Microsoft demos latest touch-screen technology

A touching farewell

The Bill Gates lap of honour reached the Wall Street Journal yesterday, in the form of its impressively attended D6 conference.

He and Steve Ballmer demonstrated how a touch-screen technology called Multi-touch will manifest itself in Windows 7, the next iteration of its operating system, which Microsoft has kept very tight-lipped about until now.

Initial impressions of Windows 7 and the Multi-touch interface are very Apple-like. However, where Apple has been the pioneer in the next generation of touch-screen technology in hand held devices, maybe Microsoft might beat it on larger screens.

Here’s a video of the demo shown at the D6 interview

There was also a general Q&A session with Gates and Ballmer. Here are some choice bullet points from the transcript.

• Gates: “Guys like us avoid monopolies. We like to compete.”
• Walt jumps in and asks about the percentage of Vista sales that result in downgrades to XP. Ballmer dodges. Gates looking a little depressed.
• Windows 7 is apparently months away, due late in 2009.