TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

The folks over at Gizmondo discuss and comment on the details surrounding a multi-touch enabled MacBook. It is their opinion that the oft rumored forthcoming PDA from Apple is not going to happen, as the entire PDA industry is shrinking daily as smartphones take over. Instead, it is suggested that there is a strong chance a new, thin and touchable MacBook will be Apple’s next big thing.

If this product takes the form of a convertible tablet, Microsoft’s Tablet PC product line will surely take a beating. We are in agreement with Gizmondo that a PDA seems questionable, especially with both the iPhone and iPod Touch containing many PDA abilities as it is.

Most reviews of the iPod Touch are similar, in that the same negatives are mentioned, yet in the end, the Touch is considered a winner.

Finding someone with a different tune to sing was a breath of fresh air. Randy, over at RandyRants.com, has actually returned his iPod Touch, and gone with the new Nano, and is happy with his decision. Find out why.

There is no shortage of reviews on Apples new iPod lineup, and of specific interest to us, the Touch. Here is another quality bit, this time from the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Touch is getting grilled for not having hardware buttons for play/pause/next/prev, and this review is no different. And, like the others, much is made of the features removed from the iPhone. This time, the saving grace in the reviewer’s eyes is the wifi/Safari combination.

The Apple iPod Touch gets a thorough review by Walt Mossberg, of All Things Digital. This is a pretty typical Touch review. Mention is made of how the Touch lacks features of the iPhone, but how it handles media playback in a splendid fashion. The most interesting aspect of the review is the revelation that battery life is shorter than Apple’s claim. It is best to wait for more news about battery life to trickle in before jumping to conclusions, but it would be a shame if the battery life was indeed short. Still, 17 hours of audio is not horrible by our accounts, and 4 hours of video still gets you through a couple of typical movies.

Chris, over at Information Rain, shares his thoughts on why Apple should bring multi touch to the desktop/laptop.

The sketched drawing above is Chris’, and he makes some compelling arguments, while acknowledging some of the challenges of a desktop multi touch PC. Interestingly enough, he virtually describes the HP TouchSmart as the ideal design for a multi touch PC. Maybe HP will get the hint and upgrade the TouchSmart to enable multi touch.

Apple continues to quietly listen to its customers, and make quality improvements to its products. A Features Guide has been published by Apple, and it contains some enhanced abilities of the on screen keyboard.

14 different languages are supported, as well as:

• QWERTY
• QWERTZ
• AZERTY
• QZERTY
• Japanese IME

Also, the keyboard gains a split personality ability, allowing the user to quickly switch between keyboards while typing.

Perhaps the best addition noted thus far is the ability to now easily enter a period… just double click on the space bar.

We suspect all of these updates will make their way onto the iPhone in short order.

PC World has a very good review of the iPod Touch. The focus less on the coolness of multi touch, and more on its merits as a music/video player.

Certainly, if you want a music player that does it all — and with panache — this is the one to buy.

One interesting point the review had was the lack of multi touch when browsing music. It just goes to show that Apple is still learning the ropes about how to best utilize multi touch. Either they have not thought up a multi touch browsing interface, or perhaps some things are better left as simple as possible.

Apple has just announced it has broken the one million mark on iPhones sold. The device has received heaps of critical and consumer praise since its debut in late June. Despite a high price tag, and some isolated reports of issues with the touch screen, consumers have flocked to the device, the first multi touch enabled product generally available.

It only took seventy four days to cross the milestone, a milestone that took over 2 years for the iPod to reach. With the recent price cuts, and reports that an overseas launch is due in November, far more iPhones should be sold by years end.

Various outlets have reported that the number of iPhones Apple sells does not necessarily equal the number actually in use, as Apple sells many of the the devices direct to AT&T, which then passes them on the consumers. While it is unlikely that AT&T has a huge stockpile of unsold iPhones, it still may be some time until there are one million actual users of the phone.

With Mail and Google Maps nowhere to be seen, word comes to us from Everything Apple that the iCal application looks to also be intentionally crippled on the new iPod Touch. First, it was a missing icon, and later, a change in textual description by Apple, that has the warning bells going off.

And iPod touch features a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard perfect for browsing the web in Safari, searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, entering calendar events, or adding new contacts.

Changed to:

And iPod touch features a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard perfect for browsing the web in Safari, searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, or adding new contacts.

If true, it is unfortunate that Apple thinks it needs to cripple features of the Touch to prevent cannibalizing sales of the iPhone.

Thanks to Apple Source for this breakout of some of the differences between these two similar products. A couple are listed below, check out the link for all of them.

• No email client on the Touch
• No bluetooth on the Touch
• Double tapping the Home button on the Touch, while the device is sleeping, brings up the controls on screen. No such ability exists in the iPhone
• iPod Touch has a slightly different style to the UI, similar to that of the forthcoming OS X 10.5