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The Magic Behind Touchscreens

t722 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:14:31 +0000

Touchscreens. They're everywhere. The catch is that "touchscreen" can describe a few very different technologies that all perform a similar function. Here's a breakdown of the most popular techniques for making touchscreen magic happen

Călătoria cu metroul, o experienţă de 5 stele

Moca — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:36:48 +0000

Post rated U. Pentru explicaţia rating-ului, apasă AICI înainte de a citi post-ul.

Nu ştiu de unde ideea că monitoarele instalate în staţiile de metrou sunt bani aruncaţi aiurea, 2 milioane de euro. Oricum, nu Metrorex a cheltuit atât pentru voi, staţi calmi, şi pe bună dreptate, îi doare în fund. Au venit nişte tipi mai inteligenţi care numai de pierdut nu vor avea.

Atât timp cât nu există o alternativă la transportul de căcat din Bucureşti (la suprafaţă), rămâne să ne mulţumim cu unul de băşină, subteran. Iar acea alternativă NU va exista până (cel mai devreme) la sfârşitul acestul secol. Limita de jos a decenţei va fi atinsă şi ea destul de greu. Apropo, gândesc că România asta (în particular, Bucureştiul) TREBUIE să fie perfectă (sau pe undeva pe aproape), de unde vin problemele şi nemulţumirile nenumărate, nesimţite şi adesea nerezolvabile.

Ziceam că se plânge o lume întreagă că banii sunt cheltuiţi pe aparenţe. Avem monitoare de 122cm (ce contează dacă am greşit?) pe care vedem ştirile, horoscopul şi ce le-a mai trecut prin cap. Vă invit să ţineţi privirea în pământ (peron ar fi corect) când ajungeţi în staţie. Mă-ntreb câţi vor proceda aşa. :D E adevărat că ce au făcut nu e neapărat necesar, dar nici rău. Mie îmi place. În New York ori nu am văzut aşa ceva, ori nu-mi amintesc eu bine. Diferenţa constă în alte chestii mărunte şi, că tot am deschis subiectul, fac o comparaţie scurtă:

Au nişte aparate cu touchscreen (!!! :D ) de unde poţi să-ţi cumperi cartela. Unele acceptă card (!!!!!), altele doar cash. Restul este de maxim 6$ şi se dă în monede de 1$. Cartela se poate reîncărca şi este din P-L-A-S-T-I-C. Acum câteva luni, când eram în ţară, mi s-a întâmplat să mi se îndoaie banda aia neagră şi adio abonament. Fără o cercetare amănunţită, nu vedea nimeni că am fost în halul ăla de neglijent. Cu 5 zile înainte îl cumpărasem, iar acum eram nevoit să-l schimb. Bine, o vreme am discutat cu jandarmii de pe acolo şi mi-au permis să sar, deşi vizibil nemulţumiţi de solicitare. Apoi mi-am băgat picioarele şi am mai aruncat 11 lei (am reducere :P ).

Continuând, staţiile lor sunt multe, distanţa dintre ele mică - dar parcursă extrem de repede. Dacă trenul staţionează, vei fi anunţat prompt de motivele opririi. Se subînţelege că mecanici (plural!) îşi vor cere SCUZE. O singură excepţie am observat, atunci când s-a sinucis un tip. Trenul a staţionat 20 de minute la plecarea din Lexington Ave - 59th St în timp ce angajaţii MTA (Metrorex, în română) verificau creierul împrăştiat pe linie. Ce senzaţie ciudată: stai confortabil pe scaun în timp ce tipul de sub tine îşi varsă umplutura printr-o gaură fatal de mare. Plimbări dintr-un vagon în celălalt care au culminat cu o întrebare pe care o redau exact: "Din anybody see anything?". Investigaţii, ăia de la MTA se uitau sub vagon şamd. Nu s-a anunţat nimic atunci, repet. Călătorii din celelalte vagoane cred că au fost foarte iritaţi. :D

Şi acum bomba: au şi ei cerşetori la metrou! Reacţie imediată: hahaha, ce fraieri. Şi cea-mai-bombă: vara, te sufoci în staţiile alea. Nu ştiu de ce la noi atmosfera e plăcută, poate B. are dreptate, că roca. Mă declar ignorant şi sunt fericit cu asta.

Revenind la Zoom, thumbs up din partea mea. Sper să reziste cât mai multe ecrane cât mai multe luni, deşi sunt sceptic. Parcă deja sunt probleme, sau cred că este doar un zvon.

De ceasuri care arată când va veni următorul tren, nu e nevoie. Intervalul de succedare este de ~6 minute când nu circulă nimeni, ~9 minute în ore de vârf şi +10 minute în weekend. Cu staţionări mai adăugaţi, în medie, 1-2 minute -presupunând că nu sunt chiar atât de dese-. Nu văd vreo îmbunătăţire în următorii 5 ani.

Mai rămân boschetarii şi cerşetorii. Măcar nu sunt şi câini vagabonzi pe peron. De asemenea, exterminarea lor în termen de 5 ani e la fel de realistă ca începerea şi finalizarea magistralei Drumul Taberei - Universitate în tot atât timp. Voi scrie şi pe subiectul ăsta. Noi acum să uităm de toate şi să strigăm "ROMÂNIAAAA ROMÂNIAAAA [...]", că tot ne bate Franţa. Sau poate nu ne bate. Oricum, viaţa noastră nu se va îmbunătăţi nici cu 3 puncte, nici cu 0.

Călătorie plăcută în continuare!

Everybody prepares for Windows 7!

phoenxsoftware — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:30:27 +0000

Windows 7 is still far away, but as is usual with Microsoft Products, a lot is already known about the new version. Some things leaked from milestone releases and other things from insiders and press releases, but in this way we can already confirm many things about Windows 7, the new big Windows release!

