iPad Mini design to top Apple's earlier tablets, analyst says

The device could be better looking than the latest iPad and improve on how the tablet feels in consumers' hands.

Apple's new iPad will soon have a companion on store shelves, according to reports.

Apple's iPad Mini will come with a design that bests the company's current slate, according to an analyst.

"Apple did not skimp on the aesthetics of the much anticipated iPad Mini," Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said recently in a research note obtained by All Things Digital. "In fact, we believe the iPad Mini could outshine the new iPad in terms of how the device feels in a consumer's hands."

Earlier reports on Apple's iPad Mini have suggested that the tablet will come with the same design ideas as its bigger alternative, including a physical home button and thin bezel. White, however, seems to indicate that more features are coming.Although White didn't explain how the "feel" might be different, the iPad Mini is reportedly much smaller than the new iPad, making at least one differentiation somewhat obvious. Apple's current iPad comes with a 9.7-inch screen. The iPad Mini will reportedly ship with a 7.85-inch display, making the device itself much smaller.

Rumors have been swirling for months over what the iPad Mini might offer and when it might finally ship. The latest reports suggest Apple could send out invites this week to a iPad Mini event, and then actually start selling the device in a couple of weeks.

Although Apple hasn't confirmed that an iPad Mini will even launch, just about every analyst says that it is happening. And when it does, it could be a sales juggernaut. Just yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources, that Apple has placed over 10 million iPad Mini orders for the fourth quarter.

Multi-faceted "Tilt Display" moves (and tilts) with the times

            

       

The Tilt Display prototype has nine screen components that move and tilt individually to physically represent what is on screen

There are a number of different display technologies that provide the illusion of 3D images on a 2D screen. A team of researchers led by the University of Bristol has offered a new take on things by creating “Tilt Display” – a prototype screen that's split in a 3x3 configuration with the nine individual sub-screens physically moving and tilting up and down to physically represent the three dimensional content being displayed.

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The Tilt Display prototype is around half the size of a standard 10-inch tablet with the nine individual display components able to move up and down vertically and tilt along one or more axes. For example, when displaying a landscape, the displays showing the sky will stay flat, while those displaying the ground will raise and tilt to reflect the relative height of the terrain. When displaying video, the screens will move dynamically to match the changing images.

The divided display can also be used to let multiple users work separately and collaboratively on the same display. When two users are sharing the device, three sub screens on either side will tilt out towards the respective users with the three in the middle remaining blank, while in for-user configuration, each user will have two sub screens at their disposal with only the central screen going unused.

Sriram Subramanian, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the University of Bristol’s Department of Computer Science’s Interaction and Graphics group says potential applications for Tilt Displays include “collaboration, terrain modeling, 3D video that is beyond auto-stereoscopic 3D and tangible gaming.”

Research into how users would adapt to the technology found that on-screen gestures were the preferred method of interaction when the various display components were flat, but that mid-air gestures were preferred when the displays were in a non-planar configuration.

Scientists create ultra-thin, cheap, flexible, transparent graphene semiconductors

A rendering of the gallium/arsenic nanowires on the graphene substrate

Graphene, for anyone who still doesn’t know, is a material made up of a one-atom thick sheet of hexagonally-linked carbon atoms. It is very electrically-conductive, inexpensive to produce, and is simultaneously the thinnest material in existence yet also one of the strongest.Ordinarily, electronics are made with silicon semiconductors that are rigid, opaque, and about half a millimeter thick. Thanks to research being carried out at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, however, that may be about to change. Led by Dr. Helge Weman and Prof. Bjørn-Ove Fimland, a team there has developed a method of making semiconductors out of graphene. At a thickness of just one micrometer, they are flexible and transparent. Also, because they require so little raw material, they should be considerably cheaper to manufacture than their silicon counterparts.

