Could we soon see capacitive touch UMPCs?
My premise is a bit of a stretch, but this DigiTimes story today got me thinking. Apparently, Sintek Photronic is in the process of developing 7-inch capacitive touch screens. I realize that non-UMPC devices like in-car GPS modules are a more likely contender for a capacitive touch screen of this size, but it’s always possible that some of these are destined to be the face of a UMPC.Using a screen of this type and not including an active digitizer would certainly preclude any inking within an OS like Windows XP Tablet Edition or Vista, but with many devices in this class looking at alternative environments (read: Linux), I could see a UMPC with capacitive touch and no ink abilities. Again, this just an exercise in thinking on my part, but it makes me wonder: how many of you would give up the ability to ink if you had a UMPC with a capacitive display making for a better touch experience?
Hey wait a minute. Doesn’t the Dell Latitude XT use a pen in order to ink on its capacitive display? I remember reading somewhere that the N-Trig digitizer supports 512 pressure levels. I suspect there’s no cursor tracking, but how would that be different from a regular passive digitizer ? Or am I confused and does the Latitude have a dual-mode digitizer ?
N-Trig’s solution in the Latitude XT is dual-mode. I saw no mention of dual-mode in the DigiTimes article, so I’m assuming that the product will be single-mode, capacitive touch only.
if i remember corretly there a special pens for capacitiv screens… there was something with the htc touch… so do not worry about inking;-)
Inking dead? How long has it been since even JKOTR has had an exciting tablet or inking article? Even JK has been bulled by the inmates into not inking (or translating ink!). All the enthusiasm here is for Mini, eee, and the new Lenovo. None are tablets, none ink. Tablets and inking are a wonderful thing, but given a choice between inking or the wonderful touch functionality of my ipod Touch, I’ll opt for touch every time.
I disagree with Al. Given a choice between a touch-only or active digitizer to run Windows or serious business apps (including OneNote), I will choose the active digitizer any day of the week. Then again, that’s my personal preference, Lord only knows where the marketplace is going . . .
I simply must ink. That is why I cannot buy a faster UMPC than my R2H; Asus is the only UMPC manufacturer I’ve caught using a touch screen that allows me to ink away. Everyone else hawks those vector-crazy “soft” screens that drive me nuts. I still need better performance, so I am conceding defeat and making plans to buy a Fujitsu P1620 very soon. I know I can trust the Fujitsu to play music in my car without skipping, to have drivers that get along with a modern operating system, and to have a touch screen that gives almost as good a writing experience as the Asus does (and it’s UMPC-sized). Maybe I will revisit the UMPC again one day.
I think a dual-mode capacitive digitizer like the N-Trig (or the one under development at Wacom?) would be perfect for a UMPC. Not only would it support touch, but it would have an accurate pen. The existing Wacom technology is inaccurate near the edges of the screen, and this is a bigger problem on small screens. Problem solved with a dual-mode capacitive digitizer!
In a MID I certainly would not need inking, provided it has a good enough slide-out or on-screen keyboard.
Come to think of it, I hardly ever use inking on my HTC Shift either – the great keyboard is a lot easier for most applications (I don’t use the Shift for notetaking).
So yes, for a better touch experience I probably would sacrifice inking.
Alain C. correct, the Dell Latitude XT has a capacitive plus EM digitizer. Though dual mode is really nice to have, it still quite a bit more expensive than resistive that most UMPCs use today.