Touch Screen Gadget

Nintendo DS Lite double touch face

Posted by sawaru | Category: Games & Console

The current Nintendo DS Lite only has a touchscreen on the bottom half of the handheld and the top display is just a regular screen. By expanding the touchy-feel experience to the second display, Nintendo may be able to better create Brain Age-like titles and other interactive adventures. The other rumor is that both screens will get a little bigger too.

Don’t get your hopes up too far just yet, though, because there’s no way we’re seeing a new DS before the holiday season. Even the optimistic among us are looking at an "early next year" launch window.

via Mobilemag

Tenori-On Sequencing

Posted by admin | Category: Industry, Music & Entertainment

Tenori-On is a musical instrument for live electronic music performance, being developed by Yamaha and Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, known for his Nintendo DS game Elektroplankton. When we dreamed about the kinds of instruments we’d be using to make electronic music in the 21st century, this is what many of us most likely conjured up in our minds. A sequence is looped by the machine, and the player uses its 256 dots to activate points on the sequencer, turned on and off by the touch of a finger. To truly understand how awesome this is just watch the video above.

The Tenori-On website claims that “The Tenori-on is both a serious instrument for advanced users and a gateway for people who want to compose electronic music, but have little or no previous experience.” Somehow I doubt the claim that this thing could really be considered a “serious instrument,” but it still looks freaking cool. It will be available in extremely limited release on May 1st, for a rather steep $1200.

Tenori-On: Create - Control - Connect (via Tenori-On website)

Nintendo Bomberman Land Touch 2

Posted by admin | Category: Games & Console

Bomberman Land Touch! 2, as well as a host of other mini-game collections, ultimately fall into the less-than-stellar no-man’s land in between, and that’s a shame. Combine all this with the fact that some mini-games have been directly ripped from the first Bomberman Land Touch! and you’re likely to be left with a somewhat monotonous sense of deja vu. Having said that, though, it should be noted that none of the mini-games are downright awful (many are, in fact, quite enjoyable) and it is quite likely that you’ll enjoy your sprint through the Story Mode (particularly if you’re new to the whole mini-game collection genre). But, at the end of the day, without any real hooks to reel you in, you’re probably going to find little incentive to return once you’ve seen what the game has to offer the first time around. At least not in a single player capacity, anyway. You see, where this game really excels is in the multiplayer department. The added competitive edge can make even the most dull mini-game seem more exciting, but that’s not what we’re referring too. We’re talking about the Battle Mode!

[cubed3]

Korea touch phone boom

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

In Korea mobile Internet is the hottest issue among early adopters of technology in Korea. At www.cetizen.com, the largest online community of mobile phone users, the three most popular handsets these days are all touch-screen phones specializing in Web browsing ― Samsung’s Haptic, Pantech & Curitel’s CanU and LG’s Touch Web Phone.  
These so-called full-browsing phones are selling at impressive rates. Samsung says that it has sold around 30,000 Haptic phones in 15 days since its launch on March 25, which is about the double the daily sales of other new models. Its hefty price tag ― 797,000 won ($800) without a rebate or a discount ― hasn’t been discouraging customers, the company says.
“It’s a bit expensive, but still we are in short supply. Retailers are even paying in advance to secure their volume,” a company spokesman said.

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PSP touchscreen is a "must"

Posted by admin | Category: Games & Console

Portable hardware is becoming more and more popular, but I am interested in exploring what is deemed acceptable in the tough balance between hardware size and quality.

No doubt companies do market research on what consumers deem an appropriate size for a portable system, but is the current "midpoint" what we want?

Currently we have Sony’s PSP competing with the Nintendo DS, and the new Apple iPhone looks promising.

Both Nintendo and Apple have a touch-screen. The PSP doesn’t, but it has a much nicer screen and a generally more mature shelf of games.

As gamers, what do we want? Would open source make it better? (as the homebrew scene on PSP suggests…)

As a piece of portable hardware for ‘everything’ - games, movies, browsing, music, tell me what you would like to see, and hopefully the whitecoats will see this, stand up and pay attention.
For the current generations hardware, I would like to see a screen as big as an entire PSP and make it a touch screen.

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Nintendo DS Lite latest Touch Generation

Posted by admin | Category: Uncategorized

Touch. Make Contact. Feel a Connection
Touch Generation Games on Nintendo DS Lite

Not a hard core gamer, why not try the Nintendo DS Lite. This handheld console is perfect for people on the go. Unlike computer based tools you can learn as you go: on the bus or during your lunch break.

Its innovative touch screen offers simple interaction that inspires a wide range of possibilities. It is also educational, with Nintendo’s Touch Generations exercising your brain. The Touch Generation series allows you to immerse yourself in games that promote production.

