David Kassan made something of a name for himself as the guy who is really good at fingerpainting with the iPad Brushes app. Now he's been tapped by THQ to work with something other than his fingers: the uDraw GameTablet for Nintendo's Wii. Announced earlier this week, the $70 tablet pledges to let anyone with an artistic bent get all creative on the little console that rules them all (at least in terms of sales), but can it actually create meaningful art? See for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading David Kassan uses THQ's uDraw to express his Wii ennui (video)

David Kassan uses THQ's uDraw to express his Wii ennui (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Touchscreen controls are nice for some applications but, until someone invents transparent fingers, they're a real bother for gaming. Many, including Apple, have toyed with the idea of putting the touch sensitive sections on the back of the device, and we have strong rumors coming out of Gamescom this week that this is the path Sony is taking for its next-generation PSP. Now, we've been hearing various rumors about this thing for just about as long as we've known about the first-gen PSP, but Sony is said to be quietly showing off a prototype unit about the size of a PSP-3000. While everyone agrees about the touch-sensitive portion 'round the back, it's unknown what (if any) physical controls will go along with it. A release date for the thing is also unclear, with some saying next year and others saying it'll be later than that. Whenever it ships we hope it'll do the right thing and finally put the UMD format out of its misery.

Next gen PSP to have touch controls -- on the wrong side? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has been chasing holographic damsels in distress for as long as we can remember, and honestly, the technology's still not quite there, but the team that brought us the gCubik has managed to create a low-res 3D hologram table that impresses anyhow. Using an twist on the famous optical illusion toys that use convex mirrors to make objects appear to float in the air, NICT hits a specially-designed optical filter cone with the light from 96 pico projectors. The result is a series of familiar-looking rabbits, teapots and the occasional rubber duck standing five centimeters high and visible through 120 degrees, a good sight better than the two-degree radius afforded them by the original technology. The best part is there's no case enclosing these creations, unlike competing ideas, so we'll eventually see 360-degree tables where your fingers can frolic alongside the ethereal leporidae. Watch the lead researcher demo a prototype after the break.

Continue reading NICT's fVisiOn makes you see immaterial bunnies (video)

NICT's fVisiOn makes you see immaterial bunnies (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nuance has just released an updated version of its free Dragon Dictation application for the iPhone and iPad that brings typeless social networking to the iPhone OS and iOS-using masses. In addition to the previous SMS and email support, Dragon Dictation 2.0 now allows you to post to twitter or update your status on Facebook merely by speaking to your mobile device. The latest version also pastes your dictated text directly into the device’s clipboard and can auto-save text when a phone call interrupts your oh-so-important dictation. So Dragon Dictation users, rest those fingers and start talk tweeting… we all know how difficult it is to type 140 characters.

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It seems like everyone is cooking up their own touch-free gesture-based control technology, just like every blogger is destined to refer to it as "Minority Report-like" or "Minority Report-esque," or "Tom Cruise-tastic!" Fraunhofer's FIT, the newest such project, has recently appeared on the YouTubes, where we must say it looks pretty darn good. Not only does it not require special gloves or markers, this thing also works in real time and can support multiple users (and multiple fingers). The researchers hope to use this for working with complex simulation data and in education, although there are some kinks to be worked out: currently elements like the reflections caused by wristwatches and the orientation of the palm confuses the system. That said, the demo is pretty rad! See for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Fraunhofer FIT touch-free gesture-control for multiple users (video)

Fraunhofer FIT touch-free gesture-control for multiple users (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That's not your grandpappy's touchscreen panel, nor his standard Windows 7 input method of choice, oh no -- unless our eyes deceive us, we're looking at a 3M M2256PW ten-finger multitouch display, and on it, a genuine Swype keyboard. Though we've heard nothing about a partnership between Microsoft and Swype and we see nary a mention on the internet at large, there's no denying the idea -- spotted during last week's Internet Explorer demo at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference -- is an attractive one. The question is when and how Redmond might deliver such functionality to the existing OS... and if we might possibly see the same on the company's upcoming phones as well. See it in action at the source link, and fast forward to 2:58:30 for the goods. Trust us and skip ahead -- we've got a feeling you won't want to hear Microsoft kick this party off.

[Thanks, Abed R.]

