Uh, What's It Called?

The iPhone was called the iPhone years before Steve Jobs ever took the stage to announce it. We don't have the luxury of such clarity here. I would think the name has no more than two syllables, personally.

Overwhelmingly what "evidence" there is points to some form of Slate. Not only did Apple register the domain iSlate.com through an intermediary to keep it a secret (discovered by Mark Gurman), they've trademarked it through a shell company called Slate Computing (signed for by Apple's Senior Trademark Specialist) and registered domains and trademarks in Europe through their usual IP law firm, utilizing their standard secret trademark practices, last used with the iPhone. They've also registered "Magic Slate" through the same company. And, while we initially blew off NYT editor Bill Keller referencing an "Apple Slate" in a speech as meaningless, it's a whole lot curiouser now.

Borders referenced an "Apple iPAD" in a survey, but it sounds like the sad invention of a survey copywriter who hit caps lock instead of shift, not to mention a digital feminine hygiene product. Apple also registered a trademark for TabletMac, but most likely to protect the Mac brand name from modders (it sounds unwieldy and gross).

Apple's put a lot of effort into iSlate it seems. Is that the name of the Apple Tablet?

When's It Coming?

Well, obviously everybody who picked a day before today is wrong. Which leaves everyday after today! The overall consensus is that's being announced in late January—note, though, that a lot of the people who're part of the new January cabal were the same people convinced it was coming in the fall.

iLounge predicted awfully specifically back in September that "Apple is currently planning to announce it on or before January 19, 2010." The Financial Times
said two days ago that Apple is expected "make a major product announcement on Tuesday, January 26th" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where Apple's rented a stage for "several days." Silicon Alley Insider says that Apple is going to demo a tablet in January.

But when can you actually hold one? From most to least specific: The Wall Street Journal says the tablet is actually going to ship in March, and an analyst said it's coming in March or April. iLounge says it'll hit stores in May or June, like the iPhone. Digitimes reported Foxconn is supposed to have almost half a million of 'em shipped by April. Little emperor of Apple analysts Gene Munster says the first half of 2010. A bunch of connected Mac people just say 2010.

Everybody from the WSJ to Apple fan sites are convinced the tablet is being announced sometime late next month, shipping 2-6 months afterward, so hype and development can bloom, like the iPhone. (Though most of 'em were wrong three months ago.)

How Much Is It Gonna Cost?

The iPhone was $600. Then sales stopped being a-mazing and it dropped to $400. When the iPhone 3G came out, it went to $200 and everybody bought one. So, uh, how much is the tablet gonna be?

Everybody says roughly the same thing: AppleInsider has said it's "expected to retail for somewhere between the cost of a high-end iPhone and Apple's most affordable Mac notebook." Our insider told us it would "cost $700 to $900," or "more than twice as much as a netbook." Taiwan Economic Times says it's between $800 and $1000. China Times, while they got the date pegged to the price horribly wrong, said 800 bucks. And then there's DigiTimes, who says the whole reason the tablet was "delayed" was because it was getting an OLED upgrade, so it'd be a whopping $1500 to $1700. The final word comes from Steve Jobs who said "we don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk."

Survey—and logic—says it'll be pricier than an iPhone and more expensive than a MacBook. Which doesn't say a lot. If you had to pick a number, $800ish seems like the safest bet.

How Big Is It?

The most important spec—and maybe the biggest mystery—is, well, how big the tablet is. Three sizes dominate rumors, tied to the size of panels produced by display manufacturers: 7 inches, 9.6 (or 9.7) inches, and 10.6 inches.

Let's go from least to most specific. Apple reportedly told publishers it's "small enough to carry in a handbag but too big to fit in a pocket." A company discovered in its traffic logs an "unannounced Apple product with a display somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook," reported the NYT. The WSJ reported it's "smaller than [Apple's] current laptop computers but bigger than the iPhone or iPod Touch."

