Google's Android operating system (OS) is an open source project. The program code is open to the public, so developers can easily create apps and even hack the OS. According to this story on Gadgetell, some developers (some may call them "hackers") have implemented a modification to the OS that allows user to have multi-touch support for the native web browser. In essence, one may think that every capacitive touch screen ought to be capable of multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom or two finger scrolling/panning. What I don't understand is: why don't all smartphones that utilize capacitive touch screens come with built-in support for multi-touch?
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Google Android Nexus One gets multi-touch
Google's Android operating system (OS) is an open source project. The program code is open to the public, so developers can easily create apps and even hack the OS. According to this story on Gadgetell, some developers (some may call them "hackers") have implemented a modification to the OS that allows user to have multi-touch support for the native web browser. In essence, one may think that every capacitive touch screen ought to be capable of multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom or two finger scrolling/panning. What I don't understand is: why don't all smartphones that utilize capacitive touch screens come with built-in support for multi-touch?
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The main speculation is that Apple has a weak, and probably unenforcable patent on multi-touch. Since the Motorola Milestone (European release of the Droid) did ship with multi-touch enabled. This has led to further speculation that there is some secret agreement between Apple and Google regarding enabling multi-touch on U.S. released products only.
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