Got a Nokia 5800? Then you can get multitouch. Sort of. The technology might be totally patented by Apple, but third party developers are still eager to get it working on other manufacturers’ hardware. the Nokia 5800 is the latest to allow multitouch input. See it in action after the break.
Multitouch isn’t strictly meant to be possible on the Nokia 5800 due to the Resistive touch screen employed by the phone (as opposed to the multitouch friendly Capacitive screen of the iPhone). Luckily, Symbian coder Jamie Fuller isn’t one to let mere physics get in the way of a cool hack.
Jamie has put together ‘multitouch-like’ technology on his Nokia 5800 using some clever programming. This came about while he was trying to write a simple Gutar Hero clone for the phone, but since single-touch devices like the Nokia 5800 tend to make such games rather dull, he realised he needed multitouch to hit simultaneous notes.
Jamie is keeping his cards close to his chest at the moment, so we have no idea how he managed this (and would have no real clue about how to reproduce it anyway, frankly) but hopefully his brand of multitouch will avoid any entanglements with Apple’s lawyers and make its way to some more apps and games.
Here is a quick video clip of Jamie demonstrating the game:
TBC | £tbc | via Symbian Freak