Apple analyst king of the dweebs Gene Munster, after speaking to "component contacts" in Asia, says it's between 7 and 10 inches. TechCrunch says it's 7 or 9 inches. Digitimes says there's two tablets, one that's 9.6 inches (with OLED) and another that's 10.6 inches. Taiwan Economic News says 9.6 inches too. Actually respectable news organization Dow Jones says Apple ordered displays from Wintek that are "between 9.7 and 10 inches." Oh, and there might be ginormous tablets somewhere out there.

The Financial Times and Reuters both say it's 10 inches. So does our insider.

iLounge presents a unified theory of the tablet universe that would explain the multiplicity of sizes: There have been three prototypes, and the initial one had a 7-inch screen, which was too small, so the latest version is 10.7 inches. Whatever the exact size, they say, it has "7x the touchable surface area" as the iPhone

Let's just stick with bigger than an iPhone, but smaller than a MacBook.

What's Inside

There's been surprisingly little discussion of the actual specs beyond the size of the screen—storage, memory, processor, etc. Most of what little talk there has been has revolved around the networking capabilities.

There could be versions with 3G and without. Specifically, HSDPA (meaning it would only work on AT&T or T-Mobile in the US). Oh look, a SIM card tray! But maybe it'll be on Verizon said BusinessWeek. Hey, maybe even Verizon LTE 4G wireless!

As for the processor, Intel Germany CEO passed gas about a bigger "version of the iPhone" powered by Atom. Dean Takahashi says that the tablet will be the first device using chips that Apple's designed in-house through PA Semi, the chip company Apple bought a while ago, and that the chips are possibly ARM-based.

Aaaaaannnd it coooooooould have an OLED screen, if it cost 1500 bucks.

A 3G option seems very possible, as does a secret-sauce processor, but who knows?

Who's Involved?

Um, Steve Jobs, duh. A whole bunch of new multitouch engineers. Oh, and the Newton guy is back.

Quanta might be making it. Or Foxconn (who makes the iPhone and got a guy killed over a leaked prototype). With a display made by LG (who makes the gorgeous, if flaky, panel inside the 27-inch iMac.) Or maybe the display's from Wintek, according to Reuters and Dow Jones. The battery might be made by Dynapack.

Besides Apple, again, who knows?

Patent Soup

The thing about patents is that, besides the fact they're patenting something, they don't say a whole lot, at least not about actual products. But here's a few interesting ones pertaining to a tablet.

This patent for a "display housing for a computing device" sure sounds like a tablet, which might fit into the tablet docking station in this patent, and you might use two hands, as shown in this patent, to interact with a multitouchable OS X, generously illustrated in this patent, unless you use a pen (ha ha ha). And it might be bumpy, in a cool way.

Patents don't mean a whole lot, so don't expect any of them to actually make it into a tablet. They could, though.

The Backstory

It's fairly well known the iPhone was born from efforts to develop a touchscreen tablet computer. It was simply miniaturized, and uses tech from FingerWorks, a touch interface company Apple bought. The NYT reported Apple's been working on it since 2003, when they built several prototypes using a battery-slaying PowerPC processor. Our insider said that Apple's been working on it for 4-6 years, and that the first prototype of the current version was developed in 2008. Steve Jobs killed the PowerPC tablet, according to the NYT, because Jobs asked what tablets were good for besides surfing the web while sitting on the toilet. The WSJ reported he's killed it twice already.

What's It Going to Do?

Perhaps the most important question of all: What's it actually like?

Well, it depends on the OS. iPhone OS 3.1 had clear traces of new Apple iProducts, and some people say it's a bigass iPod touch, or at least running iPhone OS, which sorta fits with iPhone app developers supposedly being asked to make higher res versions of their apps for demonstration. It apparently fits in with the iTunes remodeling Apple's got going on.

The NYT reported "You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet," whatever that will come to mean. As much as Steve Jobs saying they've got some "interesting ideas" about small computers, presumably. Martha Stewart is hyped about it, maybe 'cause it has something to do with diners.

Most of the excitement lately is that it's going to redefine newspapers, books and magazines, which we heard from some publishers, and maybe textbooks, which an insider told us. We're not the only ones who've heard it's got an ebook bent.

