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Touchscreen Laptops, Whether You Like Them Or Not
An anonymous reader writes "With CES all wrapped up, an article at CNET discusses a definite trend in the laptops on display from various manufacturers this year: touchscreens. Intel and Microsoft are leading the way, and attempting to grab the industry's reins as well: '... just to make sure the touch message was crystal clear, Intel issued an edict to PC partners during its CES keynote: all next-generation ultrabooks based on its "Haswell" chip must be touch.' With tablets and detachable/convertible computers coming into the mainstream, it seems the manufacturers have something to gain by condensing their production options. The article says, 'What does that mean to consumers? Your next laptop will likely be touch, whether you like it or not.'"
To heLL mit touch-screen!
It's nice to have there as an option if you want it, if you don't care for it, don't use it.
Anonymity of the internet is responsible for the views expressed in my post.
For this consumer & everyone I influence it means that thes laptops will not be bought. Touch & vertical screens do not go together.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Only touch-screen enabled notebooks here?
Sorry, no sale for you.
My money will go to the manufacturers who will provide "old school" displays.
Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
From experience I haven't found anything worse than a desktop or laptop with a touch screen. They are ergonomically bad, after 10 minutes I get pain in my wrists and elbows. The only place I have found desktop sized touch screens to be useful is when stood up, for example at a point of sale.
Also, my desktop monitors are too far away to touch when sat down, the screen is a good 6-8 inches further than my reach so they have to be moved uncomfortably too close which doesn't just hurt my neck and eyes, but I have no room to fit my keyboard in front of the screen on my desk when bought closer. When lounging with my laptop the screen is either too close when sat down or when semi lying down too far to touch. Don't get me started on finger smudges.
What might make sense is if "monitors of the future" could be used either vertically or horizontally (or to basically generalize, 0 = degree = 90). Then you could place the monitor at 20 degrees and use touch for drawing things/poking screen on those applications that support touch, or for standing over the monitor to review a design of some kind (CAD, structural diagram, etc). Then put the monitor back upright when its time to crank out a document or write some code.
It does not have to be an "either/or" situation. A monitor flat on the desk with touch has some practical uses But at 90 degrees touch is useless.
Please. I like my wacom tablet, my X41tablet thinkpad and my galaxy note 2.
On a big screen, i want a pen, not a finger
The anti-touch commenters here echo the comments of anti-mousers decades ago -- "Not for me." We know how that worked out.
1. Until you work with a touch enabled laptop, you have no basis for comment about touch enabled laptops.
2. Until you work with a touch enabled desktop, you have no basis for comment about touch enabled laptops.
3. After experiencing touch enabled laptops and desktops, different people will have different opinions but nobody should feel obligated to force their opinions on others.
4. I have two months experience using a touch enabled laptop computer and I love it. Your mileage may vary.
5. I have no experience with using a touch enabled desktop computer so I have no comment.
People are different and different people use computers in different ways. Some are amenable to touch and some are not.
You can just not use the touchpad. The real problem is the disappearance of matte screens. I hate glossy.
I want a touch monitor on my desktop at work. I want to program the computer to play a loud "stop touching me" every time one of my cow orkers touches it. Maybe I can finally stop having fingerprints all over my screen.
I really don't care. I recently bought a new laptop (my previous one had lasted almost six years) and I deliberately bought one with a touchscreen. More than that though, it's a Lenovo X230 tablet, so the screen can rotate and become a tablet. It's a Wacom screen, and comes with a pen (touching it with your filthy dirty fingers will achieve nothing in the way of interaction with the OS).
My new laptop is good. Most of the time it works as a laptop, but sometimes I whip out the pen and use it for pointing. Sometimes I use it for drawing. It's great for drawing. Sometimes I use it for writing (kanji practice, diary, whatever). I wouldn't trade my touchscreen for a non-touchscreen. I'm happy to suggest that you investigate a pen-based touchscreen for yourself. I have no comment on finger-based screens, and would probably suggest they aren't worth it (lack of finesse).
But that new laptops come with touchscreens? I don't care. I am planning on using my current laptop for the next six years or more. Next time it comes to buy a laptop, I'll buy one with a touchscreen.