TouchScreen :
The biggest change in windows 7 is that it will be the first consumers OS that is specialized in the use of touch screens. Nowadays you see almost all PC manufacturers bring TouchScreen models or screens of their flagship products. This is obviously a preparation for Windows 7, since many people think that globally 70% of all Windows users will switch to windows 7 in the next 2 years after its release. This new function could even be a threat to Mac OSX and the Linux distributions which will not support touchscreen features directly.

Users Account Control :
A next fact that was already released is that windows 7 will provide a much more flexible version of the dreaded Users Account Control or UAC. UAC will pop-up less frequently and advanced users will have the ability to control when they would like UAC to appear. Since UAC is a dramatic improvement to the Windows security it will not be deleted.

Interface :
What the interface shall bring is still unknown, many people have released photoshopped versions of what Windows 7 is going to look like, but none of them is real. Nobody can know how Windows 7 looks like at the moment since all Milestones just resemble Windows Vista. This is something we will know October the 28th, when Microsoft will reveal the interface.

Compatibility :
Microsoft announced Windows 7 to be fully compatible with all Windows Vista applications. This is great news for all developers. There will even be a windows development kit for Touch-applications available.

Applications :
Many applications will be revamped, the calculator, the Wordpad, paint,...
Also some applications will disappear to make room for Live versions online, e.g. Windows Picture Gallery, Windows Mail, etc.

Stability & Weight :
Windows 7 will be directly much more stable than Windows Vista was at its release. Although Microsoft decided not to include a new kernel, it will be much faster than Windows Vista.

Release date :
Windows 7 will be released somewhere between the spring of 2010 and the spring of 2011.

Verizon and Blackberry Kick up a Storm!

pedah — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:25:34 +0000

Well the long awaited touch screen BlackBerry storm was officially announced today, coming to the world soon from Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone. Woohoo, that means it's coming to my neck of the woods as well.

Verizon Wireless, Vodafone Group (NYSE:VOD)(LSE:VOD) and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced that the BlackBerry(R) Storm(TM) will be available later this fall, exclusively to Verizon Wireless customers in the U.S. and Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Looks good doesn't it, and I'm not going to go down the iPhone comparison route here, because RIM included a cheesy video in the press release that took the cool factor right away from this news.

Click here to go to the press release from Marketwire

Detailed features of the Storm are here

Technorati Tags: peter murphy,blackberry,storm,verizon,vodafone,release

Concept-phone di Nokia con feedback tattile

jacopofarina — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:01:14 +0000

Uno dei difetti del touchscreen, se ce ne possono essere, é forse l'assenza di feedback tattile che non rende appieno l'idea di pressione sul dispositivo. Questo concept-phone di Nokia sembra cercare di risolvere il "problema": una piccola pompa riempie un substrato al di sotto dello schermo per offrirci la sensazione di una pressione.

Via YankoDesign

Sì, l'Eee PC avrà il touchscreen. E non solo

gianmichele — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:18:37 +0000

Asus ce l'ha in mente da tempo, e all'inizio del prossimo anno lo trasformerà finalmente in un prodotto concreto. Si stratta dell'Eee PC con schermo touch, sul quale sin dalla scorsa primavera si accavallano le indiscrezioni.

Ad annunciare la novità è stato il general manager di Asus per l'Eee PC, Samson Hu, che ha collocato il lancio del primo Eee PC con schermo sensibile al tocco al primo trimestre del 2009. L'azienda taiwanese spera che il touchscreen possa contribuire a differenziare i propri netbook dai sempre più numerosi concorrenti, e incrementare ulteriormente la propria quota di mercato nel settore.

Il sito DigiTimes riporta che Asus non avrebbe ancora definito nei dettagli l'identità del primo Eee PC touch: prima di azzardare un qualsiasi passo, l'azienda sembra voler valutare attentamente gli attuali trend di mercato.

