O2 - Have more stock. False alarm. Apologies
O2 has reportedly told Register Hardware that it’s currently in the process of replenishing stocks of the 16GB iPhone to be sold online, but that its retail stores still have the model in stock. O2's website is again reflecting stock of the 16GB model.
So why the graphic? Red herring perhaps.
Interesting
Must have missed this the first time -
Apple TV becomes gaming console? This is what I've been looking for. It ain't Zcam yet... But it's a start. Build a IR on the iPhone perhaps, and boom, games on your TV?
Apple in a new patent filing reveals that it is conducting research on a 3D remote control system for its Apple TV set-top box that would mimic the functionality of the Nintendo Wii controller and also deliver some features akin to its multi-touch technology.
In the November 2006 filing, published for the first time this week, the Cupertino-based electronics maker notes that the three-dimensional remote control systems can detect an absolute location to which a remote control is pointing in first and second orthogonal axes (e.g., the x- and y-axes) and an absolute position of the remote control in a third orthogonal axis (e.g., the z-axis).
So - if the controller also had accelerometers in.... It could then give absolute position detection with relative motion, indicate changes in the position of the remote control in all 3 axes.
"[The] remote control system also can include optional console . Console can have controller that can perform some or all of the processing described for controller," the filing states in an obvious reference to Apple TV. "Console also can have one or more connectors to which accessories can be coupled. Accessories can include cables and/or, game cartridges, portable memory devices (e.g., memory cards, external hard drives, etc.), adapters for interfacing with another electronic device (e.g., computers, camcorders, cameras, media players, etc.), or combinations thereof."
It adds that, "the absolute x- and y-positions of [the] remote control can be used, for example, in video games to position a user's character or to otherwise track the movement of the remote control in a user's environment."
In addition, Apple notes, the remote control can also "zoom into and out of an image or a portion thereof based on the absolute position of the remote control in the third axis." Such functionality would appear to go hand in hand with the photo and video browser components of Apple TV, mimicking one aspect of its multi-touch present on the iPhone, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro.
So Apple TV might get gaming? (And the Apps store could then hit the Apple TV, and have games on it if the Apple TV could interact with a 3G iPhone)
Last February, Greg Canessa of PopCap games singled out Apple TV as a platform he expects to embrace casual gaming over the next five years, and suggested that work was already in progress at his studio to deliver games for the device.
Would be an interesting twist to the Apple TV. Also it'll be interesting to see if anything more on whether Europe is finally getting licencing sorted out for Apple TV VOD etc. (If it isn't working with iPhones, could it be akin to an Apple remote, or have that function also?)
Also:
iTunes already has code in for games since 7.1 (We're at 7.6, and WWDC will Definitely bring us to either iTunes 8 or 7.7
Imagine if Apple went one further, and was the first platform to bring in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
You remember that headset patent? perhaps there's one for a patent on the IR headset?
http://www.slashgear.com/wii-hack-creates-3d-virtual-reality-head-tracking-system-099545.php
Carnegie Mellon University’s
Johnny Chung Lee (He's done TED too to my knowledge)
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyvIlKSA0BA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyvIlKSA0BA
The laptops could integrate the IR sensors/lights like the webcam.
Is this blue sky thinking? What was that rumor about updating the accelerometers?
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/09/3g-iphone-pricing-to-remain-at-399-499-launch-at-wwdc/
They could bake the coding into the SDK - (I don't want to step too close to the NDA, but the accelerometers are precise and can give a very high frequency of output data).
Why would an insider mention Accelerometer tweaks? (Increased sensitivity?)
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36865/145/
It opens up fine grain gestures, fine grain usage as a UI (gaming, general)
Macrumors thread is now
here.
Beyond this
This could effectively become multi-touch at a distance. Zcam style. The iGlove - for all your Mission impossible type needs...
Engelbart would presumably love this - it might not have a chord keyboard, but if Apple could pull it off it'd be a great UI win. Maybe not down the line, but there is slow progression not so much away from keyboard and mouse exclusively, but towards complementing them with multitouch gestures. pointing, stretching, skewing, pinching, tossing away, swiping and the like. All you need would be to redesign the screens, and you're ready. How long have the ACD's not refreshed? hehe. If it was contained within the normal shape of the ACD / laptop screen, you could always not use it and turn off the function. (Plus, for desktops, it'd tie in Mac Pros to newfangled 3D positioning screens ACDs. Could Johnny hack this to whiteboards?
Edit: Does that explain the "extra" sensor from previous rumours?
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/1...ltitouch-gesturing-control-panel-in-mac-os-x/
Is this - coming to iPhone too.?
Heck - CNN's got a Perspective Pixel screen
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/08/jeff-hans-multitouch-screen-hits-mainstream/
Endgadget:
Apple patents out-there stuff all the time that never sees the light of day, and we're sure Nintendo wouldn't be all friendly about Apple turning the Apple TV into a Wii-killer. But hey, let's not let facts get in the way of unadulterated magnificence.
