If pressured enough, Apple will create the best touch screen out there due to their patents of multi-touch they have... The real question is, who will pressure them? I haven't seen touchscreen computers catch on.

The issue is not with the GUI, but with the whole idea..
Hold out your hands as if you were using a touch screen on your current computer. How long would you care to hold your arms out horizontally touching it?
Also, I regularly clean both my iMac and iPhone screens, can you imagine how disgusting your desktop screen would be if it had a touch screen!

Timely article, as I'm setting up a 23" HP Touchsmart PC right now for someone. This is the first experience I've had with a touch desktop. To be honest, they were really only interested in an all-in-one PC for their home, and most options now just happen to be touch.

I've played around with the touch aspect a bit. It might find a niche market of sort. Kitchen would be a great location for one. Walk-up kiosks and such as well. But I don't see the average consumer "needing" a touchscreen in their home.

So touch is great even without any real software making use of it?

Maybe if MicroSoft took it's new OS, reversed the primary input method & UI (so touch dominates), got most of it's developers to re-think how they write software, concatonated distribution through a dedicated store that might work. It won't happen as nobody owns the product model so keep playing with the touch tokens.

Of course, Apple have most of this in place - just waiting on the key device to make it all come together. Not long now.

For business, ask your occupational health & safety officer what the ramifications are for holding your arms out or tilting your head down for a reasonable period of time.

McD

Touchscreen have some great advantages. But what i do not like about them is the price tag. Just for the screen it self. A 19" can run for about 600 dollars. Even no i would like to show off how cool i am that i don't need a mouse, i would not spend that much for such a small monitor.

I agree with Joseph. With a keyboard and mouse, your arms are at rest most of the time.

If we had to spent a hours with our arm in the air tapping a screen, our biceps would be freaking huge after a few weeks.

Your VIO link directed me to the Robert Heinlein page.

Do you remember shoving to a member of your family something on internet and then they reach out and poke it with a finger like it's gonna be more visible or something? And you jumped up and screamed at them : "Don't touch the screen!!!!"
I know I did and I can't imagine what it would look like if you had to do it all the time.
I'm not cleaning it!

Until they make monitors that rest on the table at 30° or 45°. I don't see these takeing hold. No one will be willing to do a mummy act for more than 1min.

How about a best of both worlds scenario?
Imagine if you had the ability to dock your iPod touch/iPhone or other touch screen PMP with your keyboard.
Imagine then that your PMPs screen mirrored the content on your PC/Mac screen, allowing you a visual touch surface without smudging your main viewing screen or causing a major ergonomic issue?
That would be cool.

netsmurf,

You should see this.
http://www.vimeo.com/6712657

As a matter of fact, you should all see this. It proposes simply getting a device that looks like a tablet that detects 10 fingers. This way you can keep your hands in the keyboard position and not have your hands blcking the screen. And yes, the video demonstrates how the software should be optomised for 10 fingers.

Duncan,
That is very cool and definitely has merit.
However, I was approaching the issue from a different direction.
Many (most?) of us already carry around cell phones or PMPs that have excellent screens and functional intuitive touch capabilities.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, why can't we just dock our 'wheels' to our keyboards?
Instead of having to buy a hi-res, touch screen video trackpad (if it existed, and was cheaper than the Wacom cintiq), just let me use my iPhone as an input device.
How 'bout it Steve. One more thing!

Neither MS or Apple can bring this to the masses unless we have a paradigm shift.

Stop thinking like your using a mouse.

You need 2 screens. One to look at, and one to grease up. The ergonomic problems are huge.

Chapters/Indigo bookstores in Canada have iMac touchscreens. They are limited, you use them in conjunction with a keyboard but you can place the cursor with your finger.

