In the recent Mac celebration of innovation, that normal geeks think of as a release announcement, Jobs claimed about touch screen UI:”We’ve done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn’t work,” adding that “touch surfaces want to be horizontal.”

Now I find that astounding! First of all I have at many occasions used my Android phone while being vertical! Actually daily, if not 90% of the time I use it!

I’ve also used my tablet PC – sorry iPad isn’t that innovative in my mind as I have had tablets for 5 years now – in vertical positions, heck even in reverse horizontal positions (as in in bed upside down!)

I have even found myself sat in front of my linux box pointing at windows to move them – yes, it didn’t work – but it showed to me that using the fingers on my vertical screens would actually not fell that foreign, actually it would feel quite natural.

Am I really that different from other people?! Am I that geeky, that I can use my super geeky powers in such innovative ways that I can put my greasy fingers on a vertical screen and expect it to move stuff? Apparently! Or has this position by Jobs something to do with Microsoft’s patents pre-dating Apple’s patents on this, trying to avoid patent wars? I think the latter, and I would have liked Jobs to be upfront about it. I’d actually have praised him for it!!