Michael Jackson's Thriller

My wife was one of the zombies... Awesome!

Two-Handed Multi-Touch Technology Gains Renewed Exposure

AppleInsider points to a patent application filed in June and released yesterday that brings renewed attention to two-handed multi-touch capabilities previously included in patent applications from Apple and Fingerworks, the company acquired by Apple in 2005 for its multi-touch technology.


The latest patent application appears to be a slightly edited version of content found in several patent applications made by Fingerworks in mid-2006.

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.

The technology has gained renewed interest as a rumored launch of Apple's much-anticipated tablet computer appears to be approaching and speculation mounts about how the device will function. In brief, the Fingerworks patent application addresses multi-touch functionality extended to be able to sense full touch input from ten fingers, as well as the palms of the hands. The complex touch sensing would allow for such features as intelligent typing capabilities and graphical manipulation abilities more sophisticated than the "pinch and zoom" found on the iPhone and multi-touch trackpads, and provide the versatility for multiple types of input without the need for multiple input devices.

Courtesy of MacRumors

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More Evidence That Snow Leopard Is a Touchscreen Operating System

The more I play with Snow Leopard, the more it looks like it’s designed to run Apple’s upcoming tablet.

Look at Expose in the Dock — the new feature that reveals all an application’s open windows when you click and hold the application’s icon. It’s tailor-made for fingers. Even more convincing is Stacks in the Dock. Hit a folder icon in the dock, and up pops the folder and all its files. Each icon is a big target for your finger, and the window has a big, fat slider for scrolling up and down (no more fiddly little arrows at the top or bottom). Both of these UI tweaks scream ‘touchscreen.’

And then today I discovered an unheralded feature that the minute I saw it, I thought, “Game over! Here’s rock-solid proof that Snow Leopard is designed for touchscreens. This is a tablet operating system.”

The new UI element s a virtual keyboard, a must-have for a tablet. Snow Leopard includes a big virtual keyboard that looks clearly designed for typing on a touchscreen. It’s a big, bold version of the iPhone’s virtual keyboard with large keys that scream “type me!”

The Mac OS has long contained a virtual keyboard, but previous versions were half-sized (see below). The old virtual keyboard was clearly not designed for actual typing, and was hidden away in the “International” tab of System Preferences. (Yeah, the keyboard could be enlarged by hitting the green button in the upper left of the folder toolbar, but still, it expanded to only three-quarter size).

The new virtual keyboard in Snow Leopard now lives under “Keyboard” in System Preferences, and is clearly put there as an alternative input method.

The virtual keyboard can be made as big as your screen — 30-inches wide, if you have a big Cinema Display — by dragging the window resizer at bottom left.

Of course, it can’t be used as a real virtual keyboard until Apple introduces a touchscreen device. At the moment, it just records the keystrokes on your physical keyboard and shows the characters that will be typed when the Option key is held down, and so on.

Yeah, I know, this isn’t proof that Snow Leopard is designed for a touchscreen device — IE. the tablet everyone knows Apple is working on — but I got pretty excited when I saw it. It looks like a key touchscreen UI element to me.

Here’s how to see it yourself:

* Go to System Preferences>Keyboard
* Click the box “Show Keyboard & Character Viewer in menu bar”
* Go to the menu bar at top right and click “Show Keyboard Viewer”

For comparison, here’s the old soft keyboard in Leopard. This is not a touchscreen keyboard.



Via 9to5Mac Via CultofMac

Lego / Nintendo Fans!!!!

The video reportedly took about 1,500 hours to create, and I pretty much had an acid flashback-type experience while watching it, during which time I traveled back to the 1980s and relived my entire youth all over again in the span of about three and a half minutes.

