Apple have filed a patent for a system controlled by fingers hovering over a surface, rather than necessarily touching it. One potential application for the technology could see it integrated into the capacitive touchscreen of the iPhone, allowing the handset to recognize non-contact gestures, shut off different parts of the display, or highlight specific touch-controls.
Alternatively, it could be used in a notebook form-factor, to track a user’s hands above the keyboard and switching on and off the multitouch trackpad accordingly. Alternatively it could recognize gestures performed above the trackpad, or combination commands of touch and hover.
The system works by using an array of sensors that track infrared light, from LEDs or OLEDs, and measure its reflection off the user’s hands. Apple describes such arrays either covering the whole display, mapped one to each pixel, or merely on specific hot-spot areas. As with all patents, there’s no knowing when - or even if - Apple will ever include this technology in a commercial product.
[via Electronista]
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Written by Chris Davies on December 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Trigem (TG), Averatec’s parent company, have taken the wraps off of their latest MID, the 4.8-inch touchscreen Lluon Mobbit. Unlike most Mobile Internet Devices we’ve seen, the Mobbit uses Windows XP rather than Linux; Trigem have given it a finger-friendly GUI overlay. Specs include the 1.3GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor, 1GB of RAM, a choice of 30GB HDD or 16GB SSD and WiFi, Bluetooth and WiBro.
The display may be on the small side, but it’s still running at an internet pleasing 1024 x 600 resolution. There’s also a 2-megapixel camera on the back, a DMB-T TV tuner, and the US15W chipset which supports hardware video decoding.
Measuring 166 x 88 x 21mm and weighing 375g, with a switch to 3G HSDPA (rather than WiBro) and maybe WiMAX as well, this could be an impressive little media and ‘net device. Best of all is the price; apparently just 600,000 won ($411) when it launches in January 2009.
[via UMPC Portal]
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Written by Chris Davies on December 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Details of what appears to be the successor to the T-Mobile Shadow have been published on the FCC website. The smartphone, made by HTC, now runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and has a faster processor; otherwise the feature set is very similar to the existing device, with a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen, scroll-wheel and slide-out 20-button keyboard.
There’s also a 2-megapixel camera, WiFi, microSD slot for augmenting internal memory and touch-sensitive buttons on the front panel. However there’s no 3G support: the handset tops out at GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity.
What is does have, however, is UMA support, which indicates that the device may offer T-Mobile’s Unlimited HotSpot Calling VoIP service. Unsurprisingly there’s no word on release or pricing, but expect the T-Mobile Shadow II to drop relatively soon.
[via PhoneScoop]
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Written by Chris Davies on December 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Details of what appears to be the successor to the T-Mobile Shadow have been published on the FCC website. The smartphone, made by HTC, now runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and has a faster processor; otherwise the feature set is very similar to the existing device, with a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen, scroll-wheel and slide-out 20-button keyboard.
There’s also a 2-megapixel camera, WiFi, microSD slot for augmenting internal memory and touch-sensitive buttons on the front panel. However there’s no 3G support: the handset tops out at GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity.
What is does have, however, is UMA support, which indicates that the device may offer T-Mobile’s Unlimited HotSpot Calling VoIP service. Unsurprisingly there’s no word on release or pricing, but expect the T-Mobile Shadow II to drop relatively soon.
[via PhoneScoop]
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Written by Chris Davies on December 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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LG Vu is a handset that can’t be easily found across the US at the moment.
But AT&T is just taking care of that, as it prepares the release of a new Vu that will come in a wine color, to distinguish itself from the original black device.
According to Boy Genius Report, the new LG Vu 920 will come not only with its look changed, but also with support for MediaFLO and some bug fixes.
Other than that, it looks like you’ll get the same old specs, including a 3 inch TFT touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels, a 2MP camera, full HTML browser, 120MB of internal memory, quad-band GSM connectivity and dual-band HSDPA connectivity.
As for the price of the wine-colored LG Vu, this is said to be similar to the one of the original phone: a bit over $100 with a 2-yr contract agreement. So if that brand new LG Incite is too expensive for you, the not-so-brand-new LG Vu surely looks like a good alternative.
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Written by Ilinca Nita on December 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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LG has joined with Franklin Covey to release the spanking new LG-SU100 in the Korean market. The handset provides a 3 inch AM OLED WVGA touchscreen display, DMB TV tuner, Bluetooth, and an integrated Camera. What makes the LG-SU100 different with other handset is that it has a unique feature designed by Franklin Covey based on their famous Franklin Planner. [Akihabara via Upcoming Cell Phones]
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Written by Johan on December 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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LG and Franklin Covey have collaborated to release the LG-SU100 in the Korean market. This mobile phone comes jam packed with a 3 inch AM OLED WVGA touchscreen display, DMB TV tuner, Bluetooth, and an integrated Camera. It has a unique feature designed by Franklin Covey based on their famous Franklin Planner. [AVING]
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Written by Martin Lee on December 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Nokia’s N97 smartphone is already polarizing opinion, with some welcoming it as the Finnish company’s antidote to the iPhone and others worried that a resistive touchscreen and relatively chunky casing have already destined it to failure. SlashPhone’s Budi Putra was on hand for us at the Nokia World conference in Barcelona, and has spent some hands-on time with the N97 today; check out the video after the cut.
The N97 has a 3.5-inch, 16:9 touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard; the unusually designed hinge tilts the display up at a 30-degree angle. Inside there’s HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth with support for the A2DP stereo profile, A-GPS, an accelerometer and a digital compass. Integrated storage is 32GB while there’s also a microSD slot for a further 16GB. There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and a dual-LED flash.
What will likely make or break it for the N97 is the software. Nokia have ramped S60 up to v.5, with even more touch-focused tweaks and functionality than seen in the existing 5800 XpressMusic. Features include an always-on social networking window integrated into the homescreen, improved Nokia Maps with the ability to share geo-specific media with other uses directly from the N97 itself, and a full web browser with Flash video support.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Written by Chris Davies on December 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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