Well, apple includes IR remotes with their Macs, so clearly including hardware of dubious value to anyone isn't out of the question, but I think people who clamor for tablets and touchscreens haven't thought it through, whereas Apple has, and has decided against it.
Graphic artists, BTW, sometimes use Wacom tablets, which combines the perceived intuitiveness of pencils/pens/brushes with the ergonomics of a mouse, ie: little hand movement necessary.
Touchscreens could only become a reality when we have a resolution-indepedent UI. Right no, OS X's UI elements are too small for touchscreens. People with fat figure will have misclick rates going through the roof.
And who's gonna hold their arm up to the screen for long periods of time. No one. TenoBell is right in saying that it would be a lot of work to move things around a 24" screen. And things become complicated if the user wants to click once, or double-click, or drag, or simply select a bunch of files.
How odd...seems like Jeff Han was doing exactly that with his simple multi-touch UI. Resolution independent UI isn't far off and hasn't really been a real technical challenge since 1998 when SGI had vector icons (ugly ones but vector).
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Efficient touchscreens now boil down to TWO things...resolution-independence as well as a revamp of the way a user can interact with the OS.
Simply slapping a touchscreen on the iMac won't be enough...Apple would have to add new behaviors to the OS to allow manipulation of screen objects via gestures using anywhere between 1 and 10 fingers.
Yes. That's a given. But folks have been researching gesture and alternative UI metaphors a long time. 20+ years later I think we're almost ready to party. Leopard close? Probably not. 2010 close? Yeah. I think so.
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Right now it's a pretty stupid idea. I know gregmightdothat saw a tech demo of all this and thought "Holy shit, that's the future". But he has to realize the people were demoing apps that made perfect use of touchscreens. But the use of such an interface is limited...it becomes much more difficult to use this input method with current OSes. OSes would have to be rewritten with touchscreens in mind for this method to become efficient...
...the same could be said about a voice-input. Current OSes aren't geared towards things other than mouse and keyboard input.
The OS doesn't need to be "rewritten". The interaction methods have to be enhanced and the UI elements modified. But the underlying OS isn't all THAT affected by 1st generation of multi-modal gesture based interfaces. You use a gesture to open a file, zoom or navigate. The underlying file open, zoom or navigate behavior remains the same.
Certain metaphors will likely change if you move from the current WIMP interface to a Zoomable UI but heck, Raskin looked at that I think 20 years ago and there are a scattering of prototypes including his, one from the University of Maryland I played with and others.
The biggest problem with the zoom metaphor is that keyboard and mouse are relatively bad input devices for the metaphor.
But in any case you can add gestures like pen/handwriting was added to Table OS's.
Personally I would really like a touch screen iMac, and here's why...
Ever go to a bar / club and select your favourite songs on a touch screen juke box? Really easy and quick. Select your songs by pressing album art pics. Nice.
This is the type of feature IMHO that iTunes is missing. You've already got album artwork built into iTunes, now throw a party and select your tunes the easy way.
Just a thought.
Exactly.
Who wants to control their home Digital Hub in the same way they drive their work PC all day. (It was actually manual ordering a large Photo Album in iPhoto that got me thinking....)
The mouse and keyboard would still included in the box but it about giving ppl choice and opening opportunities for creativity.
I can't say I'd like a touch screen on a desktop Mac, not just because of the reach, but am I the only one who has to hit a touch screen like 2-4 times to get it to do what I want? Whether it's my nav system in the car, a kiosk at the airport, a control panel in a house/office, or the local redbox for movie rentals, they all seem to be a lot of trouble. I'm not saying I have the answer, or a better idea, just some thoughts.
Well, apple includes IR remotes with their Macs, so clearly including hardware of dubious value to anyone isn't out of the question,
If Apple opens the IR port to be used by other applications and third party remote controls it has a lot of potential uses.
Quote:
Ever go to a bar / club and select your favourite songs on a touch screen juke box? Really easy and quick. Select your songs by pressing album art pics. Nice.
The screens are usually small, and the buttons are large. The task it performs is pretty simple.
I agree with Kip Kap Sol there would need to be some serious changes to have the complexity of an OS do this the same way.
calculator, iTunes (as above) iPhoto, Logics mixer, video editing, photoshop (finger painting ) and safari for hitting up web links
i have used a mouse for about 20 years, when i move onto a roller ball "mouse" it sends me bonkers, i HAVE to plug in a "simple" mouse i think anyone complaining that it would be TOO different to use the screen as an input device (for certian things) are maybe just the same as those windows users who are afraid to use OSX because its TOO different.
less likely iMacs, more likely Apple Display ????
i havent gotten my imac yet.. IF i DO get it (still waiting on Jan) but i imagine it will be on the desk with the top of it at eye level, however currently my screen is at shoulder height, with my eyes at the bottom of the screen... like THIS i dont really want to lift my arm to poke at the screen... but at a lower level then i dont see why not.
