Windows 7 Touch, Dead On Arrival

snydeq writes "Ongoing Microsoft hype around its Surface touch technology has suggested that, with Windows 7, a touch-based UI revolution is brewing. Unfortunately, the realities of touch use in the desktop environment and the lack of worthwhile development around the technology are conspiring against the notion of touch ever finding a meaningful place on the desktop, as InfoWorld's Galen Gruman finds out reviewing Windows 7's touch capabilities. 'There's a chicken-and-egg issue to resolve,' Gruman writes. 'Few apps cry out for a touch UI, so Microsoft and Apple can continue to get away with merely dabbling with touch as an occasional mouse-based substitute. It would take one or both of these OS makers to truly touchify their platforms, using common components to pull touch into a great number of apps automatically. Without a clear demand, their incentive to do so doesn't exist.'"

Comments

Laptop yes. Desktop never.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would I ever want to sit up from my comfy chair to poke at a screen?

Re:Laptop yes. Desktop never.

[Anonymous Coward]

I often use a 1 finger gesture on my computer but it really doesn't do much, except make me feel better sometimes.

Re:Laptop yes. Desktop never.

[Anonymous Coward]

I often use a 1 finger gesture on my computer but it really doesn't do much, except make me feel better sometimes.

I once made a mouse cursor for Windows that replaced the hour glass with a hand making the middle finger salute. It didn't make me feel any better but I did get some laughs out of installing it on other people's computers.

Re:Laptop yes. Desktop never.

[MillionthMonkey]

Touchscreens always struck me as something you'd think came about more because of the merging of existing stuff (both touchpads and LCDs) than their being anything anyone was asking for. It's one of those things that seems like a good idea until you use it for a full five minutes and go crazy. They always give me trouble with misinterpreted UI actions because I never seem to know how hard they want to be pressed on. I can't see what my fingertips are rolling around on. If I try to peek underneath I'll mess it up, click on the next button, click twice, whatever. After a few minutes of that I go nuts.

There's also the interplay between human psychology and human finger oil as you first start using the touchscreen. You slide the damn thing out of the box and it has a plastic sleeve on it to keep it totally pristine, from a land of sunshine and happiness and less than 100 airborne particles per cubic meter. As if you have no dust in your own house. And it's got that sticky no-stick plastic there on the screen, with no bubbles under it yet to leave evidence of already being touched. You impulsively rip it off, and there's your glistening new touchscreen, with nary a speck of fingerprint grease to be found on it, reflecting your slobbering face recognizably. And there you are, with your filthy greasy thumb, about to lower its resale value by $50. You'll never see it this clean again. Wiping your fingers on your shirt, you reluctantly push on the screen afraid to break it... "I Agree"... and it's all over. They could make it easier for customers by selling them pre-filthy from the factory. I'm picturing a guy on the assembly line fondling phones and eating chips all day.

Re:Laptop yes. Desktop never.

[Yvan256]

Why would I ever want to sit up from my comfy chair to poke at a screen?

3D porn?

LCARS anyone?

[meow27]

of course we all know that the true touch screen desktop environment was invented in the late 23rd century,

Re:kinda like...

[socceroos]

you're all anonymous cowards, all your arguments are void and null.

Re:A solution

[Benzido]

>A solution in search of a problem.

What are you complaining about?? Many wonderful problems have been discovered that way!

Re:kinda like...

[Philip K Dickhead]

I bet he isn't using "touch" interfaces with these, tho'.

Or, as I like to call them, "Smudge" interfaces.

business opportunity?

[Anonymous Coward]

Make something that people want to touch, virtual boobs? Virtual Boobs 7! What a money maker!

Just what I need...

[drbuzz0]

Even more grubby fingerprints all over the monitor.

Re:Desktop multitouch: a tool looking for a purpos

[Thaelon]

Bet you'd have rockin' shoulders though, from holding your arms up all day.

Re:Desktop multitouch: a tool looking for a purpos

[glitch23]

Sign your name with a stylus on a touch screen.

I do that all the time after using a credit card at Walmart and everytime I'm sure they are thinking that another drunkard must have entered their store just based on what my signature looks like.

Re:Compelling Need

[j741]

Everyone knows that no new technology can succeed without the endorsement of the pr0n industry.

And this requires a whole different approach to 'touch' technology ;)

Re:I actually like this idea

[rantingkitten]

(I like the idea of making a 'click' noise with your tongue for a simple, intuitive, self-contained interface)

Yeah, I want to sit in an office full of tongue-clicking nimrods. And that'd be really great for doing computer tasks while you're talking to someone or on the phone, too.

Failed marketing slogans

[RegularFry]

"Touch me, I'm 7!"

Re:Exercise

[vxvxvxvx]

Wow, I never thought about that. I'm going to start work on my "finger-twister" game. I'll use pastels to avoid it being a copy of Hasbro's floor mat based game.

Re:kinda like...

[gbarules2999]

I'm still waiting for that big screen that you push stuff around on with your hands from Minority Report. Nethack on that thing would be AWESOME.

Re:Desktop multitouch: a tool looking for a purpos

[Attila Dimedici]

Bet you'd have rockin' shoulders though, from holding your arms up all day.

Yeah, then that one shoulder would match that one forearm you use so much

Nah, it would be the other shoulder. It would look really weird, all those guys with the shoulder on one side all muscled up and the forearm on the other, with the rest of the body small and spindly.