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Intel seems fixated on the idea that users want some sort of convergence device that combines a tablet with a traditional PC. They see the iPad's sales numbers and think: "If only it had a keyboard and ran a PC OS..."
Adding a touch screen to an ultrabook doesn't address the fundamental flaw in such an approach: users interact differently with touch screen devices than PCs. Slapping a touchscreen on top of an OS that isn't really geared to the way users interact with a tablet device won't address that; all you wind up with is a device that does many things poorly, For example:
You wind up with a UI designed for keyboard and mouse; with programs that primarily rely on a keyboard for input. Sure you can navigate with a touchscreen but will still be forced back to a keyboard for most work unless software developers add in touch input capability beyond just an onscreen keyboard. Without that, you have a big touchpad that needs a keyboard anyway.
Screen resolution is more important on a tablet than a PC. The iPad's Retina display makes it really good as a reader; to do a similar display on a PC quickly drives up the cost. So you wind up with a cost vs quality issue; making the tablet part less compelling.
Portability suffers as well. Tablets are nice because of their size; which makes them ideal for casual reading, email, watching video or web browsing. You can easily carry an iPad around all day where a PC quickly gets cumbersome.
Along with portability is battery life. Most tablets have really good battery life relative to PCs. A tablet that goes dead twice as fast as those on the current market is not very compelling; or you have to add expensive batteries to get reasonable useful run times which drives of cost. Alternatively; you could add big batteries but that then hits the portability issue.
Is convergence possible? Sure, and I think it will happen but it will be driven by software, not hardware. Once the software delivers an experience that lets people use a PC less and less the transition will occur. At that point, however, your less likely to see a laptop with a touch screen than a tablet that has a wireless external keyboard / trackpad for times when a finger on screen just won't cut it.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
My company would rather go to Lenovo or Toshiba and pay them more for custom built machines that have stripped down functionality to give to the drones than hand out laptops that could be perceived as having features that directors and executives have. Like the 'pilot project' we're running for iPads for higher middle managers and executives while Corporate has ALREADY announced that iPads don't meet Corporate security standards.
I know what you're implying, and it is socially and morally incorrect to do so. We live in 2013! You can't just go around suggesting that it's wrong for the ladies of other Slashdot commenters to have penises these days. It's sexist, it's misogynist, and dare I say it, it's even extremely racist to do such a thing.
You know what, maybe she was born a man. Maybe she still has a penis, testes and a scrotum. But that DOES NOT mean that she cannot also be a lady. And that DOES NOT mean that you can deny her the right to be called a lady.
Times have changed, and it is imperative that you change with them. Your outdated views are a relic from times gone by, when prehistoric notions of gender and sexuality ruled our society. Women today are free to have male genitalia, and it is not your place to suggest otherwise.
Starting in 1984, I worked at Digital Techniques, who made the TouchCom series of "public access" touch-screen computers. Touch-screens are intuitive for accessing information, but for creating anything we generally used a Summagraphics tablet.
Could you get much work done if someone were holding their hand in front of your screen, and their finger utterly obscuring everything around your cursor? Even if that someone is you...
You idiot.
Don't be jealous. It is unbecoming.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I can't count how many of my business coworkers stick their grubbies right onto the LCD display to point out some word or graphical feature. Why they do this I can't figure (they forgot there's a mouse?), but if new machines all have touch-response, they're going to be in for a bit of a surprise :-)
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
There's nothing I hate more than glossy screens, they make a device completely unusable for me, and unfortunately touchscreens and matte displays don't seem to mix that well (and even if they buid them eventually, the fingerprints will probably be very bad).
Keeping up the price of the final product. If the production cost gets to the point where it's totally dominated by the CPU and operating system, the competitive advantage for ARM or other processors running Linux becomes compelling. Therefore, load up the basic system with enough other high-cost features to hide the "Microsoft tax" and "Intel tax."
Those of us who remember netbooks will recognize the intended series of events.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
The reasoning on Intel's part seems to be that unless the laptop gains as much usability and "coolness" factor as the recent tablets have, Intel will be looking at a considerable laptop market shrinkage. And since Intel is by far better positioned in the laptop as oppose to tablet market, it is as critical for them as it is for Microsoft.
On the other hand, what Intel seems to be missing is that the screen resolution also plays a significant role in user's device appreciation. Microsoft does not seem to have as much say about this (strangely), but Intel could have added minimum resolution to the list of their requirements.
