Video: HTC's Touch Diamond / Pro are multi-touch gods, just not how you'd think

While multi-touch input might be all the rage in handhelds and laptop trackpads at the moment, alas, it's not on the feature list for HTC's latest Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. However, the capability is indeed present and exploited on video by HTC's own debug application. Even more interesting is the way that the handsets' entire front, capacitive surface (not just the 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 pixel display) can be used for multi-finger input. So like Dell's Latitude XT Tablet which launched multi-touch ready, expect to see future, multi-touch capabilities come to HTC's latest... someday. Click through for the vid.

[Thanks, Marios S.]

[Bhavishya Kanjhan @ Aug 20th 2008 5:32AM]

HTC continues to make it harder for me to resist the Touch Pro =(

[Techie @ Aug 20th 2008 9:30AM]

There's not a lot of stuff you're going to use the multi-touch for if you think about it so what's the point again?

[JerryA @ Aug 20th 2008 11:26AM]

@Techie: I would use it for all the things I currently use my old Titan for: syncing with work email/tasks/contacts/calendar, making phone calls, mp3 player, web browser, wifi modem, (in a pinch) camera, gps, etc.

This just does it with more resources so it's smoother and nicer to use. The only reason I'm not getting one is because I'm waiting for some Android devices to ship before buying a new device.

[JerryA @ Aug 20th 2008 11:28AM]

@Techie: OK, I am the dumb ass. I read your post so fast and I am so used to the stupid mobile flame wars that I missed the part about multitouch. I apologize for the flamish response.

[Meridimus @ Aug 20th 2008 12:49PM]

What does the HTC offer in the way of multi-touch? Of course — nothing

[ByronGman @ Aug 20th 2008 1:46PM]

So how about Engadget gives some of these away?!?!?!?!


Maybe I get one for having the great idea? :-D

[j_g_puff @ Aug 20th 2008 5:34AM]

Provided that it came with that demo app, I would purchase the hell out of that phone.

[Seanross @ Aug 20th 2008 5:42AM]

I see your not hard to please :)

[Ryan Trevisol @ Aug 20th 2008 5:55AM]

"So, your phone has multi-touch?"
"Heck yeah!"
"So . . . . what can you do with it?
"I can use this wicked awesome debug app!"

[j_g_puff @ Aug 20th 2008 6:00AM]

Well, just think how many geek kudos you could get with that thing!

[1234321 @ Aug 20th 2008 9:03AM]

I don't get HTC's strategy, they pack in more capabilties than they advertise
first the ATi GPU they don't include drivers for
now multi touch which they don't use

[Ravi @ Aug 20th 2008 5:39AM]

I'm not sure whether its possible,but when android is released can i install it on the Diamond/Touch Pro?
And will it be able to take advantage of these multi touch capabilities(providing google updates android for this)

[t3hethan @ Aug 20th 2008 6:14AM]

With the right code, yes. I don't know how hard it'd be though. Ask the guys who got it to work on the Nokia MID.

[Stevil @ Aug 20th 2008 1:04PM]

Catch up on xda-developers.org. There's a thread in Diamond ROM Development about Linux/Android. It's already partially working on a Kaiser, but they're still working out a way for the kernel to play friendly with the newer chipset.

[Nate @ Aug 20th 2008 2:24PM]

Anyone have more thoughts on this? I was wondering the same thing.

[w4rh34rt @ Aug 20th 2008 5:47AM]

Anyone have any ideas on why they didn't include all this when they released the phone? Or was it a case of it just not being fully working when the phones were released?

[Bhavishya Kanjhan @ Aug 20th 2008 6:20AM]

I think it might be because of lack of support for multi touch in WM6.

[Sean @ Aug 20th 2008 1:00PM]

Probably because apple patented multi-touch on portable devices.

[Josh @ Aug 20th 2008 6:03AM]

SO are we expected to be excited by that? Fabulous performance...

[Anoldcarsnickname @ Aug 20th 2008 6:05AM]

I love how the app has to load for 5 seconds in the beginning. That's what the Diamond is all about.

[Ayle @ Aug 20th 2008 8:55PM]

I love how VNC Mocha Lite takes 7 seconds to load on my iPhone... What was your point again?

[Maurits Dijkstra @ Aug 24th 2008 8:40AM]

That this is a small demo app and not a full-blown VNC client? Does the iPhone calculator take 5 seconds to start?

[Firefox @ Aug 20th 2008 4:52PM]

I find the HTC diamond truly slow. Input reactions really lag and even normal things go painfully slow. Do not buy this for the looks !

[Tonicboy @ Aug 20th 2008 6:34AM]

Are you at least saying that based on the new firmware that contains performance enhancements? Not that I ever expect the machine would be a speed demon (nor is any other WinMo phone I've ever used), but just want to be clear what your baseline is.

[Mark Anderson @ Aug 20th 2008 7:18AM]

I tried the iPhone 3G and the HTC Diamond (actually the MDA Compact IV which is the European T-mobile variant) and the difference in speed was negligible - the iPhone loads the app quicker but then you just stare at a screen for a second or two whilst it churns in the background whereas the Diamond takes a couple of seconds to launch but is instantly available.

Just the Omnia to check out and then a purchase shall be made!

[Tankut @ Aug 20th 2008 8:05AM]

The 1.93 firmware update works wonders for those lags. Get it at HTC Club.. Be sure to make a backup before the update though.

(I suggest the PIM Backup for those SMS/MMS messages and the call log)

[Matt @ Aug 20th 2008 6:12AM]

Hm... the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro got Multitouch in 1/12 the time it took the iPhone to get Cut/Copy/Paste

...

