Multi-Touch is Here!

Many new Nexus One owners in the United States have been complaining that the Multi-Touch feature is not available on the units sold here.

That has now changed. It was thought that there was a reluctance on the part of Google to use a feature which was created by Apple, at least a gentleman's agreement. For reasons which are not clear there has been an update released which enables this feature for the standard browser, Google Maps and the Gallery.

By touching two points on the screen and dragging them towards, or away, from each other the image is enlarged or reduced. Multi Touch is a great feature and I'm sure it will be included in many other applications as soon as the programmers get to work.

Click on the white triangle to play video.

Right-Click to play full screen.

You should receive the update automatically within a few days. If you can't wait, download the file multi-touch update here (the official Google site), or here.

Once you've downloaded the file, rename it to update.zip.
Copy the update.zip file onto your microSD card.
With your Nexus One off, hold down the trackball and press the power button.
You'll be booted into a white screen with three Android robots on skateboards. Select "Bootloader." from the list of options.
On the next screen, select "Recovery."
Your phone will reboot, giving you a picture of the Android robot and an exclamation point inside a triangle.
Now press the power button and volume up button at the same time. If it doesn't work keep trying.
Now (using the trackball this time) choose "Apply sdcard:update.zip" and let things run their course.

You may have to soft reset a couple of times after this. (I got a picture of the Android guy with an arrow indicating he'd come out of the box. But a couple resets later and all was well.) But now multitouch is enabled, and we can sit back and relax, knowing that we have zero patience and just can't help ourselves.