orientation

Five productivity-boosting iPad tips

The iPad is becoming an office worker's best friend. In terms of work time saved, your iPad will likely pay for itself in a matter of months if not weeks. But like any computer, you can't realize the iPad's full potential without tweaking the machine's default settings to suit your style.

Here are five ways to squeeze a little more productivity out of your iPad.

Lock the screen orientation. The iPad was made for sharing. Handing off a laptop is clumsy, but passing someone your iPad is as natural as shaking hands. The only problem is … Read more

Luxury aboard the Orient Express' British Pullman

LONDON--It's not often you take a train, look out the window all during the journey, and see people standing alongside the tracks with cameras at the ready so they can take pictures of the carriages going by.

Not often, that is, unless you're prone to taking Venice-Simplon Orient Express trains. If you are, be prepared for an almost uncountable number of train spotters looking for a rare glimpse of one of the most luxurious and storied conveyances in modern history.

I got a chance to take one of the Venice-Simplon Orient Express journeys recently as part of Road Trip 2011, … Read more

Apple applies for photo-correcting patent

Apple applied for a patent today for technology to use a mobile device's orientation sensors to help correct common photo problems.

One claim in the patent application involves using gyroscopes, compasses, or accelerometers to determine a device's orientation, then using that data to fix problems such as a tilt that would keep a horizontal line from being level.

A related claim involves a correction to distortion that can be caused when a camera isn't held vertically--for example when a view looking up makes the parallel vertical lines of a building converge. Here, a distance measurement to the subject could be factored in, too.

A photo could be corrected either after it was taken or on the fly as it's being taken.

The application is a new twist on hardware fixes for common photography problems. Modern digital cameras can move sensors or lens elements to counteract camera shake, and cameras or comptuer software can correct optical shortcomings of lenses. Start-up Lytro even hopes focusing errors can be avoided with light-field technology that lets people focus shots after they're taken. Smile detection technology can snap a photo only when you see the whites of their teeth, and face detection helps set exposure and focus.

The iPhone 4, with a backside-illumination sensor that's more sensitive than conventional models, is highly regarded as phone cameras go, and it's highly used, too, topping Flickr's camera usage charts. No doubt Apple would like to help its customers avoid those embarrassingly tilted oceans.

Now all we need is technology to ensure camera subjects look as healthy, vivacious, and beautiful as all the people in Apple's promotional illustrations. … Read more

How to customize the function of the side switch on an iPad

Some people don't realize that the iPad's side switch can be customized, allowing them to set the switch to either lock the screen rotation or mute their iPad. This simple guide will show you how to set the behavior of the switch, and where to find a shortcut to the secondary behavior.… Read more

iOS 4.3 hitting March 11

We previewed iOS 4.3 back in January, and now the time has almost come: the latest version of Apple's iOS software will be available March 11.

What's new this time around? Well, not as much as iOS 4.2, but there are some notable upgrades--especially if you're an iPad owner.

Support for additional multifinger multitouch gestures and swipes adds four-finger fast-swapping between open apps and a one-handed way to flick the app dock up, instead of double-clicking the home button. In fact, you'll probably be using that lone physical button a whole lot less now. … Read more

Blend portrait, landscape pages in Word docs

The company I work for creates very technical reports. Many of the Microsoft Word documents I edit are loaded with complicated tables, charts, and other figures. The pages frequently switch between portrait and landscape orientation, so I have to relocate the page number and remove the other header and footer information on the landscape page and then add it back to subsequent portrait pages.

You might think a sophisticated program like Word would make it easy to reformat a single landscape page and revert to the original formatting afterward, but it isn't.

In Word 2003, the steps required to … Read more

Abu Dhabi vending machine spits out real gold

Can you spare some change, like a few hundred? I'd like to buy some gold from a vending machine.

It sounds like a tacky casino attraction, but a gold vending machine that's been set up at a hotel in Abu Dhabi is the real thing.

The five-star Emirates Palace Hotel installed the bullion ATM in its lobby as the first permanent gold vending machine in the world, according to Ex Oriente Lux, the German firm that developed it.

The Gold To Go machine sells 24-carat gold bars weighing 1, 5, and 10 grams as well as gold coins … Read more

Photos app view orientation lock: David's iPhone tip of the week

The iPhone accelerometer is, for all practical purposes, a good addition to a handheld device. However, sometimes it can be annoying, especially when trying to show off your favorite picture. The picture can flip between portrait and landscape modes over and over again as you move the phone or hand it off to a friend. The orientation change is enough to make you dizzy, but not if you use this tip.

Go to the Photos app and select a picture and while it is displayed, in either landscape or portrait mode, just tap and hold onto the picture with one … Read more

Turn your office expense reports into toilet paper

If you've ever dreamed of sticking all that paperwork on your desk where the sun don't shine, a Japanese machine can turn it all into toilet paper for you.

Appropriately named White Goat, this device designed for the office can take regular letter-size paper or shreds, including that sales report you cursed until you were blue in the face, and transform it into nearly pristine rolls of white tissue.

White Goat was developed by Oriental Co., a small shredder maker based in Kiryu City, north of Tokyo, which says it's the first product of its kind in … Read more

Next Firefox can detect computer orientation

The upcoming version 3.6 of Firefox will be able to tell if you're listing to starboard--and pass that information along to applications running in the browser.

That's because the browser will be able to detect the orientation of laptops and mobile devices equipped with accelerometers that can tell which way is down. The reason for the work: Web applications running in the browser will be able to use the information, useful for labyrinth-type games with virtual marbles rolling around boards, and any number of other gaming situations.

Mozilla evangelist Christopher Blizzard announced Firefox's coming orientation interface … Read more