Glad to see that you didn't "feel obligated to force [your] opinions on others." LOL. You cretin.
The fact that you actually LIKE touch screens speaks volumes too.
... i can install linux on it and all hardware is supported by it (and not just one distribution, there are several touch optimized linux distributions/desktops that could be more fitting for you for that devices). Booting also android could be good too
... I can use (better yet, they have it installed) other pointing devices so i can choose when use the touchscreen
... could be turned into mostly a tablet for consumption only tasks
If only runs windows 8 are good but expensive paperweights for most uses.
We've had Panasonic Toughbooks at my job for years with touch screens. We never used the touch screens much when working in the office, but the it's often very useful when you're out in the field or at some place other than your desk.
WATCH TV Commercials, it is how the designer envisions their products to be used. Take cars. Have you seen a single car ad where the advertised car is in a traffic jam? No? Then that car SUCKS at it. Isn't shown in a crowded city with LOADS of other cars, cyclists and pedestrians leaping out of the way for the advertised car? Then it SUCKS at city driving. Doesn't talk about safety or road handling (as in sticking to the road as opposed to speeding) then said car will kill you.
Now look at Intel and even MS commercials for how they see their new products being used. Windows 8 is ALL about media CONSUMPTION, Intel is all about meetings, light choices, consumption, trivial work flows. That is how they envision their computers being used, not for just sitting down for 8 hours and getting some boring but necessary work done.
http://oldcomputers.net/oldads/old-computer-ads.html shows you how old ads pointed at the business applications of a PC, what it could do for your business. Look at modern PC ads... where is the productivity?
Well, it is there... if you world is like the world of "Friends" where a dozen white people spend about 5 second a day at work yet can afford spacious apartments in the heart of Manhattan, then the Intel/Windows ads reflect your work flow. Nice for you. The rest of us sit behind a computer screen, hopefully a big one and enter data all day long. Doesn't matter if that is actual data, code or image designs, we have to do a LOT of it to pay our bills. And then holding your hands up in the air HURTS. Not inconvenient, not different, not going against muscle memory, actually fucking bloody HURT.
Try it right now, READ JUST this story, holding your arms in front of you. If you manage it for longer then 5 minutes, you qualify for the navy seals. And that is not entirely a joke, part of military training is pain exercises like holding your arms up for a long time, they tend to add weights because it looks though but just holding your arms stretched for long enough hurts.
The reason Windows/Intel want you to work this way is because their marketeers LOVE the idea that using a computer is about making a few choices "that picture, that point on the presentation" and the rest is thinking sitting around work. It is NOT, Star Trek STILL isn't real, using a computer for most of us is barely different from sitting at an assembly line putting components in place. Just think about it, just typing this post is just sitting and hitting keys in the right order. Where do I need to touch the screen? What part of this work flow is improved by having a touch screen? Having to raise my hand to hit the preview button?
If you screen setup is right, the preview button is JUST under eye-height because the line you are typing on should be at eye height so you don't have to bend your head down. That means you have to lift you hand 20 centimeters on my setup. That is NOT convenient.
If you are thinking of buying a touchscreen, take your existing PC/laptop and just pretend but NOT for 5 minutes, for a month, day in day out, every working hour.
If you then still think it is a good idea, go ahead.
Want more proof? The Wii. Sold massively, then failed on selling games because hard core gamers do NOT want to swing their hands around for hours at end. It WORKS for casual use. Is your PC use casual? No? Then get a Wii Gamepad Pro and leave the touchscreens to the TV world were you can earn a living without ever going to work.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I picked up a Windows 8 touch Samsung notebook. Very nice design. When I did this, Windows 8 was no longer the OS I disliked - quite the opposite. Many common things that I used to have to do, (like adjust network settings) were such a chore with the mouse or keyboard. With touch and the relatively well thought streamlining of the OS, I get right to where I want to be very quickly with little effort. Some folks say that your arms will get sore with stretching them out over the keyboard, however that is for prolonged periods of time on touch centric/only apps. For any applications that are completely touch driven, that is where you would use a tablet machine. There are several notebook/tablet combo computers available now too - I haven't done my homework on that too much. I just use a tablet at home mostly (when I'm lazy), a desktop at the office and on the road or at a customers, the touch notebook.
