Zdziarski was one of the first to successfully open up the iPhone to 3rd party development, so you have to wonder what is the real motivation here. Is it about educating and supporting law enforcement on methods of gathering information, or is it really targeted towards hackers who may or may not have a malicious agenda? [Wired Gadget Lab]

For one, if iTunes 8 indeed goes HD, the iPhone is more than ready to run its content natively—especially considering that iTunes HD clips would probably be the same as Apple TV's (which is just 720P). That means no needing to convert HD clips for the iPhone/iPod touch (or maybe even the next generation of iPod?), which would seem more like Apple's style.

And while running videos at a higher resolution than needed isn't ideal for processing or syncing times, who knows, with the right adapters, maybe the iPhone could even put this video on your HDTV.

It's tough to tell exactly how Apple would handle iTunes in HD since clips would still presumably have to work on hardware like the iPod Classic and iPod nano—both of which lack the umpf of the iPhone's 620Mhz processor (though, yes, h.264 decoders in all current iPods/the iPhone handle decoding). But if the iPhone handles HD clips, that certainly buys Apple some flexibility.

This will require two cameras, one for video chat and the other for the "hand reading," but it opens a lot of possibilities. To start with, the entire keyboard can become a gesture control pad without even having to touch the surface. In addition to that, it can be combined with actual touch technology to identify single fingers on the surface, with the possibility of assigning specific functions to them.

The system even contemplates combining all this with accelerometers and force sensors, so the touch action can generate secondary data. One example of this may be applying a deformation effect to an image or a sound effect to a music track, giving it more or less strength depending on the force you use in your action. [USPTO via Unwired View]

I'm hoping they stick with a metal backing (but less scratchy and smudgy) instead of switching to plastic like the iPhone, since cell reception isn't really an issue. [iLounge]

The album will drop via plastic disc on October 27, but Music Week implies it might hit iTunes a bit earlier. iTunes obviously already offers digital booklets for some albums, so it's possible the app will simply optimize them for the iPhone with lyrics and extra photos. But, if Apple's actually creating a whole separate app, the implementation is probably more awesome—like the Remote app doesn't exactly seem thrilling if describe it, but it's actually marvelous when you use it, especially if you're anal about your cover art.

For some, this might bring digital music another step closer to completely replacing CDs, but really, there's no substitute for that new plastic smell and cursing when you try to frantically peel the sticker off the top in pieces so you can slide it into your car's CD player for the first time. Music Week is promising more details in the dead-tree edition this week. [Music Week - Thanks Jimbo!]

Like someone pointed out before, the life of a fridge is very long, so the iPod dock would probably become obsolete down the line. I also don't see the point of having your fridge acting as your amplifier: as you can see in the video, you can connect extra speakers to it. The Wi-Fi connection and iGorenje program makes a lot more sense, as it can be expanded in the future to accommodate new appliances and functionality. Plus, it is device independent. Although you can use any device, however, the interface has clearly been optimized for the iPod touch and the iPhone, which is the handheld they were using for their demos. According to them, they have some kind of collaboration contract with Apple, so Steve or someone else in Cupertino must be a fan of the brand.

The iGorenje system works quite well. It uses the Wi-Fi network in your home to connect your web-browsing device to your oven and washing machine, and when it's released later this year you will be able to control all Gorenje appliances.

iGorenje's interface is very easy to work out. Just touch the function, select the options you want and click Start. The appliance will get the parameters, start working and give you feedback in realtime, back to your iPod. For the oven, you can start from a recipe, a wizard that allows you to set the oven according to the kind of food and weight, and a custom program, which can be easily created in iGorenje and then stored. The process is fully automatic, so if you have something that needs to be cooked first slowly, then a really high heat in the last minutes, it will handle it for you.

For the washing machine, it's exactly the same thing. This time you have different programs according to the clothes you put in, making it very easy to operate. At last, because washing machine user interface seem to be developed by sadists.

But while the whole thing seems polished and works well, do we really need this kind of sophistication in our kitchens? I may be too old school, but I like too cook in the kitchen, not by remote control. I like the idea of programming the oven in an easy way, although I will still be controlling it myself. What do you think? Is this the kind of evolution everyday home tasks need? [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

You can download the new WinPwn at this direct link, and pick up a torrent for QuicPwn Tool for Mac here.
[WinPwn and Dev Team - Thanks, Estevan and Jason]

- Revamp of entire iPod line.
- Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign (see pic below).
- iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
- iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.
- iTunes 8.0 ("it's a big update w/new features").
- All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.