Swype spotted swiftly slinging fingers across Windows 7 screens? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another entrant has entered the Micro Four Thirds ring, and it's Panasonic delivering the Lumix DMC-G2 -- a new shooter with similar still performance but, this time, some rather nice enhancements, the most major being a three-inch articulating touchscreen. You can control some aspects of the camera with a touch, perhaps most useful being tap-to-focus augmented by the camera keeping focus on whatever you tapped on, even if it moves around. But, a full suite of physical buttons and dials still await your fingers, enabling you to tweak settings without fiddling with menus. The 720p video recording now supports AVCHD, giving your SDHC or SDXC memory card a break, and there's an input for an optional stereo mic. Ultimately still performance here is said to be identical to Panasonic's more budget-minded DMC-G10, which clocks in $200 cheaper than the G2's MSRP of $799, but lacks 720p video and the fancy touchscreen. Worth the extra cost? That depends on how deep your pockets are.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 reviewed, premium features warrant its premium price originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may not matter to you Yanks, but for many regions of Asia, this news may just ruin some weekends. Okay, so maybe "ruin" is a stretch, but if you suddenly stop seeing a new flow of Kohjinsha gear at your local computer market, here's why: owner Inventec is killing the brand. As the story goes, Inventec has decided to stop producing mini-laptops and the like using the Kohjinsha sub-brand, instead turning that team into a full-on R&D operation. When it comes to end-user products, the Onkyo brand will be applied; we've seen some pretty radical Onkyo PCs over the past few months, so here's hoping this also means that more and more would-be Kohjinsha products will end up in North America. Fingers crossed, right?

Inventec phasing out Kohjinsha brand, opting for Onkyo instead originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were starting to think something was up with the Boxee Box as Q2 started to fade away without any word on the scheduled launch, and unfortunately we were right: Boxee has just confirmed to us that its hotly-anticipated media streamer will be delayed until November in the US and Canada. Boxee says the original launch plan has proven to be "overly ambitious," and that the delay is purely software-related -- the Tegra 2 based hardware we saw at CES will remain the same.

If we had to guess, we'd say at least part of the delay can be attributed to Adobe, since Flash 10.1 just went final yesterday and Boxee is depending on it as a core feature, but either way, the company's goal to provide the full PC Boxee experience complete with full-res 1080p video playback from virtually any local or remote source on a small embedded platform is an ambitious one -- we've got our fingers crossed, let's hope we hear good news from Avner Ronen and crew come November.

Continue reading Boxee Box delayed until November

Boxee Box delayed until November originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our second and final HTC Droid Incredible contest saw so many hopefuls send in pics of their horribly dilapidated hardware that we had to take a break to down a stiff drink or two during the evaluation process. But in the end, we regained our composure long enough to pick three winners. So let’s have a round of applause for Jody P., Mark V., and Nick M.! We’re pretty bummed out we couldn’t pick more people because there were so many great entries to choose from, but fear not: Your pals at BGR are already planning the next giveaway.

Hit up the jump to check out the winning entries!

Jody P.

“Participation in this giveaway assumes that one would have a secondary camera to take a photo of one’s own phone. While I have plenty of other cameras, I did not have one handy at the office, so I decided that I could either A) stand in front of the men’s room mirror to take a picture of my phone (with my phone) which might be confusing to any onlookers, or I could B) use my limited artistic abilities to provide a rendering of my scratched, bruised, and otherwise worn-out RIM Blackberry Storm 9530 (no, not the Storm 2 – the original Storm). [Here is] an admittedly embellished rendering of my Blackberry Storm 9530.”

Mark V.

“I dropped my droid by accident one night and the screen just cracked!!! I was too cheap to add the monthly insurance charge and I couldn’t afford the price for a new droid out of contract so I’m stuck with this!!! I need a new droid incredible because I’m cutting my fingers and face on the glass when I use this thing!! Please help!!”

Nick M.

“I recently got so frustrated by my Treo that I put a screwdriver through it. At first I thought the Treo 650 was a great phone because it was my first entry in to the arena of smartphones. It had many great features and I was loyal to it until I started seeing all of the new devices coming out and began to grow jealous of the speed of data connection. The data connection has always felt worse than the days of 14.4k modems. I’m using a backup phone right now that has no data features so that’s even worse. I’ve tried out WebOS devices, Blackberrys and Android Devices and I’m leaning towards Android. This contest came along and I thought I would hold out to see how it goes, maybe my suffering through the days of Treo makes me worthy of such an (excuse the pun, I had to do it) Incredible device.”

Thanks for playing, everyone!

