So what is multi-touch?

Ryan Block of engadget is telling us that Dell is admitting their new XT Tablet PC will not have multi-touch for a while.  The new Dell is certainly capable of registering multiple finger touches at the same time since it uses the same capacitive digitizer technology that Apple uses in the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Ryan is wondering what Michael Dell meant way back when in his statement that the XT would have multi-touch yet it wasn't mentioned in the product launch yesterday

This question got me thinking about the term multi-touch and what it really means.  The first Tablet PCs with dual digitizers, active and resistive, were termed multi-touch devices long before the iPhone was a gleam in Steve Jobs' eyes.  The term was used to demonstrate that these devices had two digitizers, not that you could manipulative multiple items at the same time with touch.  I believe that Lenovo even called their dual-digitizer Tablet option the MultiTouch option.  This too was long before the iPhone was launched.

Then Apple launched the iPhone with "multi-touch", the ability to touch the screen in more than one place at the same time and do things.  Since then multi-touch has come to be interpreted by almost everyone as that technology from Apple which uses the capacitive digitizer.  I wonder if MIchael Dell got bit by Apple taking over the term definition and now Dell must scramble to get that working on the new XT Tablet.  I'm not sure how useful that technology will be on a 12-inch screen anyway.

Comments

[Ayrkain]

I'm sure they can implement the feature, but how many things will it be useful for without an OS designed for multi-touch?

[Cody B]

I'm guessing its an OS issue. The hardware works. Capacitive digitizers are a proven technology. The iPhone has an OS just for the device.

[Oliver]

I saw a demo of the tablet by Michael Dell and CTO Kevin Kettler at Oracle Openworld about a month ago. They showed how Multitouch works. It's basically the iPhone style of touching the screen on multiple points at the same time. They had a hard time explaining why this would be useful on a 12.1" laptop screen. Their "use case" included painting with multiple fingers. I guess kids would find it useful in creating "art".

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9817295-7.html

[Sumocat]

It should be noted that Mac OS X, not just the iPhone OS X, is also multi-touch capable, as demonstrated on the Macbook's touchpad. Apple isn't selling touchscreen Macs (yet), but at least their Mac multi-touch system works. Makes me wonder if they might roll out a Mac Tablet just to spite Dell.

[tnkgrl]

Dell needs to get a clue... First the boring demos, then the $2500 price bomb, then "no multi-touch until later". Come on!

[Rodfather]

Ya I used to call it multitouch as well until the iPhone came around. Now I called them hybrid or dual touch/active screens.
Motion Computing called their technology WriteTouch but it's not being offered in their LE1700 tablets anymore.
As for Dell, I'm disappointed it doesn't offer a hybrid screen and has such a high starting price.
I initially thought the very low end would be around $1300-1500.

[Fernando]

Does the "Multitouch" screen of the Lenovo X60 tablets qualify seriously as multitouch? I'm just curious as I played around with one and liked it.

[Melissa]

Although not quite the same thing, since they didn't involve a screen, it might be interesting to look at the multi-touch products from the now-defunct Fingerworks (the Touchstream keyboard and the iGesture pad).

I have an iGesture pad, and a couple of examples of its "multi-touch" capability include a "pinching" gesture to cut text and an "opening the jar" gesture to open a file. Now think about how multi-touch gesture recognition might work in conjunction with a tablet's screen.

Some top-of-my-head ideas...

Highlight text you want to cut with your fingers, "pinch" to cut the text, then a "splat" (opposite of a pinch?) gesture to paste where you want it.

Use a finger flipping gesture to turn pages in an ebook.

Use a "hand turning" gesture to change page format from portrait to landscape (or vice versa) when editing a document.

... and so on. I think the limitation will be in our ability to map gestures which are memorable for different tasks.

[Brad Ray]

Actually the multi touch that was shown on stage in a video posted on a Dell blog was of someone in a test OS running a modified version of what looked similar to MS Paint and dragging four fingers across the screen simultaneously and seeing all four lines showing up on the screen. They did say that this was a test model and that it wasn't incorporated into the product yet. But some might have speculated that it would be here sooner rather than later. I expect that someone could most definitely create a driver and software solution that could unlock these features, but I doubt that Dell would be willing to take that upon themselves. I'm sure they are perfectly happy to wait until Microsoft incorporates that into Windows (which I hear they are working on right now, so we should have it within the decade).

[Patrick]

I concur with the sentiment regarding the utility of multi-touch (the iPhone kind) on an OS that doesn't know how to take advantage of it. And also - $3500 AUS???!!! I think even Apple would struggle trying to sell a tablet pc at that price...and never mind the fact that thew dell design isd quite unremarkable and definitely doesn't 'look' to be worth the money they want to charge.

I had hopes that Dell, the masters of affordable computing, would be able to provide me an entry level tablet, but its it seems like they're just following the same doomed path of other tablet manufacturers before them. Here's hoping they make a UMPC, or a MID, since I miss their Axim line.

[JimAtLaw]

Dell pulled the Latitude XT page down on Tuesday shortly after the so-called announcement and still hasn't put it back up two days later. The order page was never up. So this product is vaporware anyway.

Perhaps they are just trying to keep people from buying M700s or Thinkpads by announcing this two weeks before XMas but not actually taking orders?