Everybody pre-conceived the iPhone based on the iPod and, to a lesser extent, the Newton. Everybody was wrong. Today, most everybody is pre-conceiving the tablet based on the iPhone. Maybe we're all wrong again, or maybe the leaks are better this time.

Your Turn

You know our mantra about rumors: Never trust them. But putting all of them together, we've definitely got some ideas now.

If there's any rumor we missed—or you have a tip (we're good at keeping secret identities)—let us know.

Tempest's "Magic Projection" system utilizes a laptop, a small projector, a PS3 Eye Toy, LED tracking markers and, of course, his bad ass proprietary software. As you will see in the video, the effect is pretty spectacular. In fact, his whole gadgety, virtual approach to magic is impressive. Check out his webpage for more tricks. [Marco Tempest]

As we said in the hands-on, the mouse has one piece of clear white plastic on the top, curved, like a Dove bar. It has both right and left clicks, like the Mighty Mouse, but differentiates itself from other mice with its touch-sensitive scrolling and two-fingered gestures. That's the big selling feature (other than the fact that it is a beautiful looking mouse).

As a mouse

The Magic Mouse is a very, very pretty mouse—something you wouldn't feel like you had to hide when not in use—and looks different enough from other mice that people will ask who made it, before awkwardly mumbling a nevermind as they spot the grey Apple logo.

Compared to ergonomic mice, the Magic Mouse is really low and aerodynamic, which means it doesn't contour to your hand and doesn't give the sensation that the mouse is a part of your hand, like Logitech mice tend to. But it is Bluetooth, so you don't need an extra dongle, and it's powered by two AA batteries, which get up to four months of use per charge, according to Apple.

Physically moving the mouse and mousing is fine and smooth, since there are two plastic bars on the mouse's underside that minimize contact with whatever surface you're on.
Even though there's no clear delineation between right and left buttons on the mouse itself, the Magic Mouse knows to interpret a click on the left or right half appropriately (though right click needs to be activated from inside System Preferences before you can use it).

As for tracking, it's a pretty standard laser technology that tracks decently on most surfaces, including jeans and chairs. Still, the Magic Mouse doesn't have the crazy tracking ability that Logitech's MX mice just introduced—so it can't track on glass, and it can't track on glossy surfaces like the 13-inch MacBook.

The scrolling

The one thing Apple did completely right in the Magic Mouse was the touch scrolling. It's fluid, natural and works with any amount of fingers on over 75% of the mouse surface (all the way down to the Apple logo). Flicking up and down gets you up and down web pages fast, as long as you have "momentum" turned on in the settings. Turn it off and you get fine-grained 1:1 scrolling—good if you want to slowly navigate through a PDF doc.

You can also click with one finger and scroll with another, letting you highlight blocks of text like you would on a normal scrolling mouse. On the whole, there's no major piece of scrolling functionality (other than a middle click) that you lose transitioning from a standard scroll wheel to this touch-sensitive solution. You just get the ability to scroll in 360 degrees as a bonus.

The only flaw is that you sometimes activate the left (or right) click when you're scrolling too emphatically. I suspect this is just something you'll get used to over time, but it can be annoying when you're trying to scroll and you navigate somewhere else instead.

Using two finger swiping to navigate web pages, on the other hand, is a bit more awkward. You'll need to pinch the mouse on the sides with your thumb and fourth/pinkie finger while you're scrolling, forcing you to make a painful eagle claw all the time.

What it can't do

As good as the swiping gestures are, they're limited in what you can actually accomplish with them. You can't use more than three fingers at a time, because you won't have enough fingers left to hold the mouse. There's also no option for touch-sensitive clicking, like in trackpads, something that would have been cool to have just as a bonus. You also can't tell which side is up just from touch until you click down and feel nothing happen.

So far the Magic Mouse is only compatible with the iMacs that they ship with, but will get broad support soon.

It also can't manage to stay free from scratches, similar to white MacBooks that also get scratched very easily. But the blemishes don't interfere with the mouse's functionality—it's just painful to watch any new product lose its pristine finish so quickly.

Is this the best mouse Apple has ever made?