Comic-Con: Alice in Wonderland Teaser Trailer

Perhaps the most interesting footage shown this morning at the Disney Comic-Con panel was the short teaser trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Patton Oswalt, who was moderating the panel, flipped for the footage and demanded it be shown three times. This was probably for the best, because aside from the very short teaser Burton had nothing else to show from the film. The teaser starts off with the Mad Hatter questioning Alice, shows her falling down the rabbit hole, and then quickly glimpses all the main characters including Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen, Stephen Fry’s Chesire Cat, and a smattering of scenes meant to show off the 3D elements, all cut to MGMT’s Kids. We also caught our first glimpse at an eyepatched Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts. In the Q&A, Burton mentioned that it was very difficult for him to get used to shooting with green screen. He mentioned that he stuck to a fast and involved method of shooting with his actors to help maintain a sense of reality. Burton also mentioned that they didn’t use much motion capturing in the film—instead, they stuck to animating the digital characters by hand. Overall, he felt the most difficult aspect of making this film is the process he’s currently stuck in, editing and putting together all of the many pieces of the film.

In contrast to many other Alice adaptations, Burton mentioned that the film will utilize elements from the two Alice books (Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass), as well as reference smaller material found within those books such as the poem Jabberywocky.

Towards the end of the panel, Burton unveiled Johnny Depp as a surprise guest. He didn’t stick around for too long, but did reveal that he unfortunately can’t see films in 3D, so he’ll probably never get to experience this film fully.

For a film that seems to be the culmination of Burton’s career, the footage so far looks promising. It’s currently scheduled for release on March 10, 2010.

All Blogging Credit goes to SlashFilm

CrunchPad Tablet to Arrive Soon?

You must have heard about Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad web tablet concept by now. Well then you should also know that the device is said to arrive really soon. According to various sources the CrunchPad is expected to be available “as soon as possible” and an official release should occur sometime in July or August.

The CrunchPad will cost around $300 but will you pay that much for just a web-oriented device? That’s right, the CrunchPad will only get you Internet access! There’s no internal hard drive and there’s no Windows support. It’s not a netbook tablet but an Internet tablet that boots straight to its WebKit browser. The device will offer you a 12-inch touchscreen, Flash support, an Atom processor and support for a physical keyboard.

The CrunchPad might just be the gadget we’ve been waiting for. Unfortunately it will be quite useless when there’s no Internet support, wouldn’t you say?

via Bits, via mobilewhack

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Hulu’s Desktop Wants You to Keep Internet TV Out of the Living Room

Hulu’s newly released Desktop application may or may not put Boxee on the ropes, but it could end up being the best thing that ever happened to the Mac mini.

Released Thursday by the popular television content aggregator whose major partners also happen to be some of the biggest Hollywood content producers, Hulu Desktop signals a major move away from the “online only” model that once served as a thin veneer of protection against the ire of cable companies that pay good money to get content from Hulu’s partners.

Still trying to have it both ways, Hulu issued comical Terms of Service with the desktop product that purport to prevent users from using the software on “Prohibited Devices,” to whit:

“You may not download, install or use the Hulu Software on any device other than a Personal Computer including without limitation digital media receiver devices (such as Apple TV), mobile devices (such as a cell phone device, mobile handheld device or a PDA), network devices or CE devices (collectively “Prohibited Devices”).”

In the real world, however, don’t be surprised to see news of an AppleTV hack by this weekend (if not before); and Mac mini users who employ that device’s excellent media server capabilities with a connection to plasma screens in their living rooms should be sitting pretty, too.

Will you use Hulu Desktop or stick with your web browser? Will you keep the content on your computer screen or take it into the living room? Let us know in comments below.

Grabbed from CultofMac Posted by Lonnie Lazar in AppleTV, Media, News

I'm Going to empty my Sack before you do!

Have we found the missing Link?

Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists call the Holy Grail of human evolution.
A team of researchers Tuesday unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought missing link between humans and apes.
Officially known as Darwinius masillae, the fossil of the lemur-like creature dubbed Ida shows it had opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws.

Scientists say the cat-sized animal's hind legs offer evidence of evolutionary changes that led to primates standing upright - a breakthrough that could finally confirm Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
"This specimen is like finding the Lost Ark for archeologists," lead scientist Jorn Hurum said at a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History.

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Cube Fights!!!

Disney Lab Unveils Its Latest Line Of Genetically Engineered Child Stars

Disney Lab Unveils Its Latest Line Of Genetically Engineered Child Stars

Courtesy of the Onion