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Posts Tagged ‘Screen Keyboard’

HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert

It shouldn’t be any surprise that the HP Slate supports Flash, since it runs Windows 7, but we’ve seen so little of the device since Steve Ballmer first waved it around at CES that we’re still totally intrigued by this video from Adobe showing it in action. Yep, there it is, playing video, running casual Flash games, and using AIR applications. We also get a quick shot of the on-screen keyboard, which looks like a mildly tweaked version of the standard Windows 7 keyboard. We can’t say until we use it, but it certainly doesn’t look like it’ll be fun to type on. Interestingly, Flash is said to be hardware-accelerated on the Slate, which suggests something other than a bone-stock Atom setup in there — we’d guess it’s an Atom plus a Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator, but there’s a chance it’s something else entirely. HP’s also posted up a new marketing video, which bears a striking resemblance to last night’s iPad commercial — until the end, which frankly makes no sense. Check ‘em both after the break.

[Thanks, Rick]

Continue reading HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert

HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad vs. Kindle: Which way to go?

Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Cult of Mac, Books

In my post yesterday I touched on the likely long faces at Amazon H.Q. in Seattle. The iPad is something I’m sure they wished hadn’t happened, but of course it did, and I thought I’d take a closer look at the competition between the Amazon and Apple devices.

First off, if you were thinking of buying a Kindle DX, I’d say forget it. The iPad is a knockout punch to that device. At just ten dollars cheaper than the low end iPad, there just is no contest. The two devices are the same size (both are 9.7″), but the iPad has a color screen and can do a lot of things that Kindle just can’t do.

Yes, the DX has free 3G wireless for buying books, but the iPad has 802.11n, and for most common usage, it just isn’t that hard to find a place to hook up. Book prices may be a bit higher on the iPad, but they will be in color and multimedia with the promise of moving video, color charts and pictures, and so on. I also consider the on-screen keyboard an advantage for the iPad — the keyboard on the Kindle is basically a waste of space.

As a travel companion, all you can do on the DX is read, although there is a rudimentary browser, and more functionality coming. Subscriptions are another Kindle selling point, but it’s not a stretch to believe that Apple has something like that coming as well. Comparing the iPad to the Kindle DX, I just don’t think there is any contest, and Amazon is going to be forced to think about how they are pricing and marketing the Kindle DX.

OK, on to the standard issue Kindle at U.S. $259.00. This decision is a bit trickier. It’s about half the cost of the low end iPad, has a smaller screen, but does have built in no-charge 3G. That’s mainly for buying books, as web browsing is pretty painful. Once again, books seem a bit cheaper on the Kindle at this stage, but I’ve noticed prices creeping up. Battery life with wireless off is about 2 weeks, and the iPad can never touch that.

For the immediate future, Amazon has far more books on offer, but that will likely change over time. If you have the smaller Kindle, I would not have anxiety about the iPad if you are mainly a reader. If you have the DX, I’d feel a bit queasy.

It’s likely you’ll be able to read your Kindle books on the iPad, just as you can on your iPhone or iPod touch, but they’ll be black and white, with no rich illustrations. Amazon will stress that the iPad will be a great place to read Kindle books, but I don’t think in the long run that’s a cogent argument.

Looking out to the future, I think the odds favor the iPad. As an author myself (of a book about a sixties film producer), the idea of converting my dead tree book to something with short film clips and even musical examples makes me giddy. As a consumer, I’ll want to get books that have those kinds of features.

In the early days of technology, new inventions tend to mimic the old. The TV was really a small movie screen, with radio quality audio. In fact, a lot of early TV was really old radio shows repackaged with pictures, i.e. Jack Benny and the Lone Ranger.

The Kindle mimics the book reading experience. It does it well, with a crisp display and an easy-to-use interface. Apple seems to want to take the experience beyond just mimicking a book, to create a new experience. Publishers will have to extend themselves to meet those goals, and so will authors.

In the short term, these gradual changes will be invisible, and I’ll happily keep using my Kindle. In the long term, devices like the iPad will win us over and evolve our relationship with our media, just as the iPod did.

How about you? Second thoughts about a Kindle? Or a Nook. Or a whatever?

TUAWiPad vs. Kindle: Which way to go? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boxee keyboard makes searching TV content fast

D-Link’s Boxee Box is an Internet-connected console for television. It’ll play Hulu content, CBS, ABC, Netflix, YouTube, and lots more onscreen. But with all those options, surfing through menus with a TV remote will try your patience.

The keyboard was announced a few minutes ago in a blog post tied to the ongoing 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a few minutes ago. The device is meant to be used from a chair or couch while watching TV.