Yeah, it is. The Magic Mouse is much better than the Mighty Mouse, which people hated, and might actually be good enough that non-Mac users might want to pick it up as well, supposing that they don't really care about ergonomics. Since it fills the gap between a tiny travel mouse and a full sized desktop mouse, the Magic is in a good position to grab users on both ends.

It looks very nice

Touch scrolling works well

Swiping is less comfortable

Not very ergonomic

Here's the trick: You ask a friend for a card, any card, which Penn and Teller will guess via SMS. It seems impossible, even more so than your average card guessing trick, but since this is Penn and Teller we're talking about, so the trick will be ruined.

The way it works is conceptually simple, but definitely convincing: You start the app, which opens a lookalike iPhone interface, complete with fake app icons-each one representing a card—and a fake icon dock, full of suits. When your friend gives you a card, you press two icons—one for the card's rank, like 5, Ace, King, etc., and one of the dock icons for the suit. The app then automatically opens a fake SMS interface, which lets you carry out a fake SMS conversation with Penn and Teller, during which "they" invariably get the guess right, because you've entered it into the app. There's a runthrough video on their site. It's a neat gag.

But the very thing that makes it cool will probably doom it to a marginal life in the Cydia store: It mimics or "replaces" Apple's interfaces and functions, posing as a homescreen as well as the native SMS client—something which has pretty much guaranteed a rejection in the past. It's harmless, to be sure, but could well sound a few alarms in Apple's app store approval dungeon. Penn and Teller hope to have it in the store soon, priced at $2. [Penn and Teller via Techcrunch]

To be fair, we should have expected this: Back in June, there were reports that HTC representatives had been talking about a licensing issue that would keep any proprietary modifications off of phones with "With Google" branding. Sense is all HTC, and the MyTouch 3G is slapped with a Google logo, so this forthcoming update, which was announced at a press conference in Taiwan and will be available from HTC's website at some point in the near future, sounds like a distinctly foreign interest.

It's worth holding out for possible "clarifications" on this one—please, HTC, Google, or both, say something! Soothe us!—but this hemisphere's outlook isn't so great. Enjoy turning your Magics into Heroes for free, Eurojerks. At least we've got our homebrew.

Update: Another possible issue: The MyTouch 3G and Vodafone-labeled Magics have slightly less RAM than their HTC-branded counterparts, which means even the best hacked Hero ROMs don't run especially well. Yeah, not looking so great for ol' MyTouch here. [ePrice—Thanks, Taknarosh and Nick!]

Also intriguing is CDMA support—as in the kind of network that Sprint runs—adding on to Sprint's Dan Hesse remark that Android is coming to Sprint this year and rumors that it'll be Hero. You can see a lot of the new Donut features in action here, like universal search, in this video from the Google I/O conference.

Folks at XDA are working on a build that'll run on the Dream (G1), though it works in the emulator right now. [XDA Developers, Images via XDA's cyanogen, Thanks Will!]

A couple interesting things gleaned about the Hero as I barely refrained from cramming it down my pants: There's a ton of HTC software on there, not just the Sense UI—they've built their own mail client with Exchange support, and even a slick, iPhone-worthy Twitter app. Also, the grey Hero has a rubber back—only the white one is rocking out the Teflon (but it's the only one that needs it).

Oh yeah, dear god please give me one. Right now. Thanks.

Note: This isn't technically the G2 since it hasn't been officially released here yet, but the T-Mobile G2 will have the same hardware and the same software—the same, essentially, as the HTC Magic in Europe—so this is as close to the G2 as you're going to get until T-Mo ships their own.

Hardware:
Let me repeat that nationally-televised ad and get this out of the way first: The screen is still fantastic. If you place the G1 and the G2 side by side, the G2 has a more blue-ish tint while the G1 is more purple. The G2 produces whiter whites than the G1. It doesn't seem any brighter—it's just nicer.

The generously curved shell is thicker than the iPhone, but less wide, which actually makes it feel better in the hand. It weighs 4.09 ounces compared to the G1's 5.60 ounces, but somehow manages to feel even lighter, like half as heavy. That curved chin that caused such a nuisance when typing on the G1 is no longer a problem, due to the fact that there's no actual slide-out hardware keyboard. Face buttons are now smaller and shiny and raised, which makes them easier to locate and press. There's also one extra button: Search. This pops up a context-related search menu for apps like contacts, email and the browser.

