You will recall not very long ago, we were sent the fantastically glossy, super lightweight, latest netbook from Dell, the Inspiron Mini 9. It’s taken us some time to review fully in detail, but as you will see in our review below we think Dell has done a great job in bringing us this netbook,
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While we were lazying our way through the Christmas break, it seems the U.S. Patent Office were doing quite the opposite. They revealed this interesting new patent application from Apple called Swipe Gestures for Touch Screen Keyboards. Apple suggests the use of swipe gestures to be used on top of the iPhone’s on screen keyboard in order to provide the user with quick access to common keys.
Here’s a quoted example of how this new patent will be used practically…
For example, erasing and basic punctuation insertion, directional swipes (also referred to herein as “swipe gestures”) over the alphabetic keys can be used as an alternative to striking certain keys. Because the Space and Backspace keys are quite frequently used, they are logical candidates for the rightward and leftward swipes, respectively. Leftward and rightward swipes intuitively match the cursor travel caused by these symbols. Following this cursor movement analogy, the Enter/Return may be invoked by a downward swipe, and a Shift/Caps may be invoked by an upward swipe. Alternatively, as the Enter and Shift functions may be less frequently invoked, these may be substituted for other functions as well. One alternative mapping for the upward swipe, for example, could be to activate an alternative numeric and punctuation keypad or a particular punctuation symbol like an apostrophe or period.
While no actual realistic product has actually come up, you will probably be able to imagine that it’s much like Apple’s latest multi touch enabled MacBooks but I would say it sounds more suited for the advanced users and also those who will appreciate quick access shortcuts. Let’s face it, you’re not going to find an old granny that will remember precisely which combination of strokes to go for to launch certain application.
This isn’t something that myself as an iPhone user is particularly excited about, but it seems a new update for the T-Mobile G1 will soon give its users the ability to type texts (possibly emails and more?) on its screen instead of having to spring out the full keyboard from underneath just to type ‘Hi’.
Have you found typing on the iphone difficult? Ever thought something could be done about it, apart from slimming down so that your fat fingers can shrink abit (I have!). With iPhone’s tiny touchscreen keypad, it makes typing emails or messages extremely hard and time consuming. This deivce called the BTleyMini, has been designed to solve the above problem.
The BTKeyMini is a bluethooth keyboard which is designed for iPhone and iPod Touch. Using your iPhone’s bluetooth connection, you can sync the keyboard shown above with your iPhone thus no wire is required. There is also a flap on the keyboard which is presumably there to hold the iPhone in place.
Although the BTKeyMini sounds promising and convenient for texts and emails. I don’t think there are that many people that type so much on the iPhone to the extent that they would want to carry a separate keyboard along with the iPhone. Some businessmen might do but then most of them also have laptops and netbooks these days.
[via Coolest Gadgets]
Just like to take this opportunity today to thank and also reply to one of our reader’s enquiry over the weekend. One of our reader who has just switched from being a PC to a Mac user have asked us how to create or take screen shots on Mac OS X (Leopard).
Those who have been Windows users for some time will know that PC keyboards have all got the Print Screen key whereas nowadays Mac keyboards no longer have this on their keyboards but it doesn’t mean the function has been taken away. So though a very simple function, I can understand why the question was sent.
So here are the commands that are required in order to create a screen shot on Mac OS X, the thing to remember is that unlike Windows’ Print Screen function which takes a screen shot of the whole of the screen. Mac OS X gives you the choice of choosing, as long as you remember the right hot key that is!
There are three main ‘modes’ available:
- Apple (Command) Key + Shift + 3
Captures entire desktop to a file on the desktop as ‘picture #’ . This option lets you capture the whole screen. If you want just one window on your screen, you will have to edit the picture using image editing software.
- Apple (Command) Key + Shift + 4
Allows you to use your mouse to select a specific part of your desktop for capture. This will turn your mouse pointer into a cross, please hold down the mouse button and drag to select the part of the screen you want. When you release the button the screenshot will “snap” that part of the screen. Press ‘Esc’ to release.
Here’s a sample screen shot of my dock just taken a second ago:
- Apple (Command) Key + Shift + 4 then press Spacebar
This one can be a handful! But it can be quite useful in some situations because it allows you to select which window to capture.
Of course, there are lots of applications out there that also often the same functionality if not more, but we’ve never needed to download and use any of them, if you know of a good one which you would like to recommend, feel free to leave your comment below!
![](http://blog.gadgetlite.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/writingpad-iphone-app-latest.png "iPhone app WritingPad by ShapeWriter - send emails the \\"Swype\\" way...")
Remember when we featured Swype, one of the newest concepts in typing emails and texts on mobile / portable devices? Now we’ve got something very similar on an iPhone app called WritingPad.
The free productivity app WritingPad quietly and neatly eliminates the problem of stabbing the iPhone’s keyboard in order to type an e-mail or note. Instead of entering letters one by one and waiting for the predictive text to kick in (which I spend alot of time doing!), you use your finger to trace a line from one letter to the next, so it will essentially looks like a squiggle on the keyboard, but it renders as a letter.
You don’t have to concern yourself with avoiding letters you don’t need, or with double letters like o’s or n’s. You don’t even have to worry about manually entering a space between letters because WritingPad will do that, too. In the event your word isn’t in the predictive list, it helpfully lets you add one to the library by entering it letter by letter and then pressing the Space key.
WritingPad struggles with “I’m” and makes it hard to easily access common symbols like the exclamation mark. It also won’t work in landscape mode at this point. The biggest downside to me is that getting the app won’t allow you to use WritingPad as a replacement text input method for your e-mail inbox or SMS which is a shame, but these are minor problems when you consider you gain the convenience of being able to mail notes to your contacts.
Remember WritingPad is free and is available for instant download from the AppStore, if you would like more info, we suggest you visit the ShapeWriter link here…
Thanko who during the summer creatively released the Cooler USB Keyboard for those with sweaty palms have now released a similar keyboard which they have now upgraded with heating function. The keyboard’s aluminium casing helps to distribute the heat evenly across the palm rest. In addition to that, there are fans available that can be activated by a flick of a switch on the back of the keyboard to blow hot air on to your wrists. You can probably say that this new Thanko USB keyboard has now been evolved into an all-season peripheral that keeps your hands cozy during the winter and cool during summer.
At an affordable price of just $51 USD, the only downside is that the keyboard will require you to giveup two unoccupied full-powered USB ports in order for it to fully operate its heated fans.
