Archive for: touchscreen

Touch Technology On A Rubik’s Cube

Remember that puzzle box from the 80’s that kept all of us guessing and some of us frustrated. No…not the one the one from Hellraiser, the other puzzle cube, the Rubik’s cube.

This color puzzle cube kept some of entertained for hours while for others it was a great projectile to throw at your siblings or at the wall, but in either case many of us have come in contact with one at some point in our lives.

Well the puzzle cube has updated itself for the 21st Century, and a whole new generation can become frustrated all over again. The new cube uses touch and sliding technology that most of us will be familiar with already or at least recognize in how we interact with Apple’s products or any other touch interface. the cube still has it’s colorful display but this time the cube is much more fragile.

Coming in at a whopping $150, I’m not quite sure if it’s something everyone will have, but for those of us into nostalgia and who want to pick one up, even if just for novelty purposes you can do so from Amazon.

The downside? Well you can’t take off the stickers and rearrange them to impress your friends. The upside? Well if you know programming, you just might be able to rearrange the colors to impress your friends.

In either case it’s a steep price to pay for frustration but for those of you that mastered the old, here’s a whole new way to master the new. If you’ve got one, seen one, or know someone who has one, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and whether you find it as fun as the original.

Crunchpad Prototype from Techcrunch

Over at Techcrunch they have released the new prototype images of their Crunchpad. So what do you think?

RIM’s New Touchscreen BlackBerry Storm: New Smartphone That Could Take Most Of The Market

There has been a lot of talk about the new BlackBerry Storm. The BlackBerry Storm is going to be the new touchscreen phone from RIM. Here at Crenk we haven’t yet had a chance to play with the new phone, but we think this could take a large share of the market.

The BlackBerry Storm is aimed to help RIM get into the touchscreen market, while at the same time help Verizon Wireless (its exclusive U.S. carrier) have a decent smartphone competitor to the Apple-AT&T iPhone.

However, as this is the first real touchscreen from RIM it is always going to have its drawbacks. Unlike the iPhone when the touchscreen is easy to use and has good sensitivity, the RIM BlackBerry Storm however is currently a little less touchy and more pushy (if that makes sense), but all the same still works.
There’s still some variables to get ironed out, like pricing. And the phone has some glaring shortcomings, like no wi-fi, no support for iTunes-DRM-encoded music and movies, and a tiny third-party app platform. But last we checked, the iPhone, for all its merits, was still just 24% of the U.S. consumer smartphone market — meaning three of four buyers were putting their money elsewhere. Bottom line: There’s plenty of room for competition, and with Verizon’s marketing dollars behind it, we think RIM’s new phone will do well.