Even though the focus of this blog at this point is mostly on the Android 2.1 update of the X10 family I have something else I would like to share with you.
There has also been lots of rumors around this and I just want to clarify what we’re working on and what to expect.
(I will continue posting information on the current SW-update roll-out after this!)
As many of you know, just before the release of the Xperia X10 we saw lots of discussions around any potential support for multi touch.
Myself and Sumit were then very clear on the fact that there were no plans of having X10 supporting multi touch and said so here on this blog mainly to not have you guys hoping for things that just wasn’t planned.
Since then, because of the huge reaction to this and the real desire for multi touch expressed by you the users, there has been lots of investigations going on and I now have some good news to disclose. We aim to enable multi touch (pinch zoom) in an over-the-air update for the X10. The timing for this update is still a bit work in progress but it will for most markets be during Q1 next year.
What has happened is that some brilliant engineers actually was able to change the driver and firmware for the touch digitizer to make some multi touch gestures work. We are still working on perfecting the user experience and I will keep you updated as work progresses.
I also want to be clear on what to expect from this feature. The digitizer in the X10 is not perfect when it comes to multi touch, there will as an example be situations like when the movement of the two fingers cross each other on the X- or Y-axis that could cause strange behavior. (There has been much online debating around what is “good” and “bad” Multi Touch in competitor phones and this is following the same lines.)
Therefore we also will not enable it everywhere but the current plan is to enable it for the following use-cases:
- Pinch/Zoom in the web browser.
- Pinch/Zoom in Google Maps.
Besides that there is also support in third party applications but because of the limitations on e.g. crossing axis there might be situations where it behaves strangely while it will work just fine for most use-cases.
The support is basically for gestures like pinch/zoom so don’t expect e.g. multi touch gaming with buttons pressed simultaneously on different parts of the screen to work.
Let me know if you have specific multi touch enabled apps you want me to test!
Below is a video where I show some of the use-cases and what to expect on a prototype SW in my X10.
By Vangelis
17th November 2010.
14:50
Rickard, Sony Ericsson should pay you as much as all the other employees are paid together! You are the only one that takes care of their customers!
1 
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By Blakjak.au
17th November 2010.
14:50
Fantastic to see… some faith in SE restored on this one!
1 0
By Mr.Harry Topper
17th November 2010.
14:51
Brian.
I think the Auto Brightness is there when you use the Power Control Widget. You can toggle b/w Low Auto and Max by tapping on the sun icon.
1 0
By Bonnie
17th November 2010.
14:52
@RIKARD THANK UUUU
PLEASE CHECK ANGRY BIRDS!!!!!
ANGRY BIRDSS
1 0
By NZ
17th November 2010.
14:54
So it was a lie at first place that there is no hardware support…
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By hey
17th November 2010.
14:54
Thanks Rikard
.
Pleae continue to reform Sony because there is so much errors you did lately and you continue to do, even if we warned you for months:
.
http://gizmodo.com/5669954/how-much-longer-is-sony-ericsson-going-to-be-around
.
http://www.mobile-review.com/review/sonyericsson-x12-en.shtml
.
About the X12, I think Sony is again making is big mistake:
16/9 sucks on mobile phone
we need larger phone, not longer ones
the best ratio is 5/3, as the HD
if you don’t believe me, just compare a HTC Desire Hd with the X12 and you will instantly understand why the screen ratio of the X12 sucks.
1 0
By Liberator
17th November 2010.
14:55
Not that I’ve been holding out for MT because I really dont need it (double tap works fine for me), this is still good news as it shows SE are still supporting the X10. If they are working on MT then it stands a good chance that they are working on 2.2 also 
1 0
By sub0
17th November 2010.
14:56
@Rikard: sounds like good news for a change although what happened to the supposed development of an alternate way of zooming in the x10? I think there were some videos on Youtube published by SE themselves demoing one finger zooming without double tapping (something like a long press and dragging the finger up and down the screen if I remember right)? has that been shelved?
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By lghost
17th November 2010.
15:03
@sub0 yeah~i saw that too, i think compare to the pinch and zoom, long press and drag are same as cool as pinch and zoom, i hope there is a feature similar with press and drag too.
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By steven
17th November 2010.
15:06
Too little too late.
.
But this is how it should have been from the start, listen to your customers.
.
The staff know their jobs are in jeopardy, so are squirming at the last possible minute.
.
I will give Sony Ericsson 18 month at best in the mobile industry, far too many disgruntled customers.
.
If you would have been like this from the start, you would have sold more phones, and still been in jobs in 18 months time.
.
.
.
Sad times for Sony Ericsson.
1 0
From » Multitouch su Xperia X10? Si, è ufficiale! » News, - AndroidWorld.it
17th November 2010.
15:06
[...] Fonte Benvenuto! Se sei nuovo e hai trovato interessante questo articolo puoi seguirci via RSS per rimanere sempre aggiornato. [...]
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By anders
17th November 2010.
15:12
@Rikard, will you add this to X10 Mini also?
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By Pabs
17th November 2010.
15:14
I was wondering, is this for the bigdaddy x10 only or for the the whole x10 family (x10, x10mini, x10mini pro)?
1 0
By tookie
17th November 2010.
15:16
what about mediascape, 3d gallery and camera previews? surely this is important as well?
(would it work well with angry birds, battle bears and some other light multi touch games?)
1 0
By Ley
17th November 2010.
15:18
Great! Keep going!
1 0
By tookie
17th November 2010.
15:21
oh sorry. i didn’t watch the video. ignore my angry birds comment
1 0
By Zak
17th November 2010.
15:23
Hey can you please tell me WHEN our SOUTH AFRICANS can expect android 2.1 update!?
Great work for the touch! You guys must keep trying to optimise the phone! Its a great phone!
Zak
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By Mogge
17th November 2010.
15:24
1 0
From Multitouch bzw. Pinch-Zoom kommt im Q1/2010 - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 - Android Forum
17th November 2010.
15:24
[...] Entwickler bei Sony Ericsson es geschafft Multitouch bzw. Pinch-Zoom zu aktivieren. http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/produc…or-xperia-x10/ Das Update soll OTA im ersten Quartal 2010 [...]
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By Manish
17th November 2010.
15:24
Amazing!
Great News! Super Excited to get it on our Xperia X10.
.
But it is so confusing? How can any Touch Driver change can implement it in X10 when it was clearly said that there are Hardware limitations? Doest that mean, it wasn’t hardware limitation, it was more of Driver & Implementation limitation? ( or some legal stuff? 
)
Anyways, this is gonna rock now! I don’t think theres any other phone on 2.1 that can beat X10.
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