Hasta La Gadget!

As Australia drops prices, so too must US prices fall. Apple’s stateside store has finally posted the specials for tomorrow’s Black Friday rush, and while there’s nothing monumental, you’re still getting $101 off various Mac computers and $41 off of an iPad — plus lots of accessories and absolutely no iPhone deals. Take a gander if you so desire, and get ready for all the Black Friday fun starting tomorrow.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: All the slightly-less-expensive pricing is now live on Apple’s online store.

Apple’s US Black Friday deals posted, exactly what you expected (update: now live) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just like last year and the year before, Apple’s kicking off its Black Friday sale in the land of Oz first. Australian Mac lovers can now buy the iMac, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air for A$121 less than their usual price, while the iPad and iPod touch dip down by A$51 apiece and the iPod nano is now A$25 cheaper. It’s all for today only, but should also be followed by similar discounts in the US and Europe.

Apple’s Australian Store discounts most things by around 10 percent, foreshadows Black Friday deals originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A touchscreen iMac? Sure, why not. The rumors have been bubbling around for some time now, and let’s face it, they do seem to make some sense. Ever since the release of the first iPhone, Steve Jobs has clearly stood on one side in the great battle between buttons and touchscreens.

So why not bring such functionality to the company’s perennially successful all-in-one desktop? After all, the product exists in a space not likely to cannibalize potential iPad or iPhone sales, even with the addition of such functionality. Those devices are all about portability, and while the iMac has a decidedly smaller footprint than the majority of desktop combos, it’s not really designed to leave your office space.

Various patents filed by the company seem to confirm the rumors, including the spiffy one above that appears to turn the iMac into a giant iPad.

DigiTimes, that Taiwan-based source of seemingly endless Apple rumors, is fueling the fire once again. According to the paper, “Sintek Photronics has reportedly sent samples of projected capacitive touch panels to Apple to be incorporated in the latest iMac.”

Sintek Photronics apparently has that rare ability to create viewable touchpanels for devices with screens over 20 inches. The iMac starts at 21.5 inches.

So, if the rumor is true (which, naturally, is a big “if”), what sort of timeframe are we looking at for a touchscreen iMac? Well, Apple Insider points out that, since the device is are still in the testing phase, it most likely won’t see a release this year.

Makes sense to us, especially since the iMac just got an upgrade in July. Apple bumped the device up to Core i5 and Core i7 processors. An early 2011 release isn’t out of the question, however, particularly given the fact that the iMac doesn’t strict to the annual release schedule of an iPhone or iPod.

Perhaps the touch revolution will extend beyond tablets and smartphones and onto our traditional computers. A new patent application shows how Apple might build an iMac or a MacBook with a touchscreen.

It’s a lot more than simply slapping a multitouch screen onto an iMac. Filed earlier this year, the patent application portrays an iMac-like computer that can transition from being used as a traditional mouse- and keyboard-controlled PC into a touchscreen computer. It’s a convertible desktop tablet, so to speak.

The invention described would switch between input modes detecting the position of the screen with an accelerometer or a rotation hinge inside a flexible stand. One input mode would be a high-resolution interface controlled with a mouse and keyboard, and the other method would be a lower-resolution tablet mode for touch controls.

Moving on to notebooks, the patent application says a notebook-like device could transition into a touch-based UI by folding the display, face up, against the keyboard.

To be clear, convertible tablets are nothing new. We’ve seen a handful of convertible tablet notebooks and “kitchen” PCs equipped with touchscreens. However, I’ve had hands-on time with a bunch of them at the Consumer Electronics Show, and they’ve consistently failed to impress, because they’re just touchscreen devices running Windows — a UI designed for keyboards and mice, not ideal for touch controls. Duly, these convertible computers haven’t been popular sellers.

With Apple’s patent application, it sounds like the transition method would involve switching between two operating systems: the Mac OS for PC input and iOS for tablet usage (though they’re technically one OS since they’re carved out of the same core). That important UI transition might actually make a convertible touchscreen computer make sense.

Indeed, Apple appears to be eyeing touchscreens for Macs. Fan blog Patently Apple recently discovered a collection of 10 patent applications covering display technologies, which also allude to a touchscreen display for notebooks. Also, a few rumors emerged earlier this year that Apple was developing a touchscreen iMac.

From Patently Apple

See Also:

• Rumor: Apple to Launch MacBook Touch?
• Review: Modbook Tablet Is a Designer's BFF
• Macworld 2009: Wozniak Demos MacBook Mod

As far as we can tell, the general logic behind touchscreen iMac rumors goes something like this: “Apple is good at touch UIs, so it should build a touchscreen iMac.” Unfortunately, the reality of a usable, desirable touchscreen desktop computers has yet to materialize (sorry, HP and Microsoft), and so far Apple has steered clear of those dangerous waters. An international patent recently unearthed at the World Intellectual Property Organization, however, shows just how Apple might go about a touch UI on a desktop computer.

Basically, the patent covers the method of transitioning from a traditional “high resolution” UI (best operated by a mouse) to a “low resolution” UI suitable to finger operation (like iOS). A myriad of sensors can be employed to detect the user moving the screen into touch mode, and as the user does this the difficult high res bits like cursors and scrollbars and drop down menus “slide off the screen,” leaving only a touch UI at the end of the transition. It’s all very broad and vague, naturally, being a patent, but it’s an interesting idea, and makes more sense than ruining the good thing desktop UIs have going with a tacked-on touch UI in the style of Microsoft’s Windows. Of course, stuffing two UIs into one device also seems rather un-Apple like, so we’re not going to start expecting an Apple-built touchscreen iMac or MacBook to act exactly like this until Steve gets on stage and starts telling us how we magical and revolutionary it is.

Apple patent unearthed for touchscreen Macs that can flip between mouse and touch UIs with tilt of the screen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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