C'è chi ipotizza che il nuovo modello potrebbe adottare un design alla "Tablet PC", ma è difficile immaginare un dispositivo di questa categoria con costi da netbook: se Asus riuscisse nel "miracolo", darebbe certamente una bella scossa all'intero mercato dei laptop.
Qualcuno sostiene inoltre che gli Eee PC touchscreen saranno i primi della loro categoria a far girare Windows Vista, o quanto meno una versione ai minimi termini di questo sistema operativo. Per il momento, tuttavia, Asus tiene la bocca ben cucita su questo dettaglio.
Stando a quanto rivelato lo scorso anno da Kevin Lin, vice presidente alle vendite di Asus, la prossima generazione di Eee PC adotterà l'ormai collaudatissima ed economica tecnologia touchscreen resistiva, che dovrebbe incidere sull'attuale costo di produzione in modo marginale: si parla di circa 10 dollari in più per singolo laptop.
L'introduzione di un Eee PC con schermo sensibile al tocco lascia supporre che Asus aggiungerà il supporto a questa tecnologia anche all'interfaccia utente di Xandros Linux. A meno che il produttore non scelga, ma è assai improbabile, di estromettere Linux da questa tipologia di sistemi.
Asus conta di presentare l'Eee PC touchscreen in occasione dell'importante fiera hi-tech CES 2009, in programma a Las Vegas dall'8 all'11 gennaio prossimi.
Hu ha poi rivelato che Asus introdurrà i primi netbook basati sull'Atom dual-core non appena Intel avvierà la produzione in volumi di questo chip. Il dirigente non ha fornito alcuna data di commercializzazione, ma è probabile che anche queste nuove incarnazioni dell'Eee PC arriveranno sul mercato all'inizio del prossimo anno.
A circa un anno di distanza dal lancio del suo primo mini notebook, il 701, Asus non ha più introdotto un modello altrettanto economico. Questa scelta è stata spesso criticata dai consumatori, e soprattutto da chi ritiene che i netbook abbiano senso di esistere solo come soluzioni ultraportatili a basso costo. Pare che il produttore taiwanese accontenterà questa fascia di utenti il prossimo anno, lanciando un Eee PC con prezzo inferiore ai 10mila dollari taiwanesi (circa 225 euro). Ad annunciarlo è stato lo stesso presidente di Asus, Jerry Shen, che non ha però rivelato alcun dettaglio sul prodotto.
È assai probabile che il futuro Eee PC low cost conserverà lo stesso display da 7 pollici del modello 701, ma rispetto a questo monterà un processore Atom, 1 GB di memoria RAM, un SSD con maggior capacità ed eventualmente Bluetooth.
Mercato
Grazie all'Eee PC, Asus sta scalando sempre più posizioni nel mercato dei notebook, e conta di mettere presto sotto pressione anche le due leader Dell e Lenovo.
A dare una nuova spinta alle vendite di Asus sarà l'appena annunciato Eee PC S101, di cui questo mese l'azienda prevede di vendere 50mila unità. Entro la fine dell'anno Asus stima che l'S101 rappresenterà, da solo, il 10% di tutte le vendite mensili di Eee PC.
Nei primi tre trimestri dell'anno Asus ha venduto quasi 3 milioni e mezzo di Eee PC, e conta di chiudere il 2008 raggiungendo i 5 milioni di unità.
Maggiori dati sono riportati in questo articolo di DigiTimes.
EeeStick
Più volte si è sottolineata la somiglianza tra l'Eee Box e Wii, ma da oggi tale somiglianza non si ferma solo al design. Negli scorsi giorni Asus ha infatti ufficialmente lanciato EeeStick, un controller wireless che racchiude all'incirca le stesse funzionalità dei famosi controller di Nintendo Wii: il Wii Remote e il Nunchuk. Tale dispositivo, da solo, ha le potenzialità per trasformare l'Eee Box in una vera e propria console da gioco, il cui unico limite è oggi rappresentato dalle scarse potenzialità in ambito grafico. Ma in futuro...

Fonte: punto informatico

Asus eeePC TouchScreen: sogno o realtà?

jacopofarina — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:29:24 +0000

Asus ce l'ha in testa da molto tempo e quasi sicuramente alla fine dell'anno l'idea diventerà realtà: il primo eeePC con schermo touchscreen. Ad annunciare questo progetto é stato il GM di Asus, Samson Hu, indicando nel primo trimestre 2009 il periodo di probabile lancio del prodotto. Il sito DigiTimes evidenzia come Asus non abbia ancora definito i dettagli dell'operazione, primo fra tutti il design dell'eeePC ed il relativo prezzo. Alcune fonti ipotizzano come il nuovo eeePC potrebbe essere il primo mini-notebook a far girare Windows Vista: Asus, per ora, non conferma né smentisce. Secondo quanto dichiarato dal vicepresidente alle vendite Asus, Kevin Lin, l'eeePC Asus touchscreen dovrebbe adottare la "tecnologia touchscreen resistiva" incidente sul costo di produzione in maniera marginale: solo 10$ in più per singolo laptop. Asus spera di riuscire a lanciare il nuovo prodotto per la fiera dell'Hi-Tech CES 2009, prevista a Las Vegas dall'8 all'11 gennaio 2009.

Via Punto-Informatico

Eee-PCs mit Touchscreen

mmedia17 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:12:51 +0000

Asus hat angekündigt 2009 neue Eee PCs mitTouchscreen sowie Billigmodelle auf den Markt zu bringen. Einen Preis für den Touch-Eee wurde jedoch noch nicht genannt. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass das sehr preisgünstige Modell etwa bei 300$ kosten wird. In Hamburg soll demnächst das S101 als hochwertige Version vorgestellt werden. Das Modell 701 ist in den USA bereits für deutlich unter 399$ zu haben.
flirt kontaktanzeigen

Notes from Wireless Technology Forum SIG on Wireless Apps and Mobile Media (WAMM), Atlanta 10-09-2008

cellstrat — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:54:28 +0000

I attended the Wireless Tech Forum Meeting today at The Ashford Club, Atlanta. Today's topic was Wireless Applications and Mobile Media. This is a new Special Interest Group within the Wireless Tech Forum and organizers have done a great job as usual of creating format and content for this SIG. Steve Bachman heads up the WAMM SIG along with co-chairs Richard Yates and Ed Pimentel.

Today we had an excellent first session on mobile media with a great presentation by Jerry Rocha, the Sr Director of Mobile Research at Nielsen Mobile (formerly Telephia). Jerry presented some great information on patterns, trends, usage stats on mobile media and mobile apps. Here are some highlights from the session :

Among major apps on the mobile data gravy train are SMS, mobile apps and mobile internet. We have to see which one comes out ahead in terms of user adoption but all are growing with heady growth rates compared to where they were before (of course we are only talking US market in this entire discussion, I know mobile data in Europe and Asia is a totally different ballgame and growth pattern).

Number Crunching :

If we include all mobile data, it is growing at rate of 28%. In Europe, SMS was big but with falling rates of SMS, carriers are pushing MMS which commands higher revenues. There were 260 million mobile customers in USA at end of Q2, 2008. Of which 56 million were downloading mobile apps. 15 million customers have seem video on mobile - small percent of mobile population but growing. Of the 260 million mobile customers in USA, 102 million have access to the mobile internet. 77% of mobile subscribers can get SMS today. Mobile internet is now a 1.2 billion dollar industry. 43 million customers in USA use mobile internet regularly now.

Trends :

Nielsen Mobile has access to 80,000 customers bills for market survey and this is the primary source of market research for Nielsen Mobile.