I remember many times in the office (for years and years) we'd always joke and start touching our LCD displays (on desktops) for simple things, and as absurd as it was (knowing touch wasn't commonly possible on the workstation we were using) everyone seems to agree that it would be helpful the odd time to have some form of direct touch interface to the computer. Much like voice recognition: I remember in the 90's, all you would ever hear is how we would be talking to our computers, well, seems we will be touching them a lot more before we talk to them - more accurate, less frustrating when the recognition software gets it wrong.
Try it - you won't hate Windows 8 as much - and I hate to say this, but touch on the notebook is kinda fun to use. Reminds me of when the mouse got real popular. Touch does get the screen all full of finger prints, but while the screen is energized, you don't really see it anyway.
Back in the Vista days, I used a convertible HP tablet with a capacitive screen until the heat sink on the GPU broke loose and the entire machine roasted itself to death. But shoddy construction aside, I discovered during the time I owned it that having a touchscreen was occasionally useful as an auxiliary control device. I'd even pay a little extra for the feature as long as it didn't reduce the image quality of the screen as this HP did (because of the extra layer required).
Do I want to be forced to use a touch screen because some myopic corporate jackass found his new shiny rock ? Hell no. But sometimes it is useful for pushing submit buttons or for selecting icons and stuff.
"I have upgraded my computer's OS to Windows 8, why didn't my monitor become touch-screen?"
touchscreens may be literally out of reach.
... we now have to pay more for higher priced laptops because Microsoft worked out a deal with Intel to save them? Sounds like there's now a market for Superbooks or Extremebooks, thin laptops that exclude touch and save consumers money.
>"Your next laptop will likely be touch, whether you like it or not."
So all laptop/notebook/netbook/ultrabook/whatever-name-is-in-vogue models will:
1) Be more expensive
2) Be considerably heavier (glass is not light)
3) Be more fragile
4) Have lots of screen glare (yep- glass)
5) Have something else that can malfunction
6) Have a larger bezel (which is more wasted space)
Because that is what you get with touchscreen technology right now. Thanks again, Microsoft/Intel, for "leading the industry" because choice is a bad thing.
...after CES everyone was saying "Your next TV will likely be 3D, whether you like it or not", but this year everyone is classifying 3D TV as a passing fad, and an unimportand factor when it comes to consumer. I'm pretty sure that unless touchscreens enhance by a signifant degree the user experience, we'll see the same thing happening again.
Just because manufacturers have found a new gimmick to sell, don't mean that we have to follow them around like sheep
Maybe he's a serf.
Yeah, at least the screen is away from the fingers and hands, not like the touchpad which caused many problems prior to the auto enable/disable feature. Minor gripe but still it has been a long standing low-grade headache.
Also not as bad as reflective screens. Almost impossible to get an anti-glare laptop since the reflective ones sell well in the store despite clear user preferences for anti-glare over the long term.
You are correct: hopefully we can just use it / not use it as appropriate without any usability or cost penalty.
Also, hopefully ubiquitous touch screens do not cause presentation layers to ignore the mouse as a HID.
Great. Here come the tsunami of middle-aged and elderly users - who were formerly able to rest their wrists on the laptop and type but who now have to lift up their arms to touch the screen constantly - with their complaints as the new interface slowly destroys what was left of their rotator cuffs and shoulder bursas.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
When I am demonstrating something to her I can lean over her shoulder and touch the screen, which is fantastic. Don't make the mistake of thinking that touch is bad, because it isn't.
The first time I lean over your shoulder and hit the X button on whatever you're doing may change your tune on that...
__
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
As long as I can install windows XP, or MACOSX on said laptop, and I can still use my mouse, I am good... I have already seen what Apple is capable of so not worried there. I have also seen the Microsoft effort and this is where I am running scared. I think that the Metro abomination sealed the windows PC's fate in my mind... I have one single windows PC left in my house (the media centre PC running my media room), and since it has always crashed all over the place, I will need to figure out what to replace it with soon :).
I'm getting tired of garbage displays with no color accuracy being standard.
When I started using mine over a year ago, one of the firt things I liked was the ability to use screen touch instead of a mouse or touchpad.
It just made so much more sense.
