multitouch

The bottom line: Mac OS X Lion is definitely a worthy upgrade for all Intel Mac users. Featuring several interface enhancements and useful new features across all the core apps, Mac OS X Lion is an excellent update for the price.

Review: When Apple showed off Mac OS X Lion at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech earlier this year, it was clear the company had paid attention to its successes with the popular iOS devices, and was now beginning to include successful iOS features in its flagship OS. Also, with Apple laptops and tablets now far outpacing desktop sales, … Read more

Apple picked up a patent yesterday that could come in very handy in today's thicket of smartphone-related intellectual property litigation.

The patent gets to the heart of what it means to be a smartphone these days: a user interface with a multitouch display. Patent No. 7,966,578 bears the title "Portable multifunction device, method, and graphical user interface for translating displayed content."

But what's it mean? CNET takes a look at some of the issues involved.

First, what does the patent cover? The patent involves some of the most basic things you can do with a smartphone: touch the screen to move elements shown on it. That could be a touch with one finger, two fingers, or more, and the meat of the patent concerns just how many. Specifically, it has a lot to say about whether a sliding gesture moves a whole page of content or just some elements within a frame.

"Depending on the number of fingers used in the gesture, a user may easily translate page content or just translate frame content within the page content," the patent said.

The abstract of the patent reads as follows:… Read more

Panasonic's new Toughbook looks a lot like its old Toughbook. That is to say, it's bulky, is rated for MIL-STD-810G tests including drops up to 30 inches on its sides or 12 inches on the corners, and has a magnesium-alloy case, a shock-mounted hard drive, and spill-resistant keyboard.

The differences, however, are many: the new Toughbook 53 has lost over a pound of weight, dropping to a reasonable 5.6 pounds and downsizing its screen from 15.6 inches to 14 inches. The track pad has gotten larger, and added multitouch. 4G LTE service is now offered--a first … Read more

Now that you've finally gotten your taxes (or your request for an extension) to the Internal Revenue Service on time, better turn your attention to composing your magnum opus for our first-ever crowdsourced, multitouch-produced music album.

The deadline is April 30 and there are just a few rules:

The composition needs to be wholly your own--no sampling or remixing.

It needs to be done completely without instruments, using a multitouch-based audio production software program like GarageBand for the iPad. All interaction with the software should be done through a touch screen, in other words. Adding your own vocals is … Read more

Swedish phone company Hi3G Access wants to reach out and touch everyone with a new "Minority Report"-style video chat system through which its staff can shuffle graphics around with their hands.

As seen in the vid, 3LiveShop is a Flash-based multitouch system through which Hi3G staff can pull up images with the flick of a finger while video chatting with customers.

Developer B-Reel, a production company in Stockholm, says the system is the first of its kind in the world. The products are shown in a separate stream from the video for better resolution.

Staff can also create onscreen bills to show costs associated with phone models. After a customer selects a phone, it gets dropped into a cart for checkout in the e-commerce system.

The multitouch screens, developed with Teenage Engineering, include mirrors and high-end cameras. There are only three workstations with the system at the moment, but the company is thinking of expanding it to other countries if it's successful.

I think using a mouse would be a lot easier on the sales staff's arms, but of course it wouldn't look as cool. … Read more

Attention all GarageBand fans. We need your help creating what we think may be the world's first crowdsourced, fully multitouch-generated album. That's why we're putting out this call for submissions. Please send us your best original musical compositions, so long as they were created wholly using multitouch-based applications like GarageBand (it's OK to add your own vocals, if you dare).

We'll pick the best 10 compositions and songs for inclusion in our digital compilation, which we'll promote around our cubicles, and perhaps even on some sort of globally interconnected network of informational portals, or "sites." All musical genres are welcome.

Here's how to enter:

1. Get creative with GarageBand (or another multitouch music app). 2. Document the process of creating your composition in a video (so we can make sure you only used multitouch apps and didn't bring in a big band), and then let your musical work play in full at the end of the video. Videos should be no longer than roughly seven minutes in total. 3. Upload the video file to MediaFire for free and send the link to emackCNET@gmail.com. Be sure to include your name, location (city and state), and e-mail address. 4. Get them all in by April 30, 2011. Multiple entries are just fine.

We look forward to hearing your creations. Get tapping! And no "Stairway to Heaven" remixes please. We don't want any copyright lawyers after us. … Read more

Apple provides many great video tutorials online to help users get the most out of their Macs. Included in those tutorials are several about gestures in iPhoto '11. Here are a few more gestures to help supplement those.

Courtesy of curious Mac OS X Hints user tchenj, these hints work with newer trackpads that support multitouch gesturing. I checked out each hint using iPhoto '11 on a 2010 MacBook Pro. So, if you meet the requirements, open iPhoto, select a photo, and click Edit in the toolbar on the bottom of the iPhoto window.

Note: Before you get started, you … Read more

We got our hands on a prerelease version of Apple's latest big cat, Mac OS X Lion, and we're definitely excited about what we've seen so far. The new Mac OS isn't slated for release until this summer, but the early prerelease shows off many of the latest bells and whistles that Apple hopes will help you be more efficient on your Mac.

Several of the new features make navigating your system and software easier. The new Launchpad, accessed from an icon in the Dock, lays out your applications just as on an iOS device, making … Read more

In the competition between native applications for mobile phones vs. Web applications, hardware support often makes native apps an obvious choice for programmers. But the World Wide Web Consortium is tackling one area, touch-screen support, in an effort that could help Web apps catch up.

The W3C published an editor's draft of a new touch-screen standard for Web apps today. The draft specification is designed also for devices such as drawing tablets that don't have a screen, but today's hot market for smartphones makes touch screens the more important focus.

A standard--if designed well and adopted--would make … Read more