TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

Dan Kaufman gives us a brief rundown of all in one PCs, with some of their pros and cons. The article primarily focuses on the iMac and HP TouchSmart.

It is always good to see more and more interest in this market segment.

Those of you lucky enough to have a multi-touch system, or any touch screen for that matter, should think about protecting it. Gravano was nice enough to share the results of some testing of various materials. The bad news is, none met his expectations. Hopefully we will be able to bring you an updated report with some good news.

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.

Contrary to popular belief, the iPhone is not the only product in its category. HTC has brought out the appropriately named Touch, with an all screen front. The Touch does not have as sophisticated of a touch interface, but it just may be able to hold its own. Read the review over at IdealGadget.

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.

This is an angle we certainly would not have thought about. Ben thinks the TouchSmart PC may be a good system to rig up on boats. Apparently, the size becomes a bit of an advantage to ensure a secure mount. He also points out that being a touch screen without need of a special stylus trumps most tablet systems on he market for ease of use and convenience.

I wish him the best with it, although, like some of his commentors state, a Panasonic Toughbook solution may be more suited to some of the harsh conditions found aboard the seas.

Chad Sapieha has a write up/review of his family’s experiences with the HP TouchSmart over the course of a week. By and large, it seems that his family quite liked it. In a rather unique twist, it seems like the TouchSmart can be used to increase a couples sex life, although that is just speculation on our part.

Rob Bushway needed to know just how good the multi touch interface of the iPhone was, so he did the only thing he could… he bought one! He weighs in on the matter, and in short, is very impressed by the touch aspects.