“When we started designing the Boxee Box remote we wanted something simple like the 6-button Apple Remote,” a Boxee employee identified only as Andrew wrote. “As we began adding features to the Beta it became obvious that for people to really get the most out of the box it was going to need to do more than just point and click.  Rather than subject anyone to another on-screen keyboard we decided the Boxee Box should benefit from a full QWERTY keyboard like you might have on a mobile phone.”

Pushing alphanumeric input onto a separate keyboard adds more hardware costs to the product, but the resulting setup — a QWERY keyboard and minimal-function remote — looks a lot more welcoming than yet another all-in-one remote yawn.

But watching the trends in mobile devices, it seems inevitable that someone else will design a remote that has only a touchscreen, on which buttons and a keyboard can be displayed as necessary. It seems inevitable now that the show floor at CES 2011 will be wall-to-wall touchscreens.

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Windows Mobile 6.5 ’second edition’ bringing slightly revamped UI?

Windows Mobile 6.5 ’second edition’ bringing slightly revamped UI? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

While Nokia wouldn’t invite us to Nokia World this year, we were fortunate enough to discover a pair of its new X6 handsets on the IFA floor here in Berlin. On hand were two engineering prototypes, one of which was peeling away from its plastic shell while the other seemed less responsive to our finger-taps than the other. Still, it’s clear that the capacitive touchscreen is far more responsive to human touch than the resistive screens found on its N97, or the 5800 XpressMusic especially. This was made abundantly clear when using the on-screen keyboard although some of our swiping gestures were inexplicably ignored in other elements of the interface. But given the choice of the screen being awesome or super-awesome (remember, we’re comparing it to Nokia’s resistive touchscreen legacy), we’ll have to settle on the former for now. Of course, underneath you’ve still got S60 5th, for better or worse, pumping away inside a chubby little candybar — no screen tech can change that. See the action in the video after the break then jump into the gallery to see it sized up with a few of its S60 cousins five times removed.

Continue reading Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Pre virtual keyboard developing rapidly, gets easy install method

We know you just can’t wait to get typing on the Pre’s lush touchscreen, and the folks at WebOS Internals must feel the same way as they’ve been hard at work making their on-screen keyboard a functional reality. Installation has been made a breeze thanks to the Preware app, and usability seems to have improved markedly since the pre-alpha version, but a few kinks remain that need to be ironed out. Still, if you’re willing to put up with some buggy behavior and the potential for your Pre to melt into a puddle of fiery lava, then slide past the break to get educated on the how, what and where to download.

Continue reading Video: Pre virtual keyboard developing rapidly, gets easy install method

Filed under: Cellphones

Video: Pre virtual keyboard developing rapidly, gets easy install method originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pre gets the on-screen keyboard it’s been missing, yet has always had

[Via PreCentral.net]

Filed under: Cellphones

Pre gets the on-screen keyboard it’s been missing, yet has always had originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our iTablet Dreams: What TUAW is wishing for

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends

Last week the topic of the iTablet ranged into dream territory as we TUAWians discussed this speculative post over at Technologizer. Although some team members expressed reservations about the iTablet and its possible limitations, others of us let our hopes range free. With apologies to Robert Browning, at least I think it is Robert Browning, if our dreams do not exceed Apple’s grasp, then what is the imagination for? So keeping that expansive philosophy in mind, here are the TUAW wishlists for the possibly probably upcoming tablet.

Erica Sadun:

While I’m still hoping for a dockable, one that works as a Snow Leopard desktop when docked and runs iPhone OS on the go, I’m not holding my breath either. Today’s MacBook storage and battery options prove that with a dockable tablet, I could bring my entire world with me and use that world for reasonable periods of time — but it would take a significant engineering effort to merge iPhone’s ubiquitous touch screen technology with standard Mac OS X interaction models.

So, will the tablet really run Snow Leopard? Er, probably not. But could you imagine a MacBook shell, where you could slide the tablet into a frame where the screen normally sits? That would be freaking awesome.

Even as an iPhone-OS-only solution, an iTablet would provide wealth of on-the go applications through App Store. Assuming no great leaps forward beyond what we’re already seeing in the iPhone OS 3.x SDK, an iTablet would be ready to provide existing iPhone capabilities with a beautiful big screen to work with.

If I had to pick two features that I’d want to see added, though, they would be wireless support for external keyboards and ubiquitous TV-out. Although the on-screen keyboard is fine for tip-tapping data into fields, there will be times that a tablet user might want to unfold a portable Bluetooth keyboard and use that for data entry.

TV-out support is currently limited to movie playback. Extending that to general application output would help position an iTablet better into the business presentation world. It would also be nice if an Apple Remote of some kind could be used with an iTablet.

Even without these features, an iTablet limited to the current iPhone OS will be a major technology leap forward just due to the increased screen real estate. I can’t wait to start playing with big-screen iPhone applications!

Continue reading Our iTablet Dreams: What TUAW is wishing for

TUAWOur iTablet Dreams: What TUAW is wishing for originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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