Apple's Multitouch Plans Mean Fingers Dancing on Touchscreens

Apple's just been granted an important patent on multitouch gestures. This almost ends the debate on who "owns" multitouch, and simultaneously gives us a glimpse into how we'll interact with slate PCs and touchscreens in the future.

As they note over at Patently Apple, the patent, numbered 7,705,830 is going to be an incredibly useful one for Apple. Specifically it covers detecting multiple finger contacts with a touchscreen, and a system for tracking where the initial contacts are and where...