The folks over at Gizmondo discuss and comment on the details surrounding a multi-touch enabled MacBook. It is their opinion that the oft rumored forthcoming PDA from Apple is not going to happen, as the entire PDA industry is shrinking daily as smartphones take over. Instead, it is suggested that there is a strong chance a new, thin and touchable MacBook will be Apple’s next big thing.
If this product takes the form of a convertible tablet, Microsoft’s Tablet PC product line will surely take a beating. We are in agreement with Gizmondo that a PDA seems questionable, especially with both the iPhone and iPod Touch containing many PDA abilities as it is.
Bringing word that Finnish company Satama Interactive has been chosen to be a member of Microsoft’s Surface Partner Advisory Council.
There seems to be an abundance of international talent in the realm of multi touch and natural user interface design. Hopefully, this Advisory Council plays a strong role in developing Microsoft Surface into a intuitive and extendible platform.
Those of you lucky enough to have a multi-touch system, or any touch screen for that matter, should think about protecting it. Gravano was nice enough to share the results of some testing of various materials. The bad news is, none met his expectations. Hopefully we will be able to bring you an updated report with some good news.
Most reviews of the iPod Touch are similar, in that the same negatives are mentioned, yet in the end, the Touch is considered a winner.
Finding someone with a different tune to sing was a breath of fresh air. Randy, over at RandyRants.com, has actually returned his iPod Touch, and gone with the new Nano, and is happy with his decision. Find out why.
There is no shortage of reviews on Apples new iPod lineup, and of specific interest to us, the Touch. Here is another quality bit, this time from the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Touch is getting grilled for not having hardware buttons for play/pause/next/prev, and this review is no different. And, like the others, much is made of the features removed from the iPhone. This time, the saving grace in the reviewer’s eyes is the wifi/Safari combination.
It seems the iBar is getting a bit more press. Digital Experience has a short blurb describing just what the iBar does.
It is always good seeing the more unique multi touch products getting some interest. Hopefully this interest in the iBar translates into more installations, as we are still looking to have a few drinks at one of these sometime soon.
The Apple iPod Touch gets a thorough review by Walt Mossberg, of All Things Digital. This is a pretty typical Touch review. Mention is made of how the Touch lacks features of the iPhone, but how it handles media playback in a splendid fashion. The most interesting aspect of the review is the revelation that battery life is shorter than Apple’s claim. It is best to wait for more news about battery life to trickle in before jumping to conclusions, but it would be a shame if the battery life was indeed short. Still, 17 hours of audio is not horrible by our accounts, and 4 hours of video still gets you through a couple of typical movies.
We have just seen mention of a card based arcade game that Taito has announced entitled The Wheel of Eternity. Details on this are slim at the moment, but it looks to use an MS Surface-like table top, which detects player cards, and their movement and arrangement. Looks pretty nifty, and it make certainly sense to bring this type of technology to arcades.
Who knows, this, or a similar game, may just turn into the next arcade hit, drawing people back into the shrinking number of video game parlors.
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