feat(gestures): add ability to disable all gestures for perf

src/core/services/gesture/gesture.js

@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ var HANDLERS = {};
  * It contains normalized x and y coordinates from DOM events,
  * as well as other information abstracted from the DOM.
  */
-var pointer, lastPointer, forceSkipClickHijack = false, maxClickDistance = 6;
+var pointer, lastPointer, maxClickDistance = 6;
+var forceSkipClickHijack = false, disableAllGestures = false;
 
 /**
  * The position of the most recent click if that click was on a label element.
@@ -57,6 +58,18 @@ function MdGestureProvider() { }
 
 MdGestureProvider.prototype = {
 
+  /**
+   * @ngdoc method
+   * @name $mdGestureProvider#disableAll
+   *
+   * @description
+   * Disable all gesture detection. This can be beneficial to application performance
+   * and memory usage.
+   */
+  disableAll: function () {
+    disableAllGestures = true;
+  },
+
   // Publish access to setter to configure a variable BEFORE the
   // $mdGesture service is instantiated...
   /**
@@ -531,6 +544,9 @@ function MdGestureHandler() {
  * @ngInject
  */
 function attachToDocument( $mdGesture, $$MdGestureHandler ) {
+  if (disableAllGestures) {
+    return;
+  }
 
   // Polyfill document.contains for IE11.
   // TODO: move to util