The HP TouchSmart laptop computer will get attention from curiosity seekers when it debuts on November 28 because it is the first consumer-grade full touch-screen-capable notebook computer. If you watch the video demoing the the device above, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking HP may be in a bit of an awkward position once the actual sales numbers from this product start to get tallied.
Watch how taking advantage of the touch screen’s functionality requires two hands - one to hold the open screen steady at the side or the base, and another to actually perform the touch gestures on the screen. It also seems from this demo (which is apparently not a final release version of the product) the screen is not especially sensitive to touch gestures, that many “commands” have to be “repeated” twice and three times before the screen registers them. The screen itself is high-gloss and, well, I know how I feel about finger oils on a glossy glass surface. If these machines do end up taking off for some reason, there ought to be a bull market in screen wipes.
When Apple introduced the iPhone in June 2007 it rocked the mobile computing world almost as much as it rocked the mobile phone world. And with the launch of the AppStore this past summer, Apple’s business and iPhone software development exploded, with both continuing to outpace a clearly struggling global economy.
I don’t expect HP is going to have nearly the impact iPhone has had, despite introducing the kind of product many have been clamoring for from Apple.
Written by Lonnie Lazar on November 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Apple’s new MacBooks are great — but as a proud owner of one of the milled wonders, I can confirm that the much-vaunted glass trackpad did have issues. Not constant ones by any means, but it would miss clicks quite often — probably one in ten times.
Having finally downloaded and installed Trackpad Firmware Update 1.0 yesterday, I can also confirm that the problems have completely gone away now. No fuss, and every click counts.
My experience has not been universal, however. MacFixIt reports that many users are having difficulty installing the update, and I’ve even heard of some people getting kernel panics and other bad news. Install at your own risk, obviously, but it’s a very welcome update — makes the already good significantly better.
Written by Pete Mortensen on November 21st, 2008 with no comments.
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These fabulous tilt-shift G4 iMacs are the work of joelsuplido on Flickr. He’s got a whole set of them, there’s more Mac ones to drool over. It’s not just the tilt-shift effect, it’s the colors; they’re gorgeous.
These images were made using Joe Prytherch’s Auto tilt-shift Photoshop action, which you can grab and use for free.
(Pic used by permission; thanks joelsuplido!)
Written by Giles Turnbull on November 20th, 2008 with no comments.
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Flickr user raneko had a mucky Mighty Mouse, and decided to take it to pieces and clean it. This wasn’t something Apple intended to happen, so it’s quite an involved process - you can follow raneko’s progress from this photo in his Apple set (which has a bunch of other great Apple pics in it).
(Photo used under Creative Commons license. Thanks to raneko.)
Written by Giles Turnbull on November 20th, 2008 with no comments.
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This is the sound of slork, the Stanford Laptop Orchestra.
All instrumentalists are equipped with a black MacBook and a hemispherical speaker pod made out of Ikea tableware.
The brain behind the orchestra is Ge Wang, and if his name sounds familiar that’s because you might have seen it mentioned recently in connection with the superb app Ocarina.
Recently highlighted at apple.com, slork makes use of custom software written by Ge Wang:
“I wanted to focus on the intersection of music and computer science. So I authored a language with my advisor, Perry Cook, and researchers at Princeton and beyond. We called it ChucK. It’s a programming language completely tailored for sound. It let us quickly synthesize sound and use various controllers in our performances.”
Written by Giles Turnbull on November 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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