Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 30th Nov 2012 21:54 UTC
"I was prepared to write that the Windows 8 interface was forcing unnecessary touchscreen controls on people who wouldn't appreciate them, particularly if they were simply grafted onto a traditional laptop. But the more I've used Windows 8, despite its faults, the more I've become convinced that touchscreens are the future - even vertical ones." I can see his point. I, too, have often felt the desire to touch regular and laptop displays, especially when doing things like photo and video.
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Member since:2006-07-12
Member since:2011-01-28
There are some applications where multi-modal input are useful and better than mouse or keyboard alone on a desktop. But it would definitely cause muscle fatigue for anything longer than short sessions. The obvious solution is to place a separate touchscreen flat on the desktop.
The touchscreen would be most useful for coarse adjustments, like scaling/rotating pictures on screen to make a collage, scrolling/zooming documents, quickly flinging app windows to different monitors, apps could display context sensitive toolbar pallets in games, photoshop, etc. It could also emulate a touchpad if desired. It could be used with or without a keyboard. All the while the primary monitor(s) don't need to be smudged by any fingerprints. And the desktop interface doesn't need to be dumbed down for touch, since only the touchscreen needs to show the touch controls. The touchscreen could highlight the touch hotspots without uglifying the main desktop screen, which solves a major problem with touch today: the lack of touch discover-ability.
Of course, when such systems come to market, I'm sure there will be plenty of fanboys insisting the ideas must have been copied and couldn't be inspired through device evolution.
Member since:2005-08-18
Member since:2005-07-06
On a very small laptop, ie. under 15", a touchscreen might still make sense, but on anything above that you will be stretching your arms for the screen and they will tire
It works fine on a 17" desktop replacement, with the elbow resting on the table for support, just in front of the laptop. And I don't have any unusually long arms. Really, try it.
That would cover vast majority of laptops that people buy, laptops being also the (still rising) majority of PCs sold. And the news is about laptops.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
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At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
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OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.More Features »
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Member since:
2006-02-15
On a very small laptop, ie. under 15", a touchscreen might still make sense, but on anything above that you will be stretching your arms for the screen and they will tire. A touchscreen might be useful for certain kinds of applications, but I sure as hell hope people won't be trying to push it as a general replacement for mice and keyboards across the whole board -- if I had to poke at my 24" display across my table, reaching outwards every single time and bending my wrist 90 degrees upwards because poking a touchscreen with long fingernails just doesn't work otherwise I'd have extremely sore and tired arms and wrist very, very quickly.