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In case you've been living under a rock, you may have noticed that Apple introduced a tablet PC. HP, Microsoft, Google, and others aren't too far behind. A lot of discussion and thought has been put into how a user would interact with traditional applications in a large touch screen environment, but how do you think this will affect the user interface of traditional web programming? What do you think will have to change with our current HTML controls? What new kinds of controls will be possible if we have touch-and-drag technology on our web pages?

EDIT: In response to some of the comments and answers, I would argue that this is fundamentally different than either mobile phone technology or previous iterations of tablet PCs. Whether you love or hate Apple, the sales of the iPad have demonstrated a significant consumer interest in tablets that hasn't been present before. When the number of users of tablets reaches critical mass - which it eventually will - designers will have to take notice and adapt our web sites accordingly.

Having a large-size tablet computer is also a significant departure from touch screen smart phones. Development of web pages for mobile devices has generally been optimized for restrictions of the device such as low bandwidth, absence of functionality (Javascript for many phones), and reduced screen resolution. Multi-finger touch based tablets will provide a host of opportunities to improve user interaction.

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The same effect is visible on mobiles that have suported html for a while. Its basic case of controls degrading to provide click/touch features instead of mouse hovers.

Mark Redman