Touch - An Evolutionary Start by Ubuntu

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gcmartin

#76 Post by gcmartin »

Examining the Touch experience in a desktop OS (Win7, Linux) is very different from the Touch experience in Android/Surface/iOS for iPhone-iPad.

On a high level, the desktop experience mimics mouse movement for desktop OSes. But in the other case, the touch is more like a signaling as these systems take on more responsibility in watching our movements for indications of what to do. (This is just the kind of thing that infants do as they observe and learn our ways as parents. In essence, we are increasingly going to be "teaching" our devices to serve us. This can further be seen by the tools that Microsoft/Apple/Google/Facebook/etc are providing in training programmers on application use of big data and information to assist users.)

Thus, today's kids will, in many future cases, never see a desktop experience as we have come to know. This is similar to the many people, today, who have NEVER driven a vehicle requiring to shift gears.

What is going to be of interest (at least to me) is the initial release of the Ubuntu Touch approach and how that compares to the suggested vision when they requested for Crowd-sourcing.

Technology, mankind....looking forward.

Off-topic momentarily. Anyone remember that I had a chance to see a voice development tool. If so, take a look at Android 4.4 inclusion of Google NOW! You may not see it the way I do, but, nonetheless, its potential is interesting at a mass populace level. One way to also look at this is "the vendors" started us off with Touch. Now we are moving to Touch and Talk. As we are now beginning to see how background services on the Android stack(s) can be beneficial.

jpeps
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#77 Post by jpeps »

gcmartin wrote:
On a high level, the desktop experience mimics mouse movement for desktop OSes. But in the other case, the touch is more like a signaling as these systems take on more responsibility in watching our movements for indications of what to do.
Interesting observation. Android uses an OnClickListener class that is attached to buttons, etc., that await (i.e, listen for) a user response. This is a big difference from a tool like gtkdialog.
gcmartin wrote: Thus, today's kids will, in many future cases, never see a desktop experience as we have come to know. This is similar to the many people, today, who have NEVER driven a vehicle requiring to shift gears.
Dangerous comment :) It's likely that the desktop will be around for years. For now, it's safe to say that mobile devices are finding their own niche. Many large enterprises are presently updating their Dells to Windows 7. Big screens, mouse, and keyboard are the superior way to go for almost every task where mobility isn't a distinct advantage.

gcmartin

#78 Post by gcmartin »

Agreed.

When I was growing up my Dad owned large trucks. No automatics. Learned to drive them as a kid. In urban areas, many large trucks (tractors and the like) have automatic transmissions. Some companies-drivers feel its a safer choice to run automatics. Just listen, when you're at a light as trucks today start off. If you've used a stick shift, you can tell the difference.

People can still buy the older, but, much has changed in preferences.

I am not trying to spell doom, rather, I am only showing industry movement which is bringing new applications into the hands of the public and its businesses.

I only wish that my eyes weren't so old. If so, I think I could see these views better. :lol:

gcmartin

#79 Post by gcmartin »

Touch. This means a lot of things to a lot of different people. It, as we have seen, also can emote a emotional outburst in some when the word is actually seen.

So, even though this technology has a patent application submitted by this group, did they actually originate cross network "touch".

OK, let me see a show of hands: Didn't a Japanese firm demo this in 2006? At that time, I remember them demo'ing 2 people in 2 different places having the ability thru a wearable garment to "touch" each other (finger touch, hug, hold hands, etc.) via an internet connection.

Should a patent be extended which would limit development or use of technology in this kind of touch?

Thoughts?

jpeps
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#80 Post by jpeps »

gcmartin wrote: Should a patent be extended which would limit development or use of technology in this kind of touch?

Thoughts?
"Ten years ago, we had people at Media Lab working on gestural interactions, and now they're everywhere, from the Microsoft Kinect to the Nintendo Wiimote," says Follmer. "Whatever it ends up looking like, the UI of the future won't be made of just pixels, but time and form as well. And that future is only five or ten years away. It's time for designers to start thinking about what that means now."

http://m.fastcodesign.com/3021522/innov ... -and-touch

gcmartin

new Touch devices landing in public hands

#81 Post by gcmartin »

In case members in this community weren't looking, Microsoft has been making slates available at ridiculous prices. The latest available at 10AM today in US to the fast and furious.

