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Giant iPhone video is cool, but quite fake


This video is making the rounds lately -- on first glance, it looks someone running the iPhone OS on a Mac Pro with a 24" multitouch monitor. As you can see, everything more or less works as you'd expect, and therein lies the rub: anyone who's looked at it with a critical eye, including our friend and former TUAW-er CK Sample III, has pronounced it fake. I'd have to agree -- besides the fact that it comes from a visual effects house, the picture flipping at about :56 is a little bit off. How'd they do it? It's most likely just a movie running on a screen, with a guy pretending to control it. But even so, it's a compelling idea -- if you could find a multitouch monitor that worked like that and ran the iPhone OS with it, wouldn't it work exactly that way anyway?

I've actually brought up this idea before -- there is a ton of software running on the iPhone currently, and some of it is even better than the equivalent versions on the Mac. It would be extremely useful to port the iPhone's OS (and all of its software in the App Store) to another form, whether that be on your TV (I originally suggested a Wii-like interface) or on a multitouch input like this desktop. Apple has sunk a lot of work and design thought into this OS -- they may never do it, but it seems like it would be a terrific decision to bring some of that successful R&D back on to the TV or the desktop.

This video is making the rounds lately -- on first glance, it looks someone running the iPhone OS on a Mac Pro with a 24" multitouch...
 

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Future technology guy

This is amazing Future technology. If only apple came out with this during their last conference

June 18 2009 at 1:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DarkPrince

Is it just me or did no one notice that he's using the chameleon bootloader at startup you can clearly see OS X, Linux and the iphone os which he selects. If the monitor is indeed, like many have speculated, with tilt and switch then why does the os selection screen appear sideways? Also the usb cable that runs from the front of the mac pro to the screen, is that outputting the display to the screen or is for the hidden multitouch interface, is it possible that the monitor isnt a stock dell maybe its modded

June 17 2009 at 7:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shunnabunich

I'd never use the kind of thing proposed here on a desktop, because I'd get Gorilla Arm. A tablet that I could easily rest in a comfortable position, though, absolutely.

June 16 2009 at 7:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kevinheylen81

A 24" touchscreen does exist, even with the portait or landscape mode. But not with multitouch.

This is a movie and the guy has studied it very well to act like he's controlling it.

June 16 2009 at 2:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to kevinheylen81's comment
jhogan

It could be a movie, but more likely an iPhone hooked up to the via a video out setup and someone is controlling the iPhone off-screen.

June 16 2009 at 3:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dallasward007

If someone could get the iPhone OS to run on a MacPro, what would prevent such an enterprising individual from hooking up an accelerometer to the back of a touch screen?

The tilt thing does less to make me think this is fake than the multi-touch screen.

June 16 2009 at 2:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to dallasward007's comment
jhogan

You cannot just "hook-up" an accelerometer or "tilt-switch" to a monitor. One would have to reprogram the existing board and make it interact with the new hardware, not a simple task.

June 16 2009 at 3:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew Harwood

and for some reason i have a hard time thinking it was a movie because I have a hard time thinking that this man timed things so perfectly to make it look real. But then again maybe he has the time to spend hours perfecting his timing to make it look like he is touching the screen and tilting.

One thing to think about is the fact that he also has the MAC login screen included as if the account he logs into is a iphone OS.

June 16 2009 at 1:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew Harwood

as much as I have a hard time believing that a monitor supports touch and tilt like this one, i want to believe it. If there is a monitor that supports touch like this one and is that thin with such an amazing DPI, I want one.

June 16 2009 at 1:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joel

Thanks for clearing that up, however, I have seen a few monitors with tilt-switches (the accelerometer's younger brother). Less advanced, but does the almost same things.

June 16 2009 at 1:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joel

The thing that sticks out for me is how on my 3.5" iPod screen images get downscaled, sometimes too much. I find it hard to believe that on a screen, capable of 1920x1200 px, the JPEGS are not pixelated. I have no idea about the built in OS icons, but I presume they are small JPEGS not vectors as well...

June 16 2009 at 1:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
5 replies to Joel's comment
jhogan

Ummm....I have never seen a touch screen of that size with a built-in accelerometer, but I am sure this is real.

June 16 2009 at 12:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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