FocuSoft Tech Blog

Filco’s SmartTrack Neo multi-touch trackpad gives PCs the 2-fingered salute Posted: 20 Apr 2009 04:06 AM PDT It sure took awhile but you’re looking at one of, if not the first external USB trackpads with multi-touch gesture support. The $50 (¥4,980) SmartTrack Neo model FTP500UB rocks USB 1.1 and XP / Vista drivers to bring your legacy laptop up to fighting specs with fancy modern rigs. A two-handed mouse the size of a brick — really, how can you resist? [Via Akihabara News] Read the original: Filco’s SmartTrack Neo multi-touch trackpad gives PCs the 2-fingered salute

RAmos RM990 iOne2 PMP looks surprisingly desirable Posted: 20 Apr 2009 03:51 AM PDT RAmos definitely isn’t the most respected name in PMPs here in the US, but as of late, it’s done a commendable job of staying relevant… at least on the design front, anyway. The firm’s latest concoction, which goes by RM990 iOne2, is a touchscreen-heavy media player that’s clearly not anorexic. Specs wise, we’re told that it features a 3-inch WQVGA touch panel, haptic feedback, a built-in accelerometer, 4GB of internal storage and support for a whole gaggle of file formats. Not bad for the low, low asking price of just 399 yuan (around $58), but it’s hardly worth a trip to Shanghai. [Via PMPToday] More here: RAmos RM990 iOne2 PMP looks surprisingly desirable

Prezi Is The Coolest Online Presentation Tool I’ve Ever Seen Posted: 20 Apr 2009 03:26 AM PDT At last week's The Next Web Conference, I was part of the 4-headed jury that evaluated all presenting startups and ultimately decided My Name Is E should be awarded the top prize. It was an extremely close call, since we ended up having to decide between the young Dutch company and a startup that built a simply amazing web application you're really going to want to check out. The tool I'm referring to is called Prezi, and it allows you to create amazing presentations on the web. If you think you've heard that too many times, don't stop reading just yet, because this one is just plain awesome. It's an entirely Flash-based app that lets you break away from the slide-by-slide approach of most presentations. Instead, it allows you to create non-linear presentations where you can zoom in and out of a visual map containing words, links, images, videos, etc. This is similar to pptPlex, a Microsoft Office Labs project that aims to bring that type of functionality to PowerPoint. It's really no use explaining how presentations come out without seeing it for yourself, so it pains me that there's currently no way to embed the examples that are showcased on the Prezi website. Instead, you will need to jump to examples in another tab or window, but please do it: good examples are 'AIESEC' and 'Technical Investigation ICYA'. It takes a while to get used to the way Prezi lets you create presentations, although the interface is fairly intuitive once you've grown accustomed to using the 'Zebra'. There are a number of tutorial videos to assist you in creating your first Prezi presentations. To get started, you can use the free version which brands every presentation with a Prezi logo, offers 100 MB of file storage, comes with an offline player but without the ability to make presentations private. For €39 a year, you get all that but 5x the amount of storage space and the option not to have your presentations made public. A third 'Pro' version costs you €119 per year but features a cool desktop application you can use to create and edit Prezi presentations offline. Besides offering paid versions of the software, Prezi also has other revenue streams, like selling DVDs and offering branding services. Try it out and let us know how your presentations come out! CrunchBase Information ZuiPrezi Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Read the rest here: Prezi Is The Coolest Online Presentation Tool I've Ever Seen

Sprint Instinct S30 Now Available, Awkward $130 Price Confirmed [Cellphones] Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:40 AM PDT Samsung’s updatedInstinct S30 is now listed on Sprint’s website for 130 whole American dollars. Never mind that the original Instinct—an almost identical product—was available for the same price nearly a year ago. The S30 does improve on its forebear in a few not-insignificant ways, shipping with the excellent (but free and previously downloadable) Opera Mini browser, an improved touchscreen, a refreshed OS and softer, botoxed styling. At heart, though, it’s the same old Instinct, and I don’t mean figuratively—the spec sheet is almost identical. The only way a $130 asking price makes any sense is if its considered solely in the context of Sprint’s lineup, which is very, very thin on attractive smartphones and high-end feature phones. Among that sad crowd, the S30 looks pretty good at $130, but against a wider industry backdrop of $100 BlackBerrys and WinMo Smartphones—not to mention some vastly more impressive offerings at the $200 price point—it, and in turn Sprint, looks silly. [Sprint via IntoMobile] Go here to read the rest: Sprint Instinct S30 Now Available, Awkward $130 Price Confirmed [Cellphones]