Why wiggle a mouse.. over here.. instead of touching the object on the screen?
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
So I assume touchscreen laptops will reduce battery life on all new devices?
I've been looking at the LG Tab Book (H160) and the Tab Book Ultra (Z160), and they look quite nice. They're both slider tablets with slide-out keyboards, and instead of a touchpad, they rely on a touchscreen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyGcz86ym4
I like the form factor and the fact that the touchscreen eliminates the need for a touchpad, but I'm concerned about the quality of the keyboard. I've heard that the tactile keyboard on the Windows Surface tablet is of good quality, and I'd like all ultrabook or tablet keyboards to be of similar quality.
I went through most of the comments on this article and I can not find any that address the root problem, which is this: Where the hell does Intel get off telling its customers what they have to build with their chips? If I were a designer of equipment and considering these chips I would tell Intel to ESAD.
That's obvious BS, because the Transformer is so top-heavy that if you touch the screen without holding it up with your other hand it falls over.
I bought the keyboard dock with my Transformer because it seemed like a good idea, but in reality it's only useful for the extra battery.
I'll take a touchscreen as long as it's higher than 1376x768.
Don't you fucking look at me!
What are you looking at?
- Nothing.
Don't you look at me, fuck!
I would love to be able to reach up and press onscreen buttons. A touch screen would be more efficient than using the mouse at times. This doesn't mean it is an either or proposition. One can have a touch screen, a mouse and a keyboard. What I would dearly love is if my iPad docked with my MacBookPro as the screen. That would be very useful.
Do not want.
They've already become very hard to find, and I doubt there's ever going to be a 'touch' one. Sigh. Like 16:9, looks like horrible glossy screens are all we will be offered from now on.
All the touch enabled laptops I've seen have glossy screens. Glossy screens with all the glare are useless for work.
It looks like all the causal users are buying tablets instead of laptops already. So laptops remain for people who actually want to get some work done. When they make them with matte anti-glare screens, then they'll be ready for purchase.
As long as its a convertible then I love the idea.
Ive got a T101MT (resistive touch unfortunately) and love it. I use it everywhere. I get the power of a netbook plus can convert it into a tablet and use it for reading magazines, comics, books (ie datasheets) etc.
I use it exclusively in Linux (I use ubuntu w/gnome-shell)
I really love the hardware specs of these new models coming out, intel i3 processors, 4gb+ ram, capacitive touch screens, great battery life (I get 7h w/ no wifi, so I dont know how much better the new models actually are) but all are windows 8 so Linux is not an option though so I wont be getting one any time soon it looks like.
UDL
An ordinary stylus doesn't work with capacitive touch screens. In fact this is a plot point in Atomic Robo, where a character with a robotic hand literally cannot answer a call on a smartphone.
it just sometimes nicer to star trek style UI's once and a while.
Until CBS starts asserting its exclusive rights in the LCARS user interface style.
Your phone most likely *gasp* ... has a touch screen!
Yes, if other comments to this story are to be believed, a liquid crystal display with a touch screen in front is the liquid crystal display for the least common denominator.
OK I guess it wouldn't be /. if it weren't for all the false dichotomies and people talking out their ass. But this just gets tiresome.
I have had a Tablet PC since about 2003 or 2004. Maybe longer, I can't remember. I will NEVER go back to a regular laptop. Never once have I gotten the dreaded "Gorilla Arm Syndrome." Why? Because no one in their right mind would actually use a touch screen in an entirely vertical mode and throw out their mouse, forcing them to do everything with the touch screen. That nonsense is just the ghost of Steve Jobs talking, in an attempt to discredit anything Apple hasn't (yet) been able to capitalize on.
Most of the time, when I use my Tablet PC, I tilt the screen way back like a drafter's table. I can then comfortably read the screen, type, use my finger to do quick, less-precise things (like scroll or hit a button), use the active-stylus for more-precise things (like selecting text or drop down menus or drawing curves in Illustrator or handwriting), and even occasionally use the mouse for even-more-precise things (like drafting or adjusting those curves in Illustrator). Sometimes, I will even use the track-pad, though I often turn it off. I move back and forth between all the tools at my disposal just like any other craftsman who actually has the wherewithal to learn how to use more than one tool at a time. I have watched people use the extra large track pad on Mac laptops, with all those handy finger gestures and I wouldn't mind adding that to the mix as well. Especially for times when I am trying to do a lot on a laptop-sized screen.
