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Blue Origin's lunar lander mockup is ready for NASA simulations
Blue Origin and its “National Team” partners Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper have delivered their full scale lunar lander mock-up to NASA. The space agency will use the engineering prototype to simulate how it could get “crew, equipment, supplies and samples off and on the vehicle” in future moon missions.
iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? That is the question. Here's an answer.
Remember those days when we were all trying to get the smallest possible cell phone? If you don't, you're probably young. That all went out the window with the introduction of the iPhone and its competitors, since fairly quickly we started seeing a trend towards larger screens. Now Apple has kept the screen size growth relatively slow in the past, but the two newest iPhones have suddenly undergone a growth spurt that rivals a teenager during puberty. If you decide to go with one of Apple's new phones, how do you know if it's going to fit your hands, your pants pockets, and your lifestyle? Never fear, TUAW's here with some answers. The best way to do this is to carry around a mock iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. The folks at WonderHowTo have made a pair of exact size templates that you can download (it's a PDF file), print, and then use as your pretend play-pal iPhone 6. Almost immediately after printing out the templates, I realized just how big these new phones really are compared to the iPhone 5s I carry around now: These templates have one problem -- they're thin. So I started the search for cardboard that would approximate the thickness of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (the 6 Plus is the thickest of the two at .28 inches). Turns out that's pretty hard to do, since most of the cardboard boxes I have were 1/8-inch thick at the most. Two layers would be required. With the help of Pippin the kitten (who inadvertently lent some of his sleek black fur to the "iPhone 6"), scissors, and tape, I quickly assembled my faux phones. The only problem was that they didn't have enough heft to feel like real iPhones. For the iPhone 6 , I needed to add about 5.47 ounces. This is where a box of coins I have sitting around came in handy ... until I realized that even quarters are pretty lightweight. 23 of them and a penny made the mock iPhone 6 Plus feel pretty real. My mockup ended up weighing about 6.2 ounces (an iPhone 6 Plus is 6.07 ounces) and was a bit thicker due to the quarters taped to the back, but I figured this would give me a better feel for the weight and size of the unit anyway. Since I'm probably going to go for the iPhone 6 Plus, I decided to stop digging through my stash of quarters and didn't add weight to the iPhone 6 mockup. My verdict? I think I can put up with the weight and size of the iPhone 6 Plus. It fits the pocket of my shorts (real men don't wear pants, amirite @jgamet?) nicely. My iPhone 5s currently wears a Mophie Juice Pack Helium that brings its weight up to 6.3 ounces -- a full .23 ounces more than an iPhone 6 Plus -- so the weight isn't going to be bad. How about holding the device? To be honest, although it looks much larger, I tend to use my iPhone two-handed anyway, except for making phone calls. Did I feel like I was holding a brick up to my head with the mockup? No -- I have fairly small hands and it fit nicely, and I think that the extra length of the iPhone 6 Plus is going to end up bringing the microphone closer to the mouth for better clarity. There are a lot of other factors to consider when deciding which of these phones to get. First, the iPhone 6 Plus is $100 more in each capacity than its smaller brethren. Next, if you're considering doing a lot of photography with the new device, you might want to opt for the optical image stabilization in the 6 Plus. Finally, if you're an old guy like me and your eyes aren't the best, I think you're going to love having the biggest screen possible. To end this post, I thought it would an interesting juxtaposition to take a photo of my mockup next to my Newton MessagePad 2100 and Mophie-enhanced iPhone 5s. Now there's a device that didn't even make phone calls, and it's much thicker and heavier. In the end, what iPhone you buy (or don't buy) is all your decision, but if the size and weight of the new phones has you concerned, I think making a similar mockup will set your mind at ease. Let me know what you made a mockup and what your feelings are about the bigger size and heavier weight. The comments are below.
Would you play this mocked up Warcraft fighting game?
