March 14, 2010

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Three Tips for Getting the Most out of the iPhone Keyboard

November 27, 2009 By hac 1 Comment

One of the things that makes the iPhone unique is its virtual keyboard. Although for the most part, it’s obvious how to use the keyboard, there are a few commonly unnoticed features that you can use to increase your typing (or your tapping) speed:

  1. Hold down a key for one second to see a list of variants of the letter as they appear in foreign alphabets. This works with the keys A, C, E, I, L, N, O, S, U and Z. This tip will save you the time it takes to switch between keyboards if you need to type in multiple languages.
  2. When in Safari, hold down the .com key for one second to see a list of nine more domain endings, including .net, .org, .edu, etc.
  3. The most obvious way of making a digit or punctuation mark on the keyboard is to tap the 123 button, tap the desired character, and then tap the 123 button to return to the regular keyboard. Instead of three taps, the same thing can be done in just one stroke! Press down on the 123 button, drag your finger to the character you want to type, then lift your finger off the keyboard.
Filed Under How To's, iPhone Tagged With iPhone, iPhone Keyboard, keyboard, touchscreen

Apple Working on Touchscreen Remote for Apple TV?

September 30, 2009 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

The Boy Genius Report is claiming that they have received a mockup of a touchscreen remote that may be included in an upcoming Apple TV refresh. The image shows an iPhone-esque device with a longer thinner screen, which seems like overkill especially since the device would be a peripheral for an appliance that Apple only considers a ‘hobby’. Anyway, this rumor gains some credibility after BGR claims the image came from the same source that accurately predicted iTunes 9 features, prior to launch.

It seems a little far-fetched that this unit’s only purpose would be to control an Apple TV, and you can even see a Safari option on the mockup. To be honest, it looks like a touch screen iPod nano, just longer. We’re going to dig a little bit and see what we can find, but we figured we’d run this with a high dose of caution for informational purposes.

As you may remember, Apple recently removed the 40GB Apple TV model, and dropped the 160GB model’s price by $100. In short, an update may be in the works.
Now for my opinion. This won’t happen. It adds an unnecessary expense on Apple’s fledgeling Apple TV product line. Besides, a touchscreen remote already exists for the Apple TV and iTunes.
Filed Under Apple TV, Rumors Tagged With Apple TV, Remote, touchscreen

Apple to Introduce a Netbook with Touchscreen in October?

July 14, 2009 By Alex Jordan 3 Comments

Taiwanese news site InfoTimes (translation via MacRumors) is reporting that Apple is currently placing component orders to Taiwanese companies Foxconn, Wintek, and Dynapack. All of this will be used in turn, to put the long rumored touchscreen netbook into production.

According to the source, this new product will have a 9.7-inch screen, substantially smaller than the industry standard (10.1 to 10.2-inch). Here’s an excerpt from MacRumors:

According to reliable information, Apple will not follow the current market trend (by producing netbooks with screens about 10.2 or 10.1 inches in diagonal length.) Instead, Apple will produce screens with about 9.7 inches in diagonal length. Touch screen will be installed. Wintek will be the main manufacturer of the touch screen.

Few other details are available, but it is believed it will sell for $800. Here’s yet another excerpt:

Because Apple will adopt touch screen technology on its netbooks, Apple will not target low-end consumers, avoiding direct competition with Acer, Asus, as well as their less-than-500-dollars netbooks. Apple?s netbook (or a “tablet” as many call it,) will probably be sold at around $800 USD each.

I still don’t buy it. Granted, I’m very skeptical, and there is mounting evidence, I still don’t buy into this idea. Apple has repeatedly stated that they aren’t looking at entering the netbook market. Just because they say they won’t, doesn’t mean they won’t, I know. Something just seems off about this.

I have several burning questions like, what kind of OS will it run? An expanded version of iPhone OS? Mac OS X? Also, who does this appeal to? Will it be a large iPhone with a data plan, or a small standalone computer?  I’ve been wrong plenty of times before, and I do believe this is an ongoing project at Apple, I just don’t expect to see this product launched in October. Even if/when Apple releases this product, I doubt they market it as a “netbook”.
You can read the original story from MacRumors here. Mock-up courtesy of htootayzar.com.
Filed Under Rumors Tagged With $800, netbook, october, touchscreen

Apple Netbook Rumor From China

March 10, 2009 By Wannes Mingels Leave a Comment

 According to the Commercial Times, the local company Wintek would prepare for the delivery of new touchscreens, which you should be able to find the next autumn in a ‘new netbook’ of Apple. A message from the Chinese media caused some turmoil in the Apple-rumor circuit. Other speculators are keeping it into a larger version of iPod Touch or a tablet computer. Apple itself has denied the launch of such products so far. However.

[Source]

Filed Under Hardware, Rumors Tagged With netbook, touchscreen

Apple to Build a Netbook?

March 9, 2009 By James Lundy Leave a Comment

Reports have been flying around the internet that Apple may have plans for a netbook. This is based on a piece originally in the Taiwan”s Commercial Times. What is confirmed in the report is that the touch-screen maker Wintek is working on new touch-screens for Apple. What is not clear is where they will be used. The report indicates that the new touch-screens are scheduled to start shipping by the second half of the year. I would not expect to see anything before Q4 although others have speculated it may be earlier.

Apple has been hesitant to enter the netbook market place sighting that the platform generally is low performance and has a less than ideal form factor, two things every Apple enthusiast can understand.

That being said Apple cannot ignore the popularity of the netbooks and could be poised to leverage new chip technology to keep performance acceptable while using little power.

We have several months time between now and then so I am sure that if this report turns out to be true there will be more reports confirming what Apple may have in the works.

Filed Under All News, Hardware, Rumors Tagged With Apple, netbook, Rumor, touchscreen