Google adds multitouch to Nexus One browser, maps, and gallery | Hacker News Reader

Google adds multitouch to Nexus One browser, maps, and gallery

engadget.com

45 pointskylec23 comments

Just an opinion of a long time android user:

I never really understood the need for multitouch in the browser:

On Android, i just doubletap on a column with interesting content and the browser zooms in, rearranges text to fit into the screen and it's easily readable. Best part: i can do this while using only one hand. It's probably because i am accustomed to that now, but i think most iphone users are just complaining because the don't know it can be just that simple and easy. It's really that good, imho. It's very rare for me to want to zoom deep into a picture, where i would understand the benefit of multitouch. (In that case +/- controls appear on the screen when you touch it, so it's not really inconvenient). Yet, as the iPhone is also using Webkit, does it support that doubletap? That'd be nice :)

BUT, i can see the benefit on google maps, as there are no predefined areas (text columns) to zoom in, so i'm looking forward to this update :)

Besides, if you didn't know, the european version of the Motorola Droid(Milestone here) has multitouch. I guess it was because of some legal uncertanity that it had never multitouch in the U.S.?

Yes, the iPhone supports double-tap to zoom, and it works reasonably well. I rarely have to pinch to zoom in or out in order to get a better view of the content.

Ah ok. Glad to hear this, because i really like it. I really rarely zoom other than that, because in general i just want to read some article on a news page..

I'm frequently suprised by how many people are only aware of one zoom method or the other. Even back when the iPhone was released, I remember a couple of reviews lamenting the lack of arbitrary zoom for the times when the double-tap auto-zoom didn't get close enough, and some others complaining about having to mainly zoom and asking for something automatic. It's as if knowledge of one feature makes you less likley to be aware of the other.

Reminds me of the idea I've hear taught in programming: give users only one way to do something, and you dissappoint some people, but give them more than one way and you'll confuse everyone.

It's as if knowledge of one feature makes you less likley to be aware of the other.

Indeed. I've seen people struggle with this in things like single vs. double-clicking, using scroll wheels vs. scroll bars, window edge-dragging, and keyboard shortcuts.

Pinch-to-zoom is extremely useful on websites that use either small fonts or small graphics for links placed closely together or cases in which zooming to a column is still too wide for the screen (Hacker News for example)

Yeah, I'm excited about this not so much because I think I'll make much use of the feature, but mostly because I hate the idea of patent trolls at Apple limiting what I can do on my own phone by threats of frivolous lawsuits.

I'm just thrilled to see Google standing up to the bullying.

Wonder what changed to allow them to do this. I can't believe the omission of multitouch from the original release was just down to oversight..

Assuming Apple asked them not to do multitouch, probably just a decision that the rewards outweigh the risks.

The browser looks a bit flaky. Watch the end of the video where he double taps and the whole screen goes white, or at the very end when he pinches to zoom, and the view jumps into a side bar. The main column of text on the page seems to be jumping about, sometimes full page width, sometimes half page width.

The maps app seems like it could do with some work too, a couple of times the whole screen goes grey while he zooms in and out.

The browser text column of the article initially is set to the width of the screen, so it fits and you don't have to scroll horizontically. I sure hope it remains that way, because this feature is really a nice one (see my other comment).

The map screen goes grey because there it is still loading the data for that zoomlevel. While there could be some icon indicating the loading process, it's not that bad, i think.

I don't understand why they would want to go grey when they are zooming in. They have the tile for the old zoomlevel, they should just scale it until new data comes in (and overlay the new data on the old). This is exactly what happens in the browser when you zoom (as long as you're not zooming, say, 6-7 levels).

Also, I think it would be better to render the whole page at once, with a width of something nominal like 800px or something, and then you can pan and zoom (with or without smart zoom) super fast in hardware. It has always been a dissapointment that the zooming is not as smooth on Android because the browser tries to re-flow all of the "fluid" pages to it's new width and height. (it also breaks some pages, where they try to float something to the bottom of the view, but the view on Android is just slightly larger than the screen, so it's unreachable)

Yes, you are right about the zoom. That's odd. Actually, when i zoom in on my Nexus One (with the control buttons, not pinch) it does scale the image until the new one appears.

And, no, please no. The way the browser adjusts the text width is really a nice thing! If you care about how your page looks like on a mobile device, do a mobile version ;)

Probably because Jobs called their motto bullshit. "Okay, Jobs... how's this for evil? Multi-touch on Android!"

I saw a ton of things in the user interface that could improve the overall experience. It's these kind of things that Apple understands:

1) The map tiles shouldn't disappear when a new detail of tiles are being loaded, just draw over it.

2) iPhone applications have a "loading image" that is displayed whilst an app is busy launching. The browser application is just a white screen of nothingness.

2) Even if you're zoomed in to the max the iPhone has a bounce effect that allows you to zoom in just a bit but immediately bounces back to the maximum zoom when you release.

3) The zoom level should be reset when you're loading a new page. He switches from mobile Engadget to normal and the zoom level remains the same.

Anybody know if there's a way to force an update via WiFi? If I go to 'about' and then 'system updates' no updates are listed. Also, how does the update process work if you don't have a data plan? Thanks.

These two threads seem to confirm that updates will be possible via WiFi:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=736...

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=38c...

http://www.androidcentral.com/how-manually-update-your-nexus...

a) Why does the browser display 2 progress indicators when a page loads?

b) Double tap in browser - does it do the same "smart" zoom that the iPhone/Mobile Safari does?

Just FYI - You can actually manually update your Nexus One by following the instructions here: http://www.androidcentral.com/how-manually-update-your-nexus....

Any idea if this is for all Android (2.x) phones? Is the Moto Droid included?

I asked a Google spokesperson about this and the response was pretty vague, but the gist seems to be that it will come to other phones once the manufacturers/carriers roll out this Android update. Obviously that could be a while for some devices.

I think there are rumors that the Droid will be getting Android 2.1 (which is what the Nexus One runs) in the near future, but I don't think anyone knows if it will include this update or if it will be what the Nexus One shipped with, which lacks multitouch.

yeah, Motorola is being rather evasive about it, but we're supposed to get Flash support whenever we do get 2.1 on the Droid.

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