Let's be honest with ourselves: chances are we'd all play this Warcraft fighting game mocked up by Redditor GuardianReflex. And while this game isn't a reality, we can always hope that Blizzard will one day allow us to do to participate in an epic battle in which Varian gets to punch Sylvannas in the face (or vice versa). And if this epic, Blizzard vs. Capcom style battle isn't possible, perhaps a pet battle in which we control tiny faction leaders? But since we aren't likely to see this in actual game any time soon, GuardianReflex is making more mockups based on user requests. We have Thrall vs. Garrosh behind the cut and hope to see more soon!
Opening the Book(Book) on Twelve South: between the covers of a Mac-exclusive accessory maker
The year is 2009. In history books, it'll widely be recognized as the year that most of America -- heck, the world -- would prefer to forget. Job after job was lost, bank after bank fell, and humanity as we knew it plunged into "the worst recession since the Great Depression." It's also the year that Palm attempted a comeback with webOS, and as it turns out, the year that yet another accessory company was born. While such an occurrence may be forgettable on a macro scale, economic researchers and lovers of technology alike have reason to take notice -- and, indeed, ask questions. So, that's exactly what I did. Beyond growing a technology startup in a me-too field during the worst economy that I've personally been a part of, it's also not often that I find compelling consumer electronics companies far outside of New York City and San Francisco. Twelve South just so happens to be located in a nondescript nook in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina -- just a beautiful trip over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge from historic Charleston. Three years after its founding, the company now fittingly counts a dozen employees on its roster, and despite entering a market flooded with iAccessory after iAccessory, it has somehow managed to grab its own slice of an increasingly large niche. As with all good success stories, this particular outfit has plenty of twists, turns and run-ins with Lady Luck to tell about; for those interested in seeing how the "stay small" mantra is keeping Twelve South firmly focused on the future ahead, take a peek beyond the break.
Project Glass team member shows off mockup for glasses-wearers, says it's for 'everyone'
While Google isn't ready to answer all of the questions we have about its Project Glass concept yet, a member of the team has chimed in on one of the most common questions -- could it work even the user wears prescription glasses? Industrial designer Isabelle Olsson says the team ideally wants it to work for everyone, and posted a photo of the Glass-on-glasses mockup shown above to her Google+ page. Unless you're a Google exec this doesn't bring you any closer to going retinas-on with the heads-up display / augmented reality project yourself, but hopefully it keeps the dream alive even for the near / far sighted among us.
iPhone 4 Photoshop file available for app development
Developers -- are you in need of a really high resolution mockup of the iPhone 4/4S Retina display GUI elements to help the design of your app? Geoff Teehan and his team created a Photoshop file (.PSD) to help you mock up those apps. According to Teehan, "The file is huge, both in file size (62.7MB) and dimension (4074 x 2986). You'll need to work at 25% – 50% even on the largest screens to roughly grab elements before zooming into 100% for the actual work." Teehan mentions that as they were developing the template, they noticed that Apple had expended a lot of effort on determining how each UI element would be translated to the 640 x 960 pixel native resolution of the iPhone Retina display. "What were single pixel elements are now two or three pixels thick and effects are exaggerated to become visible," says Teehan. The file is free for the download, but Teehan asks for anyone using the file to "Pay Whatcha Like." That seems to be a fair and useful pricing scheme. [Via Macgasm]
Designer imagines the next Xbox
Designer Joseph Dumary dreamed up this interpretation of the next Xbox console, which he calls the "Xbox Prestige." It's slightly curvier than the Xbox 360 Slim, suggesting it's from the future. It also includes a built-in "KinectIn" sensor for menu navigation and to scan cards for purchased games -- buy the card, put it in front of the system, and either download it or play it streaming. Inside the hypothetical console is a 2TB hard drive for storing those games, and a tuner for live TV. It is, in general, much nicer than the real system will be.
