How long before OS X cathches up with Windows 7?

[kdum8]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8317369.stm

So Windows 7 has been released today on sale. Check out the link above on its multi-touch features. Frankly very nice and it jumps ahead of OS X. If this software actually really works, and all the indications are that is does for a change, then suddenly Apple are the underdog again. I switched to Apple initially because of superiority of OS X. Now while I am not going to switch back again in a hurry just because of this, this should be a big warning for Apple.

How long before all Apple Laptop screens are touch sensitive and work like this? Surely it has to be the future... Apple need to catch up fast.

[twombles62]

I'm assuming this is just a weak attempt at trolling but I'll try and explain this simply for you:

OSX does not have support for those touch screen features because there is no touch screen computers that it runs on.

[jessica.]

Originally Posted by twombles62

I'm assuming this is just a weak attempt at trolling but I'll try and explain this simply for you:

OSX does not have support for those touch screen features because there is no touch screen computers that it runs on.

Good call and I agree, he is trolling.

[kdum8]

Originally Posted by twombles62

I'm assuming this is just a weak attempt at trolling but I'll try and explain this simply for you:

OSX does not have support for those touch screen features because there is no touch screen computers that it runs on.

Originally Posted by jessica.

Good call and I agree, he is trolling.

No I am not trolling, although I can see why you might think that.

There may not be any touch screen Mac computers yet. But there are plenty of touch-screen pc's and monitors around so it is a valid question.

I realise why OSX doesn't have it at present. Stands to reason which is why I was asking about the future... Fact is windows has it and OSX doesn't at present. Would make sense that Apple are working on it... after all it already exists in the form of the iPhone, iPod touch etc.

In recent years there have been many converts to Apple because people got fed-up with Vista. My point is that MS seems to have fixed that issue. Apple will have to innovate and catch up with 10.7.

[twiztidsid13]

for one, i have snow lep AND windows 7 ULTIMATE
ill tell you THIS, it IS a better windows then any other ive seen
but it isnt anything better then lep!

And i dont know if you have seen...macbooktouch!
Thats right, a MAC TABLIT!

And another thing that makes mac better then windows
PARALLELS, windows CANT run ANY other OS
MAC can run ALL others!

So, eat that missy

LOVE

[SnowLeopard2008]

You want multi touch. I want it too! Besides the geek coolness factor, is there any practical use for it? If you go out to NYC, where everyone has a notebook computer and spend some time at coffee shops, how many touchscreen computers do you see out of 10? Maybe 1 or 2 at most. Simply put, it's not practical to have the entire display a touchscreen. It's not good ergonomics or computer usage posture. Imagine a touchscreen iMac, you have to hold your arm out for every mouse click. It's tiresome. All Mac notebooks have the glass trackpad now (including the MacBook) and desktops can be ordered with the Magic Mouse.

Not all PCs are touchscreen anyway, it's not really that useful in the current notebook form factor. Something like Microsoft's Courier concept would revolutionize multi touch. That's an out of the box approach.

Yes, Windows 7 has touchscreen support. NEWSFLASH: Mac OS X has it too, and way before Windows did. Remember the Modbook/Pro? You can also mod your displays with touchscreen ones (only capacitive, one finger). Besides copying a feature OS X already had, what else makes Windows 7 better than Snow Leopard? At it's very core, 7 is just Vista with a makeover. New UI and cleaned up the gunk Vista had all over the place. But if you look at how the system runs, it's 100% Vista-esque.

[MythicFrost]

windows CANT run ANY other OS

Not quite, you can always install multiple OS's onto a single PC, you can't legally do it with OSX.
And I think you can also use Parallels (for windows) to virtualize other OS's.

[professorjay]

I wouldn't call Windows 7 ahead just because of one feature that can only be utilized on a very small percentage of computers.

For tablet owners, then yes, this is a nice advantage.

[Eidorian]

I've used mutli-touch under Vista on a Dell Studio 19". It's fun and it works but your arms get tired.

Sticky notes and painting were the best but stick with a tablet or something you can put in your lap.

Originally Posted by MythicFrost

Not quite, you can always install multiple OS's onto a single PC, you can't legally do it with OSX.
And I think you can also use Parallels (for windows) to virtualize other OS's.