The range of Touch Generation Games offers everyone unique and accessible ways to play with the Nintendo DS Lite, representing a bridge to a wider audience. Some may remember Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, which keeps your mind feeling sharp with daily brain exercises such as basic math, syllable counting and reading.

Brain Training was just the start. Nintendo has revolutionized gaming with even more learning titles, making a fun way for kids to learn or to keep the adult mind on the ball.

Dr Kawashima returns with More Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? This latest installation features fun new training exercises including; Correct Change which challenges you to work out the right amount of money to hand back after a transaction as quickly as possible, Missing Symbols, a twist on the classic ‘20 calculations’ test, and Masterpiece Recital which invites you to follow a music sheet shown on one screen and touch the corresponding piano keys on the touch screen.

Check out Big Brain Academy, which is also available on Wii, where the mini games are as simple as finding matching pairs, counting coins and memorizing numbers. But as the 60 seconds tick down and the difficulty of each mini-game increases, you’ll feel your palms sweat.

If numbers are your thing, why not try Dr Kageyama’s Maths Training: The Hundred Cell Calculation Method which helps refresh your basic math skills for school or everyday life. The key principal is repetition which, according to Kageyama, stimulates the brain. The math exercises range from simple one digit math problems to slightly more complex three digit challenges.

Another great Touch Generation Game is Sight Training™: Enjoy Exercising and Relaxing Your Eyes. This game helps train your visual abilities, teaching you to relax your eyes through fun and dynamic exercises, while helping to keep the five aspects of your vision in good shape.

Simple, fun and ultimately addictive – Touch Generation Games on Nintendo DS Lite

www.touchgenerations.nintendo.com.au

Images available at: www.images.nintendo.com.au

Gestures UI are making inroads

Posted by admin | Category: Multi Touch, Trend Watch & News

IT’S fair to say that one of the most striking images in the 2002 film Minority Report was its vision of computing in the future.

The sight of star Tom Cruise seamlessly searching layers of files and data through a combination of gestures and sweeps of his hand was inspirational to many, and prompted widespread musing as to when such interaction with machines would become a reality.

As it turns out, not as long as the movie predicted (it was set in 2054). Indeed, just six years on, gesture computing is fast becoming common.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft founder Bill Gates spoke of a future of gesture controls, a future of devices that respond to sound and touch rather than conventional input devices.

Many people are likely to have been introduced to gesture computing through Nintendo’s innovative Wii games console.

Its motion-sensing controller, enabling gamers to re-create the physical action of sports such as tennis and golf proved a winner for the company and boosted sales of the Wii ahead of its higher specced console rivals.

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DS Dragon Sword game juice

Posted by admin | Category: Games & Console

If you’re in the market for an action game that wrings the most out of the Nintendo DS’s visual and sonic capabilities, you need look no further than Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. It is possibly the most technically proficient title available for the system, brimming with superb, smooth-as-silk visuals and sword-slashing sound effects that make the action practically spring off the screen. It’s impossible to imagine how Dragon Sword could have better captured the overall look, feel, and flow of the console games, from protagonist Ryu Hyabusa’s midair acrobatics to the dramatic Eastern-hued soundtrack. And while it may have its problems, the gameplay does a pretty good job of keeping up, matching most of this brilliance with a compelling adventure and stirring, combo-stringing stunts that are thick with thrills and kills.

To play, you’ll first need to flip the DS sideways. Every bit of the action takes place on the touch screen, with the top screen relegated to cutscenes and the minimap. The touch screen also holds the key to your controls: Every move you make as Ryu, from running and jumping to slicing and dicing, is done with the stylus. The only time you need to touch a button is to block, which can be done with any button–even the D pad. It’s a pretty comfortable setup, and we found that keeping our thumb on the D pad for this purpose worked out just fine (if you’re a southpaw, you would use a face button in a similar manner), though using one of the shoulder buttons is also a viable solution.

Even if you’re a series aficionado used to doing your dirty work with a standard controller, it won’t take you long to get used to the controls. Using the stylus is remarkably intuitive, since your flicks with the stylus are met with a more or less equivalent action on the screen. If you want to run, just slide the stylus in the direction you want to move. If you want to jump, flick it upward; to attack, swipe through the enemy you wish to target. It’s simple, and it may not afford you the kind of complex combinations and wall-jumping gymnastics you can perform on the Xbox and PlayStation 3 titles, but there’s still a remarkable array of interesting techniques to pull off. For example, you can double-jump toward the heavens by flicking upward twice, and then slash through a nearby fiend, which will cause Ryu to zoom toward his enemy and slice into it. Scratching rapidly will unleash a powerful attack that varies based on how long you scribble, while tapping an enemy will cause you to throw a shuriken or shoot your bow. It’s all pretty effortless.

[cnet]