In case you’re not familiar with the device, a chorded keyboard has fewer keys – the user presses multiple keys at once to enter a single command or character. This not only leads to a smaller device but makes it possible to type with one hand. Entering the patterns on such a device is similar to playing chords on a piano, hence the name. This is an example of a chorded keyboard. I’m not sure if the Kee4 Keyboard also qualifies as a chorded keyboard, but it does work in a similar way.

As for Teague Labs’ app, it uses five virtual buttons which appear when the user places all five fingers on the screen. Theoretically, it addresses the three weaknesses of traditional on-screen keyboards. The buttons are large. If you can memorize the patterns for characters, then you don’t need tactile feedback. Finally, the buttons go away when you lift your fingers off of the tablet’s screen; they can also be dragged in another area of the screen. Then again they take up the whole screen while you’re typing. Here’s the app in action:

If you have an iPad or Android tablet, fire up your tablet’s browser and go to this page to try out Teague Labs’ chorded keyboard prototype. Note that the app doesn’t allow for punctuation marks – those will be included in the second set of buttons, which are still in development. It’s a nice concept but I think I’ll stick to the default keyboard on my iPad. I don’t do a lot of typing on it anyway and I’m already looking at the screen when I’m typing so I don’t need to touch type.

What I really want is for Apple to include a numpad-style button, similar to the ones available on older cellphones. Years of owning Nokia phones have burned the memory of that interface to my thumbs. Also, I’m not sure if the guys at Teague Labs are aware of this, but there are already virtual chorded keyboard apps for both the iPad and for Android tablets, although the ones I saw are designed for use with two thumbs.

[Teague Labs via Hack A Day]

The device will work for all sorts of smartphones and 7 to 10-inch tablets. The cradle can rotate 360 degrees, which will allow you to use your gadgets in portrait or landscape mode. Its hinges also move 180 degrees to give you lots of additional flexibility.

On the plus side, it will get your smartphone out of your hands, which is a good thing when you’re driving.  On the other hand, it means you might start using your Kindle, Nook, iPad, Playbook or Galaxy Tab to play games or watch movies while driving, which would probably be even more distracting than making a phone call or texting.

If you can resist using this thing for evil, or can insist that its for passenger use only, the Satechi SCH-121 sells for $29.99(USD) over at their website.

[via Ubergizmo]

That shopping site for closeouts and other deals, Woot, it at it again and today they have the 32GB HP TouchPad on sale for $219.99 (USD). The tablet is refurbished, but it comes with a 90-day warranty from HP. If you aren’t familiar with the TouchPad, the tablet has a 9.7-inch screen. It has 32GB of storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 1.3MP camera.

The Touchpad can be hacked to run Android, which is what many people have been doing with them. HP-issued updates for webOS are unlikely since the tablet is discontinued – although with webOS recently open-sourced, it might still have some sort of life going forward. If you want one, you should the tablet right now before the deal expires.

The cool part is that the 3D interface would look sort of like a room and you would be able to turn the iPhone or iPad with one hand to access what is on that wall. The idea is that the one-handed adjustment method will let you do other things with one hand and like cook or drive and still navigate the interface.

The idea is that the compass and other motion sensors inside the smartphone would know which way the device is turned and would change what you see on the screen accordingly. That sounds pretty cool; it would make changing apps a snap. The patent app also talked about performing certain motions like shaking the phone to go directly to an app. Given that Apple has thus far eschewed the 3D trend, it’ll be interesting to see if this ever comes to market, or if it’s just a patent for patent’s sake.

[via AppleInsider]

I’ll share the facts before I chime in with my two cents. Project Fiona has an Intel Core i7 CPU, a 10.1″ 1280×800 touchscreen, Dolby 7.1 surround sound, sensors in the form of an accelerometer, magnetometer and a 3-axis gyro, controllers with force-feedback, as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Despite the Wii/Move-like controllers, Project Fiona still looks mostly like a tablet, right? But don’t be fooled –  it is capable of playing full-fledged PC games and possibly even run a desktop flavor of Windows. I’m not too sure but I think it’s running Warhammer: Space Marine in the video below.