Among data apps, audio is a big killer app. Games was popular but there is decline in mobile gaming. Many fringe mobile gaming firms are going out of business with big ones like Glu Mobile and Electronic Arts taking majority of market share in mobile gaming. Ringtones are powerful but see slower traction now.

Mobile apps have see a huge uptick this year - one reason is the iPhone and the awareness it created about mobile apps in general.

From a strategy perspective, media firms like CNN, ESPN and others have pushed mobile media in spite of lack of enough support from carriers. Media firms are pushing off-deck content.

Mobile Internet :

Mobile portals are most heavily visited area. Email is second most popular with 27.4 million users (Nielsen is not including POP3 email accounts). Among sites visited most, the order is : Yahoo (22.3 million users), Google (18.9 million), MSN (14.4 million), AOL (12.6 million), Weather Channel, CNN, FOX, Apple, Turner in that order.

iPhone has been a game changing device for mobile internet with each firm now forced to follow a three pronged internet strategy : Regular website, Mobile website and iPhone-optimized website. Many firms have device detection and render appropriate website based on source of access.

Mobile Apps :

These have seen a giant increase since Q1 of this year. Most popular apps are related to LBS (Location-Based Services) - an area for which we in CellStrat have written extensively and have a nice white paper on our company website (www.cellstrat.com). Top 10 mobile apps are (in declining order of popularity) :- Verizon Navigator, Sprint Navigator, AT&T Navigator, Wireless Synch Email, TeleNav GPS Navigator, Sprint Family Locator, MySpace Mobile, Mobile Email, MapQuest Mobile and XM Radio Mobile.

Lot of firms like Nokia are buying up firms which have LBS offerings or technology.

Some of the big publishers of mobile apps are : TeleNav Mobile, Networks in Motion, Intellisync, WaveMarket, MySpace Mobile, AutoDesk etc.

It seems Location tracking is an app whic commands $5 per month revenue relatively easily. Same cannot be said for some of the other mobile apps though.

The top mobile app areas in order of popularity are (most popular first) :- LBS (69% of mobile apps are related to this), PIM Tools, Weather, Music, Maps or Directions etc.

iPhone :

This has shaken the mobile world as we report countless times now. Apple iPhone now as 1% of USA market share and 3.7% of AT&T mobile phones are iPhones. By Q3, Apple had sold 10 million iPhones worldwide easily hitting its goal of 10 million iPhones in first year.

iPhone AppStore is a breakthrough concept and has opened up the mobile application ecosystem to developers like never before. In the 4 months since its launch, iPhone AppStore has seen 100 million downloads of mobile apps, total number of mobile apps on iPhone available now exceeds 3000 apps.

iPhone dominates every category of mobile web usage.

Some cool iPhone killers like BlackBerry Bold, Storm and Google G1 are out or coming out soon and we will have to see how well they do against iPhone. One reason for huge app success on iPhone is its excellent developer support and ecosystem eg the iTunes store. Nokia scores well too on this front with its Symbian platform.

iPhone users skew towards male with 67% iPhone users being males and 33% females although in overall mobile world, 52% of mobile customers are females.

Mobile Advertising :

This one pays for it all.

Interestingly Atlanta is No 3 in mobile video usage (interesting..never thought Atlanta was that big on mobile web adoption). Among mobile email, gmail and yahoo email dominate.

Nielsen has tools to scrap 300 websites every 15 minutes and categorizes them for ad purposes. It turns out Eletronic Arts and Dunkin Donuts are bigger advertisers in mobile internet. On ESPN Mobile, Electronic Arts is the biggest advertiser.

Novos "iPhones" vêm aí!

atila VELO — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:38:07 +0000

A concorrência começa a esquentar, o que é ótimo para nós, consumidores, que teremos mais opções. E devido à concorrência, cada vez melhores e com preços caindo.

Além do G1 e do Nokia 5800 (comentados anteriormente), mais dois smartphones 3G vêm por aí, um BlackBerry e um Samsung.

BlackBerry Storm

Contando com GPS, câmera de 3,2 megapixels, acelerômetro, fone 3,5 mm, media player, tela de 480 x 360, 1 GB de memória (expansível com cartão microSD), bateria com duração de 15 dias (standby) ou 5,5 horas (conversação) e mais. Site oficial.

Samsung F 480

• GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 - 2G Network
• HSDPA 2100 - 3G Network
• 2.8" TFT touchscreen display - 256K cores/240 x 320 pixels
• Vibração
• MP3 & Ringtones Polifônicos - Personalização/Download
• 30 ligações perdidas, 30 recebidas, 30 realizadas (registro de chamadas)
• Ligações com fotos, 1000 entradas na agenda
• microSD (TransFlash) Card slot
• 3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
• EDGE Class 12
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• USB
• MMS, SMS, EMS, Instant Messaging, Email
• HTML & WAP 2.0/xHTML Browser
• 5 Megapixel Camera - 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, video, flash
• Java MIDP 2.0
• H.264/H.263/MPEG4 player & MP3/AAC/AAC+ player
• Visualizador e organizador de documentos
• Built-in viva-voz
• 95.9 x 55 x 11.5 mm

BlackBerry -- A Berry You Can Touch

deeanaoh — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:18:08 +0000

The Times (UK) is one of the first to report on the latest touchscreen device: the BlackBerry Storm. Looks pretty boss. The ad for the device ties in some of the same style of the current BlackBerry ads (e.g. kicking the soccer ball, mosaic-y swarm of images) and has the tagline 'Press and be Impressed', touting the Storm's "intuitive touchscreen" which is supposed to be the differentiator against the likes of the iPhone. Unfortunately this is a little harder to demonstrate in an ad. Best of luck! Come quickly (and cheaper) to the States!

