Windows is touched

[Guy Clapperton]

So the worst-kept secret is finally out of the bag - the next generation of Windows will work with touch screens. It will be faster than current versions of the system and it will take multiple inputs.

I can't help being just a little cynical about this one. Yes, I understand the advantage of a touch screen for the consumer and the end user - my own PDA is in fact an Apple iPod Touch (OK, OK, it's consumer technology but it does the job for a freelance) and I enjoy using the touch screen on that. OK, I'm an Apple fan, I get an unnatural sense of satisfaction simply from sitting there staring at it. You expect no less from us.

But let's backtrack a little. Has everyone forgotten the Tablet PC and Pen Computing? Forgive me for stating the already-widely-known but wasn't the screen on that kind of touch sensitive in a 'works if you touch it' kind of way? My impression is that it succeeded only in a handful of niches.

Meanwhile the preannouncement of a faster Windows has to be something of an own goal. Windows Vista has had a distinctly mixed press since it launched and if I'm honest my own Windows Vista laptop often gets swapped for my daughter's XP model when she's out as I prefer using the older system, And now we find next year it's going to be upgraded to accommodate a touch screen before anyone had proven this was going to be needed.

You can call me old fashioned. You can call me a reactionary and you can call me a Luddite. I'm just not convinced that a touchy-feely Windows is going to set the world alight any more than the last major upgrade managed.

[scru]

Adding touch-screen capabilities to the mainstream OS *does* seem rather pointless at this time to me. But still, it's no reason to complain; just an extra feature.

I'm sure if this had been "touch screen coming to mainstream Mac OS" the world would've been touting Apple's innovation and creativity.

The world needs to learn not to care about these things.

[GuyClapperton]

That's a very good point. I've often said that PCs have users while Apple seems to have enthusiasts. Apple fans hate it when I say that but, even as an Apple user myself, I find it to be true.

[scru]

Lol, Apple fans can get vexed all they want; but I'm sure that makes Apple very happy.

I believe the reason this is so is because PC users rarely have anything to get enthusiastic about.

[WolfPack]

There may be limitations in the technology at first, but I think that touch screen PCs is the way to go. I read in another blog in Daniweb, that the author does not see the touch screen replacing the Keyboard, and I agree. But I think that this will certainly replace the Touchpad and after some time, the mouse. I have never been comfortable with the laptop touchpad and especially the IBM trackpoint, and use the old fashioned mouse whenever possible. I have been dreaming of the day of closing a window or selecting the cell of an excel sheet by the touch of the screen. Looks like the day is finally here. Hope it's price tag won't be too prohibitive.