Now my cents one and two. I actually like Project Fiona more than the Razer Blade, despite the latter having a much better name. But I like Project Fiona not because it can be a great tablet for PC gamers but because it can be a great tablet for tablet gamers. PC games are (ideally) made with keyboard and mouse controls in mind. Even if Fiona had a Core i7000 CPU and its controllers had 300 buttons, what it doesn’t have is a keyboard and a mouse. The only way games will work well on Fiona is if developers ensured that they had Fiona-friendly controls, and that’s a tall order.

Sure you could dock it with a keyboard as shown in the video, but then that makes the tablet even more pointless. Among the different kinds of gamers, PC gamers are the ones who are most demanding hardware-wise. If you’re going to give them PC games to play and then offer a keyboard dock that they can only use while sitting down anyway, why would they settle for a small monitor, with tiny speakers and with an undoubtedly less powerful GPU? The only way I can see Project Fiona being attractive for traditional PC gamers is if older PC games were re-released for it, in the same way that the PSP became popular as an emulator’s dream portable.

Now as for tablet gaming, a tablet like Project Fiona – one that’s been designed from the start to have hardware buttons and joysticks – will be awesome. I honestly wish my iPad had these controllers (though they’d be much better if they were detachable).  This solution is way better than any stick-on or Bluetooth gamepad and certainly way better than virtual buttons.  The fact of the matter is that tablets are getting more powerful and tablet games are diversifying from swipe based controls to ones with more complicated schemes. But without a standard hardware controller for developers to base their controls on, tablet gaming will be stuck with the scattered and inadequate solutions that we have today.

As for Project Fiona and the Blade’s original goals? If you want to target PC gamers, I’d rather place my bet on a traditional laptop with insane battery life and competitive pricing. But that’s just me.

[via I Heart Chaos & Razer]

While the jaja doesn’t have the ultra-precise pointing capability of the recently announced iPen, it does do one thing that artists have dreamed they could do on their tablets – detect stroke pressure. Two buttons on the stylus also can be used to switch colors, erase, or other custom functions.

Created by Jon Atherton of Silicon Spark, the jaja stylus works its magic using a clever, but simple sounding trick. As you press down, high frequency sounds are emitted by the pen. The variable frequency sound – undetectable by human ears – is picked up by the tablet’s microphone, and converted into pressure information. By building this trick into the pen itself, it requires no add-ons, and the pressure conversion can be handled by algorithms in the software. It even means it’ll work with any tablet with a microphone with the proper app installed, of course.

I like how he calls it a “Zsa Zsa”. I think I’ll call it that instead.

My only concern about the concept is what if any impact background noises (like flying on an airplane or taking a train) might have on the technology, and if multiple people in the same room could even use jaja pens without causing interference. I’m also not thrilled with the design of the pen itself, as it uses one of those cumbersome clear disc tips at the end. This lets you see exactly where you’re drawing, but doesn’t exactly feel like a normal pen based on my experience with other styli built the same way. Still, the pressure sensitivity – if it works well – is more than worth the price of admission.

If you’re interested in trying out the jaja stylus for yourself, head on over to Kickstarter and pledge now. The first 500 people can get a single jaja for just $40 (retail price will be $69). The project is looking to raise $25,000 total by February 7th, and is already about 1/3rd of the way there as of this writing. They expect to ship their first batch sometime this April. Atherton also plans on releasing an SDK to development partners so more apps can leverage the technology.

I’m hoping they’ll someday get together with the iPen guys and join forces to create a single stylus which can draw with precision AND is pressure sensitive. That would be the holy grail for tablet-bound artists. There’s no techincal reason I can think of that the two ideas couldn’t be combined.

Steelie was crated by Frank Vogel and Paul Turner. The great thing about Steelie is that it allows you to easily tilt your tablet to just the right angle. It basically reminds me of one of those cook book stands. It has a magnetic socket, which attaches to the back of your tablet, and snaps easily onto the tabletop ball head stand.

You can also use the magnet to attach your tablet to any steel or other magnet-compatible surface, including many refrigerators.

