We know Onyx better as a BlackBerry smartphone codename or a touchscreen cellphone prototype, but in China it’s also the name of an ebook reader manufacturer. Engadget Chinese had a chance to play with their new product, the Boox, a WiFi-enabled touchscreen device with an internet browser as well as an ebook app.
What the world needs are more concept devices, and thankfully here come Pilotfish with their Ondo to fill that gap. Best known for their work on the Synaptics Onyx interface, Pilotfish have now turned their attention to more media-centric mobile devices with the Ondo cellphone concept, a twistable, touch-sensitive and modular music experience.
While the dual CDMA and HSDPA of the Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm has caused a few double-takes, it’s the unique ClickThrough touchscreen display that has prompted the most column-inches about the smartphone today. ClickThrough takes advantage of the latest capacitive touchscreen technology and a layer of tactile sensors just beneath it; the top layer is used to gesture, scroll and highlight, while pressing down and through to the sensors gives true “click” feeling similar to that of the BlackBerry trackball. The system uses Synaptics’ ClearPad, a custom multitouch-capable module first seen on the Onyx concept.
Synaptics are no strangers to the pages of SlashGear, and we’ve been lucky enough to have hands-on experience in the past with their clever touchscreen concept cellphone. Back in those pre-iPhone days the idea of an intuitive multitouch UI on a mobile device was pretty far-fetched, with Windows Mobile offering little in the way of finger-friendliness. Now Synaptics are back with their latest reference design; called ‘Boomerang’, it’s a multi-device remote control that uses the company’s capacitive touch-sensitive panels.
Seagate’s D.A.V.E. has already been the subject of a PodTech video, but that didn’t stop the guys at Uberpulse from sitting down with Rob Pait, the company’s director for Global Consumer Electronics Marketing.
Still smarting, I’m sure, from his spat with just about all of the big tech blogs the other day, Robert Scoble takes time out to announce his sponsor, Seagate’s, latest wheeze. A shirt-pocket sized portable hard-drive called D.A.V.E. with single button (unsurprisingly a power button) and USB port, you might be wondering how it lives up to even the mediocre billing Robert gives it. Well, it’s the built-in Bluetooth and WiFi that Seagate is counting on to pull in the punters.
Anyone who wants mobile media, would like to add more storage space to their cellphone or PDA, is interested in creating an ad-hoc social network of shared presentation, document or any other sort of files, will likely be seeing possibilities now. It sounds a whole lot like BluOnyx’s Mobile Content Server, which SlashGear covered back in December last year; now Seagate (who are supplying the 10gb and 20gb drives) haven’t spilt the beans on their partners yet, but with all the talk of software APIs and the dimensions (61 x 89 x 12 mm) being so similar to BluOnyx’s mock-ups, it’s not too great a stretch to think that they’re sharing more than just a storage ethos.
D.A.V.E. stands for Digital Audio Video Experience, and the device will have 10hr continuous operation battery life or last 14 days on standby. It weighs just 2.5 ounces (70g), and can tell within centimetres of a drop that it needs to park the drive’s head, before locking them totally. I’ll be interested to find out more, after Seagate present it at the Demo Conference.
Label-whores, mobile pros and finger-thumpers rejoice, LG have finally made official what we long expected – the PRADA phone (otherwise masquerading as the KE850) will go on sale in Europe at the end of February, followed by Asia in March.
Overshadowed a little perhaps by both the iPhone and LG’s own legal case against Apple disputing the originality of that very handset, the KE850 has a respectable feature-set operated via a very interesting UI. Its 12mm thin chassis packs tri-band EDGE, a 2-megapixel camera (with LED flash), microSD memory expansion of the as-yet-undisclosed internal storage, office file viewer, a DAP supporting MP3, ACC, ACC+, WMA and RA, as well as a video player compatible with MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 formats. All of the above are accessed through a Flash-based interface developed by Pilotfish, who partnered with Synaptics to create the Onyx concept cellphone SlashGear covered last year, and whose DNA is very much present in the PRADA phone.
SlashGear are big fans of Synaptics – their Onyx concept cellphone that we featured last year seems to have a whole lot in common with a certain mobile telephone with a fruit-themed manufacturer – and so we’re pleased to be able to break the news of their latest development designed to bring advanced touch-sensitive interfaces to mainstream mass produced products. Taking advantage of the company’s capacitive-sensing technology, the Synaptics OneTouch solution combines both the hardware as well as GUI-based design and development tools together with a comprehensive library of documentation covering everything from conception to mass production.
Synaptics has always produced custom solutions for manufacturers, but OneTouch will fill a market niche where in-house development is a time-driven necessity:
“The Synaptics OneTouch toolset has been built specifically to help Synapticsí customers design capacitive interface solutions that will enhance the usability and industrial design of their products. The simplified design process encapsulated in the Synaptics OneTouch solution will enable customers to explore the possibilities of capacitive sensing quickly and more autonomously” Synaptics Press Release
Looks like some congratulations are in order! Our friends over at Synaptics have been awarded the red dot online design concept award for Interaction & Communication for their Onyx prototype, as exclusively featured on SlashGear back in October 2006. Onyx is a new paradigm in gesture interface, where users control their cellphones via one and two-fingered sweeps, flicks and shapes.
We’re still waiting to see the first commercial application of the technology, which combined Synaptics’ proximal sensor pads and Pilotfish’s GUI design, so let’s hope that 2007 is the year for it! Congratulations again, guys.
On a day where many were expecting Apple’s long-awaited cellphone to launch (don’t think we’ve finished with you yet, Brian Lam!) there is in fact a far more interesting product breaking cover. Agere Systems, primarily known as a semiconductor specialist, launched their BluOnyx Mobile Content Server; SlashGear sat down with them for a pre-CES’07 briefing.
To over-simplify, BluOnyx is a highly compact, portable hard-drive with initial capacities that start from 1GB and max out at 40GB. At approximately 85mm by 54mm it’s the same size as a credit card, and it ranges from 6mm to 15mm in thickness depending on its internal storage. What makes it special is its connectivity and the sharing software Agere have developed. BluOnyx v.1 will have Bluetooth as well as USB and SD options, while v.2 is expected to add WiFi to the mix. Link up wirelessly from your cellphone and, once you’ve paired, BluOnyx’s menu can be browsed remotely as can its stored content.
SlashGear Japan