Coming soon (in Japan, at least): Solar-powered cell phone Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:33 AM PDT Japan's second biggest mobile phone carrier KDDI au today unveiled the first model of its summer line-up for the Japanese market (have a look at their spring models here). In cooperation with Sharp, KDDI au will offer a cell phone that will be waterproof and, more interestingly, powered by solar energy [JP]. The yet unnamed device has a tiny solar panel behind the lid, making it possible to charge the phone through the power of the mighty sun. KDDI au claims 10 minutes of a solar charge is enough to be able to make a quick phone call (one minute) or use the phone on standby for an impressive 120 minutes. Needless to say, the phone will also come with a conventional battery that can be charged up to 80% via solar power. The phone will be sold in Japan from June. Plans for other markets are not yet on the table. Read the original post: Coming soon (in Japan, at least): Solar-powered cell phone

Braille e-reader concept can’t be far from reality Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:22 AM PDT The technology’s already here, we just need a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen. A foursome of designers — Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park — have banded together to create the above pictured concept, an e-reader for those with limited or no vision. Their Braille E-Book concept theoretically relies on electroactive polymers in order to change the surface’s shape as pages are turned, and while we fully expect the battery life to suffer due to all the necessary commotion, it’s definitely a start that needs to happen. The rest is here: Braille e-reader concept can’t be far from reality

Adobe Aggressively, Officially Promoting Flash For HDTVs, DVRs [Flash] Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:52 AM PDT To date, Adobe’s efforts to push Flash to TVs have passed mostly under the radar, and haven’t netted many actual products. This is about to change, according to a forthcoming announcement from the company. Products we’ve seen to date—namely the Intel Media Processor, Yahoo! Connected TV platform and smattering of proprietary connected sets—have offered up a taste of what Flash support means for TVs, albeit through often-clumsy widget systems and the tolerable Flash Lite. Now—through another offshoot of its Open Screen Initiative—Adobe wants to expand Flash support to all kinds of hardware, in what looks like a bid to set a new VOD standard, inking deals with companies as diverse as Comcast, Broadcom, Netflix and Intel. In theory, this means we’ll see a wave of Flash-enabled DVRs, set-top boxes and HDTVs by the middle of this year, but Adobe’s pre-announcement is extremely vague. Will it co-opt Yahoo’s widgets, or push for another interface standard? (Adobe furnished the NYT with the above concept for how one could look.) Will there even be an interface, or will “Flash integration” just amount to a backend change, whereby cable companies’ VOD solutions transparently switch to IPTV? Either way, Hulu just inched closer to millions of living rooms, and there’s really no downside to that. [NYT] Go here to read the rest: Adobe Aggressively, Officially Promoting Flash For HDTVs, DVRs [Flash]

Washington DC announced as first MPH mobile TV market Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:28 AM PDT In the 22 city-strong foot race to get a live MPH-based mobile TV network up, running, and available to anyone who wants it, it looks like Washington DC’s poised to come out on top. Raleigh has already deployed a handful of transmitters for the benefit of bus-goers, but the Open Mobile Video Coalition has announced that Washington DC’s local CBS, PBS, NBC, and Ion affiliates plus a Fox-owned independent will all be ready to roll with MPH transmissions by late summer; of course, what remains to be seen is what sort of hardware will be ready to take advantage of the tech by then. We can likely count AT&T and Verizon out for offering MPH-enabled handsets seeing how they’re still trying to figure out how to profit from their MediaFLO-based networks, so T-Mobile and Sprint’s decisions to take a wait-and-see approach to the mobile TV phenomenon may really end up working in their favor here. Moving beyond the phones, it’s said that Dell will be showing some sort of netbook this week with an integrated MPH tuner at the NAB show in Vegas this week, while Kenwood has in-car solutions in the works. As long as the broadcasts stay free — which by all accounts they will — the standard has a fighting chance at relevancy, assuming hardware comes to the table. Read the original post: Washington DC announced as first MPH mobile TV market

VHS Cover Wall Is 3600-Strong, May or May Not Have A Tanning Salon Out Back [History] Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:08 AM PDT Our children may never get to experience the revelatory joy of wandering through the miles of barely organized VHS shelves of a sleepy local video store, but at least they’ll have this. [3600 via Metafilter] Continued here: VHS Cover Wall Is 3600-Strong, May or May Not Have A Tanning Salon Out Back [History]

