iPhone: PC Mag Review, Fingerworks, and Jeff Han
He provides his impressions from his brief time with the device.
A day after Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPhone during his MacWorld keynote on Tuesday morning, I actually got my hands on one. For all of ten minutes. Ten minutes isn't much, but I can safely say that the iPhone is even more impressive than it appeared during the Jobs keyote. And that's saying something.
Metz remarked at the ease of use of the Multitouch interface, but during his brief exposure, found the touch-keyboard typing awkward.
The technology surrounding the Apple's Multitouch technology remains a great source of speculation. DelawareOnline delves into some of the history behind Apple's acquisition of Fingerworks and spoke with Wayne Westerman (founder of Fingerworks). While Westerman declined to comment about a relationship between Apple and Fingerworks due to confidentiality agreements, he did offer this tidbit:
"The one difference that's actually quite significant is the iPhone is a display with the multi-touch, and the FingerWorks was just an opaque surface. That's all I'm going to say there. There's definite similarities, but Apple's definitely taken it another step by having it on a display."
Meanwhile, Jeff Han, a researcher at NYU, has received a lot of attention due to his popular Multi Touch demo video. Despite ongoing speculation and comments that Han had been somehow connected to Apple's iPhone, Han's research appears to be entirely independent. A Guardian.co.uk article quotes Han:
"The iPhone is absolutely gorgeous, and I've always said, if there ever were a company to bring this kind of technology to the consumer market, it's Apple."
Indeed, Han has started his own company (Perceptive Pixel) to market Multitouch technology. NYDailyNews reports the company will start installing big versions of his screen for "film studios and other operations where people can use them as high-tech blackboards to brainstorm on projects".
The article also reveals that Han will be buying an iPhone "as soon as it goes on sale in June."
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the company will start installing big versions of his screen for "film studios and other operations where people can use them as high-tech blackboards to brainstorm on projects".
This would be marketable even to small studios. It really would make editing easy.
This would be marketable even to small studios. It really would make editing easy.
Heck, at first I thought they said they were gonna market it as backgrounds to movie studios. Imagine the fun you could have teching out the bridge of the Enterprise with these.
more good news is, well, good. especially from PCmag. people that typically bash people might pay a little more attention to teh iphone if it's so highly reviewed in a pc magazine.
i agree here. more good news is good news...and from a PC magazine....it sure helps Apple i think......bring on the iPhone!
Also, I found a much better video of Jeff Han unveiling his interface at a conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcKqyn-gUbY
How long until we see multi touch implemented on Apple desktops and laptops?
If all they had was a multi-finger touch interface on an opaque surface - well Apple already has that: every MacBook and MacBook Pro has a touchpad which accepts two-finger gesture input (two finger for right click, two finger scrolling, drag-lock, two finger zooming).
It appears Apple just added a few new gestures for the iPhone, and applied it to a touch screen.
How long until we see multi touch implemented on Apple desktops and laptops?
I can't really see how the mutitouch concept will work on a laptop screen (certainly not on a desktop). With regards to its implementation on the iphone, the dragging of contacts or pressing of buttons is ideal; if I'm using photoshop on a laptop, I can't see how not being able to see the cursor (because it's buried under my finger!) will be as productive as using a mouse; and besides, if I'm using a mouse/trackpad and button, I can't see me being bothered to move away from it and press a button on my screen rather than click on it with my mouse... my view, anyway
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