Who wants multi-touch? I think I just might.

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A few points:: You seem to be stating that the only reason people buy an
iPhone is it's multi-touch capability. It is, in many ways, a
'gee-whiz' feature that only does zooming and rotating.
As of now. But who knows what developers are coming up
with? In 1984, I couldn't see what good a mouse was. Ten
years ago I thought the scroll wheel was useless. Now I
can't imagine not having these things.

As for multitouch on the MacBook, there are 2, 3 and 4
finger gestures built in, not just 2 finger gestures. There's
a short video on Apple's website about it. And again, who
knows what developers will come up with?

As for scrolling, neither Apple's nor Microsoft's methods
are 'intuitive.' If they were, no one would have to tell you
how to use them, right? They are both different ways of
doing the same thing. You prefer one, I prefer the other.
But there is an underlying difference in approach that
infers something about the two companies' thinking about
the UI.

Microsoft's method still treats the scroll bar as a control
item. Apple treats it as a position indicator. In
my opinion, Microsoft is taking a step backwards. When
was the last time you actually moved your cursor to the
scroll bar and dragged it? There's no need any more, not
with scroll wheels. While the scroll bar is actually a
control, it's no longer treated as such, in terms of use.

With the scroll wheel, and Apple's multitouch, scrolling is
now part of the process of viewing a page. Without a
scroll wheel, and with Microsoft's method, scrolling
becomes a separate process. While you don't click and
drag on the laptop, it still requires in interruption of the
current process of just reading the page.

Also, now that the right side and bottom are reserved for
scrolling, the already too small trackpad on my Dell(about
2" X 1 3/4") is reduced by about 1/4" in each dimension.
It's annoying to be working on something and have the
page start to scroll because my finger's in the wrong place.

With Apple's method, scrolling is completely under the
users' control, while with Microsoft's method, it's easily
triggered by accident.

Again, you may prefer the Microsoft approach. Having
used the Mac, I prefer Apple's.; Posted by: msalzberg Posted on: 11/06/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use