In addition to the launch of this device – for real, actually official and everything, comes word that a collection of apps will be delivered at the same time as the system under the name Airspace. Leap Motion’s Airspace will effectively be their own app store, filled to the brim with apps made specifically for the system and its unique abilities. Several apps and tools revealed this week for release at the time of the system’s own push are as follows:

• Plug-ins for 3-D design software leader Autodesk
• Corel’s Painter apps
• Disney Interactive’s Wreck-It Ralph: Sugar Rush Speedway racing game
• Double Fine’s music game Dischord (made exclusively for Leap Motion)
• The Weather Channel app
• ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope, a top casual game

It’s also been announced that Leap Motion will be available for testing by the public at SXSW 2013, complete with a lovely hands-on (so to speak) with a collection of apps and first-release experiences. This will allow those of you that are at the tipping point between wanting and not wanting this faceless interface for yourself to see which way you’ll want to go.

Leap Motion walkthrough:

And the whole package (which is, in the end, just the one tiny device), will cost you USD $79.99 in pre-order mode – it may be that it sticks to that price at final release, too – we shall see! Have a peek at the timeline below to learn more about Leap Motion and be sure to stick with SlashGear for a review of the system sooner than later. We’re beyond excited about the “the Disappearing Interface” era that Leap Motion is spearheading, and plan to be right there up front of the roller-coaster so you all can take this journey with us. Hooray for motion!

Essentially, the Leap Motion is able to change the pitch of the guitar chords based on the position of the guitar’s headstock, meaning that there’s no need for players to use a tremolo bar or bend the strings while playing. The device can also track specially-made drum sticks that allow the Leap to track the end points of the sticks to play the beats.

However, that seemed to be Bersot’s most difficult challenge. He says “it wasn’t easy to play drums with it,” and it actually needs more work to make it more stable. Essentially, Bersot used the velocities and positions of the drum sticks on the X axis, and had it play the note at just the right time during the down motion.

We’re assuming Bersot’s project is just for fun, since it doesn’t seem like he plans to release something like it anytime soon, but it goes to show the potential of the Leap Motion device. While it can be used to track your hands to move objects on a screen, the implications of such a device go way beyond what one might think.

[via MAKE]

ASUS will be bundling Leap’s motion control technology with select notebooks and desktops that will ship later this year, including the company’s all-in-one PCs and high-end notebooks. The Leap Motion app store will also come pre-installed on all of the qualified computers, and since ASUS will be shipping the products internationally, it will mark Leap’s international debut.

If you’re not sure what the heck Leap Motion does exactly, we’ll give you a quick refresher. The company’s motion-tracking technology has a 150-degree field of view that tracks individual hands and all 10 fingers at 290 frames per second in order to provide ultra precise motion controls. It also offers 200x more accuracy than Microsoft’s Kinect, which already has its many drawbacks anyway.

Obviously, this new tech will encourage users to ditch the traditional keyboard and mouse interface in favor of a Minority Report-esque interface, but depending on how well ASUS implements the technology, we can’t imagine that it’d be hard to pry keyboards and mice out of diehard fans. Prices for the motion-control-equipped computers haven’t yet been discussed, but ASUS promises the new PC’s will be available around the world later this year.

We heard about Leap Motion back in May when they developed a motion-controlling apparatus that was claimed to be 200-times more accurate than other motion-controlling technologies like the Microsoft Kinect. In July, Leap garnered interest from over 26,000 developers and promised a release date of February 2013.

This time, Leap is making even more progress, by giving over 10,000 more developers free motion-controlling units. In total, over 40,000 developers have signed up to be a part of the company’s beta program of sorts, which means that once the technology officially releases to the public, it could be off to an amazing start, thanks to thousands of apps that could potentially release on launch day.

Leap Motion mentioned that 14% of developers want to make games, while 12% want to use the technology for music or video applications. 11% said they wanted to do something art and design related, 8% for science and medicine, and 6% for robotics. At launch, Leap does plan to offer an app store, and more than 90% of developers asking for the SDK are interested in featuring their work in such a store.

The Cricket iPhone 4S will cost you $499.99 for a 16GB (the smallest version) while the 16GB version of the iPhone 4 will ring you up to $399.99 USD. These prices are roughly the same as what we’ve seen thus far from the off-contract phones you can buy directly through Apple. They’ll also have you paying Cricket specifically for your data plan.

Your data plan with Cricket Communications, starting on June 22nd if you order now, will be $55 per month. This cost includes unlimited talk, text, and data, and will have no contract attached to it. This compares with the data plans you’ll find on each of three of the top four mobile carriers in the USA whose plans will cost you between $60 and $80 a month for many of the same perks.

Pre-Paid phones are generally considered a budget option for mobile users all around the globe, but this particular release from Cricket and their overarching company Leap Wireless International has their 6.2 million current customers and potential millions more today considering the way we see the “pre-paid” classification.

There’s no inexpensive situation here, ladies and gentlement, only a place for those who feel they “need” an iPhone to splurge once then forever be able to only pay for the months they can afford an active device. Watch out for de and re-activation costs as well, folks, they might sneak up on you!

Finally and perhaps most important of all there’s the idea that Cricket’s data plan is “Unlimited.” While you may indeed access as much data as you like during the month, after 2.3 GB of data, your data speec will be slowed to as low as 56 Kbps from that point forward. See how fast you can download a song with that!

The deal ensures that both carriers will be able to provide additional coverage of 4G connectivity, and hopefully better service, although it also highlights the need for more spectrum in the wireless industry. Carriers may be OK with temporarily signing agreements with each other, but spectrum is a finite resource.

Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed, although it does also involve subsidiaries Savary Island Wireless and Cook Inlet. The deal also sees intra-market exchanges in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Atlantic City, as well as some markets in Texas and New Mexico. The agreement isn’t expected to be completed until it receives regulatory approval.

President and CEO of Leap, Doug Hutcheson, says that “These transactions will enhance our spectrum depth in these markets and provide us longer term flexibility to offer a larger LTE channel.” Leap plans to cover around two thirds of its network with LTE in the next two to three years.