TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

CNET is reporting that a former IBM employee by the name of Mark Papermaster has accepted a job at Apple. The article is mainly targeted at a lawsuit which IBM has started against the former employer for joining Apple. Papermaster was IBM’s Vice President of Microprocessor technology but recently left his job and will start at Apple in November.

IBM is claiming that Papermaster is violating an employment agreement by joining Apple and that the ex-employee could divulge the companies trade secrets. Papermaster is considered a “top expert in Power architecture and technology”.

It is unknown why Apple has pursued Papermaster but CNET speculates that he could be vital to Apple’s plans to develop processors for the iPod touch and iPhone.

A couple of pictures of the first batch of Horizons, NUI’s interactive multi-touch table.
Picture taken at the agency of our partner byVOLTA in Paris, France, just before they got shipped to Saudi Arabia for the event “Towards the First World”.
I will upload some pictures and video as soon as I receive them.

Wow, a lot of news recently regarding your choices for new devices. AT&T has released the Samsung Epix, HP has come out with the iPAQ Voice Messenger and the iPAQ Data Traveller, and Sprint has released the HTC Touch Pro.

AT&T Epix

AT&T’s new Samsung Epix has a Treo-like form factor with a front-facing QWERTY keyboard. It’s sometimes called the BlackJack III, but unlike that device it has a touch screen.

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The BBC is reporting that a temporary error on the UK iTunes Store today has caused many non-offensive song titles to become censored.

A spokesperson has responded to the BBC’s request for a statement saying that the error was caused by a “database glitch” which occurred when the store was checking for real profanities.

Among the many censored songs Killer Queen by Queen is displaying as K****r Queen, Hot ‘n’ Cold by Katy Perry is showing as H*t ‘n’ Cold while bizarrely Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon remains untouched.

Meet the newest from HP, the iPAQ Voice Messenger. This is a non touchscreen phone running Windows Mobile Standard that also has 3G, integrated GPS, 128mb RAM and 256mb ROM, and a very cool look that gets the device envy juices flowing. 

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NUI in partnership with France based byVOLTA, delivered a customized multi-touch software solution with three Horizons for the exhibition “Towards the First World” in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The press release can be found on NUI’s website in the news section at:
http://www.natural-ui.com/aboutnui/news.html

For more information about the Horizon, visit:
http://www.natural-ui.com/solutions/products.html

AT&T is releasing the Samsung i907 Epix beginning today. The Epix runs Widows 6.1 Mobile Professional and uses a BlackJack II form factor. Being a professional device, the Epix utilizes a touch screen for its 2.55" display.

The Epix is feature packed with 3G speeds, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, video share calling, Voice Command, aGPS, and a 2 megapixel camera with video capture. The Epix will retail for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Primary Specifications:

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Again, the about-to-be-released T-Mobile G1 isn’t a Windows Mobile phone; rather, it uses Google’s Android software. But in this week's column I want to point you to some of the initial reviews, since it’s an exciting device and another strong indicator of things to come. Bottom line: powerful device, Android software is impressive, but needs fine tuning.

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I'll put it this way. If you want to make your Windows Mobile device look and act a little more like the iPhone, then Winterface is for you. It is essentially at it's core, yet another application launcher/manager, whith some messaging and PIM integration. It looks good, and the screen animations were quite snappy on my iPAQ. Make no mistake, I like Winterface but would like to see a few more hooks into the native WM environment.

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For everybody who is interested to see one of the first interactive multi-touch tables of Natural User Interface (NUI), there is the possibility to see them at the following events:

12-15 November in Gothenburg at SACO mässa (fair)
20-21 November in Stockholm at SACO mässa (fair)
27-30 November in Jönköping at DreamHack, the worlds largest computer festival organizer is holding its Winter edition.

This is in collaboration with our educational partner LTU Skelleftea. Search for the LTU booth at these events.