I hope touchscreens are just a fad that die and get replaced by something else

[ninaholic37]

Are there any touchscreen haters here? Anyone who would never use a touchscreen even if they were paid to $20/hr to do so over a keyboard/trackpad/mouse/real separated buttons?

I tried my dad's iPad and hated it. Then I got a message on my flip phone saying I could upgrade for free to a smartphone. At first I thought "great, now I can easily send pictures, surf the net and download cool modern apps". The guy at Bell set me up with a Samsung Galaxy S III. 20 minutes later everything was full of smudgy fingerprints, everything on it felt finicky and was hard to click on, and it felt too big in my pocket and too hard and too fragile like the screen was going to shatter to pieces if I dropped it. Now I know I will never be able to stand anything touchscreen related ever again. I'll become Amish and stop using electricity before I ever consider another one of those horrendous devices.

I really hope this "touchscreen technology" is just a passing fad and dies soon! I'll use my flip phone and laptop forever or until something better comes along to replace real buttons. Who agrees with me?

 

[brianmanahan]

the key to a smudge free experience is to lick your fingers every few minutes during use, so that the natural oils are removed from the surface

 

[Bman123]

Yeah like that's something a actual working man wants to do, stick germ infested fingers in your mouth before touching the screen on our phones.

 

[brianmanahan]

Yeah like that's something a actual working man wants to do, stick germ infested fingers in your mouth before touching the screen on our phones.

excuse me? i do it all the time. if anything it strengthens my immune system.

 

[Belegost]

Or you could just get an oleophobic screen protector.

But as for touchscreens disappearing, especially on small form factor devices like phones and tablets? I really don't see that happening anywhere in the near future. The ability to maximize screen real estate while minimizing device size is important; hardware buttons can just be buttons, you can remap the function, but it's a button, but a touchscreen can be a movie screen, a QWERTY keyboard, a phone dial pad, scrollable email list, etc.

Until we have an equally multifunctional interface that improves functionality, expect touchscreens to be on top.

There are some places I do see it being a fad (or I hope to dog it is) like car consoles especially. But given the progress on autonomous vehicles perhaps driving is the fad...

 

[Spineshank]

Its been almost 7 years now since its really taken off so i dont think its a fad. I do know plenty of people that dont like them though but they are all in their 50's at least.

 

[zerocool84]

Olds is that you?

 

[s44]

trackpad

literally the worst input device ever

yes, worse than resistive touchscreens

 

[HeXen]

I love touch screens. It stands to reason that if you don't like touchscreen, then you simply do not buy them and avoid using them at all cost. Instead it's suggested that since he hates touch screens then all such should vanish since his view is clearly the only correct one all while trying to find others that think the same so he feels part of a group, a sense of belonging and to find that his hope is others desires.

literally the worst input device ever

yes, worse than resistive touchscreens

Someone hasn't used a Macbook Pro.

 

[s44]

Of course I have. Still useless.

 

[Apex]

literally the worst input device ever

yes, worse than resistive touchscreens

Pointing nipple is easily a million times worse than the trackpad.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I can't help but thing of the AT&T commercial I saw earlier today. It shows this old guy with an iPhone and he says he's just trying to make a phone call, and each time he touches his phone the car alarm goes of, the garage door opens, and other non-sense. And another old guy pulls out his AT&T Breeze feature flip phone.

I don't think touch screens are going anywhere. But I do think the experience with them will be improved with better speech recognition and AI for allowing you to naturally talk to your phone. We are seeing the beginnings of that with Siri on the iPhone and Google Now on Android and a step forward with the always listening Moto X. And there will also be more air gesture support, we'll be able to do more without even needing to touch the phone.

 

[bearxor]

As soon as we can all get low frequency rf chips implanted directly to out brains that can read and execute every thought, then we might see touch screens start to fade away.

 

[BladeVenom]

As soon as we can all get low frequency rf chips implanted directly to out brains that can read and execute every thought, then we might see touch screens start to fade away.

I think accurate voice recognition might come before that.

 

[trmiv]

I'm fine with touch screens. Seems the best way to interact with a device that's mostly screen. Voice recognition can't completely replace a touchscreen anyway. I'm not going to navigate around a webpage using voice recognition

 

[shortylickens]

One day when we all have cranial implants this will be an non-issue.

 

[Rdmkr]

Before I got this Yoga 2 Pro I would never have thought having a touchscreen on a laptop would make such a huge difference. The ergonomics of the experience are miles ahead of those while using the horrid trackpad and a mouse is not an option in most places and poses I use it in.

Having a physical keyboard is a massive benefit relative to a mere tablet, though, as is the ability to resort to the trackpad when mouse hovering or pixel-accurate control is called for.

Touchscreens are a nuisance when they are your only option. As far as I'm concerned, the convertible ultrabook with a touchscreen is the ideal compromise. I actually hope we'll (optionally) see slideable physical keyboards and maybe even trackpads appearing in phones again as their bodies become otherwise more compact.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Shame for Blackberry more people didn't hate touch screens or they might still be alive.

 

[openwheel]

I hate touchscreen in cars. I shake my head every time I see Ford and Cadillacs new interior...

 

[Joe1987]

I'm old enough that I've seen consumer computers come into being, and when lcd's were introduced, it seemed like everyone's natural reaction was to try to use them as a touchscreen, it was hilarious, I think people just naturally want to interact by touch, and I don't think touch screens are going anywhere for a long time.

 

[bearxor]

I think accurate voice recognition might come before that.

No, because no one wants to sit on the subway or sit at their desk and talk to their phone.

 

[Sheep221]

I'm not really a touch screen fan either but have a phone and tablet and touch screens have significant advantages over keypad phones for sure,

For example, touchscreen phones have much less physical wear on them, are much easier and cheaper to construct, and touch controls are better for web browsing and for example allows to build fully rugged antistress/water/dirt phones for harsh environments.

What is really bad about touch screens is writing, since you don't feel spaces between keys present on virtual keypad you just do typos all the time and corrections are never good enough at least for me. Another bad thing is too much energy consumption of digitizer and ofc the larger screen.

For sure modern smartphones are software-wise much better than they once were but I can't really speak if the touch screens are actual innovation. It is definitely more natural to use since we are used to use gestures and movements instead, but it is also less accurate and annoying in many occasions. It's not just you are right or not it's more about what you prefer like/more to use.

Car: That is bad idea indeed, it's easy to missclick on something and get distracted while driving
Samsung SIII, that phone is easier to break than a glass sheet, that's also true.
I didn't see one person with it to not have screen filled with spider web like glass fracture.

 

[luv2liv]

for whatever reason, my htc one never have any fingerprint smudges. while my wife's s3 is filled with smudges. maybe this anti smudge screen protector is for you

http://www.amazon.com/Tech-Armor-Ant...reless&ie=UTF8

 

[tsupersonic]

I hate touchscreen in cars. I shake my head every time I see Ford and Cadillacs new interior...

100% agree. I don't mind touchscreen on phones, tablets, and other devices, but I ABSOLUTELY hate them in cars. They take your eyes off the road, in order to manage things from the touchscreen infotainment. I'm a big fan of HUD's and normal buttons!

 

[poofyhairguy]

OP must have never watched Star Trek:

Buttons were the fad, touchscreens are the future!