GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Typing on small virtual keyboards can be hard. 8pen, like Swype, is an alternate text entry program that uses continuous gestures, but instead of navigating a QWERTY keyboard, you use a click-wheel-like spiral motion to select text. It’s out today for Android, with versions for iOS, Windows, remotes and even game controllers in the works.

The best analogy I can offer for 8pen’s interface, again, is the old iPod click wheel. The screen is divided into four quadrants with an X. You begin at the center. Moving into each quadrant selects one of eight characters. A clockwise or counterclockwise movement cuts that character list in half. Then, one, two, three, or four “clicks” through each sector selects the first, second, third, or fourth character. In practice, each gesture amounts to a partial circle.

There are also definable custom gestures for stock phrases or names. I think this is actually the most interesting part of the application.

8pen claims to solve two problems: first, the fact that QWERTY screens optimized for two hands can’t be used that way; and second, that our current software keyboards make it too difficult to type blind. (Take a moment and think about how often you look at a virtual keyboard and how often you look at a physical keyboard.)

How effective could 8pen be? Well, that depends in part on how easy it is to learn.

We know a little bit about how users learn how to use new interfaces. Users have an easier time translating skills from familiar technologies. The QWERTY keyboard, however cramped, is a familiar technology, which is why we use it even in cases where it’s suboptimal. 8pen claims its gestures are closer to handwriting. Add the click-wheel interface, and there is a technology base, however weak, that users can draw on.

Users also have a harder time learning new technologies when they know old, incompatible ones really well. If you’re comfortable using a QWERTY keyboard, and particularly a miniaturized hardware or software keyboard, the costs of switching to a new interface are too high.

It’s like switching to Windows 7 when you know XP inside and out: even if it’s objectively a superior system, you can get more done using the tool you know best. There has to be a crisis to force a move — sort of like how the hurdles and reputation of Windows Vista led a lot of users to take a long hard look at Mac OS X.

One problem I see with 8pen is the way it’s framed. First, smartphone typing may not use all of both hands, but it does use more than one finger, whether it’s two thumbs, a thumb and an index finger, or some combination of these. I find myself using at least my thumb, index and middle fingers on both hands most of the time. (I am a fast typist with very large hands.)

Taking these extra resources off-screen doesn’t seem likely to speed things up. It forces us to type with one finger, when one-finger typing is actually the problem.

Second, it’s hard to type blind on a smartphone because the text entry surface and the screen are on the same plane. On a laptop, desktop or clamshell, the screen and text surface are separated, with the screen on the vertical plane and text entry on the horizontal.

This is actually an advantage for the smartphone in some ways, because it brings the eye and hand together like in manuscript writing. It’s a problem because there isn’t a natural orientation for both reading and writing, so we usually wind up hunched over a diagonal screen.

This is my skeptical take. More optimistically, I think it’s promising that companies are experimenting with text entry on touchscreens. There are huge numbers of people venturing into touchscreen text entry who don’t have lots of experience with smartphone typing, or even as much hardware keyboard typing than those of us who bang away on computers all day.

Meanwhile, frequent text entry is venturing into more and more devices — television sets, electronic readers, remote controls. If someone can create a system that’s easy to learn, relatively intuitive and reliable, there is a huge opportunity for the company that gets it right.

The 8pen [the8pen.com]

jQuery(‘#inf_widget’).load(‘http://www.wired.com/ajax/widgets/related/content/blogPost/gadgetlab_53488′);

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

I what has become an annual occurrence, the yearly leaking of new iPod cases has begun. In previous years, these have given us hints about the presence of cameras, whether correct (Nano) or not (iPod Touch). This year, things are more interesting thanks to the whole antenna-gate fiasco, and its subsequent fix via free cases from Apple.

Above we see what are likely to be the cases for a new Nano and Touch. The Touch case has a cut-out for a rear-facing camera, and we’d guess that it will also sport a front-facing camera for FaceTime calling. Notice that although it has a bumper-style colored strip around the edge, the transparent rear is curved just like the current Touch. My guess is a form-factor almost identical to the current one, only with cameras, a Retina display and the game-friendly gyroscope.

The other, smaller case is probably for a touch-screen Nano. What? Yes, I think that the small square screens that have leaked out over the last few months are not for a shuffle but for a tiny Nano. It probably won’t run anything from the App Store, but if the Nano is to get any smaller, the only way to do it is to combine the screen with the controls. The cut-out on the rear is probably for the existing video camera to peek out through.

As ever, all will be confirmed at the Apple Event next Wednesday September 1st, and I can begin my own yearly ritual of buying the new Touch and passing the old one down to the Lady for use as an alarm clock and not much else. This year the lucky thing will have a 32GB, multi-tasking monster to wake her up.

Accessories appearance early exposure iPod touch 4G leaked [SJ.91 via iLounge]

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Surveys reveal that a substantial chunk of U.S. customers plan to buy a tablet in the next year, and it’s not necessarily going to be an iPad.

Fourteen percent, or 27 million U.S. online consumers, intend to buy some kind of tablet in the next 12 months, says a Forrester research report (.pdf) published Thursday (chart below). Customers interested in purchasing a tablet aren’t primarily Apple customers, and they’re well aware of the crop of upcoming tablets from competitors such as Google and Hewlett-Packard.

Additionally, a similar study by the Magazine Publishers of America found that nearly 60 percent of U.S. consumers expect to purchase an e-reader or tablet within the next three years.

“Even though the iPad is the only widely available tablet PC on the market today, tablets have entered consumer consciousness in a very short time frame,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, a consumer product analyst at Forrester. “Theres interest in the category that goes beyond the iPad.”

Apple’s four-month-old iPad is turning in strong sales with 3.27 million units sold to date just a hair short of Macs, which sold 3.47 million unitsin the same quarter. That’s a huge accomplishment for a device less than a year old, and it delivered a shot of adrenaline to the mostly moribund tablet market. For years, scores of tablets have come and gone from manufacturers such as HP, Acer and even Apple, whose first tablet offering was the Newton. The Newton, like most other tablet devices during its time, was criticized for poor handwriting recognition and priceyness ($700 to $1,000), and was retired by 1998. In the meantime, dozens of PC manufacturers have shipped Windows-based Tablet PCs, but the category never took off outside of niche markets and enthusiasts.

Even though most of the tablet hype today surrounds the iPad, many respondents to Forrester’s survey said they were aware of other offerings on the horizon, such as the unreleased HP Slate, as well as obscure tablets like the Archos and JooJoo.The general widespread interest in the tablet category gives hope to manufacturers preparing to compete with Apple, Forrester said.

Forrester’s study also found that today’s customers tend to live with many connected devices. 69 percent of iPad buyers and 57 percent of tablet buyers also own a latest-generation game console (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii) compared with 37 percent of all U.S. online consumers.

Notably, iPad fans aren’t necessarily Apple worshippers (chart below): More iPad customers own HP computers than Macs. 39 percent of respondents who said they own or intend to buy an iPad said they own an HP computer, for example. iPad owners are also four times more likely to own a connected TV (9 percent versus 2 percent of non-iPad-owning U.S. online customers).

Apple has a head start on the new tablet market with its iPad, but competitors are just beginning to roll in. Dell recently introduced its 5-inch Streak tablet, which is getting some positive reception. And most recently, the tech sphere has been buzzing with rumors of a Google-powered tablet working on the Verizon network, possibly landing as soon as the holiday season (though we’re skeptical).

Forrester report (.pdf)

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews