2013 Touchscreen iMac

bbucy said:

Is a Touchscreen in iMacs future?

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It's very unlikely you'll never see one, as touchscreen on a vertical screen is horrible ergonomics. This has been discussed ad nauseam in this forum.

Will the next Macbook Pro have a touch screen?
touchscreen?
Touch Screen on Next MBP?
Touchscreen iMac - as likely as a refrigerator with toaster
Anybody think a touch screen iMac will be coming soon?
Will there be touch screen on the macbook air?
Next Macbook will be Touch Screen

bbucy said:

I don't know. Most those opinions are based on an OS built for a mouse.

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... which is the same OS that runs on iMacs. It has nothing to do with the OS. It has to do with the inefficiency of having to keep your arm elevated for extended periods to operate touch screen on a vertical surface.

GGJstudios said:

... which is the same OS that runs on iMacs. It has nothing to do with the OS. It has to do with the inefficiency of having to keep your arm elevated for extended periods to operate touch screen on a vertical surface.

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There are quite a few tech journalists that think Mac OS and iOS will merge within the next 5 years. Considering Notifications, Launchpad and the multitouch gestures, it is very possible. Build an iMac that is more of a cross between the current version and the 2002 version, and it would be very possible to do a touch screen.

I wonder if that would get approved so soon anyway. Think of all the radiation it would emit.

bflowers said:

There are quite a few tech journalists that think Mac OS and iOS will merge within the next 5 years. Considering Notifications, Launchpad and the multitouch gestures, it is very possible. Build an iMac that is more of a cross between the current version and the 2002 version, and it would be very possible to do a touch screen.

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It doesn't matter if OS X and iOS merge. Again, it doesn't have to do with the OS. It has to do with ergonomics.

GGJstudios said:

It doesn't matter if OS X and iOS merge. Again, it doesn't have to do with the OS. It has to do with ergonomics.

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Do you have a 2002 iMac? you can get that thing down into a fairly touch friendly position.

I hope not.

If I want a touch screen I'll use a tablet.

bbucy said:

I don't know. Most those opinions are based on an OS built for a mouse.

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It's not the OS. You would have to at least redesign the way it sits. Otherwise it would be horrible. If you brought it closer to a horizontal or angled position with some ability to customize placement, that would make it much more "touch" friendly. As for a 2013 imac running iOS, that is just silly.

bflowers said:

Do you have a 2002 iMac?

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Fortunately, no. As that model can only run a maximum of Tiger, and as it's extremely unlikely that Apple would be foolish enough to move 10 years backwards in design, it's irrelevant.

luminouslight said:

I hope not.

If I want a touch screen I'll use a tablet.

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Exactly.

bflowers said:

Do you have a 2002 iMac? you can get that thing down into a fairly touch friendly position.

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And then you have to keep your neck angled down. That hurts after a while.

Remember the gorilla arm. It would be a useless feature, and I don't see any real need for it.

No, a touchscreen is NOT in the iMacs future. Hold out your arm for several hours as you try to touch your iMac now, and see how much pain your arm will be in. Exactly. It's a stupid idea. I know there are touchscreen computers out right now, and I think there are inherent flaws.

Pointless to argue about it, as Cook and Co. will do whatever they want. I believe Steve said we would need to file our fingers down for a 7 inch tablet to work. Somehow we could use the iPhone and iPod Touch without such drastic measures, but whatever. Don't bother arguing that the iPad mini is 7.9, it's still in the 7 inch category. They also got rid of the ODD that many people still needed, as well as the VESA mounting. Apple's true motto is "you'll buy what we wave in front of you, and like it!" or maybe it's "what we shove up your... and you'll like it"

-Concept- said:

I wonder if that would get approved so soon anyway. Think of all the radiation it would emit.

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why would adding touchscreen increase radiation in any way?

Besides, there are already a few touchscreen desktops, so radiation must not be an issue.

bbucy said:

Doesn't have to be all or nothing.

