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Steve Jobs Was Wrong About Touchscreen Laptops
theodp writes "Don't believe everything Steve Jobs and Tim Cook tell you, advises The Verge's Sean Hollister. Gunshy of touchscreen laptops after hearing the two Apple CEOs dismiss the technology (Jobs: 'Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical.' Cook: 'You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not gonna be pleasing to the user.'), Hollister was surprised to discover that Windows 8 touchscreen laptops actually don't suck and that the dreaded 'Gorilla Arm Syndrome' did not materialize. 'The more I've used Windows 8, despite its faults, the more I've become convinced that touchscreens are the future — even vertical ones,' writes Hollister. 'We've been looking at this all wrong. A touchscreen isn't a replacement for a keyboard or mouse, it's a complement.' Echoing a prediction from Coding Horror's Jeff Atwood that 'it is only a matter of time before all laptops must be touch laptops,' Hollister wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple eventually embraces-and-extends the tech: 'Microsoft might have validated the idea, but now Apple has another chance to swoop in, perfecting and popularizing the very interface that it strategically ridiculed just two years ago. It wouldn't be the first time. After all, how many iPad minis come with sandpaper for filing fingers down?'"
Anything that forces you to break concentration and shift into another mode kills productivity. It's why mice have been so hard to replace. I can easily use a mouse and keyboard at the same time. Having to reach up to do an operation would seriously piss me off and cut my productivity in half. For everyday playing people love gimmicks but I think people will get tired of it fast. It's why i hated to see Windows go down that road. If vendors start requiring it to use software I'm going to have to find different software. He said they were a bad idea and I have to agree, he didn't say they wouldn't sell some before people got sick of them.
The Surface Pro does include touch support - 10 point multitouch, in fact. It happens to also have an active digitizer to support pen input. It can do both.
The fact that you didn't know that implies that you really have no idea what you're talking about.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics...
Microsoft says it has sold more than 40 million Windows 8 licenses, but the information is worthless in absence of key data the company won't divulge.
We don't know because Microsoft isn't saying. We don't know how many of the 40 million licenses come from low-cost upgrades, from volume licensing sales that kick in automatically, or from direct sales to consumers. And we don't know how many of the 40 million licenses are sitting on systems that have yet to find a buyer.
So why won't Microsoft provide a breakdown? What is it hiding? Its silence speaks volumes or, perhaps more accurately, low volumes.
http://www.informationweek.com/software/windows8/microsofts-windows-8-numbers-meaningless/240142865?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
It's also very possible that the Asus Transformer range showed that a good touchscreen tablet/laptop combo is a useful bit of gear well before "Microsoft might have validated the idea".
It's because I own a Transformer that I know touchscreen laptops suck.
While true, it's also true that the same wipes you use to clean their grubby hands are remarkably good at cleaning touch screens too. Coincidence?
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
To make Win8 usable, you just have to install it. It is quite usable as is. Maybe not efficient, and probably not agreeing with the preferences of many people, but that is not the same as being unusable.
People have their own standards regarding what constitutes "usable". Those with a low threshold for nonsense or high standsrds could rightfully conclude windows 8 is unusable in its current form.
The question of usability is value judgement you do NOT get to make for others.
A brief google search reveals that you have overstated sales by well over an order of magnitude: In the third quarter of 2011 partners reduced supply orders and company dropped down manufacturing volumes to 10 000 per month; this measure helped Asus to avoid overstocking in the warehouses and not to participate in sales of the devices at giveaway prices as HP did with TouchPad and RIM with its Playbook.
This appears to be a case of willful ignorance on your part and your contempt is misdirected. Perhaps we should anticipate a similar 97% reduction in shipments of the Nexus 7 in the second quarter of its production as well?
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
The hell are you talking about? Android apps only run on one kind of cpu? There are android tablets and phones running all sorts of CPUs, including intel. Apps are written in java and run inside a tweaked out virtual machine. I can run the same .apk on an arm based tablet and an intel based phone. The only disadvantage to this approach is speed, but JIT helps this, as have other tweaks.