TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

Tempel, demonstrated a multitouch interface hardware and software solution developed by Natural User Interface, called Digital Interactive Table, at Campus Party Colombia in collaboration with Telefonica.

Plans are to also be present at Campus Party Valencia.

Two people playing Wong (Multitouch Wall Pong).

Apple has today sent an email to MobileMe customers with an apology and an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription for free. MobileMe launched late last week but suffered issues causing online services to be down for over 24 hours.

Apple also admitted in the email that use of the term “push” when talking about Macs and PCs syncing to the service was misleading.

Below is the email that Apple sent to customers.

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.

Thank you,
The MobileMe Team

Apple has today quietly released firmware version 1.1.5 for iPod touch users who have opted not to pay for firmware version 2.0.

Although Apple has offered little information as to what is included with the firmware update, reports suggest that no new features are added, which means that 1.1.5 is likely just a bug fix and stability update.

Following the official launch of MobileMe late last week a knowledge base article on Apple’s support site began raising concerns amongst some.

The article outlines that instant data sync only occurs to MobileMe from the web interface or a portable device such as iPhone or iPod touch. The main concern is that changes made on a Mac will not be instantly synced back to MobileMe but changes will be updated automatically every 15 minutes or manually by hitting the “Sync” button.

Also regarding MobileMe, Apple has confirmed that the iDisk File Sharing feature of the service will be delayed.

In response to a customers support email “Mike” of Apple’s MobileMe Support team wrote, “When MobileMe was announced, iDisk File Sharing was mentioned as a feature; however, the MobileMe webpage noted that all features listed on that page were subject to change,” continuing, “When MobileMe was released on July 10, 2008, iDisk File Sharing was not included. I apologize for any inconvenience.”

Apple’s website lists iDisk as coming soon but doesn’t offer any timeline as to when the feature will be enabled.

To help some users, Apple has pointed many users towards this support article, which describes other ways in which MobileMe users can share the contents of their remote iDisks.

In addition to selling over 1 million iPhones, Apple has also announced that downloads from the App Store topped 10 million. More than 800 native applications are now available on the App Store, with more than 200 offered for free and more than 90 percent priced at less than $10.

“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.”

Multitouch is undoubtedly a technology that took the computer and technology industries by storm when it was first introduced in the Microsoft Surface Computer and later put into the Apple iPhone, a product that could be sold to massive markets at affordable rates.  Lately however, there has been question as to whether the Multitouch technology that everyone seems to be touting is actually the technology of the future.

Consider exhibit A, an interesting little device known as the Samsung Instinct.  This is a cell phone attached to Sprint plans and it is also a phone that has little to do with Multitouch.  It does have a touch screen interface however, since you can touch buttons and make things happen.  It has no Multitouch however, since you can not slide your finger or make other gestures in contact with the screen to have different outcomes.

While the Samsung Instinct is nothing special in terms of technology, it has been doing surprisingly well in the markets.  People that have purchased it have reported about the same amount of satisfaction as those that purchased the iPhone and overall the sales of phones like the Instinct have not really suffered that much at the hands of the iPhone and other Multitouch products.

While there are nowhere near enough affordable Multitouch products on the market to facilitate a fair comparison between these two technology types, it appears as though at least for the near future Microsoft and Apple will be the two main pushers of Multitouch technology until they can get it down to a level of affordability that rivals other similar technological products.

Today marked the release of the iPhone 3G across the world, New Zealand began the process and the launches slowly spanned the globe.

The first cracks began appearing when the iPhone was set to launch in the UK, as customers queued through the early hours of the morning they were quickly disappointed as stocks dwindled at O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple Stores across the country. Most O2 stores reporting that they had less than 50 units.

These issues and frustrations were nothing compared to what would occur as US purchasers began hammering the iTunes activation servers. Not long after the 8AM launch of the iPhone 3G on the East Coast Apple’s servers began slowing and eventually died leaving thousands queuing across the country.

