localzuk Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 So, the IT industry seems to be full steam ahead into a tablet-centric, shout at your phone way of working in the future. Only problem is, I just don't get it. Touchscreens, tablets, smart phones etc... are all great for one thing - consumption of information. What about creation of information? What happens when I want to create a 20 page report? I can do this on my PC, with a keyboard, in a matter of a couple of hours. On a tablet? I'll be swyping away until the end of time. Or, I could attempt voice entry and spend 4 weeks training the device to understand my accent, then annoy my colleague by talking to my PC for 4 hours... So, why is everyone so obsessed with touchscreens, tablets and related tech? Has everyone else in the world stopped creating documents? Has the 'cubical' office disappeared in favour of individual offices for all staff in businesses, and voice is now useable? As I said, I don't get it.
DT2 Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I guess touchscreen has it's uses... Though apart from being a gucci way of doing things, I haven't found any yet...... I find that a keyboard is still required, how else would you boot into BIOS if there's no f2/del option? Creating documents and doing any kind of typing/input still requires a keyboard as the on screen keyboard is slow, and takes up much needed viewing space. And voice recognition isn't reliable enough to be a viable alternative. Gaming, CAD, all things that will still need traditional input methods.... So I, along with many others, don't get it either.
sted Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 same with smartphones im seriously thinking of having my next phone a basic brick with bluetooth (for hands free car) and nanas to data (often useless or so slow may as well be useless) as every smartphone has pants battery life and is worse at actually making/recieving calls than an old nokia
SteveBentley Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 The voice recognition in Windows 7 is surprisingly good - I set it up for a colleague who has a broken arm and can't type much and I wasn't expecting much, but it actually works. With my Yorkshire accent and her Brummie accent.
aerospacemango Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 Personally, I LOVE my touchscreen phone. It allows me to surf on the move, and post pics to twitter and facebook when I'm out and about. Phonecalls are nice and clear and I enjoy the different apps that are on it. However, for "normal" computering stuff, I will always want a proper keyboard and mouse....Is that just my age? Anyway, I think each to their own, and there will always be the choice! Not every company is going to follow the fruit-based comapny's lead. Some will go their own way.
localzuk Posted March 16, 2012 Author Posted March 16, 2012 The voice recognition in Windows 7 is surprisingly good - I set it up for a colleague who has a broken arm and can't type much and I wasn't expecting much, but it actually works. With my Yorkshire accent and her Brummie accent. Great, so it can understand an accent - but in an office with a pile of people working, do we want that? I remember one office at Royal Skandia on the Isle of Man which had about 120 people in it, in cubicles... Would that environment be at all productive if people all had to speak to their computers?
localzuk Posted March 16, 2012 Author Posted March 16, 2012 Personally, I LOVE my touchscreen phone. It allows me to surf on the move, and post pics to twitter and facebook when I'm out and about. Phonecalls are nice and clear and I enjoy the different apps that are on it. Definitely agree. My smart phone is an undeniably useful tool. Battery life is only getting better too. However, for "normal" computering stuff, I will always want a proper keyboard and mouse....Is that just my age? Anyway, I think each to their own, and there will always be the choice! Not every company is going to follow the fruit-based comapny's lead. Some will go their own way. I don't think its age - its practicality and being able to do things that you need to do. The problem is, every company IS following that lead. Microsoft's Metro UI. Gnome and Unity are both touchscreen oriented now also. Everything is sliding towards screen fondling.
jamesfed Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I know just what you mean - the PC, 24" screen, keyboard and mouse arn't going anywhere anytime soon given that they are best for content creation. However in this world where we should all be productive 24/7 thats where the tablet does come in use - in that you can spend that 45mins on the train with a lightweight portable device that is good enough to review a report, catch up on emails and check Facebook for what is new. The biggest thing I have an issue with is all of the posts on here about SMT/ect asking for tablets on the schools buget - by all means lets kit ourselves out with site wide Wi-Fi as it can be used for both buisness and non buisness work however lets not blind ourselves to the fact that a £450 tablet is more a personal device than a work device.
pete Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I suspect it's all an elaborate gag by Dom Joly & Chris Morris.
