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G1 capable of multi-touch input? Looks like it.
CrunchGear —
... purists are quick to flag the G1’s lack of multi-touch input support. Turns out, it might just be able to handle it after all - on the hardware end, at least. Whilst tearing his G1’s workings apart line-by-line, a crafty coder going by RyeBrye came across an interesting artifact. It seems the driver for the Synaptics touchscreen has some code commented out; after recompiling the kernel with said code back in, he was able to track two finger presses at once.
Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>
The G1's Deepest, Darkest Secret: Hidden Multitouch [Rumor]
Gizmodo —
... multitouch (not to be confused with the "Covert Multitouch", a notorious and questionably legal pickup move pioneered by our own Adrian Covert) on its bezel was more interesting that it was exciting — the likelyhood that anyone would develop an app to utilize it was pretty low. With Android, we can at least hope the the flourishing dev community and open software design will be enough to lead to a simple patch and some app love for this capability. [RyeBrye via Crunchgear] ...
T-Mobile G1 touchscreen can do multi-touch, but doesn’t
IntoMobile - Cell Phone News, Information, and Analysis —
... multi-touch controls a la the iPhone and iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, the Android OS doesn’t yet make provisions for any multi-touch support. Hopes are high, however, that Android developers will figure out a way to free the inner multi-touch beast that lies in wait within the T-Mobile G1.
But, the real question here is why would HTC and T-Mobile choose to banish the multi-touch feature to realm of commented-out code. Patent conflicts could be an issue.
[Via: MobileCrunch]
Related News from IntoMobile:
Synaptics jumps ...
Is T-Mobile capable of multitouch?
Phones Review —
... artefact. It appears the driver for the Synaptics touch-screen has some code commented out, and after recompiling the kernel with this code back in, he was able to track two finger presses at once.
So it seems the hardware can handle multi-touch, so just why isn’t there multi-touch on the T-Mobile G1 s a bit of a quandary. We presume it is probably a patents issue but can’t be sure, either way multi-touch probably won’t be showing up on the G1 anytime soon.
Source – mobilecrunch
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Video: Multi-Touch on the G1
CrunchGear —
... I’m pumped about this because I just got a G1. This video shows a pretty basic paint program tracking two inputs at once — it’s pretty hacked together but it clearly works okay. We knew it was possible technically, now we see it’s possible practically, and hopefully soon we’ll see it supported officially. ...
Google Now Hawking Fully Unlocked Android Phones To Developers
TechCrunch —
... It didn’t take long before people started hacking away at the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to ship with Google’s Android platform, and now it looks like Google wants to make things even easier. Starting today, Google is offering a development version of the G1 that is both SIM and hardware unlocked, meaning no more nagging at T-Mobile and waiting for ages to receive an unlock code. The bootloader on this version also doesn’t restrict the device to officially signed firmware builds. ...
Google now hawking fully unlocked G1s to developers
CrunchGear —
... It didn’t take long before people started hacking away at the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to ship with Google’s Android platform, and now it looks like Google wants to make it even easier. Starting today, Google is offering a development version of the G1 that is both SIM and hardware unlocked, meaning no more nagging at T-Mobile and waiting for ages to receive an unlock code. The bootloader on this version also doesn’t restrict the device to officially signed firmware builds. ...
Finally: Get a GPhone Without Switching To T-Mobile
Silicon Alley Insider —
... It didn't take long before people started hacking away at the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to ship with Google's Android platform, and now it looks like Google wants to make it even easier. Starting today, Google is offering a development version of the G1 that is both SIM and hardware unlocked, meaning no more nagging at T-Mobile and waiting for ages to receive an unlock code. The bootloader on this version also doesn't restrict the device to officially signed firmware builds. ...
