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Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

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Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#111

Post by jval43 »

bruckie wrote: post #81
bitmasher9 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes, if I’ve been using my iPad for awhile and switch over to my MBP, I might reach out and touch the screen out of habit. I can’t be the only one.

My kids do this all the time. They also use the touchscreen in conventional laptop configuration (not folded-flat tablet mode) on their Chromebooks all the time. It's bizarre to me. I'm always trying to get them to use the keyboard, but they don't care. Example: enter password on the keyboard, then tap the log in button on the screen with their finger, rather than just pressing enter. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I do this on my iPad with Magic keyboard and I'm a die hard command line user otherwise.

I think the reason I started doing it on the iPad is that the keyboard focus is sometimes inconsistent, so clicking or tab-tab-tab-enter is slower and less reliable vs. just touching the screen. Definitely feel the gorilla arm though.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#112

Post by divbzero »

wildrhythms wrote: post #92

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible." -Steve Jobs, 2010 https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-touch-screen-mac-...

“Who wants a stylus? You have to get ’em and put ’em away, and you lose ’em. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus. We’re going to use the best pointing device in the world. We’re going to use a pointing device that we’re all born with—born with ten of them. We’re going to use our fingers.”

— Steve Jobs, 2007

(8 years before the introduction of the Apple Pencil)

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#113

Post by devmor »

allthetime wrote: post #90
devmor wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of complaints but I would say my three big gripes are: - Window navigation within (rather than between) open programs. Mainly if one is on an external monitor, this is just a nightmare and I end up using expose and clicking the window instead. - Window positioning (I installed 3rd party software called Rectangle for this last year so it’s kind of solved but if we’re talking about the vanilla experience t…

Window navigation is just ctrl+direction

That does not work between monitors.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#114

Post by nunez »

divbzero wrote: post #112
wildrhythms wrote: post #92

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible." -Steve Jobs, 2010 https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-touch-screen-mac-...

“Who wants a stylus? You have to get ’em and put ’em away, and you lose ’em. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus. We’re going to use the best pointing device in the world. We’re going to use a pointing device that we’re all born with—born with ten of them. We’re going to use our fingers.” — Steve Jobs, 2007 (8 years before the introduction of the Apple Pencil)

The Pencil isn’t a stylus. At least not primarily. It’s designed for freehand. This is probably why they insisted on it charging via Lightning by removing its end cap. They didn’t want people getting ideas.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#115

Post by zuhsetaqi »

divbzero wrote: post #112
wildrhythms wrote: post #92

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible." -Steve Jobs, 2010 https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-touch-screen-mac-...

“Who wants a stylus? You have to get ’em and put ’em away, and you lose ’em. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus. We’re going to use the best pointing device in the world. We’re going to use a pointing device that we’re all born with—born with ten of them. We’re going to use our fingers.” — Steve Jobs, 2007 (8 years before the introduction of the Apple Pencil)

When Steve Jobs said that, he was talking about a stylus as a main or even only input device. And he is still right about it. The Apple Pencil for the iPad never was a main input device but an alternative.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#116

Post by zuhsetaqi »

I always say, people who want a touchscreen on their Laptop never used a really good trackpad. I never missed a touchscreen on my MacBook but when I do something on someone else’s Windows Laptop I often prefer to touch the screen because the trackpad is just terrible.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#118

Post by ekinertac »

wildrhythms wrote: post #92

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible." -Steve Jobs, 2010 https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-touch-screen-mac-...

I have used a couple of laptops with touchscreens, and the experience was awful, even with the latest technology. If Apple gave us an iPhone or iPad-quality touchscreen on MacBooks, I am 100% sure the experience would be perfect.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#119

Post by cbsks »

ekinertac wrote: post #118
wildrhythms wrote: post #92

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible." -Steve Jobs, 2010 https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-touch-screen-mac-...

I have used a couple of laptops with touchscreens, and the experience was awful, even with the latest technology. If Apple gave us an iPhone or iPad-quality touchscreen on MacBooks, I am 100% sure the experience would be perfect.

I have a laptop with a touchscreen that I regularly forget is a touchscreen until I accidentally touch it.

Re: Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)

#120

Post by onion2k »

trash_cat wrote: post #99
wildrhythms wrote: post #92

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible." -Steve Jobs, 2010 https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-touch-screen-mac-...

Nobody forces you to use touchscreen exclusively?

If that's the case then the interface will remain a compromise that has to work for both point and touch, and ends up being suboptimal for both. Touch input necessitates bigger hit targets, lots of additional negative space around important buttons rather than groups, and a much lower information density on anything that has a click/touch handler like a list in order to avoid accidental presses. Apps need to be written with a touch UI in mind to work well.
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