Drown in touch-aid

Looks like the PC makers are indeed swallowing the touch kool-aid as if it's royal jelly from the gods.

Look at this madness:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Desktops/Desktops

They are selling classic laptops and desktops WITH TOUCH as one of the main selling points! Is that pure desperation or is the typical big-IT corp manager indeed a total buffoon?

Just look at the torture device in this picture - who is going to use that? Your arms will fall off within two days if you're going to smudge this thing for more than thirty seconds a day. Most people will probably use it just once to satisfy their curiousity and forget the touch capability afterwards. Sort of what happened to the speech and voice recognition engine in Win 7. Tablets are one thing, but this? Do the experiment right way - stretch your arm out to touch your screen, hold it for more than 20 seconds in that position - pure joy, right?

Just looking at the poor arm this picture is painful. The fact that this is NOT a shock ad from Benetton is proof that the world has gone mad.

That arm is not attached to a person... it's part of a new point/touch device that is connected to the back of your chair, and leans over your shoulder... you control it using a 9-button mouse and special software... an absolute steal at only $399.

51 minutes ago, wastingtime​withforums wrote

hold it for more than 20 seconds in that position - pure joy, right?

...which is exactly what people using a touch screen would do.

EDIT: For amusement, I just did that anyway and could hold my arm for 40 seconds without stress. If you can't do the same, then you need to get out more. But then we already knew that...

I think that I am going to wait for the LeapMotion to come out of vapor-ware-land.

-Josh

@wastingtimewithforums:I've owned a touch screen laptop for a couple of years now, and I swore the moment I actually started using it that I'd never own another laptop without a touch screen. And that's using Windows 7, a non-touch friendly OS.

I've not used a touch screen on a desktop computer yet, but after my experience with the laptop, I've been considering buying a touch monitor.

See, touch is intuitive, natural, quick and easy. Anyone that's ever used a touch screen device has found themselves at least once reaching out and trying to manipulate something on their desktop screen. At least, that's what I hear from pretty much everyone, so I assume it's a large enough percentage to be a universal truism.

I assume, especially from your challenge description, that naysayers just don't understand how touch screens are actually used in devices like this. You assume a touch screen means I'm going to spend hours on end poking, swiping and manipulating the screen with my hands, like you have to do with a touch only device. Got news for you... I don't even use my mouse that much. It's the infrequent things that are just easier with a touch screen. A dialog pops up, and you quickly dismiss it by tapping the onscreen button. Much easier than manipulating the mouse, insanely easier than using a track pad, and often more natural than using keyboard navigation and/or shortcuts. I could go on and on with scenarios, but the point is, they are short and infrequent, so there is no fatigure involved.

6 minutes ago, wkempf wrote

I've not used a touch screen on a desktop computer yet, but after my experience with the laptop, I've been considering buying a touch monitor.

I would consider it, except I've just realized I can't actually reach either of my monitors from a normal sitting position. I'd have to lean forward quite a bit.

Also, the trouble with touch screens:

@Sven Groot: I'm near sighted, so my monitors may be closer than normal. I can reach all of my monitors... though I do have to admit it requires a fully extended arm, unlike the laptop screen. That is why I hedged and admitted to having never used a touch screen on a desktop. It may well be I'd use it a whole lot less on the desktop. The main reason I posted was because laptops were specifically mentioned in conjunction with the desktop and called a horrible idea for including touch screens. For that, I can call BS loudly. Like I said, I'll never own a laptop without a touch screen again.

For my desktop, there'd need to be some kind of USB or WiFi touchscreen monitor that I could set on the desk and pick up once in a while.

For a laptop, a touch screen is a win. It's comfortable to just reach out and grasp the lower right corner of the screen and scroll through a document with your thumb. Multi-touch and gesture aware trackpads help, but sometimes you just need to poke something.

For long use, it is better in 30 degree designer angle.

1 day ago, wkempf wrote

Anyone that's ever used a touch screen device has found themselves at least once reaching out and trying to manipulate something on their desktop screen. At least, that's what I hear from pretty much everyone, so I assume it's a large enough percentage to be a universal truism.

Are they stupid?

1 day ago, wkempf wrote

A dialog pops up, and you quickly dismiss it by tapping the onscreen button. Much easier than manipulating the mouse

While it is very much a particular situation, I suffer from a chronic condition where all physical movement is extremely taxing, and I am acutely aware of even minor differences in how the UI works, and how much energy it costs me.

Personally, comparing a few mm of movement on a mouse/wheel and moving my arm/hand to the screen to press on it, isn't even worthy of consideration for me.