Comments on: The Unreasonable Stance: Multi-touch is just more Apple snake oil

By: Trae Dorn

Trae Dorn — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:20:27 +0000

My thoughts on multitouch is that it’s highly overrated in a touchpad. It’s great on a touch screen, yes. It’s absolutely fabulous on a touch screen.

On a touchpad? Eh. I mean, things like a two finger scroll are great, and having the capabilities isn’t BAD — it’s just not the be all, end all of the world.

Of course, the secret is that NO ONE OUTSIDE THE TECHPRESS cares about it — which is why the MacBook Air commercials are all about how thin it is, and not about how awesome its touchpad is.

By: drdrew

drdrew — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:26:01 +0000

geek: waah, waah, waah, i want multitouch
apple: ok, here you go
geek: now what do i do with it…

By: Brad Spry

Brad Spry — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:05:00 +0000

It’s not about adding functionality, it’s about increasing usability, and that’s a whole other science unto itself.

See: Human-computer interaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-computer_interaction

By: pji

pji — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:36:08 +0000

This is a most reasonable, unreasonable stance. Multi-touch is just awkward when you’re not using a touch screen. Maybe just me, but I also IMMEDIATELY turn off tapping on all touchpads. I may not be the target audience…

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:15:16 +0000

You can check out multiclutch (http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-i-touch-my-cell/)
It looks like it allows mapping gestures to functions in cocoa apps. I don’t have a multitouch pad so I can’t try it out.

In general I agree that multitouch could do a lot more than it currently does. I think the x-y scrolling w/ 2 fingers seems the most useful. I wonder if Apple is trying to introduce the concepts slowly and with some periodic upgrades rather than all at once, or if they are relying on 3rd parties like multiclutch to try some things out before they add them.

By: Joe Bones

Joe Bones — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:36:12 +0000

If it weren’t for Apple giving us fresh designs (how unpractical depends on your application) we would all be plunking away on a dull, gray plastic box from Sony, Dell or one of the other copycats.

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:35:04 +0000

I agree.

The way multitouch is being implemented, it seems like nothing more than a gimmick.

Why not try breaking down doors and completely recreate how we think of interfacing with our computer?