windows 8.1

strollin wrote:

monkey44 wrote:
Well, I certainly hope 'touch screen' is NOT the wave of the future. WHo wants to reach out across the keyboard all the time and put a buncha oils and fingerprints all over the screen?

Keyboard and mouse will always be the most effective method, right there in front of you. I can't imagine typing twenty-five or thirty pages one touch at a time on a vertical screen a foot away. Let alone a hundred pages of a tech manual.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on this subject Monkey, touch is NOT the future for devices where you need to get work done.

I've been using Win 8/8.1 for quite awhile now on laptops and desktops and have not had any use for the Metro interface, Metro apps or touch. However, I recently bought a Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet that runs the full Windows 8.1 (not RT). On the tablet with no keyboard/mouse, then the touch interface becomes essential and the Metro interface and apps become very useful. It actually works very well as long as you don't need to type much. I can read email and forums, watch movies, listen to music, keep up with the news & weather - all things where I don't need to type much. However, using the on-screen touch keyboard to respond to an email or post to a forum becomes tedious for anything more than a sentence or 2. I could carry around a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to use with it but, IMO, at that point, I may as well be using a laptop instead of a tablet.

Right - two entirely different goals here. One is staying in touch briefly or calling, or making a quick response. The other is getting a job done ... can't imagine touching the screen for more than one sentence ... or a few words. It makes more sense on the smaller devices as it has limited room for anything.

And - as regards the voice / transfer ... you better be absolutely certain that voice transfers the words accurately, because if it's anything to do with legal contracts or evidence, one word misspelled could get very, very expensive.