Logitech’s latest wireless keyboard is aimed at sofa surfers, although only sadly those who plug in their laptops or run a home theatre PC. More »
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In the current smartphone market, you need to choose between LCD touchscreens (incredible UI versatility) and real QWERTY buttons (tactile feedback). But the MorphPad offers a third choice that’s somewhere in between. More »
An obscure company has filed suit in a copyright infringement-friendly Texas district against Apple and several other companies it for what it contends is—wait for it—copyright infringement related to touchpad technology. More »
Scientists in the UK have thought differently about touchpad designs: their system peeks at your fingertips to see what you’re touching. It can sense when you’re pushing on something and how hard, so everything —even a 3D uneven surface— could be made into a touchpad. Quite why they chose to demo this with a purring rock we’re not sure. But we like it.
Kodak’s Quick Touch photo frames don’t quite go all the way on being touchscreen, though they’re spinning that as a plus, since you don’t leave grimy fingerprints on your screen. Instead, the border itself is a touchpad, so you can scroll through pics with swipes of your finger.
I’m stoked that even though the new MacBook Pro touchpad looks the same and is the same size, it’s loaded with multitouch! And LED backlights available across the range! But I was curious why the new MacBook (standards) don’t have either. So I asked them. Here’s the official Apple answer: The multitouch technology is a feature of the MacBook Pro and Air, but not the MacBook. Apple has already committed to transitioning all machines to LED backlights, and will do so when economically and technically feasible. UPDATE: Sources at iFixit have told us that the Broadcom BCM5974 Multitouch controller chip, the hardware component for multitouch in the iPhone and Macbook Air, costs only US$2.95, so cost isn’t the prohibiting factor when it comes to multitouch in the standard Macbook.
This Touchpad app for the iPhone/iPod Touch is similar to a regular VNC app, but instead of mapping screen taps like a touchscreen, it maps screen taps like the touchpad on your laptop. You’ll get what we mean if you watch the video. Connect your iPhone to your computer via Wi-Fi and start gesturing around the screen—it’ll be just like you were fiddling with a touchpad. People who hook up their Mac or PC to their TVs to act as a HTPC should definitely pick this up. [Touchpad iPhone]
These Apple patents show standard trackpad, basic multitouch and gonzo “Advanced Multitouch” never seen before on shipping products. The advanced UI includes thumb/forefinger/middlefinger combos for saving, closing and opening files, as well as cut, copy and paste. (The patents assume the system can detect the differences between different fingers. [Macrumors]
