Windows 7 Multi-touch demo at D6 Conference

Martin | May 28, 2008 | Comments

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windows 7 multi-touch

We announced a few days ago that Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer will make an appearance at the D6 Conference demonstrating the new user interface of Windows 7.

Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green had the honor to do the demonstration saying that Microsoft is using part of the multi-touch technology from Microsoft Surface to enhance Windows 7. The operating system the demonstration is running on is a Dell Latitude XL with Windows 7.

This demonstration is basically showing how Microsoft Surface could enhance Windows 7 on computers. It’s still a bit early to judge if this feature will have a big impact and how it will be implemented into Windows 7. I think that monitors with touch support will still be a minority in 2010 when Windows 7 comes out. Great for notebooks or other mobile devices though.

Here are some quotes from the interview with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer: (click for full transcript)

  • Windows 7 is apparently months away, due late in 2009.
  • Walt asks Ballmer if he’s worried about the next iteration of Mac OS X, which will likely be released before Windows 7. Is there a risk that the work you’re doing now with multi-touch will look dated when Apple (AAPL) releases its next OS?
    Ballmer says he’s confident Microsoft will have fantastic Windows 7 PCs, regardless of what Apple’s got on the market. “There’s a lot in Windows 7, and our goal is to produce fantastic PCs with our hardware partners.”
  • The conversation turns to Windows 7, which Microsoft hasn’t said too much about. Clearly, the company has learned from the media beating it took over the defeatured and perennially delayed Windows Vista. Indeed, in a post to the Windows Vista blog today, Microsoft’s Chris Flore noted that Microsoft is being very careful about releasing details about Windows 7. “What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows,” Flore wrote. “So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we’re trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience.”
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About the Author: Martin Brinkmann is an Online Journalist from Germany who discovered his love for technology in high school. He is currently working as a freelancer for several publications and runs his own Internet website Ghacks

  • Matthew
    Well, nothing too exciting. I'm a Windows user, never really used any Apple stuff other than an Ipod, but...let's be honest. The iPod Touch is the best media player on the market, and the iPhone utilized the touch screen as well. Don't you think they would've started incorporating it into computers if they thought it would boost sales? This is just more Microsoft greed: hey, we messed up Vista and all of that hardware jazz, so to fix it, we're going to create an OS with virtually the same hardware requirements, except now, we're going to coerce people into going out and buying $3000 touch screens. But heyyy, now you can run Windows 95 apps!

    I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft started holding hands with an LCD company. Meanwhile, NVidia and Intel are threatening to bail as partners or go over to Apple. Intel will leave when Microsoft abandons XP, because the new cheap laptops that are being distributed to third world countries (and are soon coming to America) require low system resource operations, which can only be granted by XP or Linux. If Microsoft doesn't push back the XP expiration, Intel will split. And NVidia and ATI are both looking at Apple to start producing graphics for a rumored new line of systems.
  • Michael
    Hmm... this all looks very familiar...
    Oh, that's right! The iPhone has exactly the same thing!
    I know people say Microsoft rip off Apple nowadays, but this is just too obvious.
    Yay Microsoft is dying!
  • Oli
    The only decent operating system Microsoft has ever made is Windows 2000. XP was just a poor mans version of 2000. Everything else they have ever made is sh*te. Windows 7 needs to be extremely good, because Mac at the moment is a generation past Microsoft and Linux is becoming a viable alternative fro people who want to use generic hardware. The foundations of Linux and OS X are UNIX and so the base of windows 7 needs to be as rock solid and efficient. 
    Features like this touch screen are very nice, but they look very much in their infancy. Given Microsoft's track record a touch screen PC is going to be even more buggy and unstable than their usual cr*p. Apple if they release a tablet PC will destroy a Microsoft Tablet since theirs will actually work and will be easy to use.
    What would cause Microsoft to completely dominate the industry in the future would be for them to use UNIX. Then they get all the networking, security and years of open source development for free. That would be a perfect OS, one that has the power and efficiency of Linux, but which will run Windows legacy programmes as well asÂ
  • I found this announcement disappointing, actually.  Did anybody actually ask for this?  Will this help the vast majority of users in any real productive capacity?  Not even a little bit.
    I was hoping that with all the screaming about instability, incompatibility, bloat and sluggishness of Vista, MS would look to W7 as a way to remedy the flaws that have been building for years now.  Use this opportunity to correct past mistakes, and make Windows slimmer, faster, and more stable.
    Instead, they are still in the mode of adding yet more features that, while flashy, and offering a Wow moment for the casual observer, add nothing in the way of usable functionality.
    I agree completely with Oli above, base the next Windows on UNIX with virtualization for backward compatibility, and get on with it.  Apple has more functionality and security, while using far fewer resources than Windows will ever be capable of because of the UNIX base that is the core of OSX. 
    End the bloat!

    Jeff Fine
    Carson City, NV
  • Mike Holloway
    Microsoft had the Surface technology in R&D long before there were even rumors that Apple was making a cell phone. Microsoft never decided to patent their idea, and they had no way to implement it fast enough to beat Apple to the punch, Jobs was smarter about it.

    So, like many other Apple Fboys who merely regurgitate what they're fed by Apple marketing, know what you're talking about before you post " Michael ".
  • Mandar Shukla
    No tech firm invests in R&D without inherent intention of patenting everything that comes out of this department. I doubt about the windows 7 though! MS is trying to implement things that are not required or be qualified as part of "OS", while ignoring the basic "Core" functionality of providing a stable Operating System.  Everyone knows the track record.. right ??

    What good is an Operating System, if it becomes hardware specific, in this open world where variety and choice is the essence of it ?
  • I can't wait much !!!
    Microsoft is always better

    Go.. Go.. My Microsoft (:
  • Kam
    @4 and @5

    what the hell is wrong with you people? in fact what the hell is wrong with everyone? "MS ripping off apple, this and that, blah blah blah"

    Dont you realise that any good idea comes from SOMEWHERE first and that people then incorporate that idea on new products? Sorry to burst your bubble but apple DID NOT invent the touch screen.

    All i have to say is GROW THE HELL UP.

    And no, MS isnt dying. Im not an MS fanboy, i dont give a damn about them. But they make my computer run games and software. So they provide me a service. And as long as there are people like me that need it they are never going to die.

    Nerds liek you just think this whole thing is bigger than it is. Grow up, grow a brain, and get a Life.
  • I love my iphone usability so the quicker they bring it to PC the better for me. It is so easy to use it is the obvious next step in pc development.
  • Ram
    Agree with @11, these Mac users think they are really cool. What a tard!! Apple sucks Windows 7 will be the best OS out there
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