They also make a smaller version for smartphones, which look like would work well for dashboards or desktop surfaces.

The Steelie magnet adheres to the back of your device with a strong adhesive pad, as does the smaller ball mount for phones. It’s unclear, though if the tabletop stand holds in place under its own weight or if it must be glued down as well. Also, you’ll want to make sure you keep the strong magnet away from credit cards and hard drives, so don’t dare try using one on an older hard-drive based media player.

The tablet version, with both the Steelie magnet and tabletop stand sells for $60(USD) while the smaller version for phones sells for $30.

[via Make:]

Each of the Kindle Fire tablets is sold at an estimated $3 loss. This is just one reason why some analysts are not smiling when they look at the end of Q4 for Amazon. In fact, one Goldman Sachs analyst is saying even with the brisk Kindle sales, Amazon won’t hit its revenue estimate for the quarter. And with each one eating into the bottom line, market fears are enough that Amazon’s stock price is seeing some volatility.

Amazon stock dropped 4% yesterday before recovering most of that loss by the close of the trading day. Overall sales for the quarter are still expected to have grown 38% over 2010, which is still pretty impressive. Amazon hopes that taking a loss on the tablet will spur sales of digital content to make up the hardware losses, which isn’t an uncommon business model for gadgets. Hopefully, this strategy will pay off in 2012 and beyond.

[via AllThingsD]

Hasbro filed the superfluous lawsuit last week, saying that the tablet’s name is too similar to its Transformers brand. It wants damages and a temporary injunction on the device, while sane and level-headed people just want Hasbro to shut up and churn out toys for the holidays.

Forget the fact that Transformers toys these days are pretty low quality and unimaginative too. I guess they would rather spend their time suing over something silly than offering a quality product, or insisting on a decent movie from their licensees. Merry Christmas from the folks at Hasbro.

I’m not really a big Transformers fan, but I think this is just stupid. What do you guys think? Is Asus really in the wrong here?

[via Geek.com]

The 70b is an upgrade to the earlier Archos 70 tablet, adding Android 3.2 Honeycomb, and increasing the RAM to 512MB. The extra RAM will allow the machine to run faster and be smoother in use and navigation of menus. It’s also supposed to have an improved capacitive touch screen, with its resolution bumped up to 1024×600 from 800×480. In addition, the CPU has been sped up from 1.0 GHz to 1.2GHz, while flash storage remains at 8GB.

Other features include accelerated 3D graphics, Wi-Fi, HDMI output and a microSD card slot for expansion. The tablet will hit stores in January. What do you think? Does this sound like a better option than the somewhat gimped Kindle Fire to you?

[Press Release]

Marvel Digital’s Soft Rubber Tip Stylus Pocket Pen doubles as a both a capacitive stylus and a pen, which is handy because when you’re not using it with your tablet or smartphone, you can write stuff on paper with it.

The main problem I’ve had with styluses is that they don’t allow you to use multi-touch gestures, which can be annoying. The capacitive ones are also not that precise either. Still, if you have use for a one, the pen/stylus combo sells for $10(USD) from Marvel Digital.

FLOTE is currently up on Kickstarter for funding. It’s basically a modern metal stand that can hold your iPad, Kindle, PlayBook, Galaxy Tab, or whatever tablet you may have. No longer will you have to tilt your head while watching a movie or reading a book; no longer will you have to support the gadget in your hands, because the FLOTE takes care of all the not-so-heavy-lifting for you.

What the FLOTE gives you is a truly hands-free tablet usage experience. That is, if you don’t mind having something that resembles a microphone stand right in the middle of your bedroom or living room.

Ready to FLOTE your tablet? Head on over to Kickstarter. A pledge of $245(USD) or more will get you an actual FLOTE stand, while lesser amounts will score you rewards including microfiber screen cloths, sweatshirts, and commemorative pieces.

[via Oh Gizmo!]

These tablets will likely be very cheap for what they offer. Coby isn’t going all out with the details at this point and has simply stated that it will be offering five different tablets and that all of them will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The tablets will be offered in 7-inch, 8-inch, 9-inch, 9.7-inch, and 10-inch versions.