The point is that more options are better. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit.
So, if all laptops will soon have touch-screens, then the price of those touch screens will come way down. Everyone will get used to using them however they work best for them and then it won't be new any more. GAWWD, I'm old enough to remember the frikkin mouse-vs-keyboard wars. Oh wait a minute... there are still some morons who keep claiming that they are the macho stud coder because they never touch a mouse. When you listen to them type it sounds as if they are typing a million characters a minute ... each key pounded like the fate of the world depends on it ... until you take a look and see that almost half of all those keystrokes are the freaking backspace key.
Holy crap people! Get over yourselves! You you are all computer nerds. You will never be macho except by comparison with some other computer nerd who is slightly less macho. Stop posturing over which tool or product is the absolute best, denigrating all the others lest someone see your preferred tool as less cool. Just use what works for you, give the others a try once in a while, and get the hell on with your lives. All this touch-screen vs mouse nonsense is like a bunch of carpenters arguing over which is better: a saw or a hammer.
Pure rubbish
You are such an obvious troll.
I had the TF-101, and recently got the TF700T-B1.
Neither did anything like you describe.
It is also useful for the keyboard , the extra ports, and so on.
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
Of course the trend is on touch screens on laptops. Windows 8 really requires it and if you want to be able to put that silly little Designed for Windows 8 sticker on your laptop, it has to be touchscreen. Laptops are coming out with touchscreens, not because of consumer demand, but because Microsoft is telling the manufactures to make them or else. It's Microsoft's edge over Apple's OS X.
The problem is that touchscreens on laptops and desktops have been around for quite awhile. What Microsoft doesn't realize is that this strategy can really blow up in their face if there isn't new software designed specifically to take advantage of a touch screen interface (which would be vastly different than current applicaitons) AND still be productive for real work. Consumers won't equate a useless touchscreen with Dell or HP or . They will equate it with Windows.
Look at the frustrations in the linux world with Gnome 3 and Unity interfaces, touch like interfaces may be fine for your tablet and for consuming information, but if you have real work to do, work that requires the creation of data, say in a business or research setting, touch screens are less than ideal. That might also be one of the reasons why corporate America seems to be skipping over Windows 8 and hoping the next version is better suited towards their needs.
Here's a novel idea, what kind of interface are Microsoft's programmers, business analysts and bookkeepers using for their day to day work? Do they use a keyboard or a touchscreen?
Just make a DS laptop with the bottom display being a monochrome touchscreen.
That would be glorious for all my use cases, general typing, graphics tablet, dual screen display control for adding extra information about games on a bottom screen (such as Dwarf Therapist for Dwarf Fortress, admittedly that would break the mood indicator since it is color, but I always hover anyway to see specifics)
Here is a question, does anyone do build-to-spec request laptops? I'd love a custom built laptop but of course the price for doing such a thing would hinder me hugely. But those guys have resources out the ass to build things to order if they restructure their services.
I could only hope this is the next evolution of the computer industry, laptop form factor ordered to a custom spec.
Then large groups could even order custom laptops with their branding on it, it could create a whole secondary market simply by existing. Gamer-based laptops? You bet. Laptops for the audiophiles? You bet. Dual screen laptop for graphics design, all my money. Laptops that are walking hacking centers for testing network security? Hey I'm FBI, let me see that background of yours.
So with a mouse, I can move 1/2 inch to select a dual monitor width of 38.35 inches (two 22 inch monitors --remember 22 means diagonal--), but with touch I have to move my hand back and forth 38.35 inches. Hmmm. How exactly is that better or faster again? Its fine for exercise, but I have several 'touch screen' devices, and not one of them offers the kind of tactile response or precision that I get with a mouse. Can I at least disable the touch part and add a mouse?
..And I'm thoroughly enjoying using the Touchscreen. It sucks being ahead of the curve, though - only Windows 8 and IE seems to support it properly. Firefox is sucky. Chrome even worse. Well done, MS.
You see, with Android taking over - people have become accustomed to touch. It's very natural and intuitive.
My only question: What place does Intel have to dictate hardware features?!?!
