Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system sports
multitouch features: When you pair Windows 7 with
a touch-screen PC, you can browse online newspapers,
flick through photo albums, and shuffle files
and folders using nothing but your fingers. To zoom
in on something on the screen of a multitouch-compatible
PC, you would place two fingers on the
screen and spread them apart. To right-click a file,
touch it with one finger and tap the screen with a
second.
A number of Microsoft Windows PCs have touch
screens, with a few Windows laptops emulating some
of the multitouch features of Apple computers and
handhelds. Microsoft’s Surface computer runs on
Windows 7 and lets its business customers use
multitouch in a table-top display. Customers of
hotels, casinos, and retail stores will be able to use
multitouch finger gestures to move around digital
objects such as photos, to play games, and to browse
through product options. The Dell Latitude XT tablet
PC uses multitouch, which is helpful to people who
can’t grasp a mouse and want the functionality of a
traditional PC. They can use a finger or a stylus
instead. The Android operating system for
smartphones has native support for multi-touch, and
handsets such as the HTC Desire, Nexus One, and
the Motorola Droid have this capability.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) now has laptops and
desktops that use touch technology. Its TouchSmart
computer lets you use two fingers at once to manipulate
images on the screen or to make on-screen
gestures designating specific commands without
using cursors or scroll bars. To move an object, you
touch it with a finger and drag it to its new location.
Sliding your finger up and down or sideways
smoothly scrolls the display.
The TouchSmart makes it possible for home users
to engage in a new type of casual computing—
putting on music while preparing dinner, quickly
searching for directions before leaving the house, or
leaving written, video, or audio memos for family
members. Both consumers and businesses have
found other uses as well. According to Alan Reed,
HP’s vice president and general manager for
Business Desktops, “There is untapped potential for
touch technology in the business marketplace to
engage users in a way that has never been done
before.”