Firefox for Honeycomb nightly builds now available for the brave beta testing few
"Boot to Gecko" this is not, but it's still a tasty morsel for the beta testing hordes. Mozilla's mobile group, which has been hard at working translating its popular browser to Android slates, appears ready to dole out the first downloads of its UI-in-progress. The team's begun reaching out to its user community, offering up nightly builds of the tablet-based Fennec and soliciting feedback testing. If you're the type to get your hands dirty coding, you can even sign-up to help the crew debug the early stage browser and speed up its official release. Feel like taking a crack at Firefox for Honeycomb? Then hit up the source below to preview the in-development goods.
New iOS multitasking concept video
Apple fan Marcos Antonio de Lima Filho has mocked up a concept video demonstrating alternate multitasking-behavior for iOS devices. Instead of the single row of recently-accessed apps, Marcos' video shows two rows of app icons, top and bottom, with a pane of "workspaces" between them. Users can swipe between app icons as they do now or between windows of running applications. Additionally, apps that aren't running can be assigned to empty "workspaces" with a drag-and-drop. The overview of each running app's open window is nice. What do you think? New Multitask Interface for iOS from Marcsheep on Vimeo.
Firefox for Honeycomb UI shown off, inching closer to a tablet near you
The Mozilla team has been quietly toiling to bring Firefox to a mid-sized screen near you. It's already a perpetual favorite on the desktop and has made a bit of a splash on Android phones, now the group has Honeycomb tablets squarely in its crosshairs. It's still very much in the early stages of development but a few UI decisions have been made, including the choice to adhere pretty strictly to Android 3.0's minimalist appearance. In landscape mode tabs will be represented as a persistent thumbnail bar on the left, but in portrait they'll revert to the top with a more familiar appearance. The tabbed Awesome from the mobile version also returns. Check out the gallery below, as well as the source for more detail and more mockups. %Gallery-132066%
LucidChart web app brings diagramming prowess, collaboration to Mac and iPad
At one point in my career, I trained business analysts in the tools and techniques of their trade. One feature of business analysis methodologies is that they use a lot of diagrams to visually represent use cases, process flows, and relationships. During those classes I talked a lot about creating and sending diagrams to others, but I never dreamed that we'd be able to collaborate on them from just about any device. That's what the LucidChart HTML5 web app brings to the picture -- amazing diagramming tools and online collaboration. A lot of the business analysts I know have refused to switch to Apple products due to a lack of one single application on the platform -- Microsoft Visio. Sure, the application can run on a virtual machine on a Mac, but a lot of these folks tell me that they don't want to run VMs. Here's some good news for those people; LucidChart lets you import Visio documents so you can wave goodbye to that anchor around your neck, and you can start doing your work on an iPad or Mac. Can you use LucidChart on an iPhone? Yes, but it's a painful experience on such a small screen. %Gallery-130173% I had a chance to try out LucidChart both on my Mac and an iPad, and I found it to be fast, full-featured, and easy to use. You can try out the web app for free, and then there are different subscription levels. An individual account with up to 5 collaborators and 100 MB of storage is US$4.95 a month or $39.95 per year. For those who want the premium features -- Microsoft Visio .vdx file import, wireframing/iPhone mockups, and revision history -- there's a professional account that costs $9.95 a month or $99.95 per year. That account is still for one user, but unlimited collaborators can work on the document and there's a full 1 GB of storage. Teams and workgroups can have team accounts that start at $25 per month ($249 per year) for multiple users, unlimited collaborators, and storage starting at 5 GB. The team accounts have all of the professional account features plus shared templates and images. Educators can also get free accounts during 2011. As this is a web app, there is no need to install software. You simply point your browser to LucidChart.com and log in. The site displays a clean interface showing documents, team, community, forums, account and referrals. The documents page (below) displays all documents that you have created and stored on the system. This is also where you can create subfolders to store project documents, import Visio files, or create new documents from scratch. Clicking