Greenbeast Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 One thing i definitely don't get is this 'hover' touch interface sony are introducing, i can't understand how that will be practical at all
sonofsanta Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I fear it is only indicative of the wider trends on the internet anyway. It was supposed to be the great democratiser, where we all contributed equally, a brave new cultural world... except most people just use YouTube to watch music videos now, and use Twitter to follow celebrities, and read blogs instead of write them. Most people are only consumers, now, not the producers we hoped they might be. When you've been chained all your life it's difficult to embrace freedom, I guess. (as for me, you will have to pry desktops from my cold, dead hands. I don't even like laptops much, ergonomically horrible things they are) 1
Garacesh Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I like touchscreens.. It's just a simpler way of "move the mouse pointer here and click".. But obviously depending on what you're doing.. I sure as heck wouldn't like to play some TF2/APB:R etc on a touchscreen! That would be horrendous.. Voice input I don't like. At all. It's a terrible concept. Imagine if you're trying to buy something online whilst you're anywhere but the confines of your own home? "Credit card number: eight-nine-three-four.. Six-seven-nine-zero.. Hey mister, why do you have a pen and paper?" Eavesdropping would be too easy on sensitive information (it can be argued that people that don't protect themselves against this are idiots, but still..) Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable not controlling every-last-keystroke of input wherever I could, but that's just me. I'd rather write a 10,000 word essay than speak it. Not to mention I think voice input is just a stupid gimmick with no real use. The same can probably be said about touchscreens.. But the film Minority Report makes it awesome ;D
localzuk Posted March 16, 2012 Author Posted March 16, 2012 I like touchscreens.. It's just a simpler way of "move the mouse pointer here and click".. But obviously depending on what you're doing.. I sure as heck wouldn't like to play some TF2/APB:R etc on a touchscreen! That would be horrendous.. But that only works if the interface was designed for touchscreen. And interfaces designed for touchscreen require more screen real-estate, meaning you get less on the screen!
36Degrees Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 Not to mention I think voice input is just a stupid gimmick with no real use. Unless you have a physical disability! We had a teacher here who had Parkinsons and spending less than an hour training Dragon voice was a godsend for this person.
Earthling Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 It's just fashion, after all, isn't it. Right now, it's fashionable to be on the move, connected, staying in touch, updating your Facebook (how many more mentions is Facebook going to get on here this week? Are they paying one of us? Is this Product Placement by stealth?), tweeting and so on and so forth. A bit like the '90's Man' fad that surfaced as a backlash to the Harry Enfield 'Loadsamoney'/Michael Douglas 'Greed is Good' culture of the 80's. Back in the day, dumb terminals connected to a mainframe somewhere were THE way of working, then that was replaced by a pc on every desk. Now, with VDI and thin clients, we're back to, basically, dumb terminals connected to a mainframe of sorts. What goes around comes around.....sooner or later we'll all go back to hand-writing to each other (if, after Netbooks, iPads, BYOD etc, there are any people left in the world who can actually STILL hand-write) and talking to each other. Perish THAT thought.
aerospacemango Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 It's just fashion, after all, isn't it. Right now, it's fashionable to be on the move, connected, staying in touch, updating your Facebook (how many more mentions is Facebook going to get on here this week? Are they paying one of us? Is this Product Placement by stealth?), tweeting and so on and so forth. A bit like the '90's Man' fad that surfaced as a backlash to the Harry Enfield 'Loadsamoney'/Michael Douglas 'Greed is Good' culture of the 80's. Back in the day, dumb terminals connected to a mainframe somewhere were THE way of working, then that was replaced by a pc on every desk. Now, with VDI and thin clients, we're back to, basically, dumb terminals connected to a mainframe of sorts. What goes around comes around.....sooner or later we'll all go back to hand-writing to each other (if, after Netbooks, iPads, BYOD etc, there are any people left in the world who can actually STILL hand-write) and talking to each other. Perish THAT thought. Back in the day, everyone chatted about MySpace and Bebo, but as fashion dictates, the world has moved on and it's now all about twitter and facebook. Things will probably go full circle, and we'll be back to chatting about MyBo and SpaceBe before you know it!
korifugi Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I think the entire hype is the fact we've all been brought up with the idea that it'll all be touch panels, holo-displays and speech input in the future - and that now, we're all able to get a bit of that for ourselves... How long is it until we can control a computer like this? [ATTACH=CONFIG]13357[/ATTACH] Okay, maybe not quite like that - but I think that's the kind of thing fuelling the hype.
