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Bryson
Rocket Surgeon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
 
2016-11-26, 02:26

So, let's talk about the possibility of Touchscreen Macs.

I keep reading and hearing on podcasts about how they couldn't possibly make a touchscreen Mac for various reasons, mostly to do with ergonomics, or "context shifting" or similar issues.

Let me show you my workstation at work:


That's two small touchscreens, one large vertical touchscreen, two "dumb" screens, keyboard, mouse, dedicated specialist keyboard and faders. I use any and all of those input methods, continuously, switching "context" constantly. Some tasks are easier via the touchscreen, some via the mouse and so on. Not every single part of the interface has to be touchscreen optimized for this to be useful.

The only ergonomic issue is that the touchscreens need to be adjustable (in height and tilt).

So, I'm sure there are a thousand reasons why they won't make a touchscreen Mac. But that they can't because reasons is just plain wrong. Hybrid touchscreen/mouse/keyboard interfaces already exist in the real world and people do real work on them.

I think a touchscreen iMac (potentially with a better repositionable base" would be a great thing. And I would have very real uses for a touchscreen MacBook Pro.

Thoughts?
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addabox
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
 
2016-11-26, 02:40

That's a Gio, right? How do you like it? (Shopping for a new board).
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Bryson
Rocket Surgeon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
 
2016-11-26, 02:51

Quote:
Originally Posted by addabox View Post
That's a Gio, right? How do you like it? (Shopping for a new board).
It is. For pre-programmed, it's awesome. Not so much for busking.
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El Gallo
Formerly “MumboJumbo”
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
 
2016-11-26, 07:24

Obviously Apple sells the iPad Pro which has a keyboard and touchscreen but no trackpad. Perhaps that is the sticking point in their mind. I don't know.

I just know my iPad mini 4 wasn't seeing a ton of use until on a lark, I bought a cheap bluetooth keyboard for it. I had tried a keyboard case but those keyboards were just too small and unusable for me. A detached bluetooth keyboard that is probably 90% of fullsize just transformed the use of it for me. It is now my mega-mini laptop that I use for work and wandering around five days a week.

Clearly to use it I go back and forth between touching and keyboard. I do occasionally wish I had a trackpad but it is 95% awesome.

Most of the recent reviews I've read on PC laptops that have touchscreens don't seem to focus much on color accuracy and brightness. Perhaps that is the sticking point. I read several reviews on the Dell XPS 13/15 for example and the HP x360 before settling in on my current laptop purchase of the prior gen Macbook Pro 15. A lot of them did the pointless specs comparison and just sort of compared the looks side by side.

The in depth reviews got into color calibration, glossiness, brightness, fan noise, thermal profile, etc. and honestly Apple still wins the day in almost all cases. They have certain things they just won't compromise on and until it can be done, they just pretend like the feature doesn't exist. I've seen several reviews where the 4k screen with touch knocked battery life down by a third while also being dimmer and more glossy. I can imagine those would all be giant negatives for Apple right now and they just wouldn't consider it for use as a result.
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addabox
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
 
2016-11-26, 08:00

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryson View Post
It is. For pre-programmed, it's awesome. Not so much for busking.
Yeah, that's my impression. You can get fader side wings for the Ion so I might go with that, just to have more handles.
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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
Send a message via ICQ to chucker Send a message via AIM to chucker Send a message via MSN to chucker Send a message via Yahoo to chucker Send a message via Skype™ to chucker 
2016-11-26, 08:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by El Gallo View Post
Obviously Apple sells the iPad Pro which has a keyboard and touchscreen but no trackpad. Perhaps that is the sticking point in their mind. I don't know.
The sticking point is that macOS was designed so strongly about a visual pointing device (originally the mouse, now the trackpad) that there wasn't even much keyboard-based UI until 10.0 — versions before OS X had neither Terminal nor even the ability to tab through buttons using the keyboard. And even then, those additions were made in such a way that they were backwards-compatible — you can still navigate the entire UI using only the mouse. Likewise, conversely, you're unlikely to ever see a mouse cursor in iOS.

So clearly, Apple culturally is very thoughtful and conservative about changing available input devices for their UI paradigms.

That's the sticking point. Nobody is arguing that it's hard to add a touch controller to the back of the MBP's screen. Nobody is arguing that it's hard to make macOS UI controls respond to touch. People are arguing whether it's easy, or whether it's good, or even useful. And looking at Windows 8 and Windows 10, that question arguably has yet to be answered.
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Bryson
Rocket Surgeon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
 
2016-11-27, 02:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by addabox View Post
Yeah, that's my impression. You can get fader side wings for the Ion so I might go with that, just to have more handles.
You can add the fader wings to the Gio too. (If you look I have a 2x10 on the right there.). The Gio is way better than the Ion for busking - I was comparing to the GrandMA/Hog4 choices. But we're way in the weeds here for the majority of the users of this forum!
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Dr. Bobsky
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
 
2016-11-27, 04:04

Weeds schmeeds continue your discussion...
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