or tapping the big "New Document" button displays a window showing templates for different types of categories. For instance, in the Drawings category are three different types of Venn Diagrams and in Flowcharts are templates for business, sales, and support processes. Need a powerful mind-mapping tool on your iPad? There's a Mind Map template. Creating network diagrams is a breeze with the template that is available, and TUAW readers who are busy with startups will love the org chart templates. The Software/Web templates are quite useful. There are software/web templates, UI design templates, sample ERD and data flow templates, a site map template, and a tool for creating iPhone app mockups (see below). For those who are eloquent fans of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), there are templates for activity, sequence, class and state diagrams, as well as the ever-popular UML Use Case diagram. Are you a fan of swim lanes? Got 'em. Just to get a feel for how easy or hard it is to use LucidChart on the Mac and iPad, I made a handful of charts and also created a mockup of a TUAW TV Live app (no, we're not actually doing one -- but it was a fun thing to try). What's very cool is that you can start a document on your Mac (or PC if you swing that way), then pick up your work on the iPad when you leave the office. As you'd expect, the web app is very similar on both platforms. There are a few differences in terms of location of tool palettes when you're on the iPad, and of course you're navigating around the app with finger taps instead of mouse or trackpad clicks. Once you've learned how to use the app on one platform, you know how to use it on all platforms. To share a document with others, there's a small share link at the bottom of the page on the desktop version. You can send a link to the document to your collaborators, and for others who happen to be on line, you can actually view the document and chat about it in real time. The share button is actually much more visible and easier to get to on the iPad being at the top of the screen, but there is no chat function on the tablet as far as I could see. All in all, if you're a system analyst, developer, or anyone else who needs to easily make and edit diagrams, flow charts, and other such materials, be sure to take a look at LucidChart. The individual account is very competitive with other Apple-oriented diagramming and drawing applications. For example, the very capable OmniGraffle from OmniGroup runs $99 for the regular version ($199 for OmniGraffle Professional) and doesn't include the many collaborative features of LucidChart. The LucidChart license allows you to run the app on any of your devices; you'd need to buy a license for OmniGraffle for iPad (an additional $49) to be able to work on that device. It's not all about costs, though. There are other tangible benefits, such as cloud storage of your documents and collaboration with others. The one negative with LucidChart is that it really does require an internet connection to be useful. Although I was able to use the app offline for a short while to make changes to drawings, it often locked up until the internet connection was re-established. However, for engineers or others who might need to work on documents in the field, LucidChart works very well with a 3G connection. Be sure to take a look at the gallery to see some screenshots of LucidChart in action, and if you're intrigued, sign up for a free trial.
Nintendo Wii HD / Project Cafe rumor roundup: What will E3 hold for the gaming giant?
We're a few days out from E3, that magical place where dreams are made and fanboys and girls from all walks of life are simultaneously appeased and slightly disappointed. Surprises are expected from all of the big three this year -- particularly Nintendo. How will the gaming giant top last year's 3DS debut? All signs point to the announcement of a Wii followup, which we've heard alternately referred to as the "Wii HD" and "Project Cafe." Rumors, leaks, and the occasional bit of confirmed information have been rampant in the months and weeks leading up to the event. We've weaved it all together into one handy guidebook, to make sure that we're all on the same page, come Tuesday morning. Let's start with a genuine bit of information: back in April, the company's CEO, Satoru Iwata, confirmed that Nintendo is, in fact, working on an HD followup to the Wii that is most likely due out in 2012. A few days prior to that revelation, the requisite blurry images of console concepts surfaced, detailing controllers with embedded touchscreens that display the system's 1080p gameplay via a technology called Stream Screen. These certainly weren't the first concepts of the console we've seen -- and they were apparently first brought to light by the folks at 4Chan.