And, in case we have been missing the projections that have been pouring in from Industry Leaders, here's good one of an expected unintended consequence.

FYI

gcmartin

Now, i see where Barry Kauler is going

#82 Post by gcmartin »

I have to applaud him, others on their vision and assistance with the Crowd-Funding and support of Ubuntu's direction.

I can also see why/where BK is heading into the New Year. The low power usage, the adaptability, the personalization aspects, and most importantly, the flexibility is changing everything around us.

On the following 2 items, members should try to understand both what the items represent and how many, including BK, envision directions.

Enjoy these 2
Ubuntu 2014 --and-- 64bit ARM

Time for us to try to understand and adjust ever so slightly what we do so that we are instrumental in items which can grow this community of PUP members who stop to look at where we are.

No one developer, as of yet, has taken a step to do even the simple thing that TaZoC did for touch in his Puppy Linux distro. Maybe the developers will adopt Ubuntu's approach.

Here to help
Edited to clarify a sentence missing punctuations..
Last edited by gcmartin on Wed 11 Dec 2013, 05:38, edited 3 times in total.

jpeps
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Re: Now, i see where Barry Kauler is going

#83 Post by jpeps »

gcmartin wrote: Enjoy these 2
Ubuntu 2014 --and-- 64bit ARM
I recall speculation that the EDGE technology would ultimately be sold off to a Chinese cellphone manufacturer. Looks like the 64 bit capability is being offered by Qualcomm in China.

"Nevertheless, the 64-bit chipset is not new in the industry. Apple Inc. (AAPL - Analyst Report) has already introduced a iPhone with a 64-bit processor. Intel Corp. (INTC - Analyst Report) is the market leader in 64-bit chipset designed for PCs and laptops. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA - Analyst Report) is likely to offer 64-bit mobile chipsets in 2014."

http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/116519/ ... it-chipset

gcmartin

I bet BK saw either the industry reports/the direction and..

#84 Post by gcmartin »

We are on the verge of a major tidal-wave of technology shift that is occurring RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES!.

My LAST 2 posts and add this one to those 2 should be all that helps us craft a view that of what's occurring. (We can no longer behave with our "heads buried in the sand' hoping that when we pull our heads out, we will be back in the technology year of 2001. That is NEVER going to happen.

This community is a membership community and we must focus on those things which will "ATTRACT" members to come, use, and join what we offer them. Most EVERY new member coming to this community comes here with a 2007 PC or later, looking to be able to get a good base of applications that are NOT nearly as slow as what is currently on their PCs.

Thus Puppy, like Knoppix did, brings a simple easy way to run a "new" operating system which is responsive, can access their files, and provides applications to manipulate and generate information in the vein that they are accustomed. (The Internet is just one of those subsystems allowing this)

If we have our head out, take a look at this and try to understand its implecations. Then envision what a Linux Platform could do on this. Then, I think, no matter whether you "like" what you see or NOT, an idea forms on how this community can leap-frog into a position of power, while becoming attractive to many, many people outside of this community.

jpeps
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Re: I bet BK saw either the industry reports/the direction and..

#85 Post by jpeps »

gcmartin wrote:
If we have our head out, take a look at this and try to understand its implecations.
Probably not a great example, since I can do far more on my Dell Latitude with 1gig ram currently going for $80.00.

'With only 2GB of RAM users won’t be able to keep many tabs open at once before the machine starts to slow down."

"All of them run Chrome OS, and are great options for those who only need a web browser, or who can live entirely within web apps."

gcmartin

Re: I bet BK saw either the industry reports/the direction and..

#86 Post by gcmartin »

[quote="jpeps"]Probably not a great example, ... Dell Latitude with 1gig ram currently going for $80.00... /quote]A touch PC for $80 (US)? Where can I get one of those?

But, if I also understand you correctly, that this Acer PC is RAM limited. I wonder if RAM can be added? And, I wonder if a PUP like LightHouse64 can boot thru the PC's bios?

Maybe, Christmas will be good to me and I get one...maybe.