[via Perez Hilton]

Vedere e non toccare

Massimo Santambrogio — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:23:02 +0000

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="282" caption="Touchscreen"][/caption]

Altro che telefoni, sono diventati ormai, per molti, compagni inseparabili, strumenti di utilità irrinunciabile. Per rimanere in contatto, per ricordare, per organizzare, per conservare, per condividere, per spasso o per lavoro; quelli che una volta erano telefoni (cellulari) sono diventati oggi veri e propri terminali mobili, apparecchi tecnologici che fanno la qualità della nostra vita, ampliando potenzialità ed efficienza del nostro tempo.
Negli ultimi mesi si sta facendo largo una nuova generazione di dispositivi sprovvisti, grazie alle tecnologie touchscreen, della vecchia tastiera numerica a favore di un sistema estremamente comodo che consente di interagiree direttamente con lo schermo, adattabile quindi alla bisogna in virtù della funzione che deve svolgere.

Il primo approccio ad un touchscreen è a dir poco coinvolgente, finalmente un rapporto non più mediato tra l'uomo e la macchina ma una relazione diretta, immediata, in cui l'azione fisica umana è essa stessa funzione tecnologica, quasi che le dita potessero entrare nella macchina e diventarne parte. Indubbiamente futurista ad oggi, quasi sicuramente lo standard di domani per comodità, immediatezza, flessibilità, facilità ed efficienza.

C'è però un però, e che però!

Gli schermi che ragionevolmente ad oggi sono i più generosi in dimensioni arrivano al massimo a 3,2 pollici (quello in foto) ed anche scegliendo di visualizzare la tastiera più estesa possibile, diventa praticamente impossibile scrivere con le dita. Impossbile ad oggi è anche l'idea di riproporre in versione touch il vecchio tastierino numerico, che con i tempi di risposta attuali degli schermi non reggerebbe alle allenatissime digitazioni superveloci imparate negli ultimi decenni con le tastiere tradizionali.

La naturale conseguenza è solo apparentemente banale, basta utilizzare un pennino certo, che appunto tutti questi dispositivi possiedono (quello del Samsung Omnia in foto è anche molto bello tra parentesi). Si può scrivere in modo perfino più facile del mitico T9 ma solo apparentemente la cosa è indolore, perché per scrivere con un pennino si devono utilizzare entrambe le mani, una regge il "telefono", l'altra digita. Lungi dall'essere un'evoluzione della specie, questa peculiarità è in effetti un pesantissimo handicap, che non incide solo sulla necessità di imparare un nuovo modo di fare, ma sulla natura stessa di quel "compagno di vita" di cui sopra accennavo.

Non è più possibile replicare ad un sms mentre si guida, neppure per digitare "ok" ad una proposta lampo, non è più possibile scriversi un appunto sul tram o quando reggi un ombrello o mentre spingi un carrello, non è più naturale approfittare di quei due minuti vuoti per replicare ai commenti del proprio blog, sfoltire i nuovi messaggi di posta o seguire i propri feed, non è più praticabile utilizzare il terminale sdraiati la sera sul divano durante la pubblicità o coricarsi e passare gli ultimi minuti di veglia in compagnia "remota" con l'anima gemella o facendo ordine nella propria giornata prima di addormetarsi.

Si è creato perciò uno spaventoso paradosso: la facilità d'uso, immensamente superiore ai dispositivi tradizionali, inibisce l'uso in una tale moltitudine di eventualità che quasi si è costretti "in mobilità" a lasciare il tecnocoso in tasca se non per le funzioni più "easy" ovvero le sole che non richiedano una qualsiasi, pur minima, digitazione letterale, incluso la ricerca di un numero nella rubrica, se non memorizzato nei pochi preferiti o separati in apposite categorie di "selezionati".

In definitiva, prima di lanciarsi nella nuova era di questi strafichissimi tecnocosi, ci si dovrà interrogare sulla disponibilità non solo a cambiare radicalmente il proprio modo d'uso, ma anche a rinunciare ad una buona fetta delle proprie abitudini pregresse. A meno che, come molti tecnofanatici, non ci si porti dietro in una tasca il proprio superscenico aggeggio da mostrare sul tavolo al ristorante o nelle occasioni speciali "a due mani", e nell'altra tasca quello da usare quando serve.

Microsoft Surface

luposystem — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:03:58 +0000

Immaginate una superficie che può riconoscere gli oggetti fisici da un pennello a un telefono cellulare e consente il controllo diretto dei contenuti come foto, musica e mappe. Steve Ballmer, CEO di Microsoft Corp , ha annunciato Microsoft Surface, il primo esempio degli innovativi prodotti surface computing, che abbattono le tradizionali barriere tra persone e tecnologie, consentendo una naturale e maggiore interazione digitale. Surface trasforma un normale tavolo in una superficie dinamica che offre interazione naturale con tutti i tipi di contenuti digitali attraverso semplici gesti e oggetti fisici. A partire dalla fine dell’anno, sarà possibile interagire con Surface in hotel, negozi, ristoranti e luoghi di intrattenimento.

I miei pareri al riguardo sono ancora troppo confusi e vaghi per essere riportati in maniera soddisfacente al pubblico, questo anche a causa della mancata possibilità di interagire con questo innovativo prodotto, il che rende impossibile stimarne l'effettiva utilità del prodotto oltre al funzionamento. Finora resto ammaliato dalla semplicità di utilizzo mostrata nei video e sicuramente se individuerò un qualunque luogo in cui sarà possibile utilizzare Microsoft Surface mi metterò subito in coda... Attendo il giorno in cui prodotti del genere o similari potranno essere nelle nostre case...