Pilotfish’s Ondo music editing mobile concept puts new twist on smartphones Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:00 AM PDT It’s been nearly three years since the Onyx tickled our imagination, but Pilotfish is looking to completely melt our brains with its latest concept. The Munich-based industrial design firm has just introduced its Ondo music editing mobile, which is half cellphone, half music mixer and thoroughly amazing. In theory, the phone would boast a small mixing panel, three removable recording sticks with internal memory and a bendable center to give music lovers the ability to insert pitch bends and relieve stress. Essentially, the trio of OLED-infused sticks serves two purposes: when installed, they’re the main phone panel, and when removed, they can be clipped onto instruments for recording purposes. Afterwards, they can be swapped with other Ondo owners or edited on the fly right on the device itself. Needless to say, there’s a better shot at you winning the lottery than seeing this thing hit mass production, but you can feel free to dream by checking the full release, Q&A and demonstration video just past the break. Gallery: Pilotfish’s Ondo music editing mobile concept puts new twist on smartphones Pilotfish Launches Ondo Music Editing Phone Concept Play it, mix it, rock out to it! Ondo enables a more flexible and physical experience in mobile phones MUNICH, Germany – April 20, 2009 — Pilotfish, a progressive industrial design and product development studio based in Munich, Amsterdam and Taipei, today introduced Ondo, a dedicated music editing phone concept. The Ondo concept enables OEMs to visualize a new form of user interaction for mobile phones. User The target user for “Ondo” is the music enthusiast who seeks to interactively capture and edit sounds. Going beyond software-based solutions of other products, it is specifically designed to effectively collect pure sounds and is specially constructed to create a tactile sound editing experience. Music Editing Made from form-sensitive flexible materials, “Ondo” allows the user to modify recorded sounds by physically twisting and bending the device. Like a guitarist pulling on a whammy bar, users can feel and hear the musical effects as they create them. Jamming Another innovative feature of “Ondo” are the three removable display “sticks”. In their normal state, the “sticks” act as a unified touch display for the mobile device. When removed, each can be separately clipped onto a musical instrument or person to capture live sound. Like a portable recording studio, “Ondo” makes mixing tracks easy, because each “stick” picks up isolated sounds from each individual instrument. The recordings can be immediately sent via MMS (Multimedia Messaging) around the globe allowing musicians at different geographical locations to jam together. Mixing In party mode, “Ondo” works as a digital mixer enabling the user to create seamless transitions between songs. This is made easy with interactive touch functions combined with integrated software support. Market Opportunities The advantage of such a device is that a range of services and accessories can accompany it in order to enhance the sound capturing and editing experience. From a business perspective, most of the players in the mobile world can benefit: for example, content creators - by providing sound libraries or musical games for download; operators - by facilitating increased user interaction; and device manufacturers - by producing accessories such as input devices, Bluetooth instruments, etc. For more information on the Ondo concept, visit www.ondo-phone.eu For more information on Pilotfish, visit www.pilotfish.eu. About Pilotfish Pilotfish is a progressive design and innovation consultancy with offices in Munich (head office), Amsterdam, and Taipei/Taiwan. Founded in 2000, we are a team of more than 25 industrial, graphic and user interface designers, engineers and manufacturing experts catering to international brands worldwide. Our vision is to create unique user experiences, by combining industrial design with an intuitive user interface. We act as an innovation hub for companies and technology providers looking for the right partners to realize these concepts in meaningful ways for end users. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Ondo - Music Editing Phone Concept by Pilotfish 1. What is Ondo? Ondo is a conceptual mobile phone for the music enthusiast who seeks to interactively capture and edit sounds. 2. What makes Ondo unique from other music phone concepts? Going beyond software-based solutions of other products, Ondo is specifically designed to effectively collect pure sounds and is specially constructed to create a tactile sound editing experience. On a small scale, it allows the user to modify recorded sounds by physically twisting and bending the device. On a grander scale, it creates opportunities for interactive musical creation among users at different geographical locations. 3. Why did Pilotfish develop this concept? Pilotfish has more than 10 years of experience in designing professional music editing equipment and mobile devices. We have been actively pursuing a means to combine our knowledge of both into a single portable device. Our aim was to bring intuitive physical interaction to a mobile sound-editing device. The result is Ondo. 4. How much time did it take to develop the Ondo concept? The fundamental idea for a music-editing phone was presented in 2006 at a Cambridge Wireless Alliance Conference. Since that time, we have created several design iterations, exploring many possible solutions in order to capture a more tactile experience in a portable device. The final design in its current shape took four months to complete, including intermediary prototypes to test the validity of the concept as well as usage scenarios. 