Touch Screen Gadget

Typhoon complaints to many touchscreen device manufactures

Posted by sawaru | Category: Trend Watch & News

Typhoon’s complaint alleges that defendants have infringed and continue to infringe its US Patent 5,379,057 issued 3 January, 1995 and entitled “Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computer System Employing Same,” and US Patent No. 5,675,362 issued October 7, 1997 and entitled “Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computing System Employing Same."

It launched litigation over the alleged infringements in December 2007 against Dell. Now, Typhoon has added Apple, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia and LG Electronics to the list of companies it is litigating against.

“The addition of these defendants is a further step in protecting Typhoon’s IP from being unfairly exploited. Hopefully, the world of potential infringers will take notice that it is the company’s intent to aggressively protect its intellectual property,” said Typhoon’s director of legal affairs and licensing, Hofheimer, Gartlir & Gross lawyer, Craig Weiner.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Alternative Touch base Browser UI is there for iPhone

Posted by sawaru | Category: Mobile Phone, Smartphone, Software

Apple iPhone is undoubtedly a very popular device, but not everyone is in love with the built-in Safari web browser. Fear not, because no fewer than two additional web browsing options could be coming your way, thanks to the upcoming launch of the Apple AppStore.
There’s no explicit mention of Internet Explorer just yet, but there are rumbles that versions of Firefox mobile UI and Opera mobile are being developed and launched for the Cupertino wonder. The biggest hurdle, it seems, is that the iPhone SDK agreement is essentially blocking development in this arena. At least, that’s how some people are interpreting this section of the agreement.

No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s) […] An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise.

Will Apple allow third parties to develop applications that effectively compete against applications already installed on the iPhone? Let’s hope so.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Choosing the best Smartphones going to hard

Posted by sawaru | Category: Mobile Phone, PDA, Smartphone, Trend Watch & News, Windows Mobile

The 3G iPhone is nearly with us - but will its touchscreen technology make it the smartphone market leader?

It’s three weeks until the 3G iPhone is available - and rivals are already pointing to their own advantages over it. If you’re looking to buy a smartphone, how do you choose between them? The first question is not so much whether you need or want a particular smartphone, but whether the word “smartphone” is itself a red herring. Manufacturers are very particular: a smartphone, they’ll tell you, has an open operating system that lets you add applications. If a phone doesn’t have that, but has email, a touchscreen and other bells and whistles, then it’s a “feature phone”. (Quite where the iPhone, which can only add applications that Apple has approved, fits isn’t obvious.)

Still, what’s definitely coming this summer is a battle of the touchscreen phones. Apple, through marketing if nothing else, is leading the charge but Samsung, RIM (the BlackBerry people) and HTC are there as well. LG is keen not to be seen competing with smartphones, but its Secret model has a perfectly good touchscreen and media player capability.

Consumer demand

But do people want touchscreens? The launch of the original iPhone, at least in the UK, must cast some doubt on that - on the launch day the queues didn’t stretch around the streets as they did in the US, although the initial order did sell out. Tony Cripps, an analyst with the consultants Ovum, cautiously believes there’s a demand. “What people want is an easier way of interacting with their phones and devices generally. As long as a touchscreen is allied to a well-designed user interface, they can go a long way to making this happen.”

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Popularity: 7% [?]

SlipCOVER Touchscreen for iMac

Posted by sawaru | Category: Desktop, LCD Monitor, Overlay

For anybody wanting to jab rather than click on their iMac, Troll Touch offer a DIY touchscreen kit that adds a finger-sensitive layer to the front of the slick desktop system.  Available for both 20 and 24-inch aluminum iMacs, the new touch panels join a range that already caters for Apple’s laptops and Cinema Displays.

The SlipCOVER is a high resolution analog touchscreen that connect to the iMac via USB. The company claims that the touchscreen is not noticeable to casual observers.The touchscreen overlays are user installable and support input via fingertip, gloved hand, or stylus.

Unfortunately the system doesn’t support MultiTouch, which Troll Touch have claimed is due to OS X not supporting multiple cursors.  Whether that will change once Microsoft get into their stride with MultiTouch on Windows 7 remains to be seen.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

iPhone Killers need to have features

Posted by sawaru | Category: Mobile Phone, Smartphone

The "iPhone Killers," including the Garmin’s Nuviphone; Samsung’s Instinct and Omnia; HTC’s Touch Diamond; BlackBerry Thunder; and others, have software, rather than hardware buttons for dialing the phone and typing messages. They also tend to have other iPhone-like features, such as accelerometers for automatically reorienting the display for landscape or portrait modes.

These relatively significant departures from the design of traditional cell phones seem to cause an involuntary use of the "iPhone Killer" moniker, even though nobody — not the writer, not the editors, not the readers and not even the companies making these phones — believe for a second they’re going to "kill" the iPhone. They’re simply copying iPhone features in order to steal a little of Apple’s handset market share and fill out their respective lines of cell phones.

Despite the low unit sales and probably low margins the "iPhone Killers" command, their touch screen technology and other features are usually advanced and sophisticated. Nearly all of them, for example, have features superior to the iPhone, such as higher-quality cameras. All the major "iPhone Killer" makers do make some really great hardware.

Most of these copycats failed the important unique features iPhone does. Here are the list.

1. Huge letters and numbers

Type in a phone number, and it’s displayed with very large characters. The numbers on the calculator cover something like ten percent of the screen.

2. Empty, unused space on the screen

Space is obviously limited on any cell phone screen. So most "iPhone Killer" makers cope by cramming information into every available piece of real-estate.

