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 is really wild: what you see above is an example of "viral music" -- it's part of an upcoming music festival that's taking place in Sweden, and it features a circle of iPhones that are both listening to and playing a very abstract kind of "music." Each one is picking up audio from its environment, then running it through a series of software filters to make it sound more musical, and finally playing it back in a rhythm. As each iPhone is picking up the tune from the other iPhones it's playing it back through the same filters, and so on and so forth. All while the software is "judging" each "cell" of sound, to see if it's interesting or loud enough or so forth, and cells will live or die based on that criteria -- in essence, a musical organism.

Like I said, wild. That program is called the "Bacterial Orchestra -- Public Epidemic No. 1," and it sounds like the app will be available on the iPhone soon as well. Of course, you'll have to have a bunch of iPhones with the app in one place for it to work the way it's designed, but at least there's good video of it.

Unfortunately, I missed Eliss the first time around, but I won't make the same mistake this time. It's a game designed by a French and Portugese graphic designer named Steph Thirion, and it's sort of an abstract multitouch puzzler -- you can pull and push together differently colored planets all floating around in a sort of space-like environment, with some groovy synth sound effects and music cuts to back up the gameplay. The game got nominated for an IGF award, and for anyone interested in fun puzzlers (not to mention the possibilities of multitouch in gaming), it's a must-see.

I say "the first time around," because it's been on the App Store for a while now, but the game just got updated to version 1.1, and the main tweak is in the difficulty -- there are now 25 levels instead of 20, and the curve has been adjusted to make moving through the stages a little smoother. And the game got a price drop, too -- you can pick it up for a mere $3.00. As I said, definitely worth it to get a little multitouch practice in for what might be the future of gaming.

This is only slightly Mac-related but it is really cool. We've posted about two of Illusion Labs' popular iPhone games here on the site: Touchgrind is a 3D simulation of a touchboard, and Sway is a really fun little platformer-esque swingathon that has you swinging from side-to-side using the touchscreen. Both games are pretty original in how they use multitouch controls, and so when Illusion Labs got their hands on a big tabletop touchscreen, there was only one thing to do: blow the games up and play them in a big way.

You can see how it looks above -- seems like a lot of fun. And it makes you think, too -- multitouch seems to be where its at for the future of user interfaces, and the iPhone is really a breeding ground for testing out the technology and coming up with new ways to use it. It may be a long time before we all have huge multitouch screens like this in our kitches and living rooms, but considering how ubiquitous the iPhone already is (and the fact that almost anyone with some time, $100, and an idea can publish an app on the App Store), we can start seeing the kinds of applications that will live on those screens right now.

This one's impressive -- Zen Bound originally started out as Zen Bondage, a physics game/sandbox where the goal was to wrap a rope around a 3D shape or object. The game has just recently been ported to the iPhone, and in the process has actually been improved -- the graphics look sharper and the iPhone's multitouch controls really add to the tactile experience.

As a "game," it might be questionable -- it looks like there's a lot of fudging in terms of whether or not the rope has "covered" the object, and the scoring system itself is more or less tossed in as just a reason to get you to interact with the objects. But as an app, and a demonstration of the kinds of interactivity that can be exclusive to a device like the iPhone, it comes highly recommended.

Zen Bound is available on the App Store now for $4.99.

AppleInsider claims that Snow Leopard will include developer hooks that will determine a Mac's geographical location and provide additional multi-touch support for Mac laptops with glass trackpads.

While Macs don't typically come with GPS built-in, the location determination feature will work similarly to the original iPhone and iPod touch: Using triangulation between several known WiFi locations, a technique introduced by a company called Skyhook. There are tools you can purchase to take advantage of Skyhook positioning today, but Snow Leopard will give developers the option of including them in any application.

Similarly, Cory mentioned some time ago that betas of Firefox 3 already take advantage of multi-touch gestures. AppleInsider's source claims the framework has been planned for inclusion since June.

The two sets of developer hooks will bring Mac OS X closer to its sibling platform, the iPhone. MacDailyNews claims it's a union that will produce a "MacBook touch," for which prototypes they claim exist today.

