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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)

#121

Post by alsetmusic »

bitmasher9 wrote: post #28
dotBen wrote: post #16

I wouldn't want a touchscreen MBP even if it was free, anyone else feel similar? I don't get the draw - we already optimize for keyboard commands to avoid living our fingers over to a touchpad. Why would I want to start clicking on my screen? If you're using your computer for tasks (rather than entertainment) and you're not a visual designer, I don't get why Apple are apparently going to be putting them into the new…

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 father did within six months of owning an iPhone.

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

#122

Post by Fezzik »

cbsks wrote: post #119
ekinertac wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Same. My work laptop has a touch screen and every now and then, when I remember that fact, I’ll use it to scroll through a few pages of a PDF. It gives me a chuckle because it’s so inefficient and inaccurate… then I immediately revert to my click-wheel mouse.

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

#125

Post by cosmic_cheese »

onion2k wrote: post #120
trash_cat wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 writt…

It will likely compromise anti-glare performance too, since an oleophobic treatment will be required for the screen to not instantly be covered in a haze of fingerprints. For someone who has no use for touch this is a strict downgrade.

The only way touch on MacBooks can make a shred of sense is if it’s a non-default option in the configurator, much like the current nanotexture matte option.

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

#126

Post by ErroneousBosh »

roboy wrote: post #101
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 had several PCs with touch screen and this absolutely true. Even intermittent use is not something I did, it’s just too inconvenient to ever become a habit, so the few times it’d be great, I don’t think about it being there because it’s not in my active list of affordances.

The problem with touchscreen laptops is you have to reach over the keyboard and trackpad to actually touch the screen to make it work, and that's physically uncomfortable and kind of inconvenient.

The answer is to make them fold flat so you're just looking at the screen with the keyboard facing away from you (and, ideally, disabled by a switch in the hinge so when you put it down you don't zkjltohtrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrolkmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Then, of course, it becomes annoying and inconvenient to use in a different way, but at least you get really really good at replacing the little flexi PCB ribbon that connects the screen through the hinge.

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

#127

Post by cosmic_cheese »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #72
9dev wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Of all the wonky shit about my Mac, the flawless keyboard navigation is really none of that

Really? I find that on MacOS apps are very inconsistent about whether popping open a menu shows me hints for selecting items in that menu. Those same apps are consistent about it on Linux. And then there's the bonkers window manager which can't move focus directionally (e.g. Super + left) and so you have to fall back to Cmd + tab tab tab tab but even then there's no consistency about whether you're switching between…

Display of shortcuts in menus is the responsibility of the app developer (especially in the case of use of foreign UI toolkits). If you don’t see them it’s because its dev dropped the ball and the Mac version is an afterthought.

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

#128

Post by VerifiedReports »

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)

And here we are, and the Pencil STILL doesn't work on the defectively oversized trackpads on Apple laptops.

So... we're talking about more than one blunder here.

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

#129

Post by VerifiedReports »

satvikpendem wrote: post #107
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 wonder what people will say when Apple releases the touch screen MacBook later this year then.

They'll say it sucks ass, and they'll be right.

Touchscreen computers have failed for a reason.

Then again... so did "transparent" UI, which Apple just exhumed.

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

#130

Post by VerifiedReports »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #126
roboy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had several PCs with touch screen and this absolutely true. Even intermittent use is not something I did, it’s just too inconvenient to ever become a habit, so the few times it’d be great, I don’t think about it being there because it’s not in my active list of affordances.

The problem with touchscreen laptops is you have to reach over the keyboard and trackpad to actually touch the screen to make it work, and that's physically uncomfortable and kind of inconvenient. The answer is to make them fold flat so you're just looking at the screen with the keyboard facing away from you (and, ideally, disabled by a switch in the hinge so when you put it down you don't zkjltohtrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

It's totally pointless, because the trackpad is already a touch device... and you use it to manipulate a precise cursor that doesn't block your view of what you're working on.
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