4 ms·

He is right about the future of interaction being touch + keyboard. I have been using my Transformer Prime for about a year now as a laptop replacement. It does

by dkhenry 14y ago

He is right about the future of interaction being touch + keyboard. I have been using my Transformer Prime for about a year now as a laptop replacement. It doesn't do everything I ask of computers ( but then again neither would any laptop ), but it does have this great interaction where I can switch between windows with the Honeycomb switcher app ( replaces alt-tab ) I can swipe between tabs in the terminal and use the touch screen to scroll back text. It is still the best device for reading any E-mails and its good at writing all but the longest. However the coup de grâce of it is that I can use it for 12 to 18 hours without even thinking about plugging it into something. I can leave it unplugged for weeks and come back to a decent charge on it, and to my knowledge the only time I have ever turned it off was when I flashed CM10 on it. If the surface can provide those kind of experiences then I think its just a matter of time until it becomes a standard piece of kit for computer users.

padobson 14y ago
I couldn't upvote this hard enough. I've been using my Transformer Prime for 10 months, and it has changed the way I do many things. I still do my consulting work on a laptop, but almost all of my side-project coding is done from my Prime. I can sit on my couch, with my feet up for 6 hours and code - and like you say, still have 10 hours of battery life for gaming or email or web surfing thereafter. I couldn't think of a more comfortable development experience. The money line of Atwood's post about the future, though, is this one: And I'm beginning to wonder about my desktop a little, because lately I'm starting to I think I wanna touch that, too. I don't know that individual touch computing on a desktop will ever be a good idea, but I've been thinking a lot lately that a 42in Android tablet would make a ton of sense. Think of everything you use a whiteboard for to the Nth degree. Gathering around a large touchscreen to communicate ideas, allowing others to manipulate parts of the screen with wireless keyboards, and providing office-wide or household announcements and reminders just makes a ton of sense to me. Personal computing has already gone touch, it's time for group computing to go touch too.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  Another vote for the Transformer Prime + keyboard dock. One of the best kept secrets in mobile computing.
sixothree 14y ago
I just cannot imagine spending my entire day holding or reaching up to touch a device. I work at a desk. I code. I write documentation. I send emails. I don't see how touch fits into my workflow at all.
- Aardwolf 14y ago
  On a desk, it could be good practice for your arm muscles!
  - deadairspace 14y ago
    Exactly. This is why I like 10/GUI as a compromise. http://www.10gui.com/video/ http://www.10gui.com/video/
    - thebigshane 14y ago
      Fascinating... 10/GUI is a proposed new user interface paradigm. Created in 2009 by R. Clayton Miller, it combines multi-touch input with a new windowing manager. It splits the touch surface away from the screen, so that user fatigue is reduced and the users' hands don't obstruct the display.[1] Instead of placing windows all over the screen, the windowing manager, Con10uum, uses a linear paradigm, with multi-touch used to navigate between and arrange the windows.[2] An area at the right side of the touch screen brings up a global context menu, and a similar strip at the left side brings up application- specific menus. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10/GUI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10/GUI
- rogerbinns 14y ago
  "Gorilla arm" is how your arm will feel after reaching up to touch a screen/device. http://catb.org/jargon/html/G/gorilla-arm.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/G/gorilla-arm.html Touching my desktop screens would involve moving my hands to around eye level. I hold my phone/tablet a lot lower. My real problem in the new world order is that tablets seem to have topped out at 10 inches. While that may be comfortable for many, my hand span is the same width as the screen and I'd prefer something a lot larger.
levesque 14y ago
I might, just might, ditch my laptop for a transformer prime running Ubuntu Mobile (or whatever it'll be called) if they do a decent job with their mobile OS. I assume it would be better as a tablet OS for a 'computer replacement tablet'.
emehrkay 14y ago
You're both forgetting about Leap/Kinect/Minority Report-like functionality. https://leapmotion.com https://leapmotion.com That combined with touch and keyboard is the future. These devices will soon accept any part of our body as an input vector. They'll be able to identify multiple users and act accordingly. Look at what google is showcasing what can be done with a person's eye ball alone, if that works the way they've been promoting, we're in for something. I cant praise the surface for having a touch screen and a keyboard, its been done before. Done by Microsoft, Acer, Apple, Sony, etc.
taude 14y ago
I'm interested in looking at the new Asus Vivo Tab for this very reason. Though I'm likely not going to jump on the first generation and I'll let the MSFT App store fill up a little. I played with my neighbor's T300 that was recently upgraded to Jelly Bean. It was an impressive experience with the keyboard. Still might hop on that bandwagon.
JshWright 14y ago
I constantly find myself leaving fingerprints on the screen of my MacBook after I've been using my Transformer for a spell..

