Monday June 2
 
14:48
 
When Will Real Multi-Touch Come To The Mac?

When I bought my iMac, I had one concern: that it will soon be replaced with a multi-touch iMac.

In the end I went ahead with the iMac on the basis that the MacBook Air multi-touch is limited to the trackpad, and the MacBook doesn’t even have that.

But…

When I put my iMac in to be repaired (don’t ask!), the iMac was described on the repair form as “iMac Early 2008″. That looks very much like there will be a new iMac model this year.

Then this article, found via Eyal’s blog, talks about multi-touch coming in Windows 7. Another sign?

If Window 7 is anything like the PANTS of XP Tablet or Windows Media, Apple will have nothing to worry about - but I’m sure that they will want to get in ahead of Microsoft and have a proper touchy-feeling MacOS X out there to capitalise on the anti-Vista sentiment - I was faced with having to resort back to a Windows only world this weekend and I didn’t like it.

The main challenge I see is the screen: the coating on my Kohjinsha SA1 leaves the screen looking fuzzy; I’m sure Apple will want to keep a glossy screen and have it touchy. They will also surely want to modify the OS so that it can take real advantage of touch - rather than the Microsoft pen based approach.

What would be really cool is if the iMacs could be upgraded to multi-touch. This isn’t as crazy as it sounds - the new iMacs have a removable glass cover over the display. That glass could easily be swapped over for touchy glass.. :)