Apple rumored to be testing touchscreen panels for new iMac - Page 4

Originally Posted by Blackintosh

I see. Let me ask you something. When you're sitting in front of your nice pretty 27 inch iMac or external monitor and straining to see your content behind a 27 inch reflection of your face, do you really want to be staring at greasy smudges from your fingertips? That was the point of my original post.

Maybe this forum would be better if the members here tried responding to my posts instead of acting like a 12 or 13 year olds and attacking me.

I've got a news flash for everyone who put me on your ignore list: You don't know everything. You don't know anything except what you read from rumor sites and blogs. It's entirely possible for you to be wrong.

Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum

,

I know that this is OT...

Some of you may remember where, when and exactly how you felt when you first saw the Mac.

For me it was a feeling of amazement and love at first sight-- the possibilities just bubbled forth from my mind.

Here's a video, that in an odd way, rekindles that young love... and the potential it offers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6jkD...layer_embedded

.

Originally Posted by solipsism

That is what I plan to do for my niece and nephew when I get them iPads, but I will make it look like really old Macs so they are first excited by the large box, then when they see its a computer inside, then disappointed when they finally pull it out, and then excited when they realize the rouse.

Originally Posted by allblue

Well a similar, if not identical concept worked flawlessly on the G4 iMac arm. Perhaps the balance issue could be addressed by putting the computer in the base, leaving just the lightweight screen to pivot up and down.

Originally Posted by knwbuddy

I don't remember where exactly, but I do remember comparing the Mac with the IBM PC and the Apple //c. I needed a word processor. I bought a //c.

I considered that the Mac could do more, and once I wondered if I should spend more rather than just get a $2,000.00 "electric typewriter". But the Mac and the IBM were both hideously expensive in 1985 dollars.

Originally Posted by knwbuddy

What about Apple TV?

Apple has indeed released several half-baked products.

Originally Posted by knwbuddy

Touching the screen involves the muscles in our entire arm. Touching the trackpad is much easier.

What if you had to manipulate objects for a while? Would ou rather use the built-in wrist rest, or hold your arm in midair for the entire session?

Touchscreens are a bizarre affectation for anything used with a keyboard.

Originally Posted by oirudleahcim

I learned to play piano at a young age. I learned to type early in high school. Years later I learned how to keypunch and a few years after that, to run various typesetting machines. Long hours at keyboards and workstations taught me a lot about proper ergonomics for typing/playing/keyboarding.

It seems to me that a touch screen iMac would put your hands and forearms in a very fatiguing position. If you look at the one diagram that shows the imaginary iMac sliding from a near-vertical position to an almost horizontal position, either the touch surface will be rather high up on your desk, or the angle will be steep enough that one will have to punch fingers into a virtual keyboard rather than using the fingertips. Both of these will put more stress on the fingers, hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders.

I think the large touch screen is a great idea but for this point and a couple of others. If I have a large screen, I don't necessarily want a virtual keyboard intruding into it, even if the keyboard appears and disappears. I want the screen's real estate reserved for the visuals. And, as another commenter said, there is definitely the greasy fingerprint factor to contend with.

Originally Posted by nkhm

You assume a virtual keyboard is coming - why? Where in the patent does it say this. The iPad and iPHone have them because they are portable devices and you don't always have your peripherals with you, no such restriction with a desktop machine.

I can't fathom why people think that a touch desktop means "touch only" and would completely remove the keyboard, mouse and other input devices. It's another way to interact, an evolution. Not a complete replacement for current practices. A saddening lack of imagination for users of a technical web site. I think that maybe some of the younger designers here never used a drawing board, with a parallel motion, or sound engineers never used a manual mixing desk and had to reach up to patch channels, adjust settings on compressors. Has humanity become this lazy already. I miss the physical interaction with work, it's removed a lot of creativity and fluidity from processes. Sometimes you just want to grab a slider or an item and move it. This is the start of a very exciting chapter of computers that improves interaction.

And yet all I see here is criticism based on assumption, laziness and a complete lack of imagination.

Originally Posted by zinfella

I'm holding out for the Steam Punk model!

Originally Posted by jasenj1

I remember the desk in TRON. Virtual keyboard, touch UI. We still haven't reached that vision.

IMHO, a drafting table-like display would be very interesting. For a long time we had big CRT monitors sitting on flat desks. Now that displays have gone flat, it's time to start seriously experimenting with different desk layouts/configurations. I'd like to try my monitors at 30°-60° but most stands don't bend over that far and/or won't let you lower the display to the desk surface.

As some have pointed out, some apps lend themselves to touch manipulation (Photo organizing), some don't (Word processing). The keyboard & pointing device (mouse, trackpad, trackball) works because it minimizes arm movement - it's fast & easy. But PCs have taken root in mobile environments where the fixed desk is not a given and touching the screen is a lot easier (the couch, on a plane).

I really don't like the idea of a machine that runs both Mac OS and iOS. It seems like it would create too much confusion. Is that widget touchable? Why can't I pinch-zoom this? I just foresee a horrible mishmash of UI conventions (not that Apple's been particularly consistent in the UI realm lately). If I want a Mac, I don't want to pay for the touch screen that I'll rarely, if ever, use.

OTOH, if the marginal cost between a touch and non-touch display panel is minimal, why not build machines - laptops especially - with touch built in and put a virtual iPad/iPod in there? But Apple would need to seriously rework the Mac OS UI to be fully touch-integrated - something MS never did. And that reworking would probably create mismatches between good desktop (pointer & keyboard) UI and touchable UI. For example, on a desktop UI click targets can (and should) be smaller.

It's definitely an interesting idea, but one whose time has not yet come.

Originally Posted by solipsism

Ive been using notebooks for over a decade now so I havent had a numeric keyboard except for the one using the function toggle key built into the main keyboard area, which I never used because it was so janky. I assume that type of numeric keyboard was never popular as Apple removed that from their keyboards a few years back. Do modern non-Mac notebooks have the inlaid number pad in the main keyboard still?