by dkhenry 14y ago

padobson 14y ago

I couldn't upvote this hard enough. I've been using my Transformer Prime for 10 months, and it has changed the way I do many things. I still do my consulting work on a laptop, but almost all of my side-project coding is done from my Prime. I can sit on my couch, with my feet up for 6 hours and code - and like you say, still have 10 hours of battery life for gaming or email or web surfing thereafter. I couldn't think of a more comfortable development experience. The money line of Atwood's post about the future, though, is this one: And I'm beginning to wonder about my desktop a little, because lately I'm starting to I think I wanna touch that, too. I don't know that individual touch computing on a desktop will ever be a good idea, but I've been thinking a lot lately that a 42in Android tablet would make a ton of sense. Think of everything you use a whiteboard for to the Nth degree. Gathering around a large touchscreen to communicate ideas, allowing others to manipulate parts of the screen with wireless keyboards, and providing office-wide or household announcements and reminders just makes a ton of sense to me. Personal computing has already gone touch, it's time for group computing to go touch too.

w1ntermute 14y ago
Another vote for the Transformer Prime + keyboard dock. One of the best kept secrets in mobile computing.

sixothree 14y ago

I just cannot imagine spending my entire day holding or reaching up to touch a device. I work at a desk. I code. I write documentation. I send emails. I don't see how touch fits into my workflow at all.

Aardwolf 14y ago
On a desk, it could be good practice for your arm muscles!
- deadairspace 14y ago
  Exactly. This is why I like 10/GUI as a compromise. http://www.10gui.com/video/ http://www.10gui.com/video/
  - thebigshane 14y ago
    Fascinating... 10/GUI is a proposed new user interface paradigm. Created in 2009 by R. Clayton Miller, it combines multi-touch input with a new windowing manager. It splits the touch surface away from the screen, so that user fatigue is reduced and the users' hands don't obstruct the display.[1] Instead of placing windows all over the screen, the windowing manager, Con10uum, uses a linear paradigm, with multi-touch used to navigate between and arrange the windows.[2] An area at the right side of the touch screen brings up a global context menu, and a similar strip at the left side brings up application- specific menus. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10/GUI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10/GUI
rogerbinns 14y ago
"Gorilla arm" is how your arm will feel after reaching up to touch a screen/device. http://catb.org/jargon/html/G/gorilla-arm.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/G/gorilla-arm.html Touching my desktop screens would involve moving my hands to around eye level. I hold my phone/tablet a lot lower. My real problem in the new world order is that tablets seem to have topped out at 10 inches. While that may be comfortable for many, my hand span is the same width as the screen and I'd prefer something a lot larger.

levesque 14y ago

I might, just might, ditch my laptop for a transformer prime running Ubuntu Mobile (or whatever it'll be called) if they do a decent job with their mobile OS. I assume it would be better as a tablet OS for a 'computer replacement tablet'.

emehrkay 14y ago

You're both forgetting about Leap/Kinect/Minority Report-like functionality. https://leapmotion.com https://leapmotion.com That combined with touch and keyboard is the future. These devices will soon accept any part of our body as an input vector. They'll be able to identify multiple users and act accordingly. Look at what google is showcasing what can be done with a person's eye ball alone, if that works the way they've been promoting, we're in for something. I cant praise the surface for having a touch screen and a keyboard, its been done before. Done by Microsoft, Acer, Apple, Sony, etc.

taude 14y ago

I'm interested in looking at the new Asus Vivo Tab for this very reason. Though I'm likely not going to jump on the first generation and I'll let the MSFT App store fill up a little. I played with my neighbor's T300 that was recently upgraded to Jelly Bean. It was an impressive experience with the keyboard. Still might hop on that bandwagon.

JshWright 14y ago

I constantly find myself leaving fingerprints on the screen of my MacBook after I've been using my Transformer for a spell..