Multitouch

US Patent office invalidates previous validation of Apple multitouch patent, unless and until they validate it again

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Dec 7, 2012 a 5:59 pm

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which often seems content to grant patents willy-nilly and let companies fight out their validity in court, has just ruled that Apple's massive multi-touch patent is invalid. At least for now. They approved it before and may approve it again. But they're invalidating their previous validation unless and until they validate it again. Yeah, it gives me a headache as well.

iPhone 5, iPod touch 5 touchscreens responding oddly to multiple, rapid diagonal swipes

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Nov 9, 2012 a 10:47 am

The iPhone 5 appears to be exhibiting odd touch behavior when it comes to consistent detection of multiple swipe events over time. On an iPhone 4S, you can begin rapidly swiping back and forth and iOS will easily keep pace, scrolling the view to match your mad swiping, even as you start angling towards the diagonal. On an iPhone 5, however, while vertical scrolling remains fine, rapid diagonal scrolling will drop off, as though iOS simply tires of detecting the gestures.

Iterate 22: Gesture-based interface

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 a 11:16 am

Josh Clark of Global Moxie, Seth Clifford of Nickelfish, Marc Edwards of Bjango, Phill Ryu of Impending, and Rene Ritchie of iMore talk gesture-based user interface: buttonless UI, discoverability, digital authenticity, and the future of gestures. This is Iterate!

Disney Research's Touché shows off the future of iPhone-like multitouch gestures... everywhere

By Georgia, Sunday, May 6, 2012 a 12:28 pm

The iPhone made capacitive multitouch, gesture-based technology mainstream. These days, we never think twice about tapping, swiping, pinching, twisting, or otherwise manipulating the digital content on our devices. But only on our digital devices. Imagine a future where capacitive multitouch wasn't limited to screens but could be implemented on all sorts of everyday objects, from doorknobs to tables to liquids, to the human body itself. Well, Disney Research isn't just imagining it, they're engineering it today with something they call Touché.

ITC judges says Motorola Android phones not violating 3 Apple patents

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Jan 14, 2012 a 1:29 am

The International Trade Commission (ITC)'s Administrative Law Judge has ruled in favor of Motorola Mobility, saying the new Google acquisition and maker of fine, Corellian-styles Android phones doesn't violate 3 of Apple's multitouch patents. Scott Offer, senior vice president and general counsel for Moto, had this to say:

Iterate 13: Global Moxie

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Jan 8, 2012 a 1:13 am

Siri as revolutionary as the mouse and multitouch?

By Anthony#IM, Friday, Oct 14, 2011 a 11:35 am

Harvard Business Review has a great write up likening Siri as being as revolutionary to computing with it's hands free interaction as was the Mac with it's desktop metaphor using a mouse, and as with the iPhone using multitouch gestures. The article states that Mac brought computing accessibility to the masses but over the years, complexity via added functionality introduced issues that broke the "desktop metaphor". Siri, it contends, solves these complexity issues.

Apple hid iPad from Google's Eric Schmidt?

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Apr 13, 2011 a 5:42 pm

Nilay Patel, formerly of Engadget writes on his personal blog that, according to Steven Levy's new book, The Plex, after believing Google copied the iPhone with Android, they hid iPad development from Google CEO and former Apple board member Eric Schmidt.

The acrimony was so deep, we’re told, that Jobs kept the iPad a secret from Eric Schmidt even though Schmidt was still on Apple’s board of directors while it was being developed. (Schmidt would later step down, of course.) It’s juicy stuff, and it nicely feeds right into the current iOS vs. Android narrative of the day.

Rumor: Apple removing Home Button on the next iPad and iPhone?

By Andrew Wray, Thursday, Jan 13, 2011 a 9:49 am

Boy Genius is reporting that, according to a source, iPad 2 won't have a physical home button and will rely completely on the multitouch gestures introduced in the iOS 4.3 beta. They were also told this change may be extended to the iPhone 5 later this year.

Apple Magic Trackpad review

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Jul 29, 2010 a 11:12 pm

Apple brings full-on multitouch to desktop with Magic Trackpad

Your fingers glide effortlessly along the expansive, glass-but-not-quite-glass-feeling surface. The cursor flies from edge to edge. You pause, press down, feel and hear a satisfying click, and then glide on. A double swipe sends the gallery hurtling down until it stops under the weight of its own virtualized momentum. A double twist rotates a photo. A click in the right corner brings up the contextual menu, a click in the left selects copy. A triple touch grabs the window and moves it aside, a quadruple swipe switches you to email and then another right click, another left, and the photo is pasted into the message. Your fingers pull clear of the Apple Magic Trackpad and you smile. Computing is fun again.

Apple went all-in on multitouch for the iOS-based iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad, and they've been slowly extending that back to their Mac platform as well, first with MacBook trackpads, then the Magic Mouse, and now the Magic Pad.

"Wait, this is an iPhone and iPad blog, why are you talking about a Mac peripheral?" Because. That's why. iOS comes from Mac OS and if Apple has shown us anything over the years it's that they're the best in the business at leveraging advances back and forth between the two. With rumors of Apple TV going iOS and my persistent fantasy that Apple will replace DashBoard and Front Row with an iOS layer, what they do with multitouch for Mac is definitely something I want to keep an eye on. Two actually, as often as I can spare them. So if this isn't something you're personally interested in, no worries, hit up the next post. If it is, if you think like I do that nothing Apple releases exists in a vacuum, then hang on to your pinches and swipes; the review starts after the break.