Hasta La Gadget!

Atmel may still be hedging its bets by offering some resistive touchscreen devices of its own, but it looks like it isn’t making any secrets about its belief that capacitive touch is where the real action is, as fully evidenced by the firm’s wonderfully dramatic video announcing its new maXTouch technology. In addition to kick-starting “a whole new era” (period), the new platform promises to support the development of capacitive touchscreens larger 10 inches, complete with full support for zooming, rotating, handwriting, shape recognition and other advanced functionality. What’s more, the first device in the line (the mXT224) promises to blow a few minds by supporting not just finger touch, but input from a stylus, fingernails, or even gloves. The entire line of devices also fully support unlimited, simultaneous touches, and supposedly boast a refresh rate and signal-to-noise ratio that’s 66% better than its nearest competitor. Of course, there’s no indication as to when we can expect to see the first products using the new touchscreens just yet, but the mXT224 model is available right now for any companies interested, and Atmel says additional models will be rolling out in the fourth quarter of this year and throughout 2010.

Read – Atmel maXTouch press release
Read– maXTouch video and product site

Filed under: Displays

Atmel maXTouch technology promises bigger, better capacitive touchscreens originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Need to catch up on today’s Apple news? Well, you can either fire up iTunes and download Apple’s video podcast of the event, or you can skip the endless game demos and marketing chit-chat and just peruse the links below. The executive summary? iTunes 9’s new app management, Home Sharing, and iTunes LP features are really nice, but it’s almost impossible to understand why Apple added a camera to the iPod nano and not the iPod touch, no matter what Steve says. Oh — and don’t forget the Palm Pixi!

The event
Live from Apple’s ‘It’s only rock and roll’ event
Video: Steve Jobs returns to the Apple stage

iPods
iPod touch 3rd gen hands-on and video
iPod nano 5G with camera first hands-on!
Apple announces cheaper, more colorful iPod shuffle, new Special Edition
Apple updates iPod touch line, drops prices, adds top-end 64GB model
Apple adds video camera, larger screen to new 5G iPod nano
iPod classic bumped to 160GB, price stays the same at $249
iPhone OS 3.1 is official, available today
iPhone / iPod touch OS 3.1.1 is live!
iPod shuffle 2g is no more

iTunes
iTunes 9 bringing iTunes LP functionality, ‘beautiful new look’
iTunes 9 breaks Pre media sync… what did you expect?
Video: iTunes 9 Home Sharing and iPhone app management

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Apple releases video podcast of Rock and Roll event, we’ve got you covered with the highlights originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The media queuing up for today’s Apple event.

Well, folks, tomorrow night is the start of the NFL season, which can only mean one thing: Apple will announce new iPods today so it can show the new toys off in commercials during tomorrow night’s game. Other than the promise seeing the same ad 400 times in the next month, what can we expect from today’s event in San Francisco?

Predicting is always a crap shoot when it comes to Jobs and company, but here’s my guesses: a 64GB iPod touch with a built-in camera, one last go-round (gasp) for the iPod classic, a newly designed nano, and the introduction of new iTunes features and the (sort of) highly anticipated Cocktail. Who doesn’t want a cocktail? It’s morning over in here in San Francisco, but by the end of this day, I’ll probably need one.  

Oh, and here’s what I hope Apple introduces: a touch-screen nano. Sound silly? A touch-screen would ensure that all iPods–except the classic, which will be dead in a year, if not by the end of the announcement today–will operate using the same interface in the same manner; it’ll just be smaller. The nano already has an accelerometer, so I’d bet Apple is  considering this…

Anyway, we’ll fine out soon enough! Come right back to this post before 10 AM Pacific time, 1 PM Eastern, when I’ll be live-blogging the announcement.

12:43: Lance Ulanoff and I are sending photos and updates already; check out our live coverage after the jump!

Seeing is believing and we’re seeing price drops across each and every iPod touch on Apple’s on-line store front. The 8GB model is now $189 (was $229), the 16GB model is $249 (was $299), and the 32GB model is just $279 (was $399). Now what could Apple be making room for?

Update: And now the nano and classic have fallen under the axe. The classic has been cut to $229 (was $249) while the nano now starts at $129 (was $149) for the 8GB model or just $149 (down from $199) for the 16GB nano.

[Thanks, Max H.]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

iPod touch prices slashed dramatically before today’s event (nano and classic too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Wednesday Apple is having an event titled It’s Only Rock and Roll, but we like it. I’m sucker for the Stones, but only rock and roll? Here is the complete guide to all the rumors and midnight ramblings:

Most likely

• New iPod touch: All iPod models have been discontinued in the stock databases, so new units are a given, even if they arrive to the shops later than expected. The only question is the feature set. Would it have a new camera? Looks very likely, as new cases pop absolutely everywhere. New storage capacities? It is a very strong possibility. A new processor, once again leapfrogging the iPhone? Perhaps new materials? We will see about that.

• New iPod nano: Like the iPod touch, the nano will see an update, adding a camera to it. We still don’t know if anything physical will change, but it’s not likely, looking at the multiple cases.

• New album features: This one was confirmed by the record labels—although Apple always has the last word on what goes into each release. It seems they have been jointly developing new interactive features to encourage the purchase of full albums. The project is called Cocktail, and it’s aimed to “reproduce the album experience.” It may be new glorified PDF-like documents, or some interactive stuff. I don’t know about you, but if it’s something I can’t touch, I can’t get no satisfaction.

Likely

• New iPhone OS update: Knowing that a new iPod touch is coming, and about the new features in Cocktail, a new iPhone OS 3.1 update will probably be a must too.

• The end of the classic iPod: Looking at the sinking sales of the big honky tonk iPods, this may be their end, hopefully getting replaced by a 64GB iPod touch. As much as I loved it—had every single model until the iPhone came—it’s time to leave them in the memory motel.

Unlikely

• Apple tablet: We had high hopes for this one, but unless Apple decides to pull a rabbit out of their magic hat at the last second, it looks like the the fabled Apple tablet is not going to happen this time. You can’t always get what you want, but you can get what you need.

• Beatles remastered: As much as I want this to happen—and even while tomorrow The Beatles Remastered box sets will be released—I don’t think the Beatles on iTunes is on the cards. This rumor comes again and again, every single year, and it never gets realized. This year, look at the invitation. There is no way that Apple would have used the Rolling Stones if the Beatles were coming to the iTunes Music Store. In fact, if sounds like Steve’s way of saying: “Fuck it, we need no bloody Beatles, innit?”

The One More Thing

• You know us and our sympathy for the devil: We are all still holding our breaths to see Steve back in the show and tell game. If he doesn’t, we are going to pass out. So let’s spend the day together, Mr. Jobs.

Photo by Brad Immanuel