One of the most important parts of creating an effective and intuitive user interface on touch-enabled smartphones has nothing to do with visual appearance—instead, it has to do with creating an interface that properly responds to user input based on touch. For Web applications, this means replacing mouse events with touch events. In Dojo 1.7, new touch APIs help make this process easy.This is an updated version of the post Touching and Gesturing on the iPhone, published in 2008.In the beginning…Before we discuss the new features in Dojo 1.7 that make touch interfaces easier to cr...

When Richard Gatarski and a few friends wanted to dine in the Swedish city of Norrköping a few weeks ago, they booked a table at a downtown Italian restaurant that seemed nice.When they arrived, they were greeted by the headwaiter, who asked if they had a reservation. Richard confirmed, and the headwaiter looked at his computer screen.”Gatarski? Hm, let’s see .. yes, there’s your reservation. Welcome!”The headwaiter then picked up what Richard first thought must be some kind of new, electronic touch-pen, and moved it toward the screen. Richard is a tech savvy Inter...

Microsoft may still be plugging away at selling Windows 7 to consumers and the enterprise, but rumors have already started about the next version of the popular operating system—dubbed "Windows 8" by many in the media. Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, two bloggers with a track record of delving into Microsoft's proprietary code base, recently sparked a fresh round of chatter with a dissection of a supposed Windows 8 early build, adding their voices to a discussion that extends back to 2010. Other Websites and bloggers have suggested Windows 8 will feature everything from increased cloud...