Blackberry Storm 9530 360 Images

gadgetbitz — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:20:11 +0000

Here are some animated 360 degree images of the New and very anticipated Blackberry Storm 9530 for Verizon and Vodafone. Enjoy....

images from :www.storm-reviews.co.uk

Blackberry Storm Officially Announced for Verizon!

Eli Blumenthal — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:46:20 +0000

The newly official Blackberry Storm for Verizon!

Turns out all you Verizon users will have more than just some new Motorola phones to chose from this holiday season. After many long (and really just annoying) days of rumors on when Verizon would finally unleash the first ever touchscreen Blackberry-- the Blackberry Storm-- Verizon and Research in Motion (or RIM for short, the makers of Blackberry's) just made it official, with an expected release coming in November!

Features:

Small, cool design- Should definitely impress a lot of people while also being able to fit in a jeans pocket.
3.25 inch High Resolution Touchscreen with Multi-Touch and a new "click" feedback!- This screen looks amazing, and is the first phone we've seen since the iPhone to have Multi-Touch (albeit at this point not at all as sleek, polished and common in the phone as the iPhone's). The Storm also adds this new "click" feedback is a feature that makes it feel as if you are pressing a real, physical button and not a virtual one on the keyboard. Think of this as an update to the vibration feedback on other phones like the Samsung Instinct for Sprint.

New Blackberry Storm Menu

Verizon 3G
Full Web Browser- Lets you view the "real" internet on your phone like you would on a regular computer. We are not sure though if the browser here is as simple and easy-to-use as the iPhone's; the first impressions from Engadget.com say that it is OK, but not great.
Mp3 and Video Player- Music player looks nice, but we can't seem to get a good feel from the initial pictures if the video playback is as smooth as on the iPhone.
Micro-SD card slot- the phone has 1 GB of memory on the phone, with another 8 GB in the memory card slot- right out of the box!
3.5 mm headphone jack- This lets you plug in regular headphones to use with the device.
Quad Band GSM and CDMA support- This is something really interesting. GSM is the technology AT&T and T-Mobile use, while CDMA is used by Verizon and Sprint. However, this this phone has both, so any really desperate AT&T and T-Mobile users who really want this phone (and who can blame you- it looks sick!), could technically use the phone with AT&T and T-Mobile in the US if you unlock the GSM part. You won't get 3G except in Europe, but its still completely usable as a phone. (They added GSM to the phone because they want to market it as a "world phone" for traveling business users, and most of the world relies on GSM).
App Store!- Blackberry is giving this phone its own App Store right on the device (another attempt to steal some thunder from the iPhone). Phones are without question becoming much more useful as more are starting to receive their own App Store and apps (iPhone, Instinct, the upcoming T-Mobile G1).
GPS- For your direction guiding needs
Use of Blackberry Media Sync- This lets you sync your Blackberry (all, not just the Storm) with iTunes for music, movies and photos. This doesn't work with protected media you bought off of iTunes, but it is another slap at Apple.
3.2 Megapixel Camera with Flash and Autofoucs- For snapping pix and videos. Oh, and this phone allows you to text those pix and videos to other phones (unlike some other popular Apple phone...).
2 Touchscreen versions of Blackberry keyboards- The thing that makes the Blackberry so popular is its keyboard, and RIM has definitely brought that to the Storm. There are 2 keyboards on this phone -- the SureType keyboard as seen on the Pearl series (right), and the regular QWERTY, computer-like keyboard (left) seen on phones like the Curve. If the new "click" feature works as advertised, then we don't think the keyboard will be hard to use at all-- and will most probably be as addicting as other Blackberry's.

Blackberry Qwerty and SureType keyboards

However, one glaringly missing feature is WiFi, a feature people will miss- especially heavy internet users.

What this means to you:

if you want another iPhone competitor on Verizon that is more feature packed then the Dare with what most probably will be a better keyboard to use, then you got it (though the Dare's keyboard is supposedly very good).
If you use a Blackberry and are extremely addicted to using it for texting, but you want a cooler phone.
You want a plain and simple really cool phone, with a good brand to back it up.

Price is not yet known (though we'd guess at about $200), so we can't say that as a reason to buy- or not buy- this phone.

If you are considering this phone though, don't get blinded by its slick cool looks. Wait till reviews of it come out-- they will probably come out soon now that the phone is announced, because Engadget's initial thoughts show that the phone is not fully up to par (this may change before the realease sometime in November).

We'll keep you posted on what major new things come out on this phone, but in the meantime- what you think of the Storm, does it look like it can beat the iPhone or will it fall flat on its face? Will you buy one, or is it a better choice to go with the LG Dare, Samsung Instinct or T-Mobile G1? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Pix and Information from Engadget.com and Boy Genius Report.com

BlackBerry Storm Preview: What the iPhone Will Envy - TIME

nsahmed — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:42:58 +0000

BlackBerry Storm Preview: What the iPhone Will Envy - TIME

"...a breakthrough design element that sets the Storm apart from every other iPhone wannabe: Its entire 3.2-in. touchscreen doubles as a big, clickable button.

I tested the Storm's clickable screen last week when I met with Mike Lazaridis, president and cofounder of Research In Motion (RIM), BlackBerry's maker, in New York City — and I was impressed. You can press the screen to confirm menu choices, launch Web pages and open applications, a novel feature you won't find on other phones. After selecting, say, which e-mail message you want to read, you can open it by gently pressing on the screen — it actually sinks into the casing as you press, with a satisfying "click." The screen functions just like a mouse click or the click of a trackball on other BlackBerry devices and T-Mobile's G1 "Google phone".

The problem with previous touchscreen-based phones, says Lazaridis, is that "there's no tactile response. They mix navigation with confirmation." When you try to click a Web link on the iPhone, for example, it's all too easy to accidentally tap the wrong spot and launch the link that was just above or below the one you really wanted. That wastes time, and is especially annoying on a wireless device, when battery life is precious.

