Touchscreens on Laptops

[TSE]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...

Using Windows 8 on a touchscreen notebook really opened up my eyes.

I always kind of agreed with Steve Jobs and thought my arms would get tired or it wouldn't be ergonomic to use a laptop with a touchscreen. Until I started using my brother's brand new HP with one.

The experience of doing the basics such as web browsing, checking e-mail, reading, listening to music is really enjoyable, for the most part... the only thing that kind of made it frustrating was Microsoft's mixing of touch friendly UI and non-touch friendly UI. However, that's a UI issue. Microsoft has been improving upon this though and I think for the most part they have it right (if you have a touchscreen).

I kind of want Apple to make a touchscreen MacBook Air now.

 

[macs4nw]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...
Using Windows 8 on a touchscreen notebook really opened up my eyes.
I always kind of agreed with Steve Jobs and thought my arms would get tired or it wouldn't be ergonomic to use a laptop with a touchscreen. Until I started using my brother's brand new HP with one.
The experience of doing the basics such as web browsing, checking e-mail, reading, listening to music is really enjoyable, for the most part... the only thing that kind of made it frustrating was Microsoft's mixing of touch friendly UI and non-touch friendly UI. However, that's a UI issue. Microsoft has been improving upon this though and I think for the most part they have it right (if you have a touchscreen).
I kind of want Apple to make a touchscreen MacBook Air now.

That's not likely to happen in the foreseeable future. Also as recent as earlier this year, both Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller, as well as Bud Tribble made it clear that there were no plans to converge OSX and iOS. And from another article:

“The reason OS X has a different interface than iOS isn’t because one came after the other or because this one’s old and this one’s new,” Federighi said. Instead, it’s because using a mouse and keyboard just isn’t the same as tapping with your finger. “This device,” Federighi said, pointing at a MacBook Air screen, “has been honed over 30 years to be optimal” for keyboards and mice. Schiller and Federighi both made clear that Apple believes that competitors who try to attach a touchscreen to a PC or a clamshell keyboard onto a tablet are barking up the wrong tree.

The best you could hope for is that rumored 12" iPad Pro, but that would almost certainly run iOS, although there has been some speculation whether such a Pro iPad might be engineered to run both OSX and iOS, as desired by the user, however that is almost guaranteed to require some sort of hybrid OS, as mice (or trackpads) and tablets are an awkward combination.

 

[Hammie]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...

Using Windows 8 on a touchscreen notebook really opened up my eyes.

I always kind of agreed with Steve Jobs and thought my arms would get tired or it wouldn't be ergonomic to use a laptop with a touchscreen. Until I started using my brother's brand new HP with one.

The experience of doing the basics such as web browsing, checking e-mail, reading, listening to music is really enjoyable, for the most part... the only thing that kind of made it frustrating was Microsoft's mixing of touch friendly UI and non-touch friendly UI. However, that's a UI issue. Microsoft has been improving upon this though and I think for the most part they have it right (if you have a touchscreen).

I kind of want Apple to make a touchscreen MacBook Air now.

I feel that with the advent of tablets, a touchscreen laptop becomes more natural. There have been numerous times that I have reached up to the screen to click or scroll. My wife and kids, too.

My mother-in-law has a Lenovo hybrid with the touchscreen. I think it is... interesting. I am not a huge fan of the Windows 8 environment to begin with, but besides that, a touchscreen could work if done right. The Windows 8 main screen with the tiles is very functional. However, once you start getting into the actual programs/apps, that is where things begin to get kludgy. Not everyone wants to run apps in full screen on a Windows environment. Some apps look good and work, others just plain suck and most features are not available, i.e., Skype, which my mother-in-law uses a lot with her friends.

I think as OS X and iOS become closer and closer, a touchscreen laptop would work in the Apple environment.