It's also improved internally. A2DP Bluetooth stereo support comes standard (it was enabled for the G1 in the 1.5 Cupcake update), and the slimmer body houses a 1340mAh battery (the G1 had a meager 1150mAh pack). A battery test is coming later, but HTC's specs rate this as 400 minutes talk time compared to 350 for the G1.

The camera is the same 3.2-megapixel, and as of the 1.5 update, both the G1 and the G2 can both record video adequately. Not great, just adequate. Still pictures are as passable as the G1's in sunlight, and still not great in low light.

What you'll feel most often is the increased ROM and RAM: 512MB and 288MB, respectively. The beefed up hardware makes a noticeable difference in speed when launching and using apps.

Unfortunately, there's still no 3.5mm headphone jack, and you still need to use an adapter if you want to use your own headphones. The microSD memory slot is also hidden underneath the back battery cover, but thankfully not underneath the battery itself.

The hardware has been improved in just about every respect, minus the fact that you no longer have a physical keyboard to bang out emails and texts quickly. But fortunately the software keyboard actually makes the loss bearable.

Software
The G2 comes with the same Android 1.5 OS that just rolled out to G1s—the same update we've been tracking over and over through its long development cycle—so none of this will be a huge surprise. The key difference is that you have to use the software keyboard now.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Also, instead of switching to and from landscape view when the keyboard is extended, the G2 uses the accelerometer to detect transitions. It works well, and uses a fade-out fade-in effect. It's not a speedy transition, but it's not too slow either. And the landscape keyboard works in all the apps and all the fields we tested.

But the keyboard itself? It falls just slightly short of the iPhone's. Like the iPhone (and the G1), it's got a capacitive screen. Pressing a key makes the key pop up above, so you can see what you're typing. Google thankfully decided against the goofy other-side-of-the-keyboard solution they had before.

Although the letter recognition is accurate, and is intuitive if you've ever typed on an iPhone, it just needs its sensitivity cranked up another 20%. Occasionally you'll press a key and the phone will sit there staring back at you blankly. More often than not it's the space key that refuses to detect, makingyourwordsruntogether. This mostly happens when you type really fast, so it seems like the hardware isn't quite fast enough to keep up with your taps.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.What's nice is that the phone displays multiple word guesses (like so many other phones) for autocomplete, which may save you key presses on longer words. And as far as we can tell from blasting out a bunch of emails and texts from it, the dictionary is quite accurate at detecting what you're typing.

It's still no hardware keyboard, but it's at least as good as typing on the iPhone, with the slightly worse sensitivity (and thus slower typing speeds) being made up for by the better auto-complete.

Verdict
Although the T-Mobile G2/Google Ion/HTC Magic has still has its flaws, it's essentially better than the G1 in every way. It's lighter, faster, better and supposedly lasts longer on a charge. Unless you absolutely need to have a hardware keyboard for massive text entry, there's no real reason why Android seekers shouldn't get the G2 when it debuts on T-Mobile soon.

It's lighter, thinner and faster than the G1

Software keyboard actually works

No more physical keyboard

Exactly the same OS as the G1, so there's not a lot of reason to upgrade if you already own the predecessor

Now, to be frank (you can be Shirley), thinking about the name doesn't exactly make me want to MyTouch myself, but it isn't the worst cellphone naming convention in the world, right? (that would probably be "shitstick" or something)

Unfortunately, the name is all the inventory screen provides. Aside from some interesting color choices in Merlot and white, there are no release dates. If a device is listed in inventory, however, you can bet a U.S. release day isn't too far behind. Anyone want to weigh in on that name? Politely? [TMO News - Thanks, David]

We still have no idea when the supposed T-Mobile US release is coming, or if their pricing will bear any resemblance to Voda's. I somehow doubt it will, because this price structure is crazy: Free on select (£35 and £30, depending on contract length) plans, £195 ($285) on an 18-month, £30 tariff, and £293 ($431) for £15, £20 and £25/mo tariffs. [Vodaphone via Pocket Lint]

