Verizon's Motorola Droid DOES include MultiTouch and Pinch & Zoom

[Corinacakes]

Copied from an email i got:

HI Corinacakes,

Dolphin Browser has multi touch for droid now!
please update to V1.2.9


Feel free to contact with me if you have further problem or suggestion, or you can visit the following Google Group, maybe someone had the same problem like you, you can ask question or help others there. You also can find some tips there.

http://groups.google.com/group/dolphinbrowser

Thanks
--
MGeek
Dolphin Browser User Group
http://groups.google.com/group/dolphinbrowser

 

[linkish]

Apple has a patent on the idea of pinch zoom huh? So its pretty interesing that all those new Windows 7 ads with A Christmas Carol clearly show a new touchscreen PC with a kid excessively using a "pinch" motion to zoom in on items on the screen. The patents they have DO NOT have anything to do with onscreen gestures, I have heard so many different BS reasons that the Droid doesn't natively have multitouch in the browser, my Motorola rep points at Google, blah blah blah. HTC put multitouch on their phone, Palm put it on theirs, the Zune HD has it, new PCs will have it. Apple was just the first to put the tech in a consumer device. I would love to see it in the browser, though double tap works fine, there are many situations where the increased incremental control you get with multitouch is helpful. If the browser gets multitouch and Flash, which it should have both by March, it will be pretty damn close to flawless as far as mobile browsing goes.

Excellent points. My take on this:

Apple seems to be the current US patent holder on multi-touch implementation. But on what? Is the patent limited to the smartphone market, or does it run the gamut of media (computer OS's, PMP kernels, etc.)? Best guess, I'd say the patent may allow 3rd party developers to implement it, perhaps even allow it in operating systems, but that there exists a licensing fee to have the functionality in first party applications. Perhaps the Goog figures that they can do a better job with multi-touch outside the scope of the patent. Perhaps they don't want to cough up the premium (however much the cost) to Apple, as Google is trying to wrest market share from them with the Android OS.

Bottom line, it most likely revolves around fees and obtuse language in licensing agreements.

I think I may take a read through the patent itself and see if there's any particularly illuminating information therein. I'll report back if I find anything.

 

[linkish]

Upon further review:

Browsing through the patent, it seems that Apple has solidly covered all its bases on this one. Everything from the hypothetical (the abstract) to the description of the functionality to the proposed implementations are all exceedingly thorough. Now, from a legal perspective, I'm certainly not qualified to analyze the patent and identify the loopholes therein. I'm not a lawyer; I'm a real person.

With that, my appraisal of the situation has changed. Apple, it would seem, convinced Google to keep the multi-touch functionality out of their own software, or at least to make sure that said functionality is broken. Apple is in the process of litigation against Palm for their implementation of multi-touch; the ultimate verdict will establish legal precedent in regard to how much of the functionality is implicit in the patent, and what lies outside the realm of Apple's claim to it.

Compounding the issue, there are other corporations suing Apple at the same time (and possibly Palm filing a countersuit) with the idea of some or all of the patent itself being unfair/illegitimate, and that the concepts had already been established in other patents.

I submit that Google is likely staying outside of the legal fray for the time being until the fog starts to clear. If Apple wins, the technology can be licensed. If Apple loses either partially or entirely, you'd have to think multi-touch will be free for the masses.

Again, these are just my conjectures. As always, I could be totally off-base.

 

[docholiday]

Apple=Communist China

 

[bsloan]

dolphin browser has pinch and zoom. And you can open mutiple tabs then swipe between pages.

 

[Nedaroth]

The euro version of the Droid does have MultiTouch and Pinch & Zoom but no Navagation.

 

[Willyammer]

@ bsloan - thanks for the heads up! Dolphin works great.

 

[New2u]

There are many ways to implement multi-touch. Apple only patented (i mean bought the company) (I mean were sued because someone had already did what they did) one way of doing it. You can't claim to hold a patent over ALL ways of doing multi-touch. Most experts that have read the patent have even stated that if they were to sue someone over it, their patent would have a hard time standing up in court. Not only that patent battles are long and costly.

 

[LordKastle]

I think its safe those analysts are right. The exact coding and replication of the technology is one thing. To think that Apple has the legal backing to refrain people from using movement of their fingers on a screen is outlandish.

 

[Daywalker]

The euro version of the Droid does have MultiTouch and Pinch & Zoom but no Navagation.

In Europe people already know where they are going?

 

[countryboy_]

picsay

Works fine use the free one, it does most everything you need........

 

[cottok9]

Hey, thats great just to shut them up, Ohhh can you Droid do this? thats all Iphone users could say, now they need to shut up. :iphone:

 

[mattsonian]

Pinch and Zoom

I think the pinch and zoom only applies during picture viewing. Picsay is a picture based program I believe so I don't know if it will work in browsers and such. However, I hope I'm wrong.

 

[ltfrakes]

I think the pinch and zoom only applies during picture viewing. Picsay is a picture based program I believe so I don't know if it will work in browsers and such. However, I hope I'm wrong.

I think you are correct. The pinch works within Picsay, but not outside. I hope they release the full version in the US soon. I hear they have it in the EU.

 

[redwood]

Pinch & zoom works in the dolphin browser as well - it's in the market.

Gotta say that even though I haven't quite figured out all the dolphin settings, it works much better for me that the stock browser on my droid.