[Via MacDailyNews.]

Illusion Labs is probably best known for their first app, iPint, but have been making splashes since then with interesting apps that make great use of the iPhone's features and touchscreen. I tried out their Touchgrind app, and while it was a fascinating demo of how to combine an in-game physics system with the sensitive touchscreen controls, it was a little too tough for me to use (you have to really be a skateboarder, since the app really is a fingerboard, basically).

But Sway looks much more casual, and still puts the touchscreen and tilt abilities to great use. Like Rolando, it's a cartoony, physics-based platformer, but unlike Rolando, the mechanic here isn't rolling, but swinging. You swing the little characters around, and then use the touchscreen to grab onto various parts of the environment while exploring it.

Very intriguing. Like Touchgrind, the controls might be a little too sophisticated to appeal to all players (it looks tough coordinating which hand is which and exactly when to grab and let go), but we'll have to see how it works out -- if it starts out in an accessible way, Sway might be really impressive. Illusion Labs didn't tell us a price yet (their two other paid games are $5 and $7), but the game is set to hit the App Store soon.

The lava lamp was an icon of 70s pop culture, and that same idea has made it into the 21st century, right on the iPhone. iLava [iTunes link] imitates both a lava lamp, and the demo that Jeff Han gave us at the TED conference.

The iLava application is completely multi-touch, meaning that anything you touch will have an action. Touch the lava, move it around. When you tap and hold your finger in a specific area, you'll add heat and see the lava rise. You can also stretch the lava apart, or pinch multiple pieces of lava together. Shake or tilt the iPhone to move the lamp, just as you could a real lava lamp.

If you're looking for a cool iPhone application that could bring a few minutes of enjoyment, then look no further than iLava. You can download it from the iTunes App Store for $0.99US.

Update: The developer of iLava contacted us to let us know that this application is essentially the same thing that Jeff Han used at the TED conference. Both applications use the same codebase, and was developed by Llya Rosenberg (the same name mentioned in the demo video) over the past few years.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Do you own one of those fanciful new MacBooks? You know, the ones with the cool multitouch trackpads? Do you envy Safari users that can take advantage of multi-finger scrolling, pinching and squeezing in their web browsing? If so, you might be a perfect candidate for the new Firefox 3.1b2 beta.

Since October, Mozilla has been releasing preliminary builds of Firefox that allow you to use the gestures that are common among the Safari browsers out there; however, they've added some special gestures that are unique to Firefox. Some of these 3-finger gestures include:

• Swipe Left/Right to move backward/forward through browsing history
• Swipe Up/Down to move to top/bottom of web page
• Pinch in/out to make the text larger or smaller
• Twist left/right to move between open tabs

If you want to get your hands (quite literally) on the newest beta of Firefox, then head over to the Firefox 3 beta download website. There's still no word yet on when the final release of Firefox 3.1 with touch support is expected.

Special thanks to Tom Dyas for sharing his early builds.

[via MacRumors]

With the introduction of the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros last month, Apple included several ingenious features for the multitouch trackpad. In this Mac 101, I'm going to walk you through a couple of extra-finger tricks.

Using Two Fingers

• Scroll -- If you're in a long document, or webpage, you can easily scroll through it by moving two fingers, side-by-side, up and down the trackpad. This feature works in almost any application.
  
• Rotate -- If you're in Preview.app or iPhoto, you can easily rotate a photo by rotating two fingers (like twisting off a bottle cap). This will work in only a few Apple applications, and may work with some third-party apps.
  
• Pinch Open and Close -- In Preview.app or iPhoto, you can zoom in on a photo by "pinching" the trackpad using two fingers. This is similar to the way you would zoom a photo on the iPhone.
  

Using Four Fingers

• You can launch Exposé by swiping four fingers downward on the trackpad. This will allow you to view all open windows as tiles on your screen. This is the equivalent to using fn + F9.
  
• You can view your desktop by swiping four fingers upward on the trackpad. This will allow you to see everything on your desktop, without the clutter of open windows. This is the equivalent to using fn + F11.