That just speaks volumes.

[Kennyb123 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:45PM]

Since the iPhone doesn't yet have copy/cut/paste - how can you put a timeline on when they got it?

Apple screwed the pooch on leaving that feature out, and since they are not remotely concerned about it, why would they add it now?

[Kit @ Aug 20th 2008 6:17AM]

HTC Touch Diamond to Windows Mobile 7: I'm waiting for you!

[Philip Hofstetter @ Aug 20th 2008 6:34AM]

... and it lags like hell. As usual with Windows Mobile.

No matter how polished they make stuff look, no matter how many features they put inside. It's always slow as hell.

Philip

[purezerg @ Aug 20th 2008 6:54AM]

at least WinMo doesnt drop calls on you.

[getStringFromObj() @ Aug 20th 2008 9:27AM]

Ok, it *was* slow, but they released a new rom to fix that. The iphone had some lagging keyboard issues, but they released a new rom. Pamela Anderson had normal sized boobs, and had some sort of rom upgrade. Just because something had an issue out of the box, doesn't mean they can't fix it and make it better.

[matt @ Aug 20th 2008 6:39AM]

That Windows Mobile TEST software lags less than the iPhone 3G.

[purezerg @ Aug 20th 2008 6:55AM]

i own a diamond myself. mine isnt as laggy as that set.
the diamond is so flexible with firmware updates. the best part is they are user firmware updates, created by users.

current GSM firmware 1.00.25.05 changes your phone from a triband to quadband.

[chansthename @ Aug 20th 2008 7:16AM]

I love it when there's some functions that are not documented that have been implimented. It just boosts my opinion of the company and shows that there was some thought in design.

[Tankut @ Aug 20th 2008 8:08AM]

Can't see the video - anybody have an alternate link?

[gazz @ Aug 20th 2008 9:40AM]

Don’t bother watching it... I’ll summarise it here.

... some dude waits a good few seconds for an app to load, when it does... he uses his finger to draw circles on the touch area of the phone and in something reminiscent of an etch-a-sketch the screen displayed something that did not resemble a circle in any way... more like an octagon or other non-circle geometric shape

[diglett @ Aug 20th 2008 9:04AM]

Is the entire front surface capacitive as engadget says? It looks as if only the bottom section of the phone is.

[austin @ Aug 20th 2008 9:50AM]

yeah, i was much less impressed when i watched the video.

[freediverdude @ Aug 20th 2008 10:03AM]

What is the difference between this multi-touch and the multi-touch on the iPhone? The iPhone one is supposedly patented.

[Phoenix @ Aug 20th 2008 12:55PM]

You can't patent the idea of multi-touch, only the gestures you implement it with

[Jubei @ Aug 20th 2008 11:48AM]

Hilarious. What an awkward UI. It take real R&D to develop a fluid UI for such devices. Simply emulating Apple and its excellent UI for the iPhone/Touch is not enough to produce a quality device. Perhaps that is fine, after all the target audience for such a subpar product are Zune owners and WinMo users. For that group, a cell phone from the 80's would be good enough.

[Kennyb123 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:49PM]

You like to get a rise out of us, don't you?

You're comment is so idiotic, I'll just say this...

You enjoy your iPhone, I'll enjoy my HTC Touch Pro. And we can enjoy what we enjoy without name-calling and immaturity.

[Mark @ Aug 20th 2008 2:00PM]

I know! All debugging software used purely for the company's own internal tests should have a flawless user-friendly UI.

[Hacker @ Aug 20th 2008 12:09PM]

What's the name of the song in the video? It's awful.

[Jeff @ Aug 20th 2008 12:47PM]

"Multi-touch Gods"?

wtf?

so it can handle basic laggy multi-touch in a debug app... how the FUCK does that make it a "Multi-touch God"?

You guys are getting more and more annoying with your hit-whoring titles.

[fh @ Aug 20th 2008 1:28PM]

Is it laggy because the hardware is unresponsive, or because the debug app is polling the sensors at a slow rate? My guess is you didn't take the time to think it through, hence ending up with a short-sighted comment.

I mean, it's not like the single-touch in the debug app was any better, and yet there are plenty of videos showing that single-touch is perfectly capable of fluid movements in actual end-user apps (Opera browser zooming, etc).

[Phoenix @ Aug 20th 2008 12:59PM]

Ahhh... I think I understand what Engadget don't

We know that the d-pad "click" is capacitive because of the way it works in the camera. I'm guessing from this that the WHOLE bottom plate, below the screen, is capacitive. I have heard of people coding gestures on the d-pad, this confirms it. You get multitouch on the "button" area, not the screen.

Engadget, hire me before it's too late.

[AlexL @ Aug 20th 2008 1:59PM]

That seems to be accurate. However you can't blame Engadget completely for this mistake. The original posting does state that the entire front of the device is capacitive. However in the video they only experimented with the bottom part below the screen, and not the entire front. Clearly, the original poster is either confused, or deliberately deceiving us. We already know that the screen itself on the Diamond/Pro is resistive, because a capacitive device won't accept stylus inputs. We also know that the bottom part is capacitive, so that it can work as a proximity sensor to focus the camera. The original posting made an unconfirmed claim that the whole thing is capacitive. Now granted, any legitimate news source would have to verify such things before reporting them, but when has Engadget ever done something like that?

[Ali Al-Kharouf @ Aug 20th 2008 4:09PM]

I see Windows Mobile 7 potential here!