<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch">Multi-Touching</a> is being very fashionable this days. Although this technology is already 25 years old (That&#8217;s true!), It&#8217;s only being now sold to the end-public. Past year it was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcKqyn-gUbY&amp;mode=related&amp;search=">presented</a> at <a href="http://www.ted.com"><span class="caps">TED</span></a> by <a href="http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/">Jeff Han</a> and it was there that it took the attention from the big companies.</p>

<center><img src="http://www.techbits.com.br/img/ext/iphone.png" style="height: 200px; width:250px;"  alt="iPh0ne" /><img src="http://specials.rediff.com/money/2007/jun/01sld5.jpg" style="height: 200px; width:270px;"  alt="Microsoft Surface" /></center>

<p>In the January, Apple announces the iPh0ne [1] that would have a multi-touch screen where you could use special movements to zoom in and out, slide across, etc&#8230; In may, Microsoft replies, launching the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/surface">Surface</a>, a living-room centered table, with a multi-touch screen on the top. When Apple bet on the pocked device, Microsoft went for a big and expensive device (Wouldn&#8217;t they had the skills to make the technology smaller?). For the time being, Apple&#8217;s phones are being sold out everyday while I don&#8217;t hear anymore about surface.</p>

<center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/Reactable002.jpg/250px-Reactable002.jpg"  alt="ReacTable" /><img src="http://www.jazzmutant.com/images/photo1.jpg"  alt="Lemur" /></center>

<p>Also this year, <a href="http://mtg.upf.es/reactable/">ReacTable</a> mas presented to many people, when Bj&#246;rk used in the live presentation of her last album, Volta. This project has been going on since 2003 and depending on the moves given, it produces music or sound effects. Also in the music area, <a href="http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_overview.php">Lemur</a> is already being sold to the public.</p>

<center><img src="http://citywall.org/images/people-in-front-of-display.jpg" alt="CityWall" style="height:200px; width: 360px;" /></center>

<p>There is also another art form of multi-touching that can be seen in Helsinki. It&#8217;s called <a href="http://citywall.org/pages/about">CityWall</a> and acts as a collaborative and playful interface for the everchanging media landscape of the city. It gathers information regarding the city in Flickr and Youtube, so everyone can have their content displayed there. Another impressive device is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKehq6qsdY&amp;mode=related&amp;search=">iBar</a>, maybe the largest multi-touch screen made so far!</p>

<center><img src="http://www.istartedsomething.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/stevehodgestouchlaptop.jpg" alt="Microsoft Multi-Touch Laptop" /><img src="http://images.macrumors.com/article/2007/07/05/mmouse_300.png" alt="Microsoft Multi-Touch Laptop" /></center>

<p>As for the future, Microsoft is researching a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulwA3n8AYM0">multi-touch laptop</a> [2] and seems that Apple patented the <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/07/05/apple_may_extend_multi_touch_to_computer_mice.html">multi-touch mouse</a>.<br />
Let&#8217;s see and wait.</p>

<p>[1] I wont right the name in the right form because I dont want to be a part of the hype. In my opinion, the product has this new things ( Multi-touch, Full-safari on the thing, Pretty design user-oriented) but there are things that dont make sense for such a promising produt like no copy+past (this one is simply stupid! Even the first nokia symbian had it!), 3G and a <span class="caps">SDK</span>. That&#8217;s why between and iPh0ne and my TyTN, I&#8217;d still keep my <span class="caps">PDA</span>.</p>

<p>[2] Quoting  his first words: &#8221;...It&#8217;s a completely new technology we&#8217;ve been developing here..&#8221;</p>