Other Application Uses

• While reading your email in Mail.app, try swiping three fingers up or down on the trackpad. This will allow you to move to the next / last email without clicking or using the arrow keys.
  
• While in browsing the web in Safari.app, try the two-finger "pinch" to zoom in on text. You can also use three fingers to swipe back and forth through the recent browsing history.
• If you want more cool multi-touch trackpad features, check the "Trackpad" section of System Preferences.

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.

Two big updates from our friends at Freeverse in the past few days. First off, Horde of Orcs, their extra-shiny (and funny) version of Desktop Defense, has gotten a big update to 1.1.4, and now features an in-game news system, two new maps, more helpful in-game tips, and "major performance improvements." That last note is of most interest to us -- I had a little trouble getting the game running smoothly on my mini, and can't wait to try again and see how it runs now. You can pick up the full version of the game for $24.95 over on Freeverse's site, or try out a free demo there.

And even more exciting, Freeverse has released another iPhone game: Flick Bowling brings the iPhone's touchscreen interface to one of my favorite games (after all, I did grow up in the very city that hosts the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame). With a bunch of different characters, locations, and even a choice of bowling balls to choose from, odds are that Flick Bowling is probably the best bowling game on the iPhone (though it may only one of a few, if not for long). The app is available in the App Store right now for $4.99. Once again this is a place where a demo would help us, but until Apple gets its App Store game back together, it's all or nothing. If you do decide to take the plunge, let us know how it is.

I really never got the idea of fingerboarding (though I never really got the idea of skateboarding either -- as much as I played Tony Hawk on the Playstation, the actual thing never appealed to me), but this little app is still fascinating to me, if only as a test of how precise the multitouch controls can be in 3D gaming. A company called Illusion Labs (same folks behind iPint, apparently) sent us a note about their new iPhone game, Touchgrind. As you can see above, it's all about using the two-finger multitouch to flip and switch a virtual skateboard from the top down.

Pretty interesting, even if you're not up for doing something as silly as pushing a tiny skateboard around with your fingers. It looks kind of fun, actually -- flip your finger out at a certain angle with a certain speed, and the little board responds. I'm curious to see, however, if it's an actual physics engine (which would be awesome), or if it's just responding to certain gestures and then running prerecorded flips. The game's set to come out in October. We asked Illusion Labs about a price, but they said they hadn't figured it out yet.

Update: Belkin reps have contacted us to say that the JoyPod, while a fascinating idea, is not a product they have in development. Oh well!

I guessed that we'd see a more official iPhone controller sooner or later, but I didn't think it'd be this much sooner -- Touch Arcade has unearthed this photo of a Belkin-branded game controller/case for the iPhone and iPod touch called the JoyPod. Looks pretty slick, though as Engadget points out, the ratios don't really work out -- odds are that the final product will have to be a little longer to fit the iPhone in there.

Very interesting, though -- now I'm curious to see if Apple really will support stuff like this. Supporting a third-party controller would seem to go against His Jobsness' suggestion that a multitouch screen could be used for anything (even typing on an awkward non-tactile keyboard), but clearly there's a demand, from consumers if not from devs themselves, to move game controls off the screen and onto buttons you can feel while pressing. How else will you be able to "exprimir al maximo tu iPhone o iPod touch"?

Dust off that FTIR table you've got down in the basement and fire up your internets to play with Touché, an open-source multi-touch tracking environment for Leopard. You too can have a giant iPhone-like interface in your own den.

That's right, no more calling up Perceptive Pixel with (emotional) support questions or fretting over when Surface will invade your Motel 6 with a Blue Screen of Touchy Death. Touché is free, just like a number of other apps from Georg Kaindl. Said FTIR table, however, is slightly less than free. But once you've got a table, a Mac running Leopard and some functional digits, you're ready to rock multi-touch style.

Other apps from Georg that may tickle your fancy include:

• AppUpdate, a Dashboard widget that checks for updates using MacUpdate and VersionTracker and Apple's software directory. We covered it back in 2006.
• WidgetUpdate does the same thing but for widgets (shocking, I know). We covered this back in 2005.
• VoodooPhone, a plugin for VoodooPad for viewing those notes on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Enjoy!