Hasta La Gadget!

Leaving us so soon? BumpTop, the OS overlay specialist that gave Windows 7 touchscreen PCs a great reason to exist back in early 2009, seems to be pulling the plug on its one and only claim to fame. In a somewhat terse update posted to the site, the company — which just outed a Mac version of their software in January — has been acquired by Google, which means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will “no longer be available for sale.” This plug pulling also means that no future updates are planned, but if you’re not shaken by such a thought, the app can still be downloaded for the next week free of charge. As for BumpTop Pro users? End-of-life support will be provided for you all, but there’s no guarantee that won’t change as the wind blows. We’re definitely curious to see what Google has in store for BumpTop — ChromeOS and Android could get real crazy, real fast.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading BumpTop acquired by Google, no longer available

BumpTop acquired by Google, no longer available originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 May 2010 15:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arduino-powered clothing is nothing new; we’ve seen CO2-detecting dresses, compass belts and inbox-checking T-shirts all within the last six months. But this Ping social networking garment concept is not quite the same thing. Where those were DIY projects with a single-function, Ping is the brainchild of a professional UI designer… and the fabric itself is a social network UI that registers your movements as attempts to communicate. Woven with flexible sensors and conductive threads connected to an Arduino Lilypad and Xbee, clothing made from the fabric can detect when you lift a hood or tie a ribbon and wirelessly send Facebook status updates accordingly — or tap you on the shoulder in a number of different rhythms so you know not only when, but who might be trying to get in touch. Designer Jennifer Darmour imagines a future in which clothing offers full-body 3D gesture recognition and senses our environment. When we can reliably use it to control our computers, we hope she’ll get in touch.

With ‘Ping’ clothing, status updates literally tap you on the shoulder originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This isn’t the first time we’ve heard talk of competitors delaying products to see what the boys from Cupertino are up to. Last time, it was HP making some last minute pricing and feature adjustments to its Slate. Now we’ve got DigiTimes’ sources claiming that Lenovo is holding up its Linux-based Skylight smartbook — pushed from April to July — for very similar reasons. Specifically, “control is not able to act as smoothly as the iPad.” Guess even a 1GHz Snapdragon can’t fix a poorly implemented UI.

Lenovo Skylight also delayed to better compete with iPad? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The US Patents and Trademark Office has today made public a Microsoft patent application (serial no. 240,729) related to the graphical user interface found on the hotly anticipated Windows Phone 7 Series mobile OS. Filed in September 2008, this application describes a “contiguous background” that extends beyond the dimensions of the screen (either vertically or horizontally, but not both) with anchored “mixed-media” elements being littered atop it — all of which is to be served on a “media-playing device.” That should sound pretty familiar, given that it’s the central navigational concept of both Windows Phone 7 and the Zune HD, and as such it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to seek to legally protect its uniqueness. Before you start wondering about potential conflicts with other UIs, take note that this requires a continuous graphical background rather than a tiled or repeating image, plus space-orientating graphical elements, which should make it sufficiently nuanced to avoid any more patently unnecessary squabbles should Microsoft’s claims be validated by the USPTO.

Microsoft seeking patent for Windows Phone 7 Series panoramic GUI originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s not going to allow HTC to cover Windows Phone 7 Series with its Sense UI overlay (which is going to be an interesting thing to watch in and of itself), but there’s no question that the homegrown user interface has made a-many Windows Mobile phones look and feel a whole lot better than stock. Sense is also gaining traction in the Android realm, a sector where it’s far more likely to either make a huge impact or be overlooked entirely. So, the question we’re posing here today is this: if you were granted an HTC badge for a day, how would you change Sense? Are you satisfied with the quickness? Does anything simply get in the way? Any quirks that you just can’t figure out? Any tweaks that you’d love to see made? We aren’t always serious when we say that these companies are listening to you, but trust us when we say that design folks from HTC might just give your comments a once over. Here’s your chance. Don’t screw it up.

How would you change HTC’s Sense? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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