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LG Google TV and Magic Remote Qwerty hands-on
While Samsung waits to debut its take on the Google TV platform, LG is already showing off its hardware, including a new remote control. For LG's part, it has decided to blend the QWERTY needs of a Google TV controller with its existing Magic Motion remote gesture control and scroll wheel technology. The result is a decently well balanced dual-sided remote with relatively simple controls. Because of the shape and added weight, we actually preferred this remote to the lighter original Magic Motion remote for pointing in our brief hands-on time. The scroll wheel was also a great help, and made it an improvement over the v1 Google TV remotes in pretty much every way possible. We'll need more time with the clicker to know for sure, but the Magic Remote Qwerty is probably our favorite out of the three options presented at CES (Sony, Vizio). We won't lean either way on LG's skinning of the Google TV experience just yet, although if you're a fan of the company's existing connected TV menus (we weren't so much in our review) then you'll be glad to know these are very similar. Check the gallery below for a couple more pics of the remote and the TV itself.
LG's Magic Remote enables voice control for its smart TVs
LG was quick to introduce Wii-style motion controls and pointing to its smart TV controllers, but its new Magic Remote also adds voice recognition, allowing you to enter search terms without ever contemplating the alphabet. In a radical move, it also conjures up a scroll wheel -- perhaps for no reason other than to spite Samsung's now dowdy-looking QWERTY rival. The fact that it can control your LG Cinema 3D TV without forcing you to star-jump is a happy bonus. There's a full PR after the break, although no sign yet of availability or pricing.
HP ships $50 WiFi Mobile Mouse, gives your Bluetooth radio a break
If you've been waiting oh-so-patiently for HP's $49.99 WiFi Mobile Mouse to ship, take heart -- the aforesaid critter is now ready to free up one more valuable USB port at your workstation. As mentioned before, this ain't your mum's wireless mouse, as it makes use of WiFi technology -- you know, instead of the tried-and-true Bluetooth. In other words, this bad boy doesn't require anything other than itself to connect. HP promises up to nine months of battery life, offers five programmable buttons, a four-way tilt scroll wheel and adjustable sensitivity. Just think -- you can finally choose to keep those remaining Four Loko cans chilled without resorting to an inbuilt trackpad. Reason enough to pull the trigger, yeah? %Gallery-126581%
Logitech ratchets up the competition with M325 wireless mouse
You know that pseudo-tactile feeling you get when you fondle your mouse's clicky scroll wheel, the one that satisfies your obsessive need to touch everything? Logitech wants to give you more clicks, and smoother scrolling to boot. This M325 wireless mouse's new "micro-precise" scroll wheel features 72 tiny ratchets, making our self-counted 22-ratchet mouse wheel seem downright barbaric by comparison -- not that we ever really considered the number of teeth our mice had before now. The rodent's 18-month battery life won't quite live up to your 2-year Couch Mouse, but at least they can share a Logitech Unifying Receiver. Your scroll wheel of tomorrow can be had for $40 later this month, or £30 right now for lucky folks in the UK.
VCR head gets Frankenstiened into a beefy momentum scroll wheel
We've seen a fair share of VCR hacking in our day, but this momentum scroll wheel built from an old VCR head by Instructables community member Osgeld sets a new bar for jerry-rigging dead technology. Apparently the project arose from a desire to find a 21st century-approved use for the circular part that was gathering dust after being stripped from a spare Sony VHS player. The result is a bulky, yet useful, scroll wheel that can easily be set into motion and sustained via its own inertia to keep spinning for long periods. That feature could prove useful to anyone saddled with a mountain of video editing work, or even you lazy folk just hoping to flick less while reading the web. Unfortunately, a quick glance at Osgeld's DIY tool and part lists indicate you'll need to do quite a bit more than ransack a tape player to get this job done right. But then, when do the good things in life ever come easy?
New Samsung Windows Mobile device to feature mouse pointer?
