Motorola MILESTONE now official: multitouch, but no Google Maps Navigator
Good news for Android 2.0 hungry Europeans this early afternoon as Motorola has officially announced the European (read: GSM/UMTS) version of the DROID. Dubbed the Motorola MILESTONE, the two handsets appear to be identical spec wise save for the obvious differences in cellular radios. Oddly enough, the MILESTONE will feature one thing on every DROID lovers wish list — multitouch. The reason why the MILESTONE has multitouch while its American cousin does not isn’t clear, but the general feeling is this is directly related to some intellectual property that Apple might or might not own. If any American’s are feeling a bit snookered by this, they can take comfort knowing that they still have the market cornered on Google Maps Navigation as the MILESTONE will instead come pre-loaded with MOTONAV in its place. Italy and Germany will be the first European nations to get the Motorola MILESTONE, with the handset being available from The Phone House, O2 and Vodafone in the latter country starting November 9th.Read
Couldn’t Google Maps Nav still be installed on it?
… and 1 day after its released, cooked ROMs will be released for the Droid users that add pinch-zooming to the browser.
Also, can we please stop referring to pinch-zooming/gestures as “multitouch”? It’s a facet of it, and just plain incorrect – the Droid will have it, but users will only see its effects on the on-screen keyboard.
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so there is for sure gonna be a way to do pinch zoom on the droid after it comes out? because I am gonna preorder it at best buy tomorrow whether it can or not, but I like pinch zoom much more than any phone with just double tap zoom, haha sorry I’m kinda new to all of this, thx
P.S. after it comes out if there is somewhere to download the pinch/zoom rom can you email me the link? thx so much
With Google using Teleatlas maps, I’d bet TomTom (Teleatlas’ owner) had something to say about the Google Mobile Maps TOS in Europe, especially since the relevant Google announcement led to the tanking of TomTom’s stock last week… Just sayin’.
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no man, google maps nav doesn’t do europe
Word Up Mr. S! Multi-touch and pinch zoom are not synonymous. People need to lay off the fruit…
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It seems odd that in Europe where “big brother” is more tolerated that they seem a bit hesitant to let Skynet…errr Google have as much capability with respect to tracking and gps technologies.
Also today announced for Argentina:
http://www.motorola-rm.com/grp/v2.1/campaigns/Sholes-PR/arg/default.asp?callingpage=OTHER&keywords=pressrelease
For me, Google Maps Navigation is not nearly as practical or desired as multi-fingered gestures. I might use GMN once in a while but I’d use gestures every day (and as the owner of an iPod Touch, I can say that and mean it).
I hope we can expect to see “Jailbreaking for Dummies: DROID Edition” in the near future.
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Correction: “Jailbreaking for Dummies: YOU!”
Lay off the fruit! Not everything need jailbreaking. You’d been chain by iDon”t for too long…
the droid has multi touch capability, its just not implemented in the browser.
so developers can add multitouch to apps with out needing to root the device
One of the reasons I’m not moving to Verizon just yet (Currently with Sprint and AT&T) for the Droid. No multi touch in the browser is a huge turn off for me and the somewhat mediocre key board have me wanting to wait for HTC’s new offering.
They certainly know how to get it right and have a good track record for updates. Moto, I’m not so sure of.
How about they realesa a GSM versión for the US, that’s what they need to do.
its coming… hold your horses
:0)
Glad to see that pinch-zooming is available on the Euro version. That should mean that within a week of its release in Europe we should have it running smoothly in the States. It probably won’t even need a cooked ROM, perhaps an install for the browser on the Euro version.
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For the record, pinch/zoom is not the only advantage of multi-touch. Multi-touch also makes typing on a virtual keyboard MUCH easier, because we often overlap keystrokes (i.e. press a second key before letting up on the first one), so without multi-touch, keystrokes can be easily missed.
That said, I don’t believe the bit about Apple owning exclusive rights to multi-touch in the US one bit. Why? Because HTC’s Sense UI, found on Sprint’s Hero and the Droid Eris, has multi-touch capability. Perhaps not globally, but HTC has implemented custom versions of the keyboard and browser apps, at the very least, that support the different aspects of multi-touch described above. If Apple owned exclusive rights to that in the US, HTC couldn’t legally distribute those handsets. No, there must be some other reason.
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HTC might have licensed the technology from Apple.