The Storm eliminates that problem with the click-screen. It further improves the touchscreen experience with two other features designed to separate navigation and confirmation, which, Lazaridis told TIME, is the trademark feature of the Storm. The virtual keyboard: Each letter lights up as you tap it so you know instantly whether you hit the right key. The cursor: As you move your finger across the screen, a small arrow — which looks like a mouse cursor — appears onscreen to show exactly where your finger is pointed. Then, to confirm your selections, you push down on the entire screen."

What say, Khaliq sahab? ;)

Presentes tocantes para o fim do ano

Plínio Torres — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:19:51 +0000

A HP começa a trazer para o Brasil, já visando as bagatelas de natal o novo TouchSmart PC, computador que traz tela sensível ao toque, a primeira linha da empresa com essa tecnologia a chegar ao mercado consumidor brasileiro.

Toda a CPU, incluindo processador, HD e leitor de DVD ficam na parte de trás da tela de LCD sensível ao toque. O SmartPC deve representar o topo da linha de produtos de consumo da HP.

A tela tem 22 polegadas e alta definição. Os modelos TouchSmart usam processador Core 2 Duo da Intel, têm 4 GB de memória, leitor de DVD, webcam e microfone embutidos. Além disso, os TouchSmart vem com um teclado wireless, alto-falantes estéreo e usam o Windows Vista Premium.

Preço? Bem, nos Estados Unidos os modelos HP TouchSmart IQ504 PC e o IQ506 PC, com placa de TV, custarão a partir de 1.299 e 1.499 dólares, respectivamente. Como o dólar andou tomando Viagra por aqui, dá pra imaginar como os micros serão baratinhos no Brasil.

Outro presente tocante é o novo celular Nokia 5800 quem vem equipado com um tela de 3.2-polegadas com resolução de 640 x 360 pixels touchscreen, com uma câmera de 3.2-megapixeis com autofocus, lentes Carl Zeiss, dual LED flash, GPS, WiFi, jack de 3.5mm, e ainda um slot para cartões microSD com suporte até 16GB.

Este é o primeiro celular com tela sensível ao toque lançado pela Nokia e acredito que ele seja apenas um aquecimento para uma futrura batalha com o IPhone. Qual nokiamaníaco não imagina um celular fantástico como o Nokia N95 8GB, com uma tela sensível ao toque?

A Nokia fechou negócio com as gravadoras Warner, Universal e Sony BMG e o Nokia 5800 será um dos primeiros modelos a fazer parte do projeto Nokia Comes With Music. Com este acordo, os donos de celulares vão poder baixar quantas músicas quiserem no ano. O melhor de tudo? Parece que os downloads serão de graça.

Sem taxas e subsídios de operadoras, o Nokia 5800 vai custar 387 dólares, valor consideravelmente mais baixo do que o do iPhone. Com isso, as projeções são de que a Nokia venda mais de 10 milhões de celulares com tela sensível ao toque até o próximo ano. Bem, agora se alguém quiser me dar um presente de natal, já sabe exatamente o que toca o meu coração! :lol:

Storm Brewing for the iPhone?

kreuzer33 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:12:39 +0000

Research in Motion's BlackBerry Storm smartphone will be hitting the market in the U.S. and Europe next month with exclusive rights belonging to Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. The Storm features a 3.25-inch screen, which is slightly smaller than the iPhone's; the BlackBerry's first touch-screen interface; and 3G network support. But, on the negative side, the BlackBerry Storm lacks Wi-Fi access and weighs approximately 16 percent more than the iPhone.

[caption id="attachment_1431" align="alignright" width="262" caption="Credit: Research in Motion"][/caption]

From the Wall Street Journal:

Research in Motion Ltd. is rolling out its first real answer to Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm, which will work on broadband networks on both sides of the Atlantic and be exclusive to Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and to Vodafone Group PLC throughout Europe.

BlackBerry will have to distinguish itself amid the wave of other sleek do-everything smart phones coming to market, like Google Inc.'s G1, made by HTC Corp.. The Storm, BlackBerry's first touch-screen device, aims to make it harder to inadvertently select items while moving images across the screen.

The success of Apple's iPhone has spawned a series of touch-screen smart-phones from manufacturers around the world over the past year. Consumers will have a multitude of options this holiday season -- among them, Samsung Electronics Co.'s Instinct, LG Electronics' Dare, and the soon-to-be-launched G1 from T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, and Google.

From InformationWeek:

The much-awaited smartphone sports many of the features of Apple's handsets, and even outshines it in certain categories. The touch-screen smartphone may give Verizon Wireless a legitimate rival to the iPhone 3G, and it may help stem the loss of subscribers to AT&T. The Storm has 3.25-inch touch screen that has a 360 by 480 resolution. Like the iPhone, the Storm has support for multi-touch interface, but RIM's device will have haptic feedback for its virtual keyboard, and it will be capable of cut and paste. The keyboard will have RIM's SureType layout in portrait mode, and it will be a full QWERTY layout in landscape orientation.

From CNET:

Tech journalists and gadget lovers across the globe are rejoicing over the announcement of the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's first touchscreen cell phone to compete with the iPhone.

Those who can't wait to get their hands on BlackBerry's latest call it a marvel and its keyboard functionality, which makes you press down on the screen to register a "touch", is something worth drooling over.

OK, I guess I can concede that the Storm is really neat and the touchscreen idea is fantastic. But I still don't see how the BlackBerry Storm will be able to compete on any level with the iPhone 3G.

It's not that I have a problem with RIM--I think the BlackBerry Curve is a fantastic device--or that I'm not impressed by the Storm. I just don't see how BlackBerry's first touchscreen device can compete against the iPhone if the vast majority of "mainstream" users simply don't know anything about it.