3. Transitions between functions

Moving from one thing to the next on the iPhone usually involves transitions. Menus don’t just appear, they slide from the bottom or the top of the screen.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

Microsoft Zune playing pricey catch up

Posted by sawaru | Category: MP3 Player, Portable Media Player & Storage, Trend Watch & News

Microsoft is considered one of the more successful rivals to Apple but has historically lagged behind the iPod as it focuses on expanding its lineup to include the essentials rather than introducing a touchscreen player at the same time as the iPod touch in the fall of last year. The company launched a flash-based Zune roughly two years after Apple and this spring has just added TV shows, smart playlists, and other features present in earlier versions of Apple’s software.
Microsoft Entertainment and Devices chief Robbie Bach is less direct regarding the prospect of a Zune phone and first says that there are no plans to develop an in-house phone under the Zune label or a similar platform, but agrees with a consensus that an all-in-one device is inevitable. Establishing the Zune, its software, and an online store are part of a “broad investment” that will pay off later, he says. The official also notes that the company is “comfortable” with both hardware and software.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

Blackberry Bold, iPhone-like with 3G

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone

Research in Motion’s (RIMM) new BlackBerry Bold should be a big hit with IT operations professionals convinced the iPhone isn’t an enterprise-class mobile device but driven to near-aneurysm by discontented employees demanding them.

The device is largely as expected–an iPhonish-looking thing with both GPS and Wi-Fi, 1GB of permanent flash memory, a 2-megapixel camera, full HTML browsing, 3G support on GSM networks with HSDPA access and, of course, the BlackBerry’s one-trick killer app: instant, secure email. That’s a compelling combination for business users and casual ones not easily swayed by the iPhone’s hype juggernaut as well. Indeed, Citigroup analyst Jim Suva says it could boost RIM’s quarterly shipments by 200,000 to 400,000.

But perhaps not without a bit of struggle. The BlackBerry Bold won’t ship until as late as August, which means Apple (AAPL) could beat it to market with the enterprise-friendly 3G iPhone it’s rumored to be uncrating at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June. Which has got to worry RIM. After all, the first-generation iPhone had claimed a 28% market share by the fourth quarter of 2007. That’s still less than the BlackBerry, which holds about a 41% market share, but the iPhone hasn’t even been on the market a year.

[digitaldaily.allthingsd]

Popularity: 2% [?]

MacBook touch Apple enthusiasts soon

Posted by admin | Category: Laptop & Notebook, Trend Watch & News

Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray’s chief Apple analyst, issued a report to clients Thursday offering his take on 15 “unanswered questions” about Apple’s Mac, iPod, iPhone and retail businesses. Much of it covers territory that will be familiar to Apple watchers, but one point struck me as new.

It has to do with Apple’s Multi-Touch technology, which Munster describes as a fully-protected “core differentiator” of Apple’s products.

Munster believes that the Multi-Touch gestures pioneered on the iPhone and recently added to the MacBook Air and Pro, are “just the beginning of Apple’s exploration of Multi-Touch on the Mac.” Eventually, Munster says, those gesture controls will work their way from MacBook’s trackpad, where they currently reside, to the backlit screen, for “a more dynamic user interface for the Mac.”

A touchscreen MacBook — the so-called MacBook Touch — was something many Apple enthusiasts hoped would be announced at MacWorld this year. Gizmodo last November ran a contest inviting users to imagine what an Apple Tablet computer would look like. You can see the winner, and 20 other notable entries, here.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

iPhone keypad the right way

Posted by admin | Category: Smartphone

Here, you need to gain a good amount of knowledge about the invention. Just playing around with the phone will not do. The touch screen keyboard of iphone is complicated.

It is natural to spend hours when using the iphone technology for the first time. There are several things you require to learn in order to facilitate yourself typing your messages at the speed of light. Learning these techniques will help you type your messages quickly and that too without having to make any mistakes. Once you learn to use this keyboard, you would wonder how you actually managed without this technology for so many years in the past.

For instance, when you wish to write a letter, you just require to tap on the keyboard. However, you also require to be aware of the fact that the letter is not placed on the screen until you lift off your finger.

The reason is that it easily lets you to correct your mistakes. In case, you accidentally touch the wrong letter, you can easily correct it by simply sliding your finger over to the letter as you intended to write and then lift off. This indicates that you don’t require to delete your mistake as you still have some time to correct the whole thing.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

More iPhone killer from LG

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone, Trend Watch & News

After Nokia’s unofficial announcement of the Tube 5800, LG Electronics said it will also try to challenge the iPhone by releasing new handsets with touch-screen user interface.

The South Korean firm, considered as the worlds number 5 handset maker, made the pronouncement after the success of its Prada KE850 handset, which has sometimes been described as an ‘iPhone clone’ even though it was announced two months before Apple’s product.

Earlier, LG Electronics has entered the touch-screen phone arena, which is dominated by Apple’s iPhone, with the launch of LG-KF510 also known as “Touch Lighting Phone”.    

The “Touch Lighting Phone” is a 3-megapixel touch-screen phone that is 10.9 millimeters in width. The phone also adopts the “Interactive Touch Lighting’’  technology on the surface, enabling users to change images.  The handset also features an “Auto Luminance Control’’ function in a full light-emitting diode touch-pad on the front to save energy.  

The latest model made its first international debut at the “GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008’’  - formerly 3GSM World Congress - the mobile industry’s biggest event, that took place Feb. 11-24 in Barcelona, Spain. It is priced at $300 to $350.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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