The most obvious feature in Leopard....
I've got it. A key feature in Leopard will be Pinching. That's right. Just like on the iPhone. It will be used mostly in picture and website viewing; like on the iPhone. It works only on laptops; you "pinch" on the trackpad instead of a touchscreen much like the current "2-finger scrolling". It is a great use of Res. Independence. It's almost certainly going to be there.
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I've got it. A key feature in Leopard will be Pinching. That's right. Just like on the iPhone. It will be used mostly in picture and website viewing; like on the iPhone. It works only on laptops; you "pinch" on the trackpad instead of a touchscreen much like the current "2-finger scrolling". It is a great use of Res. Independence. It's almost certainly going to be there.
Possible. They might also add the accelerated scrolling.
I've got it. A key feature in Leopard will be Pinching. That's right. Just like on the iPhone. It will be used mostly in picture and website viewing; like on the iPhone. It works only on laptops; you "pinch" on the trackpad instead of a touchscreen much like the current "2-finger scrolling". It is a great use of Res. Independence. It's almost certainly going to be there.
It's not technologically possible.
With two fingers on the track pad, it can only read out the median movement of your fingers. When doing a pinching motion, the median would obviously stay the same.
Other types of gestures are possible, but not as likely (or intuitive) as pinching or scrolling.
It's not technologically possible.
With two fingers on the track pad, it can only read out the median movement of your fingers. When doing a pinching motion, the median would obviously stay the same.
Other types of gestures are possible, but not as likely (or intuitive) as pinching or scrolling.
why not?
they can replace the trackpads with me same charge-sensitive surface that iphone uses.
If it was possible on current trackpads it would be great, but they're not going to put an extra $20 of components into each laptop so you can pinch things.
The only reason the iPhone needs pinching on the web is the screen size is too small to display all the web page at a readable size, so zooming is necessary regularly.
I understand that, and it probably won't be that present in Safari now that I look more carefully at it. However, it would probably be an added system-wide option in Universal Access, so that if someone has trouble reading small print or such, they can 'pinch' and zoom it larger. This makes more sense overall.
Like Chucker said, accelerated scrolling is likely to be a more widely present feature. the scrolling trackpad would operate much like i does now, but it would recognize 2-finger "flicking" motions, much as the iPhone's scrolling technique does. It's a natural step forward with trackpad technology.
steve talked about the secret features of Leopard that will be revealed at launch, and I think this is it. It's not because they're afraid of Microsoft copying it but because it would spill the beans on their new displays and other software lineups.
First and foremost, it would add cost to all displays the used the technology. Apple's display pricing sucks! As much as I like the Apple aesthetic, there is no way I'd pay for the current line-up. There are much better deals out there. I hope a new crop of Apple displays would make these units price/feature competitive again. Adding costly fringe technology to the displays would surely diminish Apple's ability to sell displays in the wider PC market, at a time when they need to be aggressively fighting the "Macs cost more" stereotype.
Secondly, it is not practical and only marginally useful. The handheld user's hands are already located inches from the screen. Not so with a desktop. Most users will not want to continually be reaching for the screen, when their hands are firmly planted on the keyboard & mouse. Also, in the handheld/tablet environment, the user will periodically 'clean' off the screen with a quick breath and a swipe of a shirt sleeve. People don't do this with desktop monitors...imagine the accumulated funk.
Lastly, there is no software support. To really make the most of MultiTouch (MT), wouldn't SW vendors need to tweak their apps? Sure, it would be cool to zoom or rotate a 3D model w/my fingers, but that would mean the 3D app would need to understand that my two input points (fingers) existed. AFAIK, there is no such import device out there.
Ok, so thats why I think MT will not be a "killer" 10.5 or display feature anytime soon. However, Apple could still include the tech in the OS and allow it to mature. Look at the Ink model. For years many have seen an Apple tablet as a foregone conclusion because of Ink's inclusion in the OS. That makes sense, but still no tablet. Maybe Apple will include MT as a background technology, which will be in place as the market evolves.
One thing that I know about Apple is that they are a very forward thinking company. The trend in the computer industry has been toward small and portable devices. In a few years (5?) the phone/PDA/laptop convergence will be nearly complete. When this happens, many activities that were once tied to desktops/laptops (e.g. web, email, calendar, messaging, etc) may become primarily based on the portable device. Desktop usage might be reserved for time/processor intensive tasks (i.e. "real" work). By including Ink and MT in the OS now, Apple will be firmly positioned to make the most of this market shift, because their developers will have had years of exposure to the technology.
Now...back to "real" work.