Garacesh Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 Unless you have a physical disability! We had a teacher here who had Parkinsons and spending less than an hour training Dragon voice was a godsend for this person. Valid indeed, I just mean as a general tool for everybody it's a gimmick. I have no doubt the idea was originally conceived for disabled people, but I see utterly zero reason for it to be 'mainstream'.
Earthling Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 Back in the day, everyone chatted about MySpace and Bebo, but as fashion dictates, the world has moved on and it's now all about twitter and facebook. Things will probably go full circle, and we'll be back to chatting about MyBo and SpaceBe before you know it! I must have missed those two. How ever will my life be complete? Answers on a postcard, please, to.............
sparkeh Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 The obsession is due to creating a new market to flog us all new devices again. Once the market is saturated there will be something new, brain controlled machines or something? As always, the hype will die down and these devices will slot into their place. I love my Andriod Phone and Tablet and they have seen my PC usage drop off massively at home but I still need something like a traditional machine to produce certain types of output and I (and others) always will.
aerospacemango Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I must have missed those two. How ever will my life be complete? Answers on a postcard, please, to............. I bet you're gonna tell me you have no idea what Google+ is next? Anyways...back to the OP.... In all honesty, if touchscreens and voice activation can make some things easier, then I'm all for it..... But I can't see a time when there will not be a keyboard....
Dos_Box Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 For professional purposes, the form factor of tablets also lends them to be good for on-site diagnostics as they are far easier to hold and manipulate than say a laptop, especially if you are called to a switch cabinate and are using a web interface to fault find or make some changes, it also means that if you have an online helpdesk or internal messaging system you can always be in contact (I'm not going to debate the good/bad points of that!). They are also great as a travelling companion where you need to stay in touch, but are not plannign on any major document bashing. The same goes for meetings as they are a wonderful way of pulling up information and passing it around if there is no projector present or it is impractical to use it to show something briefly. As for voice controls, I've never quite 'got it'. Yes, the Windows voice recognition is superb, but unless you have a disability I, as yet, can't see the point of using it as a control method for a computer, but maybe that's just me.
aerospacemango Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 But voice recognition is so much more than just sitting at a computer.... What about in the car? Voice recognition works! Last year, my father was in hospital and I received a phone call to say that he was going for a very important operation that could determine his future. I was able to jump into my car, call up the navigation on my phone, and call out the hospital name. Within moments, I had a complete route there. It didn't help me get there any quicker but it saved me from spending time, when I was frantic, searching for an address or post code.
Earthling Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 I bet you're gonna tell me you have no idea what Google+ is next? Anyways...back to the OP.... In all honesty, if touchscreens and voice activation can make some things easier, then I'm all for it..... But I can't see a time when there will not be a keyboard.... Time to trot this out again........ xkcd: Google+
mthomas08 Posted March 16, 2012 Posted March 16, 2012 Only problem is, I just don't get it. Why do people want fancy cars, can't drive them the way they were meant to be because its illegal unless you use it on track days. Its just something to look and feel good with, to show off. Why do peope want fancy gizmos gatches and the latest thing? Every one here who has the new fancy toy stil ends up wanting a PC/Laptop and something with Windows/Office installed. And not forgetting access to all the network software, SIMs, projectors etc etc etc I am some one who wants the iPad, just for the sake of it, its nice, quick easy access to a fancy pad, email, internet plus its the new toy. For any real reasons? Nope just want one but I would pay for it my self not go through the school with 100 fake reasons why I should have one provided. And in todays world I simply can not afford one, how schools can I never know with lay offs occuring left right and centre. Luckily our new head said exactly what I said above in a meeting. This meeting also had the Deputy head sitting there with his iPad while saying we should provide some to students. You could see everyone wanted to go Nelson style from the Simpsons. Like every gadget out there people get bored of it, people are not so fussed over iPhones now because they are not the latest craze, even students here are not at all fussed over them.
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