Dell adds multi-touch to Latitude XT
Bigger SSD drives too
Dell has announced it's incorporating touch-screen functionality - in the form of an easy-to-install firmware upgrade - on it's Latitude XT tablets.
Tablets or convertible PCs are notebooks with a rotating screen that can be used as a flat writing surface. With the free software, users can scroll by placing two fingers on the screen and moving them horizontally or vertically, zoom in by touching the screen with two fingers and moving them together or program a double-tap to launch a web browser or to turn the screen of to save power.
Dell has release a short clip on YouTube showing how this will work...
Can't see the video? Download FlashPlayer from Adobe.com
On other notebooks these capabilities won't be available until Windows 7 is released, which promises multi-touch "built throughout the OS".
Dell has also introduced a 128 GB SSD (solid state drive) GB drive for all Precision and Latitude systems and for XPS and Alienware systems. The $649 price tag is the same as the previous 64 GB SSD. SSD drives have no moving parts and are eight-and-a-half times more shock tolerant than standard hard drives.
Dell next month starts to manufacture its news Mini notebook, which will run on Linux, initially. According to Ken Musgrave, director Experience Design Group, Dell may decide to release a Windows XP version at the same time, but the company hadn't decided yet. The Register saw red, white and black notebooks, each with three USB ports, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, a car reader and a normal size keyboard. Musgrave declined to comment on the release date and pricing.
COMMENTS
Multi touch starcraft
"And another thing- why are Multitouch demos always resizing photos and zooming in on Google Earth? I mean okay it's a bit cool but isn't everyone a bit bored of that? Surely something like a multitouch Starcraft battle would be vastly better? If you get a decent touchscreen it is actually quite enjoyable!"
How would proprietary touchscreen technology integrate with a game like starcraft?
Will punching the screen launch a nuke?
Not real multitouch by the look of it
Looks like it's just adding 2-finger gestures as an extra axis on the same interface device, much like zooming with a mouse wheel. I was hoping it would let me control several sliders on an onscreen mixer, or give me a separate cursor for each finger.
Re: isn't this copying Apple's multitouch tech?
I suppose it'd be about right in this day and age, patenting a gesture you make with your hands.
@Wonderkid
Multitouch was out ages before Apple got anywhere near it. And they've been using the openning/closing fingers thing since the beginning.
I'd hope you couldn't patent it anyway- it's hardly a novel use of multitouch and would be a pretty obvious way of doing things.
How do you zoom in again?
...zoom in by touching the screen with two fingers and moving them together
Are there fruit related legal issues why you zoom in by moving your fingers together rather than moving them apart, or is it merely another typo in this extremely hasty and slapdash news article?
