Not to be confused with your laptop’s trackpad, the very highly anticipated (an soon to be officially official) webOS tablet will be called Touchpad. That’s according to PreCentral, who cleverly overheard a rehearsal in which the tablet was called by that name and identified as being 10 inches and 13mm thick—familiar dimensions to iPad owners. More »
Now that HP’s full slate of webOS reveals has been made, it looks as if the web admins are testing the waters. On HP’s Home & Home Office shopping page, there’s a drop-down under “Deals & Offers” that quite clearly reveals the outfit’s planned triumvirate: the HP Veer (a name HP filed a trademark for back in December), Pre 3 and TouchPad. Those are slated to bring webOS in “S, M and L” flavors, though it’s unclear whether the Veer or Pre 3 will be the smallest. HP has managed to yank the teaser from its US portal, though it still looks live internationally. There’s no guarantee that any of this will ship momentarily but seriously, why list something like this if all three weren’t going to be on sale by sundown? Here’s hoping!
WebOS-based Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad leaked on HP’s site, likely on sale today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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According to PreCentral, Palm’s forthcoming tablet — which we suspect will be officially revealed in just a few hours — will be dubbed TouchPad. They were able to sneak in and hear a few details during the event preparation session, enabling them to confirm that it’ll weigh 1.5 pounds and measure 13mm thick (just as we’d heard). If those figures sound familiar, it’s because a fledgling startup in Cupertino just so happens to have a slate that aligns exactly to those very specifications. Keep it locked right here for our impending liveblog — we’ll be bringing you the blow by blow as it goes down today in San Francisco.
Update: Robert Scoble seems to have let loose a bit of information as well, confirming that a 10-inch slate is indeed on the docket, as well as “the smallest little phone” he has ever seen. And before you think that’s a positive attribute, he also mentions it being too small to be taken seriously, and definitely not as “a competitor for the iPhone or Android.” Ouch. Guess we’ll have to see for ourselves as the day develops.
Update 2: Oh, boy! The HP Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad just leaked on HP’s official site. We’re cautiously optimistic that all these will be on sale later today.
Palm TouchPad leaked: 1.5 pounds, 13mm thick, and just moments from official originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
For those of you that have touchscreen devices, like smartphones, iPods, iPads, etc., a hot item on your holiday lists this year was probably the touchscreen glove — a glove that allows you to stay warm and use your phone. Novel concept, I know. But what about all those gloves you have mixed in with your scarfs and hats? Are they to go unused from here on out? Quirky, a social design site, has an alternative that will let you use your old gloves and text your friend while you’re walking in 10-degree weather.
Digits are mini conductive pins that attach to your gloves. Made of conductive silicone, Digits have a metal pin on back which can be attached to your gloves like a thumbtack.You simply place the back side of the digit (the side with the post) inside the fingertip of one of the gloves, and push it through (you won’t be using these with your $100 leather gloves!). Then, twist the other side f the digit onto the post. Voila!
Digits retail for $13.99 for a set of four. They’re available in black only.
[Via The-Gadgeteer.com]
HP has been burning through US trademark filings over the past few months, presumably hoping to nail down as many possibilities for the new Palm webOS tablets as it can — a “shoot first, ask questions later” type of situation. To that end, it’s filed for three more under a very broad computing category that could definitely include the Topaz and Opal models we’ve been hearing so much about: “Touchslate,” “Touchcanvas,” and “Duopad.” We’re pretty lukewarm on the unwieldy “Touchcanvas,” but we guess both Duopad and Touchslate could work under the right circumstances. Then again, what’s wrong with Topaz and Opal, really?
HP files three more possible Palm tablet names: Touchslate, Touchcanvas, and Duopad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We can’t conclusively link this to the upcoming Palm tablets, but HP just filed for a trademark on “HP Touchpad” across a wide variety of products and services ranging from memory cards to — dun dun dun — “tablet computers.” We’re liking it as a tablet name, though — we’ve been getting the sense that the Palm name is on the way out, and “HP Touchpad” jibes nicely with the conspicuous lack of Palm branding on the invite for HP’s February 9th webOS event. What’s more, HP’s already invested heavily in branding its laptop trackpads with the ClickPad name, so this seems like something else entirely. We’ve definitely come across headfake trademark registrations in the past, so we’ll see what’s going on here — and whether this slow trickle of leaks ever turns into a flood.
HP files for ‘HP Touchpad’ trademark — a possible name for the webOS tablet? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
How do you freshen up the typically unexciting external storage unit? You slap a multitouch trackpad on the top of it, of course. And since you’re dreaming up wild concepts, make that top out of carbon fiber, provide a base made out of glass and insert some LEDs next to it to provide ambient illumination — with an integrated light sensor adjusting their brightness on the fly, obviously. Yes, André Silva’s LaCie Float is indeed out of touch with things like “feasibility” and “economics,” but don’t tell us you wouldn’t love that slice of converged awesomeness sidling up next to your laptop. USB 3.0 comes standard and an SSD option is also available, if you wish for it hard enough.
LaCie Float concept combines external HDD with trackpad, ingenuity with fantasy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Note: this is not a practical hack. It’s something to file under “mountain climbing,” as in the only reason to do it
is because you can.
All you need to do is completely fill a piece of paper with graphite pencil. This turns any sheet into a conductive surface. Then you ground your hand with an anti-static strap and allow an Arduino to convert the data into mouse coordinates.
Like I said, not the world’s most useful trackpad (in addition, it is also a bit messy). But it is a cool concept and a minor accomplishment of basement engineering. It’s also a concept that, if taken a few steps further, could create the basis for turning nearly any object into a computer interface.
Video after the jump.
via hack-a-day, afrotechmods
You’ll find a common complaint throughout most of our Windows laptop / netbook reviews. Nope, it doesn’t have to do with CPU performance, boot times, or graphics prowess; it revolves around touchpads, and notably those that have integrated buttons within the pad itself – what have come to be known as ClickPads. While we usually point fingers (oh yes, pun intended!) at the laptop manufacturers responsible for choosing the wonky pads (eh hem, HP and Dell), Synaptics – the maker of those ClickPads – is the one behind the technology. Aware of the finicky multitouch gestures and jumping cursors, Synaptics has been hard at work on its next generation ClickPad IS Series 3, which will be hitting laptops sometime early next year. So, will the new image sensing and ClickEQ technology that’s been baked into the new pads finally solve all our complaints and let us put away the laptop mice? Hit the break to find out.
Gallery: Synaptics ClickPad Series 3
Continue reading The Windows PC ClickPad finally improved? Synaptics ClickPad IS Series 3 preview
The Windows PC ClickPad finally improved? Synaptics ClickPad IS Series 3 preview originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What exactly is a fancy, anyway? As we ponder that, and other far-fetched meanings of life, we’re forced to take a look a yet another mystery of our planet: EFO. Who are these guys? Where do they spend quality time? Did they ever consider that the iPazzPort would become a worldwide phenomenon? Merely months after rolling out a minuscule Bluetooth keyboard for controlling HTPCs and other doodads, the company is now outing a slightly larger version — one with a multitouch trackpad on top of the keys. Oddly enough, it also saw fit to throw a laser pointer into the mix, though this version will rely on those tried-and-true RF frequencies for wireless communication. Check out a downright exhilarating video of it in action past the break, and tap that source link if you’re eager to drop $55 (including shipping) on one.
Continue reading EFO’s iPazzPort grows a touchpad and laser pointer, tickles our fancy
EFO’s iPazzPort grows a touchpad and laser pointer, tickles our fancy originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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