Experience has taught us that a patent application doesn’t necessarily mean an actual product is on the way — but it’s always fun to speculate, right? And this latest trio of applications from Apple certainly provides plenty of speculation fodder. The most notable of the lot is an application for a “multi-touch display screen with localized tactile feedback,” which Apple seems to be at least considering as a possibility for the iPhone (or iPod touch).
Apple’s application covers a screen that uses a grid of piezoelectric actuators that can be activated at will to provide vibrational feedback when you touch the screen. Apple even goes so far as to use a virtual click wheel on an iPhone as an example.
Other patent applications include a fairly self-explanatory RFID reader embedded in a touch screen, and a fingerprint identification system that could not only be used for security, but to identify individual fingers as an input method — for instance, letting you use your index finger for play/stop and your middle finger to fast forward.
The video – “Technologic Overkill” – is directed by filmmaker Steve Ellington, and shows “the plight of a little blue robot and his attempt to be relevant in an increasingly technological world,” set to a song by the band XFYA.
Mobile video certainly seems to be at a tipping point, with dozens of services offering apps to get your video from your phone to the Web, and YouTube seeing a huge upswing in mobile uploads since the iPhone 3GS launched. Technologic Overkill is perhaps a small symbol of this movement, in what will likely be just one of many firsts that we see as people get their hands on the new Apple phone.
Short video of the new PSPgo taken at the E3 show. Nice slider action to the controls, it’s much smaller, but most of the space saving seems to have come for the lack of a UMD drive.
Glubble has released a new Family Timeline service that offers families a visual way to navigate through family photos, events, and messages.
In conjunction with the new feature, they’ve also started to offer premium memberships for unlimited storage, released an update to their browser toolbar, added themes for kids, and created kid-safe browser-based search.
If you’re unfamiliar with the site, Glubble essentially gives families their own social hub and family browser to share and exchange content. It also offers parents a way to provide a safer web experience for their children and monitor the sites they’re visiting. The new features, then, simply reinforce the overall purpose of the site, which is to be a safe and enjoyable resource for families on the web. Read the rest of this entry »
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