MTV's comment boards are full of questionably-literate folks demanding to know how that silver ball flew around the stage, but nobody seems to have an answer yet. It probably isn't CGI, since MTV blew their entire special effects budget on digital sparklies. That, and it'd be tricky to place a hat on top of an imaginary ball. Simple string work is probably out, too— the ball's movements are way too smooth for any marionette action. It's not a remote controlled vehicle, because that's ridiculous. My guess is it's a combination of strings for when they're handling the ball, and CGI for when it's swooping around the ceiling, but we may never know. Anybody have any guesses? [MTV, thanks Luke!]

The webcam is trained to separate the foreground (hands) from the background (in this case, Andy's keyboard), which makes it much easier to identify different shapes made by his fingers. He can then move the cursor, click, and use two hands to perform more complex motions like stretching and pulling. He doesn't get into too much detail, partly because he has to constantly remind whoever's filming that no, this isn't magic, and no, there isn't a little person under his desk secretly making the cursor move on the screen.

The demo is really impressive for how simple Andy makes it all seem, and it'd be great to see what else he can do from this base. [MAKE]

Honestly, when I was in front of it I just couldn't tell the difference from a real t-shirt. It deformed like the one she was holding. I think she's a witch. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

Argument Número Uno: apparently this gestures-in-the-air control requires real magic powers. Watch Helga and myself getting frustrated, trying to control the pointer on the screen.

Argument Two: I can't think of any really useful application except having the ability to control your computer without having to touch your keyboard or screen at any time—and therefore, keeping them clean of any crumbles and/or fluids.

The idea is good. The implementation is bad. Unfortunately, the whole experience is quite frustrating, and while they are showing the same technology in an experimental TV—which has greater potential—it doesn't really work well there either.

I asked the german Kirsten Dunst and she told me an example of this being useful: if you are "cooking" and have your hands dirty, you wouldn't like to touch the keyboard or the mousepad, so you can use gestures to control de computer. Fair enough, that's one market right there: "dirty hands chefs who use their computers while they are cooking".

I can see this being useful in TVs, however, replacing the remote completely. And maybe in computers too, but not for pointer dragging and clicking. That's just useless. This technology needs a completely new graphic user interface to be really successful—like the simple Wii interface or the stuff shown in Minority Report. An interface that will allow to intuitively point at something or doing a hand gesture to trigger an action.

As it is now, it just doesn't fly. What do you think? Do you think this is useful? Is there any else to this than its "wow!-what?-why?" factor? [More IFA 2008 coverage]

Created by David O'Reilly, iHologram combines anamorphosis and the iPhone's gyroscopes to achieve this awesome visual magic trick. Anamorphosis is a way to draw things distorted so, while watched at a certain angle, they pop out of the 2D surface as if they were real.

David's application assumes a constant viewing angle of 35 to 45 degrees, which is the usual angle when anyone watches the iPhone screen. Knowing that angle, the application calculates the orientation of the screen relative to the viewer using the iPhone's motion sensors, so when you turn it around, the 3D world perspective gets skewed accordingly.

As you can see in the video, the effect is almost perfect, with the character popping out of the screen and the world he's walking on receding into a deep space. [Ismashphone]

I was tired, exhausted, and about to fall asleep standing up (there were no seats in the pit). The week had been hell, and I was physically and emotionally destroyed. But then, the band and the Boss took the stage and night and blasted everything away. In a few seconds, as the adrenalin kicked in, the exhaustion disappeared. Then Radio Nowhere came. And Lonesome Day. And the Promised Land. From there, he and his band made every single one of the 60,000 souls in the stadium fly.

Three hours of pure rock, with the Boss giving it all until the end, when he sung a 10-minute version of Twist And Shout, mixed with—get this—La Bamba. Not a single pause. Just music, heart and soul. I just couldn't believe this guy is almost as old as my dad. Forget Mick Jagger. Forget bloody Bono. He is the greatest rock musician alive, a true force of nature.

