hands

San Francisco-based designer Seth Quest needs help. In return, he'll help you solve what he thinks is a common problem with the iPad--how to use it hands-free.

With the successful Kickstarter funding of many iPhone and iPad accessories, Quest is hoping to get his product in the mix. Hanfree aims to solve a relatively common issue many iPad users face. Using your iPad in bed can become tiresome, having to constantly adjust how you're sitting or lying, and how you're holding the device. Quest's site says:

Update: You can find the full review of the 15-inch MacBook Pro here.

Apple's latest MacBook Pros are here, and we have both the 13- and 15-inch models at the CNET offices. The systems are currently running our benchmark tests, but here are our initial hands-on impressions after playing around with both for several hours.

MacBook Pro, 13-inch, 2.7GHz dual-core Core i7 Last year, we remarked that the popular 13-inch MacBook Pro, with its older Core 2 Duo processor, was due for an update compared with its faster 15-inch cousin. That time has come in a big way; … Read more

Sometimes it feels like we've seen every iPad case in the universe--and then, there comes a weird new design that takes iPad culture to an even deeper level. Enter the Joby Gorillamobile Ori and Yogi cases, both of which transform--in different ways--into some positions that even made us blush.

We first got wind of these around CES, but we've finally gotten both into our office to check out in more detail. Both feature the same base iPad case--a rubber-reinforced plastic shell that snugly encases itself around the iPad, and offers some modicum of shock absorption (as we discovered … Read more

I just got back from Google's Android Honeycomb demo event, and after 15 minutes of quality time with the tablet OS, I have to say: I'm a fan.

I'm angry at Google, though. What took it so long to create a killer tablet OS? Why did the company have to put me through a year of Android 1.6-2.2 tablet duds before pulling back the curtain on Honeycomb? Did it not hear my screams?

With forgiveness in my heart and a Motorola Xoom tablet in my hand, I started to let go of the anger a little today. Honeycomb, it turns out, is pretty sweet--and the Xoom is a worthy tablet to receive it.

We're already fairly versed in the features of Honeycomb on the Xoom, thanks to the flurry of CES 2011 excitement and the exhaustive detail given to developers. What we haven't had (until today) is actual hands-on time with Honeycomb running on the Xoom. … Read more

If you were following along with our live blog this morning, you know the big news: the Nintendo 3DS is coming March 27 for $250. But what about the games? A dozen or so titles were ready for some hands-on action this afternoon, and we got a chance to play the majority of them. Nintendo also showed us some of the built-in software that'll be on every 3DS, including the Mii Maker and AR Games.

The following titles will see launch-day or launch-window releases, between March 27 and E3 2011, according to Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime.

Mii Maker Miis are coming to the 3DS, and the Mii Maker app is preinstalled to allow for their creation. Better yet, the front-facing camera can be used in tandem to help make the process a bit more accurate. When we tried it out, the resulting Mii was a bit insulting, but after a few minor tweaks it actually did resemble our photo. Creating Miis from scratch is just like the Wii experience we're all used to.

AR Games AR Games (augmented reality games) will use a Nintendo playing card to manipulate the world through the 3DS' cameras. We had some time with a simple target-shooting game, and the effect is pretty impressive. Even better, the game requires the player to move around the virtual play space as well, adding a whole new dimension to the experience.

Steel Diver Once a tech demo, Steel Diver is getting the full game treatment at launch on the 3DS. Players control a submarine by using touch sliders that control height and acceleration. Torpedos can also be fired at oncoming obstacles, but the section of the game we played focused more on avoiding colliding with the ocean floor.

Kid Icarus Uprising After about 10 minutes with Kid Icarus Uprising--the very game Nintendo debuted the 3DS with at E3 2010--we're anticipating that the control scheme might be this title's biggest hurdle. We played two parts, one that felt like an on-rails shooter, the other a sort of modified third-person action segment.… Read more

After finally getting some quality hands-on time with the 3DS last week and a behind-closed-doors interview with Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime at CES 2011, we've got a healthy amount of new information to share about the 3D glasses-less portable.

The 3D effect Without a doubt, the first time you lay eyes on the 3DS it will surprise you. The 3D effect isn't exactly a "pop-out" illusion, but more of a "pop-in." The best way we've been able to describe it is that it's similar to those Magic Eye images that were so popular in the '90s. Of course, the 3DS yields a much more obvious dimensional shift. Instead of popping out at the user, the effect appears to go deeper inside the top screen of the 3DS.

The 3D effect can be adjusted using a slider, or eliminated altogether. During our time with Pilotwings, we found the 3D effect turned all the way up really increased the overall sense of flight in the game. That said, we're anticipating that each game will have a certain sweet spot for 3D intensity, though the setting remains completely preferential.… Read more

The robotic hand is getting a makeover, and it is inspired not by computing power but rather by the flexible and springy legs of tiny-brained cockroaches.

It turns out that robotic hands, which can inform the development of prosthetic ones, are rarely able to perform simple tasks that require dexterity, such as picking up a delicate object without first knocking it over.

Key to being able to grasp an object is the ability to quickly assess the relationship between that which is doing the grasping (i.e. a hand) and that which is being grasped (i.e. the Motorola Xoom).

Many mammals, humans among them, compensate for any errors in navigating this relationship by softening their fingers to make the grasp more flexible. Many artificial hands have been designed with this flexibility in mind, but the computing power required to control all the sensors and motors was so high that the hands were, by extension, quite slow.

"We took the opposite approach and tried to understand the fundamental mechanics using good mechanical design practices," says Aaron Dollar, an assistant professor of engineering at Yale, in an Inside Science News Service report. The goal was simply to engineer a hand that was able to adapt quickly to grasp a variety of shapes.… Read more

Pictures claiming to feature the upcoming Nintendo 3DS have been circulating on the Internet today.

The images, which first cropped up on a gaming forum, show a 3DS boasting an entirely black shell. That version of the device was shown off by Nintendo last year. The company has also unveiled a version of the 3DS boasting a black bezel around the top display and a blue bezel around the bottom screen.

Unlike previous versions of the device, the 3DS in the leaked images seems to indicate that Nintendo has made the device's start, home, and select buttons flush with the plastic under the handheld's display. Other than that, the device seems unchanged from earlier models shown to the press.

Video game site 3DS Buzz was first to report on the leak, which allegedly comes from a worker in one of Nintendo's factories. A video of the device was posted to YouTube earlier today and was promptly taken down from the site. Other links to the video were working at the time of this writing, however.… Read more

A recent frenzy of storage acquisitions--with 3PAR going to HP, Isilon to EMC, and now Compellent to Dell--brings storage full-circle. Your next enterprise storage purchase? Almost guaranteed to be from a leviathan.

One of the once-amazing changes in the computer business was the birth of independent storage vendors. For decades there've been a few odd after-market and third-party storage vendors. But they were mere pilot fish congregating around the truly big, important swimmers: systems vendors. When you bought storage, it generally came from the same company that made your computer. That was the natural order.

But in the 1990s, … Read more