Prototypes makes iPhone mockups a breeze
This is a cool one, at least for iPhone app designers. Prototypes is a Mac app that lets you take those handcrafted mockups of iPhone screens and turn them into a clickable demo you can share with any iPhone or iPod touch user. Prototypes takes just about any image format, including straight Photoshop PSD files. Once you drag them into your project, adding hotspots is as easy as clicking and dragging. Create a hotspot and then drag the link to whatever page should be loaded when it's tapped. You can assign a "back" action as well. All links can have a transition (in any direction) assigned to them. You can even add notes that display when a page is loaded and then disappear. Aside from its ease-of-use, the real beauty of Prototypes is the free web service that comes with it. When you share a mockup from within the app, you get a ptyp.es url and a PIN. Have your client, your teammates, your boss or whomever log in to ptyp.es. They'll be asked to install the web app on their home page, after which they can enter your PIN and click through your mockup. Prototypes currently only works on iPhones and iPod touches, but the developer expects to roll out iPad support in the next couple of months. At US$39.99, it's not a cheap investment, but if you deal with iPhone mockups regularly, this could be a lifesaver. The fact that you get the web service without a subscription makes the up-front price seem quite reasonable, at least to me. You can try out a pre-built prototype at the Prototypes website, and purchase it directly on the Mac App Store.
Acer W4 Windows Phone Mango handset eyes-on (video)
It'll be a little while before Windows Phone 7 Mango phones pop up in the shops, but here at Computex, Acer decided to give us a little tease with a mockup of its upcoming W4 handset. Before you get all excited, though, the hardware specs are pretty yawn-inducing: there's a 3.6-inch 800 x 480 display of unknown type, 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU, up to 8GB of storage, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, and DLNA support. Hardly anything new here, which is a surprise given that we're looking at a Mango device -- a phone to be shipped with a major WP7 refresh. Anyhow, you'll also find the usual radios like 802.11 b/g/n plus Bluetooth 2.1 here, but interestingly enough, it looks like the W4 will be coming in two SKUs: one with HSPA 850 / 1900, and one with HSPA 900 / 2100 -- obviously a potential problem for globetrotters. As for look and feel the W4's well within the comfort zone of Acer's smartphone ID, and the curved back felt nice and solid in our hands, but we shall save our final judgement for the real deal. When we hear a release date, you'll know it as soon as we do. %Gallery-124954%
MSI brings sub-$300 Enjoy 7 and Enjoy 10 Gingerbread WindPads to Computex, we go hands-on
MSI has snuck a couple of new tablets into Computex, which we've naturally dug up, dusted off, and covered in fingerprints. The WindPad Enjoy 10 is a 10-inch Android Gingerbread slate with relatively humble specs -- 1024 x 768 resolution, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, and a 27.3WHr battery -- but also a very modest asking price of $299. It comes with a 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A8 (single core) processor that's said to be able to play back 1080p video, and at least one of the dual 2 megapixel cameras should be able to record in 720p as well. Its smaller sibling, the Enjoy 7, spans 800 x 480 pixels across a 7-inch expanse and has a smaller 17.3WHr battery, but is otherwise identical. We're promised an even lower price point for this smaller tablet, with both Enjoy models expected to begin mass production in July and hit the States in earnest either that month or soon thereafter. Releases in Europe and other nations are also planned shortly after the US gets a first bite of these intriguing Gingerbread concoctions. MSI specifically pointed out to us that it preferred Android 2.3 over 3.0 for its broader compatibility and better stability. Alas, neither slate is licensed to access the Android Market, but the pre-production units we looked at had an APK installer on board and MSI promised to figure out a workaround to let you obtain apps. It wasn't terribly clear how that'd be done, but at least the company has it in mind. As to build quality, the 795g Enjoy 10 felt great in the hand, its curvy and thin body proving easy to handle. We can't really comment on the actual construction as what we were shown were early pre-production mockups designed to just give us a taste rather than the full enchilada. Weighing in at 395g, the Enjoy 7 features a similar penchant for curviness and, on a less happy note, glossiness. Both are smear magnets with a high sheen finish on the front. The metal backs are more demure, though. Check out the Enjoy 10 on video after the break. %Gallery-124828%
ASUS Padfone shown off in proper brightness ahead of launch? (Update: new mockup)
We've already seen a glimpse of ASUS' "pad or phone" duo -- likely to be named Padfone -- hanging out in their latest teaser pic, and now thanks to the folks over at Notebook Italia, we can finally gaze at their much brighter, non-silhouette form. Despite the awkward cropping, the leaked product shot above echoes the same shape and set of Android soft keys as seen previously. Upon closer inspection, though, we believe that the newly-shown silver bar is just the phone's volume rocker, rather than a potential docking port. So how do the two physically bond together, if at all? Until tomorrow's launch event, your guess is just as good as ours.Update: So here's our theory: the slide button ASUS teased in round one is probably for unlatching a cover on the back, which in turn houses the phone in a landscape docking bay underneath. We're basing this on the oddly positioned dent that could very well be an opening for the phone's camera, so the cover would either pop out on a hinge or be entirely removable. See our own rough mockup after the break.