Don't they have screen with that smudge reducer? I'm saving up for a awesome all-in-one touchscreen. I can't wait to create in PS with my pics, Poser, and AutoCAD. I realize that they only recognize single point, but when multi-touch comes in it's own, they will support it. I do think that the screens should be at a more accessible angle like someone else said prior. Kind of like the Surface but set up like a Drafter's desk, angle wise. If not the consumer side, the commercial side can benefit. Graphic design, fashion, anything that was done by pencil can be expressed better with your fingers.

"Unless, of course, Apple figures out how we can control an iMac by voice command. Both the voice-controlled Google Search and iPhone's voice command work pretty well and are likely to improve, so total voice control isn't exactly a fantasy. Perhaps Apple will intuitively combine the two at some point."

You are aware that voice command has been around on mac since before mac os x, and it works quite fine. It's not great in a crowded room, but it does offer total control of your mac by voice. Sans typing. Command based voice recognition and typographic are of course different technologies. The latter is avaialable like for every computer, should you be so inclined.

facepalm.jpg
Microsoft has had voice recognition since windows XP. In windows vista and 7 (i have never used it in XP, but it is there) it's actually quite good, and allows for dictating. But you did point out the problem with voice recognition, its good if your in a quiet space, but terrible if there is any noise around.

i dont know if this has been mentioned yet but macs have had speech recognition for years and it works great so i dont know where hes getting his info that says they dont when i have used the built in speech recognition for years myself

http://lifehacker.com/215764/hack-attack-make-your-macs-speech-recognition-work-for-you here is my proof

I've had an HP Touchsmart PC for two years and it's great. I rarely use the touchscreen aspect of it, it's just easier to type/mouse. But there are sometimes when it's great just to touch an item on the screen, mainly when playing Shockwave games and the games that come built in with the system.

Also, smudging is not an issue at all because (a) you can use its plastic stylus, or any pointy object, and (b) you don't need to acutally touch the screen, you only need to break the plane of sensors embedded in its frame. In all the time I've used it as my main PC I've only needed to clean the LCD twice.

These systems are awesome and a fantastic value, dollar for dollar. However, you do sacrifice hardware upgradeability so these aren't for build-it-yourselfers or intense gamers. But you CANNOT beat these systems for combined general use and HDTV/PVR functionality. In fact, the Touchsmart was my first HDTV and I still use it for backup programming when my cable system's DVR gets full or cuts a program off too early.

Regarding the 'i don't wanna stick my arm out all day' naysayers. What they can do is make the keyboard and mouse area a touchscreen surface that you can toggle back and forth with between that and the actual monitor screen! It is simple, for general input, typing, clicking, etc, you can use the lower touchscreen and for multi-touch purposes you can use the monitor or upper touch screen! That is a very brilliant concept if I don't say so myself!

Regarding the 'i don't wanna stick my arm out all day' naysayers. What they can do is make the keyboard and mouse area a touchscreen surface that you can toggle back and forth with between that and the actual monitor screen! It is simple, for general input, typing, clicking, etc, you can use the lower touchscreen and for multi-touch purposes you can use the monitor or upper touch screen! That is a very brilliant concept if I don't say so myself!!!

Hello!! Apple did the touch concept on it's latest line of iMacs!! The world's first Multi-Touch Mouse!

Apple probably realized that the main problem with a Touchscreen IS the fingerprints (as so many have stated on here). So why not make an object that we're already so used to the "Touch" device! How genius! I have one of the new Magic Mouse and it's freaking unbelievable!! It just feels so natural! I love it.

Short and simple... NO! The touch screen while practical for public computers is not yet good enough to be mainstream. I have about 10 touchscreen devices in my home (three of them are nintendo DS Lites) but many of the features that touch screen offers are occasionally annoying.

My most annoying device happens to be my celly. I like having a full keyboard, but it's extremely annoying to not have buttons for certain things. Honestly, the tactile response is something I wish I had known I would miss before I went and upgraded.

@amc, read my post again, apple does not have built in speach recognition, it has built in speech command. They are different technologies. One requires contextual recognition for dictation, one requires semantic parsing for commands.

