This is getting quite ridiculous Google. Word on the street is that the European Nexus One will have multitouch--yes the feature that we have begged and begged for since Android launched to no avail. The Nexus One on Germany's Heise has already been shown off with the wonderful pinch to zoom and gestures and we can probably assume Vodafone's Nexus One will have the same.
Remember that the Motorola Milestone (the Droid outside of the US) also has multitouch so basically it's only US Google Experience Android phones that come without it. But their foreign counterparts have it. So why no multitouch on US Google Experience Android devices? We really have no clue. Multitouch makes looking at maps and web browsing so, so much better.
[via engadget]
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Its not that google doesnt want us to have multi-touch. Apple has multi-touch patented in the US
****on mobile devices with a phone
Doesn't the Sprint version of the HTC Hero have multi-touch? I can use pinch to zoom on my stock browser.
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-04/st_essay
my droid eris came with multi-touch
Then how are companies like Dolphin Browser getting around the multitouch patent? When I had my Droid (returned after three weeks) I was using the Dolphin Browser, primarily to get pinch-zoom (but found many other very cool features with it)
It's gotta be something to do with the patents - they know everyone wants it and they know it's possible. Some company is holding a gun on them.
yeah I'm guessing it's a legal issue, not a real technical obstacle. Apple probably is the guilty party preventing others from getting multi-touch in the U.S.
Really guys, stop whining.
US has Google Voice, Google Navigation and speech-to-text.
Europe has multi-touch.
Want to trade?
True, I wouldn't trade my Droid for a Euro spec one, but at the same time, I upgraded from a Palm Pre to the Droid, and the Palm had multitouch...all over the place, since that whole phone is gesture based. It does seem a little odd that they've got pinch zoom etc on the Pre, and on Heros, but not on Androids flagship phones...
Isn't the reason the Palm Pre has it, is because Apple is infringing on some Palm patents and Plan is doing the same with Apple, so they let it be and don't sue each other.
If thats true, I was unaware. But that would make sense since Palm has been in the mobile game for such a long time. So Motorola, being basically one of the pioneers of cell phones, has no patents that they can hold over Apple's head?
Does this mean if I buy an unlocked N1 from the Google store tomorrow it will be multi touch enabled because I live in the UK?
I don't see why multi touch is so important. It's a cute little feature but that's it. I don't mind that my Droid doesn't have it, I don't think that I would use it even if I did have it.
The reason why other touch screen phones have it in the US is cause the manufactuer of the phone is probably paying Apple royalties to use the multitouch patent.
my droid-eris has multi touch as well. It's a very nice feature. I'm very new to the smart phone arena as this is my first. I'm guessing since the Nexus has reportedly been rooted - may be the multi touch feature could somehow be ported from one device to Nexus????
Dunno
is it a software thing or a hardware thing? if it's just software, i don't get why it won't come with 2.1
For those who are not leaving in the US and are in a hurry to get the Nexus One directly from Google, you can follow the process described here: http://blog.borderlinx.com/?p=1712
I still think this is kinda jacked up... we should have multi touch to
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Google makes quite a bit more money than HTC or Palm or anyone else other than Apple who use the multi-touch function on their devices. If it is a legal issue and others can afford to pay "royalties" to Apple to use it, then most certainly Google could afford to do this as well. I refuse to believe that Google would try to save a little money in this department knowing full well that multi-touch is a huge selling point for the I-phone and would definitely even the playing field if Google were to include it in their devices. It must be something more complex... Whatever it is, it really doesn't make sense that HTC and Palm devices can utilize this feature and no one else can/will.
I don't know why some people are complaining about Europe getting multi touch. All this means is that the software and ROMs that support multi-touch will just be ported over to our American N1s. It was the same story with the Droid and the Milestone.
This makes me glad to be living in the EU rather than the USA, simply because over here you cannot patent ideas, only the implementation of those ideas.
Apple cannot patent "Multi-Touch" over here - they can only patent the code that they used to get Multi-Touch to work on their iPhones.
Time the Americans started lobbying the Senate and Congress to get their rather anti-competitive patent laws amended in line with the rest of the (sane) world.
I was wondering if I could get in touch with someone in a Europe Country to confirm whether the Nexus One that they have in hand has universal multitouch, and not just for one or two apps? Please contact me EarlyHoward@ymail.com or EarlyHoward(at)ymail(dot)com.
I was wondering, i have ordered from the US to get one in the UK, will this mean that multi-touch won't work on the model i have ordered? will it know i am in Europe and enable this feature or will i have to hack it? seems rather unfair!
I have the same question...
Quoted by David Albert:
"Its not that google doesnt want us to have multi-touch. Apple has multi-touch patented in the US"
Multi-touch is open source you dolt. Apple has no such patent.
FYI, Android is open source and provides it free of charge. I can see why Google wouldn't want to pay royalties to support multi-touch. They would essentually be paying royalties on something they are giving away for free.
anyway, google provides an update enabling multi-touch on the nexus one