I don't understand why the title of this post implies that someone wouldn't like to have a touch screen on their laptop if it was available. Why is there resistance to this idea? Seems like FUD on the part of Microsoft's competitors.
In addition to their efficient global operations, cash heap that supports volume purchasing of stuff like flash RAM, and investments in processes like unibody machining, that is.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
I imagine a lot of people will not like this. At some point they will buy an alternative after a manufacturer sees a market for it. In the interim, some people selling used laptops might make a little more money they would have before
Run Zina with the album covers in party/juke mode. and everyone will love picking the music.
Touch screen laptop was the final piece of the puzzle.
Like Twinkies, I guess I'll have to buy several cheap portable computers that don't have the next unnecessary bullshit dreckhnology in them that'll cost me more so that my NOT A TABLET, REAL COMPUTER will be able to act more nearly like it's a fucking tablet.
Intel, congratulations, you assholes! You have just joined Microsoft, Apple, and Sony on my FUCK YOU!!! list.
Well, as long as AMD doesn't follow suit, I'll be okay. I just remembered the last several machines I bought or built all had AMD CPU's in them, NOT INTEL.
SO FUCK YOU, INTEL! QUIT TRYING TO FORCE YOUR GODDAMNED FUCKING BULLSHIT DOWN OUR THROATS! If I wanted a touch-pad useless doorstop, I would have bought one. I bought a REAL computer because I have REAL work to do on it, not fucking around playing Gay Birds or whatever!
Despite illusions, I recall,
I really don't know touch screens -- at all.
But I know I hate them!
Like the flower needs the rain, I know I hate them
I could start this all again, you know I hate them
I hate them, I hate them.
My notebook has buttons. One for each letter and number I will ever need. It has other buttons too. The buttons get dirty. They still work. The screen is delicate. It stays clean because I do not touch it. But sometimes I drool on my buttons. They still work. I drool on the screen. It still works. When I wipe the screen clean it just becomes clean, it does not trigger the activation of a thousand random commands and send me to goatse.
My enjoyment of the Internet does not suffer if I cannot directly "poke the goat to make him jump" or "poke the goat and drag him to the cow to make him climb on top". I have mastered the concept of the proxy pointer where I rub my finger on something that is not the screen, and a little pointer on screen tells me where my finger is not. I can poke the goat and make him mount the cow with ease. He is there now, see?
The only touchscreen I would try out is an air touch screen with a projected holographic display. Then I could flick the goat across the room towards the cow, and have a goat standing tall, spinning on each blade of my ceiling fan.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
MS and Intel are not the solution and one or both will have market-share problems.
Lean & means lead the way, because big, old, and fat is mired in the past.
MS & Intel (IMO) delude (as IBM, SCO ...) the market into seeing "Reality" leaders. Economic actuality is always the domain of the customer, buyer, and corporate welfare laws.
As with all predictions, anyone could be wrong?
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
I actually love the idea of a hybrid tablet/laptop. I've wanted these for many, many years now. The unfortunate thing is the "screens" are all tablet-sized, which makes them tiny laptops. My current laptop is a 15.6" screen. I've never seen a tablet that big. 10" may be a great tablet size, but it's like a little netbook in "laptop" mode and that's not what I want to be using for serious work.
I don't see any particular issue with having touchscreen-enabled laptops, assuming a. they still have a standard input device as well, b. you can turn off the touchscreen if it's getting in the way, and c. it doesn't universally raise the prices on everything. That's the biggest issue - I can see laptop companies colluding to tell everyone, guess what, touchscreens cost 200 dollars over the base, and also, you can't buy a laptop without a touchscreen anymore, you just have to pay 200 dollars more than last year. But you want a touchscreen, so it works out!
+1 Epic rant
So Intel is trying to help "save" Win 8 because apparently MS is strong-arming them somehow... Doesn't matter, it's still trying to put lipstick on a pig.
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== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
Unfortunately, since our brain work (as opposed to the finger work of typing reports) often involves pointing at graphical representations of data on the screen to say "this and this are significant" ; at which point finger comes in contact with screen, screen display jumps all over the place.
Touch-screen gets disabled. Always.
If Intel want to enforce touch screen hardware, I don't give a fuck. If they want to enforce it being enabled, they can go fuck themselves.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"