Droid has multitouch implemented for the keyboard
I agree with brad not having multi touch will screw up typing also not only zooming and gestures as found in many third party productivity or utilty apps.
Doesn’t the storm even use multi touch?
the droid and android 2.0 support all multitouch gestures. the pinch zoom just isn’t implemented in the US browser.
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What I’ve read several times (and has been stated again by people above) is that the Droid DOES have multitouch. It’s utilized in the virtual keyboard. But it does not utilize multitouch for browser & map zooming in the form of pinching.
Even BGR mentioned at one point that multitouch can be used for zooming in on maps by a double-fingered touch. This is multitouch, but not the pinch gesture.
I think BGR kind of messed up their wording in this post… thus adding to some confusion here.
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The storm has had multitouch support since it was first released – it was used primarily for copying and pasting. The keyboard finally gained the capability to accept the input with the version 5.0 release, allowing for an increased typing speed.
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*sigh* Once again, pinch-zoom and multitouch are NOT the same thing. Reviewers and bloggers saying that Droid lacks multitouch are WRONG. DROID DOES SUPPORT MULTITOUCH (it’s programmed into Android 2.0). If Droid didn’t support it, Milestone wouldn’t support it. Droid does not, however, have pinch-zoom integrated into the browser.
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Look, here is my take on the situation. First off, Android 2.0 DOES support multitouch. It’s in the keyboard. It just isn’t implemented into the browser. Apple has a patent on the pinch-zoom gesture, but it is a weak patent. So why does HTC with SenseUI, Microsoft in the Zune HD, etc., use pinch-zoom and Google doesn’t? Well, in my opinion, it’s very simple. Microsoft and HTC are in direct competition with Apple. Therefore, it is advantageous for them to use pinch-zoom and step on Apple’s toes. Apple’s patent is weak, so it’s not worth their time in litigation fees to sue them over it. However, Google wants to play nice with Apple so they can release their apps in their app store. If they develop a bad relationship, Apple can hold that over Google’s head. Get it guys? It’s advantageous for Google to respect Apple while it is advantageous for others to step on Apple’s toes. That’s my commonsensical approach to this situation. It’s also why Motorola can add it to a GSM version – it’s probably not a Google experience device, so Motorola can mess with it a bit. The US CDMA version IS a Google experience device, so Google can tell Motorola they’re not allowed to touch it. Common sense.
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actually im pretty sure apple owns the rights to multi touch.. but they are so late to the party most wireless companies have more patent leverage
@ celz. Exactly.
@chocotaco.
Google and apple don’t play nice they pulled out of each others board and apple still denied google voice after the FCC came at them and they still held firm.
Really sucks that T-Mobile couldn’t get this instead of the Cliq. Spec wise this device is far superior than the Cliq and Verizon is charging the same $199?? Sending my Cliq back as I write this. Come on T-Mobile!!!
I was at a Verizon store today and got to try out the Droid, great phone, can’t wait to dump my Iphone. Oh, and I was told that pinch to zoom is coming on launch day, not sure how accurate that is but the sales people told me that.
Pinch zoom from the Euro version would make buying the Droid a definite for me.
Anyone know the programming difficulty behind this? I assume someone would have to figure out how to root the Droid first.
As of now I am on the border. Motorola are morons for not adding this, but what do you expect from a company that went from number one to near bankruptcy.
I wonder if people will be able to put the Sony Rachael UI on the droid or the Sense for 2.0 when it comes out?
i’ll stick to N900 for now
@ Justin
Yes, their app was denied because it mirrored functionality of the stock user interface. So why piss them off more? You’re only going to hurt yourself in the future.
Why don’t they just make their own gesture?? Clockwise circle/spiral zooms in… the more you spiral, the more the zoom. Counter-clockwise zooms out. You could do it with one hand (which would be an improvement over the pinch zoom), you could change focus mid-gesture on where to zoom in/out simply by moving the center point of the gesture, and there is no question whether it infringes on any patents (they could get their own patent on it).
@gwlaw99: I believe the code for pinch-to-zoom is in the official Android source…. just commented out, so it’s not exactly a difficult change to support it.
spiral zoom is a great idea
Yeah I’m not defending anyone.
@nul7
yeah spiral zoom I could see that. You should work for them.
Where’s that Droid review, BGR? I swear you are dragging it out in order to get more page hits so you can charge more for the ads. That’s what I would do