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copied!<p>Apple bought the patent portfolio of a company called <a href="http://www.fingerworks.com/" title="FingerWorks">FingerWorks</a> so that it could build multitouch into its own devices. FingerWorks made a keyboard replacement called the TouchStream that was the single best input device I have ever owned.</p> <p><a href="http://www.fingerworks.com/images/frontlp.jpg">alt text http://www.fingerworks.com/images/frontlp.jpg</a></p> <p>As a keyboard, it allowed me to touch type at full speed with zero force required for a key "press" to register. The right half of the keyboard also acted as a mousepad, complete with left-, right-, and middle-click, double-click, etc. It included multi-finger gestures for cut, copy, paste, zoom in, zoom out, page up, page down, switching apps, and dozens of other common operations for which you'd ordinarily use key combos, special keys, or menus. It allowed me to attach macros to application-sensitive gestures - with a twitch of my left hand, I could compile the app I was working on in Visual C++; the same twitch did other things in other apps. A different twitch could be tied to another macro, or insert an HTML template, etc.</p> <p>My productivity was improved greatly by this device - I never had to move my hands away from the home row to use a mouse or to execute a gesture, and I could still use regular old Ctrl-Alt-Shift-foo key combos if I needed to (which of course one does, in emacs).</p> <p>I miss the TouchStream greatly, but unfortunately the mechanical design of the thing was fragile, and after the company disappeared I opted to sell the keyboard (for significantly more than I paid for it - the TouchStream enthusiast community is still out there) rather than put up with an unplanned breakage.</p> <p>All this to say: Those who pooh-pooh the idea of multi-touch being the primary interface - <em>especially</em> for programmers - have simply not seen it done well. I have. And I'm ready for it to come back.</p>

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