
New Multi-Touch Gestures on iPad iOS 4.3 - rkwz
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/12/video-of-new-multi-touch-gestures-on-ipad-ios-4-3/
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statictype
The whole idea of system-wide gestures seems wrong and un-iOS like.

The whole point of the iOS interface is that each app has its own mechanisms
for accomplishing things that are optimized for that app alone, and the device
is just a container that enables each app to do this.

So when you're in the web browsing your app, the experience is that you're
using a device that has been made for web browsing. When you're in a
calculator app, you're using a device that was built to behave like a
calculator.

There are certain standards and techniques that all apps adopt when they
handle similar tasks (like swipe to delete a row in a list or pinching to zoom
and 2-fingered drag to pan) but those are all implemented by that specific
app.

If the app decides that a 4-fingered swipe is the natural way of representing
'go to previous page' then thats what it will use.

Now, with a system-wide gesture, the _container_ is peeking in through the
application's interface and putting its stamp.

Until now, this was the function of the home button which was clearly outside
the app's interface. Looks like that's changing now.

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csytan
4 finger swipe already exists on OSX as a system wide gesture for Expose and
Application switching. No, it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison as
OSX doesn't depend on gestures as heavily, but the tradeoff is well worth the
benefit.

You no longer need to push on a physical button to switch between apps!

Re: the container peeking through the application's interface.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing either. I'd argue that consistency can (in
some cases) be more important than giving application developers total
control. Have you ever been to a site which intercepts right clicks so that
you can't copy and paste?

~~~
statictype
I don't know, I think I'd rather have a physical button that I can press with
the hand I hold the phone with than have to do a four-figured operation on the
screen.

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jarin
I don't think the four-finger operations are on the iPhone/iPod, I think
they're only on the iPad.

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BigZaphod
Correct. At least, that's the info that's currently available. :) If you try
fitting 4/5 fingers on the phone, it's way too small to work well anyway. I
don't expect them to show up there. If they do remove the button, I'd expect
to see it only removed from the iPad.

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catch23
hopefully the browser will get the 3-finger gesture for back/forward.

~~~
brownleej
I don't think that will be possible. From the video, it looks to me like the
three-finger gesture is only for switching between apps, and having an app
intercept it would be jarring. For instance, if you were swiping through your
recent apps, and got to the browser, you wouldn't be able to move on using the
same gesture, and it would be like hitting a brick wall. In fact, I imagine
that individual apps won't even be able to capture these gestures, because the
system will catch them first, and interpret them as app-switching.

~~~
pieter
From what I understand, switching apps is done using 4 or 5 fingers, so the 3
finger gesture is still free to be used by the app itself.

~~~
BigZaphod
I believe 3 finger gestures are used by VoiceOver so there's a possible
conflict there, but VoiceOver is a system wide on-off setting so I don't know
if that'd be a good enough reason not to use them as shortcuts. VoiceOver more
or less redefines how you interact with apps anyway, so I'm not sure it'd bit
a big problem, but Apple may want to avoid having too many different actions
for different combinations of fingers.

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statictype
How does this effect apps that already use a 4-fingered gesture?

It's technically possible to support it (I believe the touch events give you
up to 11 touches). Are there any apps that actually do?

And were there any guidelines in place about not using multi-touch gestures in
apps that needed more than 2 fingers?

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j_baker
I'm curious how an app could use 11 touches. Both hands and a toe?

Also, most of the piano/music type apps support at least more than two.

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neworbit
Other than dirty jokes, perhaps a two-player game?

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aditya
Wow. They could, foreseeably, do away with the home button now. Multi-touch is
fascinating, until it becomes non-intuitive and too complicated...

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biot
Doing away with a physical home button has accessibility implications, an area
where Apple is a leader. I don't think it will happen.

~~~
BigZaphod
Possibly, but the iPod nano doesn't have a home button and instead uses
gestures for everything. Perhaps the nano was partly an experiment to see how
well that concept worked in the wild.

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zoul
Getting rid of the home button would be very interesting/nice, since it is one
of the last things that keep the iPad from being truly orientation-agnostic.
(The rest being the power switch, speaker and the headphone jack, but these
don’t matter that much.)

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brianpan
You apparently don't use Netflix, MLB, NPR, YouTube, etc, etc. :)

I find myself looking for the speaker and volume switches a lot.

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redmar
On 4.3, this would be a four finger swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar
and a swipe from left to right on the bar to reveal the sound controls in any
device orientation. Works pretty smooth, i'm running it now.

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kashif
Why are new gestures news-worthy(HN)?

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aditya
Because it is an interesting UI/X innovation? And as the other poster said
there's quite a few apple users on HN who would appreciate the info (I know I
did)

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sans-serif
Even if you're non-Apple users interested in UI/UX, the news will be of
interest because in this field most everybody ends up copying Apple.
_flamesuit on_

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chappi42
You can take off the flamesuite.

* WebOS, imho, has the much better UI than apple now * And 2nd, it's, imho, desired if Google, apple, RIM, Microsoft, Nokia and HPalm copy from each other.

