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Friday, December 18, 2009

Tiki'Labs virtual keyboard for iPhone takes shot at Swype, one-handed typing wars commence

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/tikilabs-virtual-keyboard-for-iphone-takes-shot-at-swype-one-h/

One-handed touchscreen typing is the hip new thing, apparently, since mere weeks after getting our first whiff of Swype, Tiki'Labs has debuted its own free TikiNotes app for the iPhone with a proprietary "large target" sort of keyboard. We've seen the idea before, specifically with some accessibility devices, which lets the user drill down into one of six alphabet sectors, and then pick one of six characters. TikiNotes improves upon that by not only predicting the word you're currently typing, but also often correctly guessing the next word you were planning on typing. To be honest, we find that second feature just a little depressing -- all that money the government spent on our two years of high school education and we still form sentences like everybody else -- but certainly useful (Tiki'Labs claims a 40% success rate). We tried out the free app for a couple of minutes and found it more akin to a Brain Age-type exercise than a typing utility, but we're sure we could get used to it. What we can't get used to, however, is how hilariously great it is that Tiki'Labs spliced a Swype demo video (originally pitted against the iPhone keyboard) to serve as a typing race example... and still only barely squeaked through with the victory. It can be found after the break, naturally. The app will be available on Windows Mobile and Android soon.

Continue reading Tiki'Labs virtual keyboard for iPhone takes shot at Swype, one-handed typing wars commence

Tiki'Labs virtual keyboard for iPhone takes shot at Swype, one-handed typing wars commence originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chromium OS lands on the Archos 9, doesn't do much

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/chromium-os-lands-on-the-archos-9-doesnt-do-much/

Trying to satisfy that browser-only touchscreen tablet urge? Well, you're sort of in luck. Those Atom-powered Archos 9 tablets are out and about, and the fine folks at UMPCPortal have slung a copy of Google's Chromium OS onto one. Unfortunately, since there's no touchscreen keyboard in the OS (yet), and the touchscreen input isn't even recognized, this is more of a "proof of concept" than a killer app. Still, we like where this is headed.

Chromium OS lands on the Archos 9, doesn't do much originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM's optical trackpads: they weren't joking about the 'optical' part

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/

Thinking about how your phone's touchscreen operates, you might assume that the so-called optical pads that have been making appearances on recent BlackBerrys (among other devices) operate in a similar fashion -- but you'd be wrong. RIM's official BlackBerry blog is chiming in today to drop some knowledge on us dullards, and it turns out that "optical" isn't just a cute nickname -- the pads do actually operate in much the same way as modern desktop mice, using a low-res infrared camera to capture movement across the surface and translate it into movement. In practical terms, what this means is that you don't need a conductive surface to operate the pad -- you can use pretty much anything that the sensor can see, so a gloved hand (for instance) is theoretically good to go. That being said, don't expect to be snapping photos with your "camera" any time soon -- we're literally talking about a handful of grayscale pixels here, which should make it only marginally better than the Droid's cam.

RIM's optical trackpads: they weren't joking about the 'optical' part originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peregrine gaming glove modeled, calibrated, and demoed on video

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/peregrine-gaming-glove-modeled-calibrated-and-demoed-on-video/

Now that the Peregrine gaming glove is finalized and taking pre-orders, we had a chance to sit down with creator and company CEO Brent Baier, who guided us through the use of the military-spec'd mitt and gave us our first glimpse at the calibration / key-mapping software (PC only for now, Mac coming later). We're still fiddling with our review unit, and while the gaming aspect is intriguing, we're actually pretty interested in how it could be applied to production and design software. The one issue with that is a conscience decision to limit each finger press to activating only one key at a time -- macros are theoretically possible, but according to Baier that would disqualify the glove from being used in professional gaming competitions. Maybe down the line, perhaps? Video after the break.

Gallery: Peregrine gaming glove press photos

Continue reading Peregrine gaming glove modeled, calibrated, and demoed on video

Peregrine gaming glove modeled, calibrated, and demoed on video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Eee PC 1201N review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/asus-eee-pc-1201n-review/

Six months ago netbooks all had 10-inch displays, fairly cramped keyboards, and couldn't manage to play a 1080p video even if they trained with the best of marathoners. The world's a lot different now: the King of Pop has passed away, the unemployment rate has dropped, and netbook manufacturers have realized 11- and 12-inch displays provide a more comfortable experience -- especially when paired with more powerful hardware that adds multimedia prowess.

We'll stop there with the Netbook 101, but looking at the past is necessary in realizing what a game-changer the ASUS Eee PC 1201N really is. The 1201N's dual-core Intel Atom processor, NVIDIA Ion graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium, and 2GB of RAM make it the most powerful netbook to ever grace the purchase pages of Amazon. But does the $500 machine fix all the issues and frustrations we've ever had with netbooks when put to the test? Can it make us forget about cramped keyboards, strained eyes and sluggish video performance? Find out in our full review.

Gallery: ASUS Eee PC 1201N Review