They will each have similar hardware features with up to 1GB of RAM, a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, and multitouch screens with WiFi. The tablets will also have up to 32GB of storage presumably via microSD or SD cards. Pricing and availability are unknown, but that info should land at CES in about a month.

The Sleeve was officially unveiled on Facebook by Asus, and as you can see in the video, it has some angular indentations on it that are fold lines. The cover can be flipped back and folded on the lines, like origami, to make it into a stand to keep the tablet upright.

It can also be folded in a different method to prop the screen at a lower angle for typing too. The Sleeve attaches to the Transformer Prime in the same spot the keyboard accessory does, but snaps into the tablet instead of using magnets like the Smart Cover, There is no word on price or availability of the Sleeve yet.

On Best Buy’s website, the $199 Fire now ranks higher than the 16GB iPad as the top selling tablet. Look out Apple. It is a smashing success for Amazon as the tablet has been garnering praise from both buyers and (some) reviewers. After all the price is great and you get a lot for your money.

The question is: Will it stay in the lead at these and maybe other retailers and for how long? At least Amazon has some time before the iPad 3 arrives.

[via Techcrunch]

The application shows that the name will be used on different devices including smartphones and tablets. Once the Nexus launches early next month the next device will quite possibly carry this product name. The trademark in question is serial number 85480030 and it was filed on November 23, 2011.

Samsung has offered up no official comment on the name or when we might see the devices come to market using the name. What do you think we will see? My money is on a thin, quad core tablet with 4G, running Android 4.0.

[via Fusible]

The Elecom Kandenchi mouse’s unusual design is a based on the fact that all wireless mice need to be recharged. The nub on the positive end has been turned into the click button, and there’s even a scroll wheel on the side. The interesting thing is that this form factor reduces the overall size of the mouse, meaning that you can use it in more confined places. Ergonomics, on the other hand, have been thrown out the window.

After they were done with the battery mouse, they made a stand that looks like a pair of glasses. Why not? The Megane stand comes in both tablet and smartphone sizes, and when it’s not in use, it folds up like glasses do.

Unlike the eyeglasses on your face, these ones have suction cups in place of lenses, to hold your gadgets firmly in place.

There’s no word yet on pricing or availability of these quirky items, but my guess is that they won’t be that expensive – though they may be difficult to find outside of Japan.

[via designboom]

The latest cost teardown comes from iSuppli and it is of the new Kindle Fire tablet. They tallied up all the parts inside and came up with a rough cost to buy the components of $185.60, then once your add manufacturing costs and margin expenses, that brings the total cost up to $201.70. The Fire sells for $199, so they are taking a small loss for each one sold. Presumably, they can afford a small loss on each one, with the hopes that users will purchase a bunch of content at a higher margin.

You can have to keep in mind that the cost doesn’t include any of Amazon’s overhead or marketing either. Granted the Fire hasn’t needed much marketing other than some ads on Amazon and the launch event to sell very well so far.

[via AllThingsD]

While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a big screen multitouch interface, what makes this one unusual is that it uses the standard Android tablet interface. This prototype allows Ardic to showcase the tablet user experience.

I think we’d all like our handsets and tablets to grow to this size and then shrink back into our pockets and bags. While the tablet isn’t that useful for everyday users, it will make an effective presentation tool, kind of like a Microsoft Surface table. Hopefully, the Ardic giant tablet will probably be cheaper than a Surface table, because we all secretely want one.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Engadget via Make:]

It is made from waterproof fabrics and has a military spec construction. This coupled with a lifetime warranty should make it almost bomb-proof. Okay, it’s not bomb-proof, but it should keep your laptop safe from most of the elements. There are multiple compartments, urethane coated zippers, and an internal frame sheet to give the back a bit of stability. The large zippered pocket will fit most 17″ laptops, and the smaller pockets hold your other gadgets and gear.

The Fitzroy Rucksack is made in the USA and sells for $219 (USD) over at the Mission Workshop store.

[via Bless this Stuff via PicoCool]