Chapter 17

Taps, Touches, and Gestures

The screens of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad—with their crisp, bright, touch-sensitive display—are truly things of beauty and masterpieces of engineering. The multitouch screen common to all iOS devices is one of the key factors in the platform's tremendous usability. Because the screen can detect multiple touches at the same time and track them independently, applications are able to detect a wide range of gestures, giving the user power that goes beyond the interface.

Suppose you are in the Mail application staring at a long list of junk e-mail that you want to delete. You can tap each one individually, tap the trash icon to delete it, and then wait for the next message to download, deleting each ...

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