“From the first time Steve Jobs demonstrated ‘the pinch’—the two-finger gesture used to zoom in and out of photos and Web pages on the iPhone—some Apple observers assumed it was just a matter of time before a multitouch-enabled screen showed up on the Mac,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek. “That hasn’t happened yet. But as of Nov. 19, Hewlett-Packard has beaten Apple to the punch, announcing the first multitouch-enabled notebook PC, the tx2. I can’t help but wonder whether Apple just lost an important race.”
MacDailyNews Take: Nonsense. Apple introduced their first notebook with Multi-Touch™ on January 15, 2008. That’s 11 months ago, Arik. Each model of Apple’s MacBook family now sports Multi-Touch™. And Apple’s iPhone – which is also a portable computer from Apple – started shipping on June 29, 2007. That’s 10 days short of 17 months ago, Arik. [UPDATE: 11:50am ET: In fact, as readers below remind us, Apple introduced two-finger scrolling and panning trackpads, an early implementation of Multi-Touch™, on January 31, 2005, nearly 4 years ago in PowerBooks.]
Hesseldahl continues with his article’s baseless theme, “Hewlett-Packard’s tx2 sports HP’s version of multitouch technology, which lets you use two fingers at once to manipulate images on the screen or make on-screen gestures that signify specific commands. A pinch motion works just like it does on an iPhone, letting you rotate pictures or press and drag files around.”
MacDailyNews Take: Does it make more sense to be smearing your fingers around on your notebook’s screen or on a spacious trackpad that’s designed specifically and solely to be touched? Apple thinks things through more than other companies, Arik. You should know that by now. The iPhone’s screen has to be touched; that’s all it has available. A MacBook’s screen doesn’t not have to be touched in order to offer Multi-Touch™. There is a better way; Apple’s way.
Hesseldahl continues incorrectly reporting that “Apple so far sells only two multitouch-enabled products, the iPhone and the iPod Touch.”
MacDailyNews Take: You are wrong, Arik. Just plain wrong. BusinessWeek should immediately issue a retraction and an apology to their readership – and Apple – for that totally incorrect sentence, at the very least.
Hesseldahl asks, “What’s Apple got against touching the screen directly?”
MacDailyNews Take: They used their heads and thought about it for more than half a second unlike HP?
Hesseldahl presses onward, “Apple’s apparent foot-dragging is ironic considering the company made the point that handheld devices are essentially little computers, doing away with the need for either a stylus or a keyboard.”
MacDailyNews Take: And therefore, Hesseldahl admits and backs our point that Apple’s Multi-Touch™ iPhone is a computer, which shipped 10 days short of 17 months ago. Case dismissed. Thank you all for your service.
But, Hesseldahl just can’t stop typing, “Given the current physical attributes of desktops and notebooks, a touch interface would be awkward. Sitting here in front of my desktop and notebook displays, I imagine that repeatedly reaching up to touch the screen a few thousand times a day would make my arms and shoulders tired. Ideally, touch-based computers would be built into the surfaces we sit at.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, exactly like any Apple MacBook’s trackpad. And, Arik’s Gorilla Arm description fits HP’s ill-conceived, and limited, touchscreen desktop perfectly.
Hesseldahl concludes, “Still, if there’s one company that can and should be showing the way, it’s Apple… Two years into the Apple-inspired revolution in touch interfaces on smartphones, I’m disappointed the only computers doing that run Windows.”
MacDailyNews Take: In order to make his circle of wrongness complete, Arik closes with a final blast of utter nonsense. Apple is showing the way, but this time it’s patented. To recap, Apple has been shipping properly-placed and properly-conceived Multi-Touch™-equipped MacBooks for nearly a year now and iPhones which are, as Arik himself describes “handheld devices are essentially little computers,” for nearly a year and a half. The only computers using Multi-Touch™ properly, using device-appropriate Multi-Touch™ input areas are computers from Apple that run Mac OS X (and Linux and can even slum it with Windows, if need be) and OS X for iPhone and iPod touch (and future devices).
The reason why Hesseldahl spends so much time on Apple, not HP — which is what his article is ostensibly supposed to be about — is that nobody cares a whit about HP and because Apple has always been, and continues to be, the leader in Multi-Touch™ interfaces.
The full ridiculous article is here: Hewlett-Packard Out-Touches Apple: Apple watchers assumed Jobs & Co. would be the first to offer a multitouch laptop, but Hewlett-Packard has beaten them to the punch
MacDailyNews Note: Arik loves email: . Also contact BusinessWeek Editors here.