To create the semiconductors, the Norwegian team starts by “bombing” a graphene substrate with gallium atoms, within a vacuum chamber. Those atoms stick to the graphene, and clump together with one another to form gallium droplets. On the underside of each droplet, where it meets the graphene, the gallium atoms naturally arrange themselves to match the hexagonal pattern of the graphene.

Next, arsenic molecules are also introduced to the graphene sheet, as the gallium atoms continue to rain down. Both arsenic molecules and gallium atoms are absorbed into the existing gallium droplets. Once inside a droplet, the arsenic travels to the bottom, where it combines with the gallium atoms. They form into a crystalline structure, on the bottom of the droplet.

As the process repeats itself, with countless other arsenic molecules entering the droplet and reacting with the gallium atoms on the bottom, the crystals accumulate to grow into a nanowire, with the droplet perched at the top. After just a few minutes, the hybrid finished product is ready – a graphene substrate covered with an array of one-micrometer-tall gallium/arsenic nanowires, evenly distributed in a hexagonal layout.

 “This may bring about a revolution in the production of solar cells and LED components. Windows in traditional houses could double as solar panels or a TV screen. Mobile phone screens could be wrapped around the wrist like a watch. In short, the potential is tremendous.”

A spin-off company, CrayoNano, has been established to further develop the technology. Animation of the process can be seen in the video below.

Helios transforms your iPhone into a telepresence robot

Hello Labs has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its Helios telepresence robot and app for iPhone

Telepresence robots are beginning to connect people in new ways in businesses, hospitals, and even classrooms. They're essentially webcams on wheels, serving as simple avatars that allow you to chat and explore another place. Now inexpensive versions that connect with your smartphone are beginning to appear for use at home.

The latest of these comes from Hello Labs, a start-up led by Tian Long Wang (who has earned degrees at both Cambridge and Princeton) that has created Helios – a simple, US$120 telepresence robot designed specifically for the home that uses iPhone 4, 4S, 5. The company just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its development, where early adopters can buy in for as little as US$99 (with the first units shipping in February 2013).

Set up seems fairly idiot-proof. All you have to do is turn on the app, plop your iPhone into the Helios attachment, and the person on the other end of the line (via a web browser) can take control of the robot. The remote user's inputs are sent with their video feed as black and white markers along the bottom edge of the screen, which the Helios's sensors interpret as commands. This handy little trick means the Helios doesn't need to physically connect with your iPhone at all.

In August, a similar attachment for Android phones called Botiful was successfully Kickstarted. Created by California-based inventor Claire Delaunay, it connects people via Skype and will retail for around $299. Besides the higher price, the Botiful does require a physical connection to your phone, and it is Android-only. Their Kickstarter campaign fell just shy of adding iPhone support, but with more funding she still intends to add it.

Critics: Apple's Maps App Misses the Landmar

Apple's first try at producing a maps app in-house is meeting with sharp criticism from users, who are finding fault with its functionality and errors in the data underlying its results. However, "The UI on Apple Maps is nicer than Google's. They've done a nice job visually and with the overall user experience," said Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling.

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 6, is barely out of the starting gate, but complaints have begun to pile up about its maps app.

This is the first version of the operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod that doesn't use data from Google for its maps app. Instead, it uses an Apple app that's plugged into a variety of data sources, which are delivering, at best, checkered results.
For example, the app identified Airfield Park in South Dublin, Ireland, as an airfield. It's actually a 35-acre farm.
Shakespeare's home town, Stratford-upon-Avon also appears to be missing from the app.
The Senkaku, or Diaoyu, islands, whose ownership is hotly disputed by China and Japan, are displayed twice in the map app.
The Falkland Islands appear in

