I still prefer my mouse over touchscreen. Can I put data in from sitting back in my chair? No!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2047932/Microsoft-boss-Bill-Gates-signals-end-of-the-computer-mouse.html

"Windows 7 aims to build on the success of the touch screen systems developed by Microsoft's rival Apple's iPhone.

Microsoft users will issue commands by touching the screen rather than by the traditional keyboard and mouse combination, which has dominated since the 1970s."

Is Bill wrong again?:

At a conference in Canada this week, Bill Gates, Microsoft's billionaire chairman, said: "The way you interact with the system will change dramatically."

Touchscreen?
Oops, gorilla-arm epidemic on the way.

At an old job, we had touch screens + mice. The touch screen was convenient for pressing sequences of buttons quite quickly. With the back of the hand facing the screen you can quite accurately tap the back of a nail on even small buttons.

Sitting at my desk now it would not be comfortable to have to start poking my screen. Ity would only be of benefit if I wanted to do two things at once on the screen.

I really do not see the point of this. Touch screen has been around for about 15 years or more and never taken off so why should it now?

The next big interaction with computers should be voice, which is very close to being workable.

I prefer touchscreen, its always there...doesnt make sound and is quick ( and I voted there for touchscreen )

Not to mention you need a new monitor for it. A new mouse is what, like $10?

Mouse, definitely..

The last project I was on, they gave me a tablet computer. When used in that mode, I would prefer the touch rather than stylus input.

Most industrial computers are based on touchscreen inputs. This will make it better to make things move left right stretch etc.

Then there will be hand gestures using two IR bank sensors or may be low power lasers

Mouse by far. However tablets can be more useful sometimes as long as they are small-ish, big graphics tablets are awkward and not as easy on the wrist and you have to move too much to cover the screen.

Touch screens are the future. Watch this video.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65

This software is in development still but should be out soon I hope. Buy your stocks now!

If someone were to buy me a touch screen I'd use it but would rather keep my mouse for many reasons. When I play games I enjoy using the mouse to maneuver my people or objects around which you cannot do with a touch screen I don't believe. To copy and paste also requires a mouse but perhaps they can somehow make the touchscreen work that out. There are things which the touchscreen would be ideal for just as using a mouse would be ideal for others things.

I was a skeptic when it comes to a touch screen cuz of smudges and other things, ever since i started using iPhone, i am beginning to like it more an more.

It depends on the type of work your doing off course.
Rick

Touch screens are the future. Watch this video.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65

This software is in development still but should be out soon I hope. Buy your stocks now!

Lol That was a great advert for why touch screen is crap. Why would you want to interact with a lava lamp? Why would you want to make a blob you can move? And why would you have your photo in such a disorganized pile on your desk top? It was just to make it look good. Oh the map thing looked ok but thats about it.

I don't have a problem with touchscreening a small device, but for a desktop it is ridiculous. To imagine that people will sit with stretched arms to manipulate the screen is just stupid....

I don't have a problem with touchscreening a small device, but for a desktop it is ridiculous. To imagine that people will sit with stretched arms to manipulate the screen is just stupid....

not sure I understand you there Syzygys...

A touchscreen can go as far as...infrared detection, infrared sensoring on any surface acting as a mouse...just like the "infrared keyboard"

I am much more pleased to use touschscreen, it is quick, easy to use, and the future...

If touch screen was so great that demo would have shown it being used with windows for everyday functions, not blob poking.

Also the keyboard would be hard to use without clear spaces between keys you would hit the wrong keys far too often.

If touch screen was so great that demo would have shown it being used with windows for everyday functions, not blob poking.

Also the keyboard would be hard to use without clear spaces between keys you would hit the wrong keys far too often.

An infrared projected mouse and keyboard can take care of that...by allowing custamizible key projection in area you wish it to be projected at. Same goes for the touchscreen.

http://www.trendhunter.com/images/phpthumbnails/3050_1_230.jpeg

Infrared is not touchscreen, at least not the way I view it. Touchscreen is touching the screen. When I sit back in my chair, I only want to touch myself, not the freaking screen...

.... When I sit back in my chair, I only want to touch myself.....

*backs away, slowly*

I don't have a problem with touchscreening a small device, but for a desktop it is ridiculous. To imagine that people will sit with stretched arms to manipulate the screen is just stupid....