Hey SANTA. I've been good ... :!:

jpeps
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Re: I bet BK saw either the industry reports/the direction and..

#87 Post by jpeps »

gcmartin wrote:
Hey SANTA. I've been good ... :!:
If you're going to lug around a 3 lb laptop, you might as well pack a mouse that will be far superior to a touch screen.

"The touch screen, is still difficult for small objects and doesn't always respond to double touching to enable a link."

 "It has pretty bad viewing angles and it has to be angled perfectly or the screen washes out."


I have a quality bluetooth keyboard, but rarely use it. Web Apps? I don't think so.

gcmartin

#88 Post by gcmartin »

Yeah, I saw that. But, before I got my HP TX2, a touch-screen laptop, I saw same comments from a user/2.

But, in my use over the year, I have NOT found problems with either Windows or Lighthouse or ChromeOS (tested couple weeks ago). The TX2 has a 12.1" screen. I wonder if the ACER will be similarly responsive. If not, I'll just return it.

On my view of the ACER, I think I would find good use even with ChromeOS. It will allow me to use my Google ID to full capacity in the cloud with all of the free stuff I use when collaborating with colleagues and teams we have participated. My internet use has risen so much over the years that if I dont have internet access, I find myself walking away and only coming back when the net is up. This is very true with my use of Puppy Linux over the years as well as any other OS i've used.

So, I am finding others like me who have/are gravitated to more and more use of the internet as well as "expecting" touch to be the path to all of my system use.

Some will get a laugh from this. In helping a patron she commented that she noticed that I would occasionally reached up to touch her screen (my laptop was sitting right next to hers). In my case, its so easy to have the feeling that when I want to do something, now, I'm suppose to touch it. Here's the funny part. I explained it to her just that way. Now imagine the look on her face as I was "nose to chest "to her. ... I immediate began trying to get my foot out of my mouth. :lol:

jpeps
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#89 Post by jpeps »

gcmartin wrote:
So, I am finding others like me who have/are gravitated to more and more use of the internet as well as "expecting" touch to be the path to all of my system use.

"- A survey of 240 companies questioned about the relation between their Web applications and security found about half experienced at least one Web application security incident since last year, sometimes with "severe negative financial consequences."


http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/0 ... 62520.html

This article was written before awareness of NSA exploits. There are plenty of other reasons to avoid Web applications besides security. I'd opt for off-line computing whenever possible.

Touch is great on mobile devices with small screens and a virtual keyboard. It becomes self-defeating on laptops and desktops that have a physical keyboard. One of the most important touch functions is to resize columns/fonts to the screen, completely useless for large screens.

gcmartin

New changes in our Landscape bringing Touch along with it.

#90 Post by gcmartin »

But, i have had some very good experience in using touch of 21"/24"/27" desktop PCs at various workplaces. They work fine. And, I have run Lighthouse64 of couple of HP all-in-one 24" from 2 different people on 2 different occasions who came to me to assist their Windows problems. When they went home, they had both their Windows OS working and a bootable Lighthouse (LH64) distro. Their choice.

In each's case, I have not heard back from either. Maybe a testament of sorts.

Touch offers no such disadvantage in operation or use....excepting that in LH64, the distro ONLY offers mouse button1 support which is acceptable to much of what I do.

I am expecting the plethora of application changes we are about to see in Linux as Canonical and Fedora move forward on this front.

Aslo, I am expecting Microsoft and Samsung/LG to announce reasonable cost Touch Tabletops which may be called "Touch Walltops" in the future to show up at upcoming CES.

People's reactions may be same as is traditional, but, this wont stop the directionals. So, more and more affordable 4K TVs will grace our presence. And, just maybe a Touch 4K system in the coming year.

gcmartin

An ANNOUCEMENT from Linux community exploiting SmartDevices

#91 Post by gcmartin »

Announcing Ubuntu and Android dual boot developer preview
Looks like they are going to market in 2014. Wonder if many of us Linux followers with support this effort. Not many of us were willing to support them when they asked for our help.