And I'm not even—or was not, until this day—a fan. The whole thing was totally unexpected for me. At the beginning I thought "this is going to be amazing" and I realized I only had my iPhone, because like every other concert, cameras and camcorders are absolutely prohibited. Especially when you are in the front row and the security guy can shake your hand. Or get your camera away.

During the whole concert, the entire stadium was under his command, jumping, singing, waving, screaming, completely in ecstasy, electrified, everyone sweating under the hot Spanish summer night. He and the band were enjoying the whole thing to no end. You could see them laughing, looking at us with real surprise in their faces, as if they weren't believing that this huge stadium just couldn't stop singing and jumping through every single one of the songs they played.

They were giving all their life away right there, and the public was returning it right back. With interest. Each of us. Mass hysteria. Crowd orgasm. Total love and dedication from Bruce, the band, and the public.

At one point—one of many in which he came to sing even closer to us—the Boss walked to the central platform and took a girl up on the stage. I knew she was the daughter of one of the Spanish fans—who had been following him through the whole tour—because I met her before the concert started. She danced with him for a minute, smiling while the band played. It was just one of the many "I can't believe this is happening" moments of the night.

Right there, in the very first row, in the corner of the central platform, I could see all these moments perfectly, like I'm seeing the screen of my computer right now. We were able to actually shake his hand, as well as the hands of the band—who at the end all came to the center platform. I shouted at him at one point ("Yes! Take us up there!") and he replied looking straight into my eyes, with the biggest smile, pointing at me and saying "Yes, I'm going to take you there!" just before the band exploded with sound.

Another time, I could see him turning to Max Weinberg—at the end of Seven Nights to Rock—and whisper: "Born to Run!" And (boom!) Born to Run started to play a second later. At any time, I could turn around and see the 60,000 people in the Santiago Bernabéu—the name of the Real Madrid football stadium—singing, clapping, taken way by his power. Yes, it was absolutely breathtaking. All of it. From the very beginning I thought: "I have to share this with the people I love. I can't do this justice with my description. I have to take photos."

There was when I started hating the iPhone's camera.

Nothing, I wasn't able to take any of this magic with clarity. I'm not even talking about recording video (don't get me started on that). I'm just talking about making a decent photo with one of the most advanced pieces of technology ever developed. Only one single photo that didn't appear to be taken with a broken Lomo. By a drunk guy. Without a decent sleep in the last three days (OK, forget about the part about the drunk guy.)

Sure, there was some clear pics here and there, but whatever was OK'ish, it was also completely crazy and badly framed. Some of them look nice—as you can see here, in the gallery of untouched images—but most of them need cropping and heavy Photoshop treatment.

I know most cellphone cameras are exactly the same. They behave poorly under low light conditions, they are slow, and have bad interfaces. And yes, I have to admit I like the iPhone's camera blurriness and unwanted "special effects" sometimes. I even try to get similar effects with my DSLR. But that's optional. This time I only wanted one thing: to be able to frame a good photo. Without having to hold the iPhone in a weird position. Without trying to find the stupid software interface button and not miss the shot (which I did, plenty of times).

That's what I want. I don't want more resolution, and I don't want a stupid zoom. I would be happy (HAPPY) with good lenses and a better, speedier, more luminous sensor. And of course, the physical button. In fact, scrap the rest. Just give me the physical button. As much as I love virtual interfaces—because they open the door to multi-functional devices at a low cost, with great power and flexibility—I'm afraid that there are still times when the only way to go is a physical button. Photography is one of them.

And since we are at it, here's a note for the Nokias, Sony Ericssons, Samsungs, and LGs of this world: stop doing the silly marketdrone "More megapixels!" and "Bigger optical zooms!" race. Educate the users. Don't dazzle them with higher numbers. Give us all more quality, more light, and more speed. That's what really counts to catch the special, truly ephemeral, completely unexpected moments you want to save forever. Because when I think about it, even while I will always keep this concert in my—blurry as the iPhone's camera—memory, there would never be another one like it.

