Hasta La Gadget!

Last time we heard about ExB’s PTPT (pronounced “petite petite”), the software startup was just beginning to show off the basics of its touchscreen interface; since then, the small German company has been polishing up the UI and prepping it for Android phones and tablets. According to the CEO Ramin Assadollah, the company is in talks with a “major hardware manufacturer” that’s planning on skinning its Android products with the incredibly unique software. We got to see PTPT running on an Android 1.6-powered Acer Liquid while at the Netbook Summit, and though it took us a few minutes to understand how the interface worked, it’s definitely interesting and responsive. The input starts with three circular icons representing people, places, and things and then a bar that represents time.

You can simply select an individual person — you can import contacts from a variety of sources, including, Twitter, Facebook, and so on — from the halo that appears, and then drag them up to a specific time to get various updates or e-mails from that person. The custom predictive text keyboard in the e-mail interface was very snappy — it’s also just nice to see a change from the stock Android input. Then, you can drag that person to things to see pictures of them. And just like in the original demo, you can then move the pictures icon to a point on the timeline to see pictures from that time. Though the phone and tablet demos we saw didn’t have widgets on the homescreen, we were assured that they can be added. We promise this is all better explained in the demo video below, so mosey on down after the jump. We’ll be here, wondering what Android devices this software may pop-up on.

Continue reading PTPT shows off wild Android UI skin, we go hands-on

PTPT shows off wild Android UI skin, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new application called Air Display will let you use your iPad as an external display for your Mac. Coupled with a 13-inch MacBook, this adds around half the screen again to your work area. The connection is made over Wi-Fi, and you need a small helper application on your Mac. How well does it work? I tested it out.

The app costs $10, which is either expensive (it does just one thing) or incredibly cheap ($10 for a monitor). Once downloaded, you follow the on-screen instructions for installing the helper app on the Mac, a simple and standard process. One reboot later and you’re ready.

To use it, you just launch Air Display on the iPad and then choose it in a drop down list that is now in your Mac’s menubar. It shows up as a normal external monitor in the Display’s section of the Mac’s system preferences, and you can drag it around in the “arrangement” tab just like you could with a real monitor. Here’s my setup (the iPad is the little one at the bottom):

Because this works over the air (both machines need to be on the same Wi-Fi network), there is some lag. Watching videos on the iPad screen is choppy, and if you drag a window across it then there is a delay and the image pixellates somewhat. Once it is settled, though, after a second or so, the image is as clear as you’d expect. Better, in fact, as the iPad has a pretty high-resolution screen.

The touch screen works, although you can mouse into the space as well. Touching is a little freaky, as multi-touch gestures don’t work. If you quit the app to do something else, the Mac resets back to a single screen, but if you get push-notifications they pop up on the iPad as normal, and you can tap to dismiss as normal. It’s pretty neat.

You wouldn’t want to use this for anything motion-intensive, but as a place to keep your Twitter and IM clients, or even as an extra screen for something like Photoshop Lightroom, it is ideal. Plus, if you have you Mac laptop with you, you probably have the iPad too, and you don’t even have to pack a cable. Available now, Windows version coming soon.

Air Display [iTunes]

Introducing Air Display [Avatron]

Unfortunately, we don’t know much about this new Marvell powered tablet, but we couldn’t resist sharing our impressions of the very svelte 10-inch device. We only got a few minutes to play around with the slate at the Netbook Summit, but we can tell you that it has a brushed metal back and there’s an opening on the front for a camera. As for the internals, it’s based on Marvell’s Moby reference design, which uses its Snapdragon-class Armada 610 processor, and will run Android 2.1 Eclair. The rest will be up to whatever Marvell customer is bringing this bad boy to market — the Marvell executive that let us catch a glance at the device wouldn’t turn it on as he feared we may see the mystery customer’s logo. We told you we didn’t know much, but from what we saw today it sure looks promising. Now, if only we felt Android was ready Google would give us a tablet-ready version of Android…

Marvell shows off 10-inch Android tablet at Netbook Summit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During this morning’s press conference on the new Core i3, i5 and i7 ULV processors, Intel PC Client Group Vice President Mooly Eden revealed that Chipzilla will launch that special “tablet solution” we had heard about at Computex next week. No details were given on this “dedicated silicon for the tablet space,” but we can assume that it’s going to fall into the Atom line up. Whether it will be an extension of the Moorestown family or just be an outgrowth of the Pineview platform found in netbooks and nettops remains to be seen, but you can bet on us listening up for more info when we’re live from Taipei next week. Hit the link below if you want to hear this guy spill the beans.

