When I read things like "HP was among the first to take on this challenge. The company introduced the TouchSmart PC, a desktop with a touchscreen, in 2007" and know it is false, I have to reconsider teh entire article?
General Dynamics, the company the initially designed the Hummer, also has a division called ITronix which manufactures rugged PC and handheld devices. They have had a 5-wire resistive touch notebook available since 2005. Shortly thereafter, Panasonic toughooks did teh exact same thing. They were mainly used for business, such as on call service techs who would need a stylus touch onsite, or (in BC) ICC the vehicle insurer's adjusters have uses them for years now. That technology was in wide use by ELO (Tyco corporation) in the beginnign of the millenium, it was incorprated into PC's shortly thereafter, so how HP is now among the first to take on this challenge is beyond me.
When the author also descries teh i-Phone as a "Smart phone" that also raises alram ells taht he has no clue what he's on about. A Smart phone enables thoird party vendors to develop software and release it withotu restruction. An i-phone is proprietary and only software previously approved by Apple can be used and only is available through a single i-Store. That's NOT a smart phone at all. the lack of capacitive or resistive touch removes the use of s stylus, at best it's a pretty toy for showing your family photos on.
The same screen they show on YouTube has been used on reality TV shows for years now. Judges on X-Factor (UK) use it for discussing selections and viewing contestants resumes and ead shots, Tyra Banks uses one in her reality show etc.
All this is is new software being used to manipulate old technology. HP has their desktop UI, ump Top has theirs, Itronix has theirs, Panasonic has theirs etc.
It's cool but its far from new, cuting edge or somethign HP had anythign to do with, it was all started by ELO/Tyco in cooperation with rugged PC designers who wanted to take decade olf carrol based screen tech and use it with an LCD on a PC. They are just now finding new ways of makign it appeal to end users as the cost was too high to justify such limited usability before.