But, I fear that MS, who is already delivering this, as well as APPLE who has already tested an iOS Tabletop/desktop/smartTablet will drown this Linux movement. Fingers are crossed that this gains traction. It has great potential in spurning new interest in Linux as a easy to use platform.

FYI

mcewanw
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Re: I bet BK saw either the industry reports/the direction and..

#92 Post by mcewanw »

jpeps wrote: If you're going to lug around a 3 lb laptop, you might as well pack a mouse that will be far superior to a touch screen.
Touch screens may (currently) be the only reasonable UI for a smartphone or similar-sized device, but imagine if touch screen had come first for computers more generally, and then someone clever had invented the mouse, which is such a revolution in user-friendliness compared to the greasy, over large, touch of the finger on the screen you are trying to look at and control! Give me the mouse any day!! Revolution will perhaps come along properly with voice control coupled with eye-movement detection and control, but seems to me that touch is only great for crude interfaces for the likes of eftpos terminals/supermarket shopping screens and similar environments in industry/warehousing (that's a big market of course). Even voice control is a bit of a pain to be honest, I'd rather silently click a mouse button than say "click"...!

What would be good is some kind of user-wearable mouse interface (like the wristwatch). Could use that to control any device (mobile, laptop, desktop, whatever is around). As for voice control: imagine everyone shouting at their smartphones on the subway every morning on the way to work (painful) - but a wearable mouse of some kind or other, letting them silently control their devices (and use voice only when useful or necessary) - forget having to touch the computer... surely unnecessary in this wireless world?
github mcewanw

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Q5sys
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Re: I bet BK saw either the industry reports/the direction and..

#93 Post by Q5sys »

mcewanw wrote:Touch screens may (currently) be the only reasonable UI for a smartphone or similar-sized device, but imagine if touch screen had come first for computers more generally, and then someone clever had invented the mouse, which is such a revolution in user-friendliness compared to the greasy, over large, touch of the finger on the screen you are trying to look at and control! Give me the mouse any day!!
I guess I'll be the voice of reality here and say that Touch Screens DID come before the mouse. Touch Screen Technology actually dates back to the 1960s, it shipped on Machines in the early 80s, but was never widely adopted. Why? Because it was impractical based on how computing worked at the time. 'Multi-touch' isnt anything new either... it dates back to the 80s as well. Touch is NOT new technology. It's just been ignored because for the most part its not superior to other methods.
The only reason it took off was that Phone Manufactures wanted to ditch physical keyboards so they could make larger screens and smaller phones. So they had to force a new user Input paradigm on people. Touch input has been tried many many times by the industry with varying levels of failure every time. Does it have a place in computing overall, yes I believe it doesl; but it will not replace the mouse or keyboard.

Laie
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Re: An ANNOUCEMENT from Linux community exploiting SmartDevices

#94 Post by Laie »

gcmartin wrote:... Wonder if many of us Linux followers with support this effort. ...
I am no developer so there will be no great amount of support contributetd by me. But I am waiting for a Tablet with the abilitiy of a dual boot. And I am willing to do tests, if someone develops something.

gcmartin

An ANNOUCEMENT from CES

#95 Post by gcmartin »

Laie wrote:
gcmartin wrote:... Wonder if many of us Linux followers will (<=== a correction) support this effort. ...
.... But I am waiting for a Tablet with the abilitiy of a dual boot. And I am willing to do tests ...
CES is showing off new version of these. Some vendors ARE referring to them as "tablets", while others are using similar kinds of references, as well.

There's several technologies that are announced. One is this by the MAJOR CPU developers. This is a comibination hardware and Operating Systems integration.

But, here's something of note from Today's CES showings. <=== This is what Gartner and others have already reported as businesses are adapting the UI's use. This is already playing out in your hand, your home security, your home comfort and management systems, your car, your purchasing, all the way to how work elements for corporates/businesses will be accomplished not to mention how we will travel. Yes, this will be met with all kinds of reactions from young and not-so-young. ... forget the old, they will be left unable to catch on or up.

Then there's Canonical's approach.

This is going to be an exciting year! It will be a clash of old and new...NOT old versus new, but "old and new" where, IMHO, there will be several approaches to "smoothe" the transistion with some MASSIVE integration occurring.

FYI

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