Is multi-touch on a PC a good thing?

Posted by Vic Laurie
November 5, 2008

Yesterday, I posted about the touch feature in Windows 7. Apple had already added touch features to its iPod Touch and iPhone. The latest versions of MacBooks also have multi-touch functions added to the touch pad. Personally, I have always disliked touch pads and the new trend to touch leaves me uninterested. Mary Jo Foley also comments:

Multi-touch is one of those fun, gee-whiz technologies that demos well. It was definitely one of the stars of Windows 7’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) keynote debut last week.

But, as I asked earlier this year, who really wants to have to touch their laptop or desktop screens to perform tasks that are easier and better done with a mouse and keyboard?

I don’t buy the argument some make that because multi-touch is well-suited for phones, it automatically makes sense on PCs, too. Maybe multi-touch makes more sense if you are using a small-screen netbook or ultra-mobile PC (if that class of machines still exists out there), but on a regular, full-size laptop/desktop? I just don’t see it.

How about you? Do you like touch features?

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Apple, Hardware, Windows 7

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Comments

Personally, I love the touch features and I hope to see them continue. Remember the Apple Newton in ‘93? That was my first exposure to the touch paradigm and I immediately saw the value. At a Novell conference in 2003 I saw (and played with) a demo Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop that included a touch-screen. Since that time I’ve been somewhat disheartened by the progress of innovation in this market space. The one ray of hope is the innovation that Apple introduced via the iPod interface.

Touch has been extremely valuable to me in teaching others to use a computer, since both the teacher and the student can physically interact with the OS. I’ve found this very approach (“touching the OS”) to be extremely helpful.

Last, but not least, I spend a lot of time in cramped wire closets with my laptop connected to racks of equipment. It’s much easier to cradle a touch-centric laptop in my arm to remote into various devices.

Comment by Joseph McEntire on November 5, 2008 @ 12:56 pm

I have watched with envy as those with nimbler fingers than mine have merrily twirled their way through the functions of an iPod Touch. Whenever I try to use my laptop’s touch pad, I invariably place the mouse somewhere inappropriate and typically end up with programs and windows opened that I didn’t want. More power to those who can make good use of touch but this fumble-fingers will stick to the mouse and keyboard. Or maybe voice. I keep planning to investigate the speech-recognition feature of Vista.

Comment by Vic Laurie on November 5, 2008 @ 3:21 pm

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