Incredible S after our hands-on at MWC, but it’s the auto-rotating icons for the capacitive buttons that left us most intrigued. So we went back to the HTC booth to try to make sense of it all. From what we were able to observe, there’s some optical trickery happening here: the icons appear to be glittering and shimmering depending on viewing angle as if lit through a prism, half-mirror or grate of some kind. We think that a pair of LEDs are used to project the intended icon onto the glass surface via either a combination of prisms and half-mirrors, or via horizontally and vertically polarized grates. Watch our video after the break, and let us know in the comments how you think this actually works.

Continue reading HTC Incredible S auto-rotating buttons explained? (video)

HTC Incredible S auto-rotating buttons explained? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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