5. When will Ondo hit the market? Will there be demo units to review? Ondo is a design concept. Demo prototypes may be created in order to help demonstrate the benefits of the device. We at Pilotfish would be delighted to push this concept into production with interested partners. 6. Could this concept be produced from a technology standpoint? What type of materials could be used? The technologies proposed for its construction will be available for massproduction in the near future. For the three removable “sticks” that create the main display, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) in combination with flat sheet power and storage would be used. For the housing that allows physical interaction through bending and twisting of the phone, flexible materials with piezoelectric properties would be employed to accurately capture and transform the physical alteration into sound effects. 7. How would music be transferred from one Ondo phone to another? The three removable recording “sticks” have internal flash memory. This would make it possible for owners of Ondo devices to easily exchange them, allowing for convenient sharing of sound libraries. Additionally, music files can be transferred wirelessly or by using a USB cable. 8. Do you envision an ecosystem for a device like Ondo? The advantage of such a device is that a range of services and accessories can accompany it in order to enhance the joy of sound capturing and editing. From a business perspective, most of the players in the mobile world can benefit: for example, content creators - by providing sound libraries or musical games for download; operators - by facilitating increased user interaction; and device manufacturers - by producing accessories such as input devices, Bluetooth instruments, etc. 9. What type of market is there for a device like Ondo? Why is Pilotfish launching Ondo now? The target user for the Ondo is the music enthusiast who seeks to interactively capture and edit sounds. Going beyond software-based solutions for generic phones, it offers the mobile world a sound-dedicated tactile experience, inspired by traditional music editing equipment. The technology is now at a level to allow our vision for a tactile sound-editing experience in a mobile phone to reach market implementation. Corporate 1) What is Pilotfish? Pilotfish is a progressive industrial design and innovation agency specialized in electronic products. We focus on creating unique user experiences on both the emotional and rational level. Since our founding in 2000, we have grown into a multinational team of more than 25 designers, engineers, marketing and manufacturing experts catering to international brands worldwide. 2) What makes Pilotfish unique to other industrial design firms? Our vision is to create unique user experiences by combining industrial design with an intuitive user interface. We act as an innovation hub for companies and technology providers looking for the right partners to realize these concepts in meaningful ways for end users. 3) What other concepts has Pilotfish developed? - Onyx gesture-based touch screen phone in partnership with Synaptics – released before the iPhone, in 2006 it was the first handset prototype to introduce a fully adaptive user interface that eliminated the need for mechanical buttons and allowed for gesture-based input. - Flexible display phone in cooperation with ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) in Taiwan – released in 2008 - Vision Notebook, with customizable input interface for an enhanced multimedia experience – released 2005 4) What products has Pilotfish designed for customers? - Consumer and Professional Electronics: mobile phones, PDAs, music-editing equipment, mobile navigation, notebooks, remote clients, TVs, digital cameras, headphones, etc - Medical: hearing aids, intensive care patient monitors, mobile and stationary heart monitoring devices, pulmonary function laboratory, blood pressure monitors, etc. - Transportation: scooters, in-car interaction solutions, built-in user interfaces, etc. 5) Who are Pilotfish’s customers? Clients include Asus, Avaya, BenQ, BMW, Logitech, Heineken, HTC, Native Instruments, Mini, Siemens, Synaptics, etc. 6) Why do customers want to work with Pilotfish? Pilotfish delivers a professional integrated service, creating a meaningful experience for users. Pilotfish offers the complete range of industrial design services, from user research to concept development, 3D modeling, prototyping and batch production. Next to award-winning design, the company also provides mechanical engineering, project management and on-site quality control for tooling and production. 7) What is Pilotfish’s vision for the future of design for consumer electronics? Despite its recent advances, technology is still intimidating and not fully accessible for some users. We see a future where technology is more adapted to human needs and desires, more intuitive to use and more in-line with the environment. See the original post: Pilotfish’s Ondo music editing mobile concept puts new twist on smartphones

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