Sneak Peek at Windows 7 Multitouch Features
Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates showed a glimpse of Windows 7's new multitouch features at the All Things Digital conference yesterday evening. Check out the video below from the Vista Blog that shows elements like pinch zoom, flicking, and more. It looks like the integration will feel like an intersection between Microsoft's Surface table and Apple's iPhone OS, but it's still too early to say anything final about the design decisions.
One thing I definitely like that was carried over from Surface is the radial menu that you can open on a touch. I tend to use custom shells like BlackBox or LiteStep on my Windows installations because I like being able to right-click and open a program/context menu wherever my mouse is, and it seems like a natural add to a touchscreen interface rather than dragging your finger between the taskbar/program menu and an active application.
It definitely seems like Microsoft is playing their cards closer to their chest with this glimpse, since the transparency they showed during Vista's development cause frustration with customers who saw one promised feature after another disappear in order to make the launch window. Windows 7 is going to be teased out a little more between now and its launch date next year, which might be wiser this time than inflating expectations.
In the meantime, check out the cool multitouch map functions and Surface-like photo management in the video filmed last night at the ATD conference:
Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7
--Aric A.
Wendy on May 28, 2008 at 02:11 PM
Seems like a low, sad attempt at a "large iPhone"...
antonio gonzalez on May 28, 2008 at 11:26 PM
There goes nose-picking!