Local Search Wrecked

"Local search is destroyed," Josh Carr, founder of Rocky Mountain Mac Repair, told MacNewsWorld. "It's no longer what it used to be."
"If you search for coffee, you won't find a single Starbucks," he said.
Another irksome aspect of the app for Carr is the absence of trip directions in the app. "You have to do turn-by-turn," he explained. "There's no way to see a list of directions like in iOS 5. I find that frustrating."
While Apple prides itself on the quality of the user experience of its products, that doesn't seem to be the case with the map app, Carr maintained. "They never tried to improve the user experience with this," he said. "Their whole goal is to remove Google from the equation."
"It's Apple trying to distance themselves from their competitor," he added. "Quite honestly, it's bad news for everybody because their database of records is severely lacking."
Apple did not respond to our request to comment on this story.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

While acknowledging that the data behind the new map app isn't as strong as its predecessor's, Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling asserts that the user interface is better.
"The UI on Apple Maps is nicer than Google's," he told MacNewsWorld. "They've done a nice job visually and with the overall user experience."
"It's the underlying data that's really the issue," he continued. "It seems like the quality of that is weaker than what Apple had with Google."
"Ultimately, the quality of the data has to be improved," he added. "That may require Apple to go in and find alternative sources."
On the other hand, because Apple is under such intense scrutiny by the media, any missteps it makes can be magnified out of proportion. "There may be some very egregious high profile omissions or screwups that are getting a lot of attention so they exaggerate the problem," Sterling reasoned.

Apple Maps Alternative

iPhone users who miss Google Maps have alternatives. They can access maps through the Google+ app for iOS, as well as accessing Google Maps through Apple's browser, Safari.
Neither of those alternatives, though, are likely to be widely embraced by iOS users. "I'd guess that 90 percent of the people would never use Google Maps through Safari," Carr opined. "Ninety percent of the people who are going to be using a map application on the iPhone are going to use Apple's stock application. They just don't know any better."
However, it is believed widely that Google will introduce its own map app for iOS 6.0, as it introduced a YouTube app when Apple dropped its support of the video sharing service. Google did not respond to our request for comment on its future plans for an iOS map app.
"We are going to see a Google Maps app," Sterling contended. "I don't have confirmation of that from the company but looking to the YouTube example as an analogy and the importance of the iPhone as a platform, I think we're going to see that."
In the meantime, Apple will deal with the problems of its own map app, he continued. "This is a black eye for it," he said, "but I don't think it's going to stop anyone inclined to buying an iPhone from buying one."

The evolution of Mark Zuckerberg as a leader

The Facebook CEO transformed into an articulate leader this week, one who has the potential to take the social-networking giant to the next level.

Mark Zuckerberg aced his interview at TechCrunch Disrupt.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

With Facebook's stock price crashing and employee morale sinking, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stepped up and delivered a home run he would never have been able to hit even just a year ago.

As you may know, Zuckerberg has been under fire the last few months for Facebook's plummeting stock price. A darling of Wall Street before its IPO, Facebook fell to half its IPO price in just a few months. As a result, a growing chorus of critics have called for new leadership at Facebook. Some have even called for Zuckerberg himself to resign.

Zuckerberg finally answered his critics this week, though, at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. During a wide-ranging interview with CrunchFund's Michael Arrington, Zuckerberg addressed everything from the company's plummeting stock price to its plans for mobile. I won't go through everything Zuckerberg discussed, but almost every part of the business was talked about. Arrington asked a lot of tough but fair questions.

By all accounts, Zuckerberg did a spectacular job. As a result, shares of Facebook have surgedby 13 percent since Tuesday night, from $19.42 to $22 per share. While it's still nowhere near $38 per share (Facebook's IPO price), it's a clear step in the right direction.

Zuckerberg was able to simultaneously rally the Facebook troops and Wall Street with just his words. This is something he would never have been able to do even just a year ago. He wasn't born with Steve Jobs' onstage charm -- instead, he had to work up to the comfort level he exuded on stage at Disrupt.

We're witnessing a new chapter in Zuckerberg's maturation. He was once a hacker who had to become a CEO. Now he's a CEO who's transforming into an articulate leader -- the type a public company with sky-high expectations needs.