No, no, we're not just here to show off the typical blurry spy shot, this is much meatier than that, this handset -- if you believe the video, and we kinda do -- shows the user scrolling about that Samsung's interface with a pointer. Embedded in the somewhat Blackjack-esque looking device's d-pad is what seems to be a scroll wheel a-la BlackBerry Pearl. Windows Mobile devices could be so much nicer to use if this is legit and is done right. The source has no info on model number or pricing, but there's a lovely vid you can hit after the break that'll at least make you smile a bit. Go Samsung![Via PocketPCThoughts]
Avago Technologies develops hybrid, touch-sensitive controller
A Korean company called Avago Technologies has just announced a new control unit for remotes, video games, phones, and media players called the AMRS-2325. The small, touch-sensitive pad is a multi-faceted input device which allows control to vacillate between an iPod-like scroll-wheel, a game joystick, or a four-way navigational pad. The company also produces an electronic controller for the pads, called the AMRI-1000, which is an IC chip used to switch functionality between the various modes. Together, the two technologies make for a supposedly low-power solution which Avago, judging from their artist renderings, seems to think would be equally suited to an Xbox 360 controller, Logitech remote, or Zune / iPhone hybrid -- an idea which should scare the living daylights out of Apple and Microsoft fanatics alike.[Via Remote Shoppe]
Genius Traveler 515 Laser mouse rocks touch-sensitive scroll
We can't say that Genius' latest laser mouse is apt to cause any cancellation emails to start flying over those recently ordered Obsidians, but the Traveler 515 Laser does a fair job in the specs department to make up for its vanilla looks. Similar to Saitek's critter, this pointing device boasts a touch-sensitive OptoWheel scroll area, right and left click buttons, Flip 3D and Smart IE hotkeys for Vista users, Turbo Scroll for blowing past those incredibly long patent filings, an adjustable 800 / 1,600 DPI laser, and compatibility with OS X and most Windows flavors. Additionally, this device is said to play nice with both righties and southpaws alike, and while looks may not be everything, we imagine that this one will end up priced a tad lower than its dashing competitor in order to compensate in the attractivity arena.[Via EverythingUSB]
earPod creation could add auditory menus to iPod, DAPs
Rumblings about the layout and design of Apple's iPod scroll wheel in particular have been making the rounds for what seems like ages, but a new development from the Microsoft Research labs could nix the need to pull your DAP out and nearly collide with foreign objects whilst scrolling to a new tune. Aside from the glaring curiousness that stems from a Microsoft-derived project being dubbed earPod, the team has purportedly been working with scientists at the University of Toronto "on software that could make it possible to navigate the menus of gadgets that use circular touch pads with only audio cues." Essentially, touching the scroll wheel would provide audio clips to help you find your way through menus without ever seeing the screen, which would certainly prove useful on screenless DAPs. Currently, the system is quite limited in regard to the number of cues available, but here's to hoping that text-to-speech capabilities can become integrated as well so we can cycle through the thousands of artists and songs without even needing a display. [Warning: PDF read link][Via TechnologyReview]
TUAW Tip: Four Fun Scroll Wheel tips
Sure you can use your scroll wheel mouse (or track pad) to scroll up and down your OS X windows but why limit yourself? Here's a quick list of TUAW's favorite scroll wheel tricks: 1. Zoom your screen. Hold down the Control key while scrolling up on your mouse (or performing a dual-finger up drag on your trackpad). Your entire screen zooms in. Control-scroll (or drag) down to zoom out. 2. Scroll through your Apps Press and hold the Command key then press and release Tab to display your active Applications. Scroll through your applications left (scrolling up) and right (scrolling down). When an Application is selected, you can move your hand from the scroll button on your mouse to the keyboard to press "H" to hide the application or "Q" to quit it. Release the Command key to switch to the selected application. 3. Scroll horizontally. In applications with both vertical and horizontal sliders such as, say, Preview, press Shift while scrolling to scroll horizontally instead of vertically. 4. Open pages in new tabs in Safari. Instead of right-clicking a link and selecting "Open in New Tab", just scroll-button-click a link instead. If you have enabled tabbed viewing in Safari (Preferences -> Tabs -> Enable Tabbed Browsing), your link opens in a new tab. Thanks, Fritz Laurel.
UBiQUiO 503G revealed
The UBiQUiO 503G is set to bust out the gate with a fine-looking design aesthetic and sweetly spec'd hardware. This little Windows Mobile 6 device one-ups its predecessor -- the UBiQUiO 501 -- on every front making it a stellar choice for the business set. Featuring quad band GSM, triple band HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, 520 MHz CPU (doubling up on the 501), and a two megapixel camera, the 503G does indeed rock the features we love. We particularily love the one-handed use via the QWERTY keyboard and what you don't see in the pic: a scroll wheel and stylus. That's right, this little bad boy is packin' Windows Mobile 6 Professional, not Standard as the form factor suggests. We have the release date planned around about June 20th 2007 with an expected price tag of $650; no provider information at this point but we will be keeping our eyes peeled.[Thanks, Paul]
Get your mobile phone game on -- with pop-out joysticks
Talk about a concept whose time has come -- the pop-out joystick for mobile phones. From initial research, this design gets pressed in and turned to allow the 'enter' button in the middle of the d-pad to actually protrude from the handset for all those times when, you know, you need more tactile control of those J2ME or Mophun games -- hey, you might even feel like you're on a PS3 (not). Regardless, this is an extra-cool development for the mobile space. For anything more than phone menu navigation (ahem, mobile gaming), we for one hope this concept comes to light in future mobiles, because you haven't lived unless you've fragged some folks on that 2 inch screen.
Hands-on with the HTC Artemis
Ok, you know us, we're mad suckers for QWERTY equipped HTC devices. It's just kind of a fact, we love 'em. So we were stoked and all about the HTC Artemis that was due out, but it wasn't anything keeping us up at night. But then we got our hands on one last night, and it was way thinner and sleeker than we'd imagined, especially for a GPS-equipped handheld. That scroll wheel felt just like a Sansa e-series (except even more solid), and dabbed in the middle was a scroll ball a la the SideKick 3 and Pearl. It was a little overwhelming, but we can understand their need to overcompensate for input options when not equipping it with a keyboard. Oh, and do click on for some more shots.
Pantech phone with scroll wheel
The iPhone. Will they or won't they? That has been a constant topic of discussion amongst the Mac faithful for a long time. Along comes Pantech, a South Korean phone maker, who has introduced the phone to the right. What's that thing that looks like the iPod's click wheel? Why, it is Pantech's 'revolutionary touch-wheel sensor' which is not only used for the phones built in music player, but also for the phone's camera.The PG-3600V is on the market in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
