I would rather see a touch screen so that would then eliminate the need of a mouse or touch pad and provide more space for a good keyboard especially enabling better mobile PC's to be then small enough to be jacket size yet provide good input.
I agree with Joel, the touch interface would have to be a supplemental device so long as we still use keyboards as the primary form of input on a system.
One idea that was brought up to me in a meeting last week was replacing the numeric keypad on a full keyboard with a touchpad - hit numlock and you get the numeric keypad, hit it again and you've got a multi-touch interface for surfing the web, interacting with windows, etc...
Not to speak for Anand, but where, exactly, did he say all-touch interfaces were the inevitable future of computing? Re-reading his article, I see this:
"I’m guessing we’ll see larger trackpads being used as the enabling tool for touch interfaces on notebooks and desktops. It wouldn’t be hard to integrate a large trackpad on a desktop keyboard..."
I think it's very clear that Anand is referring to touch technology as a *supplemental* interface, not a complete replacement. That's why I used mice as an example in my own response. Sure, it's possible to control a system using *just* a mouse or just a keyboard, but no one with access to another option is going to want to do so. The two devices augment each other, and in doing so, create a more efficient whole.
I don't think touch screens will entirely replace keyboards, not until somebody invents an easy way that people can use gestures from 8 or 9 fingers with haptic feedback to enter data rapidly. I don't want to have to look at the screen to make sure the device read what I typed correctly, and I need to type at least as fast as I can think.
However, I'm not convinced that QWERTY-style keyboards are needed. Most alternative keyboards are failures, but remember the success of Graffiti on the original Palm. People can adapt to alternative machine interfaces if they give a significantly better experience.
I don't disagree with you re: the long term importance of touch-based input, but I wonder if the cost of such interfaces (and the difficulty of moving towards using them en masse) won't significantly slow their uptake in the mass market. We've seen touch-based input used in some very successful devices, but integrating it into the day-to-day use of a full system OS in a manner that's actually more efficient than the keyboard+mouse could, it seems to me, take a decade or more. I don't think we've seen a device that fundamentally changed the nature of how we interacted with the machine since the mouse, and while Xeon introduced one in 1981, it took quite a long time before mouse use had become ubiquitous. I know that as late as 1995, there were still businesses using DOS-based programs, though I'm sure they were a small minority at that point. Given the generally glacial pace of human-interface advancement, do you see touch technology being adopted as a general desktop/laptop interface within a shorter period of time?
The Iphone is fine for a phone or PDA but NOT for a real PC. A real PC needs a touch type keyboard. A flat touch pad would not have the feel of a keyboard sorry. That is another example of a tech person trying to think of what mainstream people would accept and you are all wrong. Look at slates and other pen PC's they are sales failures. People want a touch type keyboard for a full PC.
I would rather see a touch screen so that would then eliminate the need of a mouse or touch pad and provide more space for a good keyboard especially enabling better mobile PC's to be then small enough to be jacket size yet provide good input.
I agree with Joel, the touch interface would have to be a supplemental device so long as we still use keyboards as the primary form of input on a system.
One idea that was brought up to me in a meeting last week was replacing the numeric keypad on a full keyboard with a touchpad - hit numlock and you get the numeric keypad, hit it again and you've got a multi-touch interface for surfing the web, interacting with windows, etc...
Primaz,
Not to speak for Anand, but where, exactly, did he say all-touch interfaces were the inevitable future of computing? Re-reading his article, I see this:
"I’m guessing we’ll see larger trackpads being used as the enabling tool for touch interfaces on notebooks and desktops. It wouldn’t be hard to integrate a large trackpad on a desktop keyboard..."
I think it's very clear that Anand is referring to touch technology as a *supplemental* interface, not a complete replacement. That's why I used mice as an example in my own response. Sure, it's possible to control a system using *just* a mouse or just a keyboard, but no one with access to another option is going to want to do so. The two devices augment each other, and in doing so, create a more efficient whole.
I don't think touch screens will entirely replace keyboards, not until somebody invents an easy way that people can use gestures from 8 or 9 fingers with haptic feedback to enter data rapidly. I don't want to have to look at the screen to make sure the device read what I typed correctly, and I need to type at least as fast as I can think.
However, I'm not convinced that QWERTY-style keyboards are needed. Most alternative keyboards are failures, but remember the success of Graffiti on the original Palm. People can adapt to alternative machine interfaces if they give a significantly better experience.
Anand,
I don't disagree with you re: the long term importance of touch-based input, but I wonder if the cost of such interfaces (and the difficulty of moving towards using them en masse) won't significantly slow their uptake in the mass market. We've seen touch-based input used in some very successful devices, but integrating it into the day-to-day use of a full system OS in a manner that's actually more efficient than the keyboard+mouse could, it seems to me, take a decade or more. I don't think we've seen a device that fundamentally changed the nature of how we interacted with the machine since the mouse, and while Xeon introduced one in 1981, it took quite a long time before mouse use had become ubiquitous. I know that as late as 1995, there were still businesses using DOS-based programs, though I'm sure they were a small minority at that point. Given the generally glacial pace of human-interface advancement, do you see touch technology being adopted as a general desktop/laptop interface within a shorter period of time?
The Iphone is fine for a phone or PDA but NOT for a real PC. A real PC needs a touch type keyboard. A flat touch pad would not have the feel of a keyboard sorry. That is another example of a tech person trying to think of what mainstream people would accept and you are all wrong. Look at slates and other pen PC's they are sales failures. People want a touch type keyboard for a full PC.