pen

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Who inherits your iTunes library? Why your digimedia may go to the grave.

- Meet a group of journalists in L.A. who share a passion for listening to police scanners.

- Bic geniuses who unveiled pen made for women get roasted by Internet.

- Let us not forget that Apple and Samsung are in bed.… Read more

It seems to make sense that actor, director, short story writer, and Ph.D. candidate for Yale's English program James Franco would be the new spokesman for Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1. The company is aiming to show that while Franco is a man of many talents, the device can also accomplish many tasks at once.

In a new TV ad for the device, which Franco claims to have directed himself, the actor is seen walking around his house using his Note to look up information with the touch pad, write down messages with the S pen stylus, … Read more

In today's show, we ponder a world with an iPen, lose our addiction to Draw Something, and tilt our heads to the Axis:

Yahoo has launched a new tool for searching the Web, called Yahoo Axis. This is not a browser, but rather a plug-in that attaches to your desktop browser, and it's also an app for Apple devices. So why use it? It's supposed to be a faster way to comb through search results. Start typing in your search term, and a horizontal bar will showcase thumbnail previews of websites you can jump to. Also, searches … Read more

Despite the late Steve Jobs' mockery of a stylus, Apple has been tinkering with the notion of an iPen complete with haptic feedback.

That's according to a newly published patent application unearthed by enthusiast site Patently Apple. Apple's idea for an iPen would include haptic feedback to improve the user interface.

Users would feel a small vibration depending on how much pressure they applied to the stylus, or whether the stylus moved over a link on the screen, creating a more realistic experience. It could also vary depending on the angle of the stylus, orientation to the screen, … Read more

In an effort to show off the content-creating potential of its large-screen, pen-enabled Galaxy Note device, Samsung Mobile today announced the winners of its Samsung Galaxy Note S Pen App Challenge. In all, over $200,000 were awarded to the winning app developers, with a grand prize of $100,000 going to Square Island for its Monkey Write - Learn Chinese app.

Entries were judged by a five-member panel of representatives from AndroidCentral.com, AT&T, BlueRun Ventures, Gameloft, and Samsung Mobile, who evaluated not only the quality and originality of the idea, but also the overall user experience. … Read more

The S Pen is the stylus that comes with the Samsung Galaxy Note. It can be used for things like taking notes, drawing doodles, and otherwise acting as a more precise version of your fingertip when using your phone.

These shortcuts are ones you'll definitely want to commit to memory as a Note user, especially since the S Pen does not interact with the capacitive navigation buttons near the bottom of the device.

Press and hold the S Pen button (on the side of the stylus), and tap once anywhere on the screen of the device. … Read more

Apple should be blowing us away with the iPad 3, but it probably won't.

The latest rumors call for a higher resolution screen on par with the iPhone's Retina Display, a possible upgrade to the iOS software, and possibly a few other improvements. That's certainly enough to draw the Apple faithful and sell a ton of iPads. But with the rapid advances that the competition is making, will it be enough to secure the company's continued dominance in the tablet business?

Sure, the iPad has been a blockbuster franchise for Apple. In the fourth quarter alone, … Read more

You are slightly less likely to be given a free Olympus camera by a stranger these days as the Olympus PEN Ready Project giveaway is in the books. Now, it's time to see the photographic results.

Olympus rolled out its $500 PEN E-PM1 camera earlier this year by giving more than 1,000 free cams to random people around North America. The recipients were asked to take pictures wherever they went. Olympus continues to collect those shots for display online.

I was asked to play along with the big promotion by testing the PEN Ready E-PM1's capabilities along with those 1,000 fortunate winners. I couldn't ask for a better way to review a camera than to take it on the freelance-journalism road from a Harley-Davidson event in Milwaukee, to a NASCAR race in Charlotte, N.C., to a Yamaha scooter ride in San Francisco. … Read more

Olympus is rolling out its new PEN E-PM1 camera by asking random consumers to demonstrate how easy the latest PEN Ready camera is to use.

The PEN Ready Project looks to give more than 1,000 free PEN Ready E-PM1 cams to random people around North America. Those fortunate folks in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Miami, and Lehigh Valley, Penn., (Olympus' hometown) can go anywhere they like and take any pictures or HD videos they like (Olympus is asking them to shoot at least 20 still images or vids; those who do will be entered in a sweepstakes).

Olympus is collecting those works of would-be art for showcasing on a new custom-designed Tumblr blog. The company's hope is that people around the world will visit the PEN Ready site to see what the E-PM1 can do, thus wanting one for themselves. … Read more