Looking forward to getting in Touch with Windows 7
The upgrade of our older HP TouchSmart “kitchen computer” from Vista to Windows 7 went smoothly and everything still works – at least, everything that worked before the upgrade. Several months before we upgraded it, the computer had taken to crashing regularly. “Blue screen” would be an inaccurate description; it’s actually a patterned pinkish screen that seems to indicate either a bad video card driver or a hardware problem with the video card itself. Driver updates have either failed to install at all, or had no effect. And of course, since it’s an all-in-one, it’s not so easy to just yank out the video card and install a new one, as I’d do if this was a regular desktop PC.
On the left is the TouchSmart when it’s working correctly. On the right is what it looks like when it crashes – which, unfortunately, now happens several times per day. It started while it was still running Vista and continued after an in-place upgrade. We hoped a clean installation of Windows 7 would fix the problem, but no go.
Oh, well. We’ve had it for a couple of years, and this is actually a good excuse to start thinking about a new one. The current generation of TouchSmarts have larger screens, more processing power and memory, and support multiple touch inputs (multi-touch). The form factor is smaller, too. And they cost less than we paid for this one. You can see the cool new style on HP’s website.
We’re really looking forward to using Windows 7 multi-touch. But we’ve held off on buying a new TouchSmart, in anticipation of the introduction of new models when Windows 7 is released. The OS is capable of some very cool things, which you can see in this video demonstrating the Windows 7 Touch Pack that was released earlier this year: Gizmodo: Windows 7 Touch Pack.
The success of the iPhone and its competitors have proven that consumers like the touchscreen concept. But they’re getting harder to impress, after seeing the antics of “TV computers” on programs such as CSI. Nonetheless, I’m excited about Microsoft’s efforts to make touch more a part of the user experience for those of us who can’t afford $20,000 Surface computers. After using the kitchen computer for a while, when I come back to my desk, I’ll find myself starting to reach up and touch the screen for certain tasks. It doesn’t replace the pointing device, but for some applications, it’s much more intuitive and easier to use than a mouse or trackball.
The biggest obstacle to the adoption of touch technology right now is the hardware. Most vendors offer no more than one or two touchscreen computers in their lineups so choice is very limited. Cost is another factor. In addition to the “kitchen computers,” HP, Dell and other vendors are selling touchscreen laptop/tablet PCs so you can take your penchant for touchy-feely computing on the road. HP’s TouchSmart tx2z laptop is reasonably priced, with 6 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive for a little over $1100, but it only comes with an AMD Turion processor.
If I want a touchscreen tablet with an Intel processor, I can go to Dell for the Latitude XT, but then I’ll have to pay over $600 more for a system with only 1 GB of RAM and an 80 GB hard drive. Ouch. Either way, I only have one choice from each vendor.
The laptops and the all-in-one systems suffer from the same drawback, too: if one component fails, you can’t just easily replace it. Why isn’t HP making a touchscreen version of their gorgeous HD widescreen monitors? Sure, it would cost more than the non-touch versions, but if they can sell an all-in-one with a 25.5 inch touch screen for $1299, they should be able to sell me the monitor only for under $1000. Then I could plug any Windows 7 computer into it.
Even though I’m not an Apple fan, I’m hoping the company does release a tablet computer as has been rumored – because I know it will get plenty of press and it just might bring the tablet form factor, finally, into its own. That will inspire PC vendors to come out with more of their own (Windows 7) tablets to compete. And that will be a good thing for all of us who want to reach out and touch our computers.
- Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MVP
deb@shinder.net www.debshinder.com
Harvey on October 01, 2009 at 04:31 PM
Talking about touch screen laptops, I have a HP tx2000 tablet that came with Vista Premium 32bit. I split the hard drive and added Winows 7 with dual boot. It loaded up with no problems and I have been very pleased with the touch screen and with the pen. The only issue is that the driver for the coprocessor did not load, for which I am working on. Oh, and the Media Center works great, even with the remote control that came with the laptop. The hardware of my system is a Dual-core AMD Turion 64, 1.4 gig with 4 gig of memory.
Enjoy Windows 7,
Harvey
television on October 09, 2009 at 09:37 AM
using touch screen lap tops it is bit difficult but it is interesting and quite comfortable if one aquanted with it.
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