How would you change HP's TouchSmart 2 all-in-one PC?
By Darren Murph 
posted December 12th 2008 9:28PM
posted December 12th 2008 9:28PM
posted December 12th 2008 9:28PM
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increase the size of the screen
It comes in a 25" model
Wow, that got lowest ranked quicker than a "make it an imac" statement
Throw linux and an S-IPS panel in it.
Made in Japan instead of Made in China.
but then it would cost more and no one would buy it.
And it would continue being lead-painted.
make in japan=only assemble in Japan= cost more but still make in China
I played with the HP for 15 minutes and I got tired. Yes, I am a lazy bastard and miss my mouse.
That´s the reason why touchscreen where not a big deal in the past before the flat screen, a CRT forced to use it mostly vertical and it proved to be anti-ergonomic for a desktop, if it is a tablet PC it´s Ok but on a desktop you need to have the computer just a few inches in front of you and even at that point you´ll have your arm stressed for been on air if you use it for a long time, or your back if you have to lean forward to reach the monitor, you could say -"ok, but you can use a keyboard and a mouse too"- but in that case I will not pay for an expensive thing that I´m not going to use.
It is an attractive idea, even thought that I think it´s not a practical one.
I think I will wait for a multi-touch tablet PC or if it is for a desktop , an over-the-desktop multi-touch track pad (mmm that would be an interesting idea).
But you can tilt it! The way the stand works is that you can tilt the computer back up to something like 40 degrees from the horizontal. This makes it SO much easier to do things with the touchscreen.
I love this little computer. At my house we use it as a kitchen computer/ kitchen tv.
the real issue I see with tablets and with touch screens is that on MS Windows only half of Microsoft's own apps follow good Human Interface Guidelines. Good HIG is important for things like this because using a less precise but more agile finger as a pointer requires varying and rearranging the sizes of interface elements. This is why the majority of touch screen users hate them. Even 20% of the apps not having good HIG means your trying to "pretend" to be a mouse part of the time. It breaks the "touchy" part of the device. iPhone is successful because they lock the thing down tight against bad, hard to use apps from developers so users don't suffer.
Even look at game consoles. The HIG for those is super strict to limit you to just the 10 button controller. Notably only the Wii tries to imitate a "pointer" format. When 10 buttons is all devs get, and mostly pre-programmed GUI elements, they're stuck making it work. Even if it works badly it's still constantly bad.
I think for touch screens to really take off an OS needs a clean start with super strict HIG. The only commercial OS even close is OSX. I think Ubuntu is on the right track with their Netbook remix.. that's the direction to go but it requires re-skinning nearly all the apps to make them HIG compliant. Being OSS it's hard to force devs into compliance, so you trim the pool (and have users complain that text only apps are missing! on a touch screen) or fix yourself (lots of $$$). I think touchscreen will develop in iPhone/linux appliances that are glued shut to regular users where installing apps is a "plugin" not done very often.
Personally I'd love to see an LCARS based version of Linux with voice and touch integrated and just have various size PADs. LCARS was created for TV, but intended to "look" useful... without explaining how it works all the time.. which is the point of good UI.
You know... you CAN plug a mouse into these... in fact, I think they come with a mouse.Why assume it's an all or nothing solution?
Some things work better with a mouse, some with a touchscreen.
We had the same problem when mice came in. People argued that they preferred to use their keyboard and didn't want to be 'forced' into using a mouse. Apparently, it didn't occur to them that somethings are easier with a keyboard and others are easier with a mouse.
HP announced the IQ8xx series, which is 25.5"
just an FYI for anyone who doesn't know-
the hardware itself does support multitouch. However windows vista by design does not. Windows 7 has multitouch, so these computers will just need a software upgrade in order to enable multitouch (according to a hp rep i talked to at work, anyways)
You use both singular and plural in the same sentence. WTF is "For your information for anybody", that makes no sense.
hey, it's the semantics douchebag!
we are such a post-economy generation
thanks for that. The "knowledgeable" staff over at Best Buy told me that the hardware doesn't support multi touch! Jerks!
You need a special type of screen to support multi-touch and technically Vista does support multi-touch because the Microsoft Surface runs on a mortified version of Vista.
@Brandon: If we're going to talk semantics then let's take a look at your sentences:
"You use both singular and plural in the same sentence. WTF is 'For your information for anybody', that makes no sense."
Your first sentence is wrong because of a complete lack of parallelism. Not to mention past tense would've made much more sense. You then went on to begin a mid-sentence quote with a capital letter, which is completely incorrect. Also, the comma should have came before the closing quotation mark but since it's actually the source of a comma splice it should be changed to a question mark (which you also completely omitted). Consequently, you would then have to capitalize the succeeding letter.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
- Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)
@Cris:
I believe the operable world is "modified."
I mean, "mortified."
@holycow
You're really expecting people at Best Buy to know about an unadvertised hardware feature? Why would this be relevant to them? Think about it.
@advs89
Dude doesn't that mid-sentence quote in your Bible verse begin with a capital letter? idk maybe i'm wrong
@arrenteed: Hmm.... In standard written English, my criticism would be correct, but yeah, that's a good point. I guess we can give him that one. However, the rest of my criticisms still stand.
