TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

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Last week, NUI launched two brand new applications at Dreamhack and Forskarfredag (Researchers Friday) in Skelleftea 24-26 of September.

The sandbox application

Gravitoy is a physics application with 2 modes (Sandbox and Stacks).
Sandbox is an environment for drawing objects and interact with them through physics.

Sandbox

Sandbox

Stacks is an object stacking game where 2 players play against each other to stack different shaped objects, with the goal to build the highest tower and reach point X. To make the game a bit more interesting, we have added options to change gravity and remove and add objects to the other players field, to increase the difficulty level.
This physics based application that we developed is a good platform to further develop multi-touch games on and to enrich our other future applications.

Stacks

Stacks

Aside to that, we launched a 3d model viewer application which allows users to interact with 3d models. This is a good application for companies showing their products, for example cars, shoes or other products in retail stores that can be placed in a 3d environment to enable users to easily see products from all angles. Imagine the ability for architects to digitally interact with their buildings that they are conceptualizing, with this 3d model viewer.

3d model viewer

3d model viewer

Yesterday an image claiming to be the new MacBook Pro began to circulate, many sites including World of Apple neglected to post the image feeling that the image was clearly fake.

Today it has been confirmed by Jason O’Grady that the image is in fact fake but he also offers some details on the future MacBook Pro.

On his blog O’Grady states that he’s heard that the new MacBook Pro will retain its more traditional square edged look instead of adopting the tapered edges of the MacBook Air. In addition O’Grady believes that the new MacBook Pro will be much thinner than the current incarnation, “as much as a half-inch narrower” he writes. That space saving is said to come from around the screen.

The blogger goes onto write that the MacBook Pro will adopt the black “flat top” keys of the MacBook Air and could also include a trackpad smaller than the current MacBook Pro but also with the addition of a split two-button trackpad button.

Finally O’Grady notes that the MacBook Pro will incorporate “full multi-touch support”, but offers no details on exactly what he means.

In addition AppleInsider adds that Apple will remove the FireWire 400 port in favour of a backwards compatible FireWire 800 port on the new MacBook Pro. Also in what will most likely be a controversial decision the 28-pin DVI-I port used for connecting external displays has also reportedly been replaced with a mini-DVI port like the one found on the current MacBook and iMac.

It has been suggested in the past that the new MacBook Pro and MacBook will be released on October 14th.

I've just added the just-released Kinoma Play 1.0 and Spb Online 1.0 to the chart of Sneak peek: the Main Chart of my forthcoming Multimedia Audio Streaming Bible!

Very interesting and entertaining video that tells the truth so many times over.
Summary: Stop doing what you don’t love doing and start doing what you love doing.

Web 2.0 Expo NY: Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library), Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape

Thanks to Pawel for the tip.

 Read (or simply search) through the many pages of our blog, and you will likely find a review on task/list management or some similar mobile tracking and reminder mechanism. I have waxed poetic myself on the topic a time or two, and probably spouted off that I had finally found the WM Holy Grail of task management, only to forget about it 3 months later!

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NUI is partnering with Durham University on SynergyNet, a 1,5 million GBP government funded project spanning a period of 3 years, that focuses on integrating multi-touch technology within the educational sector to create the classroom of the future.

The project got featured on Engadget, BBC and Gizmodo.

Engadget Classrooms of the future to have multitouch desks, probably a few Terminators

BBC Pupils test multi-touch screen

Gizmodo Education’s Many Problems Solved With Multitouch Desks

What’s Hot: A real 3D flight sim with cockpit and external views, 4 planes to choose from, several scenarios to choose, 3D terrain, airstrips, iPhone accelerometer controls, customizations for weather, terrain, time of day, and plane weight.

What’s Not: Some stability issues, no ability to plan flights, limited cockpit controls, no autopilot, odd propeller behavior, expensive at $9.99.

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I’ve just finished updating the Podcasting / podcatching bible with

- Hands-on info on the just-released Microsoft Zune 3.0

- Info on the recently released, famous Kinoma Play’s podcasting capabilities

- Info on pRSSreader.

Apple recently released an update for its Remote application for the iPhone. Remote allows users to control iTunes via the iPhone over a WiFi network. The 1.1 update adds the ability to create and manage Genius playlists as well as the ability to create and edit playlists in iTunes.

While I enjoy the updates, editing of playlists is not implemented as well as it could be. For example, deleting songs from a playlist must be done one at a time, which is reminiscent of deleting mail prior to the 2.0 update. Adding songs allows you to select multiple songs at once, but neglects to allow you to deselect them if you change your mind. In the end, however, it is nice to be able to have more control via the Remote app and I welcome the update with open arms. Head on over to the App Store to download or update to Remote 1.1 (iTunes link)