Features of interest in Mac OS X Jaguar

I use a graphics tablet as my main input device so this new feature called ink grabbed my attention. The idea of handwriting recognition is not a new one, but if OS X executes this properly, I would finally have a good use for my 600$ tablet (other than drawing of course).

I don't get spam (I have my own domain), but the idea of the Mail application recognizing certain mail as spam and promptly removing it is absolutely excellent. I still think the idea of a P2P spam filter as found on www.cloudmark.com is a much more effective spam block, but Mail is on the right path... I haven't seen anything like this integrated on any mail programs yet.

Andre
 
I read something very interesting about ink somewhere on the internet. They said, ink would be great for Powerbooks/iBooks, you might use a pen (like the one from the Palms) on the trackpad to write things. This drew my attention, wouldn't it be great to use the trackpad for ink text recognition?
I don't know if this is just fiction or if it already works this way. I would find that way cool!
 
I'd rather use my tablet, much better control with the pen they provide on it. I'd love to see Microsoft do something like this for Windows but I doubt this'll be a priority for them. They're much busier patching the 100,000 holes they discovered the day after XP shipped.
 
Originally posted by Annihilatus
I'd rather use my tablet, much better control with the pen they provide on it. I'd love to see Microsoft do something like this for Windows but I doubt this'll be a priority for them. They're much busier patching the 100,000 holes they discovered the day after XP shipped.
Hey! i did actually have some SWF's With regards to Freestyle! And this had been implemented into some application, i'll try and find the SWF's they were rather interesting!

Neyo
 
of course a tablet and a pen is better, but just the idea using ink on a trackpad is interesting. I mean everyone with an iBook or Powerbook already has a trackpad, but a few people have a tablet. And you don't carry your tablet around, but you do with your iBook/Powerbook.
 
Trackpads wouldn't work. Try moving a pen around on it, nothing happens. I believe they are heat sensitive, not touch sensitive. Or maybe I'm wrong about this. I hope I am.
 
Didn't Apple get a patent on a method for using a touch pad (track pad) for handwriting recognition?

Oh, and as far as I know, the trackpads use pressure instead of heat, because you can use a coin or something like that to move the mouse. Or put your hands in ice water for a bit and then dry them and quickly use the track pad. Still works. There is probably some software in the way of using a pen on a track pad right now. It would most likely ignore pressure from something small and not close to finger sized. One would hope that this could easily be changed.
 
Trackpads wouldn't work. Try moving a pen around on it, nothing happens. I believe they are heat sensitive, not touch sensitive. Or maybe I'm wrong about this. I hope I am.

PC laptop manufactuers already have trackpads that you can write on with a stylus like a tablet.

When "Jaguar" is released, I'm sure Apple will revise their laptops to take advantage of Ink through the trackpad.
 
Originally posted by Holmes
Trackpads wouldn't work. Try moving a pen around on it, nothing happens. I believe they are heat sensitive, not touch sensitive. Or maybe I'm wrong about this. I hope I am.

I read several years ago that Apple patented their trackpad. The reason it will NEVER work with an ORDINARY pen or metal object is because Apple's trackpad is a 2D array of very tiny capacitors. The device NEEDS an electrical field to operate. Since all humans (and living things) produce an electric field, the device works. When one electric field is brought near a second electric field, both are perturbed. In this case, "sensing" a decrease in the potential across the capacitors in Apple's trackpad is how it "knows" where to position the cursor on the screen. It probably takes an average of the capacitors affected to "zero" in on the exact position.

STUPID TRACKPAD TRICKS: Want to confuse the hell out of the trackpad? Try moving the cursor with TWO fingers in opposite directions. This is fun on my PowerBook 520c, yes, the technology is THAT old! Circa ~1994 - 1995.

It would be very easy to use the current trackpad with a stylus device. It has to produce and electric field; that only requires plugging it into a USB port with a minimal draw on the power (likely a few microvolts is all that is required).

FYI: I used to work in a hospital in the Neurology Department; microvolt potentials are very easy to detect. We used EEG machines to perform Brain Death Determinations on people who stroked-out, died (Brain dead) from Jakob-Creuzfeld disease, or were brain dead from serious head trama. When the cerebral cortex dies, the brain stem can often survive with life support machines for quite some time. A Brain Death Determination establishes that there is no cerebral cortex activity. VERY very sensitive amplifiers are employed to detect any presence of electrical activity in the brain. Someone walking by the patient's room is enough to throw a false positive into the test. Therefore all personel in the room must remain absolutely motionless, no arms moving, no turning their heads from side to side (muscle contractions are a major source of artifact in these tests), etc...
 
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