Hasta La Gadget!

The magical properties of coffee stains have already spurred on some researchers to develop a better coating for TV screens, and it looks like they’ve now inspired a few folks to create a new type of touchscreen as well. This latest instance apparently began when Hebrew University professor Shlomo Magdassi was working to develop a touchscreen using silver nanoparticles but ran into trouble making the screen conductive while still remaining transparent. As it happens, the coffee-like stains that he and his colleagues had been trying to remove with fast-drying solvents was actually the solution to his problem, since they remained in contact with each other as they dried and preserved conductivity, but left about 95 percent of the light through the holes in the center, thereby making the screen itself almost fully transparent. Of course, there’s still quite a bit more work to be done before the screens move beyond the lab, but Magdassi has apparently already found that copper nanorings can be used in similar manner, and says that the screens could even double as solar panels to give devices a bit of added juice.

Coffee-like stains inspire new type of touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been awhile since we heard anything from Sensitive Objects, the French firm that developed Anywhere Multitouch, the platform that uses piezoelectric sensors to extend touch sensitivity beyond the display to the entire device. Well, we thought it was a pretty sweet idea — and apparently Motorola did as well. According some spicy and exotic PR, Moto’s investing some of its hard-earned cash in the company, which began as a project by the French Science National Research Center. As Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures, put it: “Natural user interface (NUI) and in particular interacting with a device through touch is an area of rapid development and great excitement. Sensitive Object provides an innovative and unique approach allowing new ways of interaction. We’re most excited to be involved in their growth and success.” One has to wonder what kind of new and innovative handset interfaces are coming around the bend — and one has to wonder what kind of havoc it will cause when you put one of these “anywhere multitouch” phones in your pocket without locking it first. Luckily, the technology is said to be cheaper to implement than the other touchscreen solutions currently available — so if these guys get their way, we might be accidentally calling our ex-girlfriends with the whole device very soon indeed. PR after the break.

Continue reading Motorola invests in Anywhere Multitouch technology

Motorola invests in Anywhere Multitouch technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s in a name these days? If we didn’t call this a UMPC or told you it can run Windows 7, it could just be a pretty huge clamshell smartphone. The freshly announced LifeBook UH900 sports a 5.6-inch “vivid glare screen,” (we’ll put that down to a bad translation), 3.5G wireless connectivity, and even goes so far as to lay claim to being the world’s smallest multitouch-capable PC. Take that, VAIO P! Still, the 62GB SSD and WXGA display resolution obviously set it apart from the phone crowd, as will the Atom Z530 inside — it might outperform your ARM CPU, but will also ensure you never leave the house without a charger (just 3-hours in eco mode). Fujitsu has yet to spill pricing details, but CNET informs us the non-UMTS version will be ready in January, with the more advanced hotness coming at a later date.

Fujitsu LifeBook UH900 has multitouch, world-beating ambitions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The A8’s Multi Media Interface (a fancy name for a nav unit with media player attached) is already a pretty sophisticated piece of tech, but Audi has opted against resting on those laurels and has pushed out a new feature for the luxury saloon’s next iteration. The 2011 A8 (available in Spring 2010 — crazy, we know) will benefit from the same handwriting recognition as promised for the next-gen R8, wherein the user is able to scribble his destination all John Hancock-like and then use the touchscreen to complete his instructions. With Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean character support, this could be a particular boon for gadget lovers of a more Eastern persuasion. And just in case you’re fretting that the rest of your gear won’t get as much love, there are further plans afoot for connecting the car via UMTS and distributing WiFi goodness to the devices inside it. The only thing this is missing is a Snoop Dogg voiceover for the ultimate in convergence tech. Video after the break.

Continue reading Audi A8 MMI adds handwriting recognition to list of 2011 features

Audi A8 MMI adds handwriting recognition to list of 2011 features originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, so iPhone and N97 knock-offs probably aren’t the rarest of gems around these days, but how many handsets do you know that can lay claim to being both? The Cooli902 takes the iPhone’s 3.5-inch touchscreen, spit-shines a pretty realistic iPhone OS clone-job, and then adds the Nokia flavor with a fully fledged QWERTY keypad ripped straight from the heart of the N97. Not only does it open to that familiar angle, it also sports the same layout and what we can only imagine to be the same violent opening mechanism as found on the original Nokia handset. And to think that poor Philippe Starck had to pick between these two phones, when for only $143 we could have had both. More pics after the break, or hit the read link to get your own.

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXLV: the Nokia iPhone

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXLV: the Nokia iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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