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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,297
30,382


This tip may prove useful to some. Forum user, technocoy noticed that the Safari on the iPhone intercepts a double-finger scroll differently than the usual single-touch scroll.

One issue for some web applications, including David Cann's iPhoneChat (iPhone Link) is the inability to scroll framed elements. In iPhoneiChat, this means users are unable to scroll long buddy lists with a simple finger drag. However, if you apply two fingers and scroll upward, the buddy list scrolls appropriately.

Per Ajaxian, Joe Hewitt has been trying to capture this event and has posted a small demo page which shows that you can drag an object (vertically only) with the double-finger scrolling on the iPhone.

Meanwhile, through some of the efforts involved in hacking the iPhone, there has been evidence that the iPhone may support up to three finger events. One event is named "tripleFingerGestureTriggered". All documented iPhone mutlitouch functionality to date has been limited to two discrete points.
 

technocoy

macrumors 6502a
Sep 4, 2002
765
0
Raleigh, NC
I'd bet the triple finger gesture could be used for rotating a photo for example.

I'm wondering what other gestures apple may begin to incorporate.

This is getting exciting. If someone hacks the ringtones I'll be happy until apple give us a good update I think. I really miss my CTU and Batman ringtones.
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
I'd bet the triple finger gesture could be used for rotating a photo for example.

I'm wondering what other gestures apple may begin to incorporate.

This is getting exciting. If someone hacks the ringtones I'll be happy until apple give us a good update I think. I really miss my CTU and Batman ringtones.

Ringtone hacks look like they are coming. So you should be happy.
 

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,559
1,246
Cascadia
I noticed that if you scroll in Safari with two fingers, it doesn't have 'momentum' when you go off the edge of the screen like it does when you scroll with only one finger.
 

juststranded

macrumors regular
Oct 6, 2006
150
0
When you say "framed" doe you mean as in HTML frames? If so, what about using DIV layers? Do they scroll correctly with one finger?
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
I'd bet the triple finger gesture could be used for rotating a photo for example.

Good guess, that would be mine too. Two fingers to set a pivot (of sorts), adding the third enables you to twist. It could be done with just two fingers, but it would be too difficult to differentiate between pinch & rotate.

The two-finger scroll could be just to provide support for scrolling framed lists, but I reckon it's something more. It seems a rather obvious, generic gesture to use for something so specific and limited in scope.

I'd love to see if/how they would address dragging an item. With vertical & horizontal flicks already used for scrolling, switching between Safari windows, deleting items from lists etc. how can they differentiate a "drag" action? (I'm assuming they'll need to!)

They could use: tap, then tap & hold to start selecting (such as dragging in a text box to select text). Then, once the text is selected, any tap inside the selection starts dragging, any tap outside de-selects.
 

n8rpat8r

macrumors newbie
Jun 27, 2007
15
0
There needs to be a 'home' trigger. I'm tired of hitting the mechanical button already. 3 fingers would be great for that.
 

suzerain

macrumors regular
Oct 5, 2000
197
0
Beijing, China
software limits it

Just thought it relevant to point out that the hardware (the glass screen/coating from Balda) apparently supports up to 15 discrete "touches" simultaneously. Apple have probably limited it via software, but the potential exists for more comples interactions down the road.
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
Just thought it relevant to point out that the hardware (the glass screen/coating from Balda) apparently supports up to 15 discrete "touches" simultaneously. Apple have probably limited it via software, but the potential exists for more comples interactions down the road.

Why does the song "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" keep coming to me. :p
 

clancemasterj

macrumors regular
Jan 31, 2007
161
21
Somewhere outside of time.
Finger Gestures

While in iPod mode in portrait mode, draging your finger right on the album art will take you back to the song selection menu. This is much easier than tapping the arrow at the top. I don't know if it works anywhere else but I'm looking.
 

ajhill

macrumors 6502
May 2, 2007
268
0
Is it just me...

Is it just me, or does anyone else find the drag slider for songs and videos a little tough to operate. I try and backup say, 1 minute in a movie and I usually just end up jumping all over the place.

What I would really like to see is a flicking gesture for movies. It would go something like this...

If I missed something in a scene and wanted to backup, say 1 minute, I would just take my finger on the screen and flick it from right to left. A slow flick would be 30 seconds and a quick flick would be two minutes.

This would be awesome!!!

Are you listening Apple???
 
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