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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

FaderTouch creates custom trippy visuals for your own private club, opium den (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/fadertouch-creates-custom-trippy-visuals-for-your-own-private-cl/

FaderTouch creates custom visuals for your own private club, opium den

A night of trance insanity just isn't the same without some screen somewhere projecting bizarre and nonsensical but thoroughly trippy visuals -- but what if you host your own basement raves and all you have is basic cable with C-SPAN? What you need is the faderTouch, a road case-based "visual performance" device created by VJ Fader that allows you to play virtual instruments by dragging fingers across the screen, instruments like one seemingly based on Pong and another that spawns and destroys pixels and notes using Conway's Game of Life (the cellular one, not the one with the spinny wheel and the peg families). It's a fun toy, but it seems somewhat... overengineered to us. A simple laptop with a touchscreen could manage the same thing without the finnicky rear-projection system, but then that wouldn't look quite so road worthy, right? Video after the break.

Continue reading FaderTouch creates custom trippy visuals for your own private club, opium den (video)

FaderTouch creates custom trippy visuals for your own private club, opium den (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad powered by custom 1GHz Apple A4 chip

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/ipad-powered-by-custom-1ghz-apple-a4-chip/

Look out Intel and friends, Apple is using its own P.A. Semi technology for a custom 1GHz "Apple A4" chip in the iPad. Apple claims to get 10 hours of battery life out of this sucker, along with a month of standby.

Update: we got a picture of the processor courtesy of the iFixit Twitter feed. The chip was apparently manufactured in September of last year! Also, we've got hands-on with the iPad for your external fixations.

iPad powered by custom 1GHz Apple A4 chip originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad has optional keyboard dock, camera connection kit and Apple-designed case

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/ipad-has-optional-keyboard-dock/

This whole time we've been wondering how we'll really get any typing done on Apple's new iPad, and at last we have the answer: an optional keyboard dock! No word on price yet, or whether this will be available at launch -- we'd say "eat your heart out, netbooks" but we won't, because they shouldn't. In even better news, however, the device will also work with standard Bluetooth keyboards like Apple's own wireless QWERTY slabs. Additionally, Apple will be selling a "camera connection kit" to allow you to plug your camera in over USB or use an SD card to import pictures. Finally, there's an Apple-built case for the device that protects the screen, but also doubles as a stand in two different orientations.

Not enough for you? We've got hands-on right here.

Gallery: iPad has optional keyboard dock!

Gallery: Apple iPad accessories

iPad has optional keyboard dock, camera connection kit and Apple-designed case originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple iPad first hands-on! (update: video!)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-first-hands-on/

Here it is folks, the Apple iPad. The screen is gorgeous, tilting is responsive, and the thing is super thin. Still, if you've used the iPhone before -- and you can see the two devices side-by-side here -- there's not a lot of surprises here so far. Here are some initial thoughts on the iPad:

It's not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand.
The screen is stunning, and it's 1024 x 768. Feels just like a huge iPhone in your hands.
The speed of the CPU is something to be marveled at. It is blazingly fast from what we can tell. Webpages loaded up super fast, and scrolling was without a hiccup. Moving into and out of apps was a breeze. Everything flew.
There's no multitasking at all. It's a real disappointment. All this power and very little you can do with it at once. No multitasking means no streaming Pandora when you're working in Pages... you can figure it out. It's a real setback for this device.
The ebook implementation is about as close as you can get to reading without a stack of bound paper in your hand. The visual stuff really helps flesh out the experience. It may be just for show, but it counts here.
No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn't have an SMS app!
It's running iPhone OS 3.2.
The keyboard is good, not great. Not quite as responsive as it looked in the demos.
No Flash confirmed. So Hulu is out for you, folks!

Update: We've got video, head after the break to check it out!

Gallery: Apple iPad hands-on

Gallery: Apple iPad hands-on, part 2

Continue reading Apple iPad first hands-on! (update: video!)

Apple iPad first hands-on! (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple iPad tech specs: rumor vs. reality scorecard

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-tech-specs-rumor-vs-reality-scorecard/

Remember that history of Apple tablet rumors we concocted for you just the other day? Well, we're here to take score now, folks. As you can see from the handy (and magical) chart below, Taiwan Economic News came pretty close to nailing the iPad's specs back September: built-in HSDPA, custom P.A. Semi system on a chip (with the fancy new name Apple A4), 9.6-inch size, February unveiling, and hey -- they were pretty close on that $799 - $999 pricing too. And while iLounge was wrong about some things, they certainly hit this one out of the park: "It's a big iPhone, but it's not a big iPhone." We're going to let you dig into the chart here for yourselves to see who got what right -- and who was terribly, terribly wrong.

Here are just a few of the no-shows today, however -- no camera, no multitasking, no phone, no Verizon, no iPhone OS 4.0, and no Flash anywhere to be seen. There were also no MacBook Pro spec bumps in sight, and no iLife to be found. Well, let's just try to be happy with what we did get, okay? The chart is after the break.

Continue reading Apple iPad tech specs: rumor vs. reality scorecard

Filed under: Tablet PCs