TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

In an excellent article recently written on PC World, tech analyst Mike Elgan points out that Apple may have replaced Microsoft as the computer company that people love to hate.  As he admits in the article, his goal in doing this was not to bury Apple, but rather to point out that neither Apple nor Microsoft deserved a lot of the vitriol heaped at them in terms of bundling software and forcing it on users as well as using the large inertia of their monopoly-like companies to bowl over competitors and stifle creativity in the marketplace as a result.

You can get a good lowdown on exactly how Apple is doing today what Microsoft used to do from that article, but there is a point missed in that article that intimately relates to Multitouch.  That topic is how Apple came to replace Microsoft as the major industry player.

In the opinion of many, the reason this happened was that Microsoft’s monopoly-like inertia reached past a critical point.  When this happened, instead of stifling the competition in the marketplace, Microsoft became old news, unable to respond to changes in the marketplace and changes in consumer behaviour.  The Surface Computer (an overpriced flashy item that does nothing for the average person) and Windows Vista (quite possibly the worst operating system in history, especially from a mobile and Multitouch point of view) are very good indications of that.

Since the consumers are mostly interested in mobile Multitouch products at the moment, Apple seems to be top dog.  If they want to avoid Microsoft’s fate however, they need to be more on the ball in responding the next time the tech marketplace undergoes a large shift.

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The Spb folks have just released their online portal, Spb Online. Three other reviews have already been published (some hours ago) on it. Therefore, I've paid special attention to elaborating on issues not discussed in the other reviews, particularly when it comes to comparing Spb Online to the competing alternatives – after all, I've published several articles on several areas Spb Online implemented: radio and TV streaming, podcasting and multiplayer games.

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This week I want to give you an update on two mobile search services — ChaCha and Google. And although you may be tired of hearing about HTC Touch devices, there’s big news in that arena: the HTC Touch HD, which has an impressive 3.8-inch screen. Plus, we offer other Touch news, including an unlocked Touch Diamond from Best Buy.

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See THIS for more info.

 

You may remember my previous article on playing back RMVB (RealMedia Variable Bitrate) videos on Windows Mobile. Back then, the only hack available was pretty much useless: it only ran on Marvell (ex-Intel) Xscale CPU's and delivered a really inferior performance (very low video speed, useless for watching anything).

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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.