"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:2005-07-22
Good points but you have missoed one essential factor.
In a drawing office you are essentially dealing with MATTE media. Thus reflections from the overhead lighting don't come into play.
As soon as you have a large flat touch tilted surface that AFAIK (and probably due to current technology) you will suffer from a myriad of reflections that will effectively stop you from doing much productive work.
Once the boffins come up with a resilient non reflective coating for BOTH surfaces of the glass then we be getting somewhere. Why both surfaces?
Optics 101. As light enters glass some of it act as if the glass is a prism (think the front cover of Dark Side of the Moon if you are old enough). This is due to the angles at which the wavelengths of light strike the surface. Then glass is a two way medium.
The screen makers can learn a think or two from the Camera Lens designers. They've been battling with this subject for decades.
We aren't there yet but I have no doubt that in time it will become an affordable reality.
Will I take it up? I doubt it as I'm less than 5 years away from retirement.
Member since:2007-03-22
It was called the surface. For a while there was a bit of text on microsoft.com/surface that indicated that the product you linked to had been renamed to "SUR40 with PixelSense" so that they could repurpose the Surface name. Having played with one at a local Microsoft building... It has a unique interface (I think this is the part they now refer to as PixelSense) that seemed incredibly limited. It was little more than a kiosk, and was pretty horrible to use.
I love the idea of a large low-angle touchscreen as a lightbox or architect's desk style thing. Now I want to know where to get a 30" touchscreen and a strong luxo-lamp style mount for it to move between desk and display modes.
Member since:2007-04-25
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
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.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!
Member since:
2006-01-14
The only way I see touch coming to the desktop is if the monitor becomes the surface of your desk. And it tilts up like a drafting table or photo editors table. If the monitor is vertical like they are now, it will fail. And you will still need a slide out level surface for the keyboard and mouse. Question is, who can afford a 30-40 inch touch screen to go with their desktop. Of course you could also do a row of flat panels as multi monitors.
Did anyone else know that Microsoft makes a table called the surface?
http://www.samsung.com/us/business/commercial-display-solutions/LH4...
Maybe surface is the name of the interface?