Displaying items by tag: MultiTouch

Lately laser keyboards are being increasingly replaced with motion sensors such as depth cameras like Kinect and Leap Motion, and they are now joined by Haptix sensor which allows you to manage your computer typing, "pinching" (zoom) or sliding (for scrolling) on each surface .

After they announced that they will bring groundbreaking Windows 8 devices in an invitation for their event, Samsung finally revealed what they have made. The new line of so called Smart PCs will include Windows 8 ultrabooks, notebooks, tablet's and all-in-one PC'. This new line will be branded ATIV to separate them from Samsung’s Android based line. The two models are named Pro 700 T and 500 T; they will be a hybrid of tablets and notebooks. “A new category has arisen; the smart PC which is a combination of a PC and a tablet and Windows 8 is the linchpin,” Tim Baxter, Samsung’s American President, stated.

The Samsung V Apple trial is still going on, but what we have noticed is that now that Apple is finished with their side of the story many sites that were carrying the Apple flag have stopped covering it. As Apple paraded one witness after another we saw so many headlines proclaiming that Apple had won with this or that witness that is became comical. This is despite the fact that in many cases the actual experts felt that the key witnesses either had a neutral effect on Apple’s case or ended up slightly in favor of Samsung (with Peter Bressler and Terry Musika being two of the worst).

The day before Apple holds its three ring circus for the next generation of iPhone Adobe shows off a few choice apps for Android’s Honeycomb Tablet Operating system. One of these is their top end Photoshop app with a completely new touch interface. Now, Adobe does have these out for both the iOS and for Android (both free and paid versions), but these new flavors appear to much more specifically designed for the larger screened Android based tablets. It is also worth mentioning Adobe’s partnership with nVidia here as there are a number of tablets based on the Green Teams dual core Tegra 2 SoC.  

Of the six Apps shown off (Photoshop Touch, the other apps are Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler, and Proto) one already exists for Apple’s iOS as it is now and one has existing versions (although not as complete as the new Photoshop Touch) for both Android and iOS. The other four are new and from the look of them are aimed squarely at the Android platform.  

The releases are interestingly timed. All of them appear to be developed using Adobe’s AIR platform, which technically is capable of developing across multiple platforms.  However, our guess is that this is a subtle slap in the face of Apple for their former CEO’s obnoxious rejection of Flash based applications and at one point an outright ban on any app that was developed in Flash (even if it was later packaged to operate without the need for Flash). What better way to pull some potential clients away than to announce a group of “professional” applications designed for the competition?  The question is, with the launch of these apps slated for November will this make any difference at all? Our guess is no, after all people that want an iOS device will get one and the people that want an Android Tablet will get that. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. In the long run, a few people may opt for Android over iOS if they are looking for a tablet in that time frame, but if someone already owns an iPad or iPad2 they are unlikely to make that bold of a shift just because of Adobe. Plus Adobe has already alluded to the fact that they plan on versions for the iOS later…

But all the posturing aside it is nice to see some serious productivity apps hit the non-Windows based tablets. Now if they could only come up with a decent office suite it really could pull the tablet out of the “cool toy” category and make them truly useful.

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It looks like the cheapest Android Tablet on the market is now the HP TouchPad. Ever since HP announced the death of the WebOS division (the moved into another department) the rapidly changing company has been trying to unload all of the hardware they have sitting around. To accomplish this they dropped the prices on the TouchPad from $499 (16GB) and $599 (32GB) to $99 and $149 respectively. This price has caused something of a rush on them and most of the stores that carried them are all sold out. Now while many are snapping these up, there are some that are not interested in a product that will have an OS that is not going to truly be supported anymore.

Well, have no fear. The gang known as Team-Touchdroid has found a way to get Android running on this hardware complete with full multitouch capability. Team-Touchdroid in combination with the group CyanogenMod (the ones that are responsible for most of the Rooted Android ROMs) have been working hard to make your new inexpensive investment pay off in a big way. Their progress has been amazing; the pair have already gotten 2.3.5 running on the device and now have added the full ten finger multitouch to the party. We are sure it will not be long before they achieve their goal of porting HoneyComb to these now very cheap but hard to find tablets. Check out the video below

Source Team-TouchDroid

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