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fjtorres · 11-13-2010, 05:33 PM

More accurately, the 903 does *not* have a touchscreen but rather a Wacom digitizer pad *beneath* the display. The digitizer detects and tracks the included pen but is insensitive to finger activity.

People tend to speak of touch-screens whenever they see screen-based interfaces but fail to consider there are other ways to achieve this. (Think of the Microsoft Surface computers, which are *vision* based--they use infrared cameras behind the screen to detect motion rather than a detection layer that relies on physical contact.)

The Wacom digitizer approach is commonly used on Windows TabletPCs where the stylus tracking allows you to control the cursor without touching the screen and reserve actual touch for clicks, drags, and gestures. Until the 903 ships we won't know how sophisticated its pen interface is and what use it makes of the digitizer's capabilities.

Going by the comments around here, people seem to be pinning a lot of hopes and building a lot of expectations into the 903. The 903 is supposed to be an ebook reader, not a tablet PC or a Media Pad, and Pocketbook has not been marketing it as anything but a reader. Some of those expectations seem to be getting out of hand so a bit of patience/restraint might be advisable.

We'll know soon enough, when it ships, what it can or can't do and how it differs from its brethren; the 360, 602, 902, etc.

11-13-2010, 05:33 PM	#3
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	More accurately, the 903 does not have a touchscreen but rather a Wacom digitizer pad beneath the display. The digitizer detects and tracks the included pen but is insensitive to finger activity. People tend to speak of touch-screens whenever they see screen-based interfaces but fail to consider there are other ways to achieve this. (Think of the Microsoft Surface computers, which are vision based--they use infrared cameras behind the screen to detect motion rather than a detection layer that relies on physical contact.) The Wacom digitizer approach is commonly used on Windows TabletPCs where the stylus tracking allows you to control the cursor without touching the screen and reserve actual touch for clicks, drags, and gestures. Until the 903 ships we won't know how sophisticated its pen interface is and what use it makes of the digitizer's capabilities. Going by the comments around here, people seem to be pinning a lot of hopes and building a lot of expectations into the 903. The 903 is supposed to be an ebook reader, not a tablet PC or a Media Pad, and Pocketbook has not been marketing it as anything but a reader. Some of those expectations seem to be getting out of hand so a bit of patience/restraint might be advisable. We'll know soon enough, when it ships, what it can or can't do and how it differs from its brethren; the 360, 602, 902, etc.