In a way I kinda miss the crazier predictions even if he is more correct now—I liked hoping that at least one of his more outlandish ones was true. And he says more info—with pictures—is coming. Has Kevin finally gotten a rock solid source? [Kevin Rose]

To drive this catamaran-inspired luxury car, the driver would use a drive-by-wire steering pad and a completely customizable multi-point touch screen. Rådbrink contends that our hands are far more accurate for driving than our feet, so he's eliminated pedals. Everything is controlled via the steering wheel. "Since the car is powered by electrical motors [found in each of the four wheels]," Rådbrink says, "there is no transmission and you break intuitively by pushing the steering wheel away from your body."

The kicker is that this 14.5-ft. car is designed with lightweight materials meant to increase mileage and efficiency. How light is light? Try roughly the same weight as the diminutive SMART fortwo. "I believe that this design paradox of low weight and large presence could be the way we’ll define premium in the future," Rådbrink said. Just don't forget the futuristic airbags if this ever makes it into production. [Jon Rådbrink via DZEEN]

Chueh Lee claims that using their unusually acute sense of hearing, visually impaired individuals will be able to effectively target their photographic subject, and that placing the camera on their forehead will render the best results. It may look slightly hilarious, but bringing a previously inaccessible tools and hobbies to people who were previously denied them puts this design concept head and shoulders above most of the mockups we see floating around the tubes. Hopefully Mr. Lee can get a little backing from his pals at Samsung to see this one through. [Yanko]

At a basic level, they all perform the same function—sensing a disturbance in the force when your finger or stylus or whatever pointy object you've got touches the screen, and then extrapolating that into knowing where you're touching it and relaying that to the software. The differences lie in how each screen detects a touch.

Resistive touchscreens are the ones you've probably put your greasy fingers on more than any other kind, mostly because they're the cheapest and oldest. They're in most touchscreen cellphones, many tablets and the Nintendo DS, to name a very few.

How it works: On the bottom you've got a layer of glass, and on top of that, you've got two more: a conductive and a resistive layer. They've got a sliver of space between them. And on top of that you've got one more layer, which is the one you touch. So, when you push down on the screen, the conductive and resistive layer touch each other, which changes the electrical current running through 'em, and the device can tell from that where your finger or stylus is touching.

Good and bad: While resistive is a good deal cheaper to manufacture at the moment, one downside is that it's hard to do multitouch, because of the constraints and shortcomings of a pressure-based system. Another problem is that the multiple layers of touch technology on top of the LCD block an awful lot of light—think of how much dimmer the DS's bottom screen is than the top one.

Capacitive touchscreens are a bit fancier. They used to be really expensive, but the costs are coming down, so you're seeing them in more stuff, like this touchscreen phone from Apple you might have read about, or Dell's Latitude XT tablet.

How it works: At its most basic level, you've got a layer on top of the actual display panel that has an electrical charge running through it. Since you've got your own electrical mojo going on, when you touch the screen (presumably with your finger), it registers an electrical change. By measuring how much you're mucking up the electrical field and where the biggest disturbances are, the device can determine where you're touching it.

Good and bad: It's far easier to do multitouch with capacitive, and fewer added layers mean more light comes through for a brighter display. Still, because it's all about electrical fields interacting and conductivity and stuff, a hand with a mitten on it will have a hard time making stuff happen, and if you wanna use a stylus, you'll need a special one.

Infrared touch sensing, currently most famously used by Microsoft's Surface table, takes a slightly different approach. Because it works well with larger products, you might end up seeing this one quite a bit, especially from Microsoft.

How it works: Basically, the image on the surface is projected from underneath it, along with infrared light. Also underneath are infrared cameras that can see when the light is reflected by objects (like your fingers or cellphones or whatever), and those images are processed and translated as you move and gesture with pictures and virtual objects.

Good and bad: The good thing about this is that it uses existing technologies that come very cheap; the bad news is that the apparatus itself can be bulky, hence the need for Surface to be hidden inside a table, or at least a large globe. Also, it's sensitive to light, so flash photography or strong sunlight can throw off its game.

More, more, more!! There are some \way more advanced touchscreen technologies that aren't yet in wide use. The surface wave acoustic system uses tranducers and reflectors that detect if the ultrasonic waves being sent between them are disturbed (absorbed, actually), meaning something is touching it. Upside is that no metal crap in the panel means 100 percent brightness and awesome clarity. But apparently dust and crud can affect it, so not good for anywhere dirty.

Sharp and others have released prototype touchscreens with optical sensing tech built directly into the display. They are sensitive enough to detect your finger rubs right down to the pixel. Besides making multitouch easy, it can also double as a scanner because of the whole optical deal. Right now it's for small screens like phones—it can scale to notebook size, but not any larger. Of course, they, like infrared, can be affected by undesired light fluxuations.

