University Claims to Have Developed World's First Flexible Touchscreen Display [Touchscreen]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/itFCHXhXdNw/university-claims-to-have-developed-worlds-first-flexible-touchscreen-display

ASU's Flexibile Display Center and military partners have developed the very first display with a flexible touchscreen. Mainly designed for military applications, the screen is made out of glass strong enough to withstand the battlefield.

Instead of using solid glass for the touchscreen, the device incorporates special material from DuPont Tijin Films in order for the paper-thin display to bend or roll up without damaging the gadget. The device also uses technology from E-ink Corp, allowing users to write, store and erase their own content on the displays; eventually, they will also be available in full color. Although it sounds pretty cool, don't get your hopes up: The Flexible Display Center estimates that this flexible touchscreen display won't be available for another 18 months. [EETimes via Electronista]

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Samsung Memoir 8-Megapixel Cameraphone Lightning Review [Samsung Memoir]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/rGPiOfK6ye0/samsung-memoir-8+megapixel-cameraphone-lightning-review

The Gadget: Samsung Memoir, which is the 8-megapixel upgraded version of the Samsung Behold—both of which have Samsung's TouchWiz-based touchscreen interface. It's also got a Xenon flash that works quite well.

The Price: $250 with two-year contract, $50 rebate and qualifying data plan

The Verdict: A pretty damn good cameraphone. The TouchWiz UI is pretty much the same as the version on the Samsung Behold. In short, it's more usable as a touchscreen phone (keyboard is fairly decent) than Windows Mobile phones, but not quite as good as say, Android or the iPhone. It does have haptic feedback, meaning there's a slight rumble as you press down on the screen. And yes, that implies that the Memoir doesn't have capacitive touch. You still have to press down when you want to click things. Let it be known that Jesús Diaz does not like some Samsung touchscreen UIs.

The front of the phone looks like a Samsung touchscreen phone, but the back actually looks a lot like a Samsung camera. Which is kind of the point. The 8-megapixel camera is very good. So good, in fact, that it's (give or take) about as good as my Samsung NV3 point and shoot from a few years ago. The gallery below has comparison shots.

And here's how well the Memoir's Xenon flash works in complete darkness. Spoiler: Pretty damn well.

I haven't had enough experience with Nokia's high end N-series cameraphones to say whether or not the Memoir is better. We've ! already established that more megapixels isn't always better, but if the Memoir can take photos that are just about as good as Samsung's NV3 (which doesn't take FANTASTIC images, we have to admit), it's a great alternative for a point and shoot camera.

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Realtime Mobile Video Stitching Is So Crazy It Just Might Work [Video Tapestry]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ENUGqOOZRoc/realtime-mobile-video-stitching-is-so-crazy-it-just-might-work

The proposition: You and a bunch of strangers are live streaming mobile-phone video of some event or disaster. A server stitches it all together and instantaneously publishes a rich, immediate patchwork of the action.

I love this system, but not necessarily for the same reasons that its developers at Microsoft Research do. I want to see something like this on YouTube, for instance. How bonerfied would Wolf Blitzer have been if he could have taken all the YouTube video of Obama's inauguration and turned it into a massive patchwork of super hi-def action? I mean, this thing makes the GigaPan look like something Thomas Edison invented in his spare time.

But Ayman Kaheel, a development manager at Microsoft's Innovation Center in Cairo, said he really wanted it to be live, and not for pre-recorded video, mostly because it's a greater challenge, and making it work live ultimately means that the other forms of it would work too. Kaheel says that the stitching service could be public or private, so in addition to plane crashes and inaugurations, this thing could make sense for weddings and stuff, if enough guests feel like livecasting.

Like most Microsoft Research projects, this one requires certain things that aren't yet here, but are coming soon. In order for all that live video to sync up when the system is stitching it together, each piece of video from each phone requires a timecode, and of course all the timecodes on all the mobiles sending video have to be totally in sync. (Surprisingly, Kaheel says the bandwidth requirements are already met by most networks, needing only 200Kbps to be effective.)

I see this as a multifaceted glimpse at social video's future: Whether it's live or archived, stitching may prove to be a great way to turn all the crappy 24! 0x320 vi deo into a high-def tapestry worth watching.

Microsoft's TechFest is an annual jamboree of innovation and gadgetry from Microsoft Research, which means that while none of it is coming out as is in products in the near future, it's essentially what product development people use to add cool stuff to their actual releases.

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OmniWeb Mac Browser Finally Released For Free [Browsers]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/rA3zJqKKM4c/omniweb-mac-browser-finally-released-for-free

Old, grizzled veterans of the browser wars (Blood! Honor! W3C Standards!) will remember OmniWeb, an expensive, Mac-only überbrowser that always seemed to be slightly ahead of everyone else. Well, it's free now.

A little background: OmniWeb is based on a slightly modified version of WebKit, but used to differentiate itself from other browsers with novel features. Ad blocking, tab previews, saved browsing sessions, inbuilt RSS reading, single-windows browsing and per-site preferences could once justify OmniWeb's price, but now most of these features, and plenty more, can be found in free browsers. That's not to say that OmniWeb isn't a good browser, but it'll have a extremely hard time facing up against our increasingly capable choices in free software—especially the fantastic Safari 4.

The Omni Group is also setting a few more applications free, but OmniWeb is the by far the juiciest. [Cult of Mac]

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Reminder: If You Love Your Boxee, Turn Off Automatic Apple TV Updates [Apple TV]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/gRnhc82lOgk/reminder-if-you-love-your-boxee-turn-off-automatic-apple-tv-updates

Apple pushed a small Apple TV update to users last night, many of whom awoke to find their lovely, Hulu'd-despite-it-all Boxee installations brutally murdered. Again. Lesson: turn off automatic updates. [Slashgear]

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