[edanm]

The BEST thing about a MacBook laptop, in my opinion, is the trackpad. The ability, even if it's only partial, to scroll with gestures, move things around by "dragging them" with 3 fingers, and so on, is simply so much nicer than any use of a mouse.

I don't really know why, I just know that it makes me really happy to use the trackpad. It feels natural.

This, to me, is a sign that we are definitely heading towards something that involves Touch to a much larger degree.

I can't imagine touch being on every computer monitor, because my arm would get tired. I mean, I'm now leaning back on my chair with my keyboard on my lap, with my monitor pretty far away - I wouldn't be able to do that if I had to touch the monitor. Still, the world of computer interaction is going to be a very interesting one over the next few years, that's guaranteed.

These are really great times we're living in.

[jonah]

This.

the touchpad on your laptop is around the size as the screen on your smartphone. They use hand/wrist-sized motions. This is fast and efficient.

Scaling a touchscreen up to laptop or desktop size is a completely different set of motions. Your whole arm gets involved and your fingers have to travel much further to achieve the same motion.

I think the mapped indirect manipulation of a trackpad makes a lot more sense from a human factors perspective.

[edit clarity]

[DaveMebs]

Why do you consider these to be mutually exclusive forms of input? Just because you can touch a screen doesn't mean that all other forms of input are no longer applicable.

[jonah]

I don't.

I do think the ergonometrics of using touch on a large(ish) vertical display - "Gorilla Arm"[1] - is a deal breaker for extended interaction.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726394

[hirenj]

What would be great is if you could use the trackpad a lot like a loupe. Imagine a small touchscreen device that shows a certain magnification of the screen. Zoom out on the loupe, and it acts like a standard trackpad. Zoom in on the loupe, and it acts like a precision touchscreen.

There would be some subtle feedback on the main screen indicating where the loupe is currently focussed I'd guess.

[s_henry_paulson]

Scaling that up to laptop or desktop screen size is a completely different set of motions.

Why do you assume the motions are different? Apple has already proven this with the Magic Trackpad for desktops.

[jonah]

[edit] I think I wasn't clear. Scaling the direct on-screen manipulation up to laptop/desktop fundamentally changes the physical motions required.

The Magic Trackpad is indirect scaled motion like the inbuilt trackpad on a laptop. It's size is still within the range of easy and quick wrist motion unlike touching the desktop screen itself.

There's even push back against ever increasing phone screen sizes. They've gone beyond a finger's range of motion.

[forgottenpaswrd]

I agree.

I only use the Apple magic trackpad for input in my Apple and Ubuntu computers.

It is an amazing device, all other trackpads I had tested(and I do it with every computer I see on the store) is shit compared with it, on laptops and stand alone.

But it takes some time getting used to it, specially for doing things like right clicking(15-30min in my experience with other people), so I don't see most of the people using it, unless you could make people to climb that learning curve.

About touching the screen, I remember the Windows users talking about how touching the ipad "will never work" because the screen gets dirty, like the people from Linux that hated what iOS did until Android copied it, and instantly became the best thing since sliced bread.