@garrenteed: Sorry - didn't mean to cut off the "g" in your name.
@ngamer007
Well I don't expect the sales people to know about it, but I do expect the Geek Squad to know it. They are the ones i asked.
This is the worst thread in the world.
@ngamer007
I do work at the big blue box and the whole multitouch capability is a good selling point if a customer expects to upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out.
advs89@
you used the wrong tense of the word "come"
Lets conjugate the verb to come.
I come. She comes. You don't come.
I came. She came. You still don't get to come.
Class dismissed.
@ Cris: The Microsoft Surface reads mutlitouch using a couple of cameras, infrared detectors and some special software, you can even build one at your own house, for cheap, but not as cool. The mutlitouch that comes with the HP TouchSmart 2 is built right into the hardware, meaning that it'll need some special drivers to run and some good technology to build, making it different from the Surface.
For example, the Surface reads hands' movements even 5 inch away, but will not register these movements until the software asks to, in the other hand, HP's TouchSmart 2 will directly interact with your fingers only if you are millimeters away or less.
@ advs89
It is too goddam early in the morning for a bible quotation.
I replied just to add to this guy's inbox.
actually, this touchsmart DOES support multi-touch in some situations. although vista doesn't have multi-touch capabilities out-of-box, the hp software that comes with preloaded has areas where you can use two fingers to scale thing. go to best buy and try it out.
Saad Rabia: "multitouch that comes with the HP TouchSmart 2 is built right into the hardware" - which is no different than Microsoft Surface. Both have specialized hardware built right into the devices. The hardware in Surface is not a couple of cameras you can buy off the shelf. The HP uses n-trig hardware, which is also not off the shelf. Both require specialized sofrtware/drivers. The key difference is that the n-trig hardware is capacitive touch and Surface is a vision system. One key difference with a vision based system is that Surface can detect the difference between a finger and another object, and tell exactly which direction the finger is pointing - and no, not 5 inches away. It can wait until you're right near the hardware. Vision is definately a smarter display, but both have their advantages depending on the situation. Right now, I'd probably prefer the HP for my kitchen countertop. ;)
Wrong market - this will find itself in a kiosk or on someone's kitchen wall.
My buddy has the old version and has it in his kitchen, its a really nice place to gather in the kitchen with friends to show each other stupid videos or surf the web. If I had the money i'd have it for that reason.
On another note I think this things really well built and I believe there is only little things they need to change on the thing... But why go into it on here, no one of importance will ever read this...
^^^I've often thought about having one just for that purpose. In fact if they made little 15" inexpensive versions it would be cool to just one on the walls in different places maybe for home lighting/heating control or security system control with the ability to be a digital photoframe or TV or movie player. They could just be used as "smartscreens" one in the kitchen, maybe one in the bathroom, one sitting by the side in the living room maybe, one at the entrance.
We currently have an outdated iMac G4 (the half bubble one) in the kitchen that runs my wife's recipe software. I have been considering getting one of these to replace it because (1) you don't have to worry about food, water, pop, etc getting in a keyboard/mouse (2) when you get food on it you can just wipe it off, it won't destroy it like it can the keyboard/mouse (3) i find the keyboard, mouse and half bubble take up quite a bit of room. I think this is a great idea and perfect for a kitchen PC, especially for the people who want to electronicize yo as... *ahem* make their recipe collection electronic.
This filled our kitchen niche very nicely. We use it like a kiosk, and it's the best place in the house to watch tv, because we don't have any other computers that let us record television. Not to mention the kitchen is where we spend most of our time.
But I do agree. If it's not in your niche, this computer wouldn't make much sense.
If you want a touch screen PC for the kitchen to use recipe software or watch video save yourself some cash and buy an Eee Top.
Um... make the touchscreen work.
Give me one and I will start changing it right away.....
Exactly!
Me, too!! :@)
I think the first thing I would do is install Mame 32... lol.
I actually got one of these about a month ago and ended up returning it. The fact that you really can't use multitouch outside of the special HP application (which is extremely limiting when browsing websites) is a major drawback. Perhaps this is more of an OS shortcoming, but nevertheless, I simply wanted to be able to read web pages like I can on an IPhone, pinching, ticking up and down the page, etc. I had the lowest end model...the one for $1299 and another thing I didn't like is that there is no video VGA (or any other high res video) output. So if you're using this as a Media Center PC but want to display it on a big screen LCD sometimes, you're out of luck. You can buy the more expensive models and get this, but a VGA port is something you should have to pay more for, in my estimation.
This is a good first start for this kind of product...but not ready for prime time yet as far as I'm concerned.
One more comment after reading what other have said...I actually installed the 6801 build of Windows 7 onto this just to see if I could get a feel for what it might be like under an OS that truly supports multi touch. Unfortunately, there are no drivers for network, sound, etc. that will work on this machine under Windows 7. I know I can't complain about no drivers for an unreleased OS, but just thought I would mention it.
I don't know if this would be the ideal form for a media center PC. I guess a small box with HDMI would assuming you have your data on an NAS. Otherwise a box with lots of HDD space and HDMI.
Well are you going to let us know how well/if at all the multi-touch worked under Windows 7?