Mary Lou Jepsen—the engineering honcho behind OLPC's original XO Laptop and founder of the Pixel Qi LCD development firm—told us recently she is pushing for in-cell touchscreen tech, which would make touchscreens cost the same as regular LCDs and be the same thickness, since touch sensitivity would be part of the LCD's own matrix. The issue is that it'll only work with devices specifically coded to use it; it's not a plug-and-play touchscreen like you could order online for your home DIY fake iPhone. If you're wagering that this secret sauce will help achieve the impossibly low pricetag on OLPC's next baby, the XO-2, you win a cookie.

And that's just about everything you need to know about touchscreens to get by. Resistive and capacitive are the major two to know for now, though you might start hearing a lot more about the other ones soon enough.

Something you still wanna know? Send any questions about touching, feeling or screening to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line. Top image from David Nguyen, featured in this Giz Photoshop contest.

The biggest surprise here is that the accelerometer is so precisely calibrated and tuned that it can turn out accurate results, but that's not the area in which the iPhone shines. The touch screen interface and large screen make viewing and interacting with the data much more pleasurable than on its comparatively low-tech competitor. The software is also a bit smarter than the G-Tech's, which incorrectly identified some maneuvers, resetting the lap timers at inappropriate times.

Dynolicious isn't the first example of a niche market re-purposing the iPhone's tech, but it is among the most successful. Word is that it doesn't quite stack up the the really pricey stuff, but I'm going to venture a guess that the $600 units don't play Monkey Ball. [Dynolicious]

Sony PSP: A healthy and thriving homebrew community had sprung up around Sony's PSP, with alternate, user-made firmware adding new functionality like a wider range of supported media codecs and the ability to share music. Oh, and, well, there was also that little issue of mass piracy of games. Sony issued a number of firmware upgrades—a whopping six each in 2006 and 2007—designed to curb the little thieves, but which had the unfortunate side effect of discouraging the more creative, less piratical wing of the homebrew community. Sony used the "carrot and stick" method, enticing users with marginal new functions when the real purpose of the upgrade was to stop the homebrewers. This led to users actually trying to downgrade, or move back to an earlier firmware. Sony in turn tried to make it harder to downgrade, escalating the squabble into a war with its own customers.
Degree of Evilness: High. This is a deliberate attempt to harsh PSP users' buzz.

Sony PlayStation 3: The PS3's anticipated firmware 2.40, on the other hand, was a simple disaster. The famously expensive console was due to receive a major update, adding the flashy XMB interface to the mix. Unfortunately, while the update did work for some, it bricked a lot of PS3s, producing some very upset gamers. Sony pulled the update and re-released it, repaired, as 2.41, but Sony's mucked-up firmware was the Story of the Day. Bad press, ill will and useless hulking black machines. Not a great moment for Sony.
Degree of Evilness: Low. Simple incompetence from a corporation that should know better.

Apple iPod: Back in 2004, Real cracked Apple's FairPlay code in order to allow music purchased from Rhapsody to be played on iPods. When Apple released an update blocking Rhapsody users, Real cracked it again. Apple released another block update, and so on until Real ran out of steam. We doubt there was much demand for the service at the time, but Apple's clampdown was shameless. Hell, Apple could have played Real compatibility as yet another reason to buy an iPod.
Degree of Evilness: Medium-High. In the end, it was more bratty than evil.

Apple iPhone/iPod touch: When the first iPhone/iPod touch software was jailbroken, a few updates came out under the guise of bug fixing that just happened to make unauthorized use a lot more difficult. This time around, with the 2.0 release, the setbacks were more accidental than deliberate. The new 2.0 firmware may have creaked open the floodgates for third-party applications, but it also resulted in a lot of instability. Thanks to the update, iPhones have crashed at a rate never seen before (well, outside of my last couple Windows machines, that is), the keyboard gained a frustrating lag, "backing up" takes almost as long as the Iraq occupation (zing!), and, in a total affront to common sense, THERE IS STILL NO COPY-PASTE.
Degree of Evilness: Middle. A mix of self-preservation and circumstance, with some brazen stubbornness from His Steveness thrown in.

Nintendo Wii: In Nintendo's Photo Channel 1.1 firmware update, the game maker quietly removed support for MP3 playback in their Wii console. They replaced it with support for the iPod-friendly AAC codec, a far-too-obvious hint at what we all suspected: Nintendo has been taken over by the White Devil. How else do we explain the move from that GameCube controller that was clearly designed for some moon octopus to a remote control so simple I can operate it with my genitals? What about the new and incredibly racist all-white color scheme, the minimalist design aesthetic, and the cavalier and haughty attitude toward competition? Readers, watch out, or Jobs will get you ne-AAAACK!
Degree of Evilness: Nintendo can do no wrong. (And Steve Jobs is perfect.)