XP had dictation NOT command, infact their website even treats voice command like it is science fiction, when in fact it was available on mac os before OS X happened infact 1993 was the first appearance of speakable items. Meaning the idea that macs can't be operated by voice command is not merely false, but ridiculously outdated. And I assure you it works beyond expectation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakable_items

Touch screen keyboard that can act both as a keyboard and also be a screen. So this screen sits where keyboard should be at an angle, then the main monitor stays where it is. this screen can be big enough that it can even double as a tablet.

Touch screen keyboard that can act both as a keyboard and also be a screen. So this screen sits where keyboard should be at an angle, then the main monitor stays where it is. this screen can be big enough that it can even double as a tablet.

I've worked at a University library for three years, and we use touch screens to make it easier to use the library software. It's all tied into windows XP and works great. You get used to it really quickly and me and the student workers use it even when we're just on the web. It's actually so natural that many times when I go back to my regular computer or at home, I catch myself reaching out and touching the screen. I actually have to keep my normal work computer fairly far back on my desk to make sure I don't touch it.

Also, I don't know what kinds of screens we have, but finger prints rarely show up on it. You use the tip of your finger and it really doesn't leave much of a mark. Yeah, we clean them about once a month, but it never LOOKS bad at all. Seriously, I wish I had one at home.

We have touchscreens AND mouse-based systems at work. As long as you don't "Bang" on them, they're much easier and intuitive than without. People with the ability to touch gently are able to use these really easily.

I can see a reflection of the monitor on the desktop situated near the keyboard (sorta like two monitors showing the same thing) as a possible workaround but, yeah, I don't want to have to keep some cleaning solution and a rag near my computer to I can clean it before watching the hulu video I just tapped to open.

Also, I don't see this getting rid of the mouse. Gamers would not like it one bit. (Although, admittedly, gamers are going console...some, not all.)

As a Mac user, I am awaiting the rumored touch tablet.

Touch screens may have purpose for existing but not for average computer use, this is outta date other than for pda's kiosk etc. what we need are computers like in StarTrek that we can carry on voice converstation with and understands us to get or give us what we want from it, i can't help but remember that scene from StarTrek when Scotty talks into the mouse on the Apple computer trying to make it work after coming from a Starship that has interactive voice controlled computers, not only was it funny but it's the way we should be focusing are efforts not on touch screens although they did use touch screen consols on StarTrek so it does have it's place in the sun but not as much as a smart fast voice operated one.

One issue that touch-screens haven't addressed is the fact that to use them comfortably you're arm (or arms) end up out stretched in an awkward position. Ergonomically they should be horizontal on the same plane as your keyboard. I work in a game studio where all the concept artists have Wacom drawing tablets and of course they're all sitting on a desk like a pad of paper. Apple needs to develop an iMac that's orientated like that and then they'll smack down the HPs and Sony's of the world.

@Rengaw: Do you really think it would make sense to talk to your computer? Can you imagine the office if everyone was talking to your computer? I don't think talking to your pc will ever fully catch on but for some things, like the iPhone voice control functions, it'll be useful. All I'm saying is that if my cube mate had to say, "Open documents folder" every time he wanted to look in that folder I'd probably end up hitting him with a mouse.

Hmmmm, I used a touch screen at work about 24 years ago. I just loved it and it did take some time getting used to it. I'd love one for graphic art!

The desk.
The lap.
Until the entire device becomes one and then the other, touching the screen is just another potential fluid accident waiting to happen, which would force the purchase of yet another machine.
In one hand, it works!
In two, it must become... an elbow resistant physical desk top
or book-like for the lap.
And...
I will still want to use all ten fingers!

Psshh, the comment branch reeks of Apple fanboys...

I have both and I hate the attitude of the Iclones who spend more time complaining about apple than they do actually contributing to the world of computing.. it's why the MS side will always be one step ahead..

Touchscreens are not new GTE supplied a system to the air force back in 1989 and it worked with windows 3.11, we just had to clean the CRT screens allot. The computer was a Compaq 286 Deskpro.