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Motorola MILESTONE does what DROIDon't

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 2nd 2009 @ 7:14PM

We've already seen the MILESTONE showing off multitouch capability, something the DROID clearly lacks in the States despite the fact that Android 2.0 rocks kernel support for it -- and now we've got another smoking gun: the official spec sheet. A quick glance at Motorola's tech specs for the Euro-flavored handset lists "pinch and zoom" as an interface feature, so yeah, it looks like this'll be in the shipping firmware. There's speculation out there that Apple was somehow involved in making sure that multitouch "fell" down a flight of stairs before reaching US-bound Android devices, but really, it's anyone's guess what's going on here -- and Moto's official statement isn't helping much:

"We work very closely with our carriers and partners to deliver differentiated consumer experiences on our mobile devices. At times, similar devices come to market with different features, depending on the region, carrier preferences and consumer needs."

Nor is Google's:

"The Android 2.0 framework includes support for multi-touch. As with other platform technologies, such as the text-to-speech engine, carriers and OEMs can choose to implement it."

So let the speculation -- and the firmware hacking -- begin.

[Via Gearlog, image via mobile-review]

Tessera's OptiML Zoom gets cameraphones 3x closer without moving parts

by Darren Murph posted Apr 28th 2008 @ 4:47PM

Oh sure, those with no shame whatsoever can snag a totally sketchy LV 2008 with an attachable zoom lens, but those of us with a shred of dignity are waiting on something better. Enter Tessera Technologies, which is today announcing that its OptiML Zoom solution is available for licensing. Said innovation brings a unique lens design and specialized algorithms to replace "traditional mechanical zoom capabilities," giving equipped cameraphones 3x optical zoom capabilities in a "compact camera module without moving parts." Hailed as the industry's first non-mechanical optical zoom solution, it promises to not degrade images the way digital zoom does, and while it's eager to see handset OEMs pick up the tech and integrate it into forthcoming mobiles, we've yet to hear of any big players jumping on board.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Microsoft spinoff ZenZui's "Zooming User Interface"

by Chris Ziegler posted Mar 27th 2007 @ 9:30AM

Borne of Microsoft Research, newly-announced ZenZui is coming out of stealth mode at CTIA this week to introduce what we think is a fairly novel approach to mobile content browsing -- a concept ZenZui calls the "Zooming User Interface" (hence the "Zui" part of the name). The concept sorta has to be seen to be fully appreciated (we intend to do a full hands-on from the show floor here before too long), but essentially, ZenZui uses an array of extremely easy to browse content "tiles" that can be zoomed in and out using numeric keypad presses. The tiles themselves -- which can be anything from news, to traffic, to mini-games, to whatever -- are developed with an open API, encouraging developers large and small to get involved. They can be sent and received in a "viral" fashion from other ZenZui users, and since everyone's getting paid based on the ad revenue their tiles generate, it's a pretty happy ecosystem (theoretically, anyway). Since it's coming outta Redmond, Windows Mobile is obviously the initial target, though other platforms are in the works. Expect a beta later this year with availability directly from ZenZui and its content partners.