Comments on: What’s the big deal about touch screens anyway?

By: Igor Faletski

Igor Faletski — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:09:08 +0000

One of the best features of a touchscreen is the fact that it provides random access to any element of a website, when browsing on mobile.

It’s like magnetic tape drive vs. RAM – no more need to navigate elements one-by-one with arrow keys, or scrolling to the destination pixel.

The experience and efficiency gains are significant.

By: Aranea

Aranea — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:31:25 +0000

I like the touchscreen. It’s very convenient when surfing the web, or reading a long email. I think it’s easier to use than a trackball. besides I use g1, which has the qwerty keyboard and the trackball as well. I rarely use trackball other than for copy/pasting. For that trackball is great.

By: pjsnyc

pjsnyc — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:42:37 +0000

This article was fun to read…but speak for yourself. Is the author trying to think ‘outside of the box’? Cute, but it ain’t workin – the article assumes too many things.

Who ever said the on screen keyboard or other dialogues on screen were supposed to feel like ‘buttons’?

Oh, and I love this one – ‘Touchless screen’? Puhleeze, pretty lame attempt – it’s a friggin screen that you touch! What else would you call it? As a person with a background in philosophy, that one’s pretty easy to see through. Either that, or your standards are set way too high.

I’ll agree that the touch screen craze might be getting a little out of hand…but innovation is exactly what this global economy needs right now (so why not let touchscreens be one of its avenues?). And for the record, I do not have an iPhone (WM user here). I do have an iPod touch however, and I must say that in the end (and especially to the end user), snappy interfaces that are intuitive will always win out.

I mean if you want to talk about how our consciousness interacts with the surrounding environment, here’s a mind freak – How many times have you used a gadget – even one with buttons – and it wasn’t snappy at the wrong time and you wanted to throw the damn thing? “OH NO the fundamental stimulus/response system has been thrown out of whack because I pressed the talk button and it hung there for a long time making me feel like an idiot staring at the screen for 15 straight seconds, oh wait I’m connected!” – I’m sure an honest look around this forum (and in the mirror) will explain itself – especially since more and more demographics are making technology more prevalent in their lives. If you wanna keep it exclusive (and that’s the tone I gather from your article), fine, but unfortunately for you – its a pipe dream. Besides, at least in our lifetime, there will always be an alternative device with buttons. Happy?

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:25:47 +0000

A huge chunk of the iPhone crowd have never used a smartphone. There’s not a single dumbphone I’ve used that includes cut-and-paste. It’s hard to miss something that you’ve never had before.