TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

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.

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.

By far one of the strangest multi touch demonstration videos we have come across to date:

It is nice to know that if you ever want to play with a virtual pizza cutting knife, it is far more intuitive to do it with multi touch compared to a mouse. We can see it leading to the next blockbuster game!

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.

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.

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

Infiniti, the automobile company, impressed us by commissioning an Interactive Mirror multi touch system for use in auto shows. Basically, 3 tall mirrors are used, in conjunction with some behind the scenes technology, to present information to customers, while allowing interaction similar to multi touch, except no physical touch is needed.