Apple MacBook’s Multi-Touch Trackpad:
Direct link to video via YouTube here.
Another complete, clueless and even careless dumbass.
Cut back on the caffeine MDN, there was more ‘MacDailyNews Take:’ than article. We got your point from the first take…
They made the same ballsup on CrunchGear. I was quick to correct them
The place Apple DOES need to focus on is replacing the awful ‘Mighty Mouse’, maybe with a Multi-touch pad.
Email to Arik_Hesseldahl@businessweek.com sent!
Apple should do another “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC” with the PC guy in a sling from his shoulder in pain from reaching to the screen and in his hand, a screen cleaning rag required because he is touching the screen all the time.
Seems like a lack of advertising on Apple’s part. Maybe they need to run a few positive ads showing the product instead of actors.
So apparently anyone with a computer and an internet connection is a journalist now.
Ouch!
It seems that if, nowadays, a journalist has no idea whatsoever and is an embarrassment to his editor and colleagues, they stick him in the ‘tech. department.’
I think HP is promoting it as “the world’s first multi-touch notebook” and lazy reporters are just regurgitating it without questioning. (Of course HP will claim a technicality, that it’s the first multi-touch screen)
@HolyMackerel
Yeah i agree with you man the MDN writer needs to chill. The guy who wrote the story about the HP does have a point though. Whine all you want MDN but Apple needs to stop dipping their toes in the pool with “Multi-Touch” and start using the tech more and more in all their computer products….all of them.
Macworld 2009 should be very interesting…..I hope.
MDN toys with Hesseldahl like a cat toys with a mouse: with complete and utter dominance.
I agree. How about getting back to the virtues of the Mac and away from Vista’s failure for a while.
Just the kind of writing one expects from a hit whore.
Arik’s inbox is now preparing for the email equivalent of a Type 5 hurricane.
Bring on the Takes, MDN. It’s refreshing to read something truthful and well-written.
I want more MDN Takes, not fewer.
@Jersey_Trader
Yeah, I second that, that would be a great way to show people all cons of touch screens
Sorry, but Apple does not have a notebook with a multitouch screen. They have notebooks with multi-touch track pad. It appears that the article goes to great lengths to point out that its the screen that’s multitouch. Just chill. Life is not a race. Relax and enjoy.
Though I see the arguments against multi-touch on the screen, I think what people want. Though there are some disadvantages it is the most intuitive way to use multi touch as Apple’s own iPhone demonstrate.
I think multitouch is the justification for tablet-macs. And even though Microsoft’s Big A– table seems ridiculous for it’s size, it may be the first thing they got right in a long time. The best multi touch surface is going to be a desk that is connected as your second display.
On notbooks Apple should put a second LCD under that track pad and treat it as a second display on the laptops.
@HolyMackerel,
I think you have something there. A USB or Bluetooth version of the new MacBook/MacBook Pro trackpad so everyone can enjoy the experience. I know once upon a time (and most likely currently) there were some trackpad like devices, but with Apples multitouch, that would be pretty kewl.
The Dude abides.
buffalo,
What part of Hesseldahl’s sentence incorrectly reporting that “Apple so far sells only two multitouch-enabled products, the iPhone and the iPod Touch” did you not understand?
ohh, and people…. don’t email this hit whore… he is employing “The Dvoark Strategy”. He is purposely baiting us to email him so he can report to his boss “how much email” and “how many hits” his articles get. You are justifying his existence by emailing him. I thought we learned this by now.
You would be better off emailing the editor or someone higher up the food chain to let them know the FUD he spreads makes you steer clear of their website, and if you have a subscription, you are going to cancel it.
The Dude abides.
I guess there’s no such thing as research anymore.
I think that the Multi-Touch track pad is REALLY STUPID. We have the technology to build it into the screen. Let’s do it now. This track pad thing is pathetic. Granted it is cool, it is technology that could have been released three years ago. It just was not. Not very impressive at all.
A few things here. First, Dell was the first with a multi-touch screen, although not in the consumer market, with it’s Latitude XT. That computer shipped with a capacitive screen, and a later firmware update opened up the multi-touch.
Second, this HP is a convertible. That means no reaching necessary. It’s simply an extension of the Tablet PC idea, which is great. It can be used as a regular laptop, or a giant iPhone! I’d say HP gets the multi-touch crown on laptops for now. When Apple comes out with a multi-touch screen for a laptop, are you going to rip them for having a bad idea? I doubt it.
Thirdly, while an iPhone can be considered a “computer”, it’s not a computer in the same sense that a laptop is a computer. Get over yourselves with the iPhone being the first multi-touch computer.