Go ahead and ask the person next to you at the office about the BlackBerry Storm. Chances are, if they aren't in to technology like you and I, they wouldn't have the slightest clue about it even though it's making headlines all over the tech world today.

Then ask those people what they knew about the iPhone the day after it was announced. I'll bet you'll find that they knew much more about the iPhone than the BlackBerry Storm.

Do you see what I'm getting at here? No matter how important a new device in the cell phone business may be to the growth of the industry, it will never be able to outshine the iPhone.

From ZDNet:

I just got done reading Matthew Miller’s preview of the BlackBerry Storm, RIM’s first BlackBerry that’s replaced the keyboard with a touchscreen system — one that you must physically depress with your finger to manipulate (resulting in a “satisfying click,” as many reviewers have reported).

My question is simple: is this truly an advancement?

It occurs to me that, while RIM’s responsive touchscreen technology, called ClickThrough, allows it to differentiate itself from the iPhone, it’s not a great advancement in the long run. Well-built as any BlackBerry is, I feel that the screen would eventually give out over frequent, Crackberry-level usage. And when the screen doesn’t press anymore (or worse, when it presses too far), then what?

It strikes me that such physical use of the device is actually backtracking a bit, technologically. Perhaps advancement, to me at least, is removing a “touch” altogether.

RIM’s “push-screen,” as I think it should properly be called, seems to bridge the gap between a true keyboard and a true touchscreen. Which is good for RIM’s keyboard-happy users, but by no means some groundbreaking new technology.

Plus, it also occurs to me that this technology would actually slow down the speedier users among us, because you actually have to take the time to depress the screen when tapping a message out.

But we’ll see when Matt gets his hands on one in a month or so.

Conseils pour faire face à la crise financière – Les Armoires Informatiques rallongent la vie des PC.

ntpserver — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:31:40 +0000

La plupart des sociétés qui luttent pendant une récession ou une crise économique ne se rendent pas compte des difficultés jusqu’au moment où quelque chose se passe. A la suite d’une fuite sur le toit, on s’aperçoit alors qu’on est à découvert ou qu’on a besoin de remplacer des équipements, et tout à coup, on commence à ressentir des difficultés financières.

Un des casse-tête les plus coûteux pour une société (petite ou grande) est d’être équipé d’une technologie qui soit à la page. Tous les ans, les ordinateurs évoluent à une vitesse effarante que ce soit au niveau de la puissance ou de la performance : l’équipement est généralement désuet avant qu’il ne soit complètement installé. Pour cette raison, la plupart des ordinateurs ne sont pas conçus pour durer longtemps.

Les fabricants d’ordinateurs ne produisent certainement pas leurs produits d’une manière parfaite et pourquoi le feraient-ils ? Ils savent que la durée moyenne d’un PC est inférieure à 2 ou 3 ans mais quand il s’agit de serrer la ceinture, cela peut causer des problèmes.

Lorsqu’un ordinateur tombe en panne, vous pouvez être sûr que quelques minutes plus tard le téléphone se mettra à sonner.

La raison de la panne de l’ordinateur n’est pas seulement due à l’inadéquation des composants. Situé dans des conditions idéales, même le pc le moins cher fonctionnera sans problème pendant plus d’une décennie ; malheureusement, très peu de personnes travaillent dans des conditions idéales.

Les ateliers et même les bureaux les plus propres sont pleins d’éléments hostiles aux ordinateurs. La poussière, le liquide, les éclaboussures, les chocs, le chauffage central et les utilisateurs impatients : tous ces facteurs raccourcissent la vie d’un PC. Lorsqu’une machine est installée dans un endroit industriel comme dans un entrepôt ou sur une ligne de production, la situation s’empire.

Bien sûr, il y a des armoires informatiques faites sur mesure mais celles-ci sont très onéreuses et ne sont pas indispensables dans un bureau ou pour la réception des marchandises. Les PC industriels sont également difficiles à réparer et à faire évoluer et il faut souvent faire appel à des ingénieurs même pour des réparations banales.

Heureusement, les armoires informatiques et les PC industriels sont fabriqués dans le but de protéger des PC conventionnels. Ces armoires informatiques peuvent contenir un ordinateur, un moniteur, même des appareils de saisie informatique ou simplement l’unité centrale elle-même.

Elles peuvent protéger les équipements dans des environnements très hostiles, souvent à la norme IP65 ou NEMA, garantissant la protection contre l’eau et la poussière. Elles peuvent également être utilisées pour fournir une protection discrète à un ordinateur de bureau. Dissimulé sous un bureau, une armoire informatique peut rallonger la vie d’un PC.

IP and NEMA Ratings FAQ

ntpserver — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:03:53 +0000

What is IP Rating?

IP Rating (Ingress protection) is a European Directive under CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) that specifies the protection an electronic enclosure will provide.

What is NEMA?

NEMA is the USA equivalent of the IP rating it is provided by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association under guidance from the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)

What are the differences between NEMA and the IP Ratings?

The IP rating is a two digit number. The first digit represents the protection afforded by the enclosure against dust whilst the second digit represents the protection against liquids. As an example IP 65 offers better dust protection but less waterproof protection as an IP 56 unit.
With NEMA a single digit number is used to represent the protection so a NEMA 4 enclosure offers far less protection than a NEMA 12.

Can the two systems be converted?

Not really, NEMA and IP have different tests to establish protection but as a rule of thumb a NEMA 4 enclosure will probably offer similar protection to an IP 54 enclosure while and IP 65 unit will be similar to a NEMA 12 or 13 unit.

What if there is no rating on an enclosure?

Enclosures are sold without either IP or NEMA ratings but this will mean that they have not been tested and can not guarantee protection.