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Touchscreen Netbooks To Shine At CES 2009

Posted by timothy on from the touchscreen-sans-tablet-seems-a-waste dept.

i4u writes "The new generation of netbooks debuting at CES 2009 will add touch and have twistable screens to use them in tablet or notebook style. Intel is set to introduce a new Classmate netbook with a twistable screen and touchscreen at the CES 2009. Back in October Asus said it was planning to introduce touchscreen Asus Eee netbooks in early 2009. Asus is exhibiting at the CES Unveiled pre-show that takes place on January 6th. Expect the Asus Eee Touch to be unveiled then. Gigabyte has outrun all of them with the Intel Atom-powered M912V that has been on the market for a while. Adding a touchscreen is rather easy. More difficult is to offer a touch-optimized UI. Let's see what the netbook vendors are going to invest on the software side."

16 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Touchscreens by bradgoodman · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Touchscreens - here's a technology that's been lingering for what, 20? 30 years?

    Just because we can build them, does not mean we should. They never have been in mainstream use, and never will be.

    The proof is in the actual usage.

    The reasoning is simple. Touchscreen technology may be cool for a second, but having to raise your hands for an extended period of time (touchscreen) is exhastive and prohibitive, vs. lying them flat (keyboard, mouse) is easy to do for prolonged periods of time.

    In conclusion, this may be just yet another round of "touchscreen fads".

    btw - one possible good use would be multitouch with "surface" computing. But that would be more of a "tablet" or "surface" PC vs. a "laptop" - and that would be a bit more of a shift in overall UI (and hardware).

    1. Re:Touchscreens by BikeHelmet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I see what you mean, I partly disagree.

      Touchscreens can be useful for certain tasks, such as... note taking during a lecture, or drawing something in a paint program. They're also handy on smaller handhelds where keyboards aren't feasible.

      They're already super popular in cell phones. I don't see why they wouldn't be viable in a netbook, although I fully agree that there's basically no market for them on full size laptops.

    2. Re:Touchscreens by omar.sahal · · Score: 2, Informative

      The proof is in the actual usage.

      The above is true, you use your hands all the time to write play instruments etc. If these things are designed correctly then I don't see a problem, they have

      twistable screens to use them in tablet.. style

    3. Re:Touchscreens by gmuslera · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You are thinking in traditional desktops, a vertical screen, a keyboard, and space. But think in them as tablets, with keyboards that can be unfolded, and you'll get a larger version of the G1, or a touchscreen Kindle, or things like that.

      I dont think this models will have multitouch, but would have been a nice addition too.

    4. Re:Touchscreens by jacksonyee · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have actually found tablets useful in a variety of circumstances involving minimally trained workers and intuitive GUIs. They are extensively used in kiosk and POS interfaces for restaurants, front desks, and other such fields. Long before the iPhone came out, my Nokia N800 also ran very well with the touchscreen. You do need specially designed interfaces which are thumb and finger friendly, but once you have those interfaces built, it actually is quite intuitive to touch the screen to do something rather than to drag the mouse pointer all the way over. I'm not saying that you're going to use touchscreens for programming or server maintenance, but they do have their niche.

      The one thing that has kept me out of the tablet market is the price. Why pay $900 (the best non-eBay price for the Gigabyte one above) when you can purchase an eeePC 900 for $350 with better stats? I hope these netbooks drive the price for touchscreens down a bit. I'd love to have a couple of 4" to 7" ones to play around with for Star Trek-style intercoms in the house.

    5. Re:Touchscreens by dargaud · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I see touchscreens as useful only on netbooks, if you can turn the screen around and use it as a tablet. If you have to raise your hands every time, then the novelty will wear off fast (see 'gorilla arm' syndrom). I'd love something like that so I can read cbr comic books in bed. But keep your greasy fingers off my big main desktop monitor!

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
  2. Touch done right. by WiiVault · · Score: 2

    I think you are right that touch may not be the best input for all devices. But I can tell you that the iPhone is a great example of touch done right. I cannot imagine it without gestures ect. The Macbook Pro gestures are good too and highly useful. But I agree that the concept of dealing with touch on a 30 in monitor or een a netbook is hardly attractive. Touch has its place, and few companies seem to understand this.

    1. Re:Touch done right. by elashish14 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, I can't imagine an iPhone without a touchscreen either. Imagine trying to do everything with that one button it has!

      --
      I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
    2. Re:Touch done right. by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yet, the diehards would convince themselves (and try to convince everyone else) that all they ever really needed was one button, anyways.

      There is precedent...

      --
      Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
  3. Maemo by ultrabot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You guys should keep an eye out for what Nokia has in the pipeline for Maemo.

    The "Hildon" desktop is optimized for touch usage, is open source and will be shipped with Ubuntu MID.

    http://www.clutter-project.org/ will play an interesting role as well.

    --
    Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
  4. Re:Apple missed the boat by PixetaledPikachu · · Score: 2, Funny

    Macbooks are pretty. That's the problem right there. I have a colleague, that actually wipes his display each morning with a clean cloth. Imagine if that thing would have a touch screen!

    He might want to do the ritual BEFORE turning on his mac?

  5. Return to Flybook? by wikinerd · · Score: 3, Informative

    In short, they re-invented the Flybook.

    1. Re:Return to Flybook? by Paradigm_Complex · · Score: 2, Informative

      One of the main selling points for "netbooks" is the price, usually around US$400-600. Flybooks are about five times that price.

      --
      "A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
  6. Fujitsu by Culture20 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Fujitsu's had a mini-notebook with a tablet twist-touchscreen for more than a year now.

    1. Re:Fujitsu by t0y · · Score: 2, Informative

      Cool stuff, but not in the same price range as netbooks.

  7. Re:I too fail to see the point by Repossessed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Personally I want one because I can stuff them into my purse. A touchscreen is a big plus since the small keyboards and especially the mousepads are harder to use for me (a notebook in general thing). Price is more something to make it affordable than a feature, a bit higher isn't a dealbreaker.

    Glad I held out so long now actually.

    --
    Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)