Intel to announce dedicated tablet silicon at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 11:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad will be arriving at homes across the globe this Friday as Apple begins its international roll-out. Much has been made of AT&T’s excellent contract-free data plans in the United States, but is the rest of the world going to be so lucky? No. In some cases, you may be better off ignoring the iPad plans altogether and (literally) hacking together your own solution.

AT&T offers cheap chunks of data (250 MB for $15), or a truly unlimited plan for just $30 a month. By contrast, many carriers in other countries are up to the usual telco tricks and offering contract-only plans, or “unlimited” data plans which slow bandwidth to a trickle after just a couple of gigabytes. I got a 64-GB iPad 3G shipped in by esteemed Wired New York Bureau Chief John C Abell, and it arrived last week. Official iPad plans have been detailed here in Spain, but as they are crazy-expensive and also not yet available, I rolled my own.

To do this, you’ll need to acquire a micro SIM that will fit in your iPad, or you can cut a regular mini SIM down to size. There are already several products on sale to help you do this, such as the SIMCut pictured right. This 5-pound kit consists of a pair of foil stickers that adhere to your existing SIM and have a clear window showing you exactly where to cut. Yes, cut! Most of the size difference is made up of plastic which is safe to trim away. The most important part is making sure you cut it so that the metal contacts line up with those inside the iPad.

You don’t need to get fancy. I just lined up the AT&T micro SiIM that came in my iPad with the contacts on a pre-pay Vodafone card, marked the lines with a sharp knife and then took to it with scissors. Thus trimmed, I slid it into the iPad in its little aluminum tray and it was recognized immediately. Next up, making it work:

In the United States, to sign up for data you just follow along inside the settings app, adding credit card details and picking your plan. Maybe, with the official international partners, this will happen elsewhere. For early-adopters and those who choose a different carrier, you’ll need to get a bit more nerdy. Don’t worry, though. It’s easy.

All you need once your card has been activated (the salesperson should do this in-store) is to open up the Cellular Data section in settings and add the APN, the password and the username. These are all standard on a per-country and carrier basis: You don’t have your own password. For example, Vodafone Spain uses these settings:

APN: airtelnet.es

Username: vodafone

Password: vodafone

Using those settings will get anything on the network, from an iPad to a MiFi (I have tried both). Why are the settings in the screenshot different? ITunes did it. A few days ago I was prompted to update my carrier settings while syncing with iTunes. Warily, I accepted and after a restart, the new settings were in place, my internet seemed faster and VodafoneES displayed properly in the menubar (previously it just said “voda…”).

It seems that Apple is rolling out settings ahead of the launch that that may perhaps be automatic. You’ll find an amazing resource that lists pretty much every carrier in the world, along with settings, on Ross Barkman’s GPRS Info Page.

And that’s it. It really was easy. Will I be switching to a proper iPad plan when my pre-paid moth runs out? I doubt it. I have to pay 50 pounds a month for this current data plan that gives me “unlimited” access without a contract. The iPad plan gives less data before you get slowed down and requires a contract. A contract without any subsidy on the hardware. No thanks.

SIMCut sticker kit [SIMCut]

Ross Barkman’s GPRS Info Page [Taniwha]

See Also:

• Use iPad MicroSIM and Data-Plan in Your iPhone
• SIM-Trim: Cutting Card Down to MicroSIM Size
• International iPad Prices and Tariffs Revealed
• Vodafone Offers SIM-Only Price-Plans