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Exactly. I would use it very rarely, but I would use it. I don't know why everyone seems to imagine it can only mean hovering their arm in front of them for hours. It could be useful for occasional multitouch manipulation (which would be far more precise than the touchpad), it could be used to bring depth of control to music software, drawing applications, and many other things where humans have actually managed to hold their arm up perfectly naturally without collapsing of exhaustion.

I think people here like to sneer at it as a completely pointless feature of Windows all-in-one PCs. Ok, I wouldn't want to trade OS X for it, but there are times I wouldn't mind having it.

I am predicting that OSX 11 may involve some amalgamation of OSX and IOS, which may lend itself to a touch interface. So we may see touchscreen imacs only in 2014 earliest?

If they make it it has to be a different glass than what's on the 2012 version. Because I've never seen a screen get smudges so easily. Any time you barely touch it a big mark is left and then you gotta use that black cloth they send to clean it. Does not come off as easily as the old screens used it.

I wouldn't mind a "near-touch" screen.

That is, a screen which senses when your fingers come near. This would be useful for some kinds of UI interaction.

But touching a desktop screen is gross, if contact is needed you'll be wiping this big piece of glass ALL the time

Apple applied for a patent a while back for a touchscreen iMac where it had been designed so the screen could be pulled from being vertical to around a 30 degree angle. Of course this is in no way an intent to make such a product.

bbucy said:

I'm not talking throwing out your keyboard. Certain things do seem more intuitive to touch VS keyboard/mouse. For example, moving to a new desktop, just a swipe at the screen is more intuitive than a one, no isn't it a two finger swipe on the magic mouse. Or, during presentations or walking thru a document with a co-worker, etc... Doesn't have to be all or nothing.

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It does, though. Look, clearly you don't want to discuss this: the first reply to your starting post correctly identified the reason this will never happen with the iMac as such, but you've posted multiple times since then ignoring that your hypothesis has already been refuted. You just want to be told "Wow, I could totally see that coming too! You must be some sort of visionary!" But that's not the case. Touchscreen desktop computers and even the step beyond that where no touch is necessary, are not coming -- at least, not as an extension of what we currently know can be done. It will have to be something substantially different.

We all saw Minority Report, and it seemed really cool to reach out and use hand gestures to fling windows and apps around, but it will never happen. The-ergonomics-do-not-work. The human body won't cooperate. Arms, wrists, hands, heads. No dice, amigo. It's a wash. Switch to a tablet and at least you can look up from it once in a while to sooth your crooked, aching neck. We'll see Siri/voice control of some kind and a merging of the iMac with the iTelevision first, because at least that represents an advancement in a way people ARE ergonomically capable of interacting with home computers that are increasingly oriented toward content amplification.

Mike, your arguments are inherently flawed. The human body doesn't work that way? Seriously? I guess humans will never learn to adapt to things that are new. Say, standing at a chalk board and writing. Totally foreign behavior. Typing words on a keyboard. That is crazy radical speech that will cause the downfall of humanity.

Clearly, people can learn new ways of doing things. I wasn't born knowing how to speak, write, type or much of anything for that matter. I think I could instinctively breath and suck. Everything else was a learned. People learn new things all the time. I even learned (not well) to type one handed so that I could then teach that same skill to a young blind client that had a stroke and lost the use of his right hand.

Apple very well could make a version of the iMac, as well as the Thunderbolt Display, that would swing down to accept touch input. Some of the Windows 8 computers are apparently so 'touchy' that you don't actually have to touch them to it to register input. This is crappy hardware, rather than thoughtful design, so we know that touch-less touch screens are possible.

Mike, it's hard to take you seriously when in one sentence you say he doesn't want to discuss it and the next throw a tantrum over his continued discussion. He's not going to concede that you're right because he disagrees with you, and so do I.

I have many many times in the past spent a stretch of hours drawing or painting at an upright easel. Even 12 hours+ when I've got obsessively into something. Speed and control is often prioritised over comfort, if it wasn't we'd be lying in bed, staring at a ceiling-mounted LCD and using trackball equipped underpants to control OS X. Is that what you want to devolve to? Is it? Because that's what will happen. You mark my words.