That's exactly what cellphone cameras are for. To capture the unexpected, to take decent pictures of the special moments in your life, because we can't go around life with a camera in our pocket at all times. That's what I want in an cellphone and, especially, in the iPhone. A camera to be able to take any moment we want, fast, and with good quality, under most circumstances. And Señor Jobs, no matter what, please give us the physical button on the iPhone 3G 2.0.

It seems like the perfect software for the laziest people in the world, but it's one of those "oh wow" things that will make everyone smile when using it.

Breakthrough Visual Search Engine for Mobile Phones Takes Off Big in Japan

Pasadena, CA & Tokyo, Japan - April 17, 2008 - Evolution Robotics Inc., a leading robotics technology company, in partnership with Bandai Networks Co. Ltd, Japan's leading mobile content provider, announced today that KDDI Corporation is including the "ER Search" visual search engine on its new Spring 2008 "au™" line of camera phones, and has made it available for download for any KDDI customer with a prior "au" camera phone. This launch marks a dramatic expansion in the market for mobile visual search, which will enable millions of consumers in Japan alone to do online searches by taking pictures of everyday objects with their camera phone.

The deployment of this technology in the mass market also opens up an entirely new range of categories of services for mobile marketing, which is already projected to grow to $24 Billion worldwide by 2013. (Source: ABI Research)

ER Search is a mobile search engine operated by Bandai Networks and powered by Evolution Robotics' ViPR visual pattern recognition system. It works essentially like using a traditional search engine, but without having to type any text or go through complicated menus. Instead, users simply snap a picture of something they're interested in and immediately get back relevant content, all in the palm of the hands.

As an example, KDDI customers will be able to take a picture of a music CD that would return links relating to the artist, hear clips from the album and purchase songs to download on their phone. If they are shopping for wine in a store, they can take a picture of the wine label and get expert reviews and recommendations on the spot. Or, if they are browsing through a catalog and see an item they'd like to buy, they can order it immediately by snapping a picture of the item on the page.

"ER Search is an entirely new way for connecting consumers with content and companies," said Satoshi Oshita, CEO of Bandai Networks. "Because ER Search runs on mobile phones, searches happen when and where the customer is, as soon as they see something that they're interested in. Additionally, the fact that a customer simply has to click a picture of a product or advertisement, makes the search process far easier and immediate than anything that has been available before."

"We are very pleased to be working with Bandai Networks and are excited to see the momentum building in the Japanese market," said Paolo Pirjanian, President and CEO of Evolution Robotics. "Our mission is to take aerospace-grade technologies and make them affordable for mass market applications, and ER Search is a great example. We see this as just the start of a growing market for visual search in Asia and other parts of the globe and are actively working with our partners to expand the range of services that can benefit consumers and companies alike."

Bandai Networks had already deployed ER Search on over one million phones in Japan in 2007. With this deployment with KDDI, the number of users with access to ER Search will expand by millions more in a very short time, making it even more compelling for companies and advertisers to participate in the service.

About ViPR

The ViPR technology easily supports user-generated content so that users can take new pictures of objects, images, videos or even locations and tag them with links and content to expand the database. That content will then show up in the results returned to other users who take similar pictures, thus creating a robust world-wide visual database for communities to develop and access. (A video demonstration of Evolution Robotics' visual search technology running on Apple's iPhone can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/user/EvolutionRobotics)

ER Search's versatility rests in Evolution Robotics' breakthrough ViPR visual recognition technology. ViPR is able to learn new objects and images on the fly (such as the cover art on a music CD), without the need for any special encoding such as barcodes or watermarks. Just as significant, ViPR performs well on low cost components such as the cameras used on most mobile phones today, even when lighting and other visual conditions are poor.

For the music search application alone, Bandai Networks has over 150,000 music CD covers already indexed in their database. Other mobile marketing and mobile commerce applications include providing content and links for print ads, book covers, DVDs, product packaging, movie posters, retail displays, business signs, etc. Even animation, streaming video or images from live TV can be supported.

[Evolution via Mobile Whack]

I want the Pixar one, badly, but I wouldn't say no to his home-made zoetrope here. Much humble, but equally charming.

You can get all the details of the construction in his site. [LEGO 3D Zoetrope and VNOG via MAKE]