iPad 2 3D Display
As we recently reported, the new iPad 2 has been mounted with a front facing camera. Apart from allowing individuals to video chat with ease, Apple also gave developers access to the camera in the hope that they create new and exciting apps and games.
With such access a team of researchers at the Grenoble Informatics Laboratory in France have recently developed a 3-D style interface for the iPad 2. The researchers use the camera to track the user’s gaze, allowing the iPad to change the image on the tablet’s display to shift its perspective. They call this a “spatially-aware mobile display.”
Skype Video Calling for iPhone
Skype has just announced the addition of video calling for the iPhone Skype app. The app has been updated and is a very popular free app in the Apple App Store, working on the the iPhone, iPad and iPod devices which connect over WiFi or 3G connections. The front and rear camera on the iPhone 4 makes this a great tool for conducting business calls on your iPhone.
Is it better than Apple’s FaceTime? Facetime requires a WiFi connection, but Skype supports Skype to Skype video calls over both WiFi and 3G, and works equally well over both connections. FaceTime also requires that both parties be on an iPhone, but Skype only needs a Skype account, allowing you to connect with desktop users along with your iPhone friends. What are your views on the new Skype app?
Solar Petal iPod Charger
Drawing inspiration from the personal solar charging device by Fandi Meng, the Sunny Flower, which charges your gadgets on the go, designer Mac Funamizu has come up with a solar charger called “iPetals” to juice up an iPhone. The iPetals apart from harnessing the solar energy to charge your iPhone also doubles as an iPhone stand. The sustainable charger integrates colored petals with different lightness, which spread like a blooming flower to seize sunlight during the daytime and contract to become a docking station for your iPhone.
[ Article Source: the Design Blog ]
New Cable skips iTunes Sync foreplay and gets straight to the Charging
Believe it or not, sometimes people just want to plug an Apple i-Device into a USB port to charge the thing without waking the sleeping giant that is iTunes. As much as I love hearing my desktop fan start up like a jet engine while iTunes slowly stumbles its way to life only to tell me that the version I downloaded yesterday now needs to be updated again via an 80+ megabyte download, it’d be nice to just charge my i-Whatsit in peace.
Yes, you can turn off the iTunes auto-open feature but what if, as OhGizmo! suggests, you’re looking to charge your iPhone on a friend’s computer real quick? Actually, if you’re at your friend’s house and it’s gotten so bad that you need to commandeer their computer just to charge your iPhone, then it’d be highly unlikely that you’d have this cable with you – $13 and this accessory is yours.
[ Article source : CrunchGear ]
Notepods are iPod Notepads
Son, since you’ve been so good in school this year and done all your chores I’ve decided to get you an iPod- notepad. “Dad you suck”. “Work on your penmanship, kid. Here’s an expensive pen I’ll give you as a gift that you’ll never use”. “Thanks Dad. Mommmmmm, can I get an iPod? Puhhlease.”
Really as far as notebooks good, these are pretty freakin’ cool. Look, I wrote my own app- it’s called Tic-Tac-Toe. I’m going to be a paper app store Apple millionaire. Here’s another free app for your Notepod called “shopping list”. I’m still working in my Doodle app. Ok, I guess if you really were an application designer, you could sketch out some ideas on these but what about the rest of us?
source: CraziestGadgets