Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
Though I still don't see much use for multi-touch other than onscreen keyboards.
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My thoughts exactly.
Touch screen in general might be good if using a mouse is too hard for you. Note that I consider mouse an overrated device. There are few things it does better than keyboard. I only use mouse where it actually IS better, such as graphics, some games, and - in general - aps requiring high precision. Coming from this point of view, touch screen seems to me like another effort at reducing initial learning curve at the cost of long-term experience. Touch screen may be easy at first, but later it seems like it's just obscuring what you're working on.
That being said, I really like the concept of XO-2 (OLPC). They plan to have dual touch screens connected like two pages of a book. You'd be able to turn one screen into a keyboard, but also re-use it as a normal screen later. With traditional approach (physical keyboard, like Kindle) the keyboard is permanently stuck in your device, no matter if you need it at the moment or not.
Of course, on-screen keyboard does have its disadvantages. Most importantly, you can't feel it. It means typing without looking at keyboard is going to be hard. (touch typing)