Palm snuck a new gesture into webOS 2 - two-finger swipe for launcher 19
by Dieter Bohn Sun, 01 May 2011 11:52 am EDT
Sure, webOS 3.0 may be doing away with the gesture area and sure, we are still preemptively mourning its loss - but that doesn't mean that everybody's favorite touch-sensitive zone beneath the screen doesn't have at least one more trick up its sleeve.
NickTVPre discovered that when you're in an app, you can swipe up with two fingers from the gesture area to simultaneously go into card view and bring up the launcher. Previously you had to either swipe up twice in succession or pull up the quick-wave launchbar and hit the launcher arrow. It only appears to work on webos 2 and higher.
Source: PreCentral Forums; Thanks, NickVTPre!
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19 Comments
That is extremely useful, why are they getting rid of the gesture area? :'(
Unless there's been some announcement I missed, "getting rid of the gesture area" is just FUD when it comes to the WebOS phones.
Given the Touchpad's much larger size, and that people will probably use it in landscape a lot, gestures just didn't make sense in the same way they do on the phones. (According to the big Touchpad presentation video).
I didn't think they were going to get rid of the gesture area, just for the Touchpad. Can't Enyo determine pixel size and that is how 3.0 can have gestures on phone and not the TP?
I prefer the wave launcher to pull up the launcher. When using the 2 finger gesture, the current card goes to card view and when you use the wave launcher the current card stays in front.
When using the wave launcher I'm able to use my Prē2 with one hand. The 2 finger gesture requires two hands, one hand to hold the device and 2 fingers from the other hand to swipe.
Anyway thanks for the tip ;-)
By the way.....In Carbon you can use also a 2 finger swipe up or down to do a 'turbo' scroll
same w/ Internalz
It's a shame to confuse a very powerful gesture (PowerScroll) with this new gesture that is hard to justify when you already have the wave launcher. From where I sit (no where near HP), it seems to me this new gesture should be immediately obsolesced, and Power Scroll should be added.
because HP wants to expand to the apple audience and assume their too dumb to use a gesture area
Nice job, Nick.
Don't forget this New Launcher Feature I found out a while ago
http://forums.precentral.net/general-webos-chat/278239-new-2-1-quickscro...
The Trick is start slow and end faster
Not having a gesture area is just for the tablet and potentially pc I suppose, they might be thinking about somethnig else to do with gestures in those devices. Hopefully they do not copy the apple way of having to learn how many fingers you need to do something, because that is counterintuitive. Swiping is a little bit more intuitive that just using a random number of fingers.
I dont think we have any evidence they are removing the gesture area in phones when 3.0 arrives on them. It is far different to use a small device with one hand than to use a big one. And at the same time you are making all the apps before that version not work unless the bottom of the screen is used somehow. So, I dont think is going to happen.
Hey, cool! Thanks for the info.
2 fingered gesture for WebOS 2
1 fingered salute to users of 1.4.5
;-)
palm employees have been clear-no more gesture after the pre3.
since theres this new 2.0 gesture, I'm going to guess it was an hp decision.
apple has taken out patents on touch-sensitive area and android also will be introducing gestures soon. We'll have gone from being innovative to being lesser-thans. Great.
fwiw I cant get this to work properly, but my pre+ is on its last legs so maybe thats why. (the launcher and just type bar actually just overlay on my app!)
also glad that, with the swipe being used to launch the v-kbd that theres still a way to get to the wave bar. Great!
I've been using the PlayBook for the last week, and gestures most definitely work on a tablet. Blackberry have stolen HP's lunch. It works brilliantly.
I won't be leaving the PLaybook for the Touchpad as even though I would like a Pre 3, and it will be better than my (presumably Bold Touch), the Touchpad will be like an iPad to use, which I don't like, as I've just ditched it for the PlayBook.
They have just dropped the one thing that made webOS fun to use and set it apart.
The gesture area is going away on WebOS 3.0, as far as we know, for tablets. I don't think HP is going to get rid of the gesture area on smartphones.
Hey, how about Palm sneaking in an update for my Sprint Pre? That's what I'd really like to see.
Awesome. I wonder what other hidden things are in webos.
I also wonder if there is any way to get email notification of comments posted here.
gestures are by far my favorite part of webos, and I wish they werent getting rid of them for anything, much less the tablet; it works great on the playbook from what i can tell, and a distinguishing feature of the os... slowly losing the love I had for what was once palm.
Like!