Many users and reviewers have noticed (duh) that the Motorola Droid’s camera autofocus feature isn’t working properly. It just snaps out all of a sudden. Now, all of a sudden, the problem is gone. The crazy thing is, they must’ve sneaked in a bug fix. People are getting paranoid, except that maybe there’s no bug fix at all and the camera autofocus, well… it self-healed.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case as Dan Morrill of Google explained that it’s a timestamp issue on the Motorola smartphone’s autofocus routine and the problem will be back in the next cycle of 24.5 days. That’s how it long for the Droid’d autofocus to completely heal and it will remain healed until the next 24.5 days.More about the Motorola Droid autofocus problem at the link below.

[via mobilecrunch]

Whatever you say about finger-tap input on a mobile device, no one can deny that styluses are more efficient for scribbling words. Leaked documents from Apple suggest that pen-input is forthcoming on an Apple device. Perhaps this is on the iPhone and iPod Touch, perhaps on the iPhone 4G. Even more exciting, an Apple Tablet? The document shows a patent application for “ink information” recognition for a stylus-based computer. Is hand-writing recognition imminent on the iPhone, the iPhone 4G. Or is this new patent application in preparation for the iTablet? Whatever it is, I’m glad Apple is still going forward, not just on profits and market domination but in technology,expecially in hardware.

[via engadget]

Does Jack Dorsey right a bell? Yup, he’s the man responsible for bringing Twitter to the world, and we all know how successful that is. It turns out that he’s also the one piecing the Square iPhone puzzle together which says a lot about the technical know how of the guy heading this ingenious project. Of course, Twitter is totally different from Square being that the former is a social networking platform while the latter is a bit more on the serious side as it deals with financial transactions, but who knows, he may just have another hit on his hands here.

[via engadget]

Make your precious data a priority target for casual thieves and professional armed robbers with Chinagrabber’s new knock-off 999.9 gold bar USB flash drive. While we don’t think it’s such a good idea for one’s own personal use, it should be a great gift for your favorite boss or uncle.

Here’s what Chinagrabber has to say about it:

If you are tired of looking at your old normal shaped flash drive but need large amounts of memory space for all of your data, this is the flash disk you have been looking for. Very small, made from high quality metal, with full USB 2.0 connection speed, and compatibility with most popular OS’s, this little memory gadget has it all. Get an item that is sure to stand out from your competition in your own online store or eBay storefront at an incomparable low wholesale price direct from China to you.

It’s a 4GB drive in almost real pure gold for only $19.99. I wonder why they didn’t include a built-in MP3 player and white iPod earplugs.

[via Chinagrabber]

There’s a dongle you attach to the earphone jack where you can swipe the card, and the accompanying app then requires the user to enter the amount and signature of the payee. The receipt will then be emailed to the buyer while geotagging is used in recording each transaction. It sounds really interesting, but you should be aware, though, that there’s a surcharge to the service and it’s not yet commercially available as it is still currently in its early alpha testing stage at the moment. Nonetheless, this looks like a very promising accessory for those who love using their iPhone and have a mobile business to run as well.

[via engadget]

The new multi-touch technology from Synaptics offers enough space for 10-finger touch control. The ClearPad 3000 has 8 inches of multi-touch screen space. In their demo sample, the ClearPad 3000 is usable enough for dual-player gaming mode. ClearPad 3000 right now is still too expensive to mass-produce but it won’t be too long before manufacturers can out the technology on store shelves.

Maybe we’ll see this in a Macbook Nano Touch.

[via pocket-lint]

The RK2808 is a new processor from Rockchip Electronics that is capable of supporting Android on a mobile phone. Android-ready processors seems to be in Rockchip’s immediate future.

If you’re a regular visitor of PMP Today or have owned a cheap PMP from China, you might have heard of the rockchip processor. The company behind it is threatening to develop a rockchip processors that will be capable of running Android and will retail for a lot less than the competition. They have already released such chip, the RK2808. Now, of course, no one has tested it yet but it is plainly evident that rockchip processors will be more powerful in the future. The company also promises to release an RK2808-based PMP this July or later and by October we may see an official Chinese Android phone powered by rockchip RK2808.

[source]

It sports a similar form factor to what Nokia is offering though the keyboard on the xpPhone is noticeably more crammed and has what appears to be a mini touchpad. It also boasts of a 4.8-inch 800×480 touchscreen display, 1.3-megapixel camera, an AMD processor, 1GB RAM, 64GB SSD, WiFi, and various cell radio supprt, but what truly sets this apart is that it runs on Windows XP just as its name suggests. We’re not completely sure how successful it’ll be in providing consumers with an all-in-one device, but just by looking at it alone, this might just be another case of a jack-of-all-trades device that ends up being the master of none.

No price or availability date was mentioned. However, if you’re within the vicinity of Computex, you can check xpPhone out for yourself.

[via engadget]

Which leads us to “Pink”. The new but more reliable rumor from ZDnet provides us with a tasty glimpse of the new Microsoft product, probably not ZuneHD but a smartphone running Windows Mobile 7:

• Powered by Snapdragon and Nvidia Tegra and will be based on OMAP 3
• 3.5-inch touchscreen
• WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, accelerometer, 3 MP camera and a compass (everything iPhone has and the new iPhone will have)

Engadget is saying “Pink” is software (read), which does not discount a Zune phone or a new Windows Mobile phone, but Microsoft like Ballmer had implied several times, is already on the mobile phone business via WinMo and will not a branded hardware to prove that.

Tommasco Gecchelin has virtually confirmed that a MacBook tablet is coming. There’s no mention of a MacBook Nano Touch, however but, then, we’re only really interested in the multitouch feature on a MacBook. The new design will be groundbreaking in not just the touch panel implementation on an Apple laptop but the inclusion of a screen that actually folds flat on the table. You can’t do this on current MacBooks which only go so far.

The MacTouch will weight around 1 kilo and will feature a very wantable OLED screen. OLED screens aren’t only better with wider viewing angles than current LCDs, but they are also flexible. Imagine what Apple can do with OLED. Unfortunately, since the designs are only coming out now, it’s most likely we’ll have to wait for at least another year before seeing prototypes of Tommasco Gecchelin’s MacBook Touch. [designer is a Yanko Designer and does not officially work for Apple.]

More info: The MacBook Touch will come with a magic dock. It’s netbook-size with a touchscreen keyboard that’s a continuous part of the screen. Folded completely flat, it’s a desktop screen. There’s an iPen and an interesting Magic Dock. Alsom black Macbook comes back. More photos after the break.

[9to5mac via I4U]