Touchscreens getting thumbs up

Touchscreen computers relatively new
Both HP and Dell are among the companies offering touchscreen computers, HP with its TouchSmart models and Dell with its Latitude XT laptop.

The new TouchSmart IQ804 PC has a 25.5-inch widescreen display, and touch can be used to check weather, play music or even watch TV on the high-definition monitor. It starts at $1,900.

“This is the first major generation of desktop systems that truly integrates touch that’s very intuitive, very powerful,” said Stephen DeWitt, senior vice president of HP’s Personal Systems Group.

He sees touch computing as a way of offering “simplicity” to the user, a way to easily access digital content, such as photos and music, as well as “the zillion pieces of information on the Net.”

Thornton of Perceptive Sciences isn’t so sure that touchscreen computing is right for everyone.

“As appealing as it is from a ‘wow’ factor point of view, I don’t think it’s going to be very practical,” he said. Think about it: As you’re typing, you’re using your mouse and your keyboard, and you’re making very small motions. Your arms are in a very natural position. You’re using your wrists primarily. That’s low-energy and very efficient.

“When you talk about reaching both your arms up to the screen to move things around, that’s not something you want to be doing hundreds of times a day.

HP HP's latest TouchSmart computer, the IQ800 series, features a touchscreen that is useful for accessing digital music and photos, and also for watching TV on the monitor's high-definition screen. Models start at $1,900.

“So I see the larger touchscreens being more for entertainment, and not so much for day-to-day word processing or surfing the Web types of things.”

Larger touchscreens are exactly what Microsoft is experimenting with, using its tabletop Surface Technology, which is being used in retail and entertainment businesses.

“Microsoft is trying to experiment with touch to get Windows down into smaller devices,” said Rob Helm, director of research for Directions on Microsoft, an independent research group.

“They had a tablet PC a couple years ago, and frankly, it wasn’t tremendously successful. Maybe Surface Technology will give them another run at it.”

Dealing with fingerprints
One of the less important issues — but still an issue — with touchscreens are fingerprints.

“It really is a big problem with touch,” said Dean Finnegan, founder and CEO of Pandigital, which makes digital photo frames, including touchscreen models. “That’s why we located the touch sensor on the edge of the frame’s screen, so that fingerprints don’t show up in the viewing area at all.”

Finnegan said Pandigital worked with the same touch sensor manufacturer as Apple and HP “to develop this very sensitive sensor that allowed us to be able to use touch through multiple mediums,” including glass and paper.

“I didn’t want the touch element to be in the screen area, the viewing area, because of the fingerprint problem,” he said.

Apple’s Teresa Brewer says fingerprints are not an issue with the iPhone’s screen.

The Multi-Touch display surface “is covered by optical quality glass for a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity,” she said in an e-mail interview. “If it gets dirty, just wipe it off.”

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