feedback

Apple tinkers with iPen stylus and haptic feedback

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

Google wants to know what do you think of Google TV

Google wants to know how people use and interact with Google TV. The tech company just announced on Google TV's official Google+ page that it will host a live Hangout tomorrow at 11 a.m. PST to chat with users.

"Join us tomorrow at 11am PDT for a #GoogleTV Hangout On Air with our Fans!" the Google+ post says. "We will be talking about what you like to do on your Google TV."

Google TV combines television, the Web, and apps as a way for people to use all technologies either individually or simultaneously. Google … Read more

Apple exploring haptic touch technology for future iPhones, iPads

Many of the last remaining BlackBerry holdouts continue to clamor about the advantages of a physical keyboard, citing the difficulty of using a touch-screen device if its user cannot see the display. According to one of Apple's latest patent applications, that argument may soon become moot.

The "Touch-based User Interface with Haptic Feedback" patent application, discovered by AppleInsider, highlights the use of actuators and sensors on an iPad's or iPhone's display that would allow a user to effectively feel buttons and other controls.

Apple's take on haptic technology places piezoelectric actuators under the display, … Read more

The world's most beautiful turntables

The iPhone and iPad are truly elegant designs, but they are the rare exceptions in the rather drab world of consumer electronics. Most cameras, printers, computers, home theater receivers, and speakers are pretty sedate, but there is one product category that stands out: turntables. I've picked a choice selection that represents remarkable achievements in industrial design, and they're highly functional, exquisitely engineered products.

The Redpoint Model A turntable has an aluminum and composite Teflon platter, damped by silicone oil, and the turntable features a battery-powered 12-volt DC motor with precious metal brushes. The turntable weighs 90 pounds.… Read more

Haptic app helps visually impaired learn math

For the blind and visually impaired, it can be nearly impossible to follow along when a math teacher spends most of a lecture in front of a blackboard or projector drawing shapes, parabolas, X-Y planes, and other visuals.

It's about time there's an app for that, thought mechanical engineering grad student Jenna Gorlewicz, who'd spent a few years at Vanderbilt's Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory miniaturizing endoscopic robotic capsules and was looking for a more people-oriented project.

So Gorlewicz, who says she loves both teaching and math, set out 18 months ago to try to develop a tablet app that uses haptic (or tactile) technology to help the visually impaired learn math and other subjects with a strong visual component.… Read more

The 404 1,004: Where we're pink, peeling, and broken (podcast)

Jeff's back from his trip to the Dominican Republic, so we ask CNET Labs editor Joseph Kaminski into the studio to tell us what it's like to be stranded on an island owned by Walt Disney.

We'll also give our prediction for tomorrow's Apple iPad HD announcement and learn more about weapons from the future that disrupt speech patterns and jam cell phone signals.… Read more

Want Apple to make changes? Send feedback

Apple is a progressive company that is always tweaking and modifying the way its systems and OS are used. While this is great for advancements and implementation of new ideas, it does have its drawbacks in that some new approaches can be frustrating, limiting, or confusing to people. For instance, Apple implemented a Duplicate feature in OS X Lion that replaces alternate approaches to saving files (Save As, and Save a Copy), a change that has caused some confusion for people who are merely looking for the older file-saving options.

While Apple sometimes can appear stubborn and determined to stick … Read more

Google+: About 1 million feedback messages so far

Your mother may think you're one in a million, but when it comes to Google+ feedback, you're just one among a million.

Google+ has a feedback tool, complete with an automatic screenshot ability that lets people redact sensitive information and a mechanism to detect which browser a person is using, and various Googlers encountering criticism have encouraged people to use the system. But in explaining why Google doesn't reply to feedback about Google+, Bradley Horowitz, the vice president in charge of the project, had this to say today:

We've probably received a million pieces of feedback. … Read more

Fingertip vibrator boosts your sense of touch

Combine the words "vibrator," "touch," and "heightened sensitivity," and the subject is obvious, right? A tricked-out glove that heightens your sense of touch.

The glove, developed by Georgia Tech researchers, includes a tiny vibrator that sits on the side of your finger. Turn the vibrator so low that you don't quite notice it vibrating, and voila, your fingertip is more sensitive to touch.

Prototype tests showed that the heightened-sensitivity glove enabled people to sense lighter touches and distinguish sensory points that were closer together than they could without it. People correctly distinguished among different fineness levels of sandpaper 15 percent more often with the glove.

The glove could help surgeons and others who rely on a fine sense of touch, and it could help people with an impaired sense of touch.… Read more