Re: First N900 Review
 

Thanks for revealing this "multi-touch with one hand" secret. I tried to demo this with N810 (just as a mock-up device, obviously not multi-touch capable), but found it pretty difficult. The index and middle finger aren't very flexible (at least mine...). There are only some certain areas on the screen you can reach with reasonable difficulty. The bottom part of the screen is almost completely covered with the hand/fingers. If you need visibility to the bottom part of the screen, then this method is not very useful.

Re: First N900 Review
 

No, it's just that as benny, says, it's hard to do with one hand. Now, we all know cool people don't do stuff with one hand as it's too geeky (it means that you're either capable of doing two things simultaneously, or that you're packed up, both signs of non-hipness). The put-cup-down-to-zoom-or-scroll-then-pick-it-back-up during morning newsreads is not my idea of usability.

Re: First N900 Review
 

I've updated that answer, I was totally lost :)
Was thinking at something else.. :P

Re: First N900 Review
 

For the type of application not only Google Earth.

Because double tap allows you to conveniently zoom in on the place you want to read/see. When that doesn't work well, such as in Google Earth, you need 'pinch' gesture.

Yes, I can.

To clarify: let the device lay down on your hand palm and spread your 3 fingers. Then use thumb and point finger to zoom. After that you can use either one of those fingers to to move left/right/up/down.

Case in point: I've used this in Munich, in the rain, while using my iPod touch to load some Google Maps from an open WiFi AP.

Its not what I'd call convenient but usable for emergency or quick usage. For most people however something, e.g. a seperate hand, has to hold the device.

I can do what you imply with my E71 (I zoom in, out, and move left/right/up/down) easier than I was able to do that on my Nokia N810 however it still takes various buttons to press and therefore attention/focus. Multi touch gets me to the map quicker because I visually 'travel' through the map. With buttons it feels more ar-ti-fi-cial.

Re: First N900 Review
 

You guys are talking about multitouch as if 90% of the tablet's operation is going to be using it. Even on the iPhone it's sort of an optional gesture to use... for the most part (90%), you can manage the phone with a single hand, tap & double tapping your way around.

On the browser (the most important app to me), it takes a quick double-click to zoom into the target's div-width. Another double click to zoom out. Single click to pick a link. That's all there is to it. I very rarely need to manually zoom in\out with multitouch... and when I do, I very much prefer the fluidness and precision of multitouch than (-)(+) buttons like on the Android's browser.

Re: First N900 Review
 

I not say one-handed multi-touch is zohan silky smooth, but I tell you, I do this.

Re: First N900 Review
 

You need multitouch for piano applications. Apart from that, it's mostly a sales pitch. HP has multitouch on some of their laptops, and I bet not any of you have bothered to check out which models those are. But had it been Apple laptops that had multitouch, we'd never heard the end of it.

Re: First N900 Review
 

actually, latest apple laptops do have multitouch

Re: First N900 Review
 

If interested in how really there is no apple mutitouch patent in the sense that it would actually affect anything but some special case:
http://gizmodo.com/5142445/dissectin...n-it-stop-palm
actually the part where gizmondo guys themselves try to make sense of it is where you should stop reading.

For the cases that they are discussing afterwards, there are prior art cases (like the rotation).

Re: First N900 Review
 

Actually, even a lowly iBook from 2003 does have limited multitouch capability (using a third-party driver): the two-finger scroll as well as two-finger tap for secondary button press. And let me tell you, it was a revelation when I first tried it, after using regular touchpads and trackpoints on PC laptops for so long.

It's still the only multitouch gesture I regularly use on my latest version MacBook Pro, even though it supports pinch, rotate, three- and four-finger swipe gestures as well.

That said, I personally don't cosider multitouch a necessary feature on a mobile device. 770, N800 and N810 all have pretty mediocre resistive touchscreens. I would prefer a high-resolution, accurate, sensitive resistive touchscreen over capacitive touchscreen any day.