Comments on: Value Add for Multitouch Notebooks Is…What, Exactly?

By: anon

anon — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:23:17 +0000

I use touch now and it can make you more productive.

By: B. Kátay

B. Kátay — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:19:34 +0000

I have an X61 (this is my 3rd tablet). I’m an meeting-out-meeting-in office user. (I never use it in slate mode, because it is cumbersome to switch and my handwriting barely readable and I can type much faster.)

I find touch a real value add. Touch is very convenient and fast to switch between programs, navigate great distances on the screen. therefore I regularly use touch if I do not have an external mouse connected. is also great in corridor scenarios and give a satisfying “flow” feeling. Windows 7 improved greatly the accuracy and usability of touch.

It is a small machine, therefore the distance of the screen, especially the taskbar is not a problem. (I sometimes even feel that the taskbar is the extension of the keyboard.)

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:15:55 +0000

Honestly, I use touch all the time in both slate and laptop mode on my Dell XT. I love using it for scrolling in Windows 7 (especially important because the Dell trackpoint doesn’t have any scrolling functions- you have to use the touchpad for that, and I hate touchpads) and also when the mouse pointer is all the way in the corner or something I find it much faster to just poke at the screen.

Plus, you also get to play the awesome Microsoft Rebound from the Windows 7 Touch Pack if you have 4-point multitouch.

By: MarceloR

MarceloR — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:35:36 +0000

Sorry for the double post, but I just came across a supposedly new product from Wacom that adds touch to their Bamboo line of USB external tablets. Presumably this is making use of the capacitive-active digitizer used in tabletpc’s like the new touch X200. Now this would be a better solution than a touch screen for a laptop even if you account for the fact that you have to carry along another device.

By: MarceloR

MarceloR — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:24:49 +0000

I have a (five year old) Thinkpad Transnote which has a touch screen of the old-fashioned type. Granted, the touch screen on the T400s is years ahead but from my experience with the Transnote in laptop mode I can’t see how this can be a viable product. Other than occasionally dismissing dialogs and occasionally scrolling a page it just does not make good ergonomic sense to use it in a laptop (as opposed to a tablet.) I can’t foresee any app that might justify having tired arms. Any CAD work can be done more efficiently with a 3D controller (like the products from 3DConnexion.) Microsoft built the touch stuff into Windows 7 in order to cater to slates and such without having to market a different specialized product. To my mind, it is a bit disingenuous to come up with a product like this and pretend that it is going to be useful.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:09:05 +0000

On the Lenovo web site the T400s with touch-screen option starts at $1,999 so you’d have to make a business case for it IMHO.

By: Gordon Cahill

Gordon Cahill — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:50:12 +0000

Count me in as a touch fan. And I can’t draw. I have a TX2000 and a P1620 as well as a couple of netbooks.

I’ve gotten so used to touch. I use it mostly in laptop mode on the TX and obviously in both on the P1620 (toucjh only). I find it much faster to navigate around using my finger (nail?) than eitjher the toujch pad or the nub on the 1620. It’s 2nd nature to me. On the TX I even do “pen” flicks with my finger.

I’m looking forward to this becoming mainstream (if MS and the manufacturers don’t stuff it up) and the OS and some programs becoming more touch friendly.

Gordon

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:22:41 +0000

t, as I said there are no doubt special functions that fit the multi-touch mold. Professional cartoonist no doubt fits the role perfectly as you’ve aptly stated. I can’t draw squat so it’s a no-go for me.

I’ll remember the java’s on you. Look forward to seeing you again, buddy. :)

By: T Lewis

T Lewis — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:44:40 +0000

Hi James…
I’ll weigh in here as I have in the past…Touch is where it’s at. I have my Lenovo x61t right now in laptop mode and using touch (albeit single-point in this now vintage machine) to scroll around f-fox (to gripe at you) and hop back and forth between my writing projects.

Why is this so hard to adopt? It seems so natural.

In a few minutes – after I’ve finished my soup at this little bistro – I’ll flip into tablet mode to do art. Drawing with my right hand and hitting app icons and moving my digital paper with my left.

I still have 3 non-touch tablets that get pretty steady use…the venerable Tosh M200, a Motion ls800 and a Tosh M7. My wife’s got a Dell 10″ netbook. The touchlessness(?) of these babies drives me nuts.

I’m never buying another numb-screen.

t
ps: hope to be in Housotn this fall…java’s on me.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:33:52 +0000

Touch only seems useful when you don’t have a more convenient input option – like on a smartphone. But, as you noted, a mouse and keyboard are more ergonomic and efficient for notebook and desktop computers. If one did need to select and/or move multiple points on the screen at once, then multitouch would be helpful, but that certainly does seem to be limited in application. It looks exciting to see screen objects manipulated by flailing arms (especially on a large screen, perhaps holographic as in the movies), but much more comfortable and efficient if done with minute flicks of a few fingers, like with an old-fashioned keyboard…