Dude, imagine it, a six foot wide touchscreen, .. we'll all stand around in black jumpsuits, with bluetooth headsets, waving our arms around like they did in 'Minority Report', and try and achieve something, ... somehow, ... without a keyboard, .... hmmm, no, you're right, the applications are limited, apart from looking like a wanker in some SciFi flick, of course.

precision is another thing, no touchscreen will "touch" a good mouse (I know I know a terrible pun, I couldn't resist). With a mouse the precise movement coupled with buttons is something that a touchscreen can't emulate without having to operate buttons with your other hand (not good for gaming or holding kb shortcuts like ctrl in art package when masking) or breaking the movement with the ts/mouse hand. So that rules out their usefulness in games and many apps.

For gaming and traditional apps mouse is still here to stay although touchscreens might have use in small portable devices etc I agree for desktops they just aren't practical hence will never take over a niche they don't fit as well.

I prefer my mouse. I have a graphire tablet though, and it can be used as a mouse pad. I connect it at the front of my computer, put the pad on my lap, and sit as comfortably as I like. The mouse itself is wireless, but uses no battery (it came with the tablet).

I can only see how a mouse would be better for gaming. Once touch screens become seamless you will all change your minds. Right now touch screens are no where near their potential.

Just because weve done the mouse and keyboard thing for awhile doesnt make it the best option by default just because your used to it.

Hey EndLightEnd, did you ever have the chance to play around with an iPhone? what more could you want a touch screen to do?

mouse. nothing else like it...kboard shortcuts, tablets, balls dont matter cause nothing is like a mouse. niothenig.

Touchscreens will forever be covered in fingerprints -> ugly. Or, you'll have to use a pen... but wait, didn't we step away from using pens? So that our middle finger no longer develops that big bump?

Use a film stuck on the screen dude; it works.

I use a laptop more than a conventional computer. I'm already more comfortable with the touchpad than I used to be with a mouse. Though I initially bought a mouse for the laptop, its been gathering dust ever since.

Couldn't agree more with SAM above me. I also bought a mouse for my laptop that I figured I would use all the time at my desk and only use the touchpad when I have to take my laptop somewhere. However, I tried using the mouse the other day and it was so unnatural because I have already become more accustomed to the touchpad. Throw in keyboard shortcuts (and even better, mouse gestures--may favorite) and I can do so much more quicker and easier.

Also, why does everyone think that you will be moving your hands so much more? Granted, if you are talking about some huge screen thats vertical, yes, that would get tiring. But if you just picture a laptop with the top screen half removed and instead where the keyboard is, how is moving your fingers across the screen any different than moving them around to type? Actually, I think it will take less movement, because the thing that irritates me is when you are typing and then you have to move your hands to the mouse and click something (like a new text box or maybe click ok in a popup, assuming there is no keyboard shortcut to do it) and then move your hands back to the keyboard. I think part of the reason why I am so much faster with the touchpad is that my hands dont move as far to go from typing to clicking.

And people complain about not being able to lay back and use it. How do you use a mouse and keyboard if you want to lay back and recline in a chair? you have to keep reaching up to use the mouse and keyboard. If you had a touchscreen all in one panel you could lay back and use it in your lap the way you would write in a paper notebook.

I do agree about the keyboard though--with no dimension it would be tough to use. I think voice is the way to go with that anyway.

This is all just an intermediate step though--the computers that are controlled just by thinking will be the final step

I agree that with small devices touch screen has it advantages.

I think the MS are pushing touch screen because the tech is here its simple and it's cheap. The reason they want something like this is that Vista was not popular because it needed a good spec computer and this made it unpopular.

The next version of windows should be push voice control but this is a long way from happening because it takes a very good spec computer to run it.

I use a laptop more than a conventional computer. I'm already more comfortable with the touchpad

For fuck's sake, touchscreen not touchpad and desktop not laptop. You tell me how a touchscren is going to work on a 21 inch monitor on my desktop!

Here is another thing: with 2 inces of mousemovement I make 20 inches of cursor movement on the screen. The energy is minimal. If I want to do the same on a touchscreen, I have to have my arm strethced straight and like a conductor with the orchestra make all kind of movements.

Not gonna happen....

Yeah well I am more comfortable with touchpad, against all your mouse-lovers' wishes.

And people complain about not being able to lay back and use it. How do you use a mouse and keyboard if you want to lay back and recline in a chair?

When I just sit back, my arm is resting on the table and I don't type at all, just keep clicking away and cruising and reading the web. No keystroke is necessery....