Parallels isn't the only company that offers virtual machines for Windows.

I'm a fan of Virtual Box and don't forget to enable nested paging if your processor supports it.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by kdum8

How long before OS X cathches up with Windows 7?

As soon as those lazy virus programmers get off their butts and write a few hundred thousand viruses for Mac OS X.

[mrchinchilla]

Touch is not the future, it's nothing more than a novelty gimmick. Touch screens are highly inefficient, there's too much room for error and they're extremely awkward as you have no immediate feedback. While the younger markets may lap up this touch-screen nonsense, the more advanced user/professional market will not embrace this technology over the standard keyboard and mouse for a long long time, if ever.

[macrem]

Originally Posted by mrchinchilla

Touch is not the future, it's nothing more than a novelty gimmick. Touch screens are highly inefficient, there's too much room for error and they're extremely awkward as you have no immediate feedback. While the younger markets may lap up this touch-screen nonsense, the more advanced user/professional market will not embrace this technology over the standard keyboard and mouse for a long long time, if ever.

It's great for mobile devices (e.g., tablets, cellphones, satnavs) but on a desktop why the heck, for instance, would anyone want to type on a virtual keyboard (totally in the wrong position for typing) instead of the real keyboard on their desk...

[Tex-Twil]

Originally Posted by macrem

It's great for mobile devices (e.g., tablets, cellphones, satnavs) but on a desktop why the heck, for instance, would anyone want to type on a virtual keyboard (totally in the wrong position for typing) instead of the real keyboard on their desk...

I agree with this. When you are on a desktop/notebook, it is much easier to move a mouse or a finger on the trackpad.

Moving your entire hand over a screen would be totally exhausting.

[stridemat]

Originally Posted by MythicFrost

Not quite, you can always install multiple OS's onto a single PC, you can't legally do it with OSX.

Explain???? How is it not legal?

[ZizousamA]

Originally Posted by stridemat

Explain???? How is it not legal?

I think the person is referring to Apple exclusively using OSX on its hardware. It is illegal to install OSX on other than Apple computers.

[stridemat]

Originally Posted by ZizousamA

I think the person is referring to Apple exclusively using OSX on its hardware. It is illegal to install OSX on other than Apple computers.

Not quite, you can always install multiple OS's onto a single PC

as you can on OSX and it is not illegal

[qbricc]

This is the first thing from Windows I've seen in a while that has impressed me.

Some points about touch on computers-

1. Look at what has happened with mobile technology. Try selling a top line phone without an element of touch interface.

2. Touch is a extra method of controlling applications. Why not have a keyboard, mouse and touch interface. Use the one you like best or fits the need.

3. Things move on. A computer will not always look like a desktop or laptop. Think about the future. There is a good change that computers will evolve into more portable devises which need new ways of controlling them.

4. The winner in the arms race to bring touch to mainstream users will be the company that marries quality software with hardware. This is why some people are very excited about a possible Mactablet as it has a chance of being the device to change how we use computers.

We will all have to wait and see what happens in the future. Be warned however that your keyboard might not have a bright future.

*This statement has been typed on a laptop keyboard*

[BertyBoy]

This is certainly a nice feature in Windows 7.

But I've used touch screens under earlier Windows. While seated, there is no comfortable way to use them, they're either at arms length, or flat in front of you and difficult to see. They're especially difficult to see with an arm or hand (or two) in front of the screen.

Some may proclaim this as a "cool" feature, enough to make them switch back to Windows, but use it for a week. Hands in the way of the screen makes it painful to use. Done it, hated it.

The try using it on 23" or 27" monitors. It's a gimmick, good for episodes of CSI / Numb3rs / etc.And to use it as a keyboard ? Please. After one hour you'll have sore fingers, after one day they'll be bruised. By day 2 you'll have plugged your main keyboard back in. Done it, hated it.

And try playing CoD4 on a touch screen. Didn't try this, can only imagine I'll hate it.

Touch screens, or at least adapters for CRTs (as it was then) have been available from third parties for Mac for years, since OS9. MacUser / MacWorld / MacFormat (one of) carried a feature of these in action many years ago. I may still have the article, but I definitely remember reading it and the conclusion - expensive, clumsy and inefficient.