Reports emerged that some were being sent home with un-activated units, instead being told to activate them at home through iTunes.

The problem was increased by magnitude as Apple simultaneously released the iPhone and iPod touch 2.0 firmware update causing a flurry of users to attempt to download the software.

As servers failed many iPhone owners in AT&T and Apple stores were left with half “bricked” iPhones and users at home trying to update were also suffering with non-functional units.

The problems come after a significant delay in the release of MobileMe which took over 24 hours to fully come online and is reportedly still sluggish.

With the iPhone 3G launching in countries across the World, Apple has released a configuration utility to assist enterprise customers in creating configuration profiles that will allow iPhones to communicate with their enterprise systems.

Configuration profiles are XML files that contain device security policies, VPN configuration information, Wi-Fi settings, APN settings, Exchange account settings, mail settings, and certificates that permit iPhone and iPod touch to work with your enterprise systems.

• iPhone Configuration Utility 1.0 for Mac OS X - 8.77MB
• iPhone Configuration Web Utility 1.0 for Mac - 2.29MB
• iPhone Configuration Web Utility 1.0 for Windows - 5.18MB

Apple has also published an iPhone Enterprise support page which includes a detailed Enterprise Deployment Guide (PDF).

How to do you perceive your home in 2013? Do you want all the devices in your home to run with your voice common and simply want to navigate through using your hands? Then you can surely dream about it because human touch and natural user interface is something that companies are seeing their future in. Some laptops and handheld devices already use biometric finger scans to access stored data and can easily recognize the human touch as input device. Well, these things might come into other device within your home too making your life much easier than ever before.

The real growth of these touchscreens will come when companies adapt it into home use devices where the touch screen technology can be used to navigate data, applications and functions. Touch screen is rapidly being developed by various companies and it won’t be much when you can find almost any devices coming with a built in touch screen facilities and input devices like keyboard and mouse might take a back seat.

Even today Apple’s iphone and Microsoft’s’ Surface technology have gained enough of credibility among the users because of their innovative touch screen functions and seamless integration with older version of devices. With more and more competition for these products in market one can be sure that many more companies will join the foray to create more amazing products with built in touch screen facilities to stay ahead in consumers demand and satisfaction.

Touch screen technology is divided into two distinct features; single touch and multi touch. In a single touch system users can only interact with one single area of the screen at one time which is found in smart phone like Palm Treo. Single touch technology is not expected to be around in the digital home in 2013 and the other version of touch screen, multi touch can enable you to handle different parts of the screen simultaneously with your own finger.

The multi touch gives much more flexibility in development and helps users interact with multiple point of the device at same time. Multi touch is expected to break into digital homes by 2013.

Microsoft’s surface products are expected to come into market by 2010 which will not only bring in huge demands for their products but will also motivate many more companies to pitch in their devices lapsed with touch screen and interactive handling features capable to recognize human touch and primary input device. Though Microsoft speculates its commercial viability but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates have speculated to roll it out with their next version of operating system called Widows 7.

Is it too early to say that Windows 7 might be Microsoft’s last best hope to stem the tide against them? It probably is, but the way the corporate giant is acting one would think that is the primary thought running through their mind at the present moment.

Microsoft has posted a job opportunity on their website looking for a PR manager for their new Windows operating system, set to be released sometime in 2010. With the departure of Nick White (the man that did the same job for Windows Vista) and the absolute disaster to public relations that the operating system ended up being, this particular posting takes on a more interesting presence and one that has not been lost on many of the online technology bloggers.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 product really is where Microsoft appears to be making their stand as they attempt to gain back the market share they have lost to Apple in the wake of the Windows Vista fiasco. With Multitouch functionality and a number of changes to the code that are expected to tone down the resource intensive nature of the operating system greatly, Windows 7 appears to be a product that can get the job done if it has the proper marketing behind it.

Apparently Microsoft understands this and will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that Windows 7 hits the market with a lot of momentum behind it.