Firmware updates that leave you worse off than you were before are a kick in the crotch. But what about the slow, increasingly painful wedgie of unfulfilled promises? Electronics companies often promise to deliver features in firmware updates that, for whatever reason, aren't included at the time of purchase. In the best of cases, this is frustrating: Samsung's P2, for instance, promised Bluetooth compatibility, games, skins and more upon release, but was only achieved, finally, months later. But what if, as in Samsung's Blu-Ray/HD DVD combo player, the product line dies before the promised features (Blu-Ray 2.0 compatibility) can be updated? Firmware updates should be a surprise, a freshly-wrapped hand-me-down present that makes your crappy old gadget seem somehow new again, not a license to shove an unfinished product out the door.

This is just a short list of troubling firmware updates—if you have some firmware horror stories of your own to share, be our guest. And for all of you who immediately click "YES PLEASE!" to all auto-updaters, take heed, and maybe wait 24 hours before doing the upgrade.

Sprint has a Qualcomm 7501A processor running at 528MHz with a 32MB ISM, and Verizon has a Qualcomm 7500 running at 400MHz with a 54MB ISM. Slightly faster, but less RAM internally for Sprint. On the memory side, both have 256MB ROM, but Sprint has a 256MB RAM as opposed to Verizon's 128MB. That's half the amount of RAM on Verizon. Expect slowness there. But you do get an SD expansion slot on Verizon.

On the Pro side, the relative processors and RAM are the same (Sprint gets 256MB RAM while Verizon only has 128MB), but both have a 512MB ROM. Sprint's has a motion sensor on both phones while only having an SD expansion slot on the Touch Pro. From what Phone Arena's readers say, Sprint will have a 30 day exclusive head start on the two phones starting on or around September 2. [Phone Arena - Thanks Eric!]

This indicates they're ramping down production of current models, and gearing up for fresh goods in early to mid-September, though the stretch for new notebooks might be a bit longer. Regardless of the exact timing, save yourself the trouble of kicking your own ass by holding off on buying a new iPod or notebook for the next few weeks, if only to see what's in the pipe. [Apple Insider]

The MacBook touch concept, for all its lusty goodness, is really impractical—a multi-touch screen that size will get really tiring, really fast, since it's a lot of ground to cover, and people are lazy, minimizing motion. This is why Blam has been prattering about a touchscreen trackpad for months. Artists could use it to zoom in and directly manipulate images and stuff on the screen (sorta like this). It could display system stats, do Cover Flow, or anything a secondary or touchscreen would be useful for. Or, you know, act like a regular trackpad when you want it to. This is ideal, and would be a logical way to move their multi-touch technology and notebooks forward, together.

On the other hand, the current opaque, plastic trackpads currently on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro already do multi-touch. So there's no real reason to make it glass if it's an ordinary multi-touchpad, except to revel in its own aesthetic extravagance.

For historical comparison, the original iPhone is "iPhone1,1" while the iPhone 3G is "iPhone1,2" as we found out during the 2.0 update madness, so there's definitely a case to be made. And late summer is new iPod season. What new whiz-bang features do you think would be in a whole new iPod touch? [iPhone Atlas via Mac Rumors]

As seen in the video, controlling Mario is fairly natural, though quick turns and exact jumps are difficult to execute (playing Mario with the stock controls is often worse, though). Bomberman sort of works, but in that case—and many others—the old touch control overlay is much easier. Obviously none of these games were designed with tilt control in mind, but a surprising number are at least playable. Add this to the pile of reasons we still want an active app black market. NES.app 2.3.0 with tilt control is available now in Cydia. [NES.app]

860 from the side:850 from the side:

[Press Release]

Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured multi-touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X. This is why they bought P.A. Semi. Possibly with Immersion's haptic tech. Slot-loading SuperDrive. Accelerometer. GPS. Pretty expensive to produce initially, but sold at "low" price that will reduce margins. Apple wants to move these babies. And move they will. This is some sick shit. App Store-compatible, able to run Mac apps, too. By October at the latest.

In all honesty, we may have passed this story up, but we've heard vague reports from reliable sources that Quanta is busy building a touch product for Apple. This latest information seems seems to complement what we've heard. [MacDailyNews]

UPDATE: A post over at AppleInsider might have some more light to shed on the story. At the recent earnings talk, Apple promised a product transition by the end of September with "technologies and features that others can't match" at a profit margin that no one else can approach (read: cheaper stuff). The plot thickens!