Report: Apple Snow Leopard takes swipe at location, multi-touch features

Apple reportedly is gearing up to offer location and multi-touch developer tools in its Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system, according to a report in AppleInsider

The geolocation tools will take a page from the iPhone software development kit (SDK), by way of the CoreLocation framework, according to AppleInsider. The CoreLocation works inconjunction with the Mac's networking hardware, aiming to provide a GPS-like experience.

Apple's next generation OS will also provide developers with programing interfaces that are Cocoa-based, as a means to maximize the use of the multi-touch features within the MacBook and MacBook Pro applications, AppleInsider notes.

[Super2online]

Interesting. Wonder how the Apple fans will spin this after being so critical of Microsoft Surface and Windows 7 multi-touch capabilites. I read so many comments about how mult-touch on a monitor is so worthless, and counter intuitive. That there is only a need for this on a hand held device. But hey, I think it's a good idea, and glad to see Apple agrees.

[jandler]

don't forget the geo location feature
when it was first announced and demo by MS, the tech press, bloggers and commentators basically massacred MS on that feature; raising everything from questioning its usefulness to privacy issues.

[Perry_Clease]

The multi-touch may not be on the monitor, it may be for a "keyless" keyboard/touchpad device.

As one of the biggest Apple Fanboys around here I was not critical of Surface or Windows 7

[MPB]

I'm an Apple Fan and i think it's as you said a stupid idea to introduce multi-touch on a computer when you have a perfectly good key board and multi-touch mouse pad (if you have a Mac) and I think Apple Knows this. So knowing Apple I'd say they have another Macbook up their sleeves possibly in the form of a Tablet PC.

[Penguinisto]

You do realize there's a difference between multi-touch on a screen and one on a trackpad, right?

Hint: No one said anything about Apple and a multi-touch screen - that's just you talking, dude.

[seven7dust]

this really isn't muti-touch for touchscreens{it's for the touchpad}
Apple isn't as stupid as MS to do that !
Multi-touch is for phones
MS can try and promote their marketing gimmicks all they want
but in computers the Mouse will always reign supreme
which BTW was introduced by Apple in the 80's

[kelmon]

Indeed, this just opens up the new trackpads to 3rd party developers so that they can incorporate gestures performed on them into their applications. Touchscreen's are just a silly gimmick until computers are re-designed to make use of them as the primary input form.

This isn't "spin" - this is simply getting your facts straight and looking at things in an objective manner.

[jandler]

multi touch touchpad?

like the one in the Asus EEE PC 900? and the product belonging to fingerworks which were later acquired by apple?

[MPB]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10191526-1.html?tag=mncol

[myles taylor]

Interesting. I hope my computer can support all the new features otherwise I'll have to get a new computer. That would suck. :P

[Mikeatle]

It seems to me that the future of computing is going to be more about hand held devices than the old desktop/laptop paradigm. I wouldn't say that multi-touch on a monitor is worthless, but it does seem much better suited to a hand held device. Who knows.

[whizkid454]

Interesting... But Windows 7 already has this feature built-in as well.

[kelmon]

Well, if you want to be pedantic, OS X had it almost 2-years ago. However, this is NOT going to be what multi-touch is going to be on the desktop for Apple. Rather, it will simply enable users to perform gestures on the new large trackpads and for 3rd party applications to interpret them.

[ferretboy88]

Multi-touch was invented before I was even out of highschool. Think 1990. Steve Jobs didn't invent anything. Touch screens were invented before Apple was even a company. It makes me sick to see people walk around with their iphone and talk about how Apple invented the tech.

[joe3x]

They did invent the tech thats used on the iphone and on the ipod touch, no one said they invented the touchscreen but they invented that the device to use touchscreen the way it does, no device used touch the way there technology does, so yes they invented there "tech" Like saying someone invented a new way of making a developing car, is not an invention, you think henry ford didnt have inventive ideas? Just cause they make a device that utilizes different technologies doesnt mean its not an invention............there was light and glass before the light bulb but edison didnt invent nothing?

[bonesbautista]

@joe3x - Apple fan and iPhone owner here chiming in. Apple didn't invent the tech - they bought the company that did, Fingerworks, and incorporated multi-touch into their laptop trackpads and the iPhone/iPod Touch hardware.

Just sayin'.

[artistjoh]

Touch screens have been around, at least experimentally since the 1980's, and many devices have implemented touch technology including PDA's with a stylus, wacom tablets, supermarket cash registers and so on. Apple had little to do with that except for it's Newton project.

All of these are particular applications of touch technology and have certain features pertinent to each application. I presume most of them were patented in one way or another. None of them, however, are the multi-touch and gesture based interface that Apple introduced in the iPhone. Apple bought the fundamentals of it with fingerworks but the recent patent granted to Apple is fascinating for the wide range of talents both at Fingerworks and at Apple who are credited as co-inventors. Steve Jobs himself is on the list, interestingly enough (he is not normally on the list of inventors for other Apple patents) and the patent filings reveal how much multi-touch was a collaborative effort that included the top man at the company developing an implementation of the original idea far beyond what Fingerworks was working on before Apple purchased the company.

It is also clear that while many of the basic concepts existed as dreams and experiments and some aspects of using touch with fingers and stylus have been implemented, the implementation of such an all-encompassing gesture and multi-touch UI was not found on any device that was fully developed and sold to the public before the iPhone

[sythara]

When is it coming out? how much will it cost? Will it actually be useful in the business world? And of course, how long before you can slap the new OSX onto your eee and not have to pay 2Gs for a pretty case and a logo.

But seriously, multitouch? Whats next, MacBook Wheel?

[AndrewRich]

Wonder if my mid-08 MBP will support three-finger swipes with the upgrade.

[Brian]

Snow Leopard is gearing up to become the worlds most reliable operating system on the planet.

As for the GPS location, that would be awesome if (god forbid) your Macbook was stolen or lost.

As for the touch screen navigation, that is for the Macbook trackpad gestures (which can ONLY be found on a Macbook).

You don't have to be a fanboy to appreciate the products that Apple is producing.