But, there may be a business opportunity here, it may offer a whole new avenue for software.

[elppa]

Windows 7 is ahead in full screen multi touch.

What I suspect though is that Apple haven't figured out a way to implement in well. Adding it to a Desktop designed for keyboard and mouse operation (whilst incredibly cool and useful for certain operations - e.g. photo manipulation) isn't necessarily the best approach. Redesigning the Desktop for multitouch may be a better approach.

Having your hands up against the screen is hardly great for ergonomics. Occasionally reaching out to launch an app by touching the dock would be nice though.

There are some areas Mac OS X is still ahead of Windows 7, there are some things Microsoft are ahead on. It is not a clear cut case of catching up. The OS is a very competitive landscape and that is great for everyone.

[tersono]

It's not an OS thing, it's a hardware thing. OS X has had the necessary subroutines for multi-touch support for quite some time (don't forget that the iPhone OS is essentially a cut-down version of OS X). What is missing is hardware that actually makes it useful.

Microsoft are very good at making a big deal out of new features that few people have any real use for. Other than Apple's MT mouse and the trackpad on the MBPs, there isn't any real need for it. Yet. Multi-touch on a desktop screen would be worse than useless - anybody touches my screen gets slapped. Hard...

The niche here is for kiosk applications (which Apple doesn't really get involved in, but MS does) and tablets (which we may or may not see from Apple in due course )

[kasakka]

Originally Posted by BertyBoy

But I've used touch screens under earlier Windows. While seated, there is no comfortable way to use them, they're either at arms length, or flat in front of you and difficult to see. They're especially difficult to see with an arm or hand (or two) in front of the screen.

This is my experience as well. I tried a HP Touchsmart running Vista in a store and my hands were tired after about 5 minutes because the regular position of a display is very unergonomic. It works for something like a shopping mall information booth because you use that for maybe a minute at most and the UI is designed for touch but a full operating system with touch support has to be designed for it. On the Touchsmart, hitting the Windows button in the corner was awkward because the display surface wasn't totally flat like on an iPhone but had edges I kept bumping.

[Winni]

Originally Posted by twiztidsid13

And another thing that makes mac better then windows
PARALLELS, windows CANT run ANY other OS
MAC can run ALL others!

You should do some homework before you post un-informed stuff like that. There are more virtualization software packages for Windows than there are for OS X. And that does not only include Free Software (as in speech) and free software (as in beer), but also the high end virtualization server products from VMWare.

Besides, it's always easier to install other operating systems directly on PC hardware than it is to install them on Apple hardware. PC hardware designs follow an industry standard, while Apple "customizes" this standard a bit too much, mostly to make a Mac a proprietary platform.

Futhermore, just because Apple's (probably illegal) EULA says that you are not allowed to install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware that does not make a Mac the better platform. It just makes it the most restricted one.

[whooleytoo]

Originally Posted by BertyBoy

This is certainly a nice feature in Windows 7.

But I've used touch screens under earlier Windows. While seated, there is no comfortable way to use them, they're either at arms length, or flat in front of you and difficult to see. They're especially difficult to see with an arm or hand (or two) in front of the screen.

Some may proclaim this as a "cool" feature, enough to make them switch back to Windows, but use it for a week. Hands in the way of the screen makes it painful to use. Done it, hated it.

Precisely. It's a cool technology, but which doesn't work for everyday use.

A vertical input device is awkward to use; while a horizontal screen is awkward to look at. A touchscreen at 45 degrees offers the worst of both. There is no way to make a desktop touchscreen that's useful for extended everyday use, until the human body evolves a few more joints or some new eyes.

I'm sure it has its uses; but not for your everyday OS use.

[MonkeyET]

Am I the only one who thinks the idea of putting my hands all over my screen is ridiculous? The convenience factor may be in play, but I like to have my screen spotless and clean. I am not about to put fingerprints on a glossy screen where they are more than obvious. I would rather run out and get the magic mouse and give it a whirl.

[iMacmatician]

I think Apple is keeping display multi-touch to mobile devices (iPod touch, iPhone, rumored upcoming tablet) for at least the next year or two. Desktops and notebooks use the multi-touch mouse/trackpad.