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Windows 7 Hardware: Touch Finally Arrives

Before the arrival of Windows 7, support for the touch screen was not part of the Windows operating system itself. In contrast, all-in-one PC makers resorted to a remedy, which range from elegant (HP TouchSmart growing suite of software) to kludgy (touch screen applications from MSI and Asus).

But the new Microsoft operating system supports touch gestures, and you can expect PC makers to capitalize on the growing popularity of touch screen interfaces, driven by touch-screen smartphones like the Apple iPhone, T-Mobile mMyTouch 3G, Palm and Pre. By the time Microsoft releases Windows 7, we should see a series of ads for the touch screen for all-in-one PCs and laptops (and Lenovo and Fujitsu have launched models that incorporate multitouch laptop), with more to follow in 2010. Search touchscreen systems for Windows touch "touch-screen PC.

The evolution of contact in Windows 7 has not happened in a vacuum, however. Microsoft worked with the Synaptics touchpad manufacturer to standardize common gestures between touchpad and screen.

"One thing I found was that experience in the screen should be the same for the touchpad," says Ted Theocheung, general manager of PC and digital home ecosystem in Synaptics. "We spoke with Microsoft to delete this Wild West of gestures."

Since 2008 has supported Synaptics gestures Synaptics touchpads with Gesture Suite software. Apple unveiled a gesture-based navigation into their laptops in 2008 too.

According Theocheung, the gestures, mainly used for navigation consist of a limited, shared pool. "We try to help with basic navigation-pinch to zoom in and out, in a gesture to rotate objects and images, gestures and movement with two fingers to move the screen up and down or left and right. These are the three main gestures for Windows Touch, too."

Due out this fall, Synaptics??? Gesture Suite 9.4 introduced support gestures that compatibility between the touch screen and touch screen, so you can use the same gestures of both. The end of the multitouch features more Synaptics' Suite of software capable of gestures were not available at the time of writing, but you can expect Gesture Suite 9.4 for supporting a series of three and four new finger gestures (in Apple laptops support of four motions fingers that are related to commands from the system).


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