It actually requires less movement than doing the same on the laptop, although I guess I could use the doubleclick feature...

Touch screens are the future. Watch this video.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65

This software is in development still but should be out soon I hope. Buy your stocks now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY

Big Ass Table.


As to the topic, each interface would have its pros and cons, but on the whole I think I'd prefer the mouse.

I put my mousepad on a book and can easily use my mouse even if I'm laying in bed.

For fuck's sake, touchscreen not touchpad and desktop not laptop. You tell me how a touchscren is going to work on a 21 inch monitor on my desktop!

Here is another thing: with 2 inces of mousemovement I make 20 inches of cursor movement on the screen. The energy is minimal. If I want to do the same on a touchscreen, I have to have my arm strethced straight and like a conductor with the orchestra make all kind of movements.

Not gonna happen....

Why does the screen have to be up there?


I put my mousepad on a book and can easily use my mouse even if I'm laying in bed.

Geez, thats such a pain! However do you manage that? :bugeye:

Geez, thats such a pain! However do you manage that?

Pain?
What's a pain about it?
It's just a mouse on a mousepad. No desk necessary as the book is a portable desk.
(It's a 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide if you must know.)

Here is another thing: with 2 inces of mousemovement I make 20 inches of cursor movement on the screen. The energy is minimal. If I want to do the same on a touchscreen, I have to have my arm strethced straight and like a conductor with the orchestra make all kind of movements.


Just like you do not drag your stylus on a PDA, you do not drag your finger on a screen. I used to design touch screen systems that did have keyboard and mouseball. You lift your finger and touch the next activity point. It all depends on the application.

If you do not want to move your arm or finger...voice commands should be for you as a couch potato....:D

Here is how I could imagine it:

The monitor is at 45 degrees on the desk. No keyboards. The whole computer is inside the monitor. When typing is needed, it happens on the screen and also manipulating the cursor or files happens on the screen. This way we are not talking about a far away reach but just like turning the pages of a paper approach...Basicly the screen is a giant touchpad, right on the desk or in your lap...

It really depends...if touch screens worked a little faster, then I might reconsider. However, Mouses are able to touch small links and do delecate work on the computer, whereas with today's touchscreen technology, it would be sort of inefficient.

Ever try using an iPhone? It is kind of difficult....

I'd think the best thing to always do is to leave it possible for a mouse to be hooked into a touchscreen device for anyone that needs or wants a mouse to use instead. ;)

I can totally see how that would work for a PDA. :D

http://www.ugaredzone.com/uga/uga/mouse.jpg

So does anybody actually have a pics of what Bill was talking about? I agree whoever said it that this is just a PR stunt on his behalf trying to pitch the next OS by MS.

So does anybody actually have a pics of what Bill was talking about? I agree whoever said it that this is just a PR stunt on his behalf trying to pitch the next OS by MS.

what, the multitouch screen?

http://www.technoramble.com/media/images/pptouchscreen.jpg

Look for my post on first page, its got a link to video by this same chinese developer at a TED conference.

OK, well those pics looks like what I was affraid of, having arms stretched out to reach the screen. That ain't gonna fly....

The ONLY thing this would be good for is Simcity where you can squash a house from on high.

Or better still knock down a skyscraper with your cock. Now that would be good for the ego.

Ever try using an iPhone? It is kind of difficult....

I disagree, I love the iPhone's interface.

try modelling or other app that needs precision with a touchscreen like that. Repetative strain and one messed up job will result I guarantee. As for touchpads if all you ever do is navigate your desktop then fine, but if you game or use graphics apps like maya or zbrush then mouse is far far superior.

I use a laptop more than a conventional computer. I'm already more comfortable with the touchpad than I used to be with a mouse. Though I initially bought a mouse for the laptop, its been gathering dust ever since.

You use a mac notebook- best pad around....macbook pro. Many others are terrible.

I think that it should definitely be compatible wit ha mouse for those who want to use it, but i like the touchscreen option.

Also, how about this. The same way the keyboard pops up to type, you could have a touchpad pop up at the bottom if you want to minimize hand movement?

I use my touchpad.

I whipe my ass with my right hand. <<<<worthless info, just like your post....

Touchpad =/= touchscreen

I whipe my ass with my right hand. <<<<worthless info, just like your post....

Touchpad =/= touchscreen

try it with your left hand...<<<<useless info, just like your post