We've still yet to find a great reason to eschew our tried-and-true mouse / keyboard tandem in favor of using our desktop with just our fingers, but if you know better, Gateway has a new duo it'd sure love for you to check out. The ZX4300 line, which is the lower-end of the two, gets served AMD's Athlon II X2 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), a 20-inch touchpanel (1,600 x 900 resolution), integrated ATI Radeon HD 4270 graphics, 4GB of DDR3 memory a 640GB hard drive, 8x SuperMulti drive, a bundled wireless keyboard and mouse, inbuilt WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, six USB 2.0 sockets and a pair of five-watt speakers. The Gateway One ZX6900 family sports a 23-inch LCD (1,920 x 1,080), and while the vast majority of the specs mimic the others we've mentioned, the Core i3 power plant is a notable reason for paying extra. Speaking of which, the ZX4300-01e is slated to first hit stores next month for $749.99, while the ZX6900-01e lands alongside of it for $1,019.99.

Continue reading Gateway brings ZX4300 and ZX6900 all-in-one touchscreen PCs into a world of fingers

Gateway brings ZX4300 and ZX6900 all-in-one touchscreen PCs into a world of fingers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Years ago, Floridian inventor Michael Powell pitched Home Depot a device that would keep its employees' fingers safe when cutting wood for customers. It worked so well that they stole his idea. Now Powell's getting sweet, $25 million justice. More »

Shortly after announcing a blockbuster deal to acquire Palm, HP confessed that it would be "doubling down on webOS," with near-term plans to "scale it across multiple connected devices." We took the liberty at that point to assume this meant that a larger webOS-based device was at least sitting around in the rear of someone's mind, and now it sounds as if Palm loyalists may actually have something tangible to look forward to. According to an unsubstantiated report over at the Examiner, an "insider at HP" has informed the site that "a webOS tablet under the code name HP Hurricane could be released the third quarter of this year." This all lines up well with what we've heard over the past few weeks: HP pledged to take webOS to places it has never been, strong whispers emerged that the HP Slate was being shelved, and now, people close to the HP camp have given a name to a purported webOS tablet slated for Q3. There's obviously no telling if this is simply hot air being blown, but we wouldn't be shocked to see HP nail down a webOS slate in time for the sure-to-be-rockin' 2010 holiday buying season. Or maybe we're just crossing our fingers, humming aloud and praying to our lucky stars that this all pans out.

[Thanks, Mike and Trever]

webOS-based HP Hurricane tablet rumored for Q3 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 May 2010 19:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know what, we're not gonna make that joke. You can, but we'll just move right along to the meat of this story -- Nokia has listed a telescopic stylus for capacitive screens, the SU-36, which seems to have come out right alongside the N8 to serve as its Symbian^3 assistant. Compatible with the N8, X6, and any other phone with a proper touchscreen on it, this retractable accessory will substitute your fingers when they are either too cold or too imprecise to do the job themselves. It's not yet been priced or made available, but you'll be fine using that sausage stylus for another few weeks, won't ya?

[Thanks, Zabavan]

Nokia sticks to its stylus roots, offers telescopic SU-36 for capacitive screens originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We totally would have had this roundup done earlier, but we were just way too busy watching TV on our iPads. Let's face it, as fun as those social networking and gaming applications are (sorry, utility apps -- no fun for you!) sometimes you just want to sit back, rest those fingers and soak in some drama. The iPad's 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768-resolution screen certainly looks nice when reading books and browsing the web, but you haven't seen anything until you get some HD content playing. Though we may never get over the fact that we can't watch Flash video in the browser, the following apps are just what the doctor ordered to ease the pain and turn Apple's tablet into a portable media viewing machine. What are you waiting for? Hop on past the break already, and then kindly let us know if you've come up with a good way to prop up the iPad so you can watch all that video goodness while laying down.

Continue reading iPad apps: video for the well-rounded couch potato

iPad apps: video for the well-rounded couch potato originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like AT&T will start taking delivery tomorrow of Pre Plus units that are being specifically designated as high-security, SKU-less "practice devices" that are only to be used off the sales floor for training purposes, though when training is complete, they can be moved to a live store display. That certainly lends weight to a launch happening sooner rather than later, counter to rumors earlier in the month that we might not see them on shelves until the peak of Summer. Of course, we don't know how long the training sessions are going to run -- our leak here gives no indication of that, nor of a retail release date -- but considering that we first saw this form factor back in January of '09, it's seriously in everyone's best interest to fast-track these. Our fingers are crossed.

[Thanks, Eric L.]

AT&T getting 'practice' Pre Pluses tomorrow? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the days of twirling a phone cord around your fingers as you giggled into the receiver or slammed the device down to hang up? You can finally relive those times with the Desk Phone iPhone dock. More »