I just got super excited for Windows 7! When Windows 7 was first announced and the list of features included “Multi Touch” technology, I was somewhat skeptical given that I wasn’t sure there would be hardware to support it. I thus assumed it might just be a start at MT support. But recently I have been reading up on what’s new with .NET 4.0, and hidden in the feature list is a Multi Touch API as part of WPF. I worked with WPF quite a bit at my last job in Boston, and it is extremely powerful and flexible. Adding Multi Touch support will only make it more so!
This got me wondering: is Multi Touch hardware starting to emerge in anticipation of Windows 7? It turns out it is. Take for example these offerings from HP and Dell.
Thus I ponder the following:
- Will I be able to buy one of these HP or Dell All-In-Ones and start creating Multi Touch WPF applications out of the box? Or am I going to need to interface with whacky low-level Windows APIs or vendor-specific SDKs?
- Why is Apple and its community of followers totally quiet about the idea of a Multi Touch iMac? Maybe Apple figures that Multi Touch only works with something you hold in your hand. I could see my arm getting tired using a Multi Touch All-In-One all of the time.
- Multi Touch applications for full-fledged Windows PCs could be the killer selling point and marketing appeal of Windows 7 that no one has seen coming yet.
Well I hope this all shakes out the way I want: to buy a Windows 7 All-In-One this fall and start writing Multi Touch applications in pure WPF.
Posted by Brock 