Intel: Your Next Laptop Will Be a Touchscreen Clamshell

Things are certainly changing in personal computing: laptops are getting smaller and slimmer; tablets are becoming more useful productivity tools; and the whole sector can't quite reach a consensus over what the future holds. But then, Intel drops into conversation that it firmly believes in the one technology most people have dismissed: Clamshell touchscreens.

Speaking to PCWorld, Intel product manager Anand Kajshmanan explained that Intel "fundamentally believe in the concept of touch, and touch on a clamshell," adding that the firm is "strongly encouraging our partners" to add touchscreens to their ultrabooks.

Well, well. We've seen a clamshell tablet from Sony, and it was awful. What's to make a touchscreen laptop better? Not a lot. Steve Jobs famously dismissed the idea--after Apple had conducted tests of the concept--over the fact that vertical touch surfaces lead to fatigue. Without some startling innovation--which is of course possible, and I'd love to be proved wrong--that isn't set to change.

Elsewhere in the interview, Kajshmanan made an interesting comment over Windows versus OS X, too. Windows, he explained, is itself a prime differentiator when it comes to buying a laptop, calling it "the operating system users have come to love." He has a point. I'm not saying he's right, but he has a point. [PC World via The Verge]
Isn't Windows more like something you tolerate rather than truly love ? Mostly because it happens to run your favorite program(s). OSX is far from perfect (Finder is a piece of shit for one) but it's still a lot more intuitive and definitely easier to use and like than any version of Windows so far.

In any case it seems like Kajshmanan is highly delusional. Touchscreens on non-tablet computers simply don't work because of the hand fatigue issue mentioned and considering how pretty much no Windows programs are made or even viable for touch input this seems like a really stupid idea. Anyone who has used those HP Touchsmart PCs should know this.
promoted by chefgon
chefgon @kasakka 

For people who have been using Windows for a really long time (like me) there's absolutely nothing about Macs that's more intuitive or easier to use. Any time I try to use a Mac for work it's a cumbersome, annoying, and downright frustrating experience. Absolutely every single thing about it feels ten times worse than the equivalent thing in Windows.

That's not because Mac is bad, it's because I'm used to Windows. It's absolutely not an easy transition to move to Mac, and that's probably what he's talking about. People will stick with Windows because they're familiar with it, and that familiarity makes the alternatives feel wrong.

darkly @kasakka In a word no.

Omnislip @kasakka

Everyone is used to windows now. EVERYONE. Not to mention that macs are just as unstable and provide nothing better except for great hardware.
cassiebearRAWR @kasakka

I never understood the "easier to use" argument, because figuring out how to do stuff in Windows seems pretty simple and straightforward to me.
martinjcole @kasakka 

Funny, I used to think that as it would seem that Apple hardware is so good, then it must be an excellent experience switching from my current decent but not outstanding Windows experience to MAC.

Boy was I wrong (as someone else stated, I'm sure it is because I was so used to another way of operating on a system {pun intended}) but my daughters school district uses Mac's, and what a painful experience just simply filling out a web page form.

I had no idea how to scroll the page, no scroll segment on the touch-pad, OK move on to click the scroll bar (eew) gah no button to click it, click and hold didn't seem to work (I'm sure it must, but I couldn't get it to work), finally someone came over to help, and was all... O well you use two fingers to scroll... OK, it seems like an idea (although I prefer the specific segment for scrolling {for now} ) but how in hell would I have known that.

My feeling at the time was how pretentious, to assume that Mac's are easy to use, and that everyone should use them, it left me feeling nothing but annoyance.

I can guarantee though going the other way I would have felt exactly the same though...
yo_jimbo @kasakka

I used to use DOS, then moved to a Mac in the early 90s. The first time I had to shutdown a Windows machine I simply couldn't figure it out. Later I of course was told to go to "start", which I thought was asinine, why do "start" when I want to "stop?"
CamJN @martinjcole 

There is a bit of a learning curve, if you're so steeped in windows and don't learn new computing practices easily, that is true.

But when people say that mac are easier to use, what they actually mean is they make doing things easier once you know the basics. scrolling with two fingers anywhere on the trackpad is easier than moving your had first then scrolling (they've also made it more accurate). Clicking anywhere on the trackpad is easier than a separate button for the same reason. (right click is two fingers as you might expect). There are also a host of other inputs possible that simply aren't with a traditional trackpad. Such as scaling and rotating.

I'm a programmer so I have a deep understanding of Windows/Linux/Mac OS X and macs are by far the easiest to get things done with, if you know how to use all systems equally well.
kasakka @cassiebearRAWR 

Keyboard shortcuts for one are much more consistent between programs and also placed better in general. Overall there is this consistency in programs (excluding Adobe and MS Office) that makes OSX nice to use. You can usually expect to find things in the same places, behind the same shortcuts and function the same way whereas something simple like preferences is found under at least a dozen different names in various programs and in Win8 even MS drops you like 5 different control panels that are not even named obviously.

This isn't all MS's fault though. There's a veritable cornucopia of badly designed software for Windows because of legacy baggage OSX does not have. There seems to be a more careful design aspect to 3rd party OSX software as well, like they want to make them as easy and as beatiful as what Apple comes up with.

Of course, Apple doesn't always do right either..the iTunes team in particular are fuckin' awful as witnessed by iTunes, its store and Mac App Store.