Technology Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Apple patents "Exciter" technology for devices, including a "cyclocomputer"

by Mike Schramm (Aug 11th, 2010)

Patently Apple has news of a new patent filed by Apple for a technology that it calls the Exciter. At present, wirelessly trading information between iPhones can be a bit of a hassle, since both phones have to find each other and then sync up. But the "Exciter" technology would simply keep an eye ...

Apple patents another haptic feedback solution

by Mike Schramm (Jun 25th, 2010)

AppleInsider reports that Apple is still bouncing around ideas for a screen that allows for haptic feedback on its iOS devices. A new patent filed this week outlines a system of screens on a device designed to not only detect touch and protect the underlying technology but also provide physical ...

TUAW's Daily App: LaDiDa

by Mike Schramm (Apr 21st, 2010)

LaDiDa is a strange little app that came out a while back. It's basically a "reverse karaoke app," in that, instead of playing music that you can sing along with, you sing, and it'll play the music back to you. The technology seems based on the same idea as Microsoft's MySong -- you hit record on ...

$1000 iPhone law exam review app sends traditional publisher running for cover

by Mike Schramm (Feb 16th, 2010)

You readers were skeptical that BarMax, the iPhone app that offered up a full law prep system for $1000, would make too big a splash in the law prep community. But apparently that's exactly what happened -- three weeks later, BarBri, one of the more traditional competitors to the new app, has made ...

Taking a Bite off the Apple

by Patty Bowers (Feb 9th, 2010)

I grew up a "PC." Literally! My father was a computer genius who worked with computers for a living. By the age of 2, I had my own system. When people say they've had a PC since they were 10 years old, they have nothing on me. My dad set its beautiful, at the time, DOS interface up with game titles ...

Apple wins two new patents including tablet proximity detector

by Mike Schramm (Jan 26th, 2010)

Expectations and excitement are at a fever pitch for the hoped-for tablet announcement, but that hasn't stopped Apple's lawyers from earning their keep. Just in the past few days, they've nailed down two more patents, one of which has to do with tablet-style technology. That's a "proximity ...

Doonesbury covers the tablet release

by Mike Schramm (Jan 26th, 2010)

Cartoonist Garry Trudeau is of course no stranger to the constant expectations and travails of being an Apple fan -- he famously skewered the Newton years and years ago in his comic strip Doonesbury. And with the Appleverse on high alert for what could finally be the "second coming" of a ...

Nearest Tube's augmented reality on the iPhone 3GS

by Mike Schramm (Jul 7th, 2009)

This (extremely loud, be careful) video has been making the rounds lately -- it's a demo of a new app called Nearest Tube that isn't quite in the App Store yet, but uses both your location information along with the iPhone's compass and video camera to show you an augmented reality picture of where ...

Japanese university tracking students via free iPhones

by Mike Schramm (Jun 1st, 2009)

If you happen to be enrolling in Aoyama Gakuin University's School of Social Informatics in Tokyo this year, make sure to stop by the admissions office to pick up your free iPhone -- the school made a deal with Softbank Corporation, the iPhone's vendor in Japan, to give the phones to 550 students ...

Stainless: Another attempt at Chrome for OS X

by Mike Schramm (Oct 2nd, 2008)

At this rate, Google won't even have to release Chrome for Mac OS X -- our devs will have done it all already themselves. We've already reported about CrossOver putting their own port of Google's web browser together just to show they could do it, and now word has come in about Stainless, another ...

Current and future gaming on the Mac

by Mike Schramm (Feb 22nd, 2008)

MacNewsWorld has a pretty good in-depth overview up about Mac gaming: where it's at and where it's headed. The basic story is that the three things that have historically held Mac gaming back behind PCs (the technology differences, the OS, and the smaller installed base) are slowly disappearing. ...

iPhone wins awards, will win a lot more before 2008

by Mike Schramm (Oct 12th, 2007)

We're getting closer and closer to the end of the year, and that means it's almost time for everyone to announce their "best tech product of the year" awards. Gadget website T3 has gotten an early start, and not surprisingly, Apple walked all over everyone else, with the iPhone grabbing tons of ...

iPhone Take Apart

by Chris Ullrich (Jun 29th, 2007)

As often happens with new and fantastic technology products with a lot of hype associated with them get released, someone immediately wants to take them apart to see what's inside. Such is the case at iFixit where they have begun the disassembly process on a new iPhone. So, if you're curious not ...

Sneak preview of Leopard at WWDC

by Jan Kabili (Apr 18th, 2006)

Are you dying for a sneak peek at Leopard, the next incarnation of OS X? If so, book a ticket for San Francisco in mid-August. Apple has announced, on its site and by email to customers, that it will offer a preview of OS X Leopard at WWDC 2006, scheduled for August 7-11. The Apple site ...

Apple and Intel thinking differently together

by David Chartier (Mar 24th, 2006)

Intel sounds excited about their relationship with Apple, as Deborah Conrad, vice president and director of Team Apple at Intel, spoke positively to a group of CNET editors yesterday about how things are going so far. Deborah was doubtful that an Intel chip would be powering the iPod anytime soon, ...