Lego-inspired helmet concept protects your brain, reads comics so you don't have to
Love comic books, but think that reading is for dumb jerks? Jonathan Robson has your back. The Scotland-based designer has created this minifigure-inspired helmet, which will help you make it through that sequential tome while protecting your head from lightweight falling debris. The helmet has volume control and a page skipping button on the side while, on the back, there's a port for plugging in a Lego USB flash drive loaded up with audio content. The helmet is designed for kids, of course, but it should also work for tiny-headed grownups sick and tired of all of those pesky word bubbles. Another view of the concept after the break.
Probably Not the Wii 2, Part II: Innovation on a conference table
Upon seeing these clear photographs of what appear to be a physical model of the "Project Cafe" console from this "Innovation Reinvented" slide, we could react in two ways. First, the photographs could lend credence to the slide, suggesting that all of this is real and the Wii successor truly has the listed features and design. Conversely, we could conclude that someone either built or made a convincing 3D model of the device based on that slide, thinking that the hours of labor required would be worth it when someone was maybe kind of fooled. As this is the course of events that would best justify our constant cynicism, it should be no surprise that it's the one toward which we're leaning. [Thanks, David] %Poll-63038%
Supposed iPad 2 photos from China
Yesterday, the Chinese website DGtle posted photos of what they claim to be the next-generation of iPad [original Chinese post]. The photos look reasonably legitimate and depict dual cameras, larger speakers, and a thinner, more rounded design reminiscent of the latest iPod touch. Notably missing are a standard USB port, SD card slot, and integrated mini-fridge. Although the photos appear to be real, it's possible this is a prototype or knock-off and not the final product we anticipate hearing more about in a matter of minutes. And, of course, the photos tell us little about the guts of the device. Continue reading to see more photos.
iPad 2 (or something) shows up in the wilds of China
Look, not even the source of these images is absolutely certain that the device in his possession is a legitimate iPad 2, but we can't very well leave you spending your entire day anticipating Apple's new tablet launch without a potential candidate for what it might eventually look like. The above mockup has been procured over in China (where else?) and seems to tally closely with speculation we've been hearing about this hardware refresh -- namely, a slimmer profile, an almost entirely flat back, bigger speaker, and of course, rear- and front-facing cameras. We've looked into the digits on the back of the device and the model number is one for the original Apple TV while the FCC ID is for a WiFi-only iPad, but those could be mere placeholders on what is, once again, a mockup and not a real working tablet. The SIM card slot looks to have been repositioned to a slot that was once expected to house an SD card reader. Other tidbits of interest here include the 3G antenna, whose white cover is expected to be black on final units, and the sloped power button and headphone jack, bringing those witty "jumbo iPod touch" jokes to mind. Boy, those never get old. Jump past the break for a few more pics.
