Hasta La Gadget!

Not that we have anything against products that don’t exist, but it would seem to us convenient to have something to show on the other end of a couple design awards. BenQ’s Qisda QPD-111 just won a red dot and iF award, but BenQ doesn’t seem quite ready to show it off to the world. The MID sports a 5-inch screen, and is “designed for highly mobile people pursuing the best Internet experience while on the go.” That fancy little red “Hot Key” sends you to the world wide internet with a single press, and the device can handle multitouch pinch-to-zoom and other gestures for browsing. There’s also a built-in accelerometer, which lets you switch between communication and Internet functions with a little shake of your precious, imaginary MID. There’s obviously no information on price or availability at this point — we’re not even sure what OS it’s running — but it’s certainly a sexy and almost potentially usable entrant into the confounding and primarily useless MID market.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Handhelds

BenQ’s Qisda QPD-111 Creative Design Center MID wins design awards, doesn’t exist yet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ordinarily we’d take one look at Moixa’s Sphere interactive display ball around this time of year and immediately dismiss it as an April Fools joke, but something tells us not even the most dedicated would-be pranksters take the time and expense to patent their little diversions. That said, we’re definitely not so sure this thing will make its planned 2010 ship date, since it’s just a render right now, but if it does, we’ll be first in line — a folding multitouch display with an always-on net connection and gyroscopic interface elements that can also be used folded flat sounds pretty amazing to us. We want to believe.

Read – Sphere site
Read – Sphere patent

[Via Pocket-lint]

Filed under: Handhelds

Moixa Sphere multitouch orb bends minds, credulity originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, yes, pardon the headline — we’re a little fired up about the 5800’s 3G situation at the moment, and at a time like this, nothing soothes the soul quite like some awesome hackery. Self-described “homebrew coder” Jamie Fuller has somehow magically turned the singletouch 5800 into a multitouch device, delivering a proof of concept in the form of a Guitar Hero-style game requiring cat-like thumb reflexes in response to the beat of one of the best songs we’ve ever heard. Considering that neither the hardware nor the software technically support multitouch here, it’s a hell of a feat — and it’s also proof that hope springs eternal for even the most seemingly hopeless limitations of your favorite gadget, no matter what that gadget might be. The developer says that the app will eventually be available for free once it’s further along, and in the meantime, he needs some beta testers and help with graphics — you know, something beyond colored circles — so if the dream of putting two fingers on your 5800’s screen at the same time keeps you awake at night, you might consider pitching in. Follow the break for a video demo.

[Via Symbian Freak, thanks mj]

Continue reading Hobbyist brings multitouch to the Nokia 5800, doesn’t fix 3G reception

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds

Hobbyist brings multitouch to the Nokia 5800, doesn’t fix 3G reception originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just got a look at some amazing touchscreen interaction, running on a humble resistive touchscreen with some OMAP hardware backing it up. Stantum’s technology is a software-based refinement to resistive touchscreens that allows for accuracy beyond the pixel density of the display, a complete lack of touchscreen “jitters” and some fairly incredible input methods. Termed “TouchPark,” the multitouch framework provides gesture recognition, cursor management and physics processing for phone builders to stick on top of the phone OS (Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android are currently supported), and works with hardware such as Texas Instruments Zoom, Freescale i.MX and ST Nomadic. The PMatrix multitouch firmware allows for unlimited inputs, detection of any contacting object (a finger, a stylus or even a paintbrush) and pressure sensitivity. We played with the demo unit for a bit and were frankly blown away, it’s far and away the best touch experience we’ve ever seen or felt, and the multitouch functionality is just gravy on top. Stantum is targeting resistive touchscreens because they’re still considerably cheaper to build than capacitive ones, and from our perspective there seems to be zero tradeoff — for sensitivity and accuracy this destroys everything else we’ve seen on the market, capacitive or not. Sadly, there’s no word on when this will make it into real, shipping handsets, but we’ll certainly be tracking its progress obsessively. Video is after the break.

Continue reading Stantum’s mind-blowing multitouch interface on video!

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Handhelds

Stantum’s mind-blowing multitouch interface on video! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With VIZIO and Pioneer jumping out of the plasma game, we can totally foresee sales of Panasonic’s 103-inch PDP skyrocketing. All kidding aside, a startup arcade would be ludicrous to not shove one of these into the center of the action. What you’re looking at above is a mutltitouch air hockey table, made possible by Panny’s ginormous plasma and a U-Touch overlay from uicentric. The table was on display over in Amsterdam at ISE 2009, and quite frankly, we’re intensely envious of the attendees who were able to blow off some steam by grabbing a game on this. Obligatory video is just past the break.

Continue reading Panasonic’s 103-inch plasma repurposed as multitouch air hockey table

Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets

Panasonic’s 103-inch plasma repurposed as multitouch air hockey table originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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