touch

While children were nestled all snug in their beds, Apple apparently had visions of improved touch-screens in its innovative head.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed a patent application from Apple, dated Christmas Day, for a swipe-gesture system to be used on touch-screen keyboards. It would allow a person to "perform certain functions using swipes across the key area rather than tapping particular keys," according to the patent application, authored by Wayne Westerman.

For example, the application explains that leftward, rightward, upward, and downward swipes might be assigned to inserting a space, backspacing, shifting, or inserting … Read more

If you've read my iPhone Apps of the Week posts, you know that I mostly download games and entertainment applications. I also like to check out music apps, because I play a few instruments and am continually interested in what developers are able to come up with musically for the iPhone. Since my coworker, Jessica Dolcourt, wrote the iPhone Starter Kit based around must-have apps of the practical variety, I can really get down to business--the business of fun iPhone apps!

So, what makes a great game or music app? Certainly graphics and sound are important for games, but with a platform as unique as the iPhone or iPod Touch, it's important to consider how it utilizes the accelerometer, touch screen, and other aspects of the device. For musical instruments and drum machines, it's important to note whether the sounds are realistic and how intuitive it is to play the instrument. Finally, it's important to note whether a game or instrument is a good fit for the medium. You probably wouldn't want to spend hours playing an MMO on a tiny device that needs recharging, and, similarly, you're probably not going to be writing concertos on your iPhone. The point is that it should be a good app by itself in addition to being a good app for the iPhone.

Some of the apps I'm including for this end-of-the-year roundup have been in previous posts, but several are new apps to my iPhone. I'm including both free apps and apps for purchase, and sometimes I have a good free version of a genre you can try if you don't want to spend the money. Without further ado, read on to see my favorite fun apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.… Read more

Last Monday, I Love Katamari for the iPhone and iPod Touch was released, and iPhone/iPod Touch owners everywhere rejoiced. OK, only Katamari Damacy fans would rejoice, but c'mon, who isn't a fan of a game where you can roll up pretty much anything and everything into a giant ball?

When I heard the news, I immediately went to the App Store and plunked down $7.99 of my own money for the game. I absolutely loved playing Katamari Damacy as well as its sequel, We Love Katamari on the PlayStation 2, and looked forward to see how the iPhone/iPod Touch version would fare.

As I expected, it's absolutely stunning, and the music is as addictive as ever ("NA-NAAAAAA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA The Katamari Damacy" is stuck in my head at the moment). The story part of Katamari is usually a fun little quirk of the game, and it's no different here. It starts out with the King of All Cosmos losing his memory of Earthly objects, and wants the Prince to roll them up so he can remember them. And as always, you're asked to roll the katamari ball over all sorts of objects of varying sizes, and as you roll up more things, your ball grows in size, making it possible to roll up larger objects--even animals and people.… Read more

If devising secure passwords isn't your strong suit, this free password-creator is your answer. You can set the desired password length with the slide bar or, more interactively, by shaking the device to get your random number. You can also define passwords for hex encryption from the main interface. If you're the forgetful type, you can also e-mail the password to yourself as a back-up.

To its credit, the app gives you flexibility in including or excluding letters and special characters--though your password will be stronger with both. Still on our wish list are ways to manually set … Read more

(Update: CNET's full review of the Cowon S9 is now available.)

Cowon's S9 touch-screen MP3 player has arrived, bringing the expected music, video, and photo playback, and extras such as FM radio, Bluetooth, voice/radio/line recording, a Flash player, and a text reader. So far, I'd say the S9's design is spot-on, with a slight curved back and a bright 16:9-formatted OLED screen set at a 480x272-pixel resolution. The user interface is also quite impressive, combined with Cowon's choice of a capacitive touch screen, the onscreen control is about as attractive and responsive as you can get without investing in an iPod Touch.

The Cowon S9 comes in 8GB and 16GB capacities priced at $199 and $239, respectively. The cost could be worth it if you're a real stickler for sound quality, as the S9 is Cowon's first player to include the suite of BBE+ sound enhancements. The BBE+ suite improves on the already impressive BBE effects included in CNET faves like the D2 and iAudio 7, adding more than 30 presets in addition to a five-band EQ with independent bandwidth control.

Now for the bad news. The first drawback I've noticed on the Cowon S9 is that it just feels kind of cheap--which is a complaint I rarely have with Cowon. Unlike the glass and steel design of the iPod Touch, the S9 uses an all-plastic design that--though lightweight--has a hollow and flimsy feel. Even the all-plastic Samsung P2 feels a little more durable and substantial. … Read more

Literally a flashlight of a different color, myLite goes beyond the majority of bland iPhone flashlight applications to bring you the full spectrum of colors and strobes, including SOS lighting and a lighter to get into the concert act. It's dead simple to operate, and you may one day find yourself needing its pulsing red rays as an emergency strobe or its neon green beacon to signal a friend in a crowded concert. At the very least, it will impress the kiddies and you'll be all set to host spontaneous dance parties.

To the stable of games for the iPhone, you can now add the legendary SimCity.

Electronic Arts' city-building game, priced at $9.99, is now available for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Users can take advantage of the touch-screen technology to design and construct their vision of an urban landscape.

MG Siegler at VentureBeat, who's had a chance to play with the game for a while, waxed enthusiastic about the touch-screen qualities and more--"SimCity is a very impressive game on the iPhone"--but warned of some lingering bugs from the game's demo period:… Read more

Electronic Arts (EA) has released SimCity (iTunes link) for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The app is priced at $9.99 and is being well received by iTunes customers earning an average rating of four stars.

Movement in the game is accomplished via finger flicks, while zooming in and out is accomplished with the pinching gestures. Helpful tutorials are available to guide you if you are new to SimCity. However even veteran SimCity players will probably need to consult these tutorials due to the iPhone unique interface. Like the regular SimCity you have to decide what you want to do with … Read more

Updated at 11:30 a.m. PT with pricing info.

Intel has a convertible Netbook on tap for the CES 2009 crowd assembling once again in Las Vegas next month.

Laptop magazine got a sneak peek at the newest version of the low-cost Classmate PC. It has an 8.9-inch swivel screen with touch and stylus input, a Web cam, and 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 60GB hard drive, and Windows XP, with a few Intel touches to make XP work for the convertible form factor. So far, that includes Vision Objects Pen Input, which makes anything input via … Read more