Comments
Graphic artists, BTW, sometimes use Wacom tablets, which combines the perceived intuitiveness of pencils/pens/brushes with the ergonomics of a mouse, ie: little hand movement necessary.
Touchscreens could only become a reality when we have a resolution-indepedent UI. Right no, OS X's UI elements are too small for touchscreens. People with fat figure will have misclick rates going through the roof.
And who's gonna hold their arm up to the screen for long periods of time. No one. TenoBell is right in saying that it would be a lot of work to move things around a 24" screen. And things become complicated if the user wants to click once, or double-click, or drag, or simply select a bunch of files.
How odd...seems like Jeff Han was doing exactly that with his simple multi-touch UI. Resolution independent UI isn't far off and hasn't really been a real technical challenge since 1998 when SGI had vector icons (ugly ones but vector).
Efficient touchscreens now boil down to TWO things...resolution-independence as well as a revamp of the way a user can interact with the OS.
Simply slapping a touchscreen on the iMac won't be enough...Apple would have to add new behaviors to the OS to allow manipulation of screen objects via gestures using anywhere between 1 and 10 fingers.
Yes. That's a given. But folks have been researching gesture and alternative UI metaphors a long time. 20+ years later I think we're almost ready to party. Leopard close? Probably not. 2010 close? Yeah. I think so.
Right now it's a pretty stupid idea. I know gregmightdothat saw a tech demo of all this and thought "Holy shit, that's the future". But he has to realize the people were demoing apps that made perfect use of touchscreens. But the use of such an interface is limited...it becomes much more difficult to use this input method with current OSes. OSes would have to be rewritten with touchscreens in mind for this method to become efficient...
...the same could be said about a voice-input. Current OSes aren't geared towards things other than mouse and keyboard input.
The OS doesn't need to be "rewritten". The interaction methods have to be enhanced and the UI elements modified. But the underlying OS isn't all THAT affected by 1st generation of multi-modal gesture based interfaces. You use a gesture to open a file, zoom or navigate. The underlying file open, zoom or navigate behavior remains the same.
Certain metaphors will likely change if you move from the current WIMP interface to a Zoomable UI but heck, Raskin looked at that I think 20 years ago and there are a scattering of prototypes including his, one from the University of Maryland I played with and others.
The biggest problem with the zoom metaphor is that keyboard and mouse are relatively bad input devices for the metaphor.
But in any case you can add gestures like pen/handwriting was added to Table OS's.
Vinea
Personally I would really like a touch screen iMac, and here's why...
Ever go to a bar / club and select your favourite songs on a touch screen juke box? Really easy and quick. Select your songs by pressing album art pics. Nice.
This is the type of feature IMHO that iTunes is missing. You've already got album artwork built into iTunes, now throw a party and select your tunes the easy way.
Just a thought.
Exactly.
Who wants to control their home Digital Hub in the same way they drive their work PC all day. (It was actually manual ordering a large Photo Album in iPhoto that got me thinking....)
The mouse and keyboard would still included in the box but it about giving ppl choice and opening opportunities for creativity.
Well, apple includes IR remotes with their Macs, so clearly including hardware of dubious value to anyone isn't out of the question,
If Apple opens the IR port to be used by other applications and third party remote controls it has a lot of potential uses.
Ever go to a bar / club and select your favourite songs on a touch screen juke box? Really easy and quick. Select your songs by pressing album art pics. Nice.
The screens are usually small, and the buttons are large. The task it performs is pretty simple.
I agree with Kip Kap Sol there would need to be some serious changes to have the complexity of an OS do this the same way.
calculator, iTunes (as above) iPhoto, Logics mixer, video editing, photoshop (finger painting
i have used a mouse for about 20 years, when i move onto a roller ball "mouse" it sends me bonkers, i HAVE to plug in a "simple" mouse i think anyone complaining that it would be TOO different to use the screen as an input device (for certian things) are maybe just the same as those windows users who are afraid to use OSX because its TOO different.
less likely iMacs, more likely Apple Display ????
i havent gotten my imac yet.. IF i DO get it (still waiting on Jan) but i imagine it will be on the desk with the top of it at eye level, however currently my screen is at shoulder height, with my eyes at the bottom of the screen... like THIS i dont really want to lift my arm to poke at the screen... but at a lower level then i dont see why not.
step back and look at the forest