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Posts Tagged “

gestures

multi-touch

Apple's Multi-Touch Gesture Patent Has So Many Combinations It's a Shocker

You can already do a handful of gestures on the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro's trackpad, but Apple's going in and patenting a whole bunch more. Not only are there gestures in this application that involve a thumb and three fingers—something casual users will probably never use—but there's even a sample of how this would work for games like Tetris (shown after the jump) or Final Fantasy. Each "chord" would correspond to a character or movement or attack or something, which is definitely not simple like the Firefox/Opera mouse gestures we've gotten used to. Still, more gestures are always good, and we're sure the end product won't be ridiculous like these. [Unwired View via Crunchgear] More »

windows 7

Windows 7 Features Revealed

Here's what Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer revealed about Windows 7 at All Things Digital a few minutes ago. The biggest "feature" is the touch and multi-touch integration, which takes many of its roots from Microsoft's Surface Table, and will be available as an interface options for other apps. Here's some more stuff they pulled out, which we captured in photos here. More »

windows mobile

Giga-Byte GSmart Windows Mobile Phones Have a Fancy Smart Touch UI

It took a year for Giga-Byte to follow in HTC's footsteps, but the upcoming GSmart Windows Mobile smartphones will have a brand new UI on top of the standard WinMo affair. The interface is called "Smart Touch," and will be more finger-friendly—more oriented toward gestures and finger-navigation—lending itself to launching your commonly used programs directly from the home screen. The Chinese version of this has been available since April, but suffers from some incompatibility issues that most likely won't be in the European release version coming sometime after May. [The Unwired via Into Mobile]

windows mobile

TouchBrowser Brings iPhone Finger-Flicking Browsing to Windows Mobile

Desktop-like browsing is already headed to Windows Mobile in version 6.1, but can you use your finger with it? Like on the iPhone? Not exactly. For that, you'll have to install TouchBrowser. Along with being able to pan around a page to get your Britney Spears news with your finger, there's even a proprietary onscreen keyboard that takes up almost the entire display. Would you pay $14.95 for this? Only if you're building the world's lamest iPhone replica on your HTC Touch. [Makayama]

motion interface

Keynetik: a Motion Interface for One-Handed Play on Your Portable


As an alternative to touchscreen control, Keynetik has designed a prototype motion-interface for portable devices that requires just a single hand to operate. Using multiple accelerometers, it can cleverly distinguish the user's gestures from mere accidental "interference" motions, and even works whether you're left- or right-handed. With control buttons resting under your fingertips on its curved chassis, its operation really is one-handed, so you're free to do whatever you like with the other one. If you own a Nokia N95 and fancy some mono-mano action, you can try out the "RockNScroll" test version they've built. [Technabob]

gadgets

Synaptics' Boomerang Buttonless Remote Control Concept Might Not Catch On

This Boomerang concept by interface company Synaptics is supposed to illustrate a few different input methods for remotes to control TVs and DVD players. Although it's buttonless, the Boomerang still has a TouchPad (like the one on your notebook), as well as gesture recognition for stuff like channel switching or volume control. Kinda neat in a pie in the sky sorta way, but they've got a few more interesting tech concepts jammed in as well. More »

laptops

MacBook Pros Getting MacBook Air's Multi-touch Trackpad


We think this is pretty obvious, but AppleInsider says they've received info that the MacBook Pros will also be getting the MacBook Air's multi-touch trackpad feature (which we got hands-on of here). The feature was supposed to be rolled out in another refresh for the MBP line around Macworld, but was delayed in order to get the Macbook Air out on time. There's no good reason why the Pros won't get a feature like this (or why Apple would make this exclusive to the Air), so we're going to go ahead and say don't buy a Macbook Pro until after the upcoming refresh. [Apple Insider]

rumor

Windows Mobile 7 Details Leaked - Multi-touch, Motion Gestures

InsideMicrosoft just got a gigantic scoop of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 7, due to be released in 2009. This isn't Windows Mobile 6.1—which we've seen leaks of recently—but the next full version of Windows Mobile that fixes a bunch of problems we've seen with the platform. The huge changes are multi-touch gestures (including flicking, swiping and drawing on the screen), motion gestures (shaking the phone), Windows Vista-like redesign of the entire UI, better finger-based navigation and a desktop-like Internet Explorer browser. It's totally amazing, and fixes a bunch of the complaints we had with the platform. InsideMicrosoft has the full details. [InsideMicrosoft]


sony ericsson

Sony Ericsson Updates Walkman Phone Line With W890 and W380

The two latest Walkman phones from Sony Ericsson, the W890 and W380, continues their music-focused approach by loading up Walkman Player 3.0, the newest release of their player software. The W890 has features we've seen before, such as FM radio, 3G HSDPA, SensMe tempo and mood detector, Stereo Bluetooth, a 3.2-megapixel camera and quad-band GSM. The W380 on the other hand has TrackID (which identifies songs), gesture control (think of a Wiimote), and music controls on the back of the phone. It looks like the W890 is a Europe and